Cultural eating habits - tell us about yours
Replies
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Balmos
Stuffed cabbage (or grape) leaves
Pickled anything
Pork or turkey jelly
Cozonac
Mititei
Guess the country
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Based on the balmos, I might even guess the region...Balmos
Stuffed cabbage (or grape) leaves
Pickled anything
Pork or turkey jelly
Cozonac
Mititei
Guess the country
A few to add:
- sour cream, everywhere and on everything savory
- sour cherries, again everywhere and in everything sweet
- sour soups (really surprised me to find out it isn't a "thing" in the West)
- plum brandy, which goes by at least five different names and is gross in all of them0 -
Milk first and then the tea?! What is this blasphemy haha! I've had it hammered into me that milk first isn't worthy of being called tea0
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I am in Australia but my daughter is currently in America for 6 months.
She did notice that about bread in America, that it is much sweeter than here.
I'm not sure what else is different - I did go on an overseas tour of UK last year, cooked breakfast was included every day, and there were people from USA who thought cooked tomatoes were really strange. Not sure if this was just those individuals or cooked tomatoes are not done there at all.
In New Zealand, I ordered a salad sandwich and, as well as other things, asked for beetroot in it. They thought this was so weird.
Maybe it is just a normal thing in Australia?
on the pacific coast of america at least, I can say with certainty that cooked tomatoes are done here in many forms.. but what do you mean precisely when you say cooked tomatoes were considered an oddity? it might be the way it was cooked or served. as a rule, americans don't eat tomatoes just on their own. (some people do I'm sure) but it's not something you'd find in a restaurant for the most part. we toast /cook tomatoes on pizza, sandwiches, eggs, sauces, et cetera. in the south they fry green tomatoes.
I don't think America has much of a food culture left. it is a vast melting pot. in our family, we eat when we're hungry and the cuisines we grab from are multinational. our favorites are home made curries and south american styled dishes.
doh, I missed the part about it being a breakfast thing. yeah, some people dice them up into eggs but in any other form tomatoes aren't considered a breakfast food as a general rule.0 -
Hi,
I am not very far from your country, I am from Syria – Aleppo ( Now I live in UAE ), in Aleppo, we have very bad eating habits, we eat a lot of fat, a lot of meat…..
Breakfast usually include Dairy product with Arabic bread and tea and olive and olive oil along with tea.
Lunch is the worst story, we add a lot of sheep meat to our food, may be along with rice and bread ( we like bread so much, sometimes we eat it alone, and nowadays due to war circumstance it was the only available food for a lot families ), our cuisine include a lot of vegs but we cook all with meat.
After lunch, we like to drink tea, and some people like to eat some Arabic sweet ( Baklava ) after lunch.
Dinner, it’s either looks like breakfast or lunch, and some time it’s a mix of both, and it’s also very familiar to go to fast food in dinner, fast food like ( Shawerma wrap ) ( Fried chicken ) …….0 -
Based on the balmos, I might even guess the region...Balmos
Stuffed cabbage (or grape) leaves
Pickled anything
Pork or turkey jelly
Cozonac
Mititei
Guess the country
A few to add:
- sour cream, everywhere and on everything savory
- sour cherries, again everywhere and in everything sweet
- sour soups (really surprised me to find out it isn't a "thing" in the West)
- plum brandy, which goes by at least five different names and is gross in all of them
Agreed about the plum brandy, and I love sour cherries and visinata. You'd be off with guessing the region I'm more in the piperchi / cheese pie / fish / baclava area. 0 -
It's interesting to see how people in different places eat differently. When I first visited the US I had to search very hard for a brand of bread I liked because most varieties tasted "too sweet" to me, which where I come from is almost unheard of, unless it's some kind of sweet roll or fluffy braid. I also remember the American family raising their eyebrows when I made a sandwich that only had some cheese with a whole tomato on the side. This was an eye opener for me.
Where I live, lunch is usually the biggest meal where most of the cooking takes place and it's usually around 4 or 5 pm. Dinner is usually pretty light, since you're already overstuffed after a late lunch.
Sandwiches are rarely more than 2 ingredients plus bread, often just some kind of spread on a piece of bread. Mostly cheese, deli meat with cheese or greek yogurt, greek yogurt with some mint, hummus, hummus and falafel.. etc
Speaking of yogurt and greek yogurt. Even though sweetened and flavored yogurt exists, it's treated like candy. I have yet to see sweetened or flavored greek yogurt, not even vanilla! Yogurt in all its forms is considered a savory food here, usually eaten with certain dishes. Greek yogurt is more of a sandwich spread or a breakfast dip (with olive oil). Always plain, always full fat and always savory.
The traditional breakfast has fried eggs, diced tomatoes and cucumber sticks, deli meat or luncheon, cheese, several dips (all eaten with pita and some dipped in olive oil), and a small cup of black tea (most often loose leaf tea boiled in water, but teabags are becoming more common)
Traditional lunch has some kind of protein, most often from an animal source (lamb, beef or chicken), rice (steamed, plain or with fried vermicelli), and some cooked vegetables in some kind of broth/tomato sauce. This meal is usually the most fatty and filling.
Dinner is either like breakfast or each makes their own sandwich.
When people visit, it's customary to serve tea or turkish coffee and fruits.
Tell us about the eating habits in your country / house.
You sound Greek are you? I am half greek and my family ate like you just mentioned above0 -
Texas
Beef, beef, and more beef, with a side of pork, preferably brisket with a side of sausage.
Tex-Mex foods like tacos, enchiladas, and always served with refried beans.
Chips and salsa all day long.
I could go on and on about desserts like banana pudding, peach cobbler, and fried ice cream.
My particular area of Texas has a lot of German food, too, so I am frequently eating schitzel and spoetzl (sp?).0 -
I'm American. Our culture is taking food other people make, adding fat and sugar and shoveling it in by the pound.
Slightly more seriously I'm in the glorious Pacific Northwest, we have...microbrews...and...um...yeah I think that's pretty much it.Well I'm in England, and I can honestly say in my opinion...there is no solid culture here! It's such a muli-cultural country that there's a little bit of everything.
I have a co-worker who lived in England for a bit, he mentioned the crappy English food to one of his friends there and she objected, then took him to a bunch of food places and had him try the great food they had. He didn't tell her that she hadn't taken him to a single place that serves actual ENGLISH food.
I've heard the joke made that England HAD to found an empire just so they could get decent food.
as far as foods we have here in the pacific northwest, we have a lot more than microbrews. We have some very fine Washington made wines, Coffee, Fresh fish, upscale markets..this is something that I personally really have missed when I've lived in other parts of the states. I really took that for granted. I always assumed that other locations had such exotic and high quality ingredients available when they didn't. I think that means that as a culture here in the pacific northwest we do tend to appreciate those things (exotic and high quality ingredients) and use them in our diets. Soon we will be able to add marijuana as a spice heh0 -
Oh wow, now that you mention it, I totally do that and never realized it!My contribution is less about food and more about silverware. I'm in the US. Many of us do this weird cutlery dance thing when cutting food with a knife.
We'll hold the knife in our dominant hand, the fork in the other, with the back of the fork facing up. We'll cut what we're eating, put down the knife, switch the fork to the other side, turn the fork so the back of it is facing the plate, stab the food and shovel it in. People in other countries apparently don't switch hands or turn the fork around.
If you're in the company of an American while they eat, look out for the silverware dance. I wasn't even aware that I did it until someone else pointed it out.
I'm in the Chicago-area and I think our big thing here is the pizza argument (deep dish is better blah blah blah) and Italian beef sandwiches.
As far as the American bread goes, I agree. I don't like the super soft bread that most brands make; it's weird. I prefer Ezekiel bread because it's not sweet and is hearty. Could be the equivalent of UK whole meal bread...?
The OP mentioned the cheese sandwich. Nothing wrong with that - I do it, too, and have done it since I was a kid! I would put my tomato in the sandwich, though, instead of on the side. Cooked tomatoes are also not weird.0 -
Howdy from Scotland,
In a word haggis.....
J x0 -
on sweet bread, yeah I haven't bought standard store brand style wonder bread type stuff in years. I buy whole grain bread without added sugar. oat and sunflower seed bread is my favorite. we also buy a variety of seed breads. most of the people I know also eat a higher quality bread than the super sweetened kind.0
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Fruit, fruit and more fruit! I spent half my life in Barbados and growing up it was lots of fruits and rice because we didn't have much growing up. Fish was a couple nights a week. I'm in Canada now and still can't get enough fruit (natures candy) I eat lots of veggies too now. I'm not big on meat so I eat pasta to get that good ol protein I need. I was surprised when I first got here how small the fruit in the stores was lol.0
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Balmos
Stuffed cabbage (or grape) leaves
Pickled anything
Pork or turkey jelly
Cozonac
Mititei
Guess the country
Hungary (maybe Romania, but you would have said 'mici")0 -
This thread is fascinating, and now I'm hungry!!
Midwest US here...
Weekday Breakfast: Oatmeal or cereal
Weekend breakfast: Pancakes, french toast, eggs, bacon, sausage
Weekday lunch: Soup, sandwich, frozen meal, fast food burger and fries
Weekend lunch: Leftovers or sandwiches/burgers
Weekday Dinner: Chicken or fish with a carb and a veggie (steamed)
Weekend dinner: Same as weekday, but in larger portions and with beer!0 -
Funny, I just saw this article, and it about sums it up! Green Chile is a staple here. We even have a state question: 'Red or Green" and it refers to the chile that your food (enchiladas, etc) is smothered with. An no, red chile is not the same as Texas chili.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/new-mexican-food_n_4391381.html0 -
bump0
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This thread is fascinating, and now I'm hungry!!
Midwest US here...
Weekday Breakfast: Oatmeal or cereal
Weekend breakfast: Pancakes, french toast, eggs, bacon, sausage
Weekday lunch: Soup, sandwich, frozen meal, fast food burger and fries
Weekend lunch: Leftovers or sandwiches/burgers
Weekday Dinner: Chicken or fish with a carb and a veggie (steamed)
Weekend dinner: Same as weekday, but in larger portions and with beer!
Also a Midwesterner. We had a lot of casseroles and meat-and-potato type dinners when I was growing up.0 -
Greek yogurt is more of a sandwich spread or a breakfast dip (with olive oil). Always plain, always full fat and always savory.
Love the idea of greek yogurt as a sandwich spread. Lately I have been using hummus.0 -
I'm from Norway. While growing up, I'd say I ate more or less a "traditional" Norwegian diet, which would consist of:
Breakfast(7-8 am): Slices of wholegrain bread with butter and something like cold cuts or cheese.
Lunch (at school, 11-12 am): Same as breakfast, brought from home.
(If I got hungry again before dinner I would sometimes have another slice of bread at home after school)
Dinner (5 pm): Usually meat or fish, boiled potatoes and vegetables. My sisters and I started making dinner once a week from we were 10 or so, so that meant we'd have soups, pancakes (well, somewhere in between pancakes and crepes, always served with blueberries) and other easy-to-make or half-fabricated dinners more often.
Evening meal (7-9 pm): Typically another couple of slices of bread (sometimes with chocolate spread), or müsli with milk.
So as you can see, very bread-based! Traditionally, Norwegians will eat every meal at home, and when they can't, they'll bring some open-faced sandwiches with them. Things are changing, though, and more and more people are having other things (sometimes hot meals) for lunch. Eggs in whatever form is also a pretty common thing to have for breakfast. Going out to eat is still very rare and typically a special occasion sort of thing, but people might order home pizza or sushi (though I'd guess no more than every 2-3 weeks).
I'd say the main differences I find when I go to other countries are meal times, the kind of bread eaten (white bread is hardly ever eaten in Norway), and the fact that a lot of sweet things we'd consider dessert/a treat seem to be considered food in other countries (Italy, the US).
Now that I'm older I eat a lot less bread than before - for the most part, I've replaced it with eggs, cottage cheese, oats, fruit and the occasional treat (the pastries over here in Austria are just too good and cheap
). 0 -
I'm in the midwest. Does steak and corn count as a cultural eating habit?0
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I'm American and in my 30's. When I was growing up in the Midwest basically everyone I knew ate like this, except for a handful of people I knew who ate "weird healthy food" and that really just meant a lot more variety in their salads and huge glasses of whole milk for children & preteens at dinnertime.
Breakfast:
Pop Tarts, Toaster Strudel (frozen pastry with a packet of frosting to squeeze on top after toasting), or sugary breakfast cereal with milk.
For "health nuts", a less sugary cereal (Cheerio's or Kix for example) with skim or lowfat milk.
Lunch:
School lunch like turkey & noodles, canned peas, a huge yeast roll, and strawberry gelatin with bits of canned pineapple inside, and a carton of chocolate 2% milk.
OR
Wonder (white) bread with bologna, cheese & mustard, small bag of Doritos, and a Kudos bar (glorified chocolate bar) and a juice box
Dinner:
Hamburger Helper, salad of iceberg lettuce with chopped tomato and ranch dressing, slice of cake (from a mix) for dessert
OR
3-4 slices of pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut
OR
chili on top of spaghetti, frozen peas, big slice of garlic bread and a Dr. Pepper
Pretty horrendous.0 -
I grew up in the Northeast US and my family was all mixed European (Polish, English, German, etc) but any cultural identity had been largely bred out of us by my parents generation, except for special occasions These eating patterns were common among all of my friends, who largely shared the same heritage.
6 AM: Breakfast was usually cold cereal with milk. If the cereal wasn't sweetened, then we dumped enough sugar on our Cheerios to make the milk gritty. Makes my teeth hurt now just thinking about it.
10 AM: School snack was a soft pretzel (yes, specifically Philadelphia and orange-flavored sugar water labeled "juice".
Noon: Lunch was deli meat and cheese with Mircale Whip (blergh) on bland/sweet bread with a plastic baggie of potato chips or pretzels.
3 PM: After-school snack was more potato chips or pretzels.
5:30 PM Dinner was a protein (hot dogs, fish sticks, breaded chicken with butter, breaded pork chops, meatloaf etc) with a side of mashed potatoes reconstituted from a boxed powder, smothered in margarine, and boiled frozen vegetables also smothered in margarine. Alternately, there might just be giant plates of spaghetti with meat sauce and a ton of "parmesan" from a green shaker can.
Dessert was cookies or ice cream every night.
Everything was chased down with gallons of sugary iced tea (from a powder) or soda.
I am amazed I lived to adulthood without getting diabetes or some kind of vitamin deficiency.
On holidays like Christmas and Easter, breakfast would be either donuts, waffles with margarine and fake maple syrup (really corn syrup dyed brown with some maple flavor), or pancakes prepared the same way. There were usually treats in the middle of the day, like krushchiki, pizzelles, and other cookies. Then dinner was at 3PM and was a crazy amount of food, but still very little of it was good (delicious or healthy).
There'd be canned ham baked with pineapples and maraschino cherries or turkey, boiled vegetables, Pillsbury rolls (which I still love, canned black olives and green olives, cranberry sauce in its original can shape (should sauce be able to be sliced? , reconstituted mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pasta salad that was really just pasta swimming in Miracle Whip with peas.
Holiday dessert was really stunningly good homemade pies doused in Kool Whip.
Most of my family still eats like this, even in adulthood. We have all struggled with our weight our whole lives. The entire neighborhood was/is overweight.0 -
I'm in Minnesota - lots of potato, meat, casseroles (we call them Hotdishes). Cereal standing over the sink for breakfast. Sandwich for lunch (noon). Meat and starch for supper (called dinner if fancier). Lots of fish too. My mother grew up in the Phillipines, so we ate way more rice/soy sauce/vegetable dishes than everyone else. She'd also cook the occasional roast beef/mashed potatos/gravy for my dad, who is from Omaha. Lots of strong coffee (at least from the Swedish relative side)
We had to have perfect table manners too - no elbows on the table, hand not being used on lap, etc. When I lived in France I broke the hand on lap habit and picked up the way more logical European fork thing.0 -
I'm from the UK and traditional British food is actually delicious amazing- rich meat and veg dishes , amazing puddings ( sticky toffee pudding anyone?) perfect for our cold, rainy days but we have been so busy enthusiastically trying and adopting other cuisines (me included) that we have neglected and forgotten about a lot of our own dishes.
I eat egg on buttered toast for breakfast or porridge, I live in Scotland where you eat it with salt ,its a savoury dish ( sweet porridge is considered to be the English version)
I'll have something like a baked jacket potato with cheese /tuna/coleslaw and salad for lunch
and maybe spag bol ( spaghetti bolognese), curry or meat and two veg for dinner.
I like coffee with milk and two sugars or old fashioned style pop(soda) like dandelion and burdock or cream soda or Irn Bru which is the drink of Scotland ( if you thought it was whisky you where wrong) Irn Bru is esp good if you are hungover accompanied by a greasy fry up.
In the UK we really really really love chips ( like fries but bigger) and curry is pretty much the national dish.0 -
I love this thread!
I grew up in the American South, so a lot of fried foods, big farm breakfasts with eggs, sausage or bacon, pancakes, fruit, and oatmeal or buttered toast, light lunches (usually sandwiches) and big dinners of meat, potatoes, and veggies.
Food as an occasion was big where I grew up. Coffee socials with pastries before church every Sunday, big potlucks after church. Pig Pickins every weekend during the summer (roast a whole pig, pick off what you want- families in the neighborhood took turns hosting) with baked beans, collard greens with fatback or ham hocks, mashed potatoes and homemade gravy, potato salad, coleslaw, hush puppies (fried savory cornmeal balls).
Food was the cure for every ill- you celebrated with food, you commiserated with someone going through a tough time by bringing them food (usually pies or casseroles), if you were sad people forced food on you. Led to me having an unhealthy relationship with food quite frankly.
My mom's family were poor and from Michigan and they put ketchup on every meat- fried chicken, pork chops, even STEAK (gross).0 -
Pig Pickins sounds amazing!I love this thread!
I'm originally from the South, so a lot of fried foods, big farm breakfasts with eggs, sausage or bacon, pancakes, fruit, and oatmeal or buttered toast, light lunches (usually sandwiches) and big dinners of meat, potatoes, and veggies.
Food as an occasion was big where I grew up. Coffee socials with pastries before church every Sunday, big potlucks after church. Pig Pickins every weekend during the summer (roast a whole pig, pick off what you want- families in the neighborhood took turns hosting) with baked beans, collard greens with fatback or ham hocks, mashed potatoes and homemade gravy, potato salad, coleslaw, hush puppies (fried savory cornmeal balls).
Food was the cure for every ill- you celebrated with food, you commiserated with someone going through a tough time by bringing them food (usually pies or casseroles), if you were sad people forced food on you. Led to me having an unhealthy relationship with food quite frankly.
My mom's family were poor and from Michigan and they put ketchup on every meat- fried chicken, pork chops, even STEAK (gross).0 -
Food was the cure for every ill- you celebrated with food, you commiserated with someone going through a tough time by bringing them food (usually pies or casseroles), if you were sad people forced food on you. Led to me having an unhealthy relationship with food quite frankly.
My mom's family were poor and from Michigan and they put ketchup on every meat- fried chicken, pork chops, even STEAK (gross).
I'm from Missouri so not Southern or Northern...but I can definitely relate to the attitude about food! Very similar here.
And ketchup is a big thing in my circle of family/friends as well. They put it on meat, eggs, slather it on burgers and even some sandwiches. I am not a huge ketchup fan but I do actually love it in my brown bean "soup" and on green beans.0 -
This thread has been pretty interesting; have to say though its making me feel a bit sorry for the Americans bread that's extra sweet? That would drive me nuts. I've been told America has a lot more sugar in most of their cereals, but didn't realise it extended to things like bread. I have enough trouble with sugar here; it must be an extra challenge for you guys over there!
I remember the popcorn at the cinema here used to be really nice, salty and savory. (Australia.) A few years ago though it tasted like it had been mixed up with powdered sugar! Tasted all sweet, it was not what I was expecting and was just nasty. I had hoped it was just a one off accident, but a few months later tried again; nope, still sweet. Recently my friend bought some so I tried it; not as sweet as previous occasions but still, you can taste it in there. Makes me sad that they've ruined something good just to make it more addictive & sell more product. :frown: PLUS ITS ALWAYS STALE NOW! :explode:0 -
Portuguese!
I ate rabbit for breakfast this morning.
Meat is the star at meal times weather its beef,chicken, pork, octopus, squid, sardines. Meat of all sorts, fish from all seas, and any cut will suffice. Rice, potatoes, taro root-any starch-is its companion. For vegetables is kale, carrots, peppers, beans, onions, garlic. And the classic wine, olive oil, paprika, garlic,salt, and portuguese hot sauce. The spicier the better.
Its not always the healthiest though. Can be pretty oily, meat can be fatty. ANd dessert is malasadas, (dough boys), quejadas (bean custard with flakey crust), or something white with loads of flour and sugar. Very tastey but not healthy.
Dont let me forget the espresso's. My absolute favorite thing is a strong,portuguese espresso. The tea is also a staple. Tea everyday-twice a day. afternoon and night time.
Family style.0
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