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One time I talked to an acquaintance about why she hadn’t tried the best taco truck that I love that is literally next to her house. She was like ‘I’m from the Midwest, flavor is just not for me, I know I won’t appreciate it’ and I laughed so much and I appreciated her self-awareness.
I then interviewed her about her fear of flavor and grease in an ethnographic exercise. I told everyone back home about it, and it was like telling them about aliens.
She then told me about how her favorite taco restaurant is this place I would totally never go to, and I finally understood why those places exist. Something for everyone I guess.
She said ‘the lack of flavor is just very comforting for me’ and I was so amazed to hear that, because everyone I’d met til then is a flavor maximalist
Sometimes my wife and I talk about how it must be weird to others that we sort of expect every single meal we eat (whether it’s food we cook or food we buy) to be incredible.
I know it sounds like an exhausting way to live, but where we are from (Singapore / Malaysia), eating poor quality food is seen as a waste of time, stomach space and soul
I think in that part of the world you have to go out of your way to find food that hasn’t been prepared with great care and love, and that tastes ‘bad’
Even the stuff I turn my nose down on when I’m in Singapore / Malaysia / Thailand is like, better than most fancy places ahaha
One of the things my elders were exceptionally proud of me for: she knows how to select good fish, dried mushrooms, and she has great taste in food
People who don’t care about food are treated with extreme suspicion in my culture, almost like.. they are aliens you can’t communicate with.
I was surprised to learn that in other cultures, people who care too much about food are perceived to be odd
One time I saw an internet discussion about ‘what are some things that cause your society to ostracize you?’
The Americans said ‘not liking dogs’
The Singaporeans said ‘not liking food’
EF @skinnylatte
Makes sense why I'm ostracized in sg now :)
@skinnylatte
My wife and her father are extremely appreciative and interested in good food, but her Mom just doesn’t care at all. It’s the strangest thing. Mom and Dad are both Chinese, so it’s not a cross cultural issue for them.
@skinnylatte This is why haggis exists. To fill this vacancy.
@skinnylatte I spent 5 months backpacking in Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand and Singapore when I was 19 in 1982. That trip basically rendered half the things I used to like eating in Melbourne...inedible.