Asklemmy

44183 readers

1200 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

-5

What are all the ethnic foods you've ever eaten? (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 months ago by shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

69 comments fedilink hide all child comments

There are some exotic foods we tend to take for granted exist. Almost every city for example has a Chinese restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, and maybe an Outback Steakhouse. But this isn't universal for some reason. Someone asked me if I wanted to go to an Egyptian restaurant and I was like "wait, they have restaurants?"

A question for all those who would say they consider themselves ethnically fluent. What are all the cultural categories of food you've had?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Okay I won't hold it against you because I grew up Midwestern and to us Mexican and Chinese were considered "ethnic", but do realize that that is a very weird thing to just say. Now that I'm on the coast should I call tuna casserole or taco/breakfast food ethnic? Sounds weird right?

Next time you think ethnic food may be instead think of it like non-american food. To us, green bean casserole is a "normal" thing, to other people having a noodle dish is an appropriate normal holiday dish. "Normal" and "different" are all just from our point of view.

That's why you're being downvote, because you're on a world stage here, and when you're talking to someone and calling their food "ethnic" it demeans their culture, and that is a bit insulting. I am guessing it's just ignorance, but hey now you know.

That being said, have fun exploring your pallette! I've lost count of the different cuisines I've tried, but every one is a bit different! There's a Moroccan place that I really love going to, and I have had some really good Ethiopian. Sushi is always my go to favorite! Never be afraid of trying new things!

(And if you decide to post again I'm sure it will do better vote wise, because it is a really interesting question ;)

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago

I say "ethnic" as in "ethnicity", and as in "of or belonging to a population group or subgroup made up of people who share a common cultural background or descent", which is what the dictionary says. If that's offensive, it's the first time I've heard that before, having seen it used by official sources. As I explain, I'm grateful for whatever verbal successes I do have because English is not my first language, but I see the land of ten thousand instances which believes in things in terms of a world stage won't even accommodate.