Western food prejudice

[kerouac2]

I was delighted by this article from the ABC which points out the somewhat unbearable comments of Western food critics about food from other regions.  For these people, if you don't know it and you don't like it, it is "bad."

One of the little tidbits that I appreciated particularly was a parody of how Asians could talk about one Western icon if they used the same language:

Writing about US food the way the NYT covers Asian fruit: In a nation torn by racial conflict, one unlikely food unites. To those accustomed to chopsticks, the greasy parcel known as a 'burger', a sort of split bao, is crude and messy. Yet it encapsulates a nation's violent past.

Before I travelled around the world, I probably would have been capable of lots of derogatory remarks about world cuisine, but I have learned over the years that if I think something tastes bad, it is just because I have not yet learned to appreciate it.  That was already the case of quite a few things in my own culture when I was younger.

Australian food writers call for greater diversity of voices in wake of New York Times durian debacle

[mickthecactus]

I've had durian. I rather liked it.

[kerouac2]

I ate it in Cambodia, and I have also had durian ice cream a number of times, including in France.

I should mention on the opposite spectrum of food prejudice ("Eastern food prejudice"), most people of Chinese origin absolutely despised cheese and yogurt for a long time. The attractivity of pizza has won them over to cheese the past 30 years, but there is still a lot of progress to be made. I know that one of my Singaporean friends, in spite of growing up in an extremely westernised version of Asia, told me that he liked cheese "as long as there isn't too much of it."

I have also read that part of the problem is digestive. In the West, we have been reared on dairy products for more than a hundred years and our bodies have adjusted to a food that was only meant to be consumed by baby animals (including humans) but not by adults. And even so, there are still a lot of adults who are lactose intolerant. I think that the willpower of the Chinese will make their bodies adapt faster.

[mickthecactus]

I must tell you the story that goes with my durian. It was brought in by our head of accounts of a few months, a very pleasant Malaysian lady.

Come the time of our office Christmas party she arrived in a dress so short, there was barely a centimetre or two of decency. After a few drinks she then asked the chairman in front of everybody whether he masturbated.

She was never seen again.

[kerouac2]

But what happened to the accounts?

[mickthecactus]

An Australian lady arrived.

[questa]

UH OH! in a bikini?

...............................

About the milk. Milk is produced by the mother mammal and each feed can be different to the last according to the age and environment of the infant. Human babies want a good protein recipe when they wake in the morning. As the day gets hot the milk gets higher in water and 'sugars' so baby gets extra fluids but not so much fat and protein. When the baby is hungry he keeps drinking to get to the heavier milk that comes after the lighter feed.

Kangaroos can have a newborn attached to a nipple at the same time as a 2 year old is still climbing around in her pouch or eating grass. Mrs Roo is making 2 different milks at the same time.

Adult humans weren't programmed to drink cows' milk but they found that by letting it ferment it became a cheese and was easier way to store or carry. I have had kumis made from yak and later horse milk and yoghurts made from camel milk. (Which BTW is the closest milk to human)

It is no wonder that the Hindu Creation Story has all the potential for eternity "floating around in a sea of milk" waiting to become created.