What culture has the worst cuisine?

[MAPK phosphatase]

White people who live in McMansions and are allergic to seasoning.

I'm convinced this happened because of the push a number of years ago to get people to reduce their sodium intake. The only people who took that advice seriously were white people.

 

[Rendang]

I'm convinced this happened because of the push a number of years ago to get people to reduce their sodium intake. The only people who took that advice seriously were white people.

In the late 18th-century, many European aristocrats begun to believe that poor people seasoned their "cheap" food to hide the nastiness. Because of this, it became a sign of wealth to not season food.

When the overall quality of life of white people rose, most adopted these practices, while the poor, like the south, retained their fondness for seasoning.

To find seasoned food from Whites, I recommend Townsend's YT channel. Lots of nutmeg was used during the 18th century, and even white people tried to copy Indian curry.

 

[Empress.]

I'm convinced this happened because of the push a number of years ago to get people to reduce their sodium intake. The only people who took that advice seriously were white people.

Salt / sodium free seasoning is the worst.

 

[MAPK phosphatase]

In the late 18th-century, European aristocrats believed that poor people seasoned their food to hide the "nastiness" of their cheap eats. Because of this, it became a sign of wealth to not eat seasoned food, and when the overall quality of life of people rose, most white people adopted these practices, while much of the poor deep south (especially the Creole) retained their fondness for seasoning. Townsends is a great channel to learn more about seasoned white people food, highly recommended.

I have seen this explanation before, but I'm not convinced.
For example, take A Collection of Above Three Hundred Receipts in Cookery. We have
French Cutlets

Skin a Loin of Mutton, and cut it into Stakes, then take some of the lean of a Leg of Veal, the weight in Beef-suet, two Anchovies, Thyme, Parsly, Sweet-marjoram, and Onion, all finely shred; Nutmeg, Pepper, Salt and grated Bread, with the Yolks of two Eggs; make holes in the lean of the Stakes and fill them full of this Seasoning and spread it all over the Stakes, then butter as may pieces of white paper as you have Cutlets and wrap them up every one by themselves, turn up the edges of the Papers with great care that none of the moisture get out; therefore let the Papers be large enough to turn up several times at the edge; and if occasion be, stick a pin to keep it all in; for this Gravy is all their Sauce: When they are thus tight wrapt up, put them upon a Mazareen, and bake them [...]

Stew Pidgeons

Take fix bigeons with their Giblets, cut the Peogeons in Quarters, and put them in the Stew-pan with two blades of Mace, a little Pepper and Salt, and just Water enough to Stew them without burning; When they are tender, thick the Liquor with the Yolk of one Egg, three Spoonfuls of thick sweet Cream, a bit of Butter, and a little shred Thyme and Parsly; shake them all up together, and garnish with Lemon.

To dress a Turbet, or any Dish of Fish

Lay the Fish you are to boil, into a pint of Vinegar, season'd with Salt, Pepper, Onion, and a faggot of Thyme, Marjaram and Parsly. When it has lain an hour, put the fish with the pickle carefully into your fish-kettle of boiling water; to it put Cloves, Mace, and Anchovies, and a bit of Horse-radish[...]

We also have The Compleat Housewife
To make a Soop

TAKE a Leg of Beef , and boil it down with some salt , a bundle of sweet - herbs , an onion , a few cloves , a bit of nutmeg ; boil three gallons of water to one ; then take two or three pounds of lean Beef cut in thin slices then put in your stew - pan a piece of butter , as big as an egg , and flour it , and let the pan be hot , and shake it till the butter be brown ;

To roast a Loin of Mutton

FLEA off the skin , and when it drips , drudge it with grated bread and mole - hill time powdered ; so do till it's enough : you may run a long cafe - knife in the flesh in the inside , and stuff the whole full of sorc'd - meat , with bread , herbs , lemmon - peel , and an egg beat up ; so make savoury sauce.

To mumble Rabbets and Chickens

PUT into the bellies of your Rabbets , or Chickens , some parsley , an onion , and the liver ; set it over the fire in the stew - pan with as much water as will cover them, with a little salt ; when they are half boiled take them out , and shred the parsley , liver , and onion , and tear the flesh from the bones of the Rabbet in small flakes , and put it into the stew - pan again with a very little of the liquor it was boiled in , and a pint of white - wine , and some gravy, and half a pound or more of butter , and some grated nutmeg ; when ' tis enough , shake in a little flour , and thicken it up with butter . Serve it on sippets

If you have some other first party sources that demonstrate how the wealthy ate bland food and these cook books are not representative of their diet, then I'm interested in hearing about them. If you have sources that demonstrate intent, even better. But in absence of such sources, I'm not going to take "well rich people are dicks so it's probably true" as evidence.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

Chechen cuisine. That's sort of an obscure one, isn't it? Let Wikipedia set the tone:

View attachment 4793162

Which is an odd one, because I am a big fan of slavic cuisine. I know, they aren't slavs, but they're definitely in the cultural sphere.

The fuck even is that? Boiled chicken, some kind of dumpling, and some kind of sauerkraut?

 

[Rendang]

I'm not going to take "well rich people are dicks so it's probably true" as evidence.

i konsneed phosphate

 

[Mista House]

Irish, Sahel Africa or Scandinavian.

British being bad is a pure meme, its not amazing but hardly the worst in Europe.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

and Rogan Josh are probably my favorite from the Indian kitchen

I hate that guy and his cheap kitchen podcast.

In the late 18th-century, many European aristocrats begun to believe that poor people seasoned their "cheap" food to hide the nastiness. Because of this, it became a sign of wealth to not season food.

When the overall quality of life of white people rose, most adopted these practices, while the poor, like the south, retained their fondness for seasoning.

To find seasoned food from Whites, I recommend Townsend's YT channel. Lots of nutmeg was used during the 18th century, and even white people tried to copy Indian curry.

There's something to it(not the salt part, but avoiding things). I knew a lady descended from the upper class that refused to eat nutmeg when used with potatoes(mashed potatoes for example) because it was the way poors masked the taste of rotten potatoes, apparently, so it is not proper...

 

[Cloaca Rimjob]

Authentic Indian food is quite bad. Much prefer the anglicised stuff.

Ancient Roman cuisine sounded pretty nasty. They used to eat wolf's nipples as a snack. They also brushed their teeth with piss.

Powerlevel here but my birth mother is from West Africa and so I've grown up eating quite a lot of it. Let me tell you, it's horrific.

A lot of it was just greasy garbage sat in oil but not seasoned much beyond destroyed in chili. Boiled chicken feet, boiled pigs feet, boiled pig's tails, and unseasoned baby octopi in a "sauce" of oil and spinach. Peanut butter sauce, also dripping with oil.

One dish that stood out to me was this "classic" west African dish called fufu.

View attachment 4830145
Which is like a clump of dough you eat with some dipping sauce. Probably just oil.

What's the peanut butter sauce like? Is it like the dipping sauce you get with satay? Swap the doughball with some fried rice and I'd scran that.

 

[DenseDeerFather]

What's the peanut butter sauce like? Is it like the dipping sauce you get with satay? Swap the doughball with some fried rice and I'd scran that.

Without the pleasure of having eaten satay, I don't know. But it was extremely spicy and oily and surprisingly thin.

 

[Rendang]

Without the pleasure of having eaten satay, I don't know. But it was extremely spicy and oily and surprisingly thin.

Comparing this to any peanut sauce from Indonesia is like comparing marinated chicken breast to unseasoned chicken breast. This fufu recipe is just peanuts mashed and diluted in oil, with chilis added. On the other hand, sate sauce is very thick, as the peanut oil is drained for marinating sate ayam, and seasoned sweet and spicy with some candlenuts, palm sugar and chili. The closest analog in my head would be gado-gado sauce, which is a soupier but chunky peanut sauce used as a salad dressing.

Even then, gado-gado has not a very oily sauce, and is seasoned heavily, with some recipes calling for using shrimp (ube) to add savory.

I do wonder how Malagasy (Madagascar) cuisine fair, as Indian ocean tradewinds has given them descendants and crops from SEA. Maybe they have actual food there.

 

[Stoicism Is For Losers]

Scandinavian is really really bland, and I say this as someone who lives in Scandinavia. You're not gonna find many restaurants doing scandinavian food except for ikea food courts, why? Because most traditional food is really really bland. It's no wonder people here drench a lot of stuff in ketchup to make it actually taste like something. This is what happens when your country was poor sustenance farming for most of its existence with the only spices being pepper and nutmeg.

 

[Sorlock]

British food actually is the worst. However, this is often hedged against by saying things like "chicken tikka masala is British!" Yes, it's something the British significantly adapted from India. It is not, however, boiled "meat with three veg" or any kind of dish largely comprised of congealed blood, stale bread, and likely alcohol. The Irish have definitely been better bad food purists, but they also probably got it from the British to begin with, so we prefer blaming the British.

I can't help but feel this is an unfair characterisation of their food.

They also do jerked pork.

There's a lot of other Jamaican food, like goat curry, seafood, rice and beans, and tropical fruit like coconuts, and other seasoning for meat besides jerk. It's not as famous, though, but I like what I've had.

 

[DenseDeerFather]

Scandinavian is really really bland, and I say this as someone who lives in Scandinavia. You're not gonna find many restaurants doing scandinavian food except for ikea food courts, why? Because most traditional food is really really bland. It's no wonder people here drench a lot of stuff in ketchup to make it actually taste like something. This is what happens when your country was poor sustenance farming for most of its existence with the only spices being pepper and nutmeg.

Late and gay but as a Scandinavian. I can attest to this. Denmark's national dish is pretty bland too. Lightly salted bacon with unseasoned boiled potatoes and lightly seasoned parsley sauce. If seasoned at all. Even the parsley is rather mild.

Ooooooo so exciting!

 

[Flaming_Barghast]

Late and gay but as a Scandinavian. I can attest to this. Denmark's national dish is pretty bland too. Lightly salted bacon with unseasoned boiled potatoes and lightly seasoned parsley sauce. If seasoned at all. Even the parsley is rather mild.

Ooooooo so exciting!

I'm American but grew up eating mostly Norwegian, swed, and german dishes. German was moms side, others were dads.
Literally the blandest shit possible, but thanks to very low seasoning, I can often appreciate subtle flavors you otherwise wouldn't notice in normal food like steaks, properly cooked chicken that isn't dry as shit, etc etc.
Their sweets are amazing, but regular food?
Who eats a fucking birds nest?
WHO COOKS AN EGG IN SAID NEST?!

 

[DenseDeerFather]

Their sweets are amazing,

Really! I'd kill for some multekrem again or Hapå. Danish cakes also hit really good.

WHO COOKS AN EGG IN SAID NEST?!

Huh?
I'm assuming you don't mean this.

Or this.

By the by, I'd eat the first pic. Sure as shit, wouldn't touch the second. I'm sorry, that looks...kinda dumb and not necessarily appetizing.

Speaking of weird Norwegian food, I happen to have family in Norway and one of them fucking loves getting a rise out of me by suggesting I try Smalahove. It's bit of a "meme" dish or one of those spectacle foods for daredevils and therefore infamous for that.

Not even most Norwegians fuck that shit and I can see why.

Spoiler: NSFL

Spoiler: I mean I'm not your parent but still

Spoiler: I warned you

Absolutely nightmarish.

 

[McMitch]

Who eats a fucking birds nest?
WHO COOKS AN EGG IN SAID NEST?!

Listen; when it’s been nine months of winter, and your first wheat crop is still four months away, finding a birds nest suddenly becomes a complete meal.

 

[keep em' comin]

BRitish and middle class white americans from states like idaho.

 

[soy_king]

Almost all Russian food is pretty terrible, with some notable exceptions. A country that thinks vodka is an adequate substitute for a meal and whose food is some combination of pork, potatoes, butter, and dill is not a good cuisine.

 

[Mandy Stroyer]

BRitish and middle class white americans from states like idaho.

Middle class white americans from states like Idaho remind me of Mormon cuisine. They cook like they're still in the 50s. Casseroles made with microwave rice and can of goop, fruit in jello, bisquick desserts, any and all diet food. It's been a while since I picked up my YW handbook but there is a massive emphasis on staying thin for god starting from age 8 onward. Sunday lessons about abstaining from sugar, fat, carbs, and salt because Joseph Smith would totally think they're addictive. Imagine spliting one pack of ramen in two and only using a sprinkle of the seasoning packet, because I don't have to. No wonder missionaries come back home fatter.