Jamie's blog about food culture reminded me when I had international food party held in ESL class at my high school in the U.S. There were students from Korea, India, China, Japan and Brazil.
One day, we planned a party which each students had to bring their own country's traditional food. Every one brought their traditional foods that their moms made and it was just gorgeous! There were lots of foods that I was expecting like Kimchi(korean), ma-bo- tofu(Chinese). But there was one thing that I was surprised...it was Indian food. Well, I imagined curry with nan(I hoped.lol) But the Indian student brought two desserts, but both of them smelled very spicy. I was very scared to try it but if I avoid only that food, I thought it will be impolite to them so I tried it. I guess you guys can imagine my reaction. I couldn't say that it was delicious.
I brought dorayaki as a snack for them, but my teacher(American) and students from Brazil and India seemed they disliked the sweet beans inside of dorayaki.
I believe there is definitely a difference in cultural food values too. We grew by eating our own culture's traditional food so that it can sometimes be difficult for us to accept other cultures sense of foods. You know....Americans hate seaweed because they are not used to eat black foods.
