Indian food is very popular in the US and I have never heard anybody rag on it ever. Don’t know what kind of media you must be consuming.
Can you give an example? I know that some people have a hard time with the strong smells, but I honestly have never heard it made fun of in any demeaning way. Maybe at worst a character has a bad time on a toilet due to the Indian food being so spicy, but I can’t think of how it would be made fun of. Seems well loved here in the States in my experience.
Can you give an example?
I thought you meant for Indian food being praised worldwide at first…
Most people I know that enjoy Indian food switched to Thai prerty quickly. They might still get Indian occasionally, but Thai food does everything better.
Most Indian dishes that are popular in other countries, aren’t even Indian. At most they were invented in other countries and portrayed as authentic. So I’m not even sure that counts.
Kind of like how General Tsao’s chicken is an American dish
Such an odd way to hear people talk about food.
I’d never consider food to be “switchable”, let alone think another culture does it “better”. Like there’s so much diversity between Indian/Thai, on a dish by dish basis no country is better.
I mean, I can’t think of another type of curry that’s popular in America…
Like sure, if you’re in a huge city there might be one or two other options.
I’d never consider food to be “switchable”, let alone think another culture does it “better”.
I’m honestly at a loss how someone wouldn’t be able to understand that…
Not sure I understand why you think a Thai restaurant would be making Indian food or vice versa.
Obviously they’re not making the same dishes, but that’s like insisting no one can prefer clam chowder to tomato soup because it’s not the same dish
I’m American and I can’t think of a comedy show that makes fun of Indian food. Can you name one of them so I can check it out?
I’d say most medium to large sized cities in the US have Indian restaurants, so it’s not so unusual.
Friends did, Big Bang Theory does all the time, but yeah pretty much every yank comedy contains some negativity towards Indian food. I don’t watch much comedy, but it seems to be a meme in their shows.
odd, never heard of comedy making fun of foreign food.
I personally enjoy a fair bit of Indian food, it’s quite varied.
Do they? I rarely see jokes about it and if I do see jokes they are spicy diarrhea related which I will admit is odd because Americanized Indian food is not spicy at all.
exactly the spicey diarrhea jokes, as well as direct comparisons to vomit. American Dad and Family Guy writers spring to mind.
The spice jokes happen in any nation that culturally lacks a pepper based heat as a common seasoning, towards any food with said spice. Southern states, who share food inspiration with mexico, do not have these jokes. They eat the hottest nonsense sauces, theyre used to the effect.
So 2 cartoons that are by the same people. So basically a single source.
Indian food is probably given less shit in the states than most other foods. Mainly just the smell it leaves permeating through everything.
British food is tasteless trash. Mexican food makes you shit your pants. Chinese food is eating cats and dogs. Thai will burn your butthole to death. German food is angry and has sauerkraut. Canada just has syrup on everything. Japan is fish they won’t cook. Irish is all potatoes and sheep belly. Indian is stinky and smells forever.
Americans deep fry everything.We’re an equal opportunity country. We’ll talk shit on everyone.
The German food stereotype is definitely that it’s all sausage.
That’s the kind of jokes those shows make; cheap shots and poop jokes.
Americanized Indian food is not spicy at all
Disagree. This is entirely dependent on the particular restaurant. None of them put Scoville ratings on things, so “hot” can mean “barely mild” at one restaurant and “this will absolutely wreck your colon” at another. This has been my experience, at least.
Agreed, seems like a weird comment. It’s easy to get incredibly mild Indian food here but plenty of places go up to inferno hot too if you want it.
Casual xenophobia/racism. Much like the whole MSG thing here.
bland shows catering to bland tastes, maybe?
What is the punchline you see in American media about Indian food?
The stereotype of Indian cuisine is that it sometimes has really strong flavor, sometimes a strong smell to match. Those are not bad things.
I don’t have any overall negative associations with Indian food. There are certainly dishes that don’t appeal to me, but if anyone wanted to go to an Indian restaurant for dinner, I would say “yes, please”.
Edit: I see some comments about “spicy diarrhea” jokes. I see those as a function of people not acclimated to spicy food, not that the spicy food itself is bad. I’m impressed by people who can eat full spicy level Indian food. I would be on a toilet for a day if I ate fully spicy level; that’s my problem, not the fault of Indian cuisine overall.
Yeah I’d like to see some examples. Everyone I know loves Indian food. Hope you’re not some kind of troll. Give me that curry, man!
I’ve not heard these jokes. I love my Indian food. Taco Bell jokes are 10x more prevalent. What are your sources for Indian food hate?
As a Mexican, I don’t take Taco Bell jokes to be offensive. Or even Mexican food jokes to be offensive, for that matter. I mean, i know my people’s food will sometimes make me shit my pants, but fuck it’s delicious. But back to the point, Taco Bell is far from being ethnically offensive, because it is far from being representative of Mexican food.
What? I’ve never seen anyone rag on Indian food.
At worst, the way they eat it, but never the food.
It gets the same jokes as Mexican food usually here. Really, some people’s guts just can’t handle any amount of spice, and poo jokes are always a hit.
There are two sides to american eating habits… the ones who think the Wendy’s Ghost Pepper fries were too spicy, and the ones who are actively out there inventing a whole new level of spice to torture their taste buds with.
Sadly, the first side is WAAAAAYYYY larger than the second and any level of spice stronger than black pepper will instantaneously send them both to the bathroom and the emergency room for even daring to try something with some flavor on it. And it doesn’t help that as far as most people (around here anyways) consider indian food chicken tika marsala and samosas… and that’s the entirety of the menu.
The only other thing I can think of that might cause it is the intention for each bite of bland food (like rice) to have a surplus of flavorings on it, which works for most non spiced foods but may wreak some havoc on people who don’t balance out their spice intake with the rest of the meal. There’s probably something to be said for overall quality causing some problems as well.
I can’t be sure, but from the people I’ve interacted with, these are reasons I can think of which may explain how things got to where they are.
There is a third side who understands that there are more food flavorings then “spicy,” and that often excessive spicing is used to hide shitty quality food.
Side one thinks Ketchup is spicy enough. The other side laughs at them, but they don’t understand how much spices hurt side one. This is genetic as far as I can tell - it isn’t just you get used to spices if fed them as a kid which side two seems to think.
It’s nothing genetic…
At least not for people
Capsaicin is what makes peppers hot, and all mammals are sensitive to it. But birds aren’t.
And birds are better are distributing seeds than mammals, so some peppers that evolved to have a lot of capsaicin spread much further. There was an advantage to large mammals not woofing a whole pepper down in one bite.
The difference in people is some like the endorphin rush from their bodies thinking they’re in actual pain, and some people don’t think it’s worth it.
But the vast amount of people that don’t like spicy food never work up to it, they just go straight to something crazy spicy and then refuse anything remotely spicy.
Like, if your first time drinking alcohol you just chug a fifth of everclear, it’s probably gonna be a while before your second night drinking.
It’s not just Indian food. A number of mostly older Americans like to make fun of any spicy “foreign” foods that are more adventurous than the local Taco Bell. They do it because their tummies can’t handle anything that’s not bland to the point of being tastless. These are the same people who think salt and pepper are exotic spices. For the record I am American and I love Indian food
Its not that they arent used to flavored food. You have a built up tolerance to a mildly toxic chemical such that it doesnt cause you intestinal inflammation anymore.
I love heat as much as the next guy, but lets be clear. You dont taste with your butthole, and its a toxin that doesnt discriminate between tongue and tookus.
Capsaicin is not a toxin. It’s also sensed by your pain receptors, not your taste buds.
It is literally a toxin, which is part of why it binds to your pain receptors and not your taste buds.
Which is also why it reacts with your entire digestive system, not just your mouth. Because it is a mammal targeting poison that evolved to deter unwanted predation. Its supposed to make you sick, so you dont eat the pepper and grind its seeds with your teeth.
Its just a toxin that is only deadly in insanely massive doses, that humans are lucky enough to be able to build tolerance for.
Capsaicin is not the first toxin humans ingest for fun. It will not be the last. But while lots of toxins are fun to eat, you shouldnt forget that it is very much a toxin, which is why some people cannot stomach them. Not everyone can stomach eating poisons easily, and you can have too much of them if youre not careful.
E: to clarify, “you dont taste with your butthole” means while capsaicin is a fun flavor boosting chemical when paired with food, you do not get the additional flavor when that chemical passes through your south mouth and shares its little gift regardless.
I appreciate your elaborating.
I was going to say more until I realized that you and I are using different definitions of ‘toxin’. There is more than one definition and yours is not the one that I was approaching the subject from. To me, a toxin is something that causes disease. But yes, you’re right, a plant is considered toxic for different reasons.
Who made you the expert on old people and their tummies?
Maybe it’s that I don’t watch much comedy, but I’ve literally never seen anything dump on Indian. There is nothing more delicious than Indian. Nothing. Not even Mexican food. I do not say that lightly.
Eh, however on the Mexican side, it became kind of tradition to associate Taco Bell with uncontrollable, debilitating, liquid diarrhea
Taco Bell is about as Mexican as Mac & Cheese. When I talk about Mexican food, I am talking about Mexican food.
Taco Bell isn’t “mexican food,” it’s fast food, and there was a time when it was even worse then it is now.
