We have just had the annual ‘arancine day’ here in Palermo..that is,Santa Lucia (December 13th).
Anyone who claims not to like or eat arancine here is generally greeted with disbelief,or questions as to why,or suggestions of different types that are ‘great’,different fillings they could try etc.
How about where you live? Is there anything YOU don’t like that causes surprised reactions?
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I suppose nationally,it might be pizza.
Possibly pasta.I have never met an Italian who claims never to eat pasta at all though!
Among children,saying that you dislike ice cream will usually cause very surprised responses.
Pickles, probably Everyone is so fond of them.
And soups of all kinds. When I was a child I was literally forced to eat soup everyday, because it is good for my health.
Historically probably Schnitzel but with the emergence of vegetarianism it’s not *that* rare to meet someone who doesn’t eat it.
I’m English and…. come closer…. *whispers*…. I hate tea.
Not food, but disliking Vytautas mineral water basically gets your citizenship revoked.
As with almost everything, it is heavily regionalised in Germany.
If you live in the North-West and don’t like Grünkohl, you are considered weird.
In the East, it is certain classic GDR dishes. If you think a Jägerschnitzel should be a pork schnitzel with mushroom sauce, everyone will know you are a Wessi, since in the East, a Jägerschnitzel is a breaded and fried slice of Jagdwurst (a kind of cold cut/sausage) served with tomatoe sauce.
If you live in Hesse and don’t like the local apple wine, they’ll probably kick you out.
And so on.
Chocolate. I once met a girl who did not like ANY kind of chocolate, and she felt so frustrated everyone just assumes you like it when choosing treats, desserts, etc.
In my canton at least, cheese and alcohol. I can’t eat cheese that is not melted, raclette, fondue, pizza etc, it’s all good, but just a piece of “raw” cheese ? Nah, just approaching some from my mouth makes me want to barf.
For alcohol people here just assume that you like it, I like some but most I don’t because I dislike the taste of ethanol itself and people are always suprised when I tell them I rarely drink because of this reason.
I’m German and don’t care for bread. Bakery stuff in general, like pretzels. As a child I didn’t like it at all and now I eat it maybe once a month?
Mushrooms, in any form. Many Czechs are obsessed with roaming forests and picking as many mushrooms as possible, and turning them into edible goo matter afterwards. It doesn’t taste good, it has no structure, but people still love it.
Even in cantina in work, option of meal with mushroom are there at least 3 times a week.
Rugbrød (rye bread). It’s like saying you dislike water. All hail the rugbrød.
I eat almost anything but there are two things I absolutely hate: alcohol and coffee. And people REFUSE to accept that I don’t like them. You wouldn’t believe what sort of comments I’ve had to deal with. The worst case is beer. Swiss men drink so much beer and when they find out that I – a fellow man – don’t like beer, they take it as a personal insult. When I was a teenager, people would just tell me: “it’s normal, you’re still young, it takes time to get used to it.” When I declared as a 16-year old that I will NEVER like beer or coffee, all the adults used to laugh in a condescending way. “Hahahaha just wait until you’re grown up!” Well, now I’m in my 30s and they’re not laughing anymore. Instead, I’ve had sooooo many guys tell me: “If you don’t drink beer, you’re not a real man.” Even my own brother tells me that. And if you’re wondering: no, they’re not saying it as a joke or to tease me, they’re completely serious about it. Throughout my 20s, my guy friends have pressured me into drinking so many different brands of beer. They would always say: “I’ve found this new brand, you’re DEFINITELY going to love this one!” And when I hate it, they get all frustrated and tell me I’m weird.
One time I was watching this documentary-style show on TV where a bunch of people were shown going on dates (the show wasn’t trashy). Afterwards they were interviewed and asked if they’d like to have a second date with that person. One couple made me really sad: the guy said he’d love to go on a second date but the woman said “no way”. When the reporter asked her why, she said: “Before our dinner, I suggested to have some apéro (which usually means an alcoholic drink in Switzerland) but he said he’ll take a pass because he doesn’t like alcoholic drinks.” She said this in a tone as though she thought he was absolutely pathetic for not having an alcoholic drink with her. So the reporter asked: “So, you didn’t like that?” and she replied: “Let’s just put it this way: I’m not here to date kids, I’m here to date MEN.” Watching this made me really sad. The societal pressure to drink alcohol is so incredibly strong and anyone who doesn’t join in gets ridiculed and ostracized. Most people don’t even realize how immense the pressure is – they only realize it when they decide to go on some sort of detox tour for a month or two. It’s not just that people won’t understand you, the really frustrating part is that they go out of their way to insult you. As a guy it’s especially tough because somehow our culture seems to think drinking a lot of alcohol is something inherently masculine. And when I dare to hit back, people get sulky and accuse ME of being over-sensitive. Like that one time I was at an official event and asked if they also had juice (because I could only see wine and beer) and the lady replied: “oh sure, the kids’ table is over there hahaha.” I told her it wasn’t funny, to which she said: “It was a joke, don’t take everything so serious!” I felt like pouring her stupid wine right over her head.
From personal experience… Beer. Here in northern France due to the closeness to Belgium we have a shitload of beer variety for cheap. So it’s the official party/social gathering drink
Worst one was when I went for a drink with friends and colleagues for my birthday. Everybody order beers and I’m the only one asking for a coke. Everyone kinda laugh a bit bu the waiter kinda push different kind of beers and try to get me to order one. When I say no to everything, he ask me if I want crayons and paper to entertain myself while the adults have fun..
Somehow people still think it’s ok to pressure people into drinking alcohol…
Definitely foie gras. Every year at Christmas I get a “oh you don’t eat foie gras?” while it’s been like this my entire life.
Also anyone who doesn’t like cheese is very much likely to get weird looks.
I’m not crazy about Sunday Roast. I like it but not much beyond that, which seems to be sacrilege in the UK.
Fries. I can understand people who dislike chocolate (too sweety, too much taste, especially in cakes) but *FRIES ! ! !* How’s it possible.
In Norrbotten (Sweden) you’re expected to like eating “Palt”.
Definitely Serrano Ham in Spain. Even if you’re vegetarian people actually expects you to make an exception for the mighty jamón.
Jamón is the superior food though.
I would say maybe bacalhau for traditional food. Or maybe someone who dislikes pastel de nata ( never met anyone)
Salmon. I’ve heard many people say “I don’t like fish, but I love salmon”. And as someone with an opposite preference, I hear a lot of reasoning like “you just haven’t tasted [insert a salmon dish made by their mother/father/favourite restaurant]” and “you just have to eat it more often, it’s healthy”.
[Pálinka](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A1linka). You don’t dislike pálinka. You just “can’t drink it right now because you’re driving”.
Gothenburg.
Seafood. People get personally offended when I tell them that I don’t like fish that much.
I’m Danish, and I don’t like smørrebrød (open sandwiches) or leverpostej (liver pate) – two of our most commonly eaten national foods.
Meat
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^(“How can you? I wouldn’t know what to eat If I were vegetarian”)
^(“Not even Döner?”)
^(“But the goose on Christmas is okay, right?”)
In Germany, I am always considered weird for not being too keen on the bread. I don’t even dislike it as such, I would just prefer white bread over the heavy, chewey, dense German bread. But telling people that, you might as well tell them you enjoy shitting yourself in public.
When I left to live in Ireland, I got told I’d start missing German bread after a while. And for the first few years, whenever I came home for a visit, people would gleefully present me with German bread at every meal, only to be confused and offended when I declined or chose white bread instead. I’ve lived abroad for over 15 years now, and I swear there are people still thinking I’ll start missing it any day now.
In Ireland, it would be floury potatoes. I like potatoes generally, but I struggle eating plain boiled floury potatoes. But most people here seem to love them this way.
For coastal region, dsliking lamb or seafood is met with scorn
Not liking pierogi, especially ruskie (quark/potatoes/fried onions) is both rare and weird. Not liking pickles (of fermented kind) is probably another one.
I’m not even Italian or from Palermo and I’m in disbelief there are people who don’t like Arancine.
In my hometown it would be pretzel. The pretzel is our holy symbol at this point. You can find symbols of pretzels in our 11th century cathedral. You can find statues of people holding pretzels and on the main street we have pretzel booths every 500 meters. Growing up here it was a shock to me that pretzel booths were not a common thing anywhere else.
I have never met anyone personally who didn’t like pretzels, but I’m sure such ~~monsters~~ people exist. Tbf I get not like the abomination the Bavarians created in a vague image of a pretzel, or that weird knotted bread that Swabians claim is a pretzel. If you only know these, I don’t blame you. [This is a pretzel fit for kings.](https://www.rheinpfalz.de/cms_media/module_img/4027/2013722_2_articledetail_91-111924253_brezel2.jpg) And no I am not just saying this, our pretzel was literally delievered to Munich in an overnight train so that King Ludwig I. could have it for breakfast. The man had taste and knew where to find the superior pretzel.