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.
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
Who made you the expert on old people and their tummies?
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
It’s so common people don’t even see it. But it’s the same thing as Mexican food. The perception is it is spicy and will give you diarrhea.
I firmly believe this is because American people in general don’t understand what spices are. Spiced does not mean spicy hot. Spiced is flavourful and they just can’t have that. I have dined with Americans that truly believe black pepper is too spicy. We had a Starbucks chai which is absolutely terrible, and they’ve said “it’s too spicy”… What? Their brains equate flavour to spicy heat to bad.
It’s stupidly infuriating.
Spiced does not mean spicy hot.
Yea but like… it’s way hotter than most other American food by default.
No it isn’t… It has more spices. It does not have more capsaicin. Indian food by default is NOT spicy hot. It is spiced. You can get it spicy hot but that’s not default.
It’s like saying fried chicken is spicy because you can order it with a hot sauce coating. In reality just that style of preparation is spicy.
You can argue semantics until you go blue in the face. If you’re not used to spicy food or hot food, or food that produces a similar feeling in the mouth, you have to be careful with Indian food. Your tolerance level isn’t everyone else’s.
Spices are not heat. End of story. If you don’t understand this, you are obviously a pasty white American and the exact point being made.
What’s the point in being so pedantic? Calling it the correct thing isn’t going to make it palatable.
How come everyone gets sick if the go to India ?
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.
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.
