Featured image by Erich Ferdinand

“To travel is to eat.” ~ Michelle Shappirio

If you travel, you probably have experienced some funny looking, tasting and/or smelling foods.  You’ve also probably been told that you eat some pretty funny foods depending on where you are, but laughter might not be the first reaction you get when your friends discover you eating these foods.

Coming from a well-traveled family, I grew up with a pretty diverse food palate. My traveling parents are natural risk takers, which means they never missed out on a chance for some delicious food, no matter how crazy and peculiar it seemed to be. And every time they leave one place to go to another, they take the cuisine with them. You can imagine the mix and mash-up of food this has created!

My sophomore year of college, I discovered my favorite way to eat potatoes is apparently extremely odd. When I moved out of the dorms my favorite meal to eat and easiest meal to prepare was baked potatoes with tuna.

Stay with me!

Dying Potatoes

Image by Alexas_Fotos

I never thought anything of this meal because it was something my mom would prepare for my family all the time growing up. Just as normal as the bowl of cheese or sour cream or bacon-bits ( . . . or coleslaw??? Which I was told was not normal either?), anytime we had baked potatoes, the bowl of tuna was always there too.

So there I was, just about every week making this meal in my condo and one of my roommate’s friends happened to be hanging around the kitchen while I was making my dinner. When she saw what I was making she said, “What are you eating?!” and as soon as she said it my actual roommate said, “Yeah she eats that all the time… it’s so weird” Both of them were obviously disgusted.

Potatoe Head

Image by Green Owl Mama

I cannot explain how surprised I was to discover that this was not a normal thing… I’ve always known that my family has lots of strange food they’ve picked up and switched up or combined from other cultures from traveling so much, but I had literally been eating something that whole time (my whole life!) and my roommates (or anyone for that matter!) never even told me how strange it was – my whole perspective on life and food really changed that day and you can’t even imagine how much food I’ve since been told I eat that apparently is not normal – for my American friends at least!

Here’s a list of a few of those funny foods:

  • Boiled spinach with peanut butter (A mother’s concoction for “that time of month”.)
  • Jam on toast with cheese (I believe this is a European thing.)
  • Greek yogurt in ramen noodles (Greek cuisine includes yogurt with everything!)
  • Mashed avocado on toast with peanuts (Don’t ask me where this came from…)
  • Cream cheese on toast with onions (Don’t plan on kissing anyone after eating this one!)

For me, I find this, yes, very entertaining, but also really cool because there is something to be said about having such a diverse food palate – it certainly reflects on who I am and where I come from. My family has traveled the world, always treasuring food and willing to try anything and everything. You could say, our taste for food stems from our taste for travel.

And to think, if that wasn’t true, I would be missing out on some good potatoes and tuna!

I’m sure there are many other foods out there that I have yet to discover as odd to my friends and that I have yet to add to my diet, but that’s one of the great things about traveling as well as simply living in different regions around the world; getting to experience different cultures and adding the diverse cuisine that they offer to your own plate.

I would love to hear your funny food stories, what you’ve been told are funny foods you eat or what funny foods you have tried during your travels. Feel free to comment!

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