Local Food is Strange, When You're a Stranger

Scott Hardie | July 26, 2019
I've been watching videos lately featuring people from one place trying food from another place, particularly foreigners trying American food, like Irish people trying American sandwiches or Korean people trying American snacks. It got me thinking: What would I serve to foreigners as examples of food from my area (Florida), and what would they think of it?

Grouper: Sure. It's a pretty straightforward fish. You either like fish or you don't.

Orange juice: Common in North America and the UK, less so elsewhere. I'd guess too tart and acidic for people from most other places, but who knows?

Cuban sandwich: It's basically just a ham and cheese. It would probably be well met.

Gator: This would get a reaction. ("You eat alligators?") But it's pretty good. Served in nugget form, it's like chicken bites.

Pub sub: If served to people from Britain or Ireland, they might be expecting something different based on the name, but otherwise this would be considered a decent if unremarkable sandwich. It's not a food that tourists and other outsiders would ever think of as Floridian, but we locals eat a lot of them.

Gatorade: Invented here but consumed all over, obviously. I doubt that it would go over well -- it's fine for a workout drink, not so good at a taste test.

Key lime pie: I'm biased here, because I don't especially care for it, but it's strongly associated with the state. Mixed reaction? I have no idea.

Pastelitos: I hesitate to include this because it's native to Cuba and not to Florida (unlike the misnamed Cuban sandwich), but it's just so common to get these while in Miami that I can't leave them out. They'd probably go over well.

What foods best represent your area? And would people from other countries enjoy them?

Steve West | July 26, 2019
Crab Cakes - I don't know. It's fishy, sure, but with a uniqueness. And smothered in Old Bay seasoning doesn't lend to foreign tastes, I think.

Crabs - Similar, of course, but with the addition of the use of a hammer. Might appeal to Germans, Russians and Norsemen used to swinging blunt instruments.

Erik Bates | July 28, 2019
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