History Main / ForeignQueasine

* The diner in ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'' features giant steamed pillbugs: you smack them with a straw to get them to uncurl, then suck up the innards. Kuzco runs off and barfs after seeing this process.

* In Stephen Manes' ''The Obnoxious Jerks'' three of the Obnoxious Jerks are on the French Club food committee for Griswold High's upcoming International Festival. The gourmet among them decides that they should stock their booth with traditional French delicacies such as calves' brains, sweetbread and tripe. The index cards identifying the dishes have the French name on the front and an English translation on the back. Very few attendees are adventurous enough to finish what they're eating once they learn what it is.

* In Norma Fox Mazer's ''Saturday, the Twelfth of October'' Zan ends up spending a year with cave dwellers due to accidental time travel. She expresses great dismay when offered live insects and mice for her consumption, although she does come to enjoy the taste of raw bird eggs.

* In ''Film/AChristmasStory'', the family goes out to a Chinese restaurant in Christmas Day and are a little shocked that the duck still has a head when it's served to them. When the father expresses his concern, the waiter simply hacks the head off and sticks it in his pocket, causing the family to gasp.
** It's then subverted when the narrator reveals that, once they got over their initial shock, the family completely enjoyed the meal.

* ''VideoGame/VermintideII'': Bardin frequently mentions his fondness for troll meat, apparently a traditional cuisine in dwarf culture. His non-dwarf companions say that the smell is too revolting to unleash in the PlayerHeadquarters, never mind the taste.

* In an early ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode Castle and Beckett are served lunch by a Nigerian restaurateur while consulting her on a case. The chef asks Beckett what she thinks of the cow's foot stew she's eating.

--> '''Ziva:''' There are delicious.\\

** Iceland complains about Sweden and Norway's surströmming (fermented herring; "Wait, isn't 'fermented' pretty much the same as 'rotten'?") Denmark thinks he's found a kindred spirit until Iceland continues; "Rotten fish is for pussies! I only eat rotten, poisonous ''shark'' that has been buried for twelve weeks!" The writer put a NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer in the notes; hákarl is a genuine Icelandic dish made from shark which has been buried for some time.

** In ''Asterix the Legionary'', the Roman Army's menu turns out to be wheat, bacon, and cheese cooked together to save time. Everyone (a Greek, a Goth, a Belgian, both Gauls, and an Egyptian) is disgusted... except, of course, the Briton.

* ''WebOriginal/LoomingGaia'': Many cultures around Looming Gaia eat food that many other people would find repulsive. For example:

-->'''Lennox-Brown''' (''Who has just heard the whole thing from a very angry Sir Gregory''): "A consignment of tinned solder ants in syrup.

[[caption-width-right:349:If Denmark wasn't green around the gills before...]]

For the non-culinary equivalent, see AmericansHateTingle. See also HaggisIsHorrible and AsiansEatPets, two {{SubTrope}}s. For when it's just one particular chef's palate that's way out of the norm, see CordonBleughChef. Compare HauteCuisineIsWeird.

* Subverted in an ''Literature/AbleTeam'' novel. Carl Lyons is in Guatemala and is eating a tortilla stuffed with meat when the man with him says with a grin: "I didn't think you'd like pig guts." Carl just looks at his meal and says, "I didn't think I'd like it either" and then goes on eating.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': Cooking in this game is GameGourmet meets Foreign Queasine. Anything you make can be liked by a dwarf if they prefer one of the ingredients, of which there are a ''very'' wide variety.

* In Stephen Manes' ''The Obnoxious Jerks'' three of the Obnoxious Jerks are on the French Club food committee for the school's upcoming International Festival. The gourmet among them decides that they should stock their booth with traditional French delicacies such as calves' brains, sweetbread and tripe. The index cards identifying the dishes have the French name on the front and an English translation on the back. Very few attendees are adventurous enough to finish what they're eating once they learn what it is.

* In ''LightNovel/CrestOfTheStars'' (the sequel series ''Banner of the Stars''), Samson's home planet Midgrat considers cat a delicacy. His Abh colleagues, among whom cats are the preferred household pet, are generally not amused when he brings this up. He promises not to make any of those dishes when he makes a Midgrat style meal in ''Banner of the Stars II''. Midgrat's decision to join the Abh Empire instead of [[TheFederation Four Nation Alliance]] stemmed exactly from their culinary practices. When envoys from the major powers came to Midgrat they were each honored with a banquet featuring a cat centerdish. While the other powers expressed shock and disgust, the Abh partook with no comment. They still found it disgusting but figured it wasn't their place to tell other cultures what they could or could not eat.

* In the ''LightNovel/InfiniteStratos'' OVA all the girls resolve to make a dish for dinner, including Cecilia the British representative, to the horror of the other girls. Their fears are realized when she cooks by color ("more red!"), spouts metaphors about coming back from defeat, and tries to jazz it up with a laser cannon. There are other instances during the series proper where British culinary skill is ridiculed.

* In ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/225295/a-taste-of-meat A Taste of Meat]]'', Sunset Shimmer gets dared to try meat, eats it, likes it... And then finds out it was horse meat. HilarityEnsues.

** Indy, Willie and Short Round dine with their Indian hosts and are grossed out to find that ''every item on the menu'' is like this. Live eels, served inside a dead python. Eyeball soup. Steamed beetles. And for dessert, chilled monkey brains, served ''en suite'' in chilled monkey ''heads.'' HilarityEnsues. The idea was that they were trying to get Indy and co. to leave by deliberately serving inedible food (for one thing, live eels are ''toxic'', so no sensible host on Earth would serve them), but it was poorly communicated and the movie was banned in India for spreading racist stereotypes.

* ''Series/ImACelebrityGetMeOutOfHere'' uses this trope for certain Bushtucker Trails. Hilarity Ensues.

** In Season 4, a Mystery Box was composed of ingredients from around the world... all labeled in the languages of the places they were from, which none of the contestants could read. Several contestants stuck to the familiar-looking foods (leafy greens, yam, flank steak), some still managed to find things they recognized (Bime), still others experimented with the unfamiliar items to varying degrees of success (Jordan), and [[HilarityEnsues some were, understandably, hopelessly lost]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' episode "Win, Lose and Kaboom!", the needleheads are repulsed when they are forced to taste banana cream pie. [[YourHeadAsplode Turns out it's not digestible for their species.]]