Aliens Love Human Food

Oreos and milk, the universal treat.

Humanity is often depicted as being quite far behind and unevolved compared to the civilizations of other worlds. We've barely touched upon space travel, crippled by many debilitating diseases, and still succumb to waging war among ourselves. What could us Puny Earthlings possibly offer to more advanced, superior lifeforms?

Well if there's one thing that humanity has consistently used to impress other species, is our amazing ability to cook. Advanced aliens will obsess over simple Earth foods and in some cases might trade their sophisticated technology for these delicacies. Despite otherwise being an Insignificant Little Blue Planet, the Earth is of value thanks to its tremendous culinary feats.

Despite the title, the species in question doesn't necessarily have to be extraterrestrial and can even be natives to Earth. In some cases, this can be justified as a result of Alien Catnip, where some chemical in human food is literally addictive to a non-human. In extreme cases, the aliens are not only fond of human food but lose control of themselves, displaying behavior akin to addiction.

Subtrope of Humans Are Special. See also No Biochemical Barriers, which naturally has to be in effect for this trope to be even possible. See Klingons Love Shakespeare for when this applies outside culinary feats, or contrast Alien Arts Are Appreciated. When the "human" in "human food" is literal, see To Serve Man.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Pizza Hut once ran a 2017 campaign that had a green alien homesick and stranded on Earth gloating about their pizza.
• Woolworths ran a series of ads featuring a green alien in a spherical spaceship interacting with the store's products. The first ad was the only one where he sings, and in this one he gathers a whole host of ice creams from the freezer- but only for scientific research back on Mars.

Anime & Manga

• 3×3 Eyes: Pai/Parvati, despite being an extradimensional demon, adores human foods and treats, such as potato chips, sweets, cakes, Chinese food, pizza, sushi and even more. Much later in the manga, Token Mini-Moe demoness Wu Gui laments the lack of available human food after the destruction of Tokyo.
• Chainsaw Man: Famine, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, is first introduced ordering thirty desserts at a cafe. As it turns out, she is attempting to stop her sister Death from ending the world because this would... result in a world without pizza. She says, with complete sincerity, that this is "the worst possible outcome."
• In Death Note, Light discovers that Ryuk deeply loves apples. It's unclear if all Shinigami are like this, or just Ryuk. Nonetheless in Ryuk's case it borderlines on being addiction and when deprived he experiences withdrawal symptoms.
• In Dragon Ball Super it's a Running Gag for Beerus and Whis to be amazed by Earth's food. This is really saying something considering that Beerus is a gourmand who has spent lifetimes traveling from planet to planet demanding the best food from the inhabitants, so for him to class Earth as his favorite really is putting it as the cream of the crop. The two of them are willing to make trip after trip to sample something tasty. Beerus can also easily be bribed into not destroying the Earth if given something new to try. In fact, during Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods the fate of the Earth was at stake simply because Beerus missed out on the chance to try a pudding cup.
• In Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, while most dragons are Big Eaters who enjoy any food both dragon or human-made, Elma holds it in particular high regard and can be easily bribed with it. It's also stated in an early chapter that produce found on Earth is superior to that found in the other world (discounting those of the supernatural variety) due to selective breeding.
• In Plus-Sized Elf, the entire plot revolves around the fact that several Cute Monster Girls have become obsessed with human junk food, and their subsequent struggles with their weight.
• Ushio and Tora: As a Youkai, Tora is normally used to devouring humans as many Youkai do, either whole or specific bodyparts such as intestines, brains or souls, but after the Gamin-Sama arc he developed a taste for Hamburgers of all types.

Comic Books

• In one of the stories from Disney Ducks Comic Universe Gus Goose is invited by one of the aliens to help him choose the best food on Earth for his friend. Said aliens are revealed to be Planet Eater beings, in which one's subordinate tried to tell this to Gus. Eventually, they launch a chocolate cake from Grandma Duck into space and use maxisizer to expand it, thus both of the hungry aliens come to Earth to try other food from Grandma Duck, deciding that from now on, they will come to Earth every time when they will have a meeting.
• There was once a story in which Galactus got hooked on Twinkies and gave up eating planets in favor of them. He even made Aunt May his Herald to find more. Fortunately, it just turned out to be Peter having an Acid Reflux Nightmare.
• Martian Manhunter develops an addiction to Chocos^note DC's Bland-Name Product for Oreos some time after he visits Earth. At one point it got so bad that after being deprived of them he goes into withdrawal and throws a tantrum as a rampaging monster. Unlike most examples, this one is actually justified as Batman discovers Chocos produce a chemical reaction in Martians similar to addictive narcotics.
• Venom and other symbiotes have a huge craving for chocolate. This one is justified as symbiotes require phenethylamine to survive which can be found in either chocolate or brains.
• Downplayed in Space Battle Lunchtime by Natalie Riess. Peony, the human, comes second place in the interplanetary cooking competition (and it's implied she may have won had the winner not cheated), but the other alien contestants are shown to be competent and skilled chefs.
• One issue of Spider-Man had Firelord, an ex-herald of Galactus, come to Earth just because he had a craving for some New York pizza.
• Loki once opined that he loved Earth food for it's variety ("So many types of breakfast meat!") whereas Asgardian food tends to be "roast haunch of whatever animal was killed that day." He does have limits, though: an earlier story where he teamed up with Spider-Man had Loki balk at being offered a hot dog.
• A short story in Marvel Comics Presents had an alien smuggler who made big money selling ice cream, which he claims only Earth makes.
• The crux of Thirsty Mermaids is that a trio of mermaids discover alcohol and venture onto land to find more of it.

Film — Live-Action

• In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the titular E.T. seems to enjoy the Reese's Pieces that Elliot lays out for him.
• K-PAX: One side quip by proclaimed extraterrestrial prot has him proclaim admiration for Earth's vegetables. "Your produce alone is worth the trip."
• Little Nicky: Nicky and the other devils have no need to eat, but they do so when on Earth in mortal bodies. Nicky takes a liking to Popeye's chicken, while his brother Adrian enjoys peppermint Schnapps.
• The aliens in Mac and Me love Coca-Cola and Skittles.
• Thor from the Marvel Cinematic Universe develops quite a fondness for the Midgardian beverages. When he first arrives on Earth, he declares he likes coffee, while in his later years he's shown to have developed a fondness for beer. He also likes Pop Tarts.
• Martin from My Favorite Martian adores ice cream and eats copious amounts of it whenever he is able to.
• Men in Black:
  • The Worm Guys are always seen drinking coffee. In Men in Black: The Series, it's explained that coffee is considered a sacred beverage on their homeworld, only consumed by royalty.
  • Rosenberg, an Arquillian posing as a human, meets his contact at a Polish diner, where they were about to enjoy pierogi when Edgar arrives and murders them.

Literature

• In Animorphs, if there's one thing that can make an Andalite go out of control, it's letting them try out human food while they have taken human form. Human-morphed Andalites will lose all self-control over the simplest of treats like sweets, chocolate, and cinnamon buns. This is justified as in their native forms, Andalites do not have a sense of taste in the traditional manner^note as they eat grass through their hooves so upon taking human form they experience Sensory Overload and are overwhelmed by their new form's instincts. Ax at one point daydreams of a future after the war when there will be pilgrimages of Andalites coming to Earth just to morph human and stuff their faces with "Earth delicacies". Once the Andalites and Earth establish diplomatic relations, this actually ends up happening, with Andalite tourists rushing to try tasting food for the first time. Eventually, it gets to the point where there's actually semi-serious talk of the Andalites being willing to consider sharing the morphing technology - their most closely-guarded scientific achievement - in exchange for a Krispy Kreme franchise on their planet.
• In Battlefield Earth, it's not just human chefs but specifically Chinese chefs whose cooking gets rave reviews from various alien species.
• The Catians in Cat Planet Cuties take the many delicious foods that Earthlings make as a significant factor for establishing diplomatic relations. The Catians cite this as justification for establishing First Contact with Earth in the first place, with many a scene showcasing copious amounts of Food Porn.
• Confederation of Valor: The H'san, one of the oldest races in the Confederation, reputedly really like cheese, which is an invention unique to humans.
• In Cooking With Wild Game, Tsurumi Asuta, the proud heir to a family diner, is transported to another world while trying to retrieve his father's prized knife when the diner was set ablaze. He soon finds that the people living in Forest Edge have it ingrained in their culture that cooking is "unnecessary work", which makes Tsurumi's cooking Impossibly Delicious Food to them.
• When the titular Goblin Slayer has his first camping night with his newfound party, the group trade their respective races' native foods. Goblin Slayer offers cheese, and Lizard Priest absolutely loves it, calling it "nectar" and often asking for more in later episodes. He even swears to visit even more wrath upon the Goblins (whom he was already more than willing to hunt down) later on when Cow Girl's farm (which is also Goblin Slayer's home) is threatened by a huge Goblin raid and Goblin Slayer tells him that that's where he gets the cheese that he's been giving him.
• In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent eventually settles down on an alien planet for a few years, where he introduces the sandwich and becomes renowned as a sandwich maker.
• In Hostess, Dr. Tholan remarks that his planet has nothing like Earth tomatoes.
• In In Another World with My Smartphone, Touya appears to find the common dishes of his new world nothing less than delicious, most notably dragon meat, the natives all love the dishes Touya introduces from the internet with his wives eating on earth for their honeymoon, gods also enjoys food from the mortal realm and so does Ende a dimension drifter and the Phrase girls
• In the first Johnny Maxwell Trilogy book, Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny, as the ScreeWee's captor, is informed he's obligated to feed them. They request a bunch of human fast food (burgers, fries and shakes mostly) and breakfast cereal. When Johnny asks if that's what they usually eat, the Scree Wee captain admits that they usually eat a native reed that meets their nutritional needs. And that it "tastes like poo."
• In Keys to the Kingdom, despite the House being the epicenter of the universe, the Denizens are infatuated with simple Earth food such as tea. This is justified in that people do not actually need to eat in the House and only do so for entertainment, making the consumption of food all the more rarer.
• Restaurant to Another World revolves around a restaurant in a High Fantasy world that is managed by human chef Tenshu. Although it opens every day in a human town, every Saturday a Portal Door appears in a random place where different fantasy races (from elves and dwarfs to dragons and demons) can come to the restaurant to eat human food, which they find delicious.
• In Daniel Pinkwater's Slaves of Spiegel, the Spiegelians, a race of fat, food-loving space pirates, hold a cooking contest to determine who is the best chef in the galaxy. Out of thousands of planets, they choose the earthling Steve Nicholson as one of three contestants, eliminating many other civilizations in the preliminary selection process. Steve ends up coming in second place, while the winner gets the honor of becoming the Spiegelians' in-home chef for all eternity.
  • In Pinkwater's Fat Men from Space, the titular Fat Men are aliens who invade the Earth to steal all of its unhealthy foods. Latkes are a particular favorite.
• In Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series, in which reptoid aliens called the Race invade Earth during World War II, this winds up being a critical weakness of the Race: namely, the fact that ginger, a common human spice, has a powerful narcotic effect on the Race that reduces their fighting effectiveness and is later discovered to disrupt the Race's mating cycles once the colony ships arrive. Humanity soon learns to weaponize ginger once the Race bans it in the territories they control, through means ranging from ginger smuggling to missile warheads filled with powdered ginger.
• Young Wizards: It turns out that most UFO sightings happen because Earth is the only planet to have developed chocolate. It's beloved on an intergalactic scale, to the point that a candy bar can be used to bribe/interrogate a band of hardened mercenaries.

Live-Action TV

• Babylon 5: Vir the Centauri can't stop eating the offering from a human restaurant on the station, despite his biological incompatibility:
  "It tastes so good going down. Coming back up, it's not so good.."
• Doctor Who:
  • While humans are by no means the only race with exceptional culinary feats, there are certain foods that are distinguished enough to be exclusively human-made. The Doctor himself is quite obsessed with Earth food, with various regenerations having a different Trademark Favorite Food.
  • "The Empty Child":
    The Doctor: Know how long you can travel without bumping into Earth?
    Rose: Four days? Or is that just when we're out of milk?
    The Doctor: Of all the species in the universe, it has to come out of a cow.
  • According to the Doctor, humans are the only species to invent "edible ball bearings".
• Farscape: Inverted and played for laughs. Moya's crew is getting together to share a meal, everyone having made something from their home. Chrichton makes his grandma's biscuits, and. . . well, they aren't very good. When he's asked what's in them, he gives the list of ingredients, only to be told none of those things exist on the ship. To which Chrichton nonchalantly replies that's probably the reason his biscuits suck. In a later episode where the crew stops by Earth this gets played straight; human junk food with high amounts of salt sugar and fat is especially appreciated. Rygel in particular remarks that on other worlds sugar is used as a poison, and when he first encountered it in food he got such a sugar high that he assumed it must be an illegal drug.
• In Guest from the Future, Big Eater Jolly U is absolutely delighted with Earth food in the 20th century, his obsesssion with kefir (a fermented milk drink) especially rising to a memetic level. Rat, the skinnier one of the two, berates him for never stopping eating.
• In Stargate SG-1, the Goa'uld Nerus finds Earth food delicious, something General Landry makes sure to use to his advantage when getting information out of him.
  • On the other hand, Teal'c finds milk extremely disgusting. When Samantha suggests he drink some warm milk when he has trouble entering Kelno'reem, he responds thusly:
    Teal'c: I would prefer not to consume bovine lactose at any temperature.
• Star Trek:
  • In Deep Space Nine, root beer winds up becoming one of the more popular beverages among the alien clientele at Quark's. It's occasionally used as a metaphor for how human culture is slowly dominating the cultures of aliens that ally with the Federation. Played with in that it's explicitly an acquired taste; on first taste they think it's utterly disgusting.
  • On The Next Generation, Worf's favorite drink is prune juice, a far cry from the bloodwine preferred by other Klingons. On the other hand, one of the Expanded Universe novels mentions that prune juice became a major export to the Klingon Empire after the Dominion War.
  • On Enterprise, Phlox is always eager to sample human food like blueberry pancakes, egg-drop soup, etc.
• In Supernatural:
  • Death has a particularly strong craving for human food, especially junk food. This is quite remarkable considering how Death is so dismissive of Earth as an Insignificant Little Blue Planet, yet is so overly fond of something the tiny mortals whipped up in the kitchen. Dean typically prepares an offering of Food as Bribe to appease him if they are ever forced to summon him. He also gives his reasons for sparing Chicago due to liking their pizza.
  • Castiel, who is an angel, reveals himself to have a bit of a burger addiction. This causes much confusion from Dean and Sam who wonder how an angel can be so obsessed with burgers, to which Castiel tries to Hand Wave it as his vessel, Jimmy, having a craving for ground meat. Taken to the extreme when Castiel is under Famine's influence, where he had already consumed burgers that numbered "somewhere in the low hundreds" and still had room for more.
• Wizards of Waverly Place: After Alex wishes that the family substation would turn into her dad's favorite old milkshake bar known as "The Asteroid Belt", a group of aliens decide to visit the restaurant because they believe that the "Milky Way Milkshake" is the best milkshake in the universe, and they are willing to attack over the machine.

Video Games

• Burger Shop: As revealed in the Spaceship, the game's final set of levels in story mode, the plot was kickstarted by an alien species searching for the perfect kind of food, with the BurgerTron robot being one of their attempts to make it. At the beginning of the actual game, the Featureless Protagonist finds blueprints and a manual to make a BurgerTron, and decides to start a restaurant chain from there on. By the time of the Spaceship's events, the aliens took notice of the chain, wherein the protagonist finally makes the perfect food for them: triple bacon cheeseburgers with ranch dressing.
• Rhythm Heaven Megamix: In the Rhythm Game First Contact, the Martian reveals that when Earthlings visited Mars, they left behind pork rice bowls. The culinary delight apparently changed Mars forever. The game’s Rhythm Item further adds that a pork-rice-bowl restaurant will soon be opened on Mars.
• In XCOM: Chimera Squad, your Sectoid squad member Verge has an obsession with human cuisine that is to some extent a matter of Forbidden Fruit. Sectoids are fatally allergic to many terrestrial foods, so that radio ads for various eateries include disclaimers informing whether or not the product is safe for Sectoids to consume. As such, Verge is willing to pay for squadmate Cherub's lunch if he'll consent to Verge using his Psychic Powers to vicariously enjoy a coveted Philly Cheesesteak sandwich.
• The Ma-non in Xenoblade Chronicles X turn out to really like pizza - to the extent of eating it while it's still frozen.
• WarioWare Gold: This is the basic set up for Orbulon's stage, where he visits a local burger joint for a meal. While his orders include some odd choices like frozen fries and chili pepper milkshakes, he does enjoy regular hamburgers a lot (though he think they're made out of actual ham, as seen when he goes to abduct pigs so the joint can make more when they run out).

Webcomics

• In Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire, it's revealed humanity's place in the galaxy is almost entirely based on this. Many people loved frozen, flavored water. Putting it on sticks? That was a new invention.
• Grrl Power:
  • An Imagine Spot during Cora's press conference about aliens has some reptile-looking person being caught smuggling Gouda cheese.
  • Frix likes barbecue, or at least pork ribs with barbecue sauce, as a previous flashback showed aliens grilling food.
• Sam & Fuzzy: The Robots, while not strictly speaking alien since they were made on Earth, still fits this trope as an insular, alien species with it's own civilization, being a race of self-aware machines. Despite being generally condescending towards humans, and other humanoid species, many of them are fascinated with human culture, especially food, and some of them have even begun selling illegal technology just so they can indulge in it. The Robots lack any real creative food on their own (a robot chef had to study for ten years just to realize she could shape her flavorless food paste into geometric shapes), because as mechanical beings, they suffer somewhat from Creative Sterility, not helped by their lack of biological drives and their society having to build everything from scratch. They can taste perfectly well, but there's no reason for them to want to.
• In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! everything in the universe likes Bob's recipe for homemade cheesecake.
• Subverted in Goblins where the Goblins find the idea of processed human foods like cheese ("intentionally spoiled milk") and bread ("burned, ground-up plants") too disturbing to even sample.
• Vexxarr: The Mahakalosians, who were already big fans of Earth music, turn out to like human food as well when they arrive in Earth orbit and offer to build them a fleet in exchange for records and cookies. So much so, that one of their starships is meant as an affordable means of lifting Oreos by the ton into orbit.

Western Animation

• In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, this version of Martian Manhunter is shown to have a cookie addiction and is often seen eating from a box he carries. He is also very proud of the human-style pie that he himself cooked and holds it in high regard.
• Ben 10:
  • Played with and inverted, in regards to Max Tennyson who has a Bizarre Taste in Food by human standards, but is an exceptional chef by alien standards. Turns out Max is a human who has applied Earth cooking skills to perfect alien cuisines, with Rook specifically praising Max's knowledge and skill.
  • Albedo, Ben's Evil Twin, who was once a Galvan, finds himself craving chili fries upon taking on the form of a teenage human boy. However unlike his genetic template, Albedo's obsession with chili fries verges on addiction. Word of God revealed that it had nothing to do with the human DNA; Albedo just loves chili fries that much and merely discovered it after becoming human, while using being stuck in Ben's body as an excuse.
  • "Fool's Gold" revealed a town famous for making popcorn which was so renowned that every year a species of alien would send their boys to go there on Spring Break and in turn the aliens would leave behind Solid Gold Poop for the town.
  • Inverted by the Gourmands, a species of Extreme Omnivores who can eat literally anything except human food.
  • Averted with Ultimos of the Galactic Enforcers, who politely samples a chocolate bar Ben offers him...and ends up temporarily poisoned in the next scene.
  • Played for Laughs in one episode of Ben 10: Omniverse where Rook discovers he likes Meatball Subs. The episode ends with Ben going for Chili Fries and Rook ordering a Meatball Sub (which that restaurant didn't serve). He was taken aback because for some reason he thought ALL restaurants on Earth sell the same food. Ben promises to buy him a meatball sub after he finishes his Chili Fries.
• The titular characters of Biker Mice from Mars loved hot dogs and root beer. They ate pretty much nothing but hot dogs and root beer, in fact. Charlie once pointed out how gross it was for them to want hot dogs and root beer at eight o'clock in the morning.
• DuckTales (2017): Scrooge and his family find a civilization of Ancient Egyptians living inside a pyramid, who develop an appetite for burritos and overthrow their Nepharious Pharaoh so that they can get more of it.
• Futurama:
  • Dr. Zoidberg and his species became infatuated with Earth food upon arriving on the planet, especially to anchovies, which eventually led to the extinction of said species from overeating. Zoidberg himself appears to have an addiction to the fish and upon finally getting to eat a few, he displays the telltale behavior of a drug addict having a relapse.
  • Inverted in regards to Elzar, who is an alien, specifically a Neptunian, who is deemed the Earth's greatest Supreme Chef. He is an expert cook in all forms of cuisines, human or alien.
  • Earth is generally treated as a backwater joke of a planet by most alien races, but humans are held in high regard even by the ridiculously advanced and powerful Nibblonians for inventing the pizza bagel, which is universally considered delicious.
• Played with and averted in Green Lantern: The Animated Series. Kilowog at first seems curious about what cheese is when seeing Hal's cheese sandwich. But once Aya explains it's a byproduct of cows, Kilowog becomes disgusted and tells Hal to eat it in a closet away from him.
• Invader Zim: Zim is disgusted (or in some cases, outright allergic to/hurt) by Earth food... with the exception of waffles. In fact, one episode is built around him just having breakfast. Word of God says that he could eat the waffles because they were made of Irken ingredients, though.
• Johnny Test: After being stranded on Earth, Dark Vegan develops an obsession with toast. When he finally manages to return home, he chooses to go back to Earth, despite his luck there, because they don't have toast on Vegandon.
• Marcianos vs. Mexicanos: The Marcianos really love Mexican food. The humans who are shown cooking or preparing such food, including El Chacas' mom also turn out to be Lethal Chefs to the Marcianos.
• Megas XLR: Zigzagged with Kiva; a Human who lived on a Lunar Colony in the Bad Future quickly comes to appreciate modern day junk food like slushies, burgers, and chips thanks to coming from the future where all she had to eat at the time was bland food cubes.
• The Powerpuff Girls (2016): An alien brings his warfleet to Earth and tells the girls he will destroy the planet unless they make him the best culinary dish their planet has to offer. The girls fail to find the ingredients specified for the recipe they are using, so improvise with ingredients found in their cupboard. Convinced they have failed in their task, the alien leader is very pleased with the dish they provided, as he's never tasted anything like it.
• Ready Jet Go!: To say that Jet loves human food is an understatement. He's obsessed with it, especially when it comes to donuts and pies.

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