People all over the world have different food preferences and eating habits. Many of these are habit formed during childhood and due to acquired taste. I list a few below:

1.       Like all Chinese, I drink tea (mostly green tea) straight with nothing added. But most Westerners drink red tea with sugar and milk. They find straight green tea too bitter for their taste. By the same reasoning, Many Chinese including me prefer coffee with cream and sugar and find black coffee (i.e., coffee with nothing added) too bitter. But many Americans think the only way to enjoy coffee is straight with nothing added. It is simply a matter of acquired habit and taste.

2.       Most native Chinese do not drink tea with meals. In fact, the rationale is that tea and food do not mix well for health reasons. But a habit I acquire in Chinese restaurants in the US is to drink tea with your meal (in early days and still true to a large extent, Chinese restaurants in the US serve tea free of charge. Poor students trying to save money avoid ordering drinks and have the free tea with meals) . To this date, I drink tea with meals even at home.

3.       Many Chinese cannot stand the hundreds of varieties of cheese available in the US, particularly the smelly kind, such as blue cheese or limburger cheese. But they love 皮蛋and 腐乳 which the Westerners find abhorring. I have grown to like both. To me, they are similarly delicious. Of course, the fact many Asians are genetically lactose intolerant may have something to do with this.

4.       While on the subject of exotic food what about 中国四川麻辣, 上海臭豆腐? How many ordinary Americans can be persuaded to taste them.

5.       Many Chinese will not eat the French delicacy of Escargot because the thought of it is disgusting. But they think nothing of eating 田螺.

6.       Many Chinese even after years living in the US still order their steak “well done”. But Americans, including me , think the only way to enjoy good beef  is to cook it “medium rare (pink or red interior)” or “rare (bloody interior)”. This preference for well cooked meat may have a “health” reason in the olden days and the Chinese preference for pork over beef.

7.       Similarly, I suspect the avoidance and dislike of raw vegetables and salads by Asians are due to health reasons in the old days.

8.       Of course in terms of exotic food, Asians eat far more strange foods compared to Westerners. Shark fins 魚翅, bear paws 熊掌 , sea slugs 海参, bird nest 燕窝, and scorpions 蝎子 to name just a few well known ones.