{"id":1339,"date":"2023-10-24T03:59:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T19:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/2023\/10\/24\/please-slurp-your-soup-interesting-cultural-food-habits\/"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:08:25","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T08:08:25","slug":"interesting-cultural-food-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/interesting-cultural-food-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"Please Slurp Your Soup: Interesting Cultural Food Habits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Take a trip around the world and see how food norms differ from place to place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Take a trip around the world and see how food norms differ from place to place<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Image: Seattlepi.com<\/p>\n

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1. Morocco<\/strong><\/p>\n

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“Forget about using your napkin,” said no mother ever, right? Well not necessarily<\/a>… in some places in Morocco, food is eaten with your hands but you\u2019re not supposed to wipe them on a napkin. Instead a\u00a0basin of water\u00a0is passed around before and after a meal to wash your hands.<\/p>\n

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Image: Global Citizen<\/p>\n

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Morocco might not be using napkins but they\u2019re certainly wiping their hands clean of hunger.\u00a0The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization recognized Morocco as one of the countries achieving the MDG objectives in advance regarding the fight against hunger.\u00a0In fact, Morocco has been doing exceptionally well when it comes to taking on the MDGs, improving the number of children in school immensely.<\/p>\n

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2. Vietnam<\/strong><\/p>\n

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If you ever happen upon Vietnam during their new year celebration, Tet, you\u2019ll run into these big cakes of rice wrapped in bamboo leaves called Banh Chung. They are square-shaped to symbolize thankfulness.<\/p>\n

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Image: Moonshine Palace Hotel<\/p>\n

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Tet is one of the biggest celebrations in Vietnam, so you can imagine how much rice you\u2019d need to accommodate a whole nation of Banh Chung cakes.\u00a0In fact, 94 percent of farmable land in the country is occupied by rice paddies.<\/p>\n

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3. India<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you have a leftie in the family you\u2019ve probably heard them ramble about how they feel discriminated against by school desks, scissors, spiral notebooks, etc. Well you might want to warn them that they\u2019ll experience a whole new level of prejudice if they share a meal in India because using your\u00a0left hand\u00a0to eat is taboo. Your left hand is thought to be used strictly for bum-wiping, and since the Indian culture rarely uses utensils, the right hand is reserved for eating.<\/p>\n

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Image: Best Net Guru<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately many in India are having trouble keeping food in either hand.\u00a0A quarter of all undernourished people in the world live in India, which makes sense considering the fact that about 32 percent of its population live on less than $1.25 a day.<\/p>\n

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4. Japan<\/strong><\/p>\n

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What happens when you\u2019re faced with oodles of noodles in Japan? It\u2019s time to slurp. Noodles and soup are considered best when\u00a0enjoyed loudly. Also, it\u2019s a sign of appreciation to the chef to slurp through your meal. I wouldn\u2019t go as far as chewing with your mouth open, but no need to eat quietly when visiting this country.<\/p>\n

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Image: Food Panda<\/p>\n

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While it\u2019s nice to have a surplus of anything, Japan might have one oodle too many.\u00a0In 2010, approximately 18 million tons of food were discarded and five to eight million tons of that was considered edible.<\/p>\n

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5. Ghana and Ethiopia<\/strong><\/p>\n

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What\u2019s mine is yours is the motto in these two countries when it comes to dinner time. It is custom in both\u00a0Ghana\u00a0and\u00a0Ethiopia\u00a0to share food from a communal bowl and to eat the food that is closest to you.<\/p>\n

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Image: Word Press<\/p>\n

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Ghana has taken this communal concept seriously and is actually making huge strides in the MDG 1 goal of halving the proportion of people suffering from hunger.\u00a0However, improvements are still needed. For instance, food crop farmers are extremely vulnerable in Ghana because of marketing<\/a> and price instability of their farm produce.<\/p>\n

The adoption of the MDGs in 2000 has proven to show significant progress in reducing hunger and malnourishment in Ethiopia as well.\u00a0Food poverty is on its way down, however the hunger index was recorded at 28.7% in 2011.<\/p>\n

6. South Korea<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In South Korea, the\u00a0elders hold rank\u00a0at the table, so make sure to wait until they take a bite before you dive in!<\/p>\n

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Image: Final Straw<\/p>\n

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The agricultural sector makes up a quarter of this country\u2019s GDP and has comprises almost half of the entire labor force.<\/p>\n

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7. China<\/strong><\/p>\n

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To me, chopsticks already seemed hard enough to master but when in China there\u2019s a lot of rules to consider as well. It\u2019s generally impolite to point, move bowls, or drum with them…pretty reasonable right? Well there\u2019s also the minor problem of sticking them vertically in rice that you should probably avoid. It\u2019s considered adark omen\u00a0because it looks like incense sticks that are burned in memory of the deceased.<\/p>\n

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Image: Deep Japan<\/p>\n

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Unlike the their chopsticks, the Chinese are on the up and up when it comes to their progress on eradicating hunger. While they prioritize food security, there is still a gap between urban and rural areas when it comes to child nutrition.<\/p>\n

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8. Colombia<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Now I know you lefties took that last one as a huge blow but maybe Colombia can win some points back. Not only do they ask that your fork remains in your left hand, they also pass all dishes to the\u00a0left when sharing a meal at the table.<\/p>\n

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Image: Colombia Travel<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately conflict in Colombia has caused over five million people to be displaced from their homes as well as their dinner tables. Almost 95 percent of those victims are considered food insecure.<\/p>\n

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9. Philippines<\/strong><\/p>\n

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When Christmas bells are ringing in the Philippines, the\u00a0pig roasts\u00a0are close behind. This is a traditional meal families share to celebrate the holiday.<\/p>\n

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Image: Forbes<\/p>\n

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The Global Hunger Index came out in 2013 to assess the progress of reducing hunger worldwide. The Philippines have lowered their numbers significantly, however hunger is still considered a \u201cserious\u201d problem there with a rating of 13.2.<\/p>\n

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10. Thailand<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Are you the big or the little spoon? Either way, you\u2019ll fit in with this rule because Thailand is all about spooning…well at least when it comes to utensils. It\u2019s rude to eat with a fork in\u00a0Thailand. Instead, people use the fork to push the food onto a spoon and then eat it.<\/p>\n

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Image: Asia Green Travel<\/p>\n

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Cuddles might be free, but what about people who can\u2019t afford the other type of spooning?\u00a0Thailand actually made big strides in the 80\u2019s to reduce their number of malnourished from 50 percent to 25 by putting a large network of community volunteers into action to help change people\u2019s behaviors.However, 7 percent of children in Thailand still suffer from malnutrition.<\/p>\n

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11. Italy<\/strong><\/p>\n

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You know what they say, when in Rome\u2026skip the cheese? Seems a little off for a country known for their pizza and pasta. But if you want to steer clear of pissing off an Italian (which trust me, you do) you better not ask for\u00a0parmesan\u00a0to add to your meal. If it\u2019s not offered, it\u2019s just not meant to be.<\/p>\n

Image: Fed and Fit<\/p>\n

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Parmesan or not, the Italians started something big when they invented the pizza because nowadays there are about\u00a05 billion pizzas sold worldwide each year.<\/p>\n

Source: Global Citizen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Take a trip around the world and see how food norms differ from place to place. Take a trip around the world and see how food norms differ from place …","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[60,306,29,559],"class_list":["post-1339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eat","tag-china","tag-hiredchina","tag-jobs","tag-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11797,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions\/11797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}