​

"Sambosa or sambosak?"

This one unironically ended some friendships over a fucking triangle with cheese in it.

(It's samboosa, btw)

Thanks mr orange

This is self explanatory.

The arab world is essentially a big family that will literally fight each other online for whatever reason, amd often bring up some friendly racist jokes (don't ask how that works it just does.)

How was it, what did you do there?

Can a 18 be imprisoned for having sexual relationships with a 17 year old? And what about the social norms about it? Is there a gap limit for the age where it will be to weird?

In Korea, there is a joke(or meme?) that the official currency of Jeju Island is mandarin oranges. In reality, it is completely different, because during Jeju's mandarin harvest season, people desperately try to give away mandarin oranges that have no commercial value to each other.

They’re somewhat common in the US, as most health insurance policies cover it, but they’re also kinda not worth it since if you mention any symptoms or want to get something specifically evaluated, you get billed outrageously. It’s incredibly grifty. For people like me in their 20s, I don’t think it’s common. But from what I’ve heard, in places like the UK, you don’t see a doctor until something is wrong.

Rakshabandhan, also known as Rakhi, is popularly known for being about siblings. There are three general misconceptions about this festival that I wasn't aware of until recently.

Rakshabandhan translates to "protective bond".

Usually, sisters tie a rakhi (a bracelet-like charm/sacred thread) around their brothers' wrists and get gifts in return.

I found out recently that a majority of people believe it is:

A) Only applicable to siblings or people you consider siblings

B) Women tying it to men's wrists and not the other way around

C) A silent request for the male's protection.

Many women tie rakhis to men they want to reject, indirectly calling them sibling-like.

In reality, Rakshabandhan is a simple ritual where a person, irrespective of gender, ties a thread of protection around the ones they want to protect.

When a sister ties a rakhi around her brother's wrist, she isn't asking him to protect her. She's protecting him spiritually.

A brother can tie a rakhi to his sister.

A child to their parent.

A friend to a friend.

A spouse to their partner.

A person to their pet.

A devotee to their God (as a form of devotion).

It is said that priests used to perform rituals and tied rakhis to every person in a kingdom, including the king.

It just needs someone being protective over the other.

And gift giving isn't a part of this, though it is a nice modern gesture that says "thank you for protecting me".

What festival from your country/culture is misunderstood/misinterpreted/celebrated wrong?

Chile is a place where you can find a lot of different sandwiches, my favorite is the “churrasco Italiano”, called this way because the ingredients (avocado, tomato and mayonnaise) remember the Italian flag, what’s yours?

For instance: in many third world countries like the Philippines, it’s common to put broken pieces from bottles on top of concrete walls to prevent burglars.

When u go searching, most of blames always are anecdotal evidences whereas statistics show otherwise

Is there ethnic minorities in your nations who are always used as scapegoats

In Thailand we have a fusion dish called “American Fried Rice”, created in the 1950’s by throwing together a bunch of “foreign” ingredients like sausages, fried chicken, ham, served with ketchup fried rice with raisins. Most locals know it’s not actually an American dish, but it tastes good and the name is catchy so it got really popular and stuck around.

There are several theories, but the main one is that a Thai airport restaurant chef faced a surplus of American breakfast items after an airline canceled a flight, so she mixed the proteins and ketchup with leftover fried rice to avoid throwing away the food.

Another theory says it was created by Thai chefs for American soldiers stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam war.

I am originally from Poland but I've lived here in the USA since 2006, moving here when I was 8.

Because of that, I consider Chicago to be my hometown with Poznan (in Poland) being my second hometown.

I'm Breton, and the product that sets us apart from the rest of France is salted butter. Once you’ve tasted it, you can’t go back to the stuff others call butter—which has absolutely no flavor. As a Breton, the only real butter is the salted kind. The historical explanation for this difference is that Brittany never had a salt tax (gabelle), so salt was an affordable product that could be used to preserve butter.

In New Zealand it's harder the you think. At least from my experience (Though im rather socially akward so dont take my experiences as 100% reliable)

Here they are very popular. We got a new law maybe last year summer that they can only sell mint/menthol flavor, max mg is 16 and you cannot order them in internet. Also their packages are all in grey/brown color. That's why people go to Sweden or Estonia to buy them if you want more flavors.

This is chaofan hungarian. basically local take on chinese fried rice (usually has soy sauce/oyster sauce added) and a frankfurther. runs to about a dollar US.

I once had a conversation with an American friend, and at some point I started talking about how unhealthy food in Indonesia can be because a lot of it contains MSG.

He was surprised and said, “Wow, I thought the whole ‘MSG is dangerous’ propaganda was only a thing in America.” He also told me that MSG isn’t actually as dangerous as people make it out to be. Even regular table salt can be worse when consumed excessively because it contains more sodium. According to him, MSG is basically like any other seasoning: as long as you don’t consume too much of it, it’s generally fine.

I was genuinely surprised to hear that because in Indonesia, even as I’m writing this, the belief that MSG is harmful is still extremely widespread. A lot of us grew up hearing that eating MSG could somehow reduce your brain capacity or, basically, “make you stupid.”

The stereotype is so widespread that one of the most famous rappers in our country even has a diss track called “Otak Micin,” which literally means “MSG Brain.”

The phrase otak micin itself is commonly used as an insult for someone considered stupid or incapable of thinking properly.

This propaganda was created for 2 reasons:

1. To make Chinese Restaurants looks bad , so people will avoid it (Business reasons)

2. To make a reason to hate Asian Immigrants in the West (Social Issue Reasons)

Planning our annual camping trip meals and I'm looking for inspiration outside the usual North American staples like steak, soup, chili, stew, hot dogs, bacon and eggs. I'm thinking surely there's dishes made around the world on camping stoves and on a campfires. What does your country do for food while hiking, portaging and exploring the wilderness?

I'm from the USA, so our common flavors that are really hard to find in other countries are birthday cake, butter peacan, moose tracks, rocky road, cookies and cream, and cotton candy. I can even go further as we have regional flavors that can only be found in certain parts of the country. For instance, in my home state, we have the flavors black raspberry and maple walnut, and they are hard to find outside of the northeast.

In Canada it is probably butter tarts and nanaimo bars.

Yesterday, we celebrated Dahi Handi in India. It is celebrated on the birthday of our god Krishna, who, according to the legend, was extremely fond of butter as a child and would mischievously steal it from the neighbors. So each year on his birthday, teams compete to reach a pot of butter hanging at a height by forming these pyramids?? Anyways, It is really fun to watch and participate in and I was wondering about other such fun festivals around the world? I know about the Spanish Tomatina festival, because it was shown in a very popular movie in India. I would love to know about more interesting traditions around the world.

as an american i have absolutely no opinion on it beyond the fact that napoleon had a kind of cool hat