What I mean, of course, is: what "foreign" country's traditional cuisine/music/dancing/language interests you in particular, and why?
Make it a country to which you have no ethnic or ancestral connection aside from just liking it. You probably have a few, but limit yourself to one.
I love Mexico. I love its form of Spanish, its music, and its food. I used to travel there regularly growing up, and did a course in Mexico City in my 20s. Although I haven't been back since the 1990s, the smell of corn or an Aztec motif still makes me wistful.
Italian food and drink
greece. lovely islands, food and people. go there once or twice a year.
I love France and the French. More than anything I admire their surly resolutely anti-american 'just **** off' attitude to the service ethic. It takes a certain gallic audacity to look like they're really going out of their way to do you a favour, and virtually spit at you while you're in the alps and they're charging you 50 Euros for a slice of pizza and a small beer.
I love the South of France and being able to walk into any supermarket and buy really cheap but gorgeous local meats and cheese, and freshly baked bread, and just the general pace of life. The best steak I ever ate was at a little cafe outside St Tropez, served in a Roquefort sauce, and it was about ten Euros
And I bloody love effortless French Pop like this that just couldn't be anything other than French
When I was a kid my dad spent a lot of time in France and told me that basically, the French just have life sussed. He was bang on!
Scandinavian, Spanish women 🙋♀️💃💃💃
Japanese Sushi, God I just love sushi.. and Sake.
Danish toast, loganberry and meat combos, dill with everything. Scandinavian food in general for normal eating,
French wine, particularly Bordeaux.. because they make the best wine eva.. French cheese, French way of cooking meats, Bouillabaisse, fish in general.
Spanish olives, cheese, cured meats.
Argentinian steaks.. super rare.
Could be here all night with this one...🤷♂️🍷🍷🍷🍷
Japanese food, design, art, architecture... Music, not so much.
Bits and bobs from Scandinavia, America and Canada, mostly music, but outdoor gear, architecture, food, drink.
Italy ...style means everything .
Love the cuisine ..and one of my mates is a mafia Don ..lol
Nothing specific really. I mean I'm a big fan of Scandinavia, but tbh their food or music doesn't do much for me. I love Scandinavian clothes and gear though, and houses. I probably watch most TV and listen to most music from the US more than any other foreign country.
For food, it's got to be India.
France.
I admire their arrogance and disdain for anything or anyone not French.
I like their food and drink.
I like their art.
I like their pace of life and attitude to work.
But mostly, it's their attitude I love.
Am at the moment listening to Suuns, a band from Canada. Does that count? Canada has always appealed to me as a place to live too, ever since I did a school “project” as a nipper.
Went there on holiday a couple of years ago and it didn’t let me down.
France. Everything.
California. Weather, space, outdoor lifestyle, friendliness.
Italy. Food.
Norway for the attitude.
French for the quality of life and climate.
American for positive attitude.
Canada for being America lite and the Rockies.
Germany for the order.
Polish people for the get it done attitude.
Most of the Caribbean.
In no order.
Food wise: Persian, Indian, Thai and Chinese ... the rest of world cuisine is bland by comparison, except burger, fish & chips of course.
Country: All the same if you are not well off.
People: All the same if you can communicate with them.
Germany. Things run to time, the toilets are the classiest room in a building, people on foot or on bikes aren't second rate citizens, people are helpful without being cheesy, nobody hassles me. I like the music, the films, the literature - thought has gone into them, the message isn't so superficial it seems stupid and naive.
Italy for the food, wine and style.
France for the attitude. (My wife maintains I muse have been a Parisian waiter in a previous life).
Germany for the utilitarian humanity.
So many to choose from love all kinds of food from many countries.
Don Lol? Not exactly scary.
True Drac ..he is of Scicillian heritage though and seems to import a lot of talcuum powder ...
Can't believe no-one's said Belgian beer yet!
So this.
Can’t believe no-one’s said Belgian beer yet!
I would have, but I said only one country choice. I love Belgium though, and think it's probably one of the most under-rated places on the Continent. The Ardennes region is especially beautiful, but so are many of the towns across the country. And the beer... oh, the beer!
Spain for the food.
Sweden for everything else. Suspect I'd feel the same about Norway, Denmark, Iceland and (maybe) Finland if I'd visited them.
I feel quite 'northern' generally (but not in the parochial UK sense).
Japan for food, architecture, design, instruments and engineering.
Holland, mainly for the pies.
france: the Loire is just ace, and Burgundy is the best wine in the world
Italy is great, I love Germans too
Actually I can't think of any country that I didn't like, just a few kn08heads that are easily avoidable
France. Everything.
Yup; 100% agree.
Tough one.
Ireland for the people, ****stan for the scenery, India for the food and France for everything else.
Just one?
France.
Actually I can’t think of any country that I didn’t like, just a few kn08heads that are easily avoidable
True.
I've never been anywhere I didn't like, apart from Bacup.
France for how they treat their royalty
Belgium for the availability of good horse steak and their cycling fans.
Italy for their wine
Poland/Ukraine/Georgia for their concrete brutalist architecture
Denmark for their furniture.
UK. Top country. We're lucky to be British.
Any particular country within the UK ?
Yup, most places, most food, and most people.
Whilst being a devout europhile, I do have a liking for some aspects of Americana also. Southern cuisine is amazing, and they’re not all gun totin’ Trumpers. Scenery by and large is fantastic.
USA for landscape, scale,space, food, cycling and breaking and justifying all their stereotypes. (I met a guy over breakfast from Texas who made a sincere joke about Jesus and Guns whilst having the best breakfast in the world.)
Iceland for being so wild.
Japan for being so different.
New Zealand just for being the furthest I will ever go.
France (southern) for having everything that the UK doesn't.
Ireland for me. I love the accent, the fact that there’s music everywhere, real guiness, Irish Whiskey and the general friendliness. I was in Dublin earlier this week and 19:30 in the pub was like the friendliest English pub at 03:00.
Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, the
mechanics German, the lovers Italian and it's all organised by the
Swiss. Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the
lover's Swiss, the police German and it's all organised by the Italians.
Sweden - for the lovely people, attitude to work, sense of humour, lack of litter, nice food
Greece- for the people, the language, the old rembetika (blues) music, the food, the islands, the weather...... I must get back there for a holiday!
why is everyone so into Sweden? I live here and it isn't that great!
As Britain is foreign to me now, I miss the sense of humour and I think the culture , especially the music, is something to be immensely proud of. Although every needs to stop moaning and rushing around
@Vickypea, the sense of humour? ärligt talat?
Spain ,I've been lucky to have had a Spanish uncle so slightly biased. The food , wine ,the weather &countryside ,even their lager & brandy! The cycling isn't bad there either.
As Britain is foreign to me now, I miss the sense of humour and I think the culture , especially the music, is something to be immensely proud of. Although every needs to stop moaning and rushing around
I wholeheartedly agree with that. Here in Germany I love the summer, sitting outside bars in the town square watching the girls go by (usually students in hotpants). I think it is similar throughout most of the continent, but the med countries turn it into peacocking, whereas in Germany it is much more relaxed.
I'm lucky enough to have visited all of the regions of the world with work and though I've not been able to immerse myself in the culture of all the countries I've been to I usually come back to Europe as being, on balance, the best region in the world. The climate is nice, you get proper seasons, real culture. If I had to pick any one European country I'd probably settle on France. It seems to have everything....beautiful countryside: gorges, lakes, mountains, rivers, beaches etc., excellent food, culture and not too big. Though many other European nations run it close, but I think France is the only one that has everything in one country (could be wrong).
But for people, I think the Thai people in my experience seem to be they friendliest and with the best outlook of any other nation. Just really nice people, no aggression or airs or graces about them.
U.S.A
Cheese Burgers
The Simpsons
WWF
Fries
Monster Trucks
Vanilla Ice
to everything already said about France, I will add this: philosophy is compulsory in schools. That doesn't mean that kids learn what Plato said, and/or why Diogenes opposed it - it means that they learn how to question, engage, consider, confront and elucidate; to ask 'why?'; it means they learn to be philosophical. Is it any great surprise that they typically show the English so much disdain?
Any particular country within the UK ?
No need to choose in this context. The UK is a 'country'. The nations that make up the UK are 'countries' also. But unlike the UK they're not Sovereign States. But, for clarity The UK is also a Nation.
Anyway. Sweden for trousers and chisels.
Three_Fish
to everything already said about France, I will add this: philosophy is compulsory in schools. That doesn’t mean that kids learn what Plato said, and/or why Diogenes opposed it – it means that they learn how to question, engage, consider, confront and elucidate; to ask ‘why?’; it means they learn to be philosophical. Is it any great surprise that they typically show the English so much disdain?
But how are they supposed to revise for the tests or rank it from 9-0? :confused:
to everything already said about France, I will add this: philosophy is compulsory in schools. That doesn’t mean that kids learn what Plato said, and/or why Diogenes opposed it – it means that they learn how to question, engage, consider, confront and elucidate; to ask ‘why?’; it means they learn to be philosophical. Is it any great surprise that they typically show the English so much disdain?
My building currently has about 50 Parisian ERASMUS students living in it, they are the biggest bunch of entitled bellends I have ever met. More so than any Spanish, German, Italian students etc that I have met. They are disliked by the rest of the Europeans living in the building and there are a number of French young professionals and students in the building, who go out of their way to disassociate themselves from France.
I'm not sure what to make of it really, but I don't regard the French to be anymore introspective than the English. If they were, I don't think they'd be so supportive of the FN or banning Burqas. The British have managed to avoid a descent into Nazism despite Brexit. I think a lot of what they consider to be critical thinking, is tied in with their feelings of French Exceptionalism.
Canada for being America lite
You could only say that if you reeeally didn't understand those two countries.
Lot of love for the xenophobic French isn't there! Surely if the **** you attitude to anyone else is so appealing you'd have Israel at the top of your lists. 🙂
