17 Common Local Foods That Are Loved by Foreigners

It seems like porridge, hot dogs, and pineapple have nothing in common. However, some foreigners believe that these foods are rare delicacies. By the way, for some people, caviar is something common that they eat every day while others are ready to pay thousands to try it.

At Bright Side, we studied comments from internet users who were asked to reveal the common foods in their country that are considered delicacies by foreigners.

• We had some Japanese exchange students at our university in the US, and when they saw the cubed melon on the salad bar (the standard watermelon/cantaloupe/honeydew mix), they thought we were living like royalty. Apparently melon is a really expensive, special occasion food over there. © Fast_Moon / Reddit

• My sister used to date a guy from the Netherlands and for Christmas one year, he gifted me a box of stroopwafels. They were my sole motivation to get up early in the morning just so that I could have one of those with my cup of coffee. © Operation_Phoenix / Reddit
• Jamón Serrano is cool, but the real delicacy is jamón Ibérico de bellota. 100 g was about $15 last time I was in Spain, whereas in Canada the equivalent is about $60-$80 for 100 g. © symsays / Reddit
• I had an acquaintance from Russia who was going to marry an Irish guy. They lived in Russia for a while and the guy went completely bonkers for the caviar of the capelin fish. It’s not really a delicacy there, it’s not rare or expensive at all (probably approximately $2.50 to $3 a can) but he liked it so much he wanted to bring a crate of it to their wedding in Europe. Needless to say, his soon-to-be-wife was not amused. © TheAmazingDuckOfDoom / Reddit

• Fried chicken has actually become a special holiday meal in countries like Japan where you have to reserve your bucket weeks in advance! © StangAce / Reddit
• Avocados in Mexico are pretty common and cheap. © wandering_spaceman / Reddit
• Sausage rolls while in Sydney. I couldn’t get enough, especially the cheap convenience store ones. People had many laughs as I gobbled them up while repeating how amazing they were. © Agreeable-Outcome-14 / Reddit

• I wanted to add “cassoulet” to delicacies but then I debated with myself as to whether this was a “delicacy.” I guess by international standards it’s not. But give it to me while I’m overseas and I’ll bring the shiniest silverware out and eat it like it’s for aristocrats. © GrandSuTu / Reddit
• I used to eat caviar all the time as a cheap snack while growing up moderately poor in Romania. I was stunned to find out it’s a delicacy. © AntarcticanJam / Reddit
• In the UK, we give apples to horses because they are cheap and locally grown. When my fiancé was in Spain on a riding vacation, they shouted at her for giving her apples to the horses since they are expensive there. They then came back with a massive watermelon for the horse to eat — which is way too expensive in the UK to feed to animals! © dinobug77 / Reddit

• We honeymooned in Waikiki, and it corresponded with something called the Spam Jam! Every restaurant made their own Spam dish and had it out to try. Amazingly fun and unexpected. I had spam nachos, and my husband had spam fried rice. 5 stars. © Ok_Jury4833 / Reddit
• I went to Paris in 2019 for one day. It was absurdly hot and we didn’t even want to eat but I desperately wanted to try a baguette from Paris. So we bought it and took it back to London on the train. It was hilarious to watch the baguette go through security. We ended up tearing off the bits that had been exposed because it had been on a conveyer belt and sat on the seat next to me on the Eurostar ride back. It was worth it. We also got one croissant, a chocolate croissant, and some sort of apple pastry. The baguette and the plain croissant were the standouts. © spockgiirl / Reddit

• I only lived in Russia very briefly (about 5 weeks) but man I miss Russian porridge. You have to really search to find it here (US) and it’s so versatile and yummy. © landshanties / Reddit
• We have a lot of mushrooms in Finland. Especially porcini mushrooms, chanterelle mushrooms, and winter mushrooms. They are incredible food mushrooms that are sought after, for example, in Italy. And we can just go pick them in the forest. © Resumme / Reddit
• I live in Finland. We have a lot of forests so that means a lot of berries, like blueberries and lingonberries. According to our law, you can just go and pick as much as you can find. It’s kind of one of those things where if you live near any forested area, and are willing to spend time there, come late summer, you’ll probably have enough to last until next year in your freezer. We have so many berries that people from poorer countries are hired to pick them up, because doing berry picking is heavy work, and apparently the pay isn’t worth it for most Finns. At the same time, forest berries are considered a superfood around the world, very healthy and trendy. I don’t know about their actual delicacy status, but there is definitely a difference in how we think about them. © MryyLeathert / Reddit

• In Iceland, our tap water is perfect and no local ever buys bottled water. A lot of people mention the sulfur smell of the hot water, and that depends on the area. For example, where I live the hot water comes directly from a nearby hot spring area so naturally, it will have a smell. Locals don’t smell it though. For drinking water you just need to run the tap for a bit, that will get any hot water out of the pipes and bring you spring water. © lastavailableuserr / Reddit
• Good French pastries and stuff like croissants and chocolate puff pastries that we call “viennoiserie” in French. Obviously in France, they are super easy to find in any bakery and they are cheaper. It’s so common that honestly not a lot of people go buy croissants every day. Macarons are also relatively easy to find, usually, they are made in special shops but some bakeries do make them too. Oh, and if you go to France or go to a good French bakery in your country, try a Paris-Brest. You won’t regret it. © Matrozi / Reddit

Do you know of any common foods from your country that are loved by foreigners? Or maybe you found a delicacy in another country that is nothing special to the locals? Tell us your story in the comments below.

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