I have thought about discussing this issue after reading a post about Vegemite on Travel by postcards and letters blog. I sometimes send Polish sweets or typical (and 'sendable') foods to my penpals. And sometimes they do it for me as well:) Usually they're delicious things:9 But few times I got some bizzare sweets that didn't taste like sweets to me at all and truth is I couldn't even eat them. Like it happened for example in case of Finnish candies Salmiakki, which is a black salty! licorice. I gave it to my family and friends and everyone reacted the same way. They made shocked expressions, spilled it out, and one friend even cursed me:P Salmiakki is definitely not something for Polish tongues. However bad I found it, I thought it was interesting to try and I had fun seeing reactions of my friends to it:P The other weird sweet was some Mexican candy which name I can't remember unfortunatelly and it contained sugar, salt and chili. For me it was really shocking mix. And as I always share foods I get with my family, I gave half to my mum. I tasted it first so I already knew that it might be worth to observe her reaction:P Like me, she expected to feel sweet taste and made big eyes when she felt something elseXD
I am always afraid to tell to a penpal I didn't like the taste of what they had sent me because I wouldn't want them to think I'm rude. But even though I find something 'inedible', I am still always very happy that my penpal sent it to me and I had a chance to try something typical from foreign country. After all different nations have different tastes and sometimes even the same products taste differently in different countries as the producers must fit them to the market. Personally, I wouldn't get offended at all if my penpal wrote me they didn't like the taste of some food from me, especially if it's not a sweet candy which flavour you can consider 'universal'. I don't think it's rude and it wouldn't be a reason for me to stop sending different stuff.
Do you tell your penpals if you didn't like the taste of something from them? Would you be offended if you heard something like that from your penpal?
Unfortunately I haven't swapped too many items of food with people due to only being able to eat halal or vegetarian foods but what I have received my friends have looked up to make sure I can eat it and usually its nice. Only once I took part in swap bot for a vegetarian swap but my partner sent me an item I knew wasn't right so didn't end up eating any of it as I couldn't make out the ingrediants etc... with it being in a foreign language. In England I'm lucky everything is labelled so well but not in other European countries unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteFor Pakistani food in packaging when there I find hard to like it at first but then I get used to the flavours. I find thing smell different due to the hot climate, some items are a little sticky/melty so I don't even know why they have it.
The combinations you mentioned though do sound strange.
I don't take part in swaps either, I just send something to my penpals sometimes and sometimes I get something from them. I always check the ingredients and if I know my penpal is vegetarian I don't send things containing anything 'animalish':)
DeleteHehe, we have Salmiak candies here in Germany as well and actually I like them. :) We have those small salty brezles that are covered with sugar...mmhhh! ;) I guess it is a matter of being used to different things.
ReplyDeleteMy Polish penpal introduced me to coconut Jezyki and since then I am addicted to it!! So delicous!! :D
Yeay, Jeżyki:D I love them too. The coconut ones are the best:D
DeleteAs I'm a Finn I tend to send Salmiakki to nearly all of my pals who haven't tried it yet (I even sent Salmiakki chocolate for a German friend) and I've enjoyed to hear their honest reactions - Japanese and Korean pals have told me that they couldn't eat those while my first German pal told me that she tried it once and spent the rest of the package on her friends just to see their reaction :)
ReplyDeleteI've even had a couple of pals who actually enjoyed salmiakki! :D
Haha, so I did the same thing as your German friend:D Salmiakki is the perfect material for making experiments on people:P
DeleteI don't participate in any food swap because I can just eat Halal food so I've to be very careful with what I eat. None of my pen pals also have ever sent me any food stuff. If I ever received any food items, I have to read the ingredients first to know whether I can eat it or not. If I'm in doubt, I usually gave them to my non-Muslim friends to eat.
ReplyDeleteI would check ingredients if I knew what my penpal doesn't eat and send stuff without it:) I myself don't eat red meat and poultry so also not anything with gelatine so I have limited options too but lots of things don't contain those:)
DeleteGreat to see this posting! :) Well, I always appreciate my pals for sending me something to try from their countries because it's a great opportunity for me to experience their country and culture without actually traveling there. :) And I try to be honest with how I liked the food/sweets they sent for me because I don't want to make the same comment everytime like "I liked it a lot, thanks!" That's boring. :p If I didn't like the taste, I always tell them that but using sofe words (not something like "I abosolutely hate that!" kind of words. lol), and my pals always enjoy my honest comments (I believe). I wouldn't be offended at all if my pals tell me that they didn't like what I sent because I want to hear what they "really" felt about it and see how it's different from how we feel! :) When my Finnish pal visited me in Japan and tried our umeboshi (very sour plum), she spilled it out right to my face and said "I just got poisoned! That was so funny! lol
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this topic! :) Have a nice weekend!
I try to tell in soft words too:) If something is weird for me I tell it to my penpal, if something is yummy, then I comment it too:) I think either way it's interesting. And yeah, reactions of people for the weird tasting things can be so funnyXD
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ReplyDeleteYou're referring to "Pulparindo" candy I sent you?
Yes, that's it:P I hope you're not angry. I didn't spill it out, I ate it with my mum but we were both shocked:P But it was funny for me so please don't think I didn't like the gift:) I think I wrote you in a letter it was tasting weird:P
DeleteWell, I once got a lot of different types of chocolate from Croatia from one of my friends. I had to ask him what I was eating, because my mom nor me could find out what flavour it had. I never told him it tasted like cardboard and most of the chocolate ended up in the bin. ^^" He did understand from my "what is this?" question that it wasn't my taste though.
ReplyDeleteAnd when I sent him a chocolate with my Christmas card, he called it "dark chocolate".... It was normal milk chocolate for me. Just to give an example of how different even a normal chocolate can taste to people.
Yes, I noticed too that chocoilate from different countries taste differently but I never 'bumped' into one I could not eat:P
DeleteWhen I was in US even milk tasted differently to me. All daily products were either sweeter or more salty from what I knew. Just another example:)
I have a couple of Finnish pals but none has ever sent me Salmiakki (yet ;) ) I wonder if I would like it, hehe!
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, I have already got some teas from penpals that I didn't like (the teas, obviously, not the penpals!). I didn't tell them I didn't like their teas, I just said 'thanks for the tea you sent' (because it's the thought that counts), but didn't precise if I liked them or not.
Haha, let me know when you try:D
DeleteI had some teas I didn't like too but not much really and I just did the same as you. I think it's not that important to describe your feelings about the tea if it's not very tasty:)
I try to be as much honest as I can, but I guess we always tend to nice even if we have to say we just didn't like a little bit. I never got something that I really didn't like at all, so I'm lucky, though I already got teas I didn't like so much as other and I tried to explain that. Honesty after all, right?
ReplyDeleteWell, I can't say I'm unlucky I recieved something I didn't like because I treat it as a chance to try something different, wether it's good or not:) And yeah, I try to be nice too and try to tell in a soft way but I feel I need to tell if I liked something or not or if it was weird. I always worry to be taken as rude or ungrateful even if from my side I would really have no problem in hearing honest opinion. It's not a big deal, right?:)
DeleteAnd I haven't ever received salmiakki ;____; And most probably won't in a nearby future since I don't have any Finnish pen pal at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI don't really send food to my pals (everything best in Poland is too heavy for poor highschooler's wallet! ;__;"""), so I also hardly receive any, too. Actually, I only remember myself getting food in mail... Six times? From three pen pals. My Swedish friend once visited a sweets factory and bought something for all of her pals, and she also sent me sweets twice as parts of birthday and Christmas gifts. And the other three times were my pals' kind responses for my food dreams expressions :3 I'll never forget my friend hunting Green Tea Kitkat like crazy during her trip to Japan just because I once told her I'd love to try it! <3
Anyway, among all edible gifts I ever received, in 95% of cases it was tea, and honestly, I didn't always like it. Mostly I am just telling what I really feel about them... But to be honest, I rather say the whole truth to those who also sometimes say they didn't like my teas than to those who don't do this, ever. Myself, I don't mind hearing a honest opinion. A pal just didn't enjoy the taste of something I bought, not said that what I DID for them myself is a crap. There's a difference in both bought/did and I don't like/it's terrible, right?
Well, there are some small sweets that can fit an envelope;) For example Ptasie Mleczko (the small packet with two "fingers"), Jeżyki bars (they don't weigh much), or you could loosely put some Krówka's inside the envelope (who sais you need to send the whole 0,5 package?;)). Of not sweet things, Gorący Kubek fits in the envelope well and weighs nothing, there's possibility in this case that it can turn out disgusting to a recipient:P but they can try some of our traditional soups like barszcz... surely homemade one is better but you obviously could not send this:P And I put opłatek in Christmas cards:) Just a few ideas:) I don't send or recieve that much food either but for example when it's my penpals birthday I like to add something sweet so they have a sweet day:) You know, just occasionally:) If the wallet can handle it:)
DeleteAnd for your second paragraph - right:)
Vi que hablas español por eso te escribo en español, es más fácil para mi jejejeje una amiga me envió te, pero odio el te y antes de saber que me lo había enviado se lo dije y ya venía de camino ¡ups! no tenía idea, pero a ella le hizo gracia e igual quiero intentar probándolos :P ¿te gustaría probar algo de República Dominicana?
ReplyDeleteClaro que si:D
DeleteTe tiene diferentes sabores, quizas el de tu amigua no estara tan mal;)