How is it that real Italian food is considered "the best", yet the majority of people I've talked to who've had it, said it was crap?

Question

I only met one Austrian guy in real life who was praising it. But I thought it was crap. My mom thought it was crap. Some of my dad's family went there and thought it was crap. This South African girl I was talking to on Instagram went there and said it was crap and it's better in South Africa. My French friend said her sister went there with her boyfriend and THEY said it was crap and it's better in France and French pizzas are better too. This Slovenian girl I talked to who has Italian roots, said she went there and also hated it. And I saw a couple people on an IG post recently say it's crap and they got a good 20 likes, last I checked which, is still a decent amount. Even the renowned Gordan Ramsay said GREEK food is the best.

Many people still DO seem to genuinely love it, which I don't understand, but I think many more people hate it then want to admit. I think the ones who hate it don't say anything, because Italians will go ape-shit on you. This is the reason the South African girl said she wouldn't post it publicly. But myself, I'm not afraid.

My statistics teacher said you actually don't need a large sample to figure out ratio.

Excluding the post and the 20 likes, that's still 11 people (including myself), whom I actually talked to went there and had the food, and only ONE had positive opinons of it. 1/11 aren't such great odds, yet you always hear that Italian food is the BEST in the world 🤔

I showed my dad pictures of the pizzas I had there and he nearly vomited and he nearly vomits each time they show Italian food on TV and me and my family LAUGH that this is considered the "best food in the world"

How is it that real Italian food is considered the best, yet the majority of people Ive talked to whove had it, said it was crap?

Apulu_backagain · Accepted Answer

Creamy and milky and smooth stuff suit my palate a lot so I do like Italian cuisine. No one in the world is probably as happy as me for being lactose tolerant. You say the last two make you vomit but those last two look the best to me out of everything.

My Indian ancestors might hate me for saying this but... I like easy simple dishes with not many spices. Italian cuisine is like that and I do like my Indian cuisine the most and appreciate food with a lot of spices and flavour but they overwhelm me, also Indian cuisine has many simple and garlicky and creamy dishes too so that makes up i guess.

For that reason I like Japanese cuisine too, simple and not very overwhelming.

And I'm not particularly a picky eater so maybe that's the reason why I like almost everything edible. However, one cuisine that you can't make me like is German. It's just so dry. They don't even have any meal option, everything looks like a snack, it's all different types of breads and cheeses.

FreyaRed · Accepted Answer

Italian food is generally very simple. It rallies on quality of ingredients. If those ingredients are top quality this food won't be top quality either.
As example. Make a Neapolitan Pizza margarita with buffalo mozzarella, home grown tomatoes, high quality durum flour and real olive oil, than make one with ingredients from grocery store. I'm sure the quality difference of both Margaritas will be enormous.

Of course even every cuisine rallies on ingredient quality but some dishes with high taste mix and more demanding cooking procedures taste better with commonly available ingredient while simple dishes lose a lot of quality since those dishes take their main taste mostly from one singe ingredient or from balance of two opposite ones.

Telekinetic-Potato · Accepted Answer

Most Italian food I'm pretty sure are actually Italian American dishes from the great depression

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

If Gordon Ramsay likes something then you know it's utter crap

midnightmoon05 · Answer

Most people may not have the diverse experiences when it comes to foods around the world. Most only eat what’s from their region.
we have traveled around the world extensively and throughout Italy, France.
I agree most foods are from what they can grow from the area.
that being said, I lo like the focaccia bread from Genoa. The steaks from Florence. The pasta and pizza from Milan. We have not travel south, so can’t say much about.
They know they are limited so now have incorporated more diverse foods from around the world. Like Indian foods and Chinese foods.. or Chinese sushi.
meat..: yes… its best to eat less. I agree with how they eat … which is not much.
Americans eat way way too much… (processed foods) causing lots of health issues.

desidoll · Answer

Some people claim they used to be good long time ago, until the younger generation took over. I disagree. If you look into their cuisine history, it has always been the same way, except a little of adjustment on their pasta and pizza topping. When I went there 4 years ago, I struggled to find food that is high in protein because for some strange reasons, the restaurants just don’t serve meat as much. If they do, it would be like ground meat that is mixed inside some sort of dishes. They eat a lot of bean, grain, that unappetising hard bread and cheese. Their supermarkets are weird as well. You couldn’t find any deli, forget about the raw meat. Another one that annoyed me was when I found that water is not free in the restaurants, you have to pay for it. Be careful telling them this lol. They easily get offended and super defensive about their food.

Anonymous · Answer

You can find haters of any food. What you’re talking about is anecdotes. I know these people who said… Yeah, that’s completely irrelevent and says nothing. I can find people who hate ice cream or chocolate and yet, millions or even billions of people love it. I hate oreos, I hate onion, I hate seafood, I hate Asian food, I hate mexican food, I hate most greek food, I hate middle eastern food. I know some other people hates it too, does that mean it’s unbelievable that many others love those foods and the validity of that should be questioned? No it isn’t and ko it doesn’t.

purplepoppy · Answer

Most "real food" is crap. You can pretty much guarantee what your getting is a far cry from what the locals eat at home.

lilBigPotato · Answer

Because your small bubble is irrelevant when there's 8 billion people out there. Also Italian cuisine is quite diverse and changes based on the region so picking a handful of examples again doesn't mean much.

Food is as so often personal preference and it depends a lot on what you grew up with. You might not like it and that's fine, but that doesn't mean it's crap.

On_cloud_wine · Answer

As long as they have eggplant Parmesan, in a happy girl

queenofcardio · Answer

I don't think I've had real Italian food. 🤔

katiesmuff · Answer

Maybe your talking to the wrong people!

strawberryapple · Answer

It's hard to beat mexican and italian

How is it that real Italian food is considered "the best", yet the majority of people I've talked to who've had it, said it was crap?

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Am I the only one who thinks authentic Italian food in Italy is garbage?

How is it that real Italian food is considered "the best", yet the majority of people I've talked to who've had it, said it was crap?

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Am I the only one who thinks authentic Italian food in Italy is garbage?

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