Most people enjoy food, but not everybody enjoys the same types of food. Food is just as diverse as the people that eat it.

With the holidays coming up, food is a big topic. It’s very common for people to automatically put ham and turkey at center stage, but there are so many other foods that people eat.

The first thing that usually comes to mind when food and diversity are mentioned is countries. Most countries have their own eating customs,  foods, spices, and things that other countries might consider disgusting.

Some people don’t really like the foods that others eat, even when they’re not eating it themselves.

“I’m a vegetarian, so non-vegetarians think it’s weird that I eat veggie burgers,” said junior Dakota Elkin.

There are a lot of cultural differences that create a rift between food groups. Take senior Ashwin Kumar.

When asked if he ate anything his friends thought were weird or gross, his lab partner immediately shouted “Curry!” Ashwin shrugged and agreed.

This also creates stereotypes. Some Americans think that all Chinese eat dogs or that the only thing Indians ever eat is rice and curry.

Americans themselves can’t seem to stay away from hamburgers.

“I sometimes have a bean paste soup,” said senior Michelle Kim. “It’s got a strong smell, others might not like it. I myself don’t like Thai food very much. It’s too sweet.”

Of course these stereotypes aren’t always true though.

“This year I think I’m having a Swedish cod, Swedish meatballs, and a buttered scone type thing, called lefse,” said sophomore Arielle Aslinger.

Some foods, such as Aslinger’s dinner, have some form of it in most other cultures. Sophomore Arman Sufi said he eats a food that most people can’t pronounce, but even though it’s not in their culture, they still like it.

“It’s a Persian dish called Khoresht-e Ghorme-Sabzi,” he explained. “It means stew of mixed greens in English, and is a dish primarily made of rice, sauteed beef, herbs like parsley, some spices like saffron, lemon juice, and occasionally kidney beans.”

There’s always more cultures to experience through the foods they offer. So no matter what people eat this holiday, remember to keep your mind open to the rest of the world of food.