One of my Facebook friends posted/shared a video about Australians taste-testing American sweets. I thought it was a good idea for a blog, and that I’d share that video, and then write about some observations I had myself about American sweets vs. Indian sweets.
But by the time I got to the end of the video, while I still thought the blog was a good idea, I wasn’t so sure sharing the video was a good idea for my blog. A lot of the taste tester reactions were bleeped. If they had bleeped a few more things — things that they let through — I might have still shared it. But the things we could hear, in spots, aren’t things I wanted to share on my blog.
Still the video was a good video.
The one person talked about having one of our American sweets in Australia, but then Australians ban all the good stuff.
But I didn’t want to share the sexual references involved.
They showed some classics: pop rocks, Twinkies, Butterfingers, cinnamon rolls, etc.
I remember going to India in November 2007 for work. I hit up the Sam’s Club on Nov. 1 for all the 50% off candies — and lugged some $40 worth to India to share with my coworkers there that I was training. American sweets were considered special.
But myself, I didn’t eat any of them while I was there. I had their sweets instead. They were obviously different than ours, but very good too. I had a certain sense of withdrawal from our sweets, and wasn’t motivated when I came back to eat them for a while.
The Indian sweets were more nut-based, cashew powder, and such things, as I was led to understand. Some of the special ones had metallic foil as part of them, or so I understood. While I think something could be argued that in general their sweets might be better than the processed American sweets, nutritionally at least, I don’t think anyone would tout the nutritional benefits of the foil. Yet it was special, and gave them a special look.
So different cultures do have differences in these things, and each affects us differently. I noticed how my body adjusted and got used to one, and got unused to the other, when I went from one to the other, and then back.
I don’t think most people pay attention to those reactions, until they have to for health reasons, and then only through a mechanical watching and counting, as opposed to really noticing how their body is feeling.
Anyway, as my Facebook friend said of the Australian video, I feel we have made our best and worst impressions at the same times through our American sweets.
At The Rainbow 