Italian food is one of the most popular ethnic foods in America, but the Italian food folks eat in America differs greatly from the Italian food you get in Italy. In fact, for Italians, many so-called Italian American dishes are abominations, as are how people ea them, and now a new poll reveals the ones they consider the worst.
- A new YouGov poll looked at 19 ways foreigners have been accused of abusing Italian food.
- Results found 11 ways people eat Italian food that Italians find unacceptable.
- The absolute worst is eating ketchup with pasta, which scored a -82, meaning more people find it unacceptable than acceptable.
- Interestingly, Americans also feel this is pretty unacceptable, with folks in the U.S. scoring it a -42.
- But 11 countries surveyed think pasta and ketchup is perfectly okay, including Hong Kong (+79 and Indonesia (+76).
Other ways of eating Italian food that Italians find unacceptable include:
- Putting pasta in cold water and then boiling it (-71)
- Having pineapple on pizza (-63)
- Having pasta as a side dish (-55)
- Cutting long pasta with a knife (-46)
- Including cream in carborara sauce (-45)
- Having cheese on a pasta meal that contains seafood (-39)
- Rinsing or cooling off pasta under cold water (-23)
- Drinking a cappuccino after an Italian meal (-23)
- Not adding salt to boiling water for pasta (-17)
- Having garlic bread with a pasta meal (-14)
But Italians aren’t against everything we Americans do when it comes to their food. They are apparently okay with:
- Eating pizza for lunch (+89)
- Having Bolognese sauce with spaghetti (+81)
- Eating pizza with a fork rather than your hands (+69)
- Having meatballs with spaghetti (+58)
Source: YouGov