If offered while in a foreign country a food you found disgusting such as monkey brain, would you eat it to be polite?

I used to think that it was necessary to be a total "When in Rome do what the Roman's do...", but I was young. Eventually, I learned (not always the easy way) that all humans have issues that they don't want to cross. I learned that in every country it was okay to say as a human to another human, "No... that is not correct for my way of being".

But here's the trick... also an aspect of being human... Always someone has to say something like, "Oh, what's the problem... are you too chicken to eat monkey brains? " That behavior is an artifact of an ancient aspect of our evolution when those who were aggressive-good would bump up the survival capacity of the tribe by finding joy in challenging dumbness, but genes get shuffled so it's possible for simple idiots to think they are being smart to say something like that (it's a behavior expressed most aggressively by males, but women do it too in a testier way) and so... I will not say that the action I'm going to describe is proper nor appropriate nor natural for everyone, but this is what I have done and which had commensurable results in the re-establishment of manners. In the case of the eating of monkey brains, I would say, if pushed to do so, "Did you know that monkey brains, along with squirrel brains, harbor a proto-virus called prions?

Prions are a self-replicating protien that can make copies of itself without DNA by scavenging any protien around it to build new copies of itself, until it eats away and causes Alzheimer brain-damage to the brain of the person who at the raw brain that it came from? " If I expressed such facts logically, they just puffawed me off and I got cold-shouldered out of the crowd, but if I told it from my heart how I really felt, then they tended to just shrug, and turn back to their business, sometimes to resume eating monkey brains, but from that point on with some manners and they didn't bug me to do it too.

Nope, I wouldn't. I'd be honest. I'd thank them for the offer but would tell them that I haven't eaten it.

I see this is better than to eat it and throw up in front of them. It must be an insult to them.

See, these types of cross cultural culinary conundrums are another reason that I probably won't ever be traveling abroad again. I would barf at the very thought of eating a monkey's brain out of its head, let alone seeing other people do it. The only polite thing for me to do would be to excuse myself to my room and eat a granola bar from the stash in my suitcase.

I'm a "no flesh of any kind" sort of vegetarian so my options abroad are very limited in most countries. I wouldn't violate my dietary needs to be polite, but I would eat the best food available even if it was meat. I'm not so silly that I'd go hungry if all that was available was rotten cabbage or monkey meat.

I'd eat the monkey meat. If being polite was an issue I would learn the customs before going and find a way to inform my hosts of my dietary restrictions so they are not put in a situation where offense is possible. If one set of hosts still finds it offensive I'd find another host and apologize.

Most people expect foreigners to behave strangely. If all else fails I could always eat an Alka-Seltzer and fall on the floor foaming at the mouth screaming obscenities. At least it would be less about being offended over my dietary differences and more about my sanity.

Right? It always bugged me in Western movies that people insisted you "have a drink". In some areas not fighting when you are insulted is a major faux pas.

I don't drink or fight. Needless to say I stay home a lot.

No and I have turned down people all over the world. In addition if your talking about monkey brains where they kill the animal at the table I wouldn't even stay for dinner. Guests should also be polite.

I agree with ai-ai. I'd rather thank them and politely decline it as it's better to not eat than to eat it and embarrass them and myself by throwing up.

I wouldn't be able to stomach it. It wouldn't even be a choice, really. I also go out of my way to avoid situations like this.

Could I just have my personal assistant or interpreter tell them no for me?

I would pick at the things that were not upsetting to me. But I would not be able to bring myself to eat a monkey brain straight out of it's little head. :(.

There are many intriguing foreign foods that I would likely try on a vacation. However, there are probably just as many different foods from other countries that I would not eat. If a dish or meal looks particularly unappetizing or contains questionable ingredients, I would certainly not eat it, especially not to be polite.

Chances are, the food that does not look good will also not taste good, and acting as though a dish tastes appealing when it does not would be not only hard to do but also immensely impolite. Putting on a façade will only result in a lie. I would thankfully decline the food, but definitely try another that did not contain a surprise ingredient like brain tissue.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.