According to the BBC News reported on November 25, an American scholar posted a post on Twitter criticizing Indian food, which triggered a heated discussion among netizens, who criticized the professor for not really tasting authentic Indian food.
Recently, some netizens posted that they want everyone to write their views on the "most controversial food" on the Twitter platform. This was supposed to be an open topic of discussion, but it quickly developed into a "map cannon".
Tom Nichols, a professor at the Naval War College, published a post on Twitter on Sunday criticizing Indian food.
"I find that people often pretend to like the cuisine of other countries as a way to show that they have a wealth of experience, but to be honest, my taste buds can't accept what is called 'Indian cuisine' in the UK and the US.""
After the post was published, it was condemned by netizens. Some have criticized the scholar for having no taste.
Celebrity chef Padma Lakshmi replied under the post to "Don't you have taste buds?"
Some netizens also said that the Indian food that Mr. Nichols may have tasted may only account for 1% of all Indian dishes, and the variety of Indian food is very rich, unless he has really tried every Indian dish, he cannot make such a general criticism.
Nichols later admitted that he had indeed only eaten Indian food at Indian restaurants in the United States and Britain, and did not personally go to India to taste "authentic" dishes.
Nichols' tweet sparked a deep discussion about the immigrant experience and brought many back memories of food-related racism they experienced in the United States.
Some point out that in the United States, international foods, or so-called "national foods," are often labeled "cheap foods."
As a result, many people prefer street food that is streamlined, "Americanized" and extensively crafted without authentic ingredients, such as "Indian" food that has no curry flavor at all, or Chinese food that has been "improved" by localization.
It was also pointed out that for a long time, in the racist rhetoric against ethnic minorities, the debate about the taste of the dish has been common, because each race has its own different cooking habits and tastes, so netizens accused Nichols of being "not tolerant enough" of Indian cuisine.
Terry Moran, a senior ABC correspondent, also tweeted about "controversial food" recently, saying: "Chinese food is the same, and after eating, you only remember the smell of salt."
Some netizens replied: "Your remarks can only prove your ignorance of food and dishes from different regions."
Asian food lovers have also taken aim at Moran, accusing him of having only eaten takeaways and never tasted authentic Chinese food.