[montyf]

> they belong in the same category as French or Japanese

Huh? French food I can understand, though I don't have much of a taste for it, but Japanese food is terrible -- I was there for two weeks. A lot of foreigners are deeply disappointed when they travel to Japan, especially by sushi (though I found a couple of good sushi places). However, by far the best food in Japan is found in Chinese-style restaurants. Chinese food completely eclipses Japanese.

Eastern European food is fantastic. It completely spoiled me and my gf -- we couldn't stand the much-loved Spanish tapas when we went there. And Poles make as good or better pizza than Italians.

And then we went to Asia and found ourselves in a whole different ballgame.

> you can get an _amazing_ meal for cheap in Greenpoint

I completely sympathize -- Polish food is rewelacyjne when you're used to shitty American food.

[realusername]

> Huh? French food I can understand, though I don't have much of a taste for it

You probably have not tried the ones you like, I'm french myself and there's so much variety in France it's impossible to try everything, I probably know less than 50% of the regional specialties despite being native. There's very few national dishes unlike most other countries.

[laumars]

It's all just down to personal preferences. On balance I much prefer western European food to eastern European despite having polish grandparents who used to cook amazing pierogi.

[ericd]

Do you like beef? Japan produces some of the best beef in the world.

Or it might just be your taste, but many people disagree with you about it being objectively bad.