What You Think About Ethnic Foods is Wrong Venn Diagrams of Ethnic Food Stereotypes

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If you think sushi and sashimi comprise the whole of the Japanese diet, chances are someone from Japan will say you're flat-out wrong—and seriously missing out on street food.

So along these lines, Katharine Shilcott recently conducted an informal poll on the Houston Press blog Eating Our Words about ethnic cuisines. The results show some persistent stereotyping in a series of Venn diagrams.

She found that there's often a big disconnect between what Texans thought about French, German, Korean, Indian, Lebanese, and Ethiopian food (the left side), what people from those countries said they actually ate every day (the right side). That said, there was some overlap (in the middle).

While the diagrams simplify things and overlook the nuanced regional foods of each country, it's worth looking at them and reexamination our prejudices—and not just in Texas either.

Illustrations by Monica Fuentes via Houston Press.