I may be igniting a small war with these posts—we’ll see.

Derb—I recently married a girl who came from Ukraine eight years ago with her extended family.
Let me tell you, gatherings with her family are truly a gastronomical nightmare. Cold meat in gelatin, raw bacon (yes, you read that right) marinated raw mackerel, etc, etc. Even more standard dishes are rendered inedible by either over- or under-cooking.
I feel bad whenever we are invited as guests because I simply cannot choke down about 80 percent of the food served.

[Me] Thank you, Sir, thank you! Can you imagine how it gladdens the heart of a born Englishman to read about some other country’s dire cuisine? I’ll take Marmite over raw mackerel any day.