Americans Getting Comfortable With Exotic Cuisines

A new report from the National Restaurant Association says Americans are growing more familiar with, and enamored of, unconventional international foods. At least 25 percent like to experiment with ethnic dishes. Ninety percent have tried Italian, Mexican and Chinese food, two-thirds know Mediterranean dishes, and half have tried Middle Eastern, Thai and sushi at least once. The cuisines of some nations, however, may be a little too exotic, or perhaps simply unavailable. Seventy percent are not at familiar with Ethiopian cuisine, and half don’t know anything about Korean or Brazilian/Argentinian food. But American testing of foreign foods is definitely on the rise: two-thirds surveyed say they eat a wider variety of ethnic cuisines now than they did five years ago.