School Lunch From Around the World

1. Byrd Brain
   May 28th, 2009 at 10:47 am

   Clockwise from the top, shall we?
   Fish, ham and scrambled eggs (yes, VERY mysterious), kimchi, mi-yuk gook (kelp soup), and finally, rice and more seaweed (laver). All of it is quite good except the ham- it's processed beyond even bologna over there. For bonus points, the yellow stuff on the plate in the corner is pickled daikon or "mu".

2. SenorMysterioso
   May 28th, 2009 at 10:52 am

   I liked school lunches too. I remember some items that I have never seen anywhere other than primary school cafeterias that I miss. They used to serve a great little crumb cake that I loved.

3. Gauldar
   May 28th, 2009 at 11:06 am

   At my highschool it was all about the chicken burgers.

4. oink
   May 28th, 2009 at 11:07 am

   If we look at everything the american way i'm sure we'll find the most appetizing lunches at http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/, you know, mystery ground meat, wrapped in bacon, wrapped in more fat and deep fried in fat? Because its so much more appetizing than grilled fish and seaweed?

   The author of that site is so ignorant it makes me sick. Honestly, articles on neatorama were quality compared to this garbage. Don't know why you're sponsor it. Disappointing, really.

5. Chandrielle
   May 28th, 2009 at 11:46 am

   Fish heads, fish heads
   Roly poly fish heads
   Fish heads, fish heads
   Eat 'em up, yum!

6. ignorance on neatorama? say it ain't so.
   May 28th, 2009 at 11:52 am

   i actually found this incredibly offensive. i'm korean-american, and i don't take kindly to some unresearched genius making fun of the daily diets of other ethnicities. i'd take kelp soup, kimchi and spinach over processed steak fingers and scoop-shaped artificial starches any day.

7. Stan
   May 28th, 2009 at 11:57 am

   ^ I agree, the culturally ignorant idiot shouldn't be featured on neatorama

8. LisaL
   May 28th, 2009 at 12:08 pm

   Loved our school lunches.
   And that korean lunch looks great. I think the greens on the plate is spinach. My mother often uses it when she makes kimbop. It's also good by itself b/c they put some kind of oil and stuff on it. Very tasty.

   Anywho.. at the HS I went to. I never ate in the cafeteria, but I know a lot of people did. We also had like a mini-food court. A place that sold Taco Bell, Pizza and the best eggrolls ever!

9. notoriousnicholas
   May 28th, 2009 at 12:10 pm

   I don't understand why you think the author was being offensive? Where did the author make fun of Korean food? It just seems to me that they didn't know what the items were. I say quit being so hyper sensitive. If someone in Korea said, "What the heck is that?" I wouldn't care one bit. You guys are lame for being so uptight.

10. Miss Cellania
    May 28th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    They all look better than anything I remember eating in school, but the meals always tasted better than they looked. We had beans and cornbread at least twice a week.

11. notoriousnicholas
    May 28th, 2009 at 12:23 pm

    Anywho, I e-mailed the author, told him some people were offended by the Korean lunches, and asked him to remove anything that could be misconstrued as offensive.

12. Gauldar
    May 28th, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    @notoriousnicholas

    I find your comment offensive, please cease and desist your actions on making me read your comment.

13. VonSkippy
    May 28th, 2009 at 1:20 pm

    Millions of years of evolution wiring the brain to notice any and all differences in order to decide on the friend/foe or fight/flight response and a bunch of modern goodie-two-shoe-ers want to throw that away.

    Differences are what make the world interesting. Who cares if people poke fun at them - at least they noticed.

    If you want everyone to be alike, join a cult.

14. notoriousnicholas
    May 28th, 2009 at 1:28 pm

    Amen Vonskippy

15. notoriousnicholas
    May 28th, 2009 at 1:29 pm

    @Gauldar

    Wow.

16. Screen Sleuth
    May 28th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    Sorry, but this just looks gross, regardless of any cultural bias.

17. Gauldar
    May 28th, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    @notoriousnicholas

    And for the love of god stop taking me seriously!

18. La_Petite_Poi
    May 28th, 2009 at 1:50 pm

    seriously people, no need to get upset. i thought it was interesting what other people in the world got for school lunch. if neatorama hadn't posted this, i would have never even given a thought to what people in other countries eat for lunch. i just wish there were more nations represented but hey, maybe they don't even have school lunches. either way, if you don't like a neatorama post, don't read it.

19. Arwin3
    May 28th, 2009 at 1:51 pm

    I personally found this interesting! We didn't have cafeterias where I grew up (rural Canada). My first thought was "Wow, that's a lot of food!" People brought their own lunches and it was typically a basic sandwhich (often peanut butter and jam), and a piece of fruit).

    Probably would have been better to have a school lunches in someways,I would probably be more inclined to think "Do Ihave a veggie with my lunch? Do I have fruit? Protein?"

    The only thing that gave me pause was the "nasty" comment on the organic lunch. Lol. The different culture lunches were more interesting than not.

20. goody goody
    May 28th, 2009 at 2:18 pm

    I grew up eating American food but now prefer Asian. I'm vegetarian and aside from the fish, would prefer a Korean or Japanese lunch over any of the American choices presented here. It mostly looks like fried pieces of tan food to me.

21. goody goody
    May 28th, 2009 at 2:24 pm

    To Arwin3: when I first read your comment, I thought you said you dined on peanut butter and ham! Thanks for the unintentional funny! Glad I re-read that. It made me think of the punishment lunches my friend told me about. Her mother would send peanut butter and cheddar sandwiches to school if she or her seven siblings had gotten in trouble as a warning saying, "I know what you've done"!

22. seefish3
    May 28th, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    @Mysterioso

    I miss some school lunch items, too. I remember a Baconburger (ground beef fried in a bacon coating of some kind) and Congo bars (a blonde brownie with dark chocolate and white chocolate chips).

    And, oh, the joy of the Spork...

23. dutchboy
    May 28th, 2009 at 2:57 pm

    I'm looking foreward to the future when we have school breakfast and supper programs as well, the best part of all will be the uniform white jumpsuits that we will all wear,that will be so cool! The implanted RFID chips will make everything so much more convenient and safe for everyone.
    I'm not all for the forced medication, but if it makes everything better for the group sure I'll go along with it.

24. buddhaflow
    May 28th, 2009 at 3:25 pm

    Hey! I recognize that! It's what I ate today..and yesterday..and the day before..and what I look forward to eating today School lunches in Korea are delicious, for the most part! And nutritious too. I wonder if it helps their behavior?

25. Namowal
    May 28th, 2009 at 3:41 pm

    The Korean lunches look more appetizing than some of the American ones. Many of the latter looked unhealthy- lots of processed, fried starchy things.

26. vonskippy
    May 28th, 2009 at 3:46 pm

    I love how everyone is cracking on the American lunches as being unhealthy when it's the FRENCH lunches that have french fries with EVERYTHING.

27. Stan
    May 28th, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    @VonSkippy - i like "difference" too. Theres a difference between poking fun and making fun - thats like saying bullies are justified in bullying because they can point out differences. Not that its an analogy to what the OP of the post did, but i'd choose your words a little more wisely

    Anyways, I posted a comment on the OP post and he has since removed the comment and changed the comments on the post. If you weren't here before comment ~9, the comments on this thread are out of context

    I'll end this response with a quote:
    "Theres no 'overreaction'. Theres your reaction, and theres my reaction. Who are you to set the standard?"

28. V!veCanta
    May 28th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

    wow, its so interesting seeing what kids eat in other countries. I wonder if they hate lunch food as much as we did here in America?

    I went to a public school here in Chicago. Ghetto, I guess. The food was pretty sucky, but by 1 pm you pretty much ate anything they gave you.

    I actually remember some of those lunches pictured there. haha good times.

29. seekshelter
    May 28th, 2009 at 6:20 pm

    for years, ive longed for some of those elementary school rectangular pizza slices... i still dream about that taste...

30. Del Taco
    May 28th, 2009 at 7:04 pm

    It's Salsbury steak day!

31. LisaL
    May 28th, 2009 at 9:49 pm

    OMG seekshelter.... those were the freakin best. Those thin rectangle floppy pizzas they served in elementary school were AWESOME.
    Our elementary school also had THE best PB sandwiches. It was a honey PB, served with a bowl of vegtable soup. Good lord, best ever!

    I feel bad for people who had sucky school meals.... everything the schools served here was awesome.

32. V!veCanta
    May 29th, 2009 at 12:24 am

    yea lisa us ghetto school kids got the sucky food lol

    tear*

33. oink
    May 29th, 2009 at 8:54 am

    @notoriousnicholas
    I think its more about referring to seaweed as 'pubic hair' on the japanese lunch...
    I dunno, maybe if someone referred to pepproni pizza as 'blood stained pad' it'd have the same effect.

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