15 American Foods That Freak Out the World

So you can't stomach the idea of drinking civet poop with your coffee? Well, just imagine coming to America for the first time and encountering … mayonnaise. Houston Press writer Katharine Shilcutt took a survey of her foreign-born friends and came up with 15 examples of Western food and food customs foreigners find bizarre:

• Biscuits and gravy: Hala from Lebanon calls them "gross and strange."
• Peanut butter: Natacha from Chile calls it "weird."

• Three warm meals each day: The idea "was odd to me," says Iris from Germany, particularly lunch: "To me, people were eating a dinner at 11 and then again a dinner later."
• Mayonnaise: "People put that on everything," says Pat from Mexico. "Yuck!"
• Cheese: Miya from China calls it "weird."
• Free refills: Iris' husband says that the first time she got a free refill after finishing a "giant iced tea," "her head exploded."

Click for the complete list. (More food stories.)