Danny ChaiI never had Vietnamese food until midway through college. I held out on Indian food even longer, never having it until I started working. It turns out they’re both pretty good. But growing up, I had Indian and Vietnamese friends, and their houses all smelled weird to me. So I associated those cuisines with those funky house smells, and it took a long time to get over that.
Our house apparently had a smell also, a fish-like odor they say. I wonder if my non-Korean friends avoided Korean food for a long time because of our house smell. I also wonder if my current apartment has a distinctive smell. Does it? You can be honest.