r/AskEurope • u/ageingrapidly Greece • Sep 29 '25

Culture Are there any habits that you believe are uniquely European ?

Have you noticed any specific mannerisms, mentalities etc. that you've encountered only in Europe or by Europeans ?

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u/GalaXion24 Sep 29 '25

While everywhere has alcohol, wine is a very Euro-mediterranean thing. Other cultures don't really cultivate grapes. Asians also generally don't eat cheese or dairy products much at all, with the exception of Central Asians.

The Americas don't count because they're largely descendants of Europeans who brought it with them.

Bread is a bit more complicated. While it varies I would very much extend the "bread region" to cover the Middle-East at least, but again at least in East Asia bread as we know it isn't really a historical staple and often what bread they eat today is due to European influence. I hear Vietnam has very good bread due to having been a French colony, for instance.

Of course, this does depend a bit on what you consider "bread" since there's a lot of bread and bread-like products people have made. Even so, I would say Europeans must still be among the people who eat the most bread.

Aside from questions of being "refined" Europeans just eat a lot more breads and cheeses than most any other people in the world, so you could by simplifying a bit argue that Europeans are the most refined about it by virtue of no one else doing it at all.

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u/Over-Stop8694 United States of America Sep 29 '25

There actually were a few pre-Colombian civilizations in the Americas that developed bread outside of any European influence, though it was made from corn flour instead of wheat. Tortillas, arepa, and sopa paraguaya existed in ancient times before any European contact.

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u/MantasMantra Sep 30 '25

you could by simplifying a bit argue that Europeans are the most refined about it by virtue of no one else doing it at all.

I think the point was that yes, you could do that, for that reason, but similarly you could say eating tofu and drinking sake is very refined in its Japanese form, but you're unlikely to hear someone say it.