Absolutely! It’s important to remember it’s a pretty subjective / lighthearted topic and not to take it too seriously. I can definitely see how curries can be seen that way from a different perspective. There’s an interesting history that plays into these cultural perceptions, which may explain why other meat in ‘gravy’ dishes may not come to mind first for some – such as meatloaf and gravy which can only be described aesthetically as a spurt of diarrhea on top of a sliced turd.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/26/394339284/how-snobbery-helped-take-the-spice-out-of-european-cooking

There seemed to be a need for a greater diversity of foods being pointed out here so thought we could broaden the horizons of this discourse, make it a little more inclusive and maybe even learn a little something about how a perspective is, at the end of the day, just an arbitrary amalgamation (kind of like the garbage plate I posted above) of subjective views. Tongue firmly in cheek, of course.

Obviously not in a pedantic sense, just that they also don’t look appetizing on their own, it’s the flavor that’s associated with them that makes it work.

If we’re being honest a hamburger looks like a smashed turd and a hot dog looks like fluorescent factory meat.

Now that I think about it a regional American dish that comes to mind is the garbage plate (named aptly for being a hodgepodge of leftovers) which looks like someone unloaded on a tray of french fries part way through their colonoscopy prep and then blew their nose on top of that:

Flavor is suprisingly solid.

Another would be oatmeal which can taste quite hearty if done right but looks very much like snot in a bowl:

Agree, hamburgers at least taste good even if at their worst they look like compressed excrement between buns. Hot dogs can often be flavourfully dubious while also appearing as artificial factory processed mystery meat, but there are definitely exceptions!

My guess is many users are American so it will be hard to relate to but at least we can acknowledge that the appearance of food is very culturally coded / subjective.

My guess is we have a few folks here that didn’t grow up with curry which in my humble opinion looks and tastes great (subjective, I know) but if I had to pick one it would be octupus. Something about the suction cups.

Feel the same way about hot dogs and hamburgers. Must depend on what you grow up with.

One of the most delicious dishes I’ve had as a fan of curry though I’ve only ever eaten it at a Malaysian restaurant and not homemade.

This is a pretty normal aesthetic for food in South and South East Asia so it looks amazing to me…Seems like the appearance of food is very culturally subjective.