u/Azir_Shurima

For example, Northern Italy has large population centers around Milan, Turin, and Genoa, while Emilia-Romagna and Veneto seem to have a pretty evenly distributed network of cities, such as Bologna, Modena, Padua, Verona, and Venice. Central Italy has Rome and Florence, and even the coasts of Marche and Abruzzo seem to have a fairly continuous string of cities. Southern Italy has Naples, Palermo, and Catania, while the coast of Puglia also seems pretty well distributed, with cities like Bari, Taranto, Lecce, etc.

Meanwhile, France is heavily centralized around Paris, with maybe two other major population centers farther south in Lyon and Marseille, which dwarf compare to Paris. One would think France should be more geographically dispersed, considering Italy's much more mountainous geography, with the Apennines running along the length of the peninsula and the Alps in the north, while Northern France is relatively flat and has some of the highest agricultural potential and yields that could've fostered major cities.

The other day, I watched this food documentary by Italian food journalist Claudia Romeo (Why Venice Won’t Eat the Crab Destroying Its Lagoon) about the explosive population boom of Atlantic blue crabs in the Venetian Lagoon caused by the rising water temperatures from global warming. Despite the abundance of these crabs, most Venetians, let alone Italians, don't really seem to consume them because they are stigmatized as not being pleasant tasting. I found this very interesting because here in the US, especially in Maryland, blue crabs are a highly prized delicacy used for crab cakes. Meanwhile, in the Venice, they seem to be treated as the pests of the ocean, being sold for next to nothing.

This got me thinking if there is any food resource native to your country that is underutilized or under-consumed by the local population due to a stigmatization, while being better appreciated in other countries?