It's not exactly about "here" or "there".

It's more about people in peer groups preoccupied with class distinctions, vs, say, 90% of Americans who could not give less fucks about it.

Region plays a role in the distribution and size of such peer groups though.

Class distinction is a second order effect and isn’t really the topic being discussed. The primary mover is pickiness, which does generally track with class.

And class tends to also correlate with having traveled a lot which at least tracks with developing a more varied appetite for different foods.

> it gets people socially in trouble if they’re picky.

What does it look like when somebody gets “socially in trouble” for being picky? What actually happens to them (socially) in this instance?

I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this, so I’m really curious about it.

I’m not sure if I’d use the term but if someone in a group is constantly high maintenance with respect to food, both the group and they themselves probably lose interest in paddling against the current.

It’s not even really pickiness per se. If some group always wants to just eat fast food I’m going to be less inclined to join them. No value judgement. Just not my thing.

A mostly disappointing meal for everyone involved. If you know someone is picky ahead of time the meal can be steered towards a place that's accommodating. If, however, everyone is surprised by the picky eater then you're left with some disappointing choices. You either ruin everyone's expectations by changing to a different restaurant at the last minute, or you watch the picky eater try to make the best of what they probably consider a bad situation. Maybe they try something new and hope they like it, but most likely they order the blandest thing they can and everyone gets to feel a little bad about the person ordering a bowl of plain noodles for dinner so they can all eat at the place they planned on/wanted to.

And of course, people don't want to spend time with people who make them feel bad, so the picky eater will gradually be pushed to the fringe, and left out of plans.