"American" food

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Replies

  • x_Shruti_x
    x_Shruti_x Posts: 21 Member
    Is the op serious? Wow America
  • pcastagner
    pcastagner Posts: 1,606 Member
    Didn't realize this thread was a american food bashing thread, are the Brits in any position to criticize, really now!
    Yes. We are.

    As an American and a foodie currently in London I must disagree.
  • debrag12
    debrag12 Posts: 1,071 Member
    For you American's in the UK

    http://www.americansoda.co.uk/food/
  • kbeech06
    kbeech06 Posts: 328 Member
    Didn't realize this thread was a american food bashing thread, are the Brits in any position to criticize, really now!
    Yes. We are.

    The Brits can criticize, but they sure do LOVE fast food. The few times I've walked into a McD's here, the places were PACKED! Like...no place to sit.
    I love the English and their food, but they do tend to stereo type Americans and food. No not ALL Americans eat burgers, pizza and hot dogs. MOST of our food (the home cooked variety) comes from the DECADES of immigrants who have brought their recipes with them.
    What truly cracks me up are the people who stereo type either country and haven't visited for themselves or if they have, they've been to a tourist trap and not seen the "real" life of either place.
  • runlilyrun
    runlilyrun Posts: 140
    Didn't realize this thread was a american food bashing thread, are the Brits in any position to criticize, really now!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLgmk323H6k

    Yes, yes, I think we can.

    American foods we don't really 'do':
    -any kind of pie other than Apple (sweet, I mean)
    - corn dogs
    - s'mores (much to my sadness - here we spike marshmallows on sticks for campfires)
    - pop tarts, peanut butter cups etc (though those are increasingly available in supermarkets, yay!)
    - (Canadian) poutine - I had chilli fries every day for lunch when I was in BC skiing, YUM.
    - plum etc sauce with chicken 'tenders' (we just call them nuggets or bites)


    Anyone in the SW of England - there's a pub called the Bunch of Grapes on Bradford-on-Avon that does the most AMAZING savoury pies.
    What strikes me, looking at people from other nationalities' diaries, is how much they eat that I can't identify, with lots of branded foods and very little home made.
    Also, when you say 'American food' my immediate thought is... '20 times bigger than the average size'

    Agreed. Though as I'm emptying my freezer in preparation for moving at the moment I'm eating an awful lot of processed food :(
  • paeoniarosee
    paeoniarosee Posts: 1
    In Denmark we have a hot dog as well, but not in the same way as the American hot dog. Ours has a red sausage (I think it's called a "weiner sausage") and raw or roasted onions, ketchup, mustard, sweet french mustard, remoulade and pickles. I don't really like the taste of it..
    We also have like.. french hot dogs.

    We do have apple pie. It's just a bit different from yours, I believe. I think yours are a bit more sweet than ours.
  • debrag12
    debrag12 Posts: 1,071 Member
    http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/eat/best-usa-travel/top-50-american-foods-513946

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_cuisine

    http://neilandggowalkabout.com/2011/12/05/100-english-foods-you-gotta-try/

    The best thing to come from Britian - Marmite!
    The best thing to come from American - Root Beer! Though it's hard to get/expernsive here :(
  • MadameMC
    MadameMC Posts: 63 Member
    For me the main difference between European food and US food is the use of herbs is more widespread here, while in the US it either seems to be spicy (chilli) or unseasoned (except for salt and pepper).

    And if you can't buy wine with your meal its not a restaurant.:smile:

    As someone from the US I'd have to disagree about the herb use. I don't know how much you use it there, but we use it here plenty... it just all depends on where you go. Fast food isn't going to use so much - but I can guarantee you a sit down restaurant is going to, lest they go un-patronized for having bland food. (I ate dinner at such a place recently, and will never go back again.)

    Also, there are a few movie theaters in the US called "Cinebarre" that you can order food and wine to have while you watch the movie. Would I call that a restaurant though? Certainly not. Here restaurant seems to be more of a general term to mean "place you can get food" and less "not a fast food joint".

    But, that's the point of view of a pacific northwest-erner, and likely to differ all over this country. Heck, we can't unanimously decide to call a beverage Soda, Coke, or Pop.
  • kbeech06
    kbeech06 Posts: 328 Member


    The best thing to come from Britian - Marmite!

    I want to try this...but I know hubby doesn't like it, and I doubt daughter would like it...so I don't want to buy any not knowing whether or not I'll like it.
  • debrag12
    debrag12 Posts: 1,071 Member


    The best thing to come from Britian - Marmite!

    I want to try this...but I know hubby doesn't like it, and I doubt daughter would like it...so I don't want to buy any not knowing whether or not I'll like it.

    It's a love it or hate it thing
  • kbeech06
    kbeech06 Posts: 328 Member


    The best thing to come from Britian - Marmite!

    I want to try this...but I know hubby doesn't like it, and I doubt daughter would like it...so I don't want to buy any not knowing whether or not I'll like it.

    It's a love it or hate it thing

    Yeah that's what everyone says...guess I should try it eventually.
  • alisonlynn1976
    alisonlynn1976 Posts: 929 Member
    I'm an American living in Sweden. Yes, there are apple pie and hot dogs here. There are street vendors selling hot dogs all over the place, actually.
  • kazzsjourney
    kazzsjourney Posts: 674 Member
    Im in australia...and yes we have hotdogs and applepie here lol. Most american foods you can get here....you just seem to have a bigger variety. Some places here import things like amercian sweets n candy etc. But we dont have luna bars and cliff bars for example..and theres only a couple of places online where you can by trutin protein powder as another example. We have chobani here but nowhere near as many flavours as are available in america.
  • PlayerHatinDogooder
    PlayerHatinDogooder Posts: 1,018 Member
    Mexican > Japanese > Thai > American > Chinese > Dog food > British food
  • nikilis
    nikilis Posts: 2,305 Member
    Didn't realize this thread was a american food bashing thread, are the Brits in any position to criticize, really now!
    Yes. We are.

    As an American and a foodie currently in London I must disagree.

    pigs trotties, eel pie, black pudding.

    the uk only figured out what real coffee is in the last 5 minutes, and usually the standard is low enough for starbucks to actually be a good option. lol.

    borough market is good tho.
  • Marion_
    Marion_ Posts: 56 Member
    Didn't realize this thread was a american food bashing thread, are the Brits in any position to criticize, really now!

    LOL! I think in Europe we have that image of US food = fast-food and we don't really know any other local specialities, home cooking recipes etc.
    That being said, burgers and US coffee shops are the new trendy thing here in Paris. You have people looking for the best burger in the city, gourmet burger, gourmet food trucks with American fastfood, even gourmet hot dogs (I didn't know it was a thing lol), or "French" burgers with special bread and cheese in brasseries. So this image of "bad US fast-food" is changing.

    For me, apple pie is not American - I think it exists in all coutries that have apples ;) - but hot-dogs are typical US food
  • debrag12
    debrag12 Posts: 1,071 Member
    Didn't realize this thread was a american food bashing thread, are the Brits in any position to criticize, really now!
    Yes. We are.

    As an American and a foodie currently in London I must disagree.

    pigs trotties, eel pie, black pudding.

    the uk only figured out what real coffee is in the last 5 minutes, and usually the standard is low enough for starbucks to actually be a good option. lol.

    borough market is good tho.

    I hate the 3 things you mentioned YUCK!
  • MsEmmy
    MsEmmy Posts: 254 Member
    Ummmmm yes the rest of the world has the same food you all have in the USA. It's not like US is the only place on earth that you can buy food.


    I wonder over in the US......do you have water?

    lol

    It's like saying the world revolves around the USA or nothing exists outside it.

    Isn't there a myth about Americans aren't told in schools about other countries etc?

    Not to hijack the thread (much) but when I studied in Albany NY, I had a friend from Scotland and many American students were amazed how well she spoke English....I think they thought all Scottish people spoke Gaelic as their first language? Or just hadn't thought about it at all. They also had never heard of Wales and didn't know Scotland was attached to England. I also saw world maps where the US was in the middle meaning there was a big slice down Russia with half on each side of the US. Not bashing the US - I love it, but I did think that was funny.
  • hanfit85
    hanfit85 Posts: 10
    US food has to have a brand name and is generally yellow or beige - that's an impression from the UK.

    Apple (and other) fruit pies probably went to America from the UK or Europe back in the day. I doubt it was a Native American thing. I have no more idea what a s'more is than a sophomore. Sounds like a genetic mutation or a body shape.

    Hershey's candy can't be sold here as chocolate as it has too little cocoa in it. It also tastes and smells like sick to us.

    We now have Subway, but nobody knows WTF a "sub" is - to us it's an underwater warship. While Subway may be about the healthiest thing you can find in Florida it's about the opposite here.

    McDonalds is the most obvious manifestation of "American Food", I went to the first (and then only) McD nr Leicester Sq in London in about 1978, but now they're everywhere.

    Hot dogs are here, but aren't especially popular. We have whole streets of fried chicken joints waiting to serve greasy yellow food to people falling out of vertical drinking establishments in the town centres, but we can't really blame them on the US even if some of them put "Southern" in their name and have Stars & Stripes emblems.

    Finally, I always laugh to myself when I hear McDonalds or KFC described as a "restaurant" LOL. Here a restaurant is a place that serves propoer food, what US might call "fine dining". McDonalds is a burger joint. Cheap food is sold in a cafe or "greasy spoon".


    P.S this is not what all english people are like.

    Im from the UK.
    I love American food (and the occasional McDonalds)
    They sell hersheys in my local supermarket
    My grandmother makes a mean apple pie, warm with ice cream mmmmm.
    The end.
  • debrag12
    debrag12 Posts: 1,071 Member
    Ummmmm yes the rest of the world has the same food you all have in the USA. It's not like US is the only place on earth that you can buy food.


    I wonder over in the US......do you have water?

    lol

    It's like saying the world revolves around the USA or nothing exists outside it.

    Isn't there a myth about Americans aren't told in schools about other countries etc?

    Not to hijack the thread (much) but when I studied in Albany NY, I had a friend from Scotland and many American students were amazed how well she spoke English....I think they thought all Scottish people spoke Gaelic as their first language? Or just hadn't thought about it at all. They also had never heard of Wales and didn't know Scotland was attached to England. I also saw world maps where the US was in the middle meaning there was a big slice down Russia with half on each side of the US. Not bashing the US - I love it, but I did think that was funny.

    nothing wrong with the map, Australia have themselfs in the middle of their maps.
  • xbted
    xbted Posts: 41 Member
    Here in Germany, everything is a processed meat product. I haven't had a good steak in over a year :( And no, they don't have pie here, but they do have about every type of cake you could possibly imagine.

    But if you really want to talk about American food, you don't get more American than Buffalo Wings. I have to make my own sauce, but at least you can get Tabasco here (for a price)
  • nikilis
    nikilis Posts: 2,305 Member
    Ummmmm yes the rest of the world has the same food you all have in the USA. It's not like US is the only place on earth that you can buy food.


    I wonder over in the US......do you have water?

    lol

    It's like saying the world revolves around the USA or nothing exists outside it.

    Isn't there a myth about Americans aren't told in schools about other countries etc?

    Not to hijack the thread (much) but when I studied in Albany NY, I had a friend from Scotland and many American students were amazed how well she spoke English....I think they thought all Scottish people spoke Gaelic as their first language? Or just hadn't thought about it at all. They also had never heard of Wales and didn't know Scotland was attached to England. I also saw world maps where the US was in the middle meaning there was a big slice down Russia with half on each side of the US. Not bashing the US - I love it, but I did think that was funny.

    nothing wrong with the map, Australia have themselfs in the middle of their maps.

    hot dogs and apple pie to countries showing their own self absorption through their positioning on maps in 4 pages.

    congratulations.
  • MsEmmy
    MsEmmy Posts: 254 Member
    I'm in the UK and when I was younger we used to love it when my Aunt from the US brought 'American candy' over as we had nothing like it over here - all the different flavours of bubble gum for a start! Now we can pretty much get most American candy over here.

    Things I think are particularly American? Sweet potato! It's more popular here now but the first time I had that was in the US int he early 90s where it seemed pretty commonplace. It wasn't something you buy easily here for years. I think having watched a few shows about American food I now think of it as the food from the south - African/ Caribbean inspired, and mexican style. And also barbecue style food - sweetcorn, burgers etc even though we do have all that stuff here. We do have hotdogs, but not really as street food unless as people have said, it's after a football match or pub closing time :)

    One thng that really seems to divide people is Canadian poutine! I love it but I have friends who retch at the idea of it.
  • Sqeekyjojo
    Sqeekyjojo Posts: 704 Member
    I think the trouble comes where the only exposure to a different nation's food comes via what can be imported. So, in the UK, we see blue boxes of mac and cheese when any idiot can cook pasta and make a cheese sauce, cake mixes when you only need eggs, sugar, flour and sometimes fat, boxes of cereal with little sugary lumps of food colouring and about as much nutritional value as the packet in comes in when you discount the milk.

    Everywhere has variations on sausages, burgers, meatballs and meatloaf. Everywhere has apples and pastry. A bit of meat bunged in some bread is nothing special. Even pizza isn't confined to one country, you'll get versions all over the place. Everybody knows how to fry chicken. We've been using spices for thousands of years, too; curry is one of the first ever published recipes. (But the only sausages worth eating are German or Lebanese - the rest are awful).



    If somebody wants their food to be judged fairly, then perhaps they shouldn't hold up packaged, heavily adulterated and refined crap as being representative of their cuisine.
  • debrag12
    debrag12 Posts: 1,071 Member
    I'm in the UK and when I was younger we used to love it when my Aunt from the US brought 'American candy' over as we had nothing like it over here - all the different flavours of bubble gum for a start! Now we can pretty much get most American candy over here.

    Things I think are particularly American? Sweet potato! It's more popular here now but the first time I had that was in the US int he early 90s where it seemed pretty commonplace. It wasn't something you buy easily here for years. I think having watched a few shows about American food I now think of it as the food from the south - African/ Caribbean inspired, and mexican style. And also barbecue style food - sweetcorn, burgers etc even though we do have all that stuff here. We do have hotdogs, but not really as street food unless as people have said, it's after a football match or pub closing time :)

    One thng that really seems to divide people is Canadian poutine! I love it but I have friends who retch at the idea of it.

    I don't even know what poutine is.

    EDIT: I looked it up, similar to chips and gravy over here (uk). I love chips and gravy, it's a northern thing.
  • MsEmmy
    MsEmmy Posts: 254 Member
    I'm in the UK and when I was younger we used to love it when my Aunt from the US brought 'American candy' over as we had nothing like it over here - all the different flavours of bubble gum for a start! Now we can pretty much get most American candy over here.

    Things I think are particularly American? Sweet potato! It's more popular here now but the first time I had that was in the US int he early 90s where it seemed pretty commonplace. It wasn't something you buy easily here for years. I think having watched a few shows about American food I now think of it as the food from the south - African/ Caribbean inspired, and mexican style. And also barbecue style food - sweetcorn, burgers etc even though we do have all that stuff here. We do have hotdogs, but not really as street food unless as people have said, it's after a football match or pub closing time :)

    One thng that really seems to divide people is Canadian poutine! I love it but I have friends who retch at the idea of it.

    I don't even know what poutine is.

    EDIT: I looked it up, similar to chips and gravy over here (uk). I love chips and gravy, it's a northern thing.

    It has cheese curds in as well. I think that's the bit that turns people's stomachs!
  • debrag12
    debrag12 Posts: 1,071 Member
    sounds nice to me
  • jenniferwren
    jenniferwren Posts: 189
    Didn't realize this thread was a american food bashing thread, are the Brits in any position to criticize, really now!
    Yes. We are.

    As an American and a foodie currently in London I must disagree.

    have you been anywhere other than London though? Our regional foods are amazing, much like France and it's regions, although the garlic ones hate us and take the piss out of our food they used to come over here to learn how to cook!
  • debrag12
    debrag12 Posts: 1,071 Member
    Didn't realize this thread was a american food bashing thread, are the Brits in any position to criticize, really now!
    Yes. We are.

    As an American and a foodie currently in London I must disagree.

    have you been anywhere other than London though? Our regional foods are amazing, much like France and it's regions, although the garlic ones hate us and take the piss out of our food they used to come over here to learn how to cook!

    They hate everyone don't they, from what people who have been have said to me.
  • Buddhasmiracle
    Buddhasmiracle Posts: 925 Member
    Didn't realize this thread was a american food bashing thread, are the Brits in any position to criticize, really now!

    Yes actually. We have the widest variety of food available anywhere thanks in part to our former Empire, so don't judge British food only by the traditional boiled beef and carrots, steak and kidney pudding, fish and chips, etc. Most Brits are quite cosmopolitan in their food tastes nowadays. We also tend to travel outside our own country more and therefore are exposed to different tastes and flavours.

    But it's wrong to bash american food just because the US fast food industry has taken over the world in a not so healthy way. America actually has a great cuisine thanks to local ingredients and the influences of over 200 years of immigration, continuing today with influences from Mexico and South America.

    I think this is an accurate assessment.

    I would also add African influences particularly on "southern" cooking, American Indian (corn meal based foods, the use of pumpkin/squash) and the "islands" influence -- Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, etc., Middle and Far Eastern.

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