American foods that foreigners find disgusting

0 for 4, all awesome

Anything "salad"-which is code for carb slathered in mayo

Hot Dogs

OP sounds like a CUNT.

Cupcakes

How do small cakes seem disgusting?

OP is totally right on this one. Add anything remotely "cinnamony" if we are talking about the French.

Peanut butter is hardly American--Dutch kids, for example, have grown up eating it (and growing tall and strong) for generations.

It's a pity that the 'American Foods' aisle in European supemarkets (even high-end grocery stores) often contains mostly trashy products: some of the most processed foods in the world, such as Pepperidge Farm "cookies", Marshmallow Fluff, Betty Crocker mixes, assorted candies, etc. The list of ingredients on US-manufactured processed products is typically three times as long as for similar European products.

I was born in the US and think Pumpkin pie is disgusting as is root beer.

Ordering, then unwrapping the hot dog: “I’ve never eaten dog before.”

Looking at hot dog: “Hmmmm. What other parts of the dog do you have?”

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Tang

King George VI ate a hot dog at a picnic with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I believe the current Queen also had one at a baseball game she attended with Eisenhower. I think root beer is unknown to the Euros, though. I don't think it inspires disgust, so much that it's completely unfamiliar.

Canadians are the only people on earth who like ketchup potato chips.

Cock, balls, and pussy.

My sister lived in England and Ireland (separately, of course) in college, and was once presented the task of trying to prepare a pumpkin pie for a hybrid Thanksgiving. She had the skills to prepare one from scratch (an arduous process) since canned pumpkin (which most Americans use) wasn't available, but the Brits were all flummoxed by the idea of trying to eat "squash pie'. It's very strange to me, since, if there was one food I'd eat while I was strapped in an electric chair, it would be pumpkin pie: I really do love it more than any other food I can think of.

^ This upset coming from a country where Boiled Celery is a staple on buffets?!?

Now I’m hungry for some Mac and Cheese!

I am a second generation american and I find most midwestern food disgusting. Casserole dishes loaded with cheese and heavy cream.. Plain baked or boiled vegetables, meatloaf, pork chops, it's all bland/nasty/uninspired.

American cheese. Biscuits and gravy. Grits.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Pumpking pie filling looks like something that came from a baby diaper.

Not American - love Mac and Cheese and P. Butter.

Pumpkin Pie is fucking gross and root beer tastes like medicine.

Root Beer

Biscuits and gravy is awesome and the rest of the world just doesn't get it.

Cream gravies in general seem to be alien to people outside of the US.

I know most Europeans find "corn on the cob" to be disgusting, as they consider it animal food, not people food.

Corn? When did I eat corn?

Tuna casserole

Aerosol Cheese

Sloppy joes

Chili

KFC famous bowl

Miracle Whip Salad.

Oreos. All American confectionery. Pumpkin. Cream soda.

I’m with R23.

And I’d add American beer, Twinkies, cream or cheese out of an aerosol and most fast food to the nasty list.

But a breakfast in America will be the best breakfast you ever have.

American bread

Twinkie’s and ho-hos and yodels and all that shit.

Most of the stuff listed above I really do love even if I don’t eat it often (and I still think American cheese is best on a burger or in scrambled eggs) but that crap I just listed is so effing disgusting. Or what about snowballs? Sick thinking about it.

That tuna casserole looks really really good - it’s sonething I neve had growing up (not surprising since we almost never ate at home).

Turkey. I'm rather surprised no one has mentioned it. Of all the forms it seems to take, the burgers and the fake pork products seems the worst. Smoked and highly seasoned, like Cajun or Jerk I can take in small amounts. I don't get the popularity or fascination.

This is the best peanut butter in the world.

Yes R38 Dutch, made by Unilever. Here in the States, I vote Simply Ground by Peter Pan. The honey-roast is nice if you like a sweeter variety. I know plenty of Europeans who like PB. An Italian friend always brings it back to Italy, and includes it in care packages.

I concur with the poster above who mentioned the vile food in the American section of European supermarkets. I have to believe it is for the expat Americans because I can't imagine the French or Italians craving marshmallow fluff. Yet Americans on expat forum ask for recs where they can buy such food. Not that Europeans don't have equally disgusting food, especially the Brits. Boudin or haggis, anyone?

Last year someone explained to me that pumpkin spice flavour wasn't actuallyly pumpkin flavour for coffee, but a melange of sweet spices. For us, pumpkin goes into soup, ravioli and grilled vegetables, and definitely not pie or coffee. Root vegetables are not ingredients for desserts; even carrot cake is a novelty.

Coffee in US is disgusting

[quote] I know most Europeans find "corn on the cob" to be disgusting, as they consider it animal food, not people food.

That's nonsense. You can often see it being sold on the streets by the vendors, especially in Eastern Europe. And peanut butter is also quickly gaining on popularity - it used to be hard to find in the stores around here, but nowadays pretty much every decent supermarket carries it. It's certainly a lot healthier and tastier than the icky nutella, which is nothing but sugar and is like catnip for most Europeans (not me, though).

The only two American dishes I find super gross are Jell-O and cheese in a can. And I have no idea what they taste like, but those large sheet cakes you see in the stores in the US look pretty icky.

Are root beer and sarsaparilla the same drink?

Or are they similar - but different?

I’ve tried sarsaparilla - and it was like carbonated cough strup. Vile. But some soft drink manufacturers still make it here in Oz - so it must have a following...

Lots of the “American” foods mentioned above are great! Homemade Mac and cheese can be sublime - as can tuna casserole. Just make it with good quality ingredients - and not chemical, factory produced stuff (plastic cheese, aerosol cheese - factory food! Blah!)

The nicest peanut butter I’ve had is Pic’s - a boutique New Zealand brand. Just peanuts and salt. They import Oz peanuts to make it - and it tastes great! Roasted and salted to perfection. So good.

Uncut cock

Foreigners hate on peanut butter yet say nothing about the disgusting shit look and tasting Vegemite.

What about English Breakfast with beans gross...

S'Mores. There's nothing really offensive about these. I should like them, but don't.

Italy here....Italians find ALL Italian-American food disgusting.

They find American cheeses especially dreadful...but absolutely LOVE American cheese cake. Hate American coffee.

The Italians like American desserts: apple pie, carrot cake, muffins and they love hamburgers.

R2 you are a dumbass. Passing off a tub of mayo as a salad comes directly from the British, so if anyone's to blame, it's them. The last time I was in England I ordered a cheese sandwich, thinking I'd get something akin to grilled cheese; instead I was handed a large hoagie bun stuffed with cold shredded cheese mixed with probably 2 cups of mayonnaise.

Eastern European here:

Peanut butter is fine. Not as popular as nutella, but people don't find it disgusting. Pure version of it, without additives, is popular amongst health nuts and gym bunnies. Peanut butter and jelly, though, evokes an automatic grimace.

The other 3 though, yes. Macaroni and cheesse takes the top spot. Every mouthful feels like it grows in your mouth.

As mentioned upthread, corn-on-the-cob is common here. Popular side-dish in KFC, a staple summer snack from street verndors in seaside and mountain resorts.

Personal wtf of mine: sweet potatoes. They're just... so fucking sweet. They ruin every dish, sweet potato chips are disgusting, there's nothing that can be done with them.

I agree with R23 about pumpkin pie I never liked it and felt that all the spices you needed to make it palatable were gross.

R49 Agred. . Brit here, and I have tried them several ways. Still not a fan. The texture is wrong too for a potato.

Making pie from a pumpkin isn't arduous and it is completely worth it for flavor, color and texture. The right pumpkin is needed for pie; use he wrong one and it can turn out all watery and gross.

I have made homemade macaroni & cheese for people of other lands and everyone loves it, especially if they have already tried the boxed crap.

I have said for years you have to be born in the US to like root beer.

Canned spaghetti.

Any country whose inhabitants love Vegemite should be ashamed of turning up their noses at peanut butter or, for that matter, ANY other food. That stuff is beyond vile.

R7, you're very right! My French ex used to call it "chin ah mon" and thought it was the most vile thing you could digest. Anything with cinnamon grossed him out. Of course cheese in a can was on his list but c'mon. I don't know why people can't just accept it for what it is...junk food with no nutritional or gourmet value. There's something satisfying about squeezin' that shit out on top of a Chicken in a Biscuit cracker. I bury it on the bottom of my cart (along with the Astroglide) as I go about shopping.

It really depends on the country. Using "foreigners" really opens it up to every country in the world. Though as I've traveled through a number of European and Asian countries, I've never heard of anyone complain about any American food. You can find most every American food (not all brands) in most stores. For instance, when I was in Sweden, a large grocery store carried Skippy's peanut butter, but only had a few jars on hand while the quantity of Nutella was significantly more.

How do you know if you have a good pumpkin R52?!

My favorite peanut butter is Smuckers.. creamy version. It's only peanuts, and a little salt.

What’s wrong with root beer?

Tastes like toothpaste r59

Oh! Thanks. I’ll have to try to taste that next time.

Dr Pepper

McDonald's.

1/2 a WW for r9.

Do people in of their countries eat buffalo style chicken wings? I’ve traveled a lot but never noticed them on menus. But then I wouldn’t have been looking for them because I think they’re disgusting.

R49, where are you from in Eastern Europe? I was in Beograd, Podgorica, Tirana, Prishtina and Skopje last month and there was corn on the cob everywhere. It was delicious and cheap.

I wanted to make a vegetarian for the hostel staff in Podgorica and needed to find Ricotta cheese, which was very difficult to track down. I ended up find something similar to burek cheese at Super Voli that worked well.

I made garlic bread too, which they thought was unusual, but good.

[quote] Root vegetables are not ingredients for desserts; even carrot cake is a novelty.

Don't know where you're from, R40, but cakes made from vegetables, not just carrots, have been a thing in Europe since forever.

A world without Mac & Cheese is not a world worth living in. What is wrong with people who don't like Mac & Cheese?!?

The two most disgusting foods in the US.

American cheese and ketchup

No, cut dick, r44.

R65 You haven't lived until you've tried Korean style buffalo wings.

This stuff mentioned is like American hillbilly food (sorry can't think of a less classist term). American adults who can afford decent food or who are knowledgeable about food and cooking don't typically eat trash like marshmallow fluff or root beer or boxed Mac and cheese with any regularity in the US.

Do tell R72... How about the rest of the American offerings listed here: Buffalo chicken, Sweet Potatoes, Pumpkin Pie, Carrot Cake, etc. in America's defence, I must say your cheeses and coffees have come a long way. Many are excellent. I'm also a fan of Cheesecake and Italian-American foods.

Hamburgers

“Wings”

Can some other Americans kindly weigh in if those foods I listed are considered "Hillbilly" foods too? I'm not asking about Cheesecake or Italian-American foods.

Maybe ranch dressing and some of those other bottled salad dressings (e.g., "French" dressing).

R13, the Queen was said to be unable to open her mouth wide enough to accommodate the hot dog...

R73

Buffalo chicken: Basically something you get at a mid-priced restaurant and/or bar. Maybe it is "bar food."

Sweet Potatoes: It's just another vegetable, i.e., an ingredient. It has become more popular over the last few years, e.g., sweet potato french fries.

Pumpkin Pie: Traditional Thanksgiving holiday dessert. Not really served outside of Thanksgiving.

Carrot Cake: More rustic than fancy. Even I can make a good carrot cake. Very delicious, IMO.

If they hate pumpkin I wonder what they would make of sweet potato pie.

I really don't consider hot dogs to be American -- they're really just a variation on German/Austrian sausages.

American Meatloaf

American Desserts : chocolate with marshmellow with cream with caramel sauce with icing with sprinkles with......

Europeans don't hate pumpkin, they just don't want it sweet. The French love pumpkin soup, and it's fantastic.

I guess you have to grow up with Root Beer. I really like it. Barqs is the best.

I have never liked pumpkin pie. It's just a taste I've never really liked. I will eat sweet potato casserole.

How can you not like peanut butter? I can understand not liking certain American versions that have been more sweetened, but peanut butter and grape jelly is an American standard.

I think certain things people don't like because they haven't had them properly made. Things like mac & cheese or meatloaf need to be prepared in a certain way in order to be really good.

Additionally, many American foods have suffered over the years. Between the manufacturers stuffing crap into food that didn't used to be there in the old days to the "vegetarian/clean eating" morons who insist on ruining food or coming up with these weird concoctions (soy milk? disgusting).

R54 - vegemite is just one variety of yeast-based spreads - marmite and promite all have their fans too - not just in Oz but in EnZed and the UK - and even Europe. The thing is - it’s not meant to be slathered on like peanut butter or jam - it’s very salty! Unless you’re used to it - just a small about scraped over the top of your bread or toast is all that’s needed. It’s strong - and full of umami. Suspect you need to be brought up on it to like it - like some of those scandi fish paste spreads you see at ikea.

I had an American friend here who used to go on about how wonderful her pumpkin pie was - she didn’t cook much - so was curious as to why she made an exception with this. When she finally made it - it was pretty underwhelming! - it was all ‘take a pre-made, bought pie shell. Take a can of pumpkin pie filling. Add two eggs...’ it was lit so much cooking as assembling prepared convenience food shite. Horrible.

R84

Peanut butter has an annoying, sticky texture that sticks to your teeth and palate and a bland but fatty taste.

Peanut butter is only good with jelly

R85 is that the only way to eat marmite or vegemite? Any recipes call for it? Personally I like the stuff.

[quote]Peanut butter has an annoying, sticky texture that sticks to your teeth and palate

I feel the same way about Nutella.

Has anyone yet tried the seasonal Marshmalloween? A lot of stores don't seem to have it.

Italians eat pumpkin (winter squash)

Especially ravioli and tortelli stuffed with it.

A classic traditional dish, believe it or not, is Ravioli stuffed with pumpkin mashed with amaretti cookies.

R55, I have found Astroglide to be an excellent low-cal replacement for olive oil in many recipes. And it marries well with balsamic vinegar.

Why exactly is pumpkin pie disgusting? It’s a pie and tastes like cinnamon and cloves.

R62, I LOVE Dr. Pepper!

I’ve always been baffled by Italian Cream Cake. There’s nothing Italian about it and it’s too sweet.

[quote]Why exactly is pumpkin pie disgusting? It’s a pie and tastes like cinnamon and cloves.

It takes like someone is trying to cover a root vegetable taste with cinnamon and cloves.

Pumpkin pie is good with whip cream

Lutefisk.

The texture of pumpkin pie filling can be what's wrong with it. Kabocha pumpkin is actually really delicious and I think it would make a better pumpkin pie. Also, not that many people / bakeries make good pie crusts. The pie filling to crust ratio is also too large (pumpkin pie).

I just eat the pie filling and leave the crust.

R99 - do you mean there is too much filling and too little crust?

I tend to agree, but a thicker crust does tend to lead to a soggy bottom.

Many of the posters here have a lot of crust. And some pretty soggy bottoms.

Here you go, r91. Personally, I hate pumpkin pie, but love these [italic]tortelli di zucca[/italic].

R101 , yeah, too much filling and too little crust. A possible solution could be less filling.

R80 Hot dogs are VERY American and nothing like sausage.

R75, "White Trash" food would include such inedible, even vile fare as Cool Whip, aerosol fake cheese eaten right out of the can, multi-fake flavored chips, pork rinds, imitation anything, imitation flavored anything, lard used in anything, plus "road kill" animals like squirrel, 'coon, and 'possum.

I would like s'mores better if the chocolate situation were different. I don't like the thick slab of it that never melts from the marshmallow. The whole cookie falls apart once you've bitten into it once.

No idea how people can eat Mac and Cheese, it's so greasy. Like a parody of some pasta with a cream-based sauce.

R108, Like almost everything else discussed above, it depends how you make the mac and cheese. I make a very light cream sauce flavored with a little mustard and A-1 sauce, garlic, pepper. Then add a small amount of sharp cheddar cheese.

Mac and cheese is English in origin, nobody is confused by it.

This overated deplorable crap food

Nutella is Italian, invented and manufactured by Ferrero.

R109 I only tried it some restaurants and it was pasta swimming in fatty cream. Ugh. It would have been better the way you describe it, otherwise I'll take good old chopped tomatoes with garlic and fresh basil over it any day.

Pasta swimming in fatty cream is NOT mac and cheese R113. I have no idea what you ate but it was not mac and cheese.

R114 Definitely Mac and Cheese, it was in New York and I had American friends with me. It was just what it looked like to me.

[quote]Not that Europeans don't have equally disgusting food, especially the Brits. Boudin or haggis, anyone?

Have you had the Cajun-American boudin, R40? Not the blood sausage version, but the rice-pork sausage-green onion based version (boudin blanc)? Made by the right person, it is divine. Here in South Louisiana, you can even get amazing boudin from certain gas stations.

The Eastern European (Poland, r66) hater of sweet potatoes here: I lived in US for a year and though I disliked root beer and macaroni & cheese, and Hershey's is a travesty not chocolate and Oreos are the most overrated snacks ever, most food I ate was really good. Homemade chocolate chip cookies are something the world is in dire need of. American-style pancakes I found very meh, but waffles with peanut butter and maple syrup still make an occasional appearance on my table. My guests appreciate them too. Only the price of maple syrup over here makes me weep.

Never had it, but can't imagine green bean casserole being very nice. Or sweet potatoes with marshmallows.

r105 Seriously? Why do you think they're called Frankfurters (after a city in Germany) and Wieners (after the capital of Austria)?

American hot dogs are called Saucisses de Vienne in French. Wiernerli in German. There is a SLIGHTLY heartier kind of German hot dog I like a lot. I dont know the name. Though saucisse de Vienne are great and savory. My favorites are white and grey sausages, however.

Pumpkin pie is hideous.

That sweet potato (aka yams) and marshmallow concoction is sickly sweet and weird. Worst recipe on earth next to egg salad.

R115, Some restaurants and home cooks use a tremendous amount of butter, half-and-half, high-fat regular and/or processed cheese, and topped with buttered white bread crumbs and more cheese. Hello heartburn.

I prefer a very low-fat, more flavorful version as I previously described, almost comparable to Welch Rarebit (Rabbit?) but served over pasta instead of toast. Fresh vegetable ie tomatoes or broccoli on the side.

I hadn't considered it, but surprised that other countries don't have or like peanut butter. Chunky is best, of course. I've traveled quite a bit but have never been shopping or cooked, of course, and wouldn't expect to see it on a menu just like I wouldn't expect to see it on a menu here in the U.S. I've never thought of root beer as medicinal tasting either.

Sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie are both horrendous, but it doesn't ever surprise me that other people like them. I just can't stand the taste, but then I don't like most fish either and realize others love it. I also won't eat hot dogs or bologna because of what is in them, but I understand why others do. No one I know eats "cheese" in a can or pork rinds anyway. The only thing you need lard for is making really good pie pastry.

People are really losing out by not liking macaroni and cheese or peanut butter.

I prefer the rarebit style as well R123... Cayenne, dry Coleman's mustard, paprika, and a splash of dry sherry in a bechamel made with milk only. I prefer aged white cheddar too.

R117, There are healthier versions of Oreos that actually taste of dark chocolate, don't add HFC so aren't fake sweet, and avoid artificial flavors and general garbage. (Paul) Newman's is one brand.

You can make very flavorful American-style pancakes that don't taste meh and aren't bland and high calorie. Still are fluffy.

Try topping your waffles with homemade blueberry syrup and fresh fruit. Add chopped walnuts or almonds to the batter. Mine are healthy, French-style.

Likewise I make sweet potato casserole healthier my adding chopped pears, walnuts, ginger, and only a few miniature marshmallows. Skip almost all of the butter & cream.

"You can even get amazing boudin from certain gas stations."

And amazing gas from certain boudins.

I'm so tired of this old bullshit about how Americans eat cheese out of a can constantly. Yes, processed and frozen foods were a huge thing in the 60's and 70's - but Americans weren't the only ones. Brits had meal in a pouch boiled dinners, frozen veggies and the like as well. Cheez-whiz, which is cheese in a can, was a byproduct of the processed foods but it was NOT ubiquitous. It was for small cracker appetizer items - and only for cheap party food.

I'm sure we can go through each country and find many foods, processed or not, that others find disgusting. It's like the other 'fact' that, before 9/11, only 30% of Americans had passports. Well, you know why? You did not NEED a passport at the time to travel to Mexico, Canada, and many other nations in our hemisphere. That's a fact. So unless you were traveling to Europe, South America or Asia, then no, many people did not have passports. Today there are many more people with passports.

Anyone who doesn't like Mac&Cheese is deeply disturbed.

Seriously, there's nothing better than a good Mac&Cheese.

I've been living in the US over twenty years now, and have yet to see this cheez-whiz in a can... only jars. The brand I saw in an aerosol can was Easy-Cheese. A friend brought it on a camping trip. I must admit I have eaten worse things!

Cheez Whiz = cheese flavoured Vaseline

I'm Aussie and I actually don't mind pumpkin pie. We have similar things here in Oz liked custard nutmeg tarts. I've tried them using delicately flavored pumpkins and served cold they are velvety and delicious. No one can turn one of those large, coarse, mealy pumpkins into a dessert. Made with a deft hand they should be fruit-like. I also agree that sweet potato does not transform well into a dessert .

Sweet potato and pumpkin pies came about during Colonial times when fresh fruit was scarce.

There are disgusting foods in foreign countries, too. The U. S. doesn't corner the market on gross foods. Haggis, anyone? Or maybe some nice blood sausage? Or how about some sheep's head soup? Or maybe some succulent jugged hare? Give me peanut butter or mac and cheese any day.

Just mention Spotted Dick and they will all shut up.

Some people here have declared themselves fans of peanut butter and jelly. Not bad, but I love a good unadulterated peanut butter with just butter on the bread. Sometimes I crave a bit of salt with it but I prefer to add my own, or not, each time I eat it. amazing on fresh baguette.

UK expat. I knew love for the first time when I had sausage, biscuits and gravy. For breakfast no less! Also love mac and cheese, even the stuff from the box with cheese dust.

R126 is one of those turds at a party who says shit like, I make the best flourless vegan carob cake. You won't even notice there's no flour or eggs or chocolate or flavor. And the frosting is made from avocado!

all of that melted cheese on everything!

MELTED CHEESE IS AWEOME!!!

r130 You are right about Cheez Whiz. It used to be the liquid "cheese" in a glass jar. And the aerosol stuff was indeed Easy Cheese (see picture). But because so many people kept (incorrectly) referring to the aerosol as Cheez Whiz, Kraft finally gave up and now the name is used on both products.

And here's the aerosol version with its new name.

And no one has eaten either one since the '70s.

Not anyone I know.

Oh wait there was that hot doctor from Pennsylvania who lived in The Greenhouse building on Huntington in Boston. It's right across from the Christian Science Center reflecting pool. He sprayed it in my fat cock and licked it off.

Stuff was cold! Tongue was hot!

And it was a doctor's tongue.

[quote]And no one has eaten either one since the '70s.

Right. They just keep making it and shipping it to stores who then put it on the shelves.

Where have you seen it stocked, R145? Walmart? Aldi?

r146 According to the website's product locator? Walmart, Target, Albertsons, Vons, Ralphs, Food4Less. In other words, pretty much all of the major markets in my area. (And Aldi only sells a store-brand version, not Kraft's.)

Rosie always has canned cheese in her fridge.

I'll see any of these "American" foods and raise them by any number of disgusting Russian dishes. Maybe the worst of the worst is something they call Herring under a fur coat. (Shuba) They take canned herring and buy it under beets with a ton of mayonnaise and some boiled eggs.

^^^Bury

R149, I've had Russian potato salad, made with cooked vegetables and spices, onions. It wasn't drowning in mayo. That's a very pretty presentation.

Are you sure they don't use jarred herring rather than canned herring?

If you read the recipe that went with that picture........1 1/2 CUPS of mayonnaise!!!

Neither macaroni cheese nor peanut butter are particularly American, and they are both quite popular in Europe. I nominate American chocolate for that continent's most repulsive food product. It tastes quite strongly of vomit, and bears not the faintest resemblance to real chocolate.

[quote]My French ex used to call it "chin ah mon" and thought it was the most vile thing you could digest.

Even more vile than snails?

„American foods that foreigners find disgusting“

That‘s the title of this thread. Look at you whiny bitches getting all defensive about your favourite dishes or doing the „but but the others have bad stuff too“ , pointing to the British of all people whose food pretty much everybody else laughs at.

I‘m sure there are some urban gay men who make amaaaaazing Mac and cheese with mature cheddar, Italian pasta and truffle oil. The average American however eats pre-processed shit out of a box and you know.

We have peanut butter and Mac n cheese (we call it macaroni cheese) in the UK. The macaroni cheese doesn't normally come in a box though, it's usually in the cookchill section, or people make it themselves. Peanut butter is pretty popular, as far as I know, though you can't use it for kids lunches anymore because it's banned in most schools (and offices) due to peanut allergies. No one wants to be sued because someones dropped down dead because of a peanut butter sandwich.

R85 - mostly vegemite is a toast thing. It was kinda nice as a kid though - at school here, vegemite sandwiches were as ubiquitous as pbj sandwiches are in the US. Also cheese and vegemite. Mostly one of those sliced, processed Kraft cheese slices.

As an adult - cheese and vegemite toasties are pretty nice. As is smashed avocado on some sourdough bread that has for a light swipe of vegemite onnit.

You can put a teaspoonful of it into meaty stews as well - nice flavour booster! All that umami. Outta memory - there’s also a nigella Lawson recipe for a macaroni or other pasta dish for kids (or the young at heart!) that has marmite in it...

This is actually pretty nice. Felicity Cloake is kinda fabulous. Lots of her ‘perfect’ recipes have become our standard versions of stuff now.... anyway - this certainly beats the canned pumpkin purée bullshit!

I adore Vegemite

Can we please stop with the idea that mac and cheese is American and that others find it confusing or disgusting? It’s been in cookbooks since the 14th century, I think pretty much everyone knows about mac and cheese and doesn’t consider it American.

Everybody considers Mac and cheese typical American food.

R152, Good cooks alter recipes to their taste. Most fat-laden Southern and Mid Western style recipes can be made much healthier with more spice and far, far less fat.

Those people getting uptight about people saying what American food they dislike and throwing back examples of what they hate from other countries really need to get a grip. The question was asking what American foods foreigners dislike. People answered it. Grow up and stop being so thin skinned.

Ranch Dressing is amazing... especially variations like peppercorn ranch.

I have no idea why it hasn't caught on in the rest of the world.

[quote]Likewise I make sweet potato casserole healthier my adding chopped pears, walnuts, ginger, and only a few miniature marshmallows. Skip almost all of the butter & cream.

r136, do you have a recipe for that? I'd like to give it a try, but I'm not very good at "a dash of this, a sprinkle of that" cooking. I really need a recipe to follow.

r128, you are right. The Brits lived on Spam (and many still eat it) for years. That stuff is nasty. And beans on toast? What's that all about?

Butter is about the only thing that makes sweet potatoes edible.

Cheez-Whiz (cheese in a can) is not for flavor. It is for the experience. Like whipped cream in a can, you put the tip of the spout in your mouth and hold the tip down until your mouth is completely full or cheese or whipped cream. The experience is greater than the taste.

Not outside the US R161.

Chicken in a Biskit and Easy Cheese. It's fun to eat and yummy.

R169

I‘m posting from Europe, honey, and everybody here thinks of Mac and cheese and Hot Dogs and hamburgers as typical American Food.

R171 Mac & cheese is typically Italian.

Perhaps not has Americans make it, but baked pasta and cheese is a classic Italian dish.

A "pasticcio di pasta ai quattro formaggi" would have emmental, parmigiano, fontina and gorgonzola cheeses combined with pasta and a besciamella and baked in the oven. A bit of breadcrumbs on the top.

....

R171 bullshit. I have lived and worked in Germany, UK & Netherlands. Each European country has its own version of mac and cheese and it was first documented in England in the 14th century. It is such a commonplace dish it’s ridiculous to claim it as American or that Europeans - who all have their own recipe - view it as such. Same with wieners and burgers - you know the origin of the names, right? What with you being so European and all.

No one has to eat box macaroni and cheese.

R174 you are pathetic - yes, amazingly many many national cuisines have a a combination of pasta and cheese, often baked, Germans have Nudelauflauf, the Swiss have Käsespätzle, the Italians have that nice 4 cheese dish posted above. These dishes are nothing like American Mac and Cheese which most people deem inferior versions auf European dishes.

Just like Frankfurters have a different texture (tougher skin) in Frankfurt.

Also, minced bee patties. Amazingly not an American invention - you find them in many countries. In Germany (yes they‘re called hamburgers, I know, an American Name, however you can‘t blame Hamburg for that) minced beef patties are called Frikadellen and made with chopped onions, breadcrumb, egg and parsley. Usually eaten with potatoes and some form of vegetables. Sometimes, the leftovers and eaten in a breadbun.

But of course, hamburgers are not American. Neither is Mac and cheese. Or Hot Dogs .

R176 that pink plastic they sell as hot dogs is quite American as is that orange plastic they pretend is cheese.

[quote]Also, minced bee patties. Amazingly not an American invention

Yes, we've been eating minced bee patties for years.

The main difference between US Hot-dogs and Frankfurter and German ones is that in the US the main ingredient is chicken or beef and in Germany they are mainly pork (and more heavily spiced).

I like sweet potatoes mashed or baked with butter, salt and pepper. That’s it. Those casseroles that are sweetened are disgusting.

Sweet potatoes are also very healthy.

Sweet potatoes are great as an addition to soups and stews.

Europeans do not like peanut butter! I know this from experience.

America should do more to require European children to consume peanut butter. They would love it if they became accustomed to it.

I had a hot dog looking thing in Vienna once, and it was like eating a piece of intestine, with all of its original contents intact. It was horrible.

Mac & Cheese is European in origin? Um, no.

I love root beer though.

Mac and Cheese goes back thousands of years in Europe.

[italic] The term macaroni, with which a type of long pasta is currently referred to, is found in writings of Roman writers since the first centuries of our era. Platina, curator of the Vatican library, wrote in the XII century that macaroni with cheese were a legacy from the kitchens of Genoa and Naples, where its inhabitants ate it everyday. [/italic]

Kraft Mac and Cheese it to macaroni and cheese found in Italy as Elizabeth Warren is to a Native American born and raised on a reservation.

[quote]Mac & Cheese is European in origin? Um, no.

Um... yes, very much so.

I don't think there is any food that Americans "created". However, several things they have improved and they are associated as being American food. For example, spaghetti and meat sauce. Nobody does it better than Americans.

I often find foreign foods disgusting.

Ragù alla Bolognese isn't too far from US dishes, they just serve it with tagliatelle, tortellini or gnocchi instead of spaghetti.

Isn't fried chicken (at least the way it's generally prepared here) mostly American?

[quote]For example, spaghetti and meat sauce. Nobody does it better than Americans.

There's no accounting for taste.

R192 No.

Most American food is "fast" rural peasant food of the world, that has been sort of kept in a mass market food museum of cuisine in The USA, even after other cultures have moved on from the originals those mass processed foods were based on or returned back to the higher end, naturally more "organic/slow" versions of the originals.

But you have to remember that most of this food was meant to be fast and cheap versions of what first and second generations of American laborers grew up on or based on the original "settler" foods of The Northeast. Hotdogs were cheap-o versions of the sort of dairy and sausage meat based meals found in Germanic/Dutch, Scandinavian, Slavic and Baltic countries because large waves of farmers from these regions came over to the US from the mid-1800's well into the 19th Century.

Gravies, sauces and low cost carbs were ways to make the expensive ingredients -- like meat -- stretch to feed large farming families working heavy, physical labor from dawn 'til dusk. Amazing to the mostly sedentary American office workers of today, there was a time in the not to distant past where people looked to find ways to ADD calories to meals cheaply and efficiently. On an even more sensitive subject, down South, some Southern foods have lots of added butter and lard for the same reason: Finding ways to bulk up the caloric bank to cover intensive, only partly assisted by machinery physical labor so you didn't collapse while working in the fields.

In The Northeast, you'll find lots of seafood and seafood chowder based foods because of the strong maritime, whaling and fishing traditions of this region. Also, chowders disperse salt and when it was once hard to keep ice, fish was salted and preserved for keeping, so you'd be re-constituting salty fish protein and adding it to recipes, which means having a bland, white sauce base, soup or chowder full of bland root vegetables helps to disperse and work with that saltiness in a way that makes a meal more palatable.

Also, the root and berry based meals of The Northeast have strong ties to settler traditions and finding a way to eat anything that would keep and wouldn't poison you to make it through cold, New England winters. Arrowroot biscuits? Well, it's Arrowroot or starve. Arrowroot it is. Over time, people improve recipes as access to new, different ingredients improves and they develop a palate for the "comfort" foods of their community and childhood.

If you want to understand American cuisine, just think of it being the "Stone Soup" melting pot of global peasant cuisine, based on a series of settler and native stories, many generations not having the comfort of developed communities to rely on for food stuff or having to supplement basics with local ingredients, while also having to feed large farm or fishing families working very hard, morning 'til night.

Good comment R194. In Texas, our chicken fried steak is a variation of schnitzels brought over by German immigrants and adapted. Texas was heavily settled by Germans.

Thanks for taking the time to write that, R194.

Dr. Pepper tastes like medicine.

Sloppy Joes

I agree with the poster who said American chocolate tastes like vomit; that isn't hyperbole, it truly does taste and smell like vomit.

Regarding s'mores-- I never liked anything about them. Runny chocolate and marshmallow, and graham crackers a ways taste vaguely of sinusitis to me. Also, that fucking name, "s'mores".

That is interesting r194. The history of corned beef in America is an interesting one, IMO. The Irish in Ireland raised most of the cattle and there was such high demand for corned beef by the British. They used it to feed the British navy because it kept on ships, as well as to feed the slave trade. The cows got most of the pasture land in Ireland, leaving Irish farmers to grow potatoes, and we know how that worked out. When they started immigrating to the US they were surprised that corned beef was so inexpensive here. It was a luxury at home that most never got, and in the North, most had never heard of it because the cattle raising was done in the south. Which is why corned beef is so big in America on St. Patrick's Day and not in Ireland. As more Irish were arriving, often settling in/nearby predominantly Jewish neighborhoods, the Jews helped them perfect the beef which is today why we enjoy delicious corned beef. On rye bread with mustard. Perfection.

The only way root beer should be introduced to a newbie is with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream suspended in it,

After that root beer will always be welcome.

Root beer float YUMMMMMM!

Root beer was originally sold as a medicinal tonic.

'I agree with the poster who said American chocolate tastes like vomit; that isn't hyperbole, it truly does taste and smell like vomit."

Have you ever eaten vomit? I doubt that you have. So how would you know American chocolate tastes like it? And I've never smelled any American chocolate that smelled like vomit. You and the other poster seem to have a fixation on vomit.

American chocolate isn't very good, but "vomit"? No.

R186, that's not the same thing.

What is r186 not the same thing as, r202?

Meanwhile Spanish, Dutch, German, Mexican, and South Asian people love cinnamon and other spices R7.

R200 Thank you for calling out. Saying something tastes like vomit is hyperbole, unless it's actual vomit. I'm the UK expat from above. Before I moved I heard horror stories about US chocolate. Yes it tastes different from UK/European chocolate but I happily eat it. I don't happily eat vomit.

I'm sick and tied of haughty foreigners coming here, trying to take our vomit chocolate away. Maybe we LIKE vomit chocolate! Maybe that's our tradition! I'm going to go out and get some chocolate and then vomit on it and eat it because you anti-American bastards aren't going to tell us what to do. If we want to eat our own vomit, it's our right!

Another Brit expat here, and though I like others better, plenty of American chocolate is fine, and no I never associated it with that other stuff. Some of it does tend to have a bit of a waxy mouth sensation BTW, I love pumpkin pie, cinnamon, sloppy joes, and aged NY white cheddar. I also don't mind the taste of Root Beer either, though I don't drink many sodas.

[quote]I don't drink many sodas.

We gays don't seem to drink much soda. I only drink plain San Pellegrino.

r206 It's just Hershey's. I ate M&Ms instead, which has been successfully transplanted to the old world, just like all other Mars products.

Hershey’s does have an undeniable odor of vomit. It is very apparent if you compare it with just about any other brand.

Um, literally everyone who has ever vomited has tasted vomit, so I'm not sure that's the hill some of you really want to die on here....

[quote]Dr. Pepper tastes like medicine.

No, it doesn't. It's delicious. Sort of an amaretto/cherry flavor. It's the only soda I'll drink, in fact, becaue it's the only one that tastes good enough to put up with the calories.

[quote]Have you ever eaten vomit? I doubt that you have. So how would you know American chocolate tastes like it?

Anyone who has ever vomited knows what vomit takes like. Hooray for you that you have made it through your entire life without vomiting.

[quote] Dr. Pepper tastes like medicine. No, it doesn't. It's delicious. Sort of an amaretto/cherry flavor.

I liked it better in the old days. They've messed with the recipe too much and ruined the flavor. I still drink it, but I'm not happy about it.

I like the spice of "Dr. Pepper" but unlike people worried about Alzheimer's, I go diet. I'll probably be happier with a blank slate when I'm 80, anyhow.

Something from Europe that is also really acquired taste (like root beer) is 'Kinnie' from Malta (off the south of Sicily, Italy). The locally produced chocolate there is also terrible.

Think that you can find foods that don't suit your palette anywhere.

[quote]Think that you can find foods that don't suit your palette anywhere.

Can people PLEASE learn the difference between pallet, palette, and palate?

R217 Wish my Spell Check could tell the difference.

Lobster

Turn off your "Spell Check."

A better thread would be foreign foods that Americans find disgusting.

I'll start: haggis

R221, there is a thread about foreign foods that Americans find disgusting. Haggis is mentioned.

it's here:

American chocolate, while not exactly a scrumptious delicacy ( although some people like it very much, considering how much it sells) does NOT smell or taste like vomit. To say that it does is just ludicrous and stupid.

Can't R220 , I'd have constant pedantic bastards telling me that [BOLD] Colour [/BOLD] doesn't have a [BOLD] U [/BOLD] and that you don't spell [BOLD] Cheque [/BOLD] with a [BOLD] Q [/BOLD] if I did.

How about pimento cheese? Very common here in the American South, but I’ve known plenty of people from other regions and other countries who found it repellent.

mac and cheese is not italian anymore than dominos 6 cheese pizza is. Whatever their origins, americans have innovated and adapted foods to suit their taste. Italians stay trying to claim they invented everything.

R226 Cheese with stuff added isn't that unusual anywhere, Pimento's are just mild chilli's. We even have one with Apricots here in the UK.

I suppose Roquefort, Stilton, Danish blue, Cabrales, Gorgonzola are less common in the US though as they need unpasteurised milk for the maturation of the fungus to make it blue/green.

R227 we did not invent mac and cheese. Really. It came to us from Europe. Same with apple pie.

Sweet potato and squash dessert/snack cakes are relatively popular in Japan and Korea, they are called mushi pan (steamed cakes) in Japan.

Agree re Hershey’s - it’s very sour/cheesy tasting. And mass-produced US bread (has sugar added).

R227 The only 'American' innovation in food is to add sugar (corn syrup) and fat to everything, that and mechanically recovered meat is pretty much the main contribution of the US to World cuisine.

[quote] ... stretch to feed large farming families working heavy, physical labor from dawn 'til dusk.

It's this kind of dirty talk that moistens me...

R231 has never heard of Cajun/Creole food. Go to New Orleans sometime, dipshit.

R228 Pimento cheese isn’t just a block of cheese with pimentos embedded. It’s shredded Cheddar cheese mixed with pimentos, spices and gobs of mayonnaise. Usually served on crackers, in a sandwicg or stuffed inside celery stalks.

^ Dammit. Sandwich.

[quote]Agree re Hershey’s - it’s very sour/cheesy tasting.

That's because they process their milk in a manner that intentionally produces butyric acid, which also lends its stench to vomit and human decomposition.

I think people outside America over estimate how much of these disgusting foods Americans actually eat. Yeah this stuff is widely available everywhere, but I do not see grocery carts overflowing with Kraft Mac and Cheese and peanut butter. I haven't bought a jar of peanut butter in years, and the way peanut allergies are making this new generation drop like flies, in 20 years we probably won't be seeing much of it.

I grew up in a southern home and its a shame that most people will never taste a REAL traditional southern sweet potato pie. Or southern style grits for breakfast, a dish that originated with American indians. Collard greens with cornbread. These are real American foods.

There’s a fantastic cookbook called “It’s All American Food” that does a good job not only of digging into regional specialties around the U.S., but also excellent versions of Italian-American, Chinese-American, Tex-Mex and other hybrid cuisines. I have used it for years.

peanut butter is not bad but after a few teaspoons of it i leave it in the fridge forever. nothing beats nutella or even dulce de leche for me. i've never tried pumpkin pie and id love to. in my city there's a chain of american bakeries, they make every kind of pies and cakes but no pumpkin pie. odd. btw, i LOVE KFC. i know it's the worst junk food but damn it's good.

R233 That would be food heavily influenced by French, Spanish, West African, Amerindian, Haitian, German, Italian cuisines then would it?

R234 Had that it's OK, not unique by any means.

It's not possible to have truly unique food unless you are totally Isolated from any outside influence, maybe Australia/New Zealand natives are the last places that it is possible to find it.

Australian native food.

R240 has obviously never heard of Native American food traditions.

R231 has got to be the stupidest asshole ever to post on DL. Dumb does not begin to explain his idiocy.

[quote]Eastern European here:

TURNIP SOAKED IN VODKA DA?

R231 Are you Canadian and thus inconsequential?

I’m American and I find pumpkin pie disgusting.

The gut wrenching peanut butter burger - can it get any more american?

R43 Sarsparilla, Birch Beer and Root Beer are all fairly similar. There are alcohol and alcohol free versions of all of them, depending on where you live in the US.

The US military used to host Friendship Festivals in NATO countries and would provide american food, including barbeque, hamburgers, hotdogs - all the classic picnic foods.

My neighbors had some filthy Spanish friends visit, they smoked cigarettes 24/7 and drank from dawn to dusk, wanted to eat at Olive Garden and see Chicago, but they acted insulted at the mention of peanut butter and jelly as pantry supplies. FUCK OFF IMPORTS!

I have not seen or known anyone who ate “cheese in a can” since Reagan was President. My family never ate it.

There is nothing as good as milk gravy and biscuits for breakfast

I think there is an prejudice against American food. Americans we are seen ignorant, tasteless, and backwards. So for most it’s hard to imagine that are food is good or sophisticated.

I think the best food in the US comes out of Louisiana. It’s practically impossible to find places outside their surrounding states that make cuisine to rival Louisiana cooking.

For all the bashing that is done about American food almost every big foreign city I’ve been (which is probably 50 or do international cities) there is always a few American chain fast food restaurants. So obviously somebody is eating this American food on a regular basis. I believe there’s only handful of countries in the world that don’t have a McDonald’s.

Nothing is more disgusting than processed cheese and meatloaf 🤮🤮🤮🤮

Said the person who's never heard of haggis and blood pudding.

I make a kick ass meatloaf and enjoy it a lot!

I's great cold sliced for sandwiches with a thin layer of ketchup on white bread or a roll.

[quote][R43] Sarsparilla, Birch Beer and Root Beer are all fairly similar. There are alcohol and alcohol free versions of all of them, depending on where you live in the US.

I've never heard of alcoholic versions of ANY of those three things.

r255=Joan Crawford

R189 no one does it worse than the Americans. Overcooked noodles, bad sweet sauce, sickening.

Pizzahut in US, greasy and bland, and dreadful canned tomatoes

You don't need to be foreign to appreciate Pizza Hut for all it is, and is not.

[R256] Really?

R261 I tried that Not your Father's shit when I was in SF.

My gosh they took a whole sugar factory and shoved it into that beer. It was so sweet I gagged.

Agree that Cajun/Creole food is the BEST. I would recommend everyone take a gastronomic tour of New Orleans. So much good food from dilapidated looking shacks to expensive upscale places.

Most of the European chocolate makers have knockoffs of M&Ms when I was in Italy I found the Italian version which was better because they use a better quality chocolate.

[quote]no one does it worse than the Americans. Overcooked noodles, bad sweet sauce, sickening.

No. You are equating store bought or chain restaurant sauces as typical American. Go into private homes and you can get exquisite sauces and pastas. I don’t eat tomato based sauces when I eat out because they are too seeet and not seasoned right.

R265 Americans mostly don't understand how to prepare pasta.

Overcooked. Not properly salted. They'll use brands of pasta made with inferior wheat and not understand the difference..

Overcooked tomato sauce. Inferior oil. Inferior tomatoes.

Garlic powder, "Italian seasioning", dried basil...

They don't understand that different cuts of pasta are for different types of sauces.

They don't understand the uses of dried boxed pasta vs. fresh pasta.

They don't understand how to properly make a sauce with fresh tomato. Or how to choose good canned tomatoes.

And "fresh" egg pasta not freshly made at all, but sitting in a refrigerator case for days. Fresh pasta made with extrusion machines.

And pasta served with too much sauce. Or swimming in cream. Or with ridiculous additions like chicken breast sitting on top.

And on and on and on.

And lets not forget pre-grated "parmesan".

R266, not true. With the “foodie” craze many homes have pasta machines and most stores sell Italian imports. I buy the best oil and always use fresh herbs, btw.

However, you are comparing “Italian” to “Italian-American” too. Most Italian-American is actually Sicilian too.

Again R267 you are viewing the US as if it were still the 1950’s. With the internet, authentic recipes and ingredients are easily available.

[quote]With the “foodie” craze many homes have pasta machines

Those pasta machines are perfect example.

A proper pasta machine is hand cranked with rollers (wooden rollers are best but hard to find).

And you have to know how to prepare the dough and properly use the machine.

Instead American will by those automatic extrusion machines. The result is horrible.

*Instead American will buy

Good lord. A lot of Americans know how to make the dough and I’m sure the Italian chefs who use those automatic extrusion machines would be quite surprised at your edict.

Grow up.

Oh btw, most pasta machines are hand-cranked anyway. Available at Walmart too.

[quote]I’m sure the Italian chefs who use those automatic extrusion machines

They are not used by Italian chefs. You truly don't know what you're talking about.

[quote]Oh btw, most pasta machines are hand-cranked anyway. Available at Walmart too.

Extrusion machines and roller machines produce two very different products.

[quote]Garlic powder, "Italian seasioning", dried basil...

Even in them there sticks, we’ve figured out how to peel fresh garlic and grow our own basil. Stop being insufferable.

Lol, R274.That will be a surprise to the guy on tv a few weeks ago. Do quit being so insufferable as if Italians were the only ones who can cook.

As I said, most machines sold are roller machines. You’re the one who brought up extrusion. I just said many people have pasta machines.

Exactly R276. This guy is still imagining Americans living in the 50’s eating gelatin mold shit and casseroles.

R276 The thread title is: "American foods that foreigners find disgusting."

I'm a foreigner.

The American food that I find disgusting is Italian-American food.

Yes, R279, I can read. My point, which you seem determined to miss, is that your idea of Italian-American food is outdated. Are there cooks here who still use processed dried herbs and cheap pasta with gloppy sauce? Of course. But don’t pretend that the same doesn’t exist at inferior restaurants in Italy.

[quote]This guy is still imagining Americans living in the 50’s eating gelatin mold shit and casseroles.

No. I'm talking about the crap Americans eat today.

From the GMOs, antibiotic laced meats and dairy, the growth hormones, the Monsanto Roundup, the preservatives banned most elsewhere in the world, the high fructuse corn syrup in fucking everything....

It's shit. Not even healthy for dogs.

[quote]that your idea of Italian-American food is outdated.

I travel. Unless you're prepared to spend ridiculous amounts of money, it's as bad as always.

I hate that bluudy septic food! Vile!

[quote]My point, which you seem determined to miss,

The point of the thread is a question to foreigners. Not to you.

"American foods that foreigners find disgusting"

And to that I answer: Italian-American food.

Got it now?

R282 I don’t know where you’re traveling, but that is categorically false. Every major city in the US has quality Italian food for no more than I’ve paid in Rome, Umbria, Tuscany, the Veneto, etc.

Anyway - moving on.

[quote] I don’t know where you’re traveling, but that is categorically false. Every major city in the US has quality Italian food for no more than I’ve paid in Rome, Umbria, Tuscany, the Veneto, etc.

No, that is categorically false.

A simple trattoria here will set you back 20-25 Euros for a nice lunch.

The cost of genuine ingredients: real parmesan, extra virgin olive oil, buffalo milk mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes, San Daniele prosciutto, a good simple red wine etc ...are extremely expensive in the US and are rarely used but by only the very top tier restaurants. The cost is simply prohibitive .

No one with a conscience uses dried basil.

Fine, R286, we’ll agree to disagree. You and your sense of superiority can carry on.

Ha, r266, you remind me of my daughter. She has banned us from ordering from certain pizzerias because of the sauce. Too sweet. I'll admit that I really didn't notice until it was pointed out to me and now I can't miss it. Because of her, I make my own sauce using the San marzano cento brand tomatoes and keep a basil plant in the kitchen window. And of course, grate the parmesan from a chunk.

[quote]You and your sense of superiority can carry on.

The one with sense of superiority is you.

If a Japanese person explained to me that that Japanese restaurants and sushi were inferior in in Italy compared to Japan, I'd listen and learn.

Italians BTW happen to like sushi with the addition of cheese....'nuf said?

And if a Mexican or Chinese person said the same about their cuisines here, I'd understand.

If an American told me that Italians don't understand how to make a good hamburger...I'd want to know why. It's called humility.

Italians BTW will eat hamburgers with french fries on top.

[quote]Instead Americans will buy those automatic extrusion machines.

I know at least five people who roll their own—more like ten, if I were to ask around—and not one of us uses an extruder. We all use something like this. I know what kind of tomatoes and cheese and basil to use, as well. I've been doing it right since the late '70s.

What the hell is wrong with serving a grilled chicken breast with pasta?

It's two different courses, r292. That said, I don't have a problem with it.

It's not. It's one course. Why would you separate them? Do you not believe in side dishes?

The steel roller machine is a compromise for those you do not know how to make fresh pasta by hand or simply don't have the time.

The steel rollers produce a slick surface rather than the textured surface that fresh pasta should have. Although you can get around this somewhat if you know what you're doing.

Fresh pasta dough ideally should be stretched by hand with a wooden roller on a wooden surface. The stretching and the grain of the wood give the pasta a texture and bite.

[quote]What the hell is wrong with serving a grilled chicken breast with pasta?

Nothing at all, if that's what you like.

But it is not Italian.

*The steel roller machine is a compromise for those who do not know how to make fresh pasta by hand

Side dishes, r294? Which one is the side dish, the pasta or the chicken?

Aside from a few restaurants, the food in Italy was no better than food in American Italian restaurants in Chicago and NYC, run by Italians, or children of Italian immigrants.

The diatribe by r266 is moot. Italians themselves do not do these things in most of their restaurants in Italy. I have been there enough times to know. It is very average and typically overpriced. I can look up the small number of restaurants that were good & post them here if you know Rome & Florence. But, nothing is going to change your mind since you have some bug up your ass about your superiority. And no, it is not equivalent to asking an American how to cook a hamburger. Americans wouldn't give a shit that you put fries on top or cook it *differently* if that is what tastes better to you. You are confusing different with better, and that is why you come across as an uppity cunt, but you can't understand that.

As for restaurants in Italy - why would they waste their money on American tourists who couldn't tell the difference anyway? You must know that most restaurants in the more touristy areas of Rome (in particular) serve reheated frozen food, right? What are your thoughts on this practice, by the way? They certainly don't charge like it's frozen food. And if one spends hours researching restaurants who do not do this and have higher quality food, it will be better, but it's not going to be that drastic of a difference when compared to higher end Italian food in America (the two major cities I mentioned - not the middle of Kansas).

Why the fuck is the subject of pasta/macaroni so bloody divisive on DL? There are more powerful arguments/critiques of Ital-American dishes... lack of vegetables, too much cheese, not enough fish, and piss-poor quality of the tomatoes!

For r294, including "side dishes" (contorni):

R295, we're talking about AMERICAN food in this thread. Dumbass.

r301 And someone widened the definition a little to include ITALIAN-AMERICAN food, Dumbass. Pay attention.

[quote]Aside from a few restaurants, the food in Italy was no better than food in American Italian restaurants in Chicago and NYC, run by Italians, or children of Italian immigrants.

The products in the US are vastly inferior: meat, cheese, oil, fruit, vegetables etc.

You obviously have an unsophisticated palate unable to tell the difference.

R302, Italian-American has nothing to do with Italy, dumbass.

Just like Tex-Mex has nothing to do with real Mexican cuisine.

IT'S AN AMERICAN VARIATION AND IS NOT GOVERNED BY THE RULES OF THE OTHER NATION'S CUISINE.

Fucking idiot.

If someone from another country does not like the American version of there food, it's hardly that interesting or surprising.

Buzzfeed has done plenty of videos on it. That's the level of commentary you're involved in here.

[quote] You obviously have an unsophisticated palate unable to tell the difference.

Your cunty words ... they wound! By the way, here are 2 Italians eating at the worst Italian chain in America. They don't even mention "low quality ingredients" once. They just remark on proportions being off, things being cooked strangely, and ingredients not tasting like what they are used to.

McDonalds is some of the shittiest quality food in the world, so why was the line for it in Rome 30 minutes long at 3 PM (with people mostly speaking Italian in line)? Italians must not have sophisticated palates.

R303 If only there were a way to get the real thing from overseas.

[quote]American foods that foreigners find disgusting

Italian-American

THE END. Next.

[quote] If only there were a way to get the real thing from overseas.

The thread title: "American foods". Not "Italian foods".

Got it? Is it to high concept for you?

I grew up in a mostly Italian neighborhood in the Midwest. The Italian food there is amazing. Fresh everything. TONS of Italian restaurants (one-offs, not chains, family owned). This egotistical elitist asshat doesn't know what he's talking about. He's making blanket statements that are out of date, or based on limited geographical evidence, or only sampling lower class restaurants or chains. Please. I know good Italian food. I also know there are places in this country where you can't get anything even remotely good, with respect to "Italian" cooking.

Yes, I had stunningly good, fresh, authentic Italian cuisine in the Midwest. It matters where though. My little Italian neighborhood doesn't represent the entire state. And you can find shitty Italian if you look for it. But to dismiss all American "Italian" food like the arrogant doofus above is just stupid.

Please, r304, EAT your fucking pasta with chicken breast. Glob on your "amazing" ranch dressing and wash it all down your gullet with your Dr. Pepper.

Our Italian friend also needs to learn that some Italians move here and open restaurants. There’s a great little place around the corner that is owned and run by an Italian and his wife.

There are tons of foreign foods that Americans find disgusting. Pretty much all authentic east-Asian food is disgusting. Especially that rotten duck embryo thing. Ugh. WTF is THAT? No.

[quote]Our Italian friend also needs to learn that some Italians move here and open restaurants. There’s a great little place around the corner that is owned and run by an Italian and his wife.

LOL. Why are you so defensive?

The thread is directed to foreigners.

I find the most disgusting food for me in the US is Italian-American.

Can't you just relax with that?

I don’t like the “American” varations of Italian food.

At least, Joe Bastianich sticks to burgers. Props for that.

It's obvious that European invented the pasta and the sausages, but when you talk about about mac and cheese and hot dog you think in american food, because they adapted those recipes. I love peanut butter, I like it with bananas and I also use it on my homemade chocolates as filling. What I dislike are all the recipes with that goo you call cheese. What's your regulation say the requirements to call something "cheese"?

And let me just add that besides the sorry way of preparing the Italian-American food...it is the American products themselves: " the GMOs, antibiotic laced meats and dairy, the growth hormones, the Monsanto Roundup, the preservatives banned most elsewhere in the world, the high fructuse corn syrup in fucking everything...."

It's disgusting.

[quote]By the way, here are 2 Italians eating at the worst Italian chain in America. They don't even mention "low quality ingredients" once. They just remark on proportions being off, things being cooked strangely, and ingredients not tasting like what they are used to.

And so?

If I were there I'd be in agreement with them and I'd also be mentioning the low quality ingredients.

What's your point?

Could the jumped up little Mussolini fuck off back to his mother's basement, please. Italians had their day in the sun 2,000 years ago and they still haven't managed to get over the loss of their faded greatness. Since they can't manage a second Roman Empire, they cling to the idea that they are arbiters of taste in all matters of food and fashion. But they aren't. They can't even manage to agree on what constitutes good food within their own country. The north loves butter, meat, and garlic. The knuckle-draggers in the south put turnip tops in everything and lose their minds if you do anything other than toss a whole garlic clove into a hot pan for 30 seconds before removing it and throwing it away.

British food is loved all over Europe!

Borders mean nothing. Some of the most disgusting French and Italian food I ever tried was in England where they still eat pizza with knive and forks and some places out in the sticks still call cappuccino "frothy coffee". I could not even get decent porchini mushrooms or balsamic vinegar outside of London until 1995.

I don't completely disagree with you, R319, but surely you see the irony of this statement

[quote] still haven't managed to get over the loss of their faded greatness

coming from a citizen of the (former) British Empire, upon which the sun never sets?

Oh, we're completely over our previous greatness. And I don't claim that we are preeminent in food, fashion, or anything really. Maybe fish and chips, but honestly the south of the US beats us for deep fat frying, even over Scotland.

All this talk of food and our little cold front has me hankering to make a pot of Texas Red and some jalapeño cornbread.

Thanks for that, R323. I do love your fried whitebait...delicious.

Mussolini troll, where in America did you eat Italian food? What cities? What were the names of the restaurants?

[quote]They can't even manage to agree on what constitutes good food within their own country. The north loves butter, meat, and garlic. The knuckle-draggers in the south....

R319 is the typical British racist. And of course he has no concept of regional cooking

R326 You really can't get over the fact that an Italian finds Italian-American food disgusting?

I know...I know:

America is the greatest country in the world...America is the greatest country in the world...America is the greatest country in the world...America is the greatest country in the world...America is the greatest country in the world...America is the greatest country in the world...America is the greatest country in the world...

R328 - you seem to understand English fairly well, so why did you just ignore my simple question (it's the third time now... seems to be a pattern with you) and spew nonsensical tripe?

WHERE did you eat Italian-American food and what were the names of the restaurants? And why won't you answer the question?

The other ignored questions are in r298

--> Why would they waste their money on American tourists who couldn't tell the difference anyway? You must know that most restaurants in the more touristy areas of Rome (in particular) serve reheated frozen food, right? What are your thoughts on this practice, by the way?

R328 I don’t think it’s only R326 commenting. I commented too but got bored and posted about making Texas Red.

Lets hear from the King of American cuisine, Elvis!

Elvis was pure hillbilly white trash. Money can’t buy good taste. Trump was born into wealth and could afford a private chef for his NY apt and has a WH chef but doesnt avail himself unless it’s a state dinner. He eats trash and even ruins good steaks by charring them and dousing in ketchup. Uncouth, uncultured pig that he is

[quote]Elvis was pure hillbilly white trash.

And we love him for it. No one would possibly think what he ate was typical American food.

I posted that link for a bit of fun.

R333 Agreed! Trump and Romney both drank milk with their steaks at their infamous dinner like a couple of toddlers. Trump also believes Vienna Fingers and Oreos to be the best cookies. Spurious intellect as well as taste.

[quote]WHERE did you eat Italian-American food and what were the names of the restaurants? And why won't you answer the question?

WTF is your problem? I've eaten Italian food in the US in the homes of Italian American friends...I have lived in the US...I have eaten Italian food from the "Olive Garden", to "A Mano" ...."Vetri Cucina".... and "Brigantessa" (for pizza) all in Philly (among others)...to Jersey Diners....to Sbarro....to "Carbone", "Lupa Osteria Romana", "Barbetta", "Maialino", "Il Buco" in NYC (among others)....to doing daily shopping and looking for good locally made or at least decent commercial grade mozzarella, ricotta, mascarpone.... salumi... gelato....etc. etc.

My verdict: in high priced restaurants with a kitchen using good produce and imported products the results can be ok ...rarely living up to the original but ok...however killed by an outrageous price tag.

But that's "Italian" food duplicated in America.

Italian-American is a cuisine...it is something else. It is "Italian" dishes that were created in the US....dishes that you won't find in Italy or are bastardizations of mostly Southern Italian cooking: spaghetti and meatballs, pasta with chicken or whatever on top, veal parmesan, fettuccine "alfredo"...and on and on. Weird combinations, poor executions etc. Or horrible products like "Italian dressing" and so forth. The list is long.

The question is: "American foods that foreigners find disgusting"

My answer is Italian-American food. Certainly Italian-American cuisine can be carefully made and satisfying... but much more often than not, it's pretty awful.

Hai capito?

Aussie here with my hits and misses from our American road trip of 15 years ago.

Hits: the breakfasts were very good (loved the biscuits though couldn't get into the grits though one of us did and had grits with a sunny side up egg on top for breakfast every day), the BBQ in the South, great pies (cherry, key lime etc), chicken fried steak (which we just called crumbed steak when I was a kid) and the greens in the South - dunno if they were collard greens but they were peppery and delicious, the gumbo that was cooked by someone we met who invited us to his mother's place in Cut-Off, Louisiana. Great burgers and chips (French fries) too in a cafe in Utah, which was so good that I drove back the next day to buy take-away chips so we could have chip butties (sandwiches) for lunch, which leads me to the 'bad' ...

Misses: the white sliced bread was so sweet it tasted like cake. My fault for buying white sliced bread you may say but it is best for chip butties. Some may also say that no-one much uses squirty cheese but there's at least one restaurant in Flagstaff that oozed it all over the nachos we had and it was as much puzzling as horrible in that why use that 'stuff' when grated cheddar is so much better. Quick and easy I suppose and it was more bar than restaurant to be honest. Not impressed with American filter coffee - too weak mostly.

The thing that most intrigued me was a whole cooked chicken in a can in a supermarket in Arizona. I guess it's meant for camping mainly but I've always regretted not buying one just for the tin. But on the whole we ate well and after a while you learn what to seek out and what to avoid.

Re Vegemite, perhaps it's like root beer is for many non-Americans - you may well need to be brought up on it to like it. I love it but can understand why many wouldn't as it's strong and salty. Root beer is to me what Vegemite is to you - definitely in the each to their own category.

I spent a day watching these videos while I was sick last year. They're funny, and I enjoy their accents.

[quote]Agreed! Trump and Romney both drank milk with their steaks at their infamous dinner like a couple of toddlers.

Jesus Christ! If they eschew alcohol why not a wine glass with sparkling water and a lemon slice! Was their milk in sippie cups too?

White packaged bread is disgusting and I don’t who eats it anymore.

Never heard of chicken in a can but it sounds gross.

[quote]WTF is your problem?

You kept ranting on and on about how terrible Italian-American food is, yet you never said where you ate it. You could've had eggplant Parmesan at a diner in Oklahoma for all we knew. If I was screeching on and on about how bad Italian food is, wouldn't you wonder where I had been eating. If I ate in the middle of Rome by the tourist attractions, I probably would be saying those things, since they just re-heat frozen food in the back & charge $50 for it. I made that mistake one time, got some kind of grey meat with brown jelly-like sauce...and no I do not think it is representative of Italy.

Anyway, part of the problem is that you're comparing apples and oranges. You can't use Sbarro or The Olive Garden as examples of "Italian American" food to compare to higher end, fresh, Italian food made in Italy. Just ignore those places. Most people here do not eat that unless they are in a rush, on a budget, or want something different and have no other options. You can use the more expensive places you mentioned - which you admitted were "ok" (gasp) - but then complained they cost too much money - but that's because they're paying to import the very ingredients you were bitching about other restaurants (like cheap ones) don't use. Do you see the logical flaw there? The food cost isn't even the whole issue. Chefs that know how to prepare things properly & run the kitchen with cooks that follow them does not come cheap, either.

Finally, nobody thinks "Italian dressing" has anything to do with Italy any more than "Russian" dressing. The naming was some marketing strategy for 1950s housewives.

R341 *sigh*

I am not talking about Italian food faithfully duplicated in the US... I'm talking about Italian-American food.

As I wrote:

"Italian-American is a cuisine...it is something else. It is "Italian" dishes that were created in the US....dishes that you won't find in Italy or are bastardizations of mostly Southern Italian cooking: spaghetti and meatballs, pasta with chicken or whatever on top, veal parmesan, fettuccine "alfredo"...and on and on."

That is what is known in the US as Italian American cuisine.

yes, that's why I added "American" after I wrote "Italian" both times.

[quote]You must know that most restaurants in the more touristy areas of Rome (in particular) serve reheated frozen food, right? What are your thoughts on this practice, by the way?

For every good restaurant in Rome there are probably 5 bad ones. So what's your point? What does that have to do with the question at hand?: "American foods that foreigners find disgusting".

If you want to start a thread about lousy restaurants in Italy I can tell you about some.

But that has nothing to do with the question at hand, posted at the top of this thread.

Gurl you have strayed all over the topic... basically ruining it. But yeah, point the finger at me because I asked about the bad restaurants in Rome, in a specific context written out above.

Actually it is my fault for not engaging with you after I saw you were nuts in the dissertation at R266. Well, no more.

Mussolini has ruined this thread.

[quote]."Vetri Cucina"

I liked the Vetri Family restaurants, particularly Il Spiedo before it closed. Now it's owned by the same Nazi organization that owns Urban Outfitters, so no more Vetri Family for my family.

Mussolini - I, for one, only eat GENUINE AUTHENTIC IMPORTED NATURAL ITALIAN FOOD!!!

R347 And you cannot order alla carta...$155 per person for bites. Not including wine....

I never ate at Vetri, just two of his lesser-priced restaurants, Amis e Il Spiedo, which I enjoyed (and which were priced alla carta).

I blocked Mussolini many posts ago. I suggest you do the same and carry on.

R350 And worth noting... like many high-end Italian restaurants in the US, the items on offer would be at home on a menu in Milan. They do not represent Italian-American cuisine.

You won't find "chicken parmesan" or "fettuccine Alfredo" or all those other things most Americans know as "Italian-American". At Vetri you'll find: mackerel crudo with farro, sweet onion crepe with truffle fondue, saffron stozzapreti with lobster and pernod....

Il Spiedo did a grilled half-chicken I loved. And there's an olive oil cake that may appear at all the Vetri restaurants.

This reminds me of the whole "real Chinese" food debate. Most of us heathen Americans who were raised on (whatever form of Chinese or Italian) generally will end up appreciating that more than you will - and vice versa. Of course, there are some people who love going to Chinatown and seeing their geoduck plucked from a giant tank before it is served to them, but it's definitely the minority.

Boiled peanuts - not prevalent outside the south

Salt cured country ham - also southern But German influenced

Moon Pies - still can be found

Collard Greens

Dandelion Greens - northern

Recall a German exchange student, took back boxes of assorted U.S. cereals. They love it.

R354 I absolutely agree. I can certainly understand an American loving their mom's spaghetti and meatballs with lots of slow cooked sauce. It's comforting. Familiar. What you know and are used to.

An Italian with see it as an abomination.

The same as to how a Chinese person might view "General Tso’s Chicken".....

*An Italian will see it

My mom poured a whole jar of Ragu over spaghetti that was boiled for 20 minutes... so that was pretty gross. But we had an Italian (American) place nearby that was so good, we ordered from there all the time.

I have a friend whose parents met a German couple while on vacation. They’ve been back and forth to each other’s houses. The German guy always insists on a smoked brisket when he visits. He loves it, has the recipe, and when he went back to Germany he wanted one but the butcher refused because it’s considered a trash meat over there. Is it true in Germany??

I never understood how brisket is like the "peasant cut" of meat when it's so good...if you cook it properly (just low heat & a long time)

"It's obvious that European invented the pasta"

No, they most certainly did NOT.

Very few Westerners would eat authentic Chinese. They eat anything that flies, crawls, swims or slithers. scorpions on a skewer? Yum! Fried bats! Delish!

My brother worked there for awhile and lost weight because he literally ate fruit and noodles.

There are a lot of YouTube videos of foreigners trying American food and for the most part going gaga over it and wishing they had the same in their countries. American food has been invented for humans to want to eat it to excess, so it makes sense.

Sweet potato pie is divoone. But a sugar and fat shock, of course. Pecan pie as well. Yum. The Swiss have nut tarts that can be delicious and not quite a sweet.

The best way to prepare brisket is in the crock pot.

Did someone say whole canned chicken?

[quote]The two most disgusting foods in the US. American cheese and ketchup

American Cheese is gross by itself, but it makes the perfect grilled cheese sandwiches.

And ketchup is great on hamburgers. And if you've never had Whataburger's Spicy Ketchup, you've never had the best ketchup ever.

Our chocolates are pretty vile

R370 - just add a wick and you have a set of nice decorative wax candle votives.

My husband is still upset they no longer make Squeeze-A-Snack cheese.

r368 I think I saw that picture in an anti-abortion ad.

Canned chicken? Would it pair well with canned potatoes? I remember buying these once when I was young and foolish and they were the one of the most disgusting things I'd ever eaten. (And of course Aunt Sandy has used them in a recipe!)

[quote]the butcher refused because it’s considered a trash meat over there. Is it true in Germany?

It is considered somewhat of a low-cost cut because of the significant amount of connective tissue. American 'barbecue culture' is quite popular nowadays though so there's more demand for it. European butchers do not break down the animals the same way as in the US/Australia so it's pretty hard to find a whole packer brisket

This thread is interesting. I have learned some stuff about pasta and cuts of meat I didn't know.

I'm American. I have a question about sweet potatoes. They are just a variety of yam. They didn't originate in the US. Asia, Africa and Pacific cultures eat them.

Don't Europeans grow/eat them at all ?

No, 376, sweet potatoes aren't a variety of yam. I don't know why ignorant Midwesterners call sweet-potatoes 'yams', but 'yams' are completely different. They're not ORANGE for starters (most are white).

These are called “candied yams”. The recipe calls for yams OR sweet potatoes so they are recognized as two different things. Ghastly concoction. What a horrific thing to serve to people.

R377 what we eat in the us is a sweet potato. The orange "yam" we eat is a variety. That is to say, yams and sweet potatoes in the US are the same root vegetable.

Taro or yams unlike sweet potatoes are grown in Africa, Asia, the Pacific. So, how come people don't eat eat them in Europe?

I like the purple yams, they look great and have a really pleasing fragrance. I always find yams are at their best eaten by themselves though, no trimmings maybe just a smidge of salt or butter. I really don't find that any ingredient dug out of the earth makes a great dessert.

Chicken and waffles

[quote]So, how come people don't eat eat them in Europe?

They're very healthful, high in beta-carotin. There's an organic produce shop near me that sells them. But, yeah it's a shame they're not eaten much in Europe.

Besides the horrible Italian-American concoctions I mentioned.... another thing I find disgusting in the US are those coffee drinks sold by Starbucks.

R381 - I LOVE chicken & waffles. The little fried bits from the chicken get into the waffle crevices, and then when when it's time to eat the waffle, that, combined with the added maple syrup, elevate the waffle to a whole other level.

Anyway, the mention of candied yams made me think of this other marshmallow monstrosity . . .

Twinkies was on the list I saw... how can anyone hate a twinkie? It's just a golden cake with a cream filling. I mean, it's not heaven or anything, but there's nothing *disgusting* about it.

A lot of what is in the Twinkie is disgusting.

[quote]INGREDIENTS: Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour [Flour, Reduced Iron, B Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Folic Acid)], Water, Sugar, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable and/or Animal Shortening (Soybean, Cottonseed and/or Canola Oil, Beef Fat), Whole Eggs, Dextrose. Contains 2% or Less of: Soy Lecithin, Leavenings (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Cornstarch, and Monocalcium Phosphate), Modified Corn Starch, Glucose, Whey, Glycerin, Soybean Oil, Salt, Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Corn Starch, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Sorbic Acid (to Retain Freshness), Xanthan Gum, Cellulose Gum, Enzyme, Wheat Flour, Yellow 5, Red 40.

Twinkies have a chemical taste and strange texture. The "cream" is like paste.

Remember when Hostess was going out of business and people were going insane, buying all the twinkies that were left in every grocery store & putting them on ebay, etc.... well, that was the last time I had one. I remember again, it tasted too syrupy and weird. Even as a kid, I didn't like them. The chemicals in taco bell do work on me, on the other hand.

r359, brisket is traditionally Jewish. That butcher might be anti-Semitic.

Anyone in Louisville, KY looking for authentic Italian-Italian cuisine check out Roc. The Italian-born and raised owner relocated from NYC, closed his very successful restaurants and moved it all down to KY. His chefs are from Italy.

Cheese Wiz.

R365 They ALWAYS get the food wrong in these vids. Pimento cheese is not a sandwich and we do not put maple on our fried chicken biscuits.

R236 worst grilled cheese I ever had was made with that orange plastic in a diner in NY . Fucking disgusting.

Yes, I did try that ketchup. Tomato frosting with spice, also fucking disgusting.

How do their kids grow up without peanut butter?

I like American cheese for a cheeseburger. I buy it sliced thin from the deli and it melts better.

I believe bagels originated in Eastern Europe but are they popular in Europe? Come to think of it, I don't really recall seeing them. Not that I was looking because I like to try new things when I travel. A bagel and cream cheese (Philly) is pretty American. I used to love cream cheese and grape jelly sandwiches on white bread when I was in school. Haven't had one since I was a kid.

Twinkies and Ding Dongs tasted better when I was a kid in the early 70’s. I think they changed their recipes at some point. They were moister and the cream filling was fluffier. I think the original sugar was replaced with HCFS at some point.

R392 Very popular in Poland and Germany are the bagels. Often served with salami as a sandwich.

I like the idea of bagels but they are so chewy and I feel like my teeth are going to be pulled out biting into them.

I thought ketchup/catsup was a British thing imported from one of the outposts in their empire.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

I don’t eat Hershey’s. That’s kiddie chocolate. There’s plenty of good chocolate here but none of it is Russell Stover, Hershey or that Whitman’s Sampler(?) crap.

Most disgusting American food is certainly Marshmallow Fluff. Who the fuck would eat something disgusting like that for breakfast. A close second was the "treat" one of my brothers colleagues served us after a barbecue: two grilled marshmallows with chocolate sauce between two cookies. I nearly died of a sugar shock after that sandwich. It was also disgusting.

[quote]Pimento cheese is not a sandwich and we do not put maple on our fried chicken biscuits.

I’m from Georgia and everyone I know eats pimento cheese in sandwich form. Maple on a chicken biscuit, though, yuck. I am with you there.

It's called a S'more. Americans go nuts over it and stores display graham crackers,marshmallows, and Hershey bars together for convenience.

Yep, pimento cheese is always eaten in a sandwich. I've never seen it eaten any other way.

No one eats marshmallow fluff for breakfast.

R402 I’ve known people to serve it with crackers and spread it on celery, and lately it’s been a popular burger topping, but sandwiches are the most classic.

By the way, if you’ve never had a BLT with pimento cheese on it, do yourself a favor and make one.

[quote]I don’t eat Hershey’s. That’s kiddie chocolate. There’s plenty of good chocolate here but none of it is Russell Stover, Hershey or that Whitman’s Sampler(?) crap.

The problem for a European is that chocolate that's widely available in Europe, commercial brands... are very good.

In the US you have to be knowledgable and search out the good stuff.

like so many other products in the US, American chocolate is made with lower quality standards compared to Europe.

R396 1812 US

The name existed but not the vile tomato frosting, in fact the original had brandy and spice and the massive sugar amounts came later.

Heinz Simply Ketchup or Organic Ketchup is better than the regular kind. Ketchup is pretty easy to make but if I am eating something at home that requires ketchup it's likely something quick and not something I planned (ie, a burger on the grill) so I am probably not going to go to the trouble for myself.

We always used it as a party spread with bread or crackers and never once put it in a sandwich. Pimento cheese as a sandwich could get you thrown out of parts of the south.

From a recent article in USA Today:

To some, maggot-filled cheese and fermented shark are absolutely delicious. But a Twinkie? Yuck!

Challenging personal taste is the big idea behind a new project called the Disgusting Food Museum in Malmö, Sweden. The museum, which is set to open Oct. 31, will display 80 of the world's most "disgusting" foods — and they're all from different cultures around the world.

We like the foods we have grown up with. Disgust is highly individual," museum director Andreas Ahrens, whose favorite exhibit is the casu marzu, a sheep's milk cheese that contains living insect larvae, told TODAY Food via an emailed statement. That particular dish usually needs to be eaten with one's eyes closed so the fly larvae don't jump into them.

"The thought of eating a spider makes some people hungry but makes others want to vomit ... the presentation is also part of that context," he added. "Now that some of the world's best chefs are experimenting with insects on their menus, eating insects may go from 'yuck' to fine dining."

Foods on display include fermented herring called Surströmming from Sweden, Peruvian roasted guinea pigs, a Chinese wine filled with mice bodies, fruit bat and Icelandic shark — the last of which the museum's curator, Samuel West, said smells like "death and ammonia."

Among these foods that may seem unusual to most Western diets are popular American delicacies, too.

Foods representing the country's grossest bites and beverages include Twinkies, root beer, caviar, Spam, Pop-Tarts and Jell-O salad.

r409 wins. Thread closed. That is one museum I never want to go to.

What's wrong with root beer? I don't drink it very often, but I like it.

I'll stand by SPAM until I die. Fry up some SPAM alone, or with some eggs and you've got a winner.

Who are the idiots eating it straight from the can?

If you can't eat Marshmallow fluff, how can you have a s'mores pie?

I'm delighted to learn that non AmeriCanadians detest the manifestation of all that is trashy i.e. a plastic "jar" of peanut butter. The smell alone is horrible.

What do you do with Marshmallow Fluff? Do you eat it like peanut butter on bread or is it just for baking and cake? Never heard of this but it looks artificial and unhealty.

Marshmallow Fluff is horribly unhealthy but in small amounts is delicious. You can use it as an ice cream topping, add a spoonful to hot chocolate. A Fluffernutter is a peanut butter and Fluff sandwich. I like it every once in a while, like maybe every 5 years, with plain unsweetened peanut butter (just ground up peanuts) on toast.

I've only ever had marshmallow fluff with peanut butter in a sandwich.

I thought fluffer nutter sandwiches were quite common.

R412 - My mother used to saute potatoes and onions in a lot of butter. She put them in a casserole dish and topped them with slices of SPAM with a breadcrumb and mustard topping and then baked it. The spam came out crispy and the potatoes were delicious. I'd give anything to have that cooked by her one more time. Fed a family of 7 for a few bucks and we all loved it.

That's a mother on a shoestring budget special R418 and it sounds delicious. I've never had Spam. Might give it a try.

[quote]I'm so surprised there hasn't been one mention of Hershey bars.

You didn't read this thread.

[quote]What's wrong with root beer? I don't drink it very often, but I like it.

I think people think it's medicinal-tasting/tastes like cough syrup. I personally don't care for it, but I don't hate it.

I hate pumpkin pie ...but I hate all pies, except pizza and shepherds pie.

Peanut butter is much better now than it used to be. When I was a kid, peanut butter was dry & sticky. The worst was having to eat peanut butter without having something to drink, which used to happen in catholic school because the school milk was frozen solid in winter.

Once food companies learned how to put icing in a can, peanut butter got better because they now use the same emulsifiers as they use in canned frosting, which makes it less dry and not at all sticky. .

Peanut butter tastes like sesame oil, so if you like sesame noodles, you should like peanut butter.

I like peanut butter without emulsifiers. Just peanuts and salt.

Disgusting southern and midwestern people put fucking sugar in everything. Tuna salad, potato salad, macaroni salad. And that putrid Kraft "dressing" instead of mayonnaise. I went to a Panera bread once and threw away the tuna sandwich. Tried their tomato soup...full of fucking sugar.

Disgusting, disgusting people

Just go to the store and get the fresh peanuts that are ground down into peanut butter. No added anything.

I eat peanut butter on toast just about every morning for breakfast. Some of you seem a bit "delicate"......I picture lots of gasping and screeching EWWWWW at every little thing you don't care for.

Spam always was and always will be disgusting, and I say that as a born and bred mid-western American.

OK R413 am I missing the joke? There are no marshmallows in any form in your recipe.

Krispy Kreme is a product that leaves me sad at the state of human kind. The marketing, the massive hit of sugar and fat. Like a twinky, it's the opposite of what food should be. Seems bereft of any value at all.

I have a friend who tried to convert me to the Krispy Kreme donut. I only liked one of their donuts, though, the cake donut with a hole in the center. I HATE glazed donuts, and all the rest of theirs were glazed, at least during the '90s;.

I love pumpkin pie.. the spicy, pumpkin custard filling. I could eat it for breakfast. It's pretty healthy, too... minus all the sugar and butter used to make it.

I don't know that I've ever had Marshmallow fluff, buy marshmallow CREME makes great fudge.

My father used to make a stir-fry with cubed Spam, pineapple chunks and green beans. Served it over white rice. It was delicious.

Them’s fightin’ words, R430.

Most of our foreign guests find Tex-Mex and Meatloaf totally disgusting. What’s huge, though, is Thai, Ethiopian, Japanese and the astonishing variety of foreign cuisine. Our foreign family is astonished how easily we assimilate cuisiine from around the world into our every day diet. It’s not the perception of America they get from the media.

No, definitely not hotdogs. Lots of foreign countries, including Iceland, are proud of their hot dogs.

R433 Aren't they the same?

Fuck you, cunt!

OH YEA, YOU'RE A BOTTOM WHORE

I know you are, but what I'm I?

You're a dumb bitch!

Fuck you, cunt!

I think a lot of Americans will find many of the the same "American food" disgusting as foreigners will. And most of the rest of American food is derived somewhat from "foreigners" anyway, with characteristic alterations to make it more palatable to the masses..

How in the fuck is Tex-Mex disgusting? I could eat that every day... it's awesome.

R441 Tex Mex is so delicious. I love fresh salsa with black beans and strawberries.

Interior Mexican, or Authentic Mexican goes over well. But the chewy gooey glop of Tex Mex was a flop with all of our foreign relatives.

What the fuck did you serve them?

A wet burrito

R443, the ex-pats here eat the shit out of Tex-Mex. the love going out with us for fajitas and margaritas.

"This what the British are being told is authentic American football fare: A two-foot long Mac & Cheese dog at Wembley today."

R447 I've never seen mac and cheese on a hot dog in my ten years over here. Revisionist cuisine. Will they put a slice of apple pie on it too?

Lidl sells a range of "American" food items at their stores in Europe under the McEnnedy brand (conjuring up the Kennedys?). Microwave popcorn, peanut butter, and cookie dough ice cream are part of the offerings. Other McEnnedy crap: frozen milkshakes, fake Fruit Loops, marshmallows, jelly beans, maple syrup and frozen hot dogs complete with bun, sauerkraut and pickles.

Microwave popcorn is American? That kind of surprises me.

R449 Fergal O'McEnnedy?

R449 Those products look nasty I wouldn't buy any of those.

i hate pumpkin pie

I do, too, r453.

R448 me either only chilli, bacon,and fries

What about tater tots?

Who can hate tater tots?

R456 I saw a woman eating tater tots with tarter sauce in Chicago once. I thought how vile...and then I tried it.

R444 Thai or Indian is popular.

R458, that's a nonsense answer to the question. Let's see if you can figure out why:

The original statement: "Interior Mexican, or Authentic Mexican goes over well. But the chewy gooey glop of Tex Mex was a flop with all of our foreign relatives."

My question: "What the fuck did you serve them?"

Your response: "Thai or Indian is popular."

... do you see how that's a complete non-sequitur? Why did you even bother posting that? What the hell is wrong with you?

Not judging here, because I'm British and I know a lot of Brits eat crap food. Not to mention, a lot of people are struggling financially. But Hamburger Helpers? WTF?

Also, I've been watching some food videos on youtube. What is it with dollar store dinners? Are there really no supermarkets where people can buy simple unprocessed ingredients for 3 or 4 dollars to make a dinner? And American goulash. That just didn't look good to me at all.

What the fuck is "American Goulash"? I've lived here all my life, in different cities and states, and have never heard of such a thing.

R461 there's quite a few videos on YT, and online recipes.

Just because it's on YouTube doesn't mean it's real.

There's no such thing as "American Goulash".

YouTube is filled with idiots.

Betty Crocker created a recipe for Goulash in the 60's.

Being as it had no resemblance to Goulashsoup from Hungary it became known as American Goulash.

It's a favorite in the mid-west.

It's called American Chop Suey in Massachusetts. It appeared on our school lunch menu at least once every two weeks.

R460 I've been travelling in the US for 3 months and we ate a lot of junk food just to save money. The prices for groceries are insane there. I guess that is one of the reasons why a lot of Americans have health and weight problems. A basic dinner at a diner or chain like Applebees was between 30 and 40 Dollars for two people. Buying some healthy food at a grocery store for dinner at least 20 Dollars (fish or meat, some vegetables, fruit, juice etc). Even my former college food, spaghetti and pasta sauce, was very expensive. 3,50 for a small jar of pasta sauce. In Europe I pay less than a dollar. Usually 75 cents. So we mostly ate fast food. You can get 1 dollar burgers or food at every chain. 3-4 for a normal sized woman is quite a lot of food and you're full.

^ I wouldn't recommend that diet for more than 3 months though. But insane how cheap fast food is compared to normal healthy groceries. You can get a 1 liter softdrink for 1 dollar but orange juice is 4,50 at the grocery store.

I had an aunt who made something like the goulash in r462, except hers contained sour cream. She called it "casserole," but my father always referred to it as "goulash," particularly if she used egg noodles instead of macaroni.

R465, I grew up in the middle of the mid-west, and I've never heard of this crap. Never seen it. Never heard anyone even mention it.

Sorry, the notion that this is some sort of mid-west staple or even remotely popular is complete bullshit.

[quote] Even my former college food, spaghetti and pasta sauce, was very expensive. 3,50 for a small jar of pasta sauce. In Europe I pay less than a dollar. Usually 75 cents.

You can get jarred or canned pasta sauce for much less than $3.50.

[quote]Sorry, the notion that this is some sort of mid-west staple or even remotely popular is complete bullshit.

Those kind of dreadful concoctions are very American though.

Passing through Western PA on a roadtrip, I had a friend's stepmother serve us this American-style "goulash". Though it bore no resemblance to the dish my friend and I have eaten together at an Austrian restaurant, it was quite good. It had mince, tomatoes, either crushed or diced, lots of peppers and onions, garlic and lots of paprika. There was no cheese. She served this with artichokes she had steamed in a microwave... something I had never previously thought possible. Americans have cooked much worse for me in twenty years. This dinner was all fresh, quick, and satisfying.

[quote] It had mince

What is "mince"?

Sorry R474... What you know as finely ground meat, beef in this case. I believe it was ground round.

No R470 it's you that's utter bullshit. I grew up in Missouri and every housewife bragged about how great her goulash was.

I might just attempt to replicate that goulash... My friend said sometimes people add corn too. I'm thinking it would go well with garlic bread too.

Another Missouri favorite was plain macaroni mixed with a can of stewed tomatoes. Often served with fish that had been breaded with cornmeal and fried in a skillet.

OK. Orange juice is not healthy. It's almost exactly the same as drinking a Coke.

Sure a healthy meal with a protein, vegetable and starch may cost more than fast food calorie for calorie.Although it would be close if you went with canned/frozen product and rice.

Unhealthy calorie for unhealthy calorie (including soda) you are probably still better off at the grocery store. Go to Walmart. You can get 30 frozen corn dogs for $12.

R461 It's sometimes called American Chop Suey. It's just everything and the kitchen sink with elbow pasta. It is awful.

R459 Looks like the Mussolini troll is back. Bringing that usual Italian charm with him. :/

R480 If the variant you had tried to be Asian-inspired, I'll bet it was awful. The dish I had was spicy, and in no way was similar to Chop Suey, or anything remotely Chinese. We Brits eat a lot of beef, and cook many dishes w/mine, so I think American Goulash would go over well back home.

^ mince= ground beef

R481 If you're referring to me...I'm the one who wrote about the horrible state of "Italian-American" cuisine in the US (foods that foreigners find disgusting).

Nothing about Mexican or Tai or Indian.

Also: for some odd reason, my comments about "Italian-American" food triggered you enough to announce that you had me blocked.

Gee... what happened?

There was nothing Asian or spicy about the version I had, and it was the opposite of kitchen-sink. I have no idea how the school's was made but it tasted about the same as what I remember watching my friend's mother make while we did homework in her kitchen. She would brown ground beef (there may have been a chopped onion, too), pour off the fat, then add cooked macaroni and a can of Campbell's tomato soup concentrate. Done.

I loved it because while my mother* never would have allowed it, I had already been indoctrinated by seeing so many Campbell's ads/commercials with kids eating tomato soup.. Anything that came in a can, a box, or wrapped in plastic was what I craved.

*If anyone read the Halloween candy thread, she was the one who would take our candy to be x-rayed at the hospital so that she could later claim it was radioactive and had to be thrown out.

I never did like pumpkin pie. In fact, I don't like anything pumpkin flavored. But for some reason I like pumpkins. I just like the way they look; round and orange, so cheerful. Yes, I like pumpkins. I just don't want to eat them.

I’ve never seen or heard of that goulash. But then, I never heard of green bean casserole until a few years ago. (Don’t like it). The only thing my mother made that could be considered a casserole was Mac & cheese and it was horrible. The inside was too liquidy and the outside was burnt black in places and dried up. My mother was a terrible cook.

We didn’t have lasagna until my sister got married and her Sicilian American friends taught her how to make it. Baked ziti, too.

I’ve bought my cooked thanksgiving turkey breast already from Costco. It keeps in the fridge.

I hate all American food. It’s trash food for trashy people and I’m above that.

^^^smell her.

I love Cajun/Creole and all of the Mexican related cuisines which varybfrom SW state to state. Texas is different than New Mexico and CA.

When I was growing up there were tons of German restaurants.

Not anymore.

There’s still a few here. For me, Gernman food is a “winter” food. Heavy and stodgy.

There are very few German restaurants outside of London in the UK, the only one in Manchester has a tiny menu selling largely British/International food.

[quote]But then, I never heard of green bean casserole until a few years ago. (Don’t like it).

Now look what you've done!

R494 I'll eat some fried onions in her honor.

Will she be laid to rest on a bed of green beans with a wreath of fried onions?

I can't wait for this on November 1st