Welcome to Fodors ithappenstobeme - Who has told you Europeans hate American food? Not IME.

This almost sounds like you are researching something.

You registered to post this? I read the question - what's the point other than your homework?
And no, I don't recall "very many" Europeans saying this.

Properly cooked Hash Browns. Crisp and not mushy or starchy. European students we hosted all went nuts over Hash Browns with ketchup. They also liked tots.

There are so many levels of American cooking these days, that it is hard to categorize it any more. Yes, there is still plenty of garbage and pallid imitations of better food, but there is also many other directions. Because we are nation of immigrants there is a great deal of ethnic food. In NYC over 400 languages are spoken and a number of them are represented by their cuisine as well. Then there is a movement to use local fresh ingredients, there is fusion cooking, and a new generation of creative chefs.

So it depends on where, what, and how you eat.

"The real stuff is heavenly."

It isn't. Artisan or Walmart own label: it's all just sickly goo.

99.999% of all the horrible maple syrup Americans dump on their European hosts gathers dust for a decade at the back of the pantry till someone chucks it into the recycling. Some Europeans have different tastes about this: no-one can dispute the fact that the stuff's practically unsaleable in Europe.

For people who've grown up with it, Hershey's chocolate is terrific, and microwaveable pork rinds aren't quite as nice as my freshly-rendered English pork scratchings (what else do you do with surplus pork skin?) but not far short.

There's no such thing as disgusting food - American, European or Azerbaijani. Just self-obsessed people convinced their squeamishness is universally shared

100% pure maple syrup is excellent on pancakes, waffles and in some recipes. I wasn't aware Walmart had it's own brand, but I never bought any Walmart own-brand products. Locally, our grocery carries a Canadian brand which is darker than we like but all right.

Maple syrup is something most people eat probably once a month at most and I agree with the OP, many have never tried it. Its significance in the American diet is minimal, cost alone precludes that.

Flanner, if you have any of the real stuff gathering dust in your pantry, please send it my way. IMO, certainly superior to Golden Syrup.

I've heard this. I have also heard "You Americans cook?" Some think that everything is fast, fast, fast. Oh well, that is the beauty of traveling. People with opinions like that are ignorant.

Typically American foods that I have made for my non-NA friends that were well received are:
Lemon Meringue Pie
Peach pie
Ribs
Fluffy pancakes (yes, with real maple syrup which is incredibly expensive over here)
Banana bread

I love real maple syrup. Just because Flanner doesn't like it he assumes no Europeans do. You are all most welcome to bring some over for me. I guarantee it won't sit on a shelf gathering dust.


Plenty of American food I do like. One of our American friends makes the best baked ham ever. I love American pancakes. I even like biscuits and gravy.

What I don't like is the seeming need to put cheese on everything when eating out.

I hate typos, should be "its own brand" in my post.

hetismij, I agree about cheese on everything, too much and often fake as well.

When we visited friends in York last month, one of the gifts we brought was maple syrup from some unknown upstate NY farm which I purchased at a greenmarket.

They immediately threw us to the curb and called immigration.

I'm American and I definitely do not like maple syrup. I use butter and and sometimes powdered sugar on pancakes and french toast. Less sweet. Hetismij - you're welcome to the small bottles of syrup that have been sitting in my cupboard for about 10 years!

I also do not like ketchup.

American food that is delicious - cheese burgers cooked on a grill! Tender steak!!!

Aduchamp - isn't the word "kerb?"

adrienne wrote: "American food that is delicious ...Tender steak!!!"

Tenderness is not a flavour component. In general, the more tender the meat, the less flavour it has.

Yesterday we ate beef bourguignon made with shin beef. That's flavoursome meat, and it was falling-to-pieces tender when it got to the table. What do Americans do with shin beef? Can you buy it in your butcher's shops, or is it all processed into something that doesn't look as if it was never part of an animal?

Typically American foods that I have made for my non-NA friends that were well received are:
Lemon Meringue Pie

It's Swiss, and variants of it have existed since the middle ages

My British Mum used to make lemon meringue pie in the 1950's. You could buy a packet containing the lemon part (just add water) and meringue mix, which was an approximation of what you get using real eggs. She made the pastry part herself, since she could do that without thinking about it.

My impression of U.S. stores is that they have much more in the way of ready-prepared cake mixes and the like. Is that still true for American lemon meringue pie?

The major difference between American and European food seems to be that the Americans think you improve a meal by adding more ingredients and eating them at the same time. Europeans like separate courses.

Hate maple syrup! and I use shin beef a lot. it doesn't have to be super tender to be flavorfull
American food can be wonderful or horrible depending on way cooked. over salty anhd oversweetened take away from too much of it/ The ingedients are good it is how we cook them. We don't cook st home much

<< What do Americans do with shin beef >>

I've never heard of it and there are few butchers where I live. There is a pork butcher who has great cuts.

Padraig - I believe the flavor comes from the bottle of wine in beef bourguignon.

I didn't claim that tenderness is a flavor (it's the cut that gives the flavor) but the few times I've had steak in Europe (usually in France) the meat has been tough and didn't have much flavor.

I think we are generalizing a whole lot about Americans and American food. I am an American who eats out frequently and doesn't "put cheese on everything". I can take or leave maple syrup but if we are using syrup, maple is the best by far. We don't eat packaged food, we don't add more ingredients, etc.

I think a lot of Europeans (gross generalization coming) get an impression of American food from the fast food outlets springing up everywhere abroad. Many of us never darken the door of a McDonalds or Burger King. But there is little better than a hamburger grilled in the back yard.

mamcalice - I was not saying that Americans put cheese on everything, but there is a tendency in restaurants and sandwich bars and the like to automatically add cheese to salads and sandwiches, even sandwiches where you would not normally expect to find cheese. When I am in the US I have learned to automatically say hold the cheese, whether it is a listed ingredient or not.
I know from my American friends that they do not put cheese on everything at home, and also get annoyed about it being on "everything" when they are out.

What is it with the strange brown sugary non-alcoholic fizzy liquids that American companies insist on selling in Europe with secret ingredients. So weird. Not sure why anyone buys them but that is an even stranger issue.

Aduchamp - isn't the word "kerb?"
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I am from Brooklyn so I was thrown to the curb.

Where does all this cheese come from? But contributing to our terrible reputation, is the fact we invented chesses from a can. This can double as a snack and a weapon to be used during a mugging.

Alan, that is pretty funny as it was a Swiss family that asked me to make it for them. They had only had it in the US and were thrilled to have it again.

Chartley, yes you can still buy lemon flavored pudding for the pie, but it is incredibly easy to make it and it tastes much better.

Adu very funny, cheese in a can, hmm, that is enough to give anyone a bad rep

When my daughter went to Britain to visit friends, they asked her what are typically Canadian foods?
Being from the west coast, I offered, Sushi? Anything Asian?
Truly, I had a hard time to come up with Canadian foods.

Seriously, though, when we travel in Europe, the only thing I miss are the wonderful salads which are mainstays on our menus here. Salads with multiple ingredients, including half a sliced avocado on the side, pecans, cranberries, chunks of red pepper, dates, roasted corn, maybe some sliced chicken breast or poached prawns, not all in that order, but smothered in lots of Italian dressing, mmm, ......
Just kidding about the dressing. Maybe some good olive oil with lemon champagne vinegar, hey, wait a minute...
One more thought,BBQ Pacific Sockeye salmon. That must be Cdn/American?

How about Copper River salmon? I just fixed it for a dinner party last week. Yummy! Expensive! There was some at the fish store that was $44 a pound, but I got the cheap stuff that was $14.95 a pound.

Several years ago I was talking to a German waitress who'd been married to an American and who'd lived several years in the States. Some of her customers (in Schwäbisch Gmund) insisted that Americans eat only fast food. She tried to convince them that there was a great variety of foods in the U.S. as there is everywhere else.

I miss those salads when I'm in Europe also. I also miss really good fruit, especially at restaurants, when I'm hungry for a nice fresh fruit salad.

We had a barbecue at our house and a couple friends from Africa came over - they remarked that the food was so good, that usually when you go to an American bbq, the food is terrible. We told them that they were hanging around with the wrong Americans then

So yeah, we are a country of 300 million people - it's pretty hard to make generalizations about our food.

In the UK, it's a kerb; in the US it's a curb. We also have tires for our cars, not tyres; gas for our gas tanks, not petrol; and we don't have as many vestigial vowels (color, honor, labor; not colour, honour, labour) or random letter reversals (center, not centre).

The notion of "American food" is misleading. The United States has nearly as much land area as all of Europe (including European Russia) and just as Europe has regional food groupings that are actually the national cuisines of its various countries, the US has regional cuisines (Cajun, Tex-Mex, Creole, Soul Food, Texas BBQ, Carolina BBQ, Yankee, California cuisine, Southern, Hawaiian, New Mexican, Floribbean, etc) and regional specialties (Chicago deep dish pizza [ugh], NY pizza, Philly cheesesteaks, Minnesota walleye, Pacific salmon, etc.).

>American food that is delicious - cheese burgers cooked on a grill<

À chacun son goût
..........................................
Hi Pad,
>What do Americans do with shin beef<

Most of them have never heard of it.

Those who have grind it up and sell it for hamburger meat or dog food.

I used to wear shin pads when I played hockey but to the best of my knowledge they were not made from beef.
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I have never heard of shin beef, but it does sound like Number 3 served with fried rice and an egg roll.

have to admit, Man V Food has really got me craving american food!!!! Adam makes it all look so yummy!!!

Two famous Brits, Jamie and shin stew

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/melt-in-your-mouth-shin-stew

The comments about "shin beef" being "flavorful" made me think of the beer commercials that claim X brand has "more taste" than Y brand. That's all well and good, but if X brand tastes like the inside of a cow's rectum, then the fact that it has more taste is . . . a drawback.

Most of the nastiest foods I've ever seen or eaten have been more flavorful than the favorites I routinely ingest.

Some of us have no idea what the inside of a cow's rectum tastes like.

A few years ago I copped on to the fact that the fillet steaks for which I was paying premium prices were not really that tasty: they looked good on the plate, and were easy to chew and ... well, that was it. If I wanted flavour, I needed a good sauce.

Some of us have no idea what the inside of a cow's rectum tastes like.

Marmite?

Aberdeen Steak House's best cut.

I like Marmite. About once every ten years or so. It takes that long for the taste memory to clear.

Aberdeen Steak House's best cut is (wait for it; wait for it!) an ox-ymoron.

There is a lot of great food in the US. But, unfortunately there is a massive amount of bad food - and a lot of people don't seem to be able to tell the difference. It's like Venice - so many people (tourists) who don;t know bad food from good that the bad restaurants survive.

As for good american foos:

Yes, maple syrup is wonderful (but most people buy sugar water with a drop of maple for 1/4 the price

American beef can be great, lam, chicken etc - often much better quality than you find in europe

Unfortunately in the fruit and veggie department most of us go for big and flashy rather than flavor. Our family sticks to local produce that has real taste - go to farm stand whenever possible - and it really makes a difference, I hate those giant strawberries from CA - that look like a photo - and taste like cardboard vs small fresh berries that are super sweet.

What about Maine lobster?

LI bay scallops?

Crawfish etouffe?

We do have a lot of good food - it's just harder to find here among all the micronuked fast food swill.

You've been watching too much Fox News. Some people say....many Europeans think...yadda yadda yadda. Foodies are foodies. It is easy to find good food anywhere. It's also easy to find terrible food. You just need to have an open mind.

Thick, juicy Steak - Yessss !

Typical American Cheese Cake - Oye, Oye, Please, No !!!!!

Years ago we, Europeans just moved to the USA were invited to dinner at a Japanese couple who were also new arrivals. It was funny how both of us were complaining about the same things in American food: Too much salt, too much fat, too much sugar.

Sorry, folks, we still miss the sophistication of European kitchen, using HALF the amount of salt, fat or sugar. We still buy our cheese cake (or ANY pastry) at a Polish bakery, which is a half-hour drive, snacks are WAYYY to salty and fat, and as far as soft drinks? Why would any normal human being put that disgusting fluid called Cola in his/her mouth, I would never understand.

But when it comes to steak — God bless America !

People seriously don't like maple syrup? It is straight out of the tree, made fresh on the farm. Delicious!!

I mean, I might have maple syrup once in a blue moon, but you better believe I enjoy it when I'm eating it!

Obviously the Aunt Jemima stuff is sickening but that is not Maple Syrup. Comparing Aunt Jemima to maple syrup is like comparing a White Castle hamburger to filet mignon.

Oh, regional specialties in America are great.

Green chili cheeseburgers... please!

Barbecue.

Country baked ham.

Apple pie
Berry pie
Peach pie
Chocolate pie
Chess pie
pie in general is great

summer fruit salad in incredible

Fish tacos

Having eaten at dives all over Arizona, I can say that the Arizona/Mexican food was utterly great

Clam chowder

the aforementioned salmon

roasted corn on the cob

I cook nearly every single night. I have cooking friends and even here on Fodors there is a great running What's For Dinner thread in the Lounge. A good place to find out what Americans eat.

Home cooking on Chowhound.com is another place to read about lots of people that make lots of great American food.

How about brownies?
Chocolate layer cake?
Chocolate chip cookies
Oatmeal cookies

OK, now I'm hungry.

One thing that drives me nuts about American foods is the need for additiives. Yes, the coca cola is disgusting. No HFCS in the EU... Bravo!

Nanaimo bars! Now there's something Canadians can lay claim to, named after a town on Vancouver Island.
Loved that sweet confection as a kid, haven't eaten one in decades, though.

No HFCS in the EU...

Did the ECB OK that?
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Yes throughout the history of western civilization, empires and cultures have been defined by their use of high fructose corn syrup. (See Gibbon and The Durants.)

"Shin beef" is usually called "beef shank" in the US.

It is a ridiculous generalization to say, "many Europeans say American food is horrible". You mean the American food in Los Angeles, or Boston, or Kansas City, or Miami, or Chicago, or Aspen?? You get the point.

Bacon, WHY do Americans convert it into shoe leather?

"I hate those giant strawberries from CA - that look like a photo - and taste like cardboard vs small fresh berries that are super sweet."

If a strawberry is going to make it from CA to NY, it has to be like that. But rest assured, all CA strawberries aren't like that Just the ones that have to travel thousands of miles.

The worst American food is on the interstate. All chains. go to a rest stop on the autobahn or autostrade and you can get freshly made food in a great variety. I pick up delicious fresh sandwiches and brochen (sp?) each morning from a gas station here in Germany. But I miss enchiladas and good salsa. And meatloaf from Cracker Barrel (okay, I know, I know). And I cannot find good beef here - my usual in the states is a filet mignon. But the pork here - yum! Learning to like a different culture's food is just part of the fun. Have had saumagen with sauerkraut and a dry riesling several places. To DIE for! But then, I also like good ol' American spam and mac.

In over 50 years of preparing American home cooking, I have had a few spectacular failures but my family is reasonably healthy and still comes home to Mom's. And I enjoy eating out on occasion....sometimes fast food; just because it's fast doesn't mean it's awful.

And, confession time, I love Dr. Pepper.

Bacon, WHY do Americans convert it into shoe leather?
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How come the Brits eat half-cooked bacon? But then you also enjoy those flatulence inducing beans for breakfast.

Americans really do love our bacon crisp and in this case, I am a real American.

Thanks for the translation, PeaceOut.

Do Americans eat beef shank? Or do they make it into burgers or petfood?

I don't see why Americans become so defensive about their food. Nobody is going to steal it from them. Not a chance. They can enjoy as much of it as they want.

The same goes for any other country.

Please don't try to convince foreigners that maple syrup is wonderful. Even though it is great on American pancakes or waffles, Europeans eat different pancakes and they put different things on waffles. It is one of the best things about travel.

I've yet to hear any European say "American food is horrible". Not one single "European" has said this to me. Can you believe that?

Ditto, suze.

But I have heard Europeans say that they didn't like the coffee in America. I have even heard myself say that.

"I pick up delicious fresh sandwiches and brochen (sp?) each morning from a gas station here in Germany."

My first trip to Germany, DH said we should get sandwiches from the convinience store at the train station to eat on the train. Ummm...sandwiches from a convinience store? No thanks. I value my life. He promised me that not only would they not kill me, that the sandwiches would be good. And he was RIGHT.

"november_moon on Jun 14, 12 at 10:02am
"I hate those giant strawberries from CA - that look like a photo - and taste like cardboard vs small fresh berries that are super sweet."

If a strawberry is going to make it from CA to NY, it has to be like that. But rest assured, all CA strawberries aren't like that Just the ones that have to travel thousands of miles."

Yes, we have plenty of California-grown strawberries here in California that are very sweet. I buy them regularly. Yesterday, when I got off the freeway, (L.A.) on the 101 in The Valley, at Havenhurst, there's a strawberry farm/vendor right there.

I buy California-grown strawberries a lot and have been more than satisfied with them. I've even bought them in December, up at the farmer's market in Solvang, and they've been very sweet. Happy Travels!

I forgot to add that Farmer's Market (L.A.) at The Grove, many times has California strawberries for really cheap. A couple of weekends ago, I bought two big baskets for a dollar a basket at one of the vendors. Those, markdown berries, are the berries that are good to take home and make gelatin out of.

I take a bottle of R.W.Knudsen strawberry juice, boil the juice, and then stir in agar agar flakes, and the sliced strawberries. I pour the mixture into ramekins and then let it sit until it's cooled. I then refrigerate it. It's delicious and very refreshing and much more natural and less sweet than jello. I've been making that kind of gelatin ever since I was macrobiotic which was most of the 1980s. It's a popular macrobiotic dessert.

http://www.rwknudsenfamily.com/

Now they have kiwi strawberry. I used to buy their straight strawberry juice.

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AR.W.%20Knudsen%20Family%20Kiwi%20Strawberry%20Juice&page=1

http://www.amazon.com/Eden-Foods-Agar-Vegetable-Flakes/dp/B0017OAKLM

Happy Travels!

Coffee in the USA was TERRIBLE until Starbucks started mushrooming all over America. When we arrived here in 1987 the typical coffee we would be served in the neighborhood diner would taste like nothing and smell like urine.

I'm certainly not referring to HOME COOKING (though some of it "suffers" also from over-doing it, when it comes to those super sweet chocolate-chip cookies...), but more to commercially-prepared, or even food in the average restaurant or bakery. Way too fat, too salty and the dessert is dangerously sweet. Not wishing to offend anyone, but European cuisine is in general more sophisticated, relying more on subtle taste and aroma.

This is the 3rd thread I've come upon in the past few months re: American vs European food. And so eerily similar---down to the maple syrup and cheese. What I don't understand is all the JUDGEMENT. Why should it be "disgusting" that other people like to drink colas? Why is it less "sophisticated" to prefer the food to arrive simultaneously on one plate? That's why people get defensive. Not because you're insulting their food, but because you're insulting them. Always love your humor Aduchamp1.

It's not food arriving simultaneously on one plate that's making it less sophisticated, it's the taste and the way it is made.

Some food that's common and taken for granted in the USA is not even allowed to be sold in Europe.

Take deep-dish pizza. Nobody in Italy knows what it is, it's a Chicago invention.

Obesity in the US is more than TRIPLE than in countries like France, Italy Holland or Switzerland.

Not trying to insult. The facts are there. The issues are known.

Thank you Annettafly.

We are talking about travel and food and one would think that should be fun. There are too many who need a certain stick removed or at the very least put a hole in their chair so that they would be more comfortable when sitting.

mamamia2 wrote: "Coffee in the USA was TERRIBLE until Starbucks started mushrooming all over America."

I feel that I should not let this go without comment, but words fail me.

BUT, to be honest to the truth, things are changing here, from McDonalds changing their menu, and many of the other fast food chains following suit, the elimination of Trans fats or corn starch from so many products, school districts caving in to pressure to serve healthy lunches, Restaurants are forced to reveal calorie values in their menus, and health clubs popping up in every corner.

Yes, it's a fact, Starbucks must have changed the standards of American coffee. 3- and 4-star hotels are now offering "Intelligentsia" or "LavAzza" coffee in their room-service menus. We sure made some progress here....

Just a Fodorite for 6 months---I'm still caught off guard by the cultural intolerance and the subjective policing of other peoples' "taste" that appears so frequently on this forum.
#1 Definition of SOPHISTICATED: "to deprive of simplicity or sincerity by making artificial or affected." Elitist and expensive.
#2 Some smokable, mood-inhancing products that are common . . .in some European countries are not allowed to be sold in the USA. Bummer.
#3 Pizza: "in Italy nobody knows what it is." I grant you this one. I just spent 15 days in Florence, Venice, Rome. DON'T ORDER THE PIZZA!
#4 Private automobile ownership in the US is more than TRIPLE than in countries like France, Italy, Holland, and Switzerland. Could it be that obesity is related to physical activity more than it is attributable to food intake?
If you're "not trying to insult", you're not succeeding.

1. My research shows "Sophisticated" to mean cosmopolitan, cultured, educated, complex or intricate. Sophistication is good, so it seems.

2. You're right, Europe has the right to forbid sugar-laden cereal from being fed to its kids, while the US has the right to prevent Marihuana from being distributed on its streets.

3. Pizza? Why bother with pizza if you can stuff your mouth with Twinkies?

4. Actually USA car ownership is only 1.5 times more than in those European countries. So we must agree that the other 1.5 in obesity rate is for no other reason than the food American people eat...

5. Read (I don't think you will, but others might):

http://www.ricksteves.com/tms/article.cfm?id=268&extras=false

http://www.fluentin3months.com/no-usa-for-me/

Re : pizza in Rome, Venice and Florence.
We stayed in an apt in Rome and bought pizza from a bakery near by
It was made in a big square. baking dish, sold by weight .
There was a variety of pizzas to choose from, none had a ton of cheese ...usually vegetable (even potato ) toppings.
Same in Florence.
In Venice, on St. Elena-.......the small , full of locals , pizzeria was rather good.