What American foods do Europeans love?

Included some CDN ones as well!

chicken wings
real bbq
tex mex and mexican food
good salads
Alberta beef
maple syrup
poutine
old dutch potato chips
movie theatre popcorn
peanut butter

Just to name a few

haha, great post idea

we have recently discovered "man vs food" and its really put us in mood for american food, and have to admit buffalo wings are our number one choice- we now order them through papa johns!

hmmm my post has vanished!! oh well i said that since watching "man vs food" we are super in to american food and always now order buffano wings with papa johns take out- delicious nd i hear they are made with butter! never would have guessed but they are yummy!

weird..it came back- sorry for double post!

We take Reece's minis when we visit our London office. That is the one thing they ask for.

Oooo and twizzlers!

None, except decent wine

I love good restaurants in the US, especially crabshacks, soul food joints and occasionally New York delis (none of which have ever lived up to their own inflated sense of excellence, but are still fun). I'm sure I'd love restaurants in New Orleans.

If your question is about what you should cook for a visiting Briton, whatever you normally eat in your family will never offend and unless you're a highly skilled cook cooking something special probably won't work.

If the question is about what to bring to Britain with you: they're your friends and you know them better than any of us. 99.999% of us can't stand maple syrup, poutine can't be legally imported into Europe and the popcorn your cinemas serve is no more or less disgusting than the muck ours do.

Anyone telling you their maple syrup gift was gratefully received is a self-deluding fool. They mean gracefully, and what we call politeness is what you call British hypocrisy.

"Europeans" don't love ANY American food. Odd though it may seem, 500 million people with 36 different languages (and I'm just talking the EU's official ones) differ just the teeniest bit from each other. Some like overcooked dead cow: others prefer bistecca alla fiorentina.

Unless you know for certain your friend wants smoke sauce (few do), get her the present you'd buy for an American friend on the other side of the US. IE: something you know SHE'd like, and not the silly ideas you got from a website about what Californians or New Yorkers "love".

This European loves maple syrup, as do all of my family. It is hard to get here in the Netherlands and ridiculously expensive too.

Apart from that, good wine and some of the micro-brewery beer, I can't think of anything I really love to eat in the US. Maybe an In-N-Out Burger, but only one, once during a trip.

Certainly can think of nothing, other than maple syrup, I'd want to bring back with me.

hmm, a little harsh in my honest opinion- i a have extensively travelled europe and cnsider myself a foodie ( we cook everything from scratch- no ready meals) but am really looking froward to a potential big USA food trip to try out things. I hear the seafood in New Orleans is amazing and very good value and also hear California is great for really fresh and tasty salads.I think its all very easy to assume the USA is all about fast food when really it is not at all...


(also i must be pretty unique because i adore maple syrup and have some in my cupboard right now)

don't mean to argue i just think USA food is better than a lot of people realise. I have had some great meals in New York and Washington and really hope to sample more

I am so impressed that Flanner can speak on behalf of 99.99% of Europeans...that is a quite impressive feat!

HG001London - I am not saying that US food is bad, but there is none of it I long for and would go mad for on arrival in the US - certainly not Buffulo wings or Dunkin Donuts .

Yes they have some excellent food, but also some truly dire stuff, and in many restaurants you don't get the opportunity to enjoy the food you have ordered as they are keen to get you out and the next cover in.

Judging from the success of McDonald's in Europe I would suppose the "Big Mac" qualifies.

Anything that the French like is already available in French stores -- from chicken wings, to fajita mix to pancake mix.

There are certain items like donuts that you will easily find in France, but every single donut franchise that ever dared to try to open a shop in France folded very quickly.

(Heyismij2- sorry my post was not intended to you, i think we happened to post at the same time)

Flanner i didn't mean to cause any offense btw , i really just was very surprised by the maple syrup comment...i had no idea it was so disliked?? i really love it (although regret how pricey it is here in UK)., although i would have classed it more as canadian than US? i think its yummy and would be shocked if there were not at least a few who agreed I also think the USA does very good tex mex food. Even in Houston airport take away "fast food" joint we had some very fresh and really really tasty enchiladas. And hey mac n cheese is pretty yummy too

Flanner, sorry i maybe misunderstood you.

But ooh i dont know, i can once in a while get a dunkin doughnut craving although they have to be ate that day or turn not nice! And i still crave the muffins i had daily in New York...hmmm, and the walk in deli's with such a vast amout of fresh options. Similar places in London( whole foods-which i know USA based) can cost a fortune but in New York they are on every corner.

I guess we are lucky here in Europe to have so much diversity, but i do have fond food memories from the USA, we need to have their New York street vendors in London- that would be great!

My friends who stay with me every year from Strasbourg always bring back bottled Caeser dressing and barbecue sauce.

The little boy who stayed with us from Paris fell in love with Oreo cookies.

I have to stand beside Flanner on this, the only food that I desire from the US is the wine, in particular Ice Wine but I can get better and cheaper from Germany, France and Hungary.

some who like sweets - DO LOVE Canadian Maple Syrup... the real one...
Otherwise, sorry not much...

Bottled caesar dressing (from the US) is sold in the Auchan hypermarkets at a very reasonable price. Same for barbecue sauce (although not the 18 different varieties that you see in U.S. stores).

The best maple syrup we have had came from Funks Grove in Illinois. We actually watched them tapping the trees and boiling the sap. We had the first of the new season syrup. Yummie!

Maple syrup is a staple in Germany. You get it at any supermarket.
Same with Oreo cookies or Pepperidge Farm.
Now we even got Dr Pepper..yuk
Dunkin Donuts rocks But we have that here, too.
Dressings and sauces are quite popular as well. If the local supermarket does not have them or just a small range, most grocery departments in larger department stores or bigger supermarkets carry quite a wide range.
It's really hard to find something that travels well, does not spill or leak, and is totally different.
I'd usually resort to foodstuff which comes from the respective state or region. Maybe some "regional" chocolates or candies.
It does not have to have a huge practical value, after all it's a gift.
I hope that no one here would be so narrow-minded to judge it as a suggestion that there was no chocolate or candy in Europe or that the stuff here was "better".

Good joke. What you can buy in the US is to fill you stomach. It doesn't categorize under "food". Basically it's corn syrup with a few additives. It's o.k. to survive if you don't have any real food.

My French son-in-law loves to bring home peanut butter and he has a fondness for Tim Horton's (Canadian donut/coffee chain) and he is not a fan of maple syrup. I made French Canadian pea soup and he thought it was disgusting...go figure.

One American food that (at least some) Europeans do NOT like is Root Beer. We in the States, who were brought up on it, think it yummy, but most of the folks from across the pond I have served it to have gagged. Politely, of course, but their faces give them away.

Some of our European friends really liked Trader Joe's peanut butter pretzels.

Perhaps if you went to good restaurants, logos, you might experience very good food in the US.

Tailsock, not Brits but every Italian I have had visit me loves beyond belief our Best Food/Hellman's mayonnaise. In fact when my now son-in-law came here from Rome and discovered it he started putting it on everything, lol, until we gently told him that one doesn't use it for example on say scramble eggs.

>good restaurants,
Why would I want to pay 3 to 5 times as much as at home to get served something without corn syrup. It is in everything they eat in the US, EVERYTHING. Everything has this disgusting taste of corn, even meat. That is the reason they love the food in Germany. We don't add corn syrup to everything.

I can easily get maple syrup in my supermarket in Belgium, too. I'm not particularly fond of it.
I do buy Trader Joe's cashew and pistachio nuts whenever they are available at our Aldi warehouse.

@ LoveItaly
You don't want to know what my husband uses on scrambled eggs or omelet ... Nutella! But then, only when I'm not around. Yikes.

If you want to develop a taste for food, refuse to eat anything that has corn syrup as an ingredient or eat any meat, where the animal has been fed with corn. Many people there seem to take it as the real taste an don't even realize how repulsive the taste is.

Sorry to see you got so many negative, disappointing---even mean-spirited, comments, Tailsock. As you can see, not all visits to the forum are going to be helpful. Discussion corroborates another truism: There's no prejudice like food prejudice.

<<That is the reason they love the food in Germany.>>

Speak for yourself. As far as I'm concerned, German food is some of the worst, and least healthy, on the planet. It's amazing you're that close to Italy and France and still haven't picked up any decent culinary habits.

My French friends used to ask me to bring Saltines and peanut butter when I traveled to France. But now just about everything you'd ever imagine is available in French food stores, so no need to haul things over the ocean.

At least America has fed our trolls

I'm a big fan of breakfast in the US, i love crispy bacon and it seems even eggs sunny side up are better cooked in the US than if i attempt to order the same in the UK. If i really want American food then i'll take myself to Hard Rock Cafe. I like buttermilk ranch dressing which i've yet to find in the UK, chips ahoy peanut butter cookies and i guess i may be alone in saying that i prefer Dr Pepper in the US and on the rare occasions i've found places selling Dr Pepper (regular variety) with corn syrup then i've paid the asking price because it goes better with ice

OK logos999. That's enough. Tailsock comes on a travel forum with a question about how to please her friend in London with some American food when she travels there, and you turn the conversation into a soapbox from which you can preach about the "repulsive" nature of another country's food. I'm sure if you review the guidelines for using this forum you will see that your generalized disparagement is not appropriate. I believe the monitors will agree. Goodbye.

American food has changed dramatically over the past 30 years. There have been all sorts of influences from local farmers to Asian to South American to European.

The ethnic food in NY cannot be matched any where. In the borough of Queens, 175 languages are spoken and many are represented by the food of their home country.

What I see above is a very 1970's view of the States.

One Parisian friend has been vacationing here in the U.S., mostly L.A., annually for about 15 years and last summer she said that whenever she comes to the States that for her it's steak, as she says that she thinks we have the best steak anywhere. The day that she was telling me this, she was going out to dinner, with some American friends, to have steak. She is especially fond of filet mignon.

Another Parisian friend can't stay away from Burger King. When he stayed with me for 12 days, he was in Burger king heaven. I don't eat it as I haven't eaten meat since 76. But, he loved it.

That friend also loves maple syrup; pure maple syrup. So, when I go to Paris I take him a bottle as he says that it cost a fortune there.

Another Parisian friend, a late elderly friend, loved peanut butter as he said that when he was in WW2, he was around a lot of Americans and ate a lot of peanut butter. So, every year that I arrived in Paris, for over a decade, I'd bring him a jar of pure peanut butter and he was as happy as a lark. I only took him Arrowhead Mills, valencia peanut butter. That's the one that I eat.

A close friend, from England came for a visit in the late 70s and stayed a couple of weeks and wanted soul food. So, I took her to a hole-in-the-wall place on Yucca Street, across from Tower Records in Hollywood, and she was in heaven.

I took that friend to a lot of ethnic restaurants all over L.A. and she loved them all, but she said the soul food one was her favorite. She also wanted to go to an American supermarket to see the cereal selection as she had heard that it's massive. So, very late one night I took her to the supermarket, as it's open 24 hours, and just let her take her time walking the aisles and looking at everything. Happy Travels!

"HG001London on Feb 5, 12 at 12:11pm
hmm, a little harsh in my honest opinion- i a have extensively travelled europe and cnsider myself a foodie ( we cook everything from scratch- no ready meals) but am really looking froward to a potential big USA food trip to try out things. I hear the seafood in New Orleans is amazing and very good value and also hear California is great for really fresh and tasty salads.I think its all very easy to assume the USA is all about fast food when really it is not at all..."

We have some really great and fresh food here in California and I always look forward to coming home to it no mater what continent I have been on in the world. One thing that stands out here in L.A. and other parts of California is that there is a great flexibility to people's different eating philosophies. It's very easy for a group of friends and I to go out to eat at the same restaurant, although we might have very different eating philosophies, but we will usually all find a wide variety of food items that meet everyone's needs. And it's been that was for a very long time. It's not something new.

I haven't eaten meat/poultry for 35 years, by choice, and have three serious food allergies. So, if there's a dish on a menu that has added corn, for example, I just ask to not add it and it's not a problem at all. Or if it's an easy dish to make, then I'll ask if it can be made without the corn. Making adjustments is usually not a big issue here, as it has been in many of my overseas trips. Cooks/chefs here are very willing to accommodate diners.

At one restaurant where I eat, which is inside of a department store, at the bottom of the menu it's written to please let them know if you have food allergies so that they can bring out a more extensive menu listing what the dishes consists of.

As for New Orleans, yes, the food in general is very good there. So, eat away. And it's true that we're not a country of basically fast food chains. If people who come here have come to that conclusion, then I really don't know where they've been, but we're obviously eating in different places.

I go to some of the chains like The Habit Burger here in L.A. area. But, they have veggie burgers, grilled albacore tuna burgers, regular beef hamburgers, and chicken burgers. Plus, they have really fresh salads along with traditional fast food items like French fries and sweet potato fries etc. But, one can eat a healthy lunch there. And the food is delicious. It's common to see the lines out the door at the one that I usually go to. http://www.habitburger.com/

I also eat at Orean's fast food which is 100% vegan. He has been around for more than 20 years. His food is approved by the Heart Association. Every thing on the menu is vegan, including the three different types of shakes. He is located across from McDonalds and also has a drive through section. His picture board menu looks a lot like regular fast food places. But, fast food doesn't have to be unhealthy. What we have here is variety. http://www.oreanshealthexpress.com/

Here's a list of places that many of us have contributed to as favorite places where locals eat in L.A. And this list doesn't even include the food trucks that roam all over the city. The food trucks can be followed on Twitter and you can also just google for info as they are a BIG part of L.A. culture and have been around for decades. Have fun eating! Happy Travels!

I have an Italian friend who seems to like barbecue ribs, American pancakes with maple syrup and bacon, and brownies. Pie is another favorite.

We eat all of this at home, and none of it comes from packages. We don't eat these things in fast food restaurants. That poster above was so insulting.

Forgot to post the link.

http://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/places-to-eat-like-a-local-in-los-angeles.cfm

Happy Travels!

"We eat all of this at home, and none of it comes from packages. We don't eat these things in fast food restaurants. That poster above was so insulting."

Huh? Who was insulting? Was that to me as I'm the poster immediately above? Happy Travels!

<OK logos999. That's enough. Tailsock comes on a travel forum with a question about how to please her friend in London with some American food when she travels there, and you turn the conversation into a soapbox from which you can preach about the "repulsive" nature of another country's food. I'm sure if you review the guidelines for using this forum you will see that your generalized disparagement is not appropriate. I believe the monitors will agree. Goodbye.>

Welcome annettafly! I am looking forward to reading more of your posts; plus I used to live in Michigan.

When you're talking about ethnic food in New York. This isn't american food, just as New York insn't the US, the vast majority in the US survive on junk food.

My daughter absolutely adores Smart Food White Cheddar Cheese popcorn.
For the rest of us -
Miracle Whip
A Bob Evan's breakfast (just the one)
Little Debbie wafer biscuits
Applebee's garlic mashed potatoes
Half and Half

I have not been to the US but I love maple syrup (my parents used to buy it as a special treat sometimes for pancake day). The other thing I guess that is extremely popular in the UK is pizza and it's definitely the US version rather than anything authentically Italian.

When you're talking about ethnic food in New York. This isn't american food, just as New York insn't the US, the vast majority in the US survive on junk food.
_______
Really, NY is not the US?

Where do you think it is located?

Do you also want discount the trend of eating more local, fusion, and better prepared food throughout the country. Have you eaten in San Francisco, LA, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, DC, Miami, etc lately?

And people who live in the US (and are born in the US) are not considered citizens? That may be the German way, but it is not the way for many in the US.

And do you have any other stereotypes you would like to cling to?

I travel to the States two to three times a year and the only thing that I really look forward to eating is a really huge burger. It doesn't have to be an especially good one, but there's something about the way a decent burger is presented in the U.S. that brings a smile to my face.

The more toppings the the better and if it can be washed down with a bottle or two of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, then I'm happy. I think it's more about what it represents than how it tastes to a certain degree.

Other than that, there is nothing else I look forward to and I don't bring anything home with me, other than the desire to eat normal sized portions of food and be in a place where a 'light lunch' is actually as described...

Love:

Reeses peanut butter cups

Maple syrup (you can get it here but it's very pricey and not
great quality)

Dunkin Donuts... last seen in Ireland around 1999 and sorely missed...

Those peanut butter pretzels sound amazing!

I was in the States staying with a friend a few years ago and he made corn bread (served with chili), that was a lovely novelty for me as I'd never had it before

j

We used the last of our bottle of Maple Syrup last week, so it is on the list for the next trip to Waitrose, an upmarket U.K. grocery store. Their price is £1.67 per 100g.

I thought I would try to compare with U.S. prices, and with some difficulty found a similar size bottle on the Walmart website. I have no idea how the quality compares.

The Walmart bottle is $7.48 per 12.5 oz. 12.5 oz is 354g, so the Walmart price is $2.11 per 100g. At today's exchange rate of $1.577=£1, the Walmart price becomes £1.33 per 100g. That difference does not seem so great.

So why does everyone think maple syrup is much more expensive outside the U.S.? Or is my maths wrong?

Maybe I've been here too long or am drawn to the same types of threads over and over. This is my least favorite. It begins innocently. Someone is traveling to Europe and in attempt to be polite would like to bring something with them. The first few responses are informative and helpful and then it all falls apart. Rudeness and condescension takes over. Always.

tailsock: if there is anything a large majority of Europeans wanted in their daily diet it would already be available. But, you weren't asking that, were you? You weren't asking what lifetime supply of American food you should bring over for your poor impoverished European friends. You mentioned two American treats that your friends enjoy and were asking for more ideas. I hope this thread gave you some ideas. I think you should focus on treats or junk food. America does that well! They are usually funny or at least a novelty to Europeans. I'm thinking peanut butter pretzels, or super fruity bubble gum. I don't think one taste will lead your friends to storming their local grocery store demanding these imports. But I think they will try them, enjoy the experience of something new or different, thank you and move on to enjoying your company.

Peanut butter pretzels it is!
At least I can offer first-hand experience that one colleague of mine wrestled the pack which I had brought for myself from my hands and declared it her property.

P.S.
Otherwise I second BKP's first paragraph.
What makes people go nuts when they read one silly comment that no one right in his mind will take seriously?
Engaging in an argument with someone who thinks that, for example, Americans feed their kids only Coke & fries is fruitless and will leave you look at least as stupid as the troll.

I was in Madrid two years ago and was asking a man that spoke very broken english where to find a pharmacy. The few words that I got were turn by McDonalds , two blocks and right across street from Burger King.
In a way kinda sad.

If you just resolve yourself to the idea that logos woke up on the wrong side of the cave, this will go a lot easier.

Every Brit I know seems to like peanut butter (with extra corn syrup). It makes me wonder why it's not available in the UK.

Logos: Where in the world did you get the idea that the vast majority of Americans survive on junk food? Do I sense some trollish behavior here?

Your comments remind me of a waitress in a Gasthaus in Schwábisch Gmund who had lived in the the U.S. for a while. She told me that she'd been arguing with her customers about the variety of American food. The customers kept insisting that Americans live on hamburgers and other fast food. Having lived in the States, she knew otherwise, but she couldn't budge them from their preconceived ideas.

I never eat at McDonald's or Burger King, pizza joints or any other fast food restaurants in the States. That type of food is loaded with fat, and it really doesn't taste very good. For me, the only exception is a pastrami sandwich from Subway, but that's a rare treat.

I had a restaurant lunch last week. I ordered a shrimp dish. I also had dinner with friends at a nice restaurant that week. I ordered filet mignon, their special mashed potatoes (delicious!) and green beans. It was very rich and filling, so I took half of it home and had it for lunch the next day.

I do eat at fast food places occasionally in Europe. Last year in Spain, I kept trying to convince my travel partner to eat at McDonald's because I was tired of expensive Spanish food. We paid over $100 (for two) for one meal, more than $80 for another. They were both acceptable, but neither was delicious.

I've traveled a great deal in Europe (though you've undoubtedly traveled more, of course.) I've eaten delicious food and mediocre food in every country and every city in which I've traveled, even in Paris. The only truly horrible stuff was the Maultasche in Schwábisch Hall. It was so bad that it was memorable.

For me, the key to finding really good food is to ask for a recommendation, usually from staff at my hotel. I think that applies in the U.S. too.

Chartley, maple syrup in the U.S. is measured in FLUID ounces (not ounces of weight), so you can't make a direct comparison to your syrup which you state is measured in grams (weight).

You would need to know how much 1 fluid ounce of maple syrup weighs in order to see how the prices in the U.S. and in Britain compare.

I see the price of real maple syrup costs around $7.00 at Walmart for 12.5 fluid ounces. For an American, that's still pretty pricey because we can get good quality maple-flavored syrup for about 1/3 of that price.

To the OP: Haven't you missed the obvious? If your friend loves buffalo wings, why not bring them some Frank's or Crystal, so they can make their own?

Otherwise, get them some good wine. Or maybe a nice bottle of bourbon.

So why does everyone think maple syrup is much more expensive outside the U.S.? Or is my maths wrong?

There is maple syrup and there is maple syrup. The stuff at Walmart looks to be Vermont Maple Syrup, which attracts a price premium relative to the Canadian stuff being sold at Waitrose.

But also, your math is wrong. The stuff at Walmart is 12.5 fluid ounces, or 494 grams. At £1.67 per 100 grams, that would be roughly £8.25 for an equivalent bottle, or $13.05, so 75% more than the cost in the US.

Still, I can't imagine one eats enough of the stuff to make it that worthwhile.

Speak for yourself. As far as I'm concerned, German food is some of the worst, and least healthy, on the planet. It's amazing you're that close to Italy and France and still haven't picked up any decent culinary habits.

Oh, that might be a bit harsh. But, I think we can all agree that logos needs to get out more. Or at least open the pocketbook and stop eating at McDonald's. It is strange he is so tight, as I thought he was some sort of financial wizard making huge money trading currency.

And people who live in the US (and are born in the US) are not considered citizens? That may be the German way, but it is not the way for many in the US.

The US is one of the few countries that confers citizenship based upon being born in the country. Most of Europe (and certainly not the Germans) are simply not that enlightened. What is amazing is that they continue with such a silly policy despite the fact that they have a huge demographic crisis looming. European politicians are as short-sighted, it seems, as American politicians.

I travel to the States two to three times a year and the only thing that I really look forward to eating is a really huge burger. It doesn't have to be an especially good one, but there's something about the way a decent burger is presented in the U.S. that brings a smile to my face.

I've yet to find a burger in Europe (save those I make myself) that comes close to even an average burger in the US.

Was wondering when someone would mention a burger, travelgourmet.

Poutine was an entirely new word to this American-googling it says it started in Canada. Is Alberta beef also from Canada?

What foods are actually native to this country? Buffalo, turkey, maize, peanuts, crabs and other seafood...what else? Most everything else was imported by the folks who moved here, eh?

I thought that peanuts came from Africa.

I don't know about peanuts. They just popped up in my thoughts because our George Washington Carver did so much with them. Off to google!

Peru per wiki.

I thought that peanuts came from Africa.
____
Former President Jimmy Carter who was, among many things, a peanut farmer.

If anybody ever suggested that there could be a site that managed to combine opinions on maple syrup, the metric system and a comparative immigration policy study into one single thread I would have called him a liar. But then again there is Fodor's... where threads go where no one has gone before.

One trip, I bought three tins (shaped like a log cabin)
of our New England Maple Syrup. they were given to three
couples who live in different parts of France. They all didn't like it, too sweet for their tastes.

Peanuts are definitely New World, as are most beans. Also, tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, chilis, sweet potatoes, and more. Honestly, I suspect we would barely recognize European cuisine from before the Columbian Exchange.

In 1994 we ate at a restaurant in Viterbo that served only pre-Columbian food. It was interesting and very good.

Other new world foods include many types of berries and beans, avocado, and Twinkies. But Columbus did not discover the Twinkie until his second voyage.

to clarify: my purpose was to get a few ideas for some US items we have in that aren't as ubiquitous over there... It sounds like Maple syrup and peanut butter are pretty popular

really enjoying most of the responses so far... i live in North Carolina where our BBQ is what we're famous for. i like to smoke pork and chicken over hickory wood and the iced tea is legendary (and very sweet). On a nice day marinated chicken quarters will be thrown on the grill with ice cold beer in hand... it's basted in tangy BBQ sauce minutes before they're finished and served with sweet corn on the cob & potato salad

just a peak at my grilling/BBQ on my fb page here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.240487677578.141570.611432578&type=3&l=7f3403574a

Cigal, possibly the reason your French friends did not like the Log Cabin Maple Syrup (the kind that used to come in a cabin-shaped tin) is because it is not real maple syrup. In the past it was mixed/diluted with corn syrup, and lately with sugar to make the product. Some brands are even artificially flavored and have no maple syrup in them at all. Believe me, real, pure, maple syrup is quite a different thing from the imitations. It is usually thinner and not so cloyingly sweet. The real stuff here is not cheap.

nuke,

http://owgd3.onewebgroup.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=piecesofvermont&Product_Code=RFF030

The real maple syrup has beaucoup grams of sugar BTW.

travelgourmet, may I presume that you include Canada and South America as New World?

LOL Cowboy!

In so many cases, the distinction between American food and "ERuropean" food is so unclear as to be meaningless. Just what is American food? Surf and turf (a nice t bone steak with grilled mushrooms and onions served with a lobster tail (perhaps from South Africa)? Is that "American"? Is a big mac American even though the cow is from Scotland or France? Are frankfurters Americans even though they are called wursts in Germany? But I'll tell you my own little story.

About five years ago, I was doing a coach tour (yes I know, they suck) and this particular tour that day was in Krakow in Poland. For those of you unfamiliar, the way these tours usually work in most any city is they give you a morning orientation tour in the morning as part of the included itinerary, drop you in the heart of town for lunch and then might have an optional tour in the afternnon. Anyway we finished the tour in the main square of Krakow, a beautifully restored town center by the way, and I was so impressed how the Poles have rebuilt their cdities, but anyway the tour guide, a local guide, is explaining lunch option there in the main square and the "wonderful" cuisine available. My stomach started turning and I said to him sarcastically, "yeah, yeahg, yeah and where is McDonald's?"

WEithout missing a beat, the guide said, right around the corner but you don't want to go there. I said why not. He said, you have no idea of what you're going to get. I said sure I do. So while some of the group went into the expensive Polish restaurants there in the square, I ent around the corner to Mickey D's. After using the free and clean rest facilitis found in most Mickey D's the world around (good to remember for anybody anywhere when nature calls), the place was jammed. I wanted on the queue, looked at the menu and despite the fact I didn't speak a word of Polish order a royal cheeseburger (known to most Americans as a quarter pounder with cheese as well as Brits), fries and a coke light (diet coke)...handed over my zlotys and got served. It tasted just as if I had ordered it in Chicago (it didn't taste like a NY Micdonald's because McDonald's restaurants in New York have special permission from the home office only to put ketchup on their pre pared burgers and cheeseburges not ketchup and mustard as in most every other place in the world)..

All around me sat locals..I was probably the only foreigner in the joint.

So the questionis or was, was I eating a Polish meal because after all the cow was probably from Poland or an American meal.

Most Europeans I have met try to tell you McDonald's food sucks but most of them are awfully crowded and when pressed, they will tell you how wonderful the service is (and the clean and free facilities also).

BTW is coca cola American cuisine?

I was at a Goethe Institute in Staufen, Germany, one year. The G.I. always has an international night, where everyone prepares and brings food of their native country.

One of my classmates was from New Mexico. She found taco shells, taco seasoning, some chopped meat that approximated hamburger, tomato and lettuce, and she made tacos. Tacos are pretty much always considered fast food in the States, and certainly aren't considered a culinary treat.

Therefore I thought was amusing that the two French women in the group absolutely LOVED the tacos and wanted to know how to make them.

I try not to eat Mcdonalds in the US because on the few occasions i have i've compared it unfavourably to Mcdonalds in the UK, when i took my DD to Krakow in 2007 we ate lunch at mcdonalds a couple of times and the one thing i liked most was that they included a piece of fruit with the happy meal (included in the price not as an extra)
In France and Germany however since the Euro stepped in i've found Mcdonalds hideously overpriced and local food is much nicer anyway (as well as cheaper), but sometimes fast food is great, especially when travelling with kids! (or when it's the only place you can find) on a trip to Hong Kong in 2008 Mcdonalds near the ferry point on Lantau was cheap convenient and they had the best chicken and sweetcorn

YeeHaw Cowboy1968---you said it all! I'm a new user on this forum so had no idea there was this much entertainment going on! So glad to see the snarkiness dropped out of the conversation. I live in the Detroit area---like most cities we have a Mexicantown, a Polishtown, a lot of transplanted Appalachian folks, a large Middle Eastern population and all the soul food ya want. Isn't it wonderful that we don't all want to eat the exact same thing----talk about a shortage, huh? For the real thing we drive to northern Michigan to get our maple syrup direct from the tappers. By noon tomorrow I'll be in Mexico, so y'all know what I'll be eating for the next week and what I'll be washing it down with

oh man all this talk about food is making me soooooooo hungry

HG001London Thank you! The only food I truly miss when I travel is a real salad. I'm a native Californian and I've been used to having salad for dinner, as dinner since I was a was a small child. Not just that iceberg lettuce and old tomato either.

"Tacos are pretty much always considered fast food in the States, and certainly aren't considered a culinary treat."

A taco can be made fairly quickly but if you haven't had one that's considered a culinary treat, you've never had a real taco. The store around the corner from my house makes a taco that's worth a trip across town.

Take a drive through the Southwest Arizona and New Mexico and stop for breakfast. Hot biscuits with eggs.

Southern fried chicken, not KFC.

American Food is food of the world. People come here and they bring their food with them. Then everyone else plays with it and it becomes our own. Tex-Mex is a good example.

Our variations on German food are another excellent example. At one time (not long ago) about 70% of Americans could claim German ancestory. They had to get out when Germans went into their various snits.

It's true enough that much of the packaged food has lots of corn syrup. I don't eat packaged food. And you can find corn syrup everywhere.

But I do have to say that although I love Tex Mex, I'd rather have Mexican food in California. There's a subtle difference and it's not better or worse, it's what I'm used to.

Guenmai: no, I didn't mean you. I meant the person upthread that said nasty things about American food. My posts placement under your's was just accidental.

LSky: one of our best eating trips was through Arizona. I went on Chowhound and got a ton of recs for local eating, and did we eat! Arizona/Mexican food is delicious..

Another great thing I had in Arizona (on our Apache Trail day trip) was a green chili cheeseburger. It was wonderful and I think I would spend a day getting out there again to just to have another one.

American food has become quite creative far beyond surf and turf and burgers. And I do love a burger.
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The next time you come to the states, try a good restaurant. I see the horrible places that visitors think are wonderful as enumerated on Trip Advisor.

But as I tell others, please continue to go to the bad places, it leaves more tables open at the good spots.

tuscanlifeedit, Every time we go to Tucson my husband has to bring back a couple dozen green corn tamales.

I love a good burger too, it does have to be a really good one. Fast food doesn't cut it.

My aunt from Maine used to take home taco shells from Arizona since she couldn't get them in Maine at the time. With the expansion of trade both in the US and Internationally, there are fewer items not available somewhere in most countries.

Maple syrup has several different grades. Since I visited Bragg Farm in Vermont, I have used only grade B. Sounds like it should be inferior to Grade A, but it is just a darker, more flavorful syrup from the last part of the 'boiling off'. Great on pancakes and mixed in yogurt!

Pizza!

Our friends from Germany absolutely adored the sushi that is
our West Coast version of fast food. When they returned to
their home they had a separate suitcase filled with all the
fixin's (excepting the fresh ingredients of course). Plus
a cookbook to show them how to make dinamite rolls, etc.

They also took back a dozen cans of Canadian high grade
maple sugar - that's what his staff requested. So someone
likes the sweetness!

I don't know where they are grown or sold in Europe, but when our friends from Germany were here they loved the fresh pecans.

Hershey chocolate bars. M&M's, Jello-pudding, Coors Light, Oscar Meyer Bacon, Jimmy Dean sausage, I Can't Believe its not Butter, Kraft pre-wrapped cheese slices, Cheerios, Vaseline and Copper Tone.

Hershey's chocolates? OMG!

Just about everything mentioned is "nostalgia food" rather than things that are not available. So of course it always tastes better if somebody brings it to you from "over there" or if you go "over there" to gobble it again.

I have known people who claim that local Coca Cola or local Cheerios are just not the same.

My own inherited vice from growing up in the U.S.? I do buy Dr. Pepper when I go to Luxembourg or Belgium. You can find it in France but not as easily. And rather than root beer, sometimes I buy Sarsi from Singapore or Xaxi from Vietnam when I want a similar product -- both of those are easy to find in the Asian supermarkets, but I have personally never seen root beer anywhere in France.

Hershey chocolate bars. M&M's, Jello-pudding, Coors Light, Oscar Meyer Bacon, Jimmy Dean sausage, I Can't Believe its not Butter, Kraft pre-wrapped cheese slices, Cheerios, Vaseline and Copper Tone.
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This is a who's who of some of the worst of America as to offer. But to be honest, I have never had Vaseline or Coppertone on my Cheerios.

I have known people who claim that local Coca Cola or local Cheerios are just not the same.

They often aren't. For example, Coke may use corn syrup or sugar, depending upon the country. And, famously, Doritos had several slightly different formulations, depending upon the market, such as bumping up the salt content in the UK.

Coke has a tasting area at the end of the tour of their headquarters in Atlanta with the different formulas that they use in different countries. If I remember correctly the one for the Philippines was undrinkable.

That said, we were in Spain many years and had been for their months and tried a KFC. It was the best KFC we had ever tasted, they food actually tasted like food.

"A taco can be made fairly quickly but if you haven't had one that's considered a culinary treat, you've never had a real taco."

That's what I was thinking too. I make some fabulous tacos, if I do say so myself I never make my tacos with shells and very rarely with ground beef. Our standard tacos are very simple - carne asada, cilantro, queso fresco, and tapatio on corn tortillas. Heaven on a plate.

Sometimes we make fried tacos, which are great, but all that extra fat isn't good, so we only make them every few months or so. My favorite fried tacos are with shredded chicken and monterey jack cheese topped with shredded cabbage, guacamole, and tapatio. Yum

Ah november moon, you've made me hungry! Add a little gaucamole and I'm in heaven. We don't fry at home, it's just too messy. Besides, then we aren't tempted to eat fried food.

I do love a good fried fish taco now and then A little place down the street makes a good one.

I live in the Pacific Northwest where we have great local foods including my favorite, wild Alaska salmon. I prefer sockeye or chinook. But since it doesn't travel well we often bring smoked chinook salmon for hosts. Our dry smoked salmon is very different from the lox style available on the east coast and in Europe and we enjoy showing people how amazing smoked salmon can be.

I've heard there are American families who eat fast food every night. We had a french exchange student for two summers, about my son's age. He was hoping to have lots of fast food burgers but instead, said that my cooking was just like his mother's. Which I took as a compliment! But another french student was housed with a rural family who drove everywhere, rode off-wheel vehicles in the hills and ate out at a different fast food restaurant every night. The dream family for a 16-year old french teenager!

Steaks! Nothing like an American steak - but you can't bring that over. And onion rings.
Pretty much all packaged food can be bought here (American store in Antwerp, has all the brightly coloured cereals and other junkfood).

I'm going to McDonalds (or Burger king) once a month, and I enjoy it.

"I've heard there are American families who eat fast food every night."

Yeah, my BIL's family. UGH. I fear for their children's health. Ok, to be fair they don't eat fastfood EVERY night, sometimes they eat frozen pizza, frozen waffles, chef boyardee, etc. It is a rare day at their house when there is homecooked food.

It is a rare day at their house when there is homecooked food.

which by now they probably do not like.

"which by now they probably do not like."

Bingo. My BIL and SIL even bring frozen food or fast food over for the kids on holidays and for family parties because the kids "just won't eat" whatever is being served. Yeah, whatever.

my colleague at work from Kansas city was telling me today how much she missed the variety in american food. I asked her what was better our food (we are london based) or USA food and she said USA by far. She eats super healthy and lunch at her desk everyday and i have never seen fast food, it is always freshly cooked homemade food. So i'm guessing that means maybe USA is not quite so bad after all!!

"I've heard there are American families who eat fast food every night."

I am aure there are. But then I have heard that English actually like Marmite, the Germans have beer for breakfast, and the French wear the same clothes for weeeks at a time.

It's so funny to just now come across this thread; I just bought a bottle of NY maple syrup 30 minutes ago to take to someone in Iceland (on the recommendation of a colleague). I actually wondered if it would be too sweet for non-American taste buds, but oh well, it's the thought that counts, right? Leaving tomorrow with a bottle of maple syrup in my suitcase...

Chicken wings are mostly loved by Europeans