What American foods do Europeans love?

Old Feb 5th, 2012, 12:29 PM
  #21  
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 17,892
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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!
hetismij2 is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 12:34 PM
  #22  
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 8,247
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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".
Cowboy1968 is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 12:36 PM
  #23  
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 9,017
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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.
logos999 is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 12:37 PM
  #24  
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 23
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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.
Forestland is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 01:08 PM
  #25  
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 4,849
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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.
nukesafe is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 01:09 PM
  #26  
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 22,939
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Some of our European friends really liked Trader Joe's peanut butter pretzels.
Michael is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 01:25 PM
  #27  
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 45,322
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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.
LoveItaly is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 01:33 PM
  #28  
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 9,017
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
>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.
logos999 is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 01:39 PM
  #29  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,197
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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.
MyriamC is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 01:42 PM
  #30  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,197
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
@ 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.
MyriamC is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 01:43 PM
  #31  
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 9,017
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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.
logos999 is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 02:01 PM
  #32  
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 245
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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.
annettafly is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 02:06 PM
  #33  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 49,560
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
>

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.
StCirq is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 02:07 PM
  #34  
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 8,247
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
At least America has fed our trolls ;-)
Cowboy1968 is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 02:07 PM
  #35  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 298
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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
fredandgingermad is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 07:21 PM
  #36  
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 245
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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.
annettafly is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 07:25 PM
  #37  
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 26,710
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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.
Aduchamp1 is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 07:54 PM
  #38  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 13,809
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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!
Guenmai is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 08:39 PM
  #39  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 13,809
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
"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!
Guenmai is offline  
Old Feb 5th, 2012, 08:45 PM
  #40  
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 14,748
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
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.
tuscanlifeedit is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -