28 American Foods That Confuse Foreigners.
The quintessential US foods they will never understand.
Published 3 years ago
5
It's not so much the food but more the portion sizes. I'm Australian and was raised as a kid to eat everything on my plate. I brought that mentality to the US. over a month I put on 5kg! The portion sizes are obscene. I could hardly finish a meal there without feeling ill from eating to much. I think implementing cheaper, smaller portion options would be great. It would also cut down on wasting food (as I noticed a lot of people didn't eat all of their meal). That said, American food on the whole was great. I spent a lot of time in the Deep South and I loved BBQ, baked beans, grits, sweet tea, Cajun food, Po Boys. Even Waffle House wasn't half bad.
8
Not so much disgusting as bland: Strawberries and tomatoes. I remember going into a supermarket and seeing these absolutely huge strawberries. Biggest I'd ever seen. And bright red, like they were the juiciest, most ripe ever grown. Bought a punnet, went home and ate them, they tasted like wet cardboard. What a disappointment. I'd say it was false advertising.
13
The fact that your cheddar is orange. Whenever I'm in the States, I always get trolled by shredded cheddar in salads, thinking it's carrot. Also anything from Arby's. Aerosol cheese. Pumpkin as a dessert item. Most straight-up chocolate, Hershey's is like biting into a block of chocolate flavoured wax. Ugh.
17
Casseroles made with "cream of" anything soup. Green bean casserole, tuna casserole, mushroom casserole. I know what those Campbells soups are like, we get them over here, and the idea of using them as a constituent ingredient in a main meal makes me shudder just from the idea of the sodium bomb. Especially those casseroles that are suggested to be topped with crushed chips. Peanut butter and jam (jelly) sandwiches I can get behind. Pumpkin pie was a revelation of awesomeness for a new dimension on what to me is normally a savoury veg. Chicken-fried steak and sausage gravy? Genius. But the idea of those casseroles make my stomach turn every time.
27
When I first moved here a few years back, biscuits and gravy weirded me out the most, but I have grown to enjoy it. Still looks like vomit, though. I still can't stomach the standard supermarket bread here. It's so sweet. Same goes for average burger or hotdog buns. I find Americans' need/desire to eat sandwiches with potato chips bizarre. Where I'm from, a sandwich is a meal in and of itself - it doesn't come with a side. And potato chips shouldn't be a side. Ever. They're gas station junk food. To me, it's like getting a Snickers bar as a side. Ranch dressing. Why don't you people want to taste the actual salad you're eating? Flavouring everything with pumpkin around Fall. Pumpkin pie, ok, fine, I've learned to like it. Things I will never accept pumpkin in: coffee, ice cream, pancakes, doughnuts, smoothies. Granola as a "healthy" breakfast option. It's basically a dessert. Taco Bell. OK, I haven't actually tried it, but it looks so unappealing in the ads and posters in the store windows - more so than any other fast food chain - I just can't imagine why anyone ever would. It's not like actually good Mexican food is expensive. One thing I think is great about American food, however, is all the regional variety. Sure, a lot of it is a bit gross and incredibly unhealthy (can't say I enjoyed my encounter with Jello salad), but I love that you can try new things in every city and how proud people are of their local specialties. We don't have that back in Australia, and I think we're poorer for it.
28
As a Brit who's been living here for a few years there are so many odd foods. I know, the UK isn't known for its high quality food (although things are a lot, lot better these days), but the following stuff mystifies me. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - WTF? You take a salty spread that looks like it came from a milk-fed baby's nappy then add sweet jam? Stick it on sugary bread and people seem to love it. Similarly putting syrup on bacon for breakfast. Bacon, food of the gods and the ultimate savoury snack and you cover it in cloying sticky sweetness. Can't get my head around it. Pub cheese. The US doesn't make much good cheese but my New Jersey in-laws introduced me to this spreadable cheese going under the brand 'Pub Cheese.' It tastes like leper shavings, and the name only makes sense in that you have to spend all day getting utterly wankered in the pub to make it even remotely palatable. White Castle burgers. Had one bite and that was enough. Oily meat that murders the taste buds and an aftertaste that hangs around like a fart in a spacesuit, yet people eat these by the dozen and made a film about how good they are. Similarly Taco Bell. Food that not only looks, but tastes like someone else has eaten it before and excreted it into the wrapper. Finally tea. You put the bag in the cup and pour boiling water over it. Please do not bring me a mug of tepid water and a bag for dunking. About the only place to get a decent cuppa is Starbucks. Also iced tea? I suppose in hot climates it kind of makes sense but it's foul tasting. That said, soul food is marvelous, no country in the world does better BBQ (and the pizza can be as good as anything you find in Italy) and I could eat hash browns until they come out of my ears.
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