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My New England doesn’t show often but goddamn it if I’m not addicted to lobster rolls.
There’s just something about ocean-to-table cuisine that scratches a very specific part of my brain, regardless of how expensive it is. Even a crab bisque will tide me over until I can eat at a nice restaurant again (maybe once a month).
My mom told me that I’ll change my tune once I eat a bad oyster, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take. Gimme da fuckin’ chowdah and nobody gets hurt 🔫
I’m not gonna lie, I get a lobster roll like once a year and every single time I regret it and hate myself for spending 20+ bucks on the most unsatisfying sandwich imaginable. I just had my yearly lobster in Bar Harbor over the weekend, went with a whole lobster because my son thought it was cool. As usual I regretted it.
If I could just get a satisfying amount of lobster for less than 60 fucking dollars it would be fine but god damn, lobster is just the biggest cocktease in culinary history.
Lobster Mac and Cheese is alright though.
Get whole, live lobster at a grocery store. They'll usually even steam it for you for free. It's usually way cheaper than getting it at a seafood restaurant. Bring it home and eat it at home.
Everyone always looks at me cross eyed when I say I'd rather have a seafood salad wrap then a lobster roll. I mean lobster's fine and all and if I'm served it, I'll eat it hot or cold but I don't go gah gah over it. I just don't get the absolute infatuation of people driving from like New Jersey for a fucking lobstah roll.
I'm from joisy and I don't get it either. Ive had a lot of lobster rolls and they're fine, but once I had a lobster roll that was hot instead of cold. TOTALLY different experience. Warm lobster with melted butter on a toasted brioche bun felt like I was eating the best the sea possibly had to offer. Never found it at a restaurant again.
there's a clam chowder place my brother took my to somewhere around pike something market, the place in seattle where they throw fish. I got the flavor testing platter and every chowder tasted better than the last.
Green chiles are whatever until you have the freshly fire roasted chiles and then it all makes sense. If your only experience is the sad little grocery store cans then you're missing out.
It’s green chile season right now. Grocery stores and farm stands have their roasters out and it smells great. We got a bushel last weekend, peeled and bagged them and are stocked for the year.
Yes, there is a significant amount of people of Czech descent in Texas and kolaches are very popular there; pretty much every donut shop (aside from chains like Dunkin) serves them
And hilariously, outside the area where Czechs originally settled, they’re mostly run by Southeast Asians.
Vietnamese family cooking Czech pastries with Mexican ingredients in America.
When I moved from Texas to Colorado in 2004 no one in Colorado had even heard of kolaches. Even today, most people I talk to have no idea what a kolache is.
Like if you butter toast, but not toast. I know it’s also kind of a lower-middle class thing in parts of the Midwest and south, but *apparently* Brits do it just about any time they do something with white bread, toasted or no. And so they spread butter on both slices *before* the peanut butter and jelly.
Here in Eastern Europe we do. Bread, butter, salami, cheese, etc. Its part of the sandvich. But when using something else such as nutella or similar, the butter is skipped of course. Some people like to spread butter and honey on bread.
Named after the person who created the type of chocolate traditionally used in it. He didn't invent the cake itself.
For outsiders, it's a chocolate cake with a coconut/pecan/condensed milk frosting.
Wisconsin apple pie. I'm in MA, my grandma used to make it all the time back in the 90s. Haven't had it since but I still think about it everytime I have someone else's apple pie. Just doesn't hit the same. And no one serves it over here. The people I've asked about it before think it sounds gross. Oy,
Apple crisp and peach cobbler are also hard to beat.
I mean, we get authentic Chinese here. We get authentic EVERYTHING here. The two best places in the world to get, like, Albanian food? Well, number 1 is obviously Albania. But number 2 is undoubtedly NYC. Same with Slovenian, Mongolian, South African, etc. - the best examples of all these cuisines outside of their originating country is *invariably* in New York City or somewhere in California.
Theres just so much variety in the US. There’s like 5 different styles of Mexican food alone.
SoCal Mexican Food is my favorite flavor of Mexican food. IMHO, you can’t get much better (in the states) than San Diego. It’s my favorite food hands down.
NEW MEXICAN FOOD REPRESENT. people look at me like I'm stupid when I say I wish there was a new Mexican style breakfast diner in LA.. I miss getting asked "red or green?"
That’s what I always tell people. The food you will eat in the US is good - how much of it is authentically American is another story, but even then, the different regions each have at least a few staple meals that are pretty great (one missing that I really enjoy are crab cakes!)
Authentic food doesn't exist. Tomatoes and peppers come from the Americas but we associate them with Italy. Fried fish like tempura came from the middle east via traders. Ketchup is from China.
For everyone asking, yes Japan got tempura from Portugal. But Portuguese traders didn't invent it themselves, either. [They got vinegar-fried fish through trade going back to Jewish chefs and ancient Persia.](https://passionatefoodie.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-origins-of-ceviche-tempura-and-fish.html?m=1)
Jews didn’t eat potato latkes until the 1700s because potatoes come from the Americas and yet they’re closely associated with Hanukah. Same with all Irish or Slavic things associated with the potato.
Mexican pastor tacos and Greek gyros are direct descendants of Lebanese shawarma.
People move and find local ingredients to recreate their cultural classics. It's one of the most fascinating things about cuisine and why I like to vacation where the French have colonized (no one has more comprehensive technique than the French).
It's sad that travel is easier than ever, but immigration restrictions and the availability of every ingredient anywhere at any time removes the creativity of local and seasonal ingredients. You have to intentionally restrict yourself to recreate it.
One of the last meals I ate back in the US before heading back to uni overseas was shrimp and grits.
You literally cannot find them over here. You can get the instant ones online but they ship from America and it’s expensive.
Tempura is an interesting story. The Portuguese traders were one of the few allowed to live and trade on feudal Japan. Tempura fried fish was their attempt at making the fried fish of their homeland in Portugal. The local Japanese adopted it as their own.
I'm not going to lie I didn't know that was a Midwest thing, but I'm also from there. I didn't know non-midwest states didn't have Friday night fish fry till I was 22 lol.
I'm an American living in the UK and I got down voted to hell in a UK sub because I dared to suggest that American sandwiches were better. I'm sorry but a thin layer of butter, one slice of ham and some cucumbers is a shitty fucking sandwich.
I actually like those simple sandwiches you can pick up and go from any store and even pharmacies in the UK. They are also very reasonably priced. That said, they can't compare to a deli sandwich made in the US, not even close.
I am always very impressed when I meet thin Americans, if I lived over there full time I would be as big as a house. The food is good, cheap and the portions are incredible.
American cuisine is the victim of memes, but just like the much maligned cuisines of the UK, Netherlands and Finland if you explore beyond the surface you will find rich food histories.
American here - I’m about to see what Finland, Sweden, and Estonia have for my appetite in two weeks.
They won’t recognize me as American because I’m stealthily coming as “healthy height weight ratio.”
Food is far from cheap it’s only getting more and more expensive literally day by day, and the portions have started to dwindle. We’re paying more for less food nowadays
I'm guessing they meant cheap compared to other countries. And paying more for less is generally a part of inflation, it's happening pretty much everywhere.
I never thought is was possible to fuck up a hamburger until I had one in England.
It was served on a poppy seed bagel with avocado.
It was on the menu as an "All American Burger".
My parents lived in Africa and were craving an American hamburger so badly they drove 60 miles only to find out it was not like an American burger at all.
Where did you get that from ????? Never buy bad food from a good place in the uk , the best burgers over here are out of random vans in the middle of nowhere
Thank you for this post. Weeks ago I had a huge argument with my Italian family about American food. I’m the only one that visited the US and tried many food you mentioned. It was so frustrating hearing them saying that in America you eat like shit and that “they only have fries and burgers.”
Had my friend from Calabria visit me in Texas. I don’t think he liked the food. At all. I tried it all, Southern, Cajun, Mexican, Texan, even some nicely done burgers.
It was less about the flavor and more that it was always too fattening or too heavy. I guess when you go from the lighter mediterranean diet to the hearty stuff, it’s not good. Regardless, I stand by our food.
>Localized versions of hundreds of other cuisines that are delicious regardless of "authenticity."
I think this is a very underrated idea. There will always be a place for restaurants that serve things in a traditional way. However, cuisines should also be allowed to evolve.
I see people balk at fusion restaurants all the time and obsess way too much about "authenticity." Maybe this pierogi isn't supposed to taste like your baba's back home, but the question is does it taste good?
People have this weird idea that white people invented Tex-Mex and use that as a reason to shit on it and say it’s not “authentic.” No, Tejanos invented Tex-Mex, and it’s delicious and authentic food of this region.
Like the people who think American cheese is inferior based on some process cheese they bought at a gas station or chain mart, but have never tried the multitude of unique cheeses as well as “American” styled versions of European cheese (I prefer a Wisconsin havarti over an import any day). You’d think the fact that we have cheeses that successfully compete in international cheese competitions would mean *something*.
I once met a British person on Reddit who genuinely believed that we didn’t have bakeries. He thought we only had white bread from factories and refused to believe anyone who told him that there are places to get fresh bread in every town lol
They left out the upper Midwest banger of tater tot hot dish or any other heavy protein and starch midwest foods for that matter. Although…Those Sharons and Barbaras may not cook with seasonings like the rest of the country, but they sure as hell will happily make you and your friends a meal that will carry you for a hundred miles.
Finally someone talks about east coast food! Lobster rolls and clam chowder i so good I love it so much! I feel like people forget how diverse most American foods are and while it maybe a bunch of foods from other places isn’t that the point? A lot of Americans come from immigration and they bring their foods and stuff over.
A lot of American culture was not stolen so much as brought over here and remixed. That's what "melting pot" was intended to mean kinda. It's a fusion of many things.
Immigrants brought us some of the best damn food the States has to offer.
Another thing is when people say that food should be called non American/the country of origins dish because it took inspiration form somewhere else like burgers, but when other nations like Italy take inspiration from a different culture with pasta from noodles it’s their culture.
Anything with tomatoes, potatoes, or spicy peppers is originally from north or South America since those foods didn’t exist anywhere else until the 1500s. It’s kinda funny to me how many national cuisines are essentially just another take on Mexican food.
If they were consistent it wouldn’t be half as bad. They don’t hold the same rules for themselves as they do for us (the USA) and I’ve argued with mean Europeans too much about it on this damn website.
You can’t use ingredients that aren’t from your continent with America (apples is often cited) and call it “American” (apple pie). But it’s fine if Europe uses tomatoes, potatoes, chili peppers (specifically from Mexico), cacao, vanilla, corn or pumpkins because they’re ak-shully from Central America, and they’re ingredients and not the meal itself.
You can’t call what immigrants make in your country “American food” despite the fact that even first generation immigrants would no longer be considered “European” by their own rules. But it’s fine for Britain to claim tea or curry as quintessential “British” food, or to say that Chicken Tikka Masala is British-Indian (or Scottish-Pakistani to be more specific).
Someone even told me they didn’t think indigenous American food “counted” as “American cuisine” because it came from “theft” of those cultures. Even fusion cultures (creole, Tex-mex in a way although the politics are messy - Texas was a part of Mexico and not the US at one point in history) that couldn’t have existed without specific ethnic groups meeting and mixing in specific geographic regions. Southern soul food also did not “count” according to this asshole’s opinion, and he didn’t have an explanation for that (trolling me could’ve been the explanation so it’s really on me more).
When we remix food it’s bastardizing. When they remix food it’s “culinary inspiration” or “cultural evolution”
We Americans all just exist in meaningless liminal white-noise space separated from anything with substance, I guess.
They just don’t think anything we do can count as culture while complaining, at the same time, that they’re being choked by our culture (television, music, movies, etc) and we wouldn’t know their esoteric cultural favorites because we’re not globally curious. It’s old and I’m tired of it. Almost more than school shooter jokes they’re not connected enough with to even make gallows humor jokes about. I didn’t think “im14andthisisdeep” logic applied to an entire nationality or continent and I’m sorry I learned that it does on certain sects of the internet.
Also just as a generalized FYI not directed at anyone in particular, the “east coast” food listed is also indigenous food - meaning baked beans, most seafood dishes/seafood bakes. It’s been so homogenized people don’t associate it with the “exoticness” of frybread or whatever they envision with their Coachella costumes. That is the gift of 200+ years of extra colonizer exposure: not only are baked beans, lobster rolls, canoes, or lacrosse not associated with indigenous peoples who made those things on that coast, they’re associated with the *whitest* people to crawl out of the fucking WASP borg. That always sat wrong with me (that and the bullshit of who Eli Parker’s granddaughter married but that’s not quite relevant here).
As much as I despise the empire America created and all it has wrought on the world, I get very fucking tired of Europeans taking every opportunity they can to pretend their nations are not built on the same blood and exploitation, and that they have any right to sit on a high horse in regards to our societal issues. The US is the way it is because it had the opportunity, don't tell me that the nation with a literal royal family leeching off of its people, or any of several nations that *for some reason* control a vast portion of the natural resources of underdeveloped nations, are somehow truly holier.
This American "empire" is kinda the reason Taiwan, Ukraine South Korea, and Europe are the way they are. I mean, yea, we have done some evil shit, but China who is currently doing a genocide is contained, and Russia isn't getting any farther in Ukraine. Also, can you name an Empire that leveled half a continent and then built it back up with its own money.
[Pasta doesn’t come from noodles](https://www.todayonline.com/world/did-pasta-come-china-absolutely-not-historians-say#:~:text=come%20from%20China%3F-,Absolutely%20not%2C%20historians%20say,over%20the%20world%20adore%20it.)
As a Latina, the joke about whites having bland ass food is so over done. I have Latino friends always making the joke that whites can’t season; yet have never even dated or been around white people enough to know that. Super frustrating
We're a mixed bag. Some of us enjoy all the spices and seasonings, others will use just salt and pepper. I've met people who cook like that. I think the jokes are funny because I've always got someone in my mind when I see those memes
Enlightenment is when one realizes you can criticize aspects of your own country while still carrying a deep love for it.
America is fucked up but it for all its flaws is a beautiful place
"Oh, Reddit Euro-Chads, please tread on America harder daddy because I'm a middle class young adult who hasn't gotten a good job yet and I think that makes me poor and is America's fault."
same found a guy posting america is a ruined shithole but his post before that was a 10K arcade setup he build in his basement. Witch outside of america is a shitload of money
It kinda bugs me that people say American food or culture is non-existent. Part of what makes America so interesting is that it is a combination of tons of different cultures and themes all mixed together. Going to a friend's house and seeing their family's normal meal is crazy because it will almost certainly be radically different from your own in almost every way.
Or you order a pizza.
Sopapillas?????? in Chile the Mapuche people have sopaipillas (with i) fried round dough, but we’re all the way south. So who makes these North American Sopapillas?
Tex Mexican and New Mexican cuisine as well as native Americans(they call it fry bread).
sopaipillas is just how the various Spain influenced cultures call fried dough. But it's one of those things that can be found pretty much across the world with no origin. Because people love to dip dough in oil.q
What I like about American a food is it’s just lots of shit mashed together, like you got 4 waffles wit a whole bucket of chicken dumped on it with maple syrup poured on and it works way better than it should (at least that’s the type of American food I like)
Don't forget General Tso's chicken, egg rolls, sesame chicken, Mongolian beef, the "battleship" sushi shape, spam musubi, and egg foo young. Plus even the Chinese takeout containers were invented here
I recently went down a rabbit hole about this. These dishes were made in the early 1900s when tons of East Asian immigrants settled in America. A lot of them opened restaurants with traditional foods but found if they tweaked the recipes to cater to a western palette they got way more traffic. So some traditional dishes like orange chicken were modified (added breading, fried and sugar in the orange sauce) while others (general tsos chicken) were invented to maintain their Chinese base but attract westerners as well. It’s such a cool uniquely American melting pot origin
I know it's not in the picture because you can only fit so much, but California alone has a bunch of its own delicious cuisines. Baja-mex, wine country, fusion, literally any Asian food, taquerias, Mexican street food. Avocado on literally everything. Sushirritos, california rolls, California Pizza Kitchen, avocado toast and soooo much more. Just thought I would add that into the American food praise thread.
I'm excited to see how things continue to develop as other dishes get recognition and popularity.
I was thinking the same thing. Glad to see those other regions getting the well deserved love. The CA food scene from north to south could fill its own unique map of foods. I’d also like to add the Mission Burrito to your list.
Besides auto fellatio-ing Europeans, Americans are just culturally illiterate of their own.
I am more than certain that the Americans online who bitch and complain how bland and unoriginal American food has a diet that consists of fast food, junk food, and the occasional *exotic food* just within their already tiny comfort zone.
These people then spread all around the internet, mostly searching for self-validation from foreigners, and that’s how you get British and German people thinking Americans chug lard every other day and just rotate between fast food chains as their only diet.
He's Canadian and is speaking generally about anti-Americanism in general but I think JJ McCullough put it well in [one of his recent videos](https://youtu.be/iCVQKD3jH2M?feature=shared) when he said that foreigners are often "malevolently well-informed" about America, whereas we tend to be "benevolently ill-informed" about ourselves and other cultures. We also tend not to be comfortable calling other countries out for their bs when they try to portray their countries as so much better or when they portray this country as a hellscape based on exaggerated or otherwise unusual(there is a reason it's newsworthy after all) news reports that focus exclusively on negative events or otherwise bad things due to ratings. As a result, a lot of us take other people's word for it that America is terrible and forget how great we actually have it in this country.
I've loved the comments that "American Italian isn't real Italian". You mean the Italian food that was made by Italian immigrants using local ingredients?
Chili Verde (New Mexico) is an amazing food. I make it sometimes, although fresh Hatch chiles aren’t available in Massachusetts where I live. So I use a mic of poblano, Anaheim, Jalapeño and Serrano peppers, and am considering using scotch bonnet or habaneros next time. I also just made the Texas style chili con carne for my girlfriend after going to visit her…and it’s her favorite food I make.
Since the US is one of the number one places in the world for immigration it’s like a big melting pot of different cultures so we get to have awesome food like this
I had cajun food for the first time here in my country from an American that opened up a shop here. From New Orleans I think he is. It's really really really good.
What would Italian cuisine be without new world tomatoes? Where would Ireland be without American potatoes? Thai and Chinese food without American nuts and chilis? The “traditional” British Christmas dinner is an American Turkey, for chrissakes. Nobody has a wholly original cuisine and what you think of as the cultural bedrock of your region is probably much younger than you realize.
The point here is less that American cuisine is *good* (obviously, it is), and more that it exists in the first place, contrary to what many Redditors think.
What people don’t get is that American Cuisine and Culture is so mainstream that most people think it’s the norm, meaning for them, it does not deviate from the norm, meaning it’s “non-existent”. America is a country of immigrants, that’s why its cuisine is just “stolen” from other cultures and countries from where they came from and over the generations they just evolved and deviated from the original
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Clam Chowdah
My New England doesn’t show often but goddamn it if I’m not addicted to lobster rolls. There’s just something about ocean-to-table cuisine that scratches a very specific part of my brain, regardless of how expensive it is. Even a crab bisque will tide me over until I can eat at a nice restaurant again (maybe once a month). My mom told me that I’ll change my tune once I eat a bad oyster, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take. Gimme da fuckin’ chowdah and nobody gets hurt 🔫
I’m not gonna lie, I get a lobster roll like once a year and every single time I regret it and hate myself for spending 20+ bucks on the most unsatisfying sandwich imaginable. I just had my yearly lobster in Bar Harbor over the weekend, went with a whole lobster because my son thought it was cool. As usual I regretted it. If I could just get a satisfying amount of lobster for less than 60 fucking dollars it would be fine but god damn, lobster is just the biggest cocktease in culinary history. Lobster Mac and Cheese is alright though.
Get whole, live lobster at a grocery store. They'll usually even steam it for you for free. It's usually way cheaper than getting it at a seafood restaurant. Bring it home and eat it at home.
Forget streaming it — low and slow boil in burre blanc makes the most amazing lobster ever.
I started reading this and was getting ready to roast you for saying you should boil a lobster and then I saw burre blanc. 100% agree.
Everyone always looks at me cross eyed when I say I'd rather have a seafood salad wrap then a lobster roll. I mean lobster's fine and all and if I'm served it, I'll eat it hot or cold but I don't go gah gah over it. I just don't get the absolute infatuation of people driving from like New Jersey for a fucking lobstah roll.
I'm from joisy and I don't get it either. Ive had a lot of lobster rolls and they're fine, but once I had a lobster roll that was hot instead of cold. TOTALLY different experience. Warm lobster with melted butter on a toasted brioche bun felt like I was eating the best the sea possibly had to offer. Never found it at a restaurant again.
You’re looking for a Connecticut style lobster roll, found everywhere on the coast of the eponymous state.
Say it Frenchie
Chówdiêrre
I'm going to enjoy this.
Come back here, I’m not through demeaning you!
It's chowdah! Chowdah!
there's a clam chowder place my brother took my to somewhere around pike something market, the place in seattle where they throw fish. I got the flavor testing platter and every chowder tasted better than the last.
It's chowdah! Chowdah! I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you, especially those of you in the jury! Well, that didn't go well...
Cajun food is divine inspiration. Also green chili stew (the NM classic) is simple, but good green chilies are a transcendent experience.
Green chiles are whatever until you have the freshly fire roasted chiles and then it all makes sense. If your only experience is the sad little grocery store cans then you're missing out.
The canned stuff is false advertising... And blasphemy.... End of discussion
Chicken and sausage gumbo that's been cooking all day ..... that's fucking heaven on rice . Love yall
Wait I’m allergic to shellfish I never had gumbo before it always has crawfish!!!! This is a game changer
Most people from Acadiana (Cajun country) prefer chicken and sausage. Get a Lafayette recipe, not new Orleans. Nola is Creole, not cajun
It’s green chile season right now. Grocery stores and farm stands have their roasters out and it smells great. We got a bushel last weekend, peeled and bagged them and are stocked for the year.
Balloon festival is around the corner
Cajun / Creole is significantly better in Louisiana. Living in Texas, the stuff here sucks.
There's some great cajun food in southeast Texas, but even then may as well just hop right over the border at that point.
OLD BAY.
Old Bay is God, I didn't realize how damn good it was until I moved states man...
YOU INCLUDED TEXAN KOLACHES - ALL THOSE FOODS ARE SO GLORIOUS! Well done.
I’m here for the kolaches, I haven't had them in many years
Left Texas in my twenties, and I accepted that I’d miss the Tex-Mex & BBQ —- but kolaches have been the hardest food to find since I left
As a Jewish Texan I’ve never felt more represented and it feels fantastic
Are you talking about original ,,koláče" from Czech Republik?/i
Yes, there is a significant amount of people of Czech descent in Texas and kolaches are very popular there; pretty much every donut shop (aside from chains like Dunkin) serves them
And hilariously, outside the area where Czechs originally settled, they’re mostly run by Southeast Asians. Vietnamese family cooking Czech pastries with Mexican ingredients in America.
there's a sizable Vietnamese minority in the Czech Republic, they are well known for running small shops
When I moved from Texas to Colorado in 2004 no one in Colorado had even heard of kolaches. Even today, most people I talk to have no idea what a kolache is.
Chocolate. Chip. Cookies.
The humble s'more is itself a childhood *experience*.
Key lime pie!
It’s like they say, “Southerners ain’t big cuz the food is *bad*”
I took my Canadian husband to my southern hometown and I think a family friend said it best, "We like to talk, and we like to eat."
Peanut butter and jelly is a top tier sandwich all said and done.
I cry every time I see a Brit “try” one but they put butter on the bread first, then say it’s awful.
I’m sorry I didn’t get you. Wdy mean butter on the bread first?
Like if you butter toast, but not toast. I know it’s also kind of a lower-middle class thing in parts of the Midwest and south, but *apparently* Brits do it just about any time they do something with white bread, toasted or no. And so they spread butter on both slices *before* the peanut butter and jelly.
Wait, so if they're eating, like, a ham and cheese on white bread, do they butter that, too?
Here in Eastern Europe we do. Bread, butter, salami, cheese, etc. Its part of the sandvich. But when using something else such as nutella or similar, the butter is skipped of course. Some people like to spread butter and honey on bread.
German Chocolate Cake
Wasn't the guy who invented it named German or is it someone else.
Yeah he was - last name German and quite American.
Named after the person who created the type of chocolate traditionally used in it. He didn't invent the cake itself. For outsiders, it's a chocolate cake with a coconut/pecan/condensed milk frosting.
Slightly undercooked and still warm chocolate chip cookies. With a tall glass of milk.
Apple pie.
Wisconsin apple pie. I'm in MA, my grandma used to make it all the time back in the 90s. Haven't had it since but I still think about it everytime I have someone else's apple pie. Just doesn't hit the same. And no one serves it over here. The people I've asked about it before think it sounds gross. Oy, Apple crisp and peach cobbler are also hard to beat.
And he's only touched the tip of the iceberg too.
No chinese-American food
Like i said, tip of the iceberg
I mean, we get authentic Chinese here. We get authentic EVERYTHING here. The two best places in the world to get, like, Albanian food? Well, number 1 is obviously Albania. But number 2 is undoubtedly NYC. Same with Slovenian, Mongolian, South African, etc. - the best examples of all these cuisines outside of their originating country is *invariably* in New York City or somewhere in California.
General chicken slaps
I personally prefer specific chicken
Fortune cookies are a Chinese-American invention.
So much I couldn’t fit on here. God I miss American cuisine.
Theres just so much variety in the US. There’s like 5 different styles of Mexican food alone. SoCal Mexican Food is my favorite flavor of Mexican food. IMHO, you can’t get much better (in the states) than San Diego. It’s my favorite food hands down.
NEW MEXICAN FOOD REPRESENT. people look at me like I'm stupid when I say I wish there was a new Mexican style breakfast diner in LA.. I miss getting asked "red or green?"
Don't forget tamales and posole for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day dinner
That’s what I always tell people. The food you will eat in the US is good - how much of it is authentically American is another story, but even then, the different regions each have at least a few staple meals that are pretty great (one missing that I really enjoy are crab cakes!)
Authentic food doesn't exist. Tomatoes and peppers come from the Americas but we associate them with Italy. Fried fish like tempura came from the middle east via traders. Ketchup is from China. For everyone asking, yes Japan got tempura from Portugal. But Portuguese traders didn't invent it themselves, either. [They got vinegar-fried fish through trade going back to Jewish chefs and ancient Persia.](https://passionatefoodie.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-origins-of-ceviche-tempura-and-fish.html?m=1)
Jews didn’t eat potato latkes until the 1700s because potatoes come from the Americas and yet they’re closely associated with Hanukah. Same with all Irish or Slavic things associated with the potato.
Mexican pastor tacos and Greek gyros are direct descendants of Lebanese shawarma. People move and find local ingredients to recreate their cultural classics. It's one of the most fascinating things about cuisine and why I like to vacation where the French have colonized (no one has more comprehensive technique than the French). It's sad that travel is easier than ever, but immigration restrictions and the availability of every ingredient anywhere at any time removes the creativity of local and seasonal ingredients. You have to intentionally restrict yourself to recreate it.
What about grits?
OH MY GOD I FORGOT GRITS
You have 5 business days to remake this image to include grits or else a firing squad will be dispatched to your house
One of the last meals I ate back in the US before heading back to uni overseas was shrimp and grits. You literally cannot find them over here. You can get the instant ones online but they ship from America and it’s expensive.
CORN
Tempura is an interesting story. The Portuguese traders were one of the few allowed to live and trade on feudal Japan. Tempura fried fish was their attempt at making the fried fish of their homeland in Portugal. The local Japanese adopted it as their own.
Crab cakes! Maryland!
I’ve eaten sandwiches in countries around the world. No better sandwich than a Cuban or Philly Cheesesteak
The Philly Cheesesteak is number two to the South Philly Roast Pork in its own city.
Yep, I was in Philly for work and a local took me to some place in Reading Terminal for one, hands down better than any cheesesteak I’ve had.
Pastrami on rye is an underrated pick imo
All hail the Cuban sandwich.
A perfect BLT is pretty damn close to those two
Or a pastrami ruben
Also an Italian beef with hot peppers. Chefs kiss baby. Gotta give the Midwest credit when credit is due
I'm not going to lie I didn't know that was a Midwest thing, but I'm also from there. I didn't know non-midwest states didn't have Friday night fish fry till I was 22 lol.
I'm an American living in the UK and I got down voted to hell in a UK sub because I dared to suggest that American sandwiches were better. I'm sorry but a thin layer of butter, one slice of ham and some cucumbers is a shitty fucking sandwich.
I actually like those simple sandwiches you can pick up and go from any store and even pharmacies in the UK. They are also very reasonably priced. That said, they can't compare to a deli sandwich made in the US, not even close.
How do you think Banh Mi’s compete? just asking
Banh mis are the greatest sandwiches of all time. I love cubans and cheesesteaks, but some culinary items are just untouchable.
I am always very impressed when I meet thin Americans, if I lived over there full time I would be as big as a house. The food is good, cheap and the portions are incredible. American cuisine is the victim of memes, but just like the much maligned cuisines of the UK, Netherlands and Finland if you explore beyond the surface you will find rich food histories.
American here - I’m about to see what Finland, Sweden, and Estonia have for my appetite in two weeks. They won’t recognize me as American because I’m stealthily coming as “healthy height weight ratio.”
Food is far from cheap it’s only getting more and more expensive literally day by day, and the portions have started to dwindle. We’re paying more for less food nowadays
I'm guessing they meant cheap compared to other countries. And paying more for less is generally a part of inflation, it's happening pretty much everywhere.
[удалено]
Food is always cheaper when I travel abroad compared to at home in the US. I don’t get this.
I never thought is was possible to fuck up a hamburger until I had one in England. It was served on a poppy seed bagel with avocado. It was on the menu as an "All American Burger".
LOL i would probably smash though
https://preview.redd.it/sb6ftwayxcmb1.jpeg?width=408&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c5e62f053f95727582cfea0243ce04e92f0683e that you on this ad?
My parents lived in Africa and were craving an American hamburger so badly they drove 60 miles only to find out it was not like an American burger at all.
did they not have a kitchen?
Where did you get that from ????? Never buy bad food from a good place in the uk , the best burgers over here are out of random vans in the middle of nowhere
Kebab van at 2 am served by a bloke called “Ahmed”, extra ketchup, raw onions, no questions asked, no fucks given. God I miss kebab vans.
Thank you for this post. Weeks ago I had a huge argument with my Italian family about American food. I’m the only one that visited the US and tried many food you mentioned. It was so frustrating hearing them saying that in America you eat like shit and that “they only have fries and burgers.”
Tbf Italians do that with every country lol
Italians will do that with _other parts of Italy_
Had my friend from Calabria visit me in Texas. I don’t think he liked the food. At all. I tried it all, Southern, Cajun, Mexican, Texan, even some nicely done burgers. It was less about the flavor and more that it was always too fattening or too heavy. I guess when you go from the lighter mediterranean diet to the hearty stuff, it’s not good. Regardless, I stand by our food.
>Localized versions of hundreds of other cuisines that are delicious regardless of "authenticity." I think this is a very underrated idea. There will always be a place for restaurants that serve things in a traditional way. However, cuisines should also be allowed to evolve. I see people balk at fusion restaurants all the time and obsess way too much about "authenticity." Maybe this pierogi isn't supposed to taste like your baba's back home, but the question is does it taste good?
If I remember correctly, you will actually piss a fair number of Latinos off if you call tex-mex "bastardized mexican food."
People have this weird idea that white people invented Tex-Mex and use that as a reason to shit on it and say it’s not “authentic.” No, Tejanos invented Tex-Mex, and it’s delicious and authentic food of this region.
People will eat at a shitty American fast food chain and base their shallow idea on that is all people from the US eat
Like the people who think American cheese is inferior based on some process cheese they bought at a gas station or chain mart, but have never tried the multitude of unique cheeses as well as “American” styled versions of European cheese (I prefer a Wisconsin havarti over an import any day). You’d think the fact that we have cheeses that successfully compete in international cheese competitions would mean *something*.
I once met a British person on Reddit who genuinely believed that we didn’t have bakeries. He thought we only had white bread from factories and refused to believe anyone who told him that there are places to get fresh bread in every town lol
Yeah, someone on Reddit once argued with me that America doesn’t have any small chocolate shops and all we eat is Hershey’s.
They left out the upper Midwest banger of tater tot hot dish or any other heavy protein and starch midwest foods for that matter. Although…Those Sharons and Barbaras may not cook with seasonings like the rest of the country, but they sure as hell will happily make you and your friends a meal that will carry you for a hundred miles.
Don't forget the Upper Midwest also gave us things like Mackinac Island fudge and Juicy Lucy burgers
Finally someone talks about east coast food! Lobster rolls and clam chowder i so good I love it so much! I feel like people forget how diverse most American foods are and while it maybe a bunch of foods from other places isn’t that the point? A lot of Americans come from immigration and they bring their foods and stuff over.
A lot of American culture was not stolen so much as brought over here and remixed. That's what "melting pot" was intended to mean kinda. It's a fusion of many things. Immigrants brought us some of the best damn food the States has to offer.
Another thing is when people say that food should be called non American/the country of origins dish because it took inspiration form somewhere else like burgers, but when other nations like Italy take inspiration from a different culture with pasta from noodles it’s their culture.
Agreed, it’s such a facile argument.
Anything with tomatoes, potatoes, or spicy peppers is originally from north or South America since those foods didn’t exist anywhere else until the 1500s. It’s kinda funny to me how many national cuisines are essentially just another take on Mexican food.
If they were consistent it wouldn’t be half as bad. They don’t hold the same rules for themselves as they do for us (the USA) and I’ve argued with mean Europeans too much about it on this damn website. You can’t use ingredients that aren’t from your continent with America (apples is often cited) and call it “American” (apple pie). But it’s fine if Europe uses tomatoes, potatoes, chili peppers (specifically from Mexico), cacao, vanilla, corn or pumpkins because they’re ak-shully from Central America, and they’re ingredients and not the meal itself. You can’t call what immigrants make in your country “American food” despite the fact that even first generation immigrants would no longer be considered “European” by their own rules. But it’s fine for Britain to claim tea or curry as quintessential “British” food, or to say that Chicken Tikka Masala is British-Indian (or Scottish-Pakistani to be more specific). Someone even told me they didn’t think indigenous American food “counted” as “American cuisine” because it came from “theft” of those cultures. Even fusion cultures (creole, Tex-mex in a way although the politics are messy - Texas was a part of Mexico and not the US at one point in history) that couldn’t have existed without specific ethnic groups meeting and mixing in specific geographic regions. Southern soul food also did not “count” according to this asshole’s opinion, and he didn’t have an explanation for that (trolling me could’ve been the explanation so it’s really on me more). When we remix food it’s bastardizing. When they remix food it’s “culinary inspiration” or “cultural evolution” We Americans all just exist in meaningless liminal white-noise space separated from anything with substance, I guess. They just don’t think anything we do can count as culture while complaining, at the same time, that they’re being choked by our culture (television, music, movies, etc) and we wouldn’t know their esoteric cultural favorites because we’re not globally curious. It’s old and I’m tired of it. Almost more than school shooter jokes they’re not connected enough with to even make gallows humor jokes about. I didn’t think “im14andthisisdeep” logic applied to an entire nationality or continent and I’m sorry I learned that it does on certain sects of the internet. Also just as a generalized FYI not directed at anyone in particular, the “east coast” food listed is also indigenous food - meaning baked beans, most seafood dishes/seafood bakes. It’s been so homogenized people don’t associate it with the “exoticness” of frybread or whatever they envision with their Coachella costumes. That is the gift of 200+ years of extra colonizer exposure: not only are baked beans, lobster rolls, canoes, or lacrosse not associated with indigenous peoples who made those things on that coast, they’re associated with the *whitest* people to crawl out of the fucking WASP borg. That always sat wrong with me (that and the bullshit of who Eli Parker’s granddaughter married but that’s not quite relevant here).
Well fucking said. This post should be stickied to every food-related sub or an auto post by a bot every time a Euro bashes Americans
As much as I despise the empire America created and all it has wrought on the world, I get very fucking tired of Europeans taking every opportunity they can to pretend their nations are not built on the same blood and exploitation, and that they have any right to sit on a high horse in regards to our societal issues. The US is the way it is because it had the opportunity, don't tell me that the nation with a literal royal family leeching off of its people, or any of several nations that *for some reason* control a vast portion of the natural resources of underdeveloped nations, are somehow truly holier.
This American "empire" is kinda the reason Taiwan, Ukraine South Korea, and Europe are the way they are. I mean, yea, we have done some evil shit, but China who is currently doing a genocide is contained, and Russia isn't getting any farther in Ukraine. Also, can you name an Empire that leveled half a continent and then built it back up with its own money.
Burgers didn't even originate from Germany . They just made the patty, we put it in bread
Yeah I know, we took inspiration and made it into our own, because the patty in Germany is like a cubbed meat.
[Pasta doesn’t come from noodles](https://www.todayonline.com/world/did-pasta-come-china-absolutely-not-historians-say#:~:text=come%20from%20China%3F-,Absolutely%20not%2C%20historians%20say,over%20the%20world%20adore%20it.)
It's good to see a post about American food that doesn't involve fast food slop or white people making "bland ass food"
As a Latina, the joke about whites having bland ass food is so over done. I have Latino friends always making the joke that whites can’t season; yet have never even dated or been around white people enough to know that. Super frustrating
We're a mixed bag. Some of us enjoy all the spices and seasonings, others will use just salt and pepper. I've met people who cook like that. I think the jokes are funny because I've always got someone in my mind when I see those memes
Many American redditors won't like this because they're spiritual cuckolds and enjoy pretending to possess an inferior culture
Just shows they’ve never had a good Key Lime Pie or clam chowder. They’d know if they left their mum’s basement.
Shitamericansay punching the air right now. Pretty sure theyre all self hating Americans.
Dammit! And I though they were Europeans!
Enlightenment is when one realizes you can criticize aspects of your own country while still carrying a deep love for it. America is fucked up but it for all its flaws is a beautiful place
"Oh, Reddit Euro-Chads, please tread on America harder daddy because I'm a middle class young adult who hasn't gotten a good job yet and I think that makes me poor and is America's fault."
American Redditors larping as poor working class people is a fetish at this point.
Looked at the profile of one of those guys and he was driving a brand new BMW X7 and lived in LA
same found a guy posting america is a ruined shithole but his post before that was a 10K arcade setup he build in his basement. Witch outside of america is a shitload of money
I remember this person! The comments called them out too lol
Tech workers will look you straight in the eyes and say "I'm struggling" while making 150k+/yr.
I've taken to calling these people Euroboos or Pick-Me-ricans
Bro you just called out like 90% of Reddit in one comment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_cringe?wprov=sfti1
Lobber rol 🤤
Lobtr 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤
It kinda bugs me that people say American food or culture is non-existent. Part of what makes America so interesting is that it is a combination of tons of different cultures and themes all mixed together. Going to a friend's house and seeing their family's normal meal is crazy because it will almost certainly be radically different from your own in almost every way. Or you order a pizza.
I will never not upvote the hilariously airbrushed chad
FINALLY some Tex-Czech rep! I could literally live off of kolaches
Sopapillas?????? in Chile the Mapuche people have sopaipillas (with i) fried round dough, but we’re all the way south. So who makes these North American Sopapillas?
Tex Mexican and New Mexican cuisine as well as native Americans(they call it fry bread). sopaipillas is just how the various Spain influenced cultures call fried dough. But it's one of those things that can be found pretty much across the world with no origin. Because people love to dip dough in oil.q
What I like about American a food is it’s just lots of shit mashed together, like you got 4 waffles wit a whole bucket of chicken dumped on it with maple syrup poured on and it works way better than it should (at least that’s the type of American food I like)
Right, fusion restaurants could only be successful in America. Tacos are fantastic yes but have you had Korean style tacos? That Shit is amazing
First tex mex fusion ramen I had in El Paso was almost a religious experience. Fuuuck I miss that city...
Bro I’ve always thought that Thai and Mexican food would mix soo well
Vietnamese-Cajun crawfish in Houston hits different
A taco place near me started doing Korean BBQ tacos and they are life changing
Asian American food is the shit. Beef and broccoli, Orange Chicken, Teriyaki, California rolls, LA Kalbi, Kogi Tacos, crab Rangoons
Don't forget General Tso's chicken, egg rolls, sesame chicken, Mongolian beef, the "battleship" sushi shape, spam musubi, and egg foo young. Plus even the Chinese takeout containers were invented here
I recently went down a rabbit hole about this. These dishes were made in the early 1900s when tons of East Asian immigrants settled in America. A lot of them opened restaurants with traditional foods but found if they tweaked the recipes to cater to a western palette they got way more traffic. So some traditional dishes like orange chicken were modified (added breading, fried and sugar in the orange sauce) while others (general tsos chicken) were invented to maintain their Chinese base but attract westerners as well. It’s such a cool uniquely American melting pot origin
I know it's not in the picture because you can only fit so much, but California alone has a bunch of its own delicious cuisines. Baja-mex, wine country, fusion, literally any Asian food, taquerias, Mexican street food. Avocado on literally everything. Sushirritos, california rolls, California Pizza Kitchen, avocado toast and soooo much more. Just thought I would add that into the American food praise thread. I'm excited to see how things continue to develop as other dishes get recognition and popularity.
I was thinking the same thing. Glad to see those other regions getting the well deserved love. The CA food scene from north to south could fill its own unique map of foods. I’d also like to add the Mission Burrito to your list.
I forgot we had some absolutely delicious meals here
What do you eat lol
i love biscuits!! they’re like baked crack!!
Besides auto fellatio-ing Europeans, Americans are just culturally illiterate of their own. I am more than certain that the Americans online who bitch and complain how bland and unoriginal American food has a diet that consists of fast food, junk food, and the occasional *exotic food* just within their already tiny comfort zone. These people then spread all around the internet, mostly searching for self-validation from foreigners, and that’s how you get British and German people thinking Americans chug lard every other day and just rotate between fast food chains as their only diet.
He's Canadian and is speaking generally about anti-Americanism in general but I think JJ McCullough put it well in [one of his recent videos](https://youtu.be/iCVQKD3jH2M?feature=shared) when he said that foreigners are often "malevolently well-informed" about America, whereas we tend to be "benevolently ill-informed" about ourselves and other cultures. We also tend not to be comfortable calling other countries out for their bs when they try to portray their countries as so much better or when they portray this country as a hellscape based on exaggerated or otherwise unusual(there is a reason it's newsworthy after all) news reports that focus exclusively on negative events or otherwise bad things due to ratings. As a result, a lot of us take other people's word for it that America is terrible and forget how great we actually have it in this country.
I've loved the comments that "American Italian isn't real Italian". You mean the Italian food that was made by Italian immigrants using local ingredients?
“It’s all just burgers and fried shit!” Mfs when they actually have a burger and realize why they’re so popular:
Chili Verde (New Mexico) is an amazing food. I make it sometimes, although fresh Hatch chiles aren’t available in Massachusetts where I live. So I use a mic of poblano, Anaheim, Jalapeño and Serrano peppers, and am considering using scotch bonnet or habaneros next time. I also just made the Texas style chili con carne for my girlfriend after going to visit her…and it’s her favorite food I make.
real
"You're not French/Caribbean in the US, you're just American" but also "Americans didn't come up with Cajun food, the French/Caribbean did"
Since the US is one of the number one places in the world for immigration it’s like a big melting pot of different cultures so we get to have awesome food like this
Missing out on Mormon Funeral Casserole, plus this only covers like 1/8th of southern food lol
And groups together "Carolina barbecue" which refers to at least three different things.
Ran out of space, I’m missing a very large portion of Americas cuisine
I had cajun food for the first time here in my country from an American that opened up a shop here. From New Orleans I think he is. It's really really really good.
You hear a lot of "American food is just stolen from X culture" but also "This isn't authentic X culture food"
I don’t get the Popeyes love. It’s just fast food chicken. Any good mom and pop southern place has 10x better chicken.
Pozole does not predate Mexico, it is inherently Mexican because of the Mexica.
Am Cajun, can confirm we do have the best food. Prepare your butthole though.
South Asians: "My time has come"
I mean how do you think we all got so fat in the first place?
Never understood other cultures saying we stole and ruined their food, like who the hell do you think brought it here and tweaked it?
What would Italian cuisine be without new world tomatoes? Where would Ireland be without American potatoes? Thai and Chinese food without American nuts and chilis? The “traditional” British Christmas dinner is an American Turkey, for chrissakes. Nobody has a wholly original cuisine and what you think of as the cultural bedrock of your region is probably much younger than you realize.
“americans have no culture” mfs after seeing an extremely ethically diverse country with various cultures of food:
All cuisine is good, except North Korean
The point here is less that American cuisine is *good* (obviously, it is), and more that it exists in the first place, contrary to what many Redditors think.
North Korean food: - - - - - - - - ...
It's called Intermittent Eating
Based meme.
What people don’t get is that American Cuisine and Culture is so mainstream that most people think it’s the norm, meaning for them, it does not deviate from the norm, meaning it’s “non-existent”. America is a country of immigrants, that’s why its cuisine is just “stolen” from other cultures and countries from where they came from and over the generations they just evolved and deviated from the original
It’s like when people say the Beatles aren’t that special they sound like all the other bands when the reality is all the other bands sound like them.
Don't forget the humble city chicken
My mouth is watering
Finally someone who doesn’t sleep on our food culture
Starter pack of the year I say