I want to visit America one time just for the food. I keep hearing from American TV about twinkies and red vines and all kinds of stuff, then I try them whenever I get a chance here in the UK and theyre so bad. I need to know for sure whether we’re getting a version that conforms to our food laws and they lose a lot in the process or if theyre really that terrible.
I really doubt you’ll be impressed. Those foods are made for children, who have bland pallettes and like sugar. And adults who never advanced past this stage.
You can get good food in America. But it won’t be a twinkie.
The store-bought junk food is pretty bad in America, to be fair. But foreigners also tend to overestimate their popularity, because American media is largely funded by product placement; The average American probably hasn’t eaten a Twinkie in months or even years.
Restaurants are where you’ll truly experience American food. You’ll be amazed at how much flavor is packed into each dish, and at how large the portions are. But the latter is largely a cultural thing; Americans typically have leftovers that they take home. Europeans will see the feast-sized portions on the table and immediately go “no wonder Americans are so fat…” In reality, Americans would expect to take half of it home.
Americans typically have leftovers that they take home
Are you just not aware of how overweight Americans are on average? As i understand it we have been conditioned to believe these insane portions are “a meal”. I was simply unable to start losing weight until i traveled to Mexico to discover and internalize what a normal meal portion is. If you go to a restaurant in the US, you should expect to see most of the people around you finishing their plates
The US’s obesity problem is more complicated than that. It’s not just that our portions are big. Americans have to work pretty long hours too. That means much of our lives we probably aren’t getting much exercise, and when we get home a lot of us don’t have a lot of energy to cook so we probably eat a lot more pre-packaged food. Stress also contributes a lot to weight gain.
And once you have gained a lot of weight, all of those problems, plus the fact that healthcare is so expensive, make it even more difficult to lose.
The UK food laws may be partially to blame. But American junk food has also degraded over the decades. A twinkie from the 30’s-70’s didn’t taste the same as a modern twinkie, with some unknown portion of its sugar replaced by HFCS. But at least sugar is still the first ingredient in a twinkie. Plenty of other iconic junk food has been engineered into nonsense and just rides on the fumes of its former glory.
I’ve traveled a lot for food, and, despite not living and never having lived in America, the US has the best “foreign” food I’ve ever had. The best Chinese food I ever had was in the US, for example. In fact, I think high (and high-ish) cuisine in the US is generally quite good (despite crazily sized portions WTF).
I’ve had incredible Korean food in random towns (~20,000 pop.), incredible Indien in another (<50,000), etc.; I think the US is kinda special when it comes to foreign food like that.
And, of course, there is some American-American food that is amazing. The greatest filet mignon I ever had was also in the US (and again, random small towns, not metropolitan cities). Also: donuts (not from chains) can be craaaaaazy good. Also cheesecake, though I actually prefer the German version of New York cheesecake (cheese cake is originally German, New York improved it, then Germany improved that).
The problem is grocery store food. It all has 3x sugar and chemicals compared Europe. Literally everything, sometimes even organic stuff, tastes fake and disgustingly sweet. It drives me crazy, and is one of the top reasons I would never live in the US. I also dislike the espresso there: nearly all specialty coffee I’ve had in the US has either been extracted by untrained barista or has been a bad copy of faux-skandinavian roasts. I think that situation is better in larger cities though, which I’ve spent less time in.
Ok, sorry for this very, very long ramble. Just some thoughts on American food from someone who didn’t grow up there but has tried a lot of it.
God fuck our coffee. I finally got an espresso machine somewhat recently just so I could have lattes like the ones I had in Europe. A good latte should not need sugar! Espresso should be yummy!
I want to visit America one time just for the food. I keep hearing from American TV about twinkies and red vines and all kinds of stuff, then I try them whenever I get a chance here in the UK and theyre so bad. I need to know for sure whether we’re getting a version that conforms to our food laws and they lose a lot in the process or if theyre really that terrible.
I really doubt you’ll be impressed. Those foods are made for children, who have bland pallettes and like sugar. And adults who never advanced past this stage.
You can get good food in America. But it won’t be a twinkie.
The store-bought junk food is pretty bad in America, to be fair. But foreigners also tend to overestimate their popularity, because American media is largely funded by product placement; The average American probably hasn’t eaten a Twinkie in months or even years.
Restaurants are where you’ll truly experience American food. You’ll be amazed at how much flavor is packed into each dish, and at how large the portions are. But the latter is largely a cultural thing; Americans typically have leftovers that they take home. Europeans will see the feast-sized portions on the table and immediately go “no wonder Americans are so fat…” In reality, Americans would expect to take half of it home.
Are you just not aware of how overweight Americans are on average? As i understand it we have been conditioned to believe these insane portions are “a meal”. I was simply unable to start losing weight until i traveled to Mexico to discover and internalize what a normal meal portion is. If you go to a restaurant in the US, you should expect to see most of the people around you finishing their plates
The US’s obesity problem is more complicated than that. It’s not just that our portions are big. Americans have to work pretty long hours too. That means much of our lives we probably aren’t getting much exercise, and when we get home a lot of us don’t have a lot of energy to cook so we probably eat a lot more pre-packaged food. Stress also contributes a lot to weight gain.
And once you have gained a lot of weight, all of those problems, plus the fact that healthcare is so expensive, make it even more difficult to lose.
The UK food laws may be partially to blame. But American junk food has also degraded over the decades. A twinkie from the 30’s-70’s didn’t taste the same as a modern twinkie, with some unknown portion of its sugar replaced by HFCS. But at least sugar is still the first ingredient in a twinkie. Plenty of other iconic junk food has been engineered into nonsense and just rides on the fumes of its former glory.
Everybody in America seems to remember liking Twinkies as a kid but they’re nasty now. Debate continues over whether the twinkies changed, or we did.
I’ve traveled a lot for food, and, despite not living and never having lived in America, the US has the best “foreign” food I’ve ever had. The best Chinese food I ever had was in the US, for example. In fact, I think high (and high-ish) cuisine in the US is generally quite good (despite crazily sized portions WTF).
I’ve had incredible Korean food in random towns (~20,000 pop.), incredible Indien in another (<50,000), etc.; I think the US is kinda special when it comes to foreign food like that.
And, of course, there is some American-American food that is amazing. The greatest filet mignon I ever had was also in the US (and again, random small towns, not metropolitan cities). Also: donuts (not from chains) can be craaaaaazy good. Also cheesecake, though I actually prefer the German version of New York cheesecake (cheese cake is originally German, New York improved it, then Germany improved that).
The problem is grocery store food. It all has 3x sugar and chemicals compared Europe. Literally everything, sometimes even organic stuff, tastes fake and disgustingly sweet. It drives me crazy, and is one of the top reasons I would never live in the US. I also dislike the espresso there: nearly all specialty coffee I’ve had in the US has either been extracted by untrained barista or has been a bad copy of faux-skandinavian roasts. I think that situation is better in larger cities though, which I’ve spent less time in.
Ok, sorry for this very, very long ramble. Just some thoughts on American food from someone who didn’t grow up there but has tried a lot of it.
God fuck our coffee. I finally got an espresso machine somewhat recently just so I could have lattes like the ones I had in Europe. A good latte should not need sugar! Espresso should be yummy!