'American' foods people from other cultures like and dislike
This thread is shamelessly spawned by Traveler's question about making dessert for Chinese visitors to the U.S. But I'm so interested in different food cultures/tastes, I couldn't resist expanding the question--what stereotypically 'American foods' (however you define that, of course it's very subjective) have visitors to the U.S. who have grown up in other cultures really like or dislike?
My own experiences: My Greek stepmother loves, loves soft pretzels and bagels and smoked salmon (bread and fish). And full sugar Jell-O, as does my Greek half-sister and Greek father. The Greek members of the family who have come visiting also adored Jell-O and Starbursts and super-sweet sugar-based candy but couldn't stand chocolate or butter. When I once asked for butter on my bread while visiting (I didn't grow up with my father, so I have different tastes and dining habits) and was told the family so hated the sight of butter, they couldn't bear to see it eaten, melting on the bread! My stepmother is revolted by peanut butter and pumpkin, although my father and half-sister, who have lived for much longer percentages of their lives in the U.S. love these foods.
My Czech aunt, an immigrant from the Czech republic when she was in her twenties loves, loves deli meats and traditional roast Thanksgiving turkey and super-garlicky pasta salads. Also Italian-American noodle 'baked' foods like meat lasagna but hates peanut butter.
My U.K. friends, when I was living in England, always asked me to bring back American brands of peanut butter and sugary cereals not available over there. While not quite the same 'thing' since it's so ubiquitous, I was also a bit surprised how many of them liked McDonald's fries to proper chips from a chippy. When visiting the U.S. most of them praised the quality of American seafood--even the kids (unlike most U.S. kids I know) really loved broiled fish. Apple pie was also a big hit (although apple pie is hardly as 'all American' as we like to thing)
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31 Comments:
My mother from Japan loved pizza, hamburgers, fries, and tacos. She didn't care for CPK type pizzas, she loved cheap-ass pizzas. When we'd vacation in SF each year, she loved the prevalence of pizza by the slice joints, none of which existed in Hawaii or Japan at least 15+ years ago.
Cassaendra at 8:20AM on 09/12/08
Ha. It took me 2 months in Spain to find peanut butter in a store. I asked my Swedish friend if they even had it and he said, "yes, but no one buys it." That's hilarious.
they seem to love ketchup, though. To a disturbing extent.
unarata at 8:58AM on 09/12/08
Most of the Brits I know all love buffalo wings but that's about it as far as pub food. My favorite cross-cultural thing that comes to mind was at a local Chinese buffet when they had a tray of tomato slices topped with what appeared to be Velveeta under a heat lamp. The little placard said "American delicacy 'cheese tomato'".
worldcupfever at 9:00AM on 09/12/08
Ranch dressing has been surprisingly well-received by our French visitors. I even sent a sachet of the mix home with one friend.
Brownies were the most popular American baked good at the shop I worked in in London. And our brownies were expensive as hell.
Red snapper?
renzata at 9:56AM on 09/12/08
My Norwegian grandchildren adore pre-sweetened cereals and ask us to bring it along, as well as Skittles. The boy fell in love with corn dogs (hot dogs are common there) when introduced to them, as well as doughnuts. And while pancakes and waffles are not unusual to them, it's the idea of syrup that they adore, and being able to pour as much as you want. (Also unlimited refills on soda and huge glasses!)
But my classic story about that is many years ago when I was working with a nurse from what was then Yugoslavia, and who was horrified at the idea of serving anything sweet with a main course. No applesauce with pork, no duck with orange sauce, no cranberry sauce with turkey. And let's not go into Jello salads... She'd never seen anything like it and found it abominable.
lemons at 10:04AM on 09/12/08
That's not all that surprising - EVERYONE loves corn dogs!
worldcupfever at 10:18AM on 09/12/08
My Peruvian grandmother (naturalized at age 25) loved vanilla fudge ripple ice cream. Always had it on hand at her place, but I don't know if she was brand loyal. I seem to recall it was Breyer's . . . yet they don't make a fudge ripple anymore.
@unarata: I tried ketchup-flavored Cheetos in Spain. They weren't bad. This is a little off-topic -- apologies to HeartofGlass -- but I just learned here that Cheetos also come in bacon-cheese flavor in Australia, honeydew in Japan, sweet basil & fried pork in Thailand and grilled chicken in Indonesia. Wow.
Susquehanna at 10:22AM on 09/12/08
I am from Nepal and my mom comes to visit from time to time. She can not stand pasta or cheese. She says Americans eat way too much cheese. I am married to an American man so we do make a lot of pasta and there is a lot eating of cheese in this household. She does like pizza but cheese does tend to bother her.
sira73 at 10:30AM on 09/12/08
@Heart - it is funny really, but if I were to go for chips from a fast food place, it would only be McDonald's. I love buffalo wings (a lot!), I've also acquired quite a taste for barbecued ribs and pulled pork sandwiches, American bacon, bialys, Maine lobsters and Maryland crabs. I'd become very fond of brownies way before I ever set foot in the US:-).
I have never eaten a PB&J sandwich or a chocolate chip cookie in my life (although I did try the ones with white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts, does that count?), and for some reason I don't feel a burning desire to try either one, nor do I feel deprived (although my OH firmly believes I am). I am not fond of apple pies, but then, I don't really enjoy cooked fruit (with a notable exception of apple strudel - go figure. I reckon the crust to fruit ratio in a strudel works better for me than in a pie). I'm yet to try a corn dog, and I would really love to (I have a feeling I just might appreciate it).
When I just came here, almost 6 years ago, I bought a box of sweetened cereal and could not finish it, it was way too sweet for me. I also had to get used to the taste of milk here. Interestingly, now that I buy organic milk, it tastes much more like the milk I used to drink when I was little.
Oh, and how could I forget - Friendly's pistachio ice cream! I know, it's not necessarily a good example of "American foods", but I can be quite choosy about my pistachio ice cream, and was ever so pleased when I found that Friendly's was to my liking! In fact, my then boyfriend met me in the airport with a carton of pistachio ice cream when I arrived back in 2002. Perhaps that's why I married him?:-)
brooke29 at 12:33PM on 09/12/08
Brook29, that is just the cutest story, ever! And I would say Friendly's ice cream definitely counts (having spent lots of time there myself in high school, after football games)!
HeartofGlass at 1:03PM on 09/12/08
Our Brasilian friends want fresh grapefruit juice, Thomas English muffins, cherries,Orange Julius(if we can find one), pastrami, and hamburgers that, as Sandro says, necessitate a shower afterwards. Fozen yoghurt was a huge treat until it migrated southward.
islandexile at 1:39PM on 09/12/08
Oh I have such a good one. I had this AMAZING acting teacher from Russia. She told me when she first came to the U.S with her husband to do work in NYC she went out to a cafe for a lunch break and she saw a sign for 'root beer' in the window and she thought that a beer would be really nice with lunch. So she ordered it. She said, and I quote "It tasted like I was licking my dead grandmother". She always had such a way with words, but that one was a winner.
waterbaby at 1:45PM on 09/12/08
I've noticed that Russians hate peanut butter. Waterbaby: my (Russian) mom says root beer tastes like cockroach poison.
yulinka at 1:53PM on 09/12/08
I've never met anyone from Europe who liked Wonder Bread. It's NOT bread to Europeans, it's white loaf-shaped paste.
Same for jarred tomato sauce.
Same for the taste of mass-produced chickens.
therealchiffonade at 3:25PM on 09/12/08
When I go back to Brasil, I take maple syrup to my relatives and make them a big batch of rabanadas (French toast) or churros (cylindrical fried doughnuts). They love it! Maple syrup is available down there but it is very expensive and I don't think it's good quality.
LadyMarmalade at 4:36PM on 09/12/08
I dunno about the mass-produced chickens. When my daughter used to return from Norway for a visit, chicken is what she asked for, saying that the chickens she could get were so tough, all you could do was stew them! (Things are different now, she assures me.)
lemons at 5:41PM on 09/12/08
When I lived in New Zealand, the closest I could find to maple syrup was corn syrup, ew.
People down there wanted Dr Pepper (which they now have at 1 or 2 stores) Root Beer, American donuts, sweetened cereal, American hot dogs (they have "English frankfurters") peanut butter with salt in it (theirs didn't have any) and less sweet ketchup and tomato sauce.
They don't have any McDonald's biscuits or KFC biscuits down there either
I really miss those minced meat pies I'd find down there, they were awesome. Those and Moro candy bars!
Tahitinova at 7:51PM on 09/12/08
I lived in Baja for 6 months and the man who rented the house to me begged me to bring him jars of kalamata and green olives from the States.
I have a distant cousin from Norway (he just passed away last week) who had never had fried zucchini. When we ordered it for him at a seafood restaurant he declared that it was the most foul fish he had ever encountered. In hind sight, taking a bite of zucchini while expecting fish seems pretty gross.
mangabanga at 9:17PM on 09/12/08
I used to work with a lot of Chinese doctors and scientists and they were always very curious about what I ate. Since I was a college student at the time, my diet consisted largely of Coca-cola and various types of candy, but I was happy to bring in things for people to try. One guy tried peanut butter and *loved* it. He started putting it on canned corn beef sandwiches.
When I lived in Japan, I found that people there were disgusted by licorice, Dr. Pepper and root beer, maple syrup, and rabbit. Though I lived in a huge city where you could find *everything* (including those awful Taco Bell kits for making burritos and such), I could never find cottage cheese. Doesn't exist in Japan?
Tokyorosa at 1:54PM on 09/13/08
My stepmom's nephew (British) LOVE twizzlers, gobstoppers, all those sugar candies.
But our chocolate pales in comparison to theirs.
My Italian grandmama is still amazed by the hamburger. When I go see her, she insists on going to the local diner for a cheeseburger, french fries and a chocolate shake. We're still working on ordering in English, however. And she eats about a third of the whole meal :)
sweethunibabi at 12:16PM on 09/14/08
I had a group of Korean engineers and their families come to the States for 8 months of training. The first week, they ate lunch at the corporate cafeteria which featured a deli sandwich bar with all the fixings. They just stared at their sandwiches wondering how to eat them. Apparently, the Korean culture doesn't have many, if any, foods that are picked up and eaten with their hands. Same thing for bread. They finally started ordering meat, no cheese, and a variety of veggies piled on top which they attempted to eat with a knife and fork. After that first week, they started bringing kimchi for lunch which I quickly fell in love with. Our office area had a decidedly garlicy aura after that (LOL:) Spaghetti was one of the few cafeteria offerings that they would consistently eat in large volume.
As a side note, I learned never to take a Korean to a so-called American Korean restaurant. My boss made this blunder, ordered up mass quantities of food to share, then asked which food tasted closest to what they ate at home. They collectively looked clueless at each other, at which point the interpreter said that they had never eaten 75% of what was on the table.
After that, the group was nice enough to invite my boss and me to their family celebration of the New Year. The women were beautifully garbed, and each had made a contribution to the traditional dinner. (We brought a cake which was quickly spirited away, never to be seen again.) I then enjoyed one of the best meals of my life. I didn't know what I was eating (and really didn't want to know in case it was something gnarley). I returned for seconds and thirds which endeared me to the group. I was seated with the women who spoke no English, so I never really found out exactly what was in each dish, so I could try to duplicate it in my own kitchen. Fish, garlic, kimchi, sushi rolls and fried items were in abundance.
After this experience, I made sure to do my homework when we were hosting out-of-country students including learning some limited phrases. My Algerian students brought me the most wonderful dates I had ever eaten, and thankfully I spoke French so we could share culinary preferences. The Chinese contingent taught me some delicious recipes made with ingredients they carried with them from home. I don't know how any of these groups snuck all these food items into the US, but I'm not complaining. Unfortunately, these experiences have ruined my taste for "Americanized" Korean and Chinese food. But I have standing invitations to visit my students on their home turf. Someday...
Josdean at 3:45PM on 09/14/08
My Brit friends HATE Campbell's tomato soup. One guy told me it tastes like baked bean sauce, whatever that means. But guess what? I don't like how they put butter and mayo on EVERYTHING, so ha.
embolini9 at 12:53PM on 09/15/08
@embolini - you reminded me of a "cultural confusion" I had with my OH when I asked him to make me an open-face ham sandwich, "plain, just with some cranberry mustard". What he brought me went like this: bread, a layer of cranberry mustard and a slice of turkey. What I meant was: bread, a thin layer of butter, a slice of turkey, a layer of cranberry mustard. I could not eat his version, so he had to make me a new sandwich:-).
I never tasted Campbell's tomato soup, so I can't tell you how I feel about it. Although I have an idea as to what your friend meant. Have you ever had Heinz baked beans? Mmm...Heinz baked beans... Anyway, the sauce is rather tomato-ey, so perhaps that's what Campbell's tomato soup tastes like? If so, it would seem silly to eat it as soup:-).
@Heart - thanks! It truly was sweet of him, wasn't it?
brooke29 at 2:02PM on 09/15/08
Having recently moved to New York from Australia, i have developed a list of food items to avoid and write them off as an 'only in america' speciality.
dislike
- the obsession with peanut butter - i don't get it, i never got the whole obsession with PB&J - i even tried it once to see if I was missing something - but no - it's just weird. I can't believe that there are ppl who eat it by the spoonful
- store-bought loaves of bread. I mean the sliced stuff, it is so sugary and sweet and never toasts to a crisp - it's always soft and chewy - why o why? I have stopped buying bread from the supermarket
- pre-sweetened cereal and granola. I wish you could just buy an unsweetened museli with wholegrains, dried fruits and nuts, like we can in Australia. I now make my own.
- the terribel coffee - how people drink a large cup full is beyond me!
Likes
- berries are so cheap: in Australia punnets of blueberries and rasberries were so expensive (think $4-$5 for a small tub) that I had never eaten them before coming here. I love that the street fruit vendors sell them for $2-$3 here.
- waffles and bagels - yum!
- street vendors in NYC - i love the diversity of random food i can get from street vendors, in the last few weeks i've had pizza, indian, mexican and gourmet desserts
... thats all i can think of at the moment.
shazza at 4:24PM on 09/15/08
@brooke - lol! Now that I think about it, are those the beans you lot eat with breakfast? Cause I guess that is pretty tomatoey.
When I lived in England, every time I asked for "dry toast" I'd get buttered toast. EVERY TIME. What is regular toast if dry toast comes with butter? So confusing :)
embolini9 at 9:25AM on 09/16/08
Root beer's not popular with Europeans as apparently there's a common cough syrup that tastes like it. I need to get my hands on this cough syrup.
sulin at 10:24AM on 09/16/08
@sulin - I've heard that, too! I had a European friend visiting once who ordered root beer because I did, and he was completely disgusted.
embolini9 at 11:17AM on 09/16/08
@embolini - yes, that's them! Too bad I seldom come across them round here.
And if you want a really dry toast, it may be best that you specify "without butter":-).
brooke29 at 12:07PM on 09/16/08
Boiled peanuts always struck me as a southern thing as that's where I'd always had them. Here in Chicago I made some having found good raw peanuts at an Asian market. Shared some with a Filipino friend who then shared them with his mom. She sent back a special request for me to make them for often as she hadn't had them since she came to the U.S. (She'd a Dr. and never took up cooking.)
Hmm, not sure I'm on topic......?
nola2chi at 12:45PM on 09/16/08
I grew up in Australia, came to the US for school.
I found a lot of the processed foods bizarre - I thought cheese in a can was some sort of joke until I actually saw it in the supermarket. Fluff definitely didn't taste as good as children's books suggest.
New England seafood dishes were a mixed bag. I liked clam chowder, but I remember being pretty horrified when I ordered a seafood platter and *everything* on it was fried.
@ shazza - I found the peanut butter obsession weird, too. I ate peanut butter on sandwiches occasionally as a kid, but Nutella sandwiches were so much better. :)
thebasilqueen at 4:26PM on 09/16/08
Yes my parents being from Europe never even heard of peanut butter, Nutella they loved. Rutabegas (sp) that was pigs food back home to my mom.
pjracz10 at 10:30AM on 09/19/08