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I'm inclined to agree. I've lived in Japan (5 years), in San Francisco (6 years), and now live in Germany. The food quality goes Europe -> Japan -> USA, with a

I'm inclined to agree. I've lived in Japan (5 years), in San Francisco (6 years), and now live in Germany. The food quality goes Europe -> Japan -> USA, with a sharp drop between Japan and the USA. I'm currently living in Leipzig, which still has bombed-out looking empty buildings from the time of the Iron Curtain (although things have finally been picking up over the past few years). And yet even here the infrastructure is better than in San Francisco or any other part of the USA I've visited. I'm originally from Canada, and I'm sad to say that, although some things are better than the USA (like the roads and the trash), it's not by much, and it's still terrible compared to the rest of the first world.

mrarjen 7y ago
I'd ague that Japan's quality is a bit better than EU but also depends on what food you are used to. Mainly healthy options wise I think Japan stands out even more.
- taurath 7y ago
  It’s so hard to get a proper vegetable conveniently in the US, while in Japan you can get it at a 7-11.
  - azernik 7y ago
    In California, proper vegetables are very attainable.
    - Angostura 7y ago
      When I've visited, I've noticed that the fruit in particular look gorgeous in the shops, but taste like damp tissue paper. Weird
      - CharlesColeman 7y ago
        > When I've visited, I've noticed that the fruit in particular look gorgeous in the shops, but taste like damp tissue paper. Weird Thank the market: the food companies have prioritized durability, yield, and appearance over taste. https://www.npr.org/2011/07/09/137623954/the-troubled-history-of-the-supermarket-tomato https://www.npr.org/2011/07/09/137623954/the-troubled-histor... > On top of that, the tomatoes you see in those supermarkets have been bred for high yields and durability, not flavor. "As a farmer once said — an honest farmer — 'I don't get paid a cent for flavor,'" Estabrook says.
      - nostrademons 7y ago
        Which shops? That's true of the big chains (Safeway, Trader Joe's, Costco can be hit or miss), but you can get ugly-but-great-tasting fruit in plenty of the local produce markets.
    - taurath 7y ago
      What I meant to say was “as convenience food” as in already cooked and not a salad. Plenty of good stuff in stores, but not a lot from the available quick food places
  - cbames89 7y ago
    In North Carolina, it's very easy to get proper vegetables.
  - stephencanon 7y ago
    In much of the rural US, it’s easy (ask folks which farmstand they go to). In cities, it’s also pretty easy (asian or mexican grocery for non-organic, specialty produce shop if you want organic). The problem is the suburbs. Don’t live in the suburbs. If you must, get veggies at the farmer’s market.
    - bluGill 7y ago
      Every suburb I've been in has a big box grocery store with a large selection of fresh produce. If you want something specific you might need to go to a specialty store, but there are plenty of vegetables where people buy groceries. You won't find them at gas stations, but nobody buys groceries at gas stations.
      - stephencanon 7y ago
        As identified in sibling posters, the issue with these vegetables, in as much as one exists, and speaking very broadly, is that they look pretty but are flavorless.
atmosx 7y ago
I've seen others, Arianna Grande on a amateur video amongst them, complaining about the diff in quality between European and US street food being inconceivable .
- tpush 7y ago
  Like, US street food being incredibly better or worse than EU?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - taurath 7y ago
    It can’t be better - the US basically HAS no street food outside of New York.
    - ckastner 7y ago
      I visited Portland a few years ago and the quantity and quality of street food being offered was amazing. There were entire squares packed with vendors. I enjoy the street food scene in London, but I'd choose Portland over it any day.
      - taurath 7y ago
        Over downtown near the waterfront during a farmers market, or food trucks?
        jerrysievert 7y ago
        food cart pods, spread throughout the city. less than there were, but still quite a few. typically, they range an entire city block.
        ckastner 7y ago
        In my case: food trucks.
lnsru 7y ago
Infrastructure in Leipzig is awesome because it was newly created after joining Western Germany for the money from westerners. Infrastructure in Western Germany is crap! My wife uses subway in Munich and there is no week without complaining about delayed or canceled trains. Buildings of universities in Western Germany is a bad joke. University in Regensburg was literally collapsing while one in Dresden got many new buildings. It’s not fair comparison.
- Hendrikto 7y ago
  > My wife uses subway in Munich and there is no week without complaining about delayed or canceled trains. At least there is public transportation at all, unlike in the US.
  - StreamBright 7y ago
    Exactly. People in Germany think that if your train is late it is the end of the world. Their trains and subways tend to be very clean and punctual, yet very affordable. In the US this is not true. BART in SF nowhere near to the quality of service in Munich.
  - ensiferum 7y ago
    You could say that not having public transportation is better than having crappy public transportation. And I'm not talking about some occasional hiccup but the fact is that Deutsche Bahn operated trains are an enormous shit show. They are constantly late or even cancelled. You buy a ticket for a train and few mins before the train is supposed to arrive the board will say "zug fellt aus" (train cancelled). Have fun waiting 20-40 mins for the next one. If you have to be somewhere on time then you're going to have look for an alternative way of transport and you have practically no recourse for recouping the cost of your wasted ticket money. Now if the public transportation didn't exist you'd just shrug and go by your car saving yourself a whole bunch of stress and fist clenching and cursing.
- atq2119 7y ago
  At least there are trains... and Munich in particular is slightly weird in that the subway (U-Bahn) is run by a municipal company and works very reliably given the amount of people they're moving, while the suburban trains (S-Bahn) are run by Deutsche Bahn and are often a mess at rush hour. In part that's due to the design flaw of having a massive central bottleneck. Similarly for universities, the quality differs. Go to Munich's technical university and you'll see buildings in the top percentiles. Go to other universities and the substance is easily going to be much older - but then again, Germany sets its priorities to a good quality education without student debt, and the buildings themselves don't matter much for the education. Generally, I feel like all these complaints need to be measured against what the alternative is. Which cities have a busy subway system where commuters aren't complaining?
contravariant 7y ago
Interesting, I was under the impression that the food quality in Japan was quite good. Although I suppose I have no reason to believe Europe would be any worse, or different. What makes you say that Europe has a better food quality?
- LeonidasXIV 7y ago
  > What makes you say that Europe has a better food quality? More space to grow food and a large open market between EU countries, whereas Japan grows a lot of rice on the very limited space they have and is very restrictive wrt. importing foods from abroad. Which is why you can good food in Japan but sometimes fruits are ridiculously expensive. Also, bread in Japan is terrible (but then again, good Japanese food in Europe is tricky too).
- kstenerud 7y ago
  Japan is not as strict over antibiotics or general conditions in livestock. Japan has a huge problem with counterfeit fish meat (substituting inferior, sometimes toxin tainted, different species meat). Japan's non-seaweed vegetables are generally watery and not as nutrient rich as what you can get in Europe (rucola & feldsalat, for example). Their staple "vegetable" tends to be a nasty variety of cabbage, and daikon and pumpkin. Bread in Japan is blanched wheat flour. In Europe there are dozens of grains to choose from. Even grau brot tastes amazing. Japan's XYZ pan couldn't even compare. Home cooked food in France was a truly magical experience. Bio (organic) is very popular and very strictly regulated in Europe. In Japan they don't care as much, and in the USA its a joke. It's relatively easy in Europe to get prepackaged foods (such as canned goods/soups & frozen foods) made strictly from first ingredients (there's nothing in the ingredients list you can't pronounce, or that you wouldn't add yourself if making it from scratch).
navigatesol 7y ago
>I'm originally from Canada, and I'm sad to say that, although some things are better than the USA (like the roads and the trash), it's not by much, and it's still terrible compared to the rest of the first world. If you're from Canada you probably realize that it's a big place, and impossible to draw sweeping generalizations about. Saying Canadian infrastructure is terrible "compared to the rest of the world" is an ignorant statement.
- Ensorceled 7y ago
  Well, I’ve been to Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax and live in the GTA; it’s pretty terrible compared to the European cities I’ve visited. Better than Cambodia but Thailand and Vietnam are catching up. Comparing to Tokyo is laughable.

mrarjen 7y ago

I'd ague that Japan's quality is a bit better than EU but also depends on what food you are used to. Mainly healthy options wise I think Japan stands out even more.

taurath 7y ago
It’s so hard to get a proper vegetable conveniently in the US, while in Japan you can get it at a 7-11.
- azernik 7y ago
  In California, proper vegetables are very attainable.
  - Angostura 7y ago
    When I've visited, I've noticed that the fruit in particular look gorgeous in the shops, but taste like damp tissue paper. Weird
    - CharlesColeman 7y ago
      > When I've visited, I've noticed that the fruit in particular look gorgeous in the shops, but taste like damp tissue paper. Weird Thank the market: the food companies have prioritized durability, yield, and appearance over taste. https://www.npr.org/2011/07/09/137623954/the-troubled-history-of-the-supermarket-tomato https://www.npr.org/2011/07/09/137623954/the-troubled-histor... > On top of that, the tomatoes you see in those supermarkets have been bred for high yields and durability, not flavor. "As a farmer once said — an honest farmer — 'I don't get paid a cent for flavor,'" Estabrook says.
    - nostrademons 7y ago
      Which shops? That's true of the big chains (Safeway, Trader Joe's, Costco can be hit or miss), but you can get ugly-but-great-tasting fruit in plenty of the local produce markets.
  - taurath 7y ago
    What I meant to say was “as convenience food” as in already cooked and not a salad. Plenty of good stuff in stores, but not a lot from the available quick food places
- cbames89 7y ago
  In North Carolina, it's very easy to get proper vegetables.
- stephencanon 7y ago
  In much of the rural US, it’s easy (ask folks which farmstand they go to). In cities, it’s also pretty easy (asian or mexican grocery for non-organic, specialty produce shop if you want organic). The problem is the suburbs. Don’t live in the suburbs. If you must, get veggies at the farmer’s market.
  - bluGill 7y ago
    Every suburb I've been in has a big box grocery store with a large selection of fresh produce. If you want something specific you might need to go to a specialty store, but there are plenty of vegetables where people buy groceries. You won't find them at gas stations, but nobody buys groceries at gas stations.
    - stephencanon 7y ago
      As identified in sibling posters, the issue with these vegetables, in as much as one exists, and speaking very broadly, is that they look pretty but are flavorless.

atmosx 7y ago

I've seen others, Arianna Grande on a amateur video amongst them, complaining about the diff in quality between European and US street food being inconceivable .

tpush 7y ago
Like, US street food being incredibly better or worse than EU?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- taurath 7y ago
  It can’t be better - the US basically HAS no street food outside of New York.
  - ckastner 7y ago
    I visited Portland a few years ago and the quantity and quality of street food being offered was amazing. There were entire squares packed with vendors. I enjoy the street food scene in London, but I'd choose Portland over it any day.
    - taurath 7y ago
      Over downtown near the waterfront during a farmers market, or food trucks?
      - jerrysievert 7y ago
        food cart pods, spread throughout the city. less than there were, but still quite a few. typically, they range an entire city block.
      - ckastner 7y ago
        In my case: food trucks.

lnsru 7y ago

Infrastructure in Leipzig is awesome because it was newly created after joining Western Germany for the money from westerners. Infrastructure in Western Germany is crap! My wife uses subway in Munich and there is no week without complaining about delayed or canceled trains. Buildings of universities in Western Germany is a bad joke. University in Regensburg was literally collapsing while one in Dresden got many new buildings. It’s not fair comparison.

Hendrikto 7y ago
> My wife uses subway in Munich and there is no week without complaining about delayed or canceled trains. At least there is public transportation at all, unlike in the US.
- StreamBright 7y ago
  Exactly. People in Germany think that if your train is late it is the end of the world. Their trains and subways tend to be very clean and punctual, yet very affordable. In the US this is not true. BART in SF nowhere near to the quality of service in Munich.
- ensiferum 7y ago
  You could say that not having public transportation is better than having crappy public transportation. And I'm not talking about some occasional hiccup but the fact is that Deutsche Bahn operated trains are an enormous shit show. They are constantly late or even cancelled. You buy a ticket for a train and few mins before the train is supposed to arrive the board will say "zug fellt aus" (train cancelled). Have fun waiting 20-40 mins for the next one. If you have to be somewhere on time then you're going to have look for an alternative way of transport and you have practically no recourse for recouping the cost of your wasted ticket money. Now if the public transportation didn't exist you'd just shrug and go by your car saving yourself a whole bunch of stress and fist clenching and cursing.
atq2119 7y ago
At least there are trains... and Munich in particular is slightly weird in that the subway (U-Bahn) is run by a municipal company and works very reliably given the amount of people they're moving, while the suburban trains (S-Bahn) are run by Deutsche Bahn and are often a mess at rush hour. In part that's due to the design flaw of having a massive central bottleneck. Similarly for universities, the quality differs. Go to Munich's technical university and you'll see buildings in the top percentiles. Go to other universities and the substance is easily going to be much older - but then again, Germany sets its priorities to a good quality education without student debt, and the buildings themselves don't matter much for the education. Generally, I feel like all these complaints need to be measured against what the alternative is. Which cities have a busy subway system where commuters aren't complaining?

contravariant 7y ago

Interesting, I was under the impression that the food quality in Japan was quite good. Although I suppose I have no reason to believe Europe would be any worse, or different. What makes you say that Europe has a better food quality?

LeonidasXIV 7y ago
> What makes you say that Europe has a better food quality? More space to grow food and a large open market between EU countries, whereas Japan grows a lot of rice on the very limited space they have and is very restrictive wrt. importing foods from abroad. Which is why you can good food in Japan but sometimes fruits are ridiculously expensive. Also, bread in Japan is terrible (but then again, good Japanese food in Europe is tricky too).
kstenerud 7y ago
Japan is not as strict over antibiotics or general conditions in livestock. Japan has a huge problem with counterfeit fish meat (substituting inferior, sometimes toxin tainted, different species meat). Japan's non-seaweed vegetables are generally watery and not as nutrient rich as what you can get in Europe (rucola & feldsalat, for example). Their staple "vegetable" tends to be a nasty variety of cabbage, and daikon and pumpkin. Bread in Japan is blanched wheat flour. In Europe there are dozens of grains to choose from. Even grau brot tastes amazing. Japan's XYZ pan couldn't even compare. Home cooked food in France was a truly magical experience. Bio (organic) is very popular and very strictly regulated in Europe. In Japan they don't care as much, and in the USA its a joke. It's relatively easy in Europe to get prepackaged foods (such as canned goods/soups & frozen foods) made strictly from first ingredients (there's nothing in the ingredients list you can't pronounce, or that you wouldn't add yourself if making it from scratch).

navigatesol 7y ago

>I'm originally from Canada, and I'm sad to say that, although some things are better than the USA (like the roads and the trash), it's not by much, and it's still terrible compared to the rest of the first world. If you're from Canada you probably realize that it's a big place, and impossible to draw sweeping generalizations about. Saying Canadian infrastructure is terrible "compared to the rest of the world" is an ignorant statement.

Ensorceled 7y ago
Well, I’ve been to Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax and live in the GTA; it’s pretty terrible compared to the European cities I’ve visited. Better than Cambodia but Thailand and Vietnam are catching up. Comparing to Tokyo is laughable.