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>Although this was a gourmet meal, in many ways it was just as great as the store-bought hot dogs and macaroni salad we had eaten together hundreds of times bef

>Although this was a gourmet meal, in many ways it was just as great as the store-bought hot dogs and macaroni salad we had eaten together hundreds of times before; the quality of a meal is really a reflection of the company you share it with as well as the long process and coordination it takes to get everything on the table. This is such a strange phrase to me. I'm in the UK and it is always the case that processed, mass manufactured food is looked down upon. Store-bought hot dogs are a guilty pleasure or something you resort to as a time saving meal. Certainly not something that anyone would call great. Is the US attitude to this generally the opposite?

wing-_-nuts 4y ago
>I'm in the UK and it is always the case that processed, mass manufactured food is looked down upon. This from the country that brought us beans on toast? Maybe this is more of a middle class phenomenon, but the UK isn't exactly known for its food. Hotdogs and pasta salad sounds like something a desperate college student would cobble together. Not something the average american would consider eating. Given how well we assimilate different cultures in the US, the food is one of my favorite things. I can drive less than a few miles and literally have the best food of any number of cultures from any corner of the globe, and if I wish to cook it myself, any number of ethnic grocers to choose from. Not even to mention the food that is purely US in origin. There are many criticisms of the US but food isn't one of them.
- GoToThePubMate 4y ago
- tdeck 4y ago
  > Hotdogs and pasta salad sounds like something a desperate college student would cobble together. Not something the average american would consider eating. This is just.. not true? These are typical picnic foods.
- GoodbyeMrChips 4y ago
  WOW! Posts removed for saying OP's statement that "UK isn't exactly known for its food" is both outdated and prejudiced! Explanation needed methinks.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
knorker 4y ago
Not American, but I hear things like this often from Americans. Like the phrase "make pancakes from scratch". Yeah… what else do you make it from? Oh, you have your own chickens and… oh… oh no don't tell me it's normally ready made batter from the store. Even pancakes. Takes no time at all to make, even for a kitchenly challenged person such as myself.
dmurray 4y ago
The sentence is confusingly phrased. The "store-bought hot dogs and macaroni salad" were in many ways just as great as this "gourmet meal".
belugacat 4y ago
There is nuance to all of this obviously, as with anything cultural, but in short - yes. Large swaths of the US population have been deprived of food culture for several generations now. There are many exceptions of course - Latino family bbqs in Southern California, or Cajun crawfish boils, are examples of food culture that’s well and alive that I’ve experienced personally. But you also have many Americans for whom the act of procuring ingredients and cooking is something so distant that it’s essentially alien - it’s been replaced by fast food, gas station food (frozen pizza, box of Mac & cheese), food delivery, etc. I’ve lived places where you had to easily drive 50-100 miles to find a farmer’s market - something unthinkable in Europe. Nowhere is this more visible than in schools. In French schools, it’s not uncommon for the people making the food to make seasonal/local recipes, eat it with the kids, maybe even involving them lightly in the process. In the US, school cafeterias often are serving what is essentially gas station food. (a funny side effect of that is Americans traveling abroad get their mind blown by foreign gas station food - see for example the sempiternal meme of tourists having their mind blown by the very mediocre Japanese konbini sandwiches) Many have written about this, Michael Pollan is probably the most famous one.
- fleddr 4y ago
  Recently on Twitter a lady was complaining about inflation. She posted a photo of about a week's worth of groceries and its combined new price, as this was what she typically bought every week. The inflation part was instantly forgotten due to the "food" itself. The picture pretty much contained none. A carnaval of over processed food, carbs, sugars, supplemented with giant containers of sugar water. Not a single fresh thing, not a single high quality thing, not a single ingredient, nothing of any solid nutritional value. And she has a family. This is what their two young children also eat. Nothing but garbage. I'm not at all elitist, I enjoy junk food in moderation nor am I anything more than a reasonable cook. But I consider the above example of this culture an extreme case of neglect to the point it is actively harmful to the entire family. It makes me mad because there's zero reasons for it. Every adult should be able to cook something basic, even more so if you have children. Surely it can't be rocket science to buy basic things like an egg, potatoes, veggies, rice...whichever, and prepare something semi-fresh? It costs less time than eating out. If even that is too difficult, Youtube tells you how. If even that is too much effort, there's services dropping fresh ingredients at your home with instructions on what to do with it.
madaxe_again 4y ago
It’s not what the author is trying to say - they’re saying the quality of food doesn’t matter but the company does - but what I will say, as someone who lives in the backcountry off a lot of home-grown and hunted produce, is that when I find myself in town, which is infrequently, nothing appeals more than a McDonald’s. Guilty pleasure, but eating healthy, flavourful food gets monotonous after a while.
RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago
> I'm in the UK and it is always the case that processed, mass manufactured food is looked down upon. UK food (with the exception of dishes imported from India) is some of the blandest cuisine I have ever tasted. I would probably prefer store-bought hotdogs, and boxed macaroni and cheese.
- rowanajmarshall 4y ago
  It's only bland if your idea of good food is lots of spices. The incredible umami depth of a beef dripping gravy, the intense burn of an English mustard, or the creamy tang of a good mashed potato with butter and sour cream, sprinkled with crunchy sea-salt. It's not delicate food, but dang it hits the spot sometimes.
- k__ 4y ago
  Yes, as someone from continental Europe, reading this seems a bit like the one eyed leading the blind, hehe.
- GoToThePubMate 4y ago
- dahfizz 4y ago
  Seriously, though. There are Thai, Chinese, Mexican, indian, moroccan, Italian etc restaurants all within a few minutes from me. I've never seen a British restaurant. The closest you get is a UK themed pub, which just serves American bar food plus Guinness.
  - mbg721 4y ago
    I think the reason you don't see British restaurants that much in the US isn't that it's bad food, it's that a lot of traditional British dishes have sufficiently close equivalents in "down-home cookin'" American restaurants (as in a roast beef dinner) or in bar food (as in fish and chips) that there isn't much demand for anything more specialized. The full fry-up breakfast is something isn't so easily found here, but near me there's at least one themed pub that does serve one (although it's Irish rather than English).

wing-_-nuts 4y ago

>I'm in the UK and it is always the case that processed, mass manufactured food is looked down upon. This from the country that brought us beans on toast? Maybe this is more of a middle class phenomenon, but the UK isn't exactly known for its food. Hotdogs and pasta salad sounds like something a desperate college student would cobble together. Not something the average american would consider eating. Given how well we assimilate different cultures in the US, the food is one of my favorite things. I can drive less than a few miles and literally have the best food of any number of cultures from any corner of the globe, and if I wish to cook it myself, any number of ethnic grocers to choose from. Not even to mention the food that is purely US in origin. There are many criticisms of the US but food isn't one of them.

GoToThePubMate 4y ago
tdeck 4y ago
> Hotdogs and pasta salad sounds like something a desperate college student would cobble together. Not something the average american would consider eating. This is just.. not true? These are typical picnic foods.
GoodbyeMrChips 4y ago
WOW! Posts removed for saying OP's statement that "UK isn't exactly known for its food" is both outdated and prejudiced! Explanation needed methinks.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

knorker 4y ago

Not American, but I hear things like this often from Americans. Like the phrase "make pancakes from scratch". Yeah… what else do you make it from? Oh, you have your own chickens and… oh… oh no don't tell me it's normally ready made batter from the store. Even pancakes. Takes no time at all to make, even for a kitchenly challenged person such as myself.

dmurray 4y ago

The sentence is confusingly phrased. The "store-bought hot dogs and macaroni salad" were in many ways just as great as this "gourmet meal".

belugacat 4y ago

There is nuance to all of this obviously, as with anything cultural, but in short - yes. Large swaths of the US population have been deprived of food culture for several generations now. There are many exceptions of course - Latino family bbqs in Southern California, or Cajun crawfish boils, are examples of food culture that’s well and alive that I’ve experienced personally. But you also have many Americans for whom the act of procuring ingredients and cooking is something so distant that it’s essentially alien - it’s been replaced by fast food, gas station food (frozen pizza, box of Mac & cheese), food delivery, etc. I’ve lived places where you had to easily drive 50-100 miles to find a farmer’s market - something unthinkable in Europe. Nowhere is this more visible than in schools. In French schools, it’s not uncommon for the people making the food to make seasonal/local recipes, eat it with the kids, maybe even involving them lightly in the process. In the US, school cafeterias often are serving what is essentially gas station food. (a funny side effect of that is Americans traveling abroad get their mind blown by foreign gas station food - see for example the sempiternal meme of tourists having their mind blown by the very mediocre Japanese konbini sandwiches) Many have written about this, Michael Pollan is probably the most famous one.

fleddr 4y ago
Recently on Twitter a lady was complaining about inflation. She posted a photo of about a week's worth of groceries and its combined new price, as this was what she typically bought every week. The inflation part was instantly forgotten due to the "food" itself. The picture pretty much contained none. A carnaval of over processed food, carbs, sugars, supplemented with giant containers of sugar water. Not a single fresh thing, not a single high quality thing, not a single ingredient, nothing of any solid nutritional value. And she has a family. This is what their two young children also eat. Nothing but garbage. I'm not at all elitist, I enjoy junk food in moderation nor am I anything more than a reasonable cook. But I consider the above example of this culture an extreme case of neglect to the point it is actively harmful to the entire family. It makes me mad because there's zero reasons for it. Every adult should be able to cook something basic, even more so if you have children. Surely it can't be rocket science to buy basic things like an egg, potatoes, veggies, rice...whichever, and prepare something semi-fresh? It costs less time than eating out. If even that is too difficult, Youtube tells you how. If even that is too much effort, there's services dropping fresh ingredients at your home with instructions on what to do with it.

madaxe_again 4y ago

It’s not what the author is trying to say - they’re saying the quality of food doesn’t matter but the company does - but what I will say, as someone who lives in the backcountry off a lot of home-grown and hunted produce, is that when I find myself in town, which is infrequently, nothing appeals more than a McDonald’s. Guilty pleasure, but eating healthy, flavourful food gets monotonous after a while.

RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago

> I'm in the UK and it is always the case that processed, mass manufactured food is looked down upon. UK food (with the exception of dishes imported from India) is some of the blandest cuisine I have ever tasted. I would probably prefer store-bought hotdogs, and boxed macaroni and cheese.

rowanajmarshall 4y ago
It's only bland if your idea of good food is lots of spices. The incredible umami depth of a beef dripping gravy, the intense burn of an English mustard, or the creamy tang of a good mashed potato with butter and sour cream, sprinkled with crunchy sea-salt. It's not delicate food, but dang it hits the spot sometimes.
k__ 4y ago
Yes, as someone from continental Europe, reading this seems a bit like the one eyed leading the blind, hehe.
GoToThePubMate 4y ago
dahfizz 4y ago
Seriously, though. There are Thai, Chinese, Mexican, indian, moroccan, Italian etc restaurants all within a few minutes from me. I've never seen a British restaurant. The closest you get is a UK themed pub, which just serves American bar food plus Guinness.
- mbg721 4y ago
  I think the reason you don't see British restaurants that much in the US isn't that it's bad food, it's that a lot of traditional British dishes have sufficiently close equivalents in "down-home cookin'" American restaurants (as in a roast beef dinner) or in bar food (as in fish and chips) that there isn't much demand for anything more specialized. The full fry-up breakfast is something isn't so easily found here, but near me there's at least one themed pub that does serve one (although it's Irish rather than English).