The notion that the US has a singular food culture is suspect, it is much too large and too regionally and ethnically diverse for that to be operative. I always

The notion that the US has a singular food culture is suspect, it is much too large and too regionally and ethnically diverse for that to be operative. I always find it odd when Americans think the US has shit food options. Sure, there are parts of the US that have poor options but that is true across Europe too. Europe is not the good parts of France. I’ve spent a lot of time across Europe and am a food nerd. I’ve also lived across several different parts of the US with distinctive culinary cultures. There are a few things which I think don’t translate well in this conversation. The US is a very large place with diverse climates and local agriculture, with different regions settled by different ethnic groups that have very different food that reflects local agriculture. Several claims are region dependent, both in the US and Europe. The US also has diverse cultures in relation to food, the eating and food preparation rituals are quite different across the US in my experience. As an easy example, there is no food culture in Europe that is materially superior to Mexican food culture, which is the major operative food culture in parts of the US. I loved living in those parts of the US for that alone. There are a few recurring patterns in the cuisine though. Many parts of the US have much better and more diverse vegetables, it is one of the things most consistently commented on by USians that live in Europe (I agree FWIW). Seafood is better in many parts of Europe, outside of New England and the Pacific Northwest. Beef in the US is better. Cheese in Europe is better. Things like bread depend entirely on where you are on either continent. Beer is mostly (not always) better on average in the US these days, and was often recognized as such a century ago before Prohibition destroyed it. USian food culture is really diverse. If you do a road trip across all 50 states and eat the truly local cuisine and experience the culture around that cuisine, it is astonishingly local and often surprising. Much of it was brought by immigrants from Europe, or Asia on the west coast, and adapted to the local ingredients and milieu. I love European cuisine and many aspects of the culture around it. Some of it is qualitatively better than the US. But many parts of the US have strong iconic food cultures that have no European equivalent that are unjustifiably ignored, with BBQ, Southern, and Mexican probably being the most identifiable. I don’t even like some of it but I recognize the rich culinary and cultural history of this food and the amount of care that goes into preparing it.