4 ms·

I lived in New York for a couple of years. American food products in stores are, on the whole, a tremendous disappointment. Everything from bread to chocolate j

by pavlov 3y ago

I lived in New York for a couple of years. American food products in stores are, on the whole, a tremendous disappointment. Everything from bread to chocolate just tastes worse than in Europe. My highly scientific verdict is that there are only two truly good industrial alimentary products made in the United States: bourbon and clam chowder. It could be an interesting experiment to live on only these two.

digging 3y ago
> It could be an interesting experiment to live on only these two. And a painful death, most likely... Anyway, there is plenty of good food in America. How much you'll find depends on which stores you go to and where they're located, as the cheaper stuff tends to be absolute garbage, but I've found crappy cheap junk foods in European store as well. The worst wine I've ever had by far was in Greece. (I was young, and it was a 1 euro for a bottle, IIRC.)
- MuffinFlavored 3y ago
  > Anyway, there is plenty of good food in America. How much of it can be achieved without being "unhealthy" for you? For example, I can think of some good barbecue or burgers or steaks. How many people don't have "portions too big" covered in too many unhealthy sauces/cheeses/etc.? Say something basic is 600 calories. To make it good with mayonnaise, butter, cream, cheese, etc. you can quickly double the entire caloric intake for the meal. You are either going to make a dish "good" through its texture (meat typically), spices, or savoriness/richness from fat of some sort, no?
- pavlov 3y ago
  I wasn’t entirely serious. The reason why food tastes worse has as much to do with nostalgia as with objective factors. Yes, one could buy the most expensive sourdough bread in New York, but can it ever rival the memory of that one bakery in the Old World? Truly local products don’t suffer this unfair comparison. One never drank a Swedish bourbon or ate clam chowder in Paris. Maybe this is why Europeans are so attached to regional foods and their name protections. The diversity makes the experience more unique.
RajT88 3y ago
Was that a while ago? Because upscale supermarkets have really caught on in the last ~10 years or so, and you might be surprised at how good a lot of the stuff is. My local supermarket - totally agree - is on average worse than average European fare. But if you travel a few towns away and go to the more premium ones like Mariano's or Whole Foods, it's a lot better. Other places I shop for really good food are definitely somewhat more foreign to be fair: Seafood City, Mitsuwa, H-Mart, Brookhaven. (That last one is my favorite, and is heavy on eastern European foods like tea, dried fish, wine, cheese, beer, etc.) Other honorable mentions: Harris Teeter, Trader Joe's, Wegman's, Fresh Market.
- owlninja 3y ago
  Agree, I am a bit tired of this bread and cheese only taste good in Europe. It’s like they just went into a store and got Wonder bread and some Kraft singles. My local H-E-B has a bread aisle as long as a football field and a whole corner bakery dedicated to making some fresh (excellent tortillas). Then I could go to Central Market and buy any cheese from all over the world.
anthomtb 3y ago
> a tremendous disappointment You were expecting better? Every European who comes to the US complains about the food. Edit: Now that I think about it, so do a lot of the Indians.
- RajT88 3y ago
  It's been a trope for a long time. If you can find it, give a watch of the episode "The Tick vs. Europe": https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0723382/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0723382/ ETA: found it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfKP7fowinQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfKP7fowinQ
- antisthenes 3y ago
  > Edit: Now that I think about it, so do a lot of the Indians. The US Vegetarian cuisine isn't anything to write home about, so that's not surprising.
  - anthomtb 3y ago
    Since you seem to have some broad international experience, outside of the subcontinent, which countries have consistently good vegetarian cuisine?
    - antisthenes 3y ago
      Well, India, obviously. I've heard good things about south-east Asia, Thailand is pretty good supposedly, but I haven't been there.
davidw 3y ago
Some other good things in the US: * Real slow-cooked barbecue is excellent * Salmon from the Pacific Northwest is great and the fresh stuff is seasonal. * Beer and wine have improved a lot and are quite good in some places. TBH I prefer beer here in Oregon to the places I lived in Europe, Austria and Italy.
- taylodl 3y ago
  > Real slow-cooked barbecue is excellent Yeah, but that's not commonplace in New York - but you're not wrong! Also, American-ethnic foods are really good: * American-Italian * American-Asian * American-Mexican But yes, Europe has better wine, cheese, bread, and chocolate. But hey, we've got great bourbon! And our wine and cheese are getting much better! But our bread is cake (literally, in Europe) and our chocolate is garbage in comparison. There's really no point consuming the calories for American chocolate.
  - reducesuffering 3y ago
    > Europe has better wine California wine is world class. You can’t say Europe is definitively better when you have phenomenal bottles coming out of Napa or Paso Robles like Austin Hope. Then there’s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Paris_(wine) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Paris_(wine)
    - davidw 3y ago
      Correct - but something I would say is that by and large you can get 'pretty good' wines for cheaper in Europe, or at least where I was in Italy.
      - reducesuffering 3y ago
        Agree, I was reading recently that it was maybe due to all the European vineyards that have owned their land for a long time, and thus don't need to pay the investment overhead that comes with a lot of upstart California operations. Still, there are many decent ~$10 options from CA like Bogle.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

by pavlov 3y ago

digging 3y ago

> It could be an interesting experiment to live on only these two. And a painful death, most likely... Anyway, there is plenty of good food in America. How much you'll find depends on which stores you go to and where they're located, as the cheaper stuff tends to be absolute garbage, but I've found crappy cheap junk foods in European store as well. The worst wine I've ever had by far was in Greece. (I was young, and it was a 1 euro for a bottle, IIRC.)

MuffinFlavored 3y ago
> Anyway, there is plenty of good food in America. How much of it can be achieved without being "unhealthy" for you? For example, I can think of some good barbecue or burgers or steaks. How many people don't have "portions too big" covered in too many unhealthy sauces/cheeses/etc.? Say something basic is 600 calories. To make it good with mayonnaise, butter, cream, cheese, etc. you can quickly double the entire caloric intake for the meal. You are either going to make a dish "good" through its texture (meat typically), spices, or savoriness/richness from fat of some sort, no?
pavlov 3y ago
I wasn’t entirely serious. The reason why food tastes worse has as much to do with nostalgia as with objective factors. Yes, one could buy the most expensive sourdough bread in New York, but can it ever rival the memory of that one bakery in the Old World? Truly local products don’t suffer this unfair comparison. One never drank a Swedish bourbon or ate clam chowder in Paris. Maybe this is why Europeans are so attached to regional foods and their name protections. The diversity makes the experience more unique.

RajT88 3y ago

Was that a while ago? Because upscale supermarkets have really caught on in the last ~10 years or so, and you might be surprised at how good a lot of the stuff is. My local supermarket - totally agree - is on average worse than average European fare. But if you travel a few towns away and go to the more premium ones like Mariano's or Whole Foods, it's a lot better. Other places I shop for really good food are definitely somewhat more foreign to be fair: Seafood City, Mitsuwa, H-Mart, Brookhaven. (That last one is my favorite, and is heavy on eastern European foods like tea, dried fish, wine, cheese, beer, etc.) Other honorable mentions: Harris Teeter, Trader Joe's, Wegman's, Fresh Market.

owlninja 3y ago
Agree, I am a bit tired of this bread and cheese only taste good in Europe. It’s like they just went into a store and got Wonder bread and some Kraft singles. My local H-E-B has a bread aisle as long as a football field and a whole corner bakery dedicated to making some fresh (excellent tortillas). Then I could go to Central Market and buy any cheese from all over the world.

anthomtb 3y ago

> a tremendous disappointment You were expecting better? Every European who comes to the US complains about the food. Edit: Now that I think about it, so do a lot of the Indians.

RajT88 3y ago
It's been a trope for a long time. If you can find it, give a watch of the episode "The Tick vs. Europe": https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0723382/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0723382/ ETA: found it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfKP7fowinQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfKP7fowinQ
antisthenes 3y ago
> Edit: Now that I think about it, so do a lot of the Indians. The US Vegetarian cuisine isn't anything to write home about, so that's not surprising.
- anthomtb 3y ago
  Since you seem to have some broad international experience, outside of the subcontinent, which countries have consistently good vegetarian cuisine?
  - antisthenes 3y ago
    Well, India, obviously. I've heard good things about south-east Asia, Thailand is pretty good supposedly, but I haven't been there.

davidw 3y ago

Some other good things in the US: * Real slow-cooked barbecue is excellent * Salmon from the Pacific Northwest is great and the fresh stuff is seasonal. * Beer and wine have improved a lot and are quite good in some places. TBH I prefer beer here in Oregon to the places I lived in Europe, Austria and Italy.

taylodl 3y ago
> Real slow-cooked barbecue is excellent Yeah, but that's not commonplace in New York - but you're not wrong! Also, American-ethnic foods are really good: * American-Italian * American-Asian * American-Mexican But yes, Europe has better wine, cheese, bread, and chocolate. But hey, we've got great bourbon! And our wine and cheese are getting much better! But our bread is cake (literally, in Europe) and our chocolate is garbage in comparison. There's really no point consuming the calories for American chocolate.
- reducesuffering 3y ago
  > Europe has better wine California wine is world class. You can’t say Europe is definitively better when you have phenomenal bottles coming out of Napa or Paso Robles like Austin Hope. Then there’s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Paris_(wine) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Paris_(wine)
  - davidw 3y ago
    Correct - but something I would say is that by and large you can get 'pretty good' wines for cheaper in Europe, or at least where I was in Italy.
    - reducesuffering 3y ago
      Agree, I was reading recently that it was maybe due to all the European vineyards that have owned their land for a long time, and thus don't need to pay the investment overhead that comes with a lot of upstart California operations. Still, there are many decent ~$10 options from CA like Bogle.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]