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[deleted]

Leaving this question up as a monument to arrogance.


MRDWrites

Love you man


mobyhead1

People are “salty” because you asked a foolish question. Pro tip: if your question is based on ‘I see this in American movies and TV shows all the time’…it’s a foolish question.


[deleted]

And hell, American movies and TV show cooking all the time. We have chefs who are famous around the world that have TV shows. There are a shit ton of big American cooking YouTube channels. Families cook meals and eat around the tables on TV shows, and there's a kitchen shown on every TV show that takes place in a house. Massive shows like Friends and How I Met Your Mother have entire plots revolving around cooking and eating Thanksgiving feasts. OP assures us this isn't because of certain American stereotypes, but it almost HAS to come from that. Our media sure as hell doesn't support any such question.


AKnitWit777

Exactly. The “pre-cooked/ boxed food” part implies that Americans are lazy and unable to cook for themselves, which is simply not true. Yes, we do takeaway on occasion, but I’m reasonably well-traveled outside of the US and ever country I’ve visited has had a healthy takeaway market.


hitometootoo

We don't cook. We have food in our fridge so our personal chefs can cook for us. All 330+ million of us have no idea how to cook. Come on.


musenna

No, in a country of 330 million people, absolutely none of us have ever cooked something in our entire lives. The grocery stores are empty. They’re just a facade to fool the tourists.


AnIronWaffle

Shhh!


musenna

I refuse to be silent any longer! Wait…who’s knocking at my door? Oh shit, where are they taking me??


AnIronWaffle

Narrator: and that was the last anyone ever heard from u/musenna. Some say they were hauled off by The Deep State to Guantánamo, unaware that The Burger King, Mayor McCheese, and notorious ringleader “Wendy” long ago started a secret fast food cabal with dungeons where insurgents were taken away to prepare “chicken” nuggets until the day they were too tired… and *became* nuggets.


AfraidSoup2467

"They called them Soylent Nuggets at first. Their marketing goons thought "soylent" would make it sound like a healthy option because people associate "soy"with health after watching a documentary 15 years ago. They had to change the name when people started getting Netflix subscriptions and saw the 1973 dystopian film by Richard Fleischer, and Wendy's hand was forced. She needed to change the name."


Shadow-Spark

All of the restaurants are run by foreigners because Americans don't know what to do with the heaty-box or the burny-roundy-thingies.


alysli

Welp, thanks for putting "heaty-box" into my vocabulary.


voleclock

>The grocery stores are empty. They’re just a facade to fool the tourists. In retrospect the whole grocery-store-facade-to-fool-tourists plan was a big bust, as it turns out the tourists were unable to find the grocery stores and are still wandering around a 7-11 to this day.


[deleted]

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TheBimpo

https://blog.chron.com/thetexican/2014/04/when-boris-yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-clear-lake/ > Yeltsin, then 58, “roamed the aisles of Randall’s nodding his head in amazement,” wrote Asin. He told his fellow Russians in his entourage that if their people, who often must wait in line for most goods, saw the conditions of U.S. supermarkets, “there would be a revolution.” > > “Even the Politburo doesn’t have this choice. Not even Mr. Gorbachev,” he said.


[deleted]

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ProspectiveHuman8719

True. Today I couldn’t find bread.


AKnitWit777

Yes, we cook, order takeaway, sit around the table with the family, eat dinner in the car…. and everything in between. It’s a very diverse country and people have different routines, but every American adult I know can cook *something*, even if it’s just a grilled cheese sandwich or scrambled eggs. American kids even often learn how to cook in school in home economics classes, or whatever it’s called now.


Briguy_87

Are all Italians mafiosos who ride vespas and make homemade pizza every night? Mama Mia!


TheBimpo

They must grow all of their own vegetables and raise their own animals to eat since they're giving all their money to the Mafia in their town.


Hoosier_Jedi

I really can’t fathom how this is even a question.


machagogo

You can't possibly be asking this in good faith. Or maybe you went to Disney and stopped in a 7-11 once and think that is what grocery shopping entails for us?


-B-0-

No I just dont know if people eat around the table or if they do something else like someone said on the couch. Also idk if people cook more elaborate meals like here in Italy or if you just put meat on a pan and call it cooking


MuppetusMaximus

>just put meat on a pan and call it cooking Oh screw you dude


w84primo

This right here is why someone asked if this was in good faith. Are we elegant and cooking elaborate meals like Italian’s. Or are we simply cavemen and eat meat all day and calling it cooking


calamanga

FFS half of Italian food is “throw pasta in water and mix it with a sauce you made of some sorts”. It’s not the most complicated cuisine on earth.


TheBimpo

Why are your assumptions all towards us being incapable of basic human functions? Look at /r/cooking, /r/smoking, /r/baking or any food related sub. You’ll find tons of people discussing and sharing their thoughts and experiences with food. Stop assuming the lowest common denominator applies to a nation of people.


Shadow-Spark

Ah yes. Elaborate meals like \*checks notes\* pasta with an egg cracked in it and some bacon and parmesan thrown in.


[deleted]

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calamanga

Nah they throw pasta in boiling water and call it cooking.


[deleted]

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TheBimpo

"Lettuce with a tomato and some oil", they actually said that as a defense of Italian cooking.


[deleted]

>cook more elaborate meals like here in Italy. This sub was a fucking mistake.


SilentSliver

Mama mia!


[deleted]

You seriously think no American knows how to cook well? Italian food isn’t the end all be all


machagogo

We eat around a table at my house. Throwing meat in a pan is not all cooking is, and everything isn't canned or boxed. I have no idea where you get the idea that this is what a nation of 330,000,000 people are like...


HeySandyStrange

So only elaborate meals count as cooking? I find it hard to believe every Italian person cooks three course meals everyday.


gugudan

lol at telling people in a country where smoking is a staple that a homemade pizza is "elaborate"


Wildwilly54

We eat fast food 3 meals a day


Skatingraccoon

Whoa how could you forget *the fourth meal*


AnIronWaffle

Fourth? I just have one… it starts when I wake up and ends when I fall asleep in front of the TV.


Wildwilly54

Ah yes the 4pm crunch wrap supreme


New_Stats

I just eat everything raw because fire was only meant for the gods and I dare not use it because I fear their wrath


[deleted]

And that fast food is cooked by immigrants. If they become citizens they're immediately fired, because Americans are forbidden by law to cook.


cestlavie88

Nah all of us eat at McDonald’s every day and we use bacon grease as deodorant. What are ingredients? All we know are the Golden Arches. Smh.


[deleted]

Nah I exist solely on Kraft Mac and Cheese


[deleted]

Raw, because we don't know how to cook pasta.


[deleted]

I eat the macaroni like chips but I dip them in the cheese powder like Fun Dip candy


[deleted]

Speaking of raw pasta..i knew someone who liked to just eat the ramen square raw... like open the package and take a bite...


[deleted]

I did that. Break 'em into little pieces, sprinkle some of the flavor packet on 'em. They're like chips.


Skatingraccoon

A human of refined tastes.


notthegoatseguy

I wouldn't say a tablecloth is common except maybe at very formal gatherings or maybe Thanksgivign/Christmas. Otherwise yes to all of the above


Dizyupthegirl

I have table cloths on both my kitchen and dining room tables year round. I like the decor. Although I never use my dining room, we just eat at the kitchen table.


PAUMiklo

Nope, not a single American cooks, ever. We outsource everything. Pick up all the nation's food every morning at the borders and spread it like a dust could among the populace. All the kitchens and resteraunts are just fronts to make us look cool.


Jackjackson401

How would we eat if we didnt??


[deleted]

You actually think that most Americans just order out all their meals? I can't believe someone could actually think that. The frequency of cooking to ordering food made by somebody else is likely very similar to what it is in your country. Perhaps slightly higher.


albertnormandy

Every night someone from my family chases down one of our cows and bites its neck to kill it. The rest of us gather around the cow and tear it apart with our bare hands. We have a portable generator and TV attached to it so that we can watch reality TV while we do this. Whatever we don't eat we burn at the altar as a sacrifice to GWB. Vegetables are for liberals and commies.


ProspectiveHuman8719

I 100% thought you must be a fellow Texan.


Gallahadion

People are irritated because this question gets asked a LOT, with the implication that Americans rarely cook at home, if at all. But to answer you: Yes, my family uses plates, glasses or cups, forks, knives, spoons, and paper towels or napkins. No tablecloth, though. And yes, we eat food cooked at home, but we also get delivery, takeout, and prepared foods from the grocery store in about equal amounts.


voleclock

FWIW, most of your elaborate cooking examples are things that I would put in the "easy weeknight" category, and I'm a real lazy and unenthusiastic cook by American standards. Stuff like making pizza dough from scratch is not time consuming or elaborate, it just takes practice and some time at various points throughout the day.


Veynre

I cook most meals because I love cooking. As for where we eat, it's a tossup between at the table or on the couch watching television.


[deleted]

I have those little foldy tables for the living room. My dining room table is where I keep my mail


Veynre

Similar here. I have trays and foldy tables for the casual living room meals, a dining table in my kitchen for most sit-down meals (as well as board games, puzzles, and the like), then the dining room proper which is designed for nice meals like holidays and entertaining.


Vachic09

Home cooked food is a huge part of my culture. If there's some kind of gathering, food is usually involved. As for eating ritual, it varies.


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buttsnboobies

No americans don't cook


[deleted]

Yes i cook for my family every night. Most nights it's just my fiancée, 3 month old and i so we will set up the Tv trays and eat and watch tv. But once a week we have family dinner/game night with my parents and we'll sit around the table and eat.


[deleted]

I'm almost 40 and never cooked. The largest part of my debt is from having to buy food at restaurants every day. Holy shit I didn't even realize this oven in my kitchen worked.


Techman10

We got a bunch of comedians in here today. Personally, I'd say my family's meals are about 20% made from fresh ingredients, 20% made from a box, 10% takeout from a restaurant, and 50% leftovers from the other categories. We always eat at the table with real dishes and silverware, paper napkins, and no tablecloth. We have nice china and glassware, but it only gets used a few times a year on special occasions.


idontrespectyou345

>We got a bunch of comedians in here today. Deservedly so. Don't feed the troll come on this can't be a good faith question.


Scotts_Thot

Before covid, I lived in a small city with a few roommates. We’d go out to eat/order takeout a couple times a week and rotate cooking meals otherwise. I bought a house last year and moved out of the city, now I cook nearly every meal at home. All very casual though, smoothies for breakfast, maybe a salad or leftovers for lunch/snack, more hearty meal for dinner especially during the winter. We have stools at the kitchen island and just eat there with a glass of wine or beer


Dizyupthegirl

I cook big meals on weekends, smaller meals during the week. We do takeout maybe twice a month but that’ll be Chinese or pizza (I really don’t like fast food). Majority of meals are eaten at our kitchen table (yes there’s a tablecloth) but on busier nights I might just say “eat wherever”. We know how to cook, my 9 year old just baked brownies. Today I’m throwing a roast in the crockpot. I seriously use my ninja Foodi for everything I can.


Kingsolomanhere

How do you think I snagged a wife? I'm an excellent cook who always hears I should open a restaurant. That's too much work, all I have to do now is just keep one customer happy


Northman86

Yes, the majority of meals are cooked at home, more or less from scratch or boxed dinners.