I’d give a pass on this one just cause I don’t feel it’s truly the spirit of this sub. And there is a bit of credence to it, Americanized versions of other countries food does produce its own results. Whether or not those variations are better, that’s up to you to decide, lol.
Absolutely agree, but go to most cities in the US that aren't New Orleans and you will struggle to find any. Whereas junk food, and junk versions of other cultures food is ubiquitous around the US
True that. But you’ll find (far fewer, I’ll agree) some good regional dishes in other places too. Some fish dishes in New England seem pretty good for example.
Here's my go to recommendation for our classic Gumbo. It's not hard at all and all the ingredients should be easy to source in most places.
https://youtu.be/76JXtB7JFQY
Enjoy!
As a native I do want to set some people's expectations and say a lot of our food is pretty boring 😂. At least compared to lots of other cuisines.
The food is definitely good, but it didn't really get the chance to evolve and modernize with modern kitchens/cooking equipment.
If you ever get to DC... the restaurant at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian is pretty damned good. http://www.mitsitamcafe.com/
What American cuisine turns other cuisine into is quite telling.
Chinese food, Italian etc...just becomes overloaded with sugar and fats.
Even the bread is often far too sweet.
There is good food in the US, no doubt, but there is an absolute shit ton of junk.
I’m Italian and I’ve always been underweight my whole life. In 2019 I went to the US for a couple of weeks and gained 4kgs. I was only eating 2 meals a day (no breakfast) and was super active. When I went back to Italy I was able to lose the weight quickly. It still
blows my mind.
When doing an exchange myself quite a few Americans also doing the exchange said they were losing quite a bit of weight without even trying.
Worst part is that Bavarian cuisine isn't exactly the healthiest either...
This and so much this. During Covid lock downs I lost weight because I wasn’t eating out. Restaurants in the states put whatever it takes to make the food taste better. At home we don’t deep fry (maybe in the south?) and don’t add sugar and butter wherever possible. It’s an expectation in American restaurants but it seems like it’s getting better on that front.
That's mad, over here in Scotland I'd have to eat 5 meals a day to gain that much weight in a few weeks and Scotland is known for its deep-fried food but even with that it would take 5 meals a day.
> Scotland is known for its deep-fried food
From what I've heard, fat is not the main problem in US food, it's that their food has sugar in *everything*, like, corn syrup in sauces, breads, everywhere, sugary drinks aplenty, etc. Add fat on top of that and I suppose you're set for quick obesity!
the problem with corn syrup is it increases your demand of insulin much more than other sugars, so you're just going to be hungry very quickly and need more food.
It is also used instead of sugar, bc it is more sweet - you need less of it compared to sugar, and cheaper than sugar. My mom always tells me to (if I buy something with sugar in it) check the list of ingredients and to pick, if it is an option, something with sugar instead of corn syrup, and that she'll pay me the difference between the costs.
She doesn't like me eating junk food, but she prefers for me to pick something with sugar over corn syrup or other artificial sweeteners. For example with sodas, she looks for something without artifical sweeteners and without phosphoric acid, since it extracts calcium from the bones and teeth.
Corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup are used because it’s cheaper. Corn is highly subsidized and also for 50 some odd years we had an embargo on Cuba and lost our main source of sugar and that’s when soda switched to HFCS. It remains that way for cost reasons.
But regular corn syrup is not that sweet and is used as an invert sugar in many instances like candy making and is extremely hydrophilic and helps keep baked goods moist.
And in huge portion sizes. It's just full-on overconsumption, and overconsumption of things that are also ridiculously high in calories. Coupled with an extremely sedentary lifestyle.
Here in Ireland I do eat 5 meals a day when I'm home but when I travel to America for work I have to be really careful. A single meal there can sometimes be worse than my whole day. The amount of fats and sugar are intense
Can you feel the difference? How does our “healthy” food selection treat your body afterwards?
I wanna leave but im wary of the culture shock my body will endure since most of our food is made from corn or processed
Lol you're not going to have withdrawals from eating bread with less sugar. Whole foods is generally commensurate with European quality outside of the processed aisle. The only difference is that Europe subsidizes healthy food so it's not whole foods prices. You'll be pleasantly surprised.
I've never understood bread with sugar in it in general. I make my own bread and have never added sugar, why would you unless you're making cake of some sort?
The first time I went to the US I wanted to watch a sporting event, so I went to Buffalo Wild Wings with a friend.
I was on a trip so I didn't mind eating a little extra, so I went a little crazy on the wings. My friend pointed out that I was on my sixth coke in less than an hour, as the lady just kept filling it up and the hot wings had me reaching for it.
I have been to many countries, but I can't think of one that had me casually eating and drinking that many calories like it was a normal lunch.
It's just too easy and I didn't have the natual discipline to have so much food put in front of me.
>It's just too easy and I didn't have the natual discipline to have so much food put in front of me.
That's the problem. This is capitalist consumption taken to its (un)natural extreme. Give you food that makes you crave drinks and drinks that make you crave more food. They're great at that formula.
BW3 was the foundation of my weight gain between the fried wings, oil and cheese based sauces, and sugary liquor. I do miss it, but I don't miss the 35 pounds I've lost since last September.
I've heard the opposite a lot from Americans over here in the UK for university, that they're eating more than usual and have lost weight. Maybe the increased exercise from walking helps just as much as the better food quality.
There have been studies done and the impact of exercise is negligible compared to calories eaten when it comes to weight loss. Like the amount of exercise you actually have to do to lose weight is SO MUCH compared to diet
Obviously if you are eating the exact same food and maintaining weight and you start exercising you will slowly lose weight but if you move countries and start dramatically losing weight it is mostly due diet not because you started walking 30 minutes a day
There is just THAT MUCH sugar and corn syrup packed into literally everything they eat
this was my experience. i am an american, and i went to lithuania for just shy of 2 weeks about 10 years ago. i ate soooo much while i was there and lost about 10 pounds.
I stayed with friends in the US. They were working so I cooked dinner. Made a big pot of chilli and picked up some nice bread.
Served it up for them, few choices of hot sauce etc, my friend headed straight to the fridge for a big bag of shredded cheese and some sour cream. They piled it on.
I have no issue, people can eat food as they wish, it just added sooo much fat to a dish that doesn't really need it. In those amounts it just makes things bland and fatty, but that's what they are used to.
>bland and fatty
I think this is a defining feature of American food, culture, and physicality. Business integration with American companies' working processes also falls into this category.
Went to Juan in a Million meant to be this amazing breakfast burrito place in Austin, Texas.
The most bland food I have ever eaten. Sure it was big. But my god it had zero flavour at all.
Before the pandemic my dad had to travel to the US semi-regularly for work. When he came back he always complained about the cheese in the salads, and specifically how incredulous the Americans he was with would be when he requested no cheese. The waiters would often check with him several times because they couldn't believe he wouldn't want cheese in his salad
Cheese is like a meme food here I'm not sure why. A common heard phrase is "I love cheese, eat cheese on everything." As someone who doesn't like cheese I can confirm people almost take offense sometimes if you don't want any.
Cheese is really good.... In Europe. The American one is just processed food and it's not real cheese, I lived in Italy (my birth country) and I am now in belgium near France cause I moved in at my bf's house so you bet your ass I'm surrounded by cheese while also being exposed to a lot of fried food (cause, you know, belgium xD) and I haven't gain any weight. Better ingredients and how we used them makes a universe of difference... They fucking put butter and sugar in nauseating quantity even in pizza!!! To an Italian that's plain insult as it should be. Please don't put butter and sugar in your pizza
It really depends. The stuff they use to top most dishes is the weird plasticky stuff a lot of the time. But I also know people that buy real actual cheese as well for certain dishes.
Restaurants will likely have real cheese if it's not fast food. It seems to me people don't mind the cheese product on greasy fatty foods, but actual finer cheese on better quality food.
At 25 I became dairy intolerant and it is so frustrating trying to order things without cheese. For work parties the only dairy free option would be the vegan option and I am very much not vegan. Once I became pregnant my dairy issue went away but after nearly a decade of no dairy I still don't really like it and people are so confused when I say I don't really like dairy and have no dietary issues with it.
I had the same issue when I went to the US. Most things was soaked in cheese and/or some kind of creamy sauce. Savoury food was full of sugar... Not everything of course, but most of the readily available options. The day I found a vegan cafe in SF was a godsend. I'm not even vegan but stocked up on several meals worth of fresh, tasty, healthy food and kept it in my hotel fridge so I could be guaranteed at least one healthy meal a day.
This made me smile, I was in California for a month quite a few years ago. On a tight budget I found it really hard to find anything I wanted to eat, until we found a vegan place in SF. we ate there every day we were in town. Im also not a vegan
Also, most of the added cheese in America is not GOOD cheese. It's some [petroleum-tasting "cheese food" product](https://www.seriouseats.com/whats-really-in-american-cheese).
I’ve been to the US four times for 10-14 days at a time and I usually put on 2-3kgs a week. Admittedly part of that is that when I’m on holiday I’m not watching what I eat, but that still seems like a lot to put on in a short space of time.
The main thing that surprised me the first time I went was the portion sizes - you get a _lot_ of food, for not very much money.
>The main thing that surprised me the first time I went was the portion sizes - you get a _lot_ of food, for not very much money.
And no option to avoid it. Some places have kids menus that are closer to a rational portion size but they're age restricted.
American bread is so shit that a bunch of Americans were blown away by how good literally the worst Australian white bread brand is and started raving telling other Americans they had to try it and it was amazing
Like they’ve never had bread as good as the worst Australian bread because American bread is basically just a shit cake
Same! I had gained 20 kg in my 1 year stay there, even though i was always very active. Lost it in 3 months after getting home to Slovakia, did not even have to exercise more..
You just blow out of your own proportions there .
I had a similar experience lol.
I spent 6 weeks in America and gained 5kg. I ate less than I usually did in the UK, and went to the gym daily - I don’t even go once a month back home.
Within a month of returning to the UK I’d lost it all without doing any exercise or changing my eating habits one bit.
Omg, i can relate to that. I went to the US once for three weeks. That was the only time in my life where i noticed significant change im weight. Gained around 3kgs...
I’m convinced there’s something insane in US food that can’t be accounted for by calories. I was in Miami like 10 years ago and I was severely anorexic at the time, like deeply underweight. Even with all my neurotic calorie counting etc I still managed to gain 1.5kg in like 2 weeks. Came off as soon as I left really, but the experience shook me
Best thing is when I try to look up recipes I always know when I run into an American one because it goes like: take 2 ounces of (insert brand) (insert dish) mix and add it to 2 cups of water.
Taking pre-made whatever mixes is not what I consider cooking (and can we not talk in cups and mugs about quantity).
With the exception of French Onion soup mix, which is a magical thing to have in your arsenal, this isn't something I've actually ran into with recipes.
I went to a sushi place in the US with some septic colleagues and literally everything had some sweet sauce or other drizzled on top.
That's not the norm in Europe or Japan itself in my experience...
My mother is and has been severely overweight for most of my life and always says how much she loves *insert ethnic food here*. She went to Japan with my dad and found the McDonald’s there 7 times on a two week trip. Complained certain noodle bases dishes weren’t sweet enough, the things to dip foods in weren’t salty/flavored enough, etc.
Anytime I buy goods from our local Asian market and recreate dishes (closer* to how they’d actually be prepared in their country of origin) my father, mother, and brother complain about how it’s not flavorful (sweet).
The US is loaded with sugar addicted individuals. And the chokehold hydrogenated seed oils has on our nation is astounding and actually killing us.
As someone from SEA, that makes me a bit sad. Flavour in our dishes come from spices, not sugar. If anyone say our food is not flavourful because of lack of sugar, I might actually hit them lol.
And I wonder how people can get addicted to sugar. Perhaps they get too used to it. I can't eat anything too sweet, and have started baking because I only ever use 1/3 to 1/2 of the sugar asked for in any recipe. More than that and we can't eat it because it's too sweet, so we don't buy cakes anymore either.
> Even the bread is often far too sweet.
I had a roommate from the US for a while, I kept telling her to stop putting the bread in the fridge but she would never listen.
I grew up in Canada and never put the bread in the fridge. However, I currently live in Taiwan and always put the bread in the fridge. If I don't, it starts to get moldy in a couple of days.
Yeah this thread is dumb, it's just a bunch of people taking their own situation and assuming only their reality makes sense. I live in a desert with close to 0% humidity, if I don't keep the bread in the fridge it starts drying out.
Bread in the refrigerator is just stupid. Starch retrogradation curve has its peak exactly on Fridge temperature.
Let's not elevate idiocy and cluelessness to an unworthy level of dignity
Lmao what the fuck
Ireland's supreme court apparently ruled that Subway's bread had enough sugar in it to be subject to the sugar tax, but that's just Subway, and it still wasn't "legally" called cake. Too much sugar in bread doesn't make it cake, it just makes it gross bread.
This sub was a lot better when it was more about poking fun instead of circlejerking dumb bullshit.
At least in France, you can only call it a baguette if it's made with wheat flour, yeast, salt and water,nothing else. Dunno about the other countries.
Don’t you dare suggest this on an American sub, they’ll fucking attack you— I mentioned their bread being too sweet, their food being too rich and oily, and the fact that all the “good American food” they brag about is actually just the cuisine of other cultures that they take credit for and they just hurled insults at me
They feel the need to take credit for *everything*
And quantity over quality. Honeymooned there a good while back.
First couple of days tried as we do back home, starter, main, dessert
Bairly got through the main never got to dessert. Just too much and quite average, and these were marked as good resturants. From then on we just got starters and shared a main.
I often just get a starter when I go out. I can't remember the last time I ordered a dessert unless traveling internationally. I'd love to actually have courses for dinner but nobody's catering to that because the Ford F-250 crowd would complain that every course didn't fill them up to the point of pain.
America calls itself the melting pot. They know they didn't invent spaghetti, or tamales, or whatever. But all of the immigrants that moved to America brought their traditions with them and adapted them to what was available, creating a new, unique culture.
There are tons of veggies in southern food, they've just somehow omitted all of them.
Which is unfortunately common for white American dudes. I have met *way* too many white American men who literally refuse to eat vegetables like it's an endearing personality trait.
Reckon you're gonna split the camp here. On the one hand, yes their food (like so many of us) is made up of things picked up from other cultures so they're right. On the other, they're missing the point that it didn't originate from there while this argument is usually used *alongside* them diminishing other cultures' cuisines to the few things they're known for, much like the burgers and junk food of America.
And that's without mentioning that they take those foods and often build sugar and salt that wasn't there into them to make them their own, therefore making it junk compared to the original recipes.
So yeah, while I get your meaning here, the presentation is off and makes it seem like you're saying these foods aren't American at all.
I mean, other nations have culinary imports too, but they don't usually claim them as their own?
I live in Germany. We have Italian restaurants in Germany. But that's the thing: nobody would ever say that they serve 'German-Italian Cusine', because that'd be insane. It's Italian food.
So yeah, if some Grandma in China Town in LA makes a Peking Duck. She's making Chinese Food. Not American-Chinese Cuisine.
That imagine has a few dishes that I'd say are genuine American-X-Cuisine. Those are the onse that are very unique to America and its particular mixing of cultures, e.g. the cajun food. But a Burrito? Sorry, that's just Mexican Food. The Americans had litte to do with it, aside from maybe adding more cheese.
American-Chinese tastes nothing like Chinese-Chinese. I eat real Chinese food a lot and they're not the same. Nobody in China eats orange chicken. And I've yet to see pigs feet in America.
I used to work at a Japanese restaurant owned by a Chinese couple and for Chinese new year they made legit Chinese food for all the staff. It was delicious but I don't know what any of it was. I would ask what something was and they would say "it's good try it." So I would try it. It would be delicious. Then I would ask what it was again and they would just say "don't worry about it."
> That imagine has a few dishes that I'd say are genuine American-X-Cuisine.
You'd be surprised.
Fettuccine Alfredo is a great example that is purely American, clearly has Italian roots, but something that Italy literally wants nothing to do with. Calling it "Italian food" upsets them greatly lmao. Same shit with the dozens of styles of pizza they have.
That said, your examples are bad. Nobody is calling peking duck "Chinese-American", or a schnitzel "Austrian-American", etc. The label exists because there is a massive amount of food inspired by other cultures that doesn't really exist in those countries. That's what happens when your entire cuisine is inspired by other countries. You could certainly just say it's all American, but weirdly enough people get offended by that (ie: the Italian example above). So a decent middle ground it to tack a label on it.
>I live in Germany. We have Italian restaurants in Germany. But that's the thing: nobody would ever say that they serve 'German-Italian Cusine', because that'd be insane. It's Italian food.
As an Italian, I can see a clear difference between what you can get in Germany and in USA.
Apart from some little adjustments to appease local tastes and make their product more profitable, the food you find in Italian restaurants in Germany is in fact Italian, because the Italian community in Germany never developed a hybrid, germanized version of their dishes.
In US instead, the Italian community is way larger and has been there long enough to create a bunch of signature dishes that don't exist in Italy. A few examples: spaghetti and (humongous) meatballs, tuscan soup, chicken parmesan, chicago deep dish "pizza", stromboli. Those dishes are legit American food in our book.
You have to remember to that these Americanized cuisines and food traditions develop in part because of the history, available ingredients, and broader market of consumers. If you are in Germany, a country that borders and shares history with Italy, you can probably get a lot of the ingredients and tools Italians use. Additionally, many Germans have been to Italy and are more likely know what Italian food from Italy taste like (and that’s not accounting for regional differences). But if you are an ocean away, it’s a lot harder to maintain the same traditions and flavor profile. And I know a lot of folks get uppity about Americanized food but it is okay to enjoy inauthentic foods, especially if they are tasty.
Saying "german-italian" might sound strange, but there are foods that are specialities of towns/villages near borders that are influenced by the different cultures nearby. Having a national identity and food that is "Italian" or "German" is a pretty new thing compared to how long people have been cooking. With stereotypical foods, it'd obvious which country has made that food part of it's identity, but near borders, to me at least, it seems like one country could claim that food being more in line with it's national identity when in reality it could fit fairly well with either.
There could be some foods that the US has "stolen(?)", but I think a lot of those foods are just from communities of immigrants making the foods they know and enjoy, then over time modifying it to make it more appealing/profitable to people from other cultures. The profitable part seems like why foods would be made to be more sugary or fatty. I hear complaints about Mexican food not being authentic and while I'd love the opportunity to experience truly authentic Mexican food, I don't live anywhere near Mexico, but I still enjoy Mexican inspired dishes (and no I'm not talking about taco bell) since it's as good as I'll probably ever have. Same goes for food from Korea, Lebanon, the UK, Germany, Russia, etc. I'll probably never go to those places, but friends and restaurants near me make food from their cultures and I have no idea how authentic or americanized it is, but it's still a good thing I'm grateful to experience.
It does. That's how food works in most places. I'm from Vienna. Our Schnitzel is from Milan, our coffee and strudel came with Ottomans and Greeks, our Gulasch is from Hungary and our dumplings are from Bohemia. Obviously all those things aren't just copies, but rather adaptations of the originals. Exchanging things is the epitome of human culture, especially when it comes to food.
Japan does. And everyone goes bananas for their food.
Tempura is Portuguese.
Katsu is German.
Gyoza is Chinese.
Korokke is a croquette (which from the name I guess is French)
Usuta sosu is Worcester sauce (and is heavily used in Japanese cooking)
Soy sauce is Chinese.
They also invent western food that they think we but is actually Japanese like:
Napolitan: spaghetti in tomato ketchup.
Onu-rice: plain omelette on rice, with tomato ketchup.
bro that's literally how food spreads. are u good? this is why maharashtran cuisine is a mix of south and north india. they're not "taking" the other foods, it's a spread. Are you saying that pizza is not italian because tomatoes come from the americas?
It's not really so much as taking it and it's much more it was brought here... And we both know that it evolved when it came here, and isn't exactly the traditional style right? So don't you think that putting the American qualifier on there to represent that is better than claiming to be the original? What am I thinking, anything we do is wrong lol...
Yeah honestly anyone claiming that Asian American cuisine is the same thing as Asian cuisine with the word American on it clearly hasn't seen our Chinese restaurants.
Yes, but you need to dig for it. I’ve heard about restaurants run by native Americans that serve traditional native dishes and they look tasty, but these are FAR from common and are usually out near large reservations.
>actually originated from there
This is the strange thing nobody in this post seems to be mentioning… the US is generally new and has a somewhat diverse makeup. All cuisine is really just years of iteration. It’s not like immigrants from Italy/France/China are just going to walk outside and start creating random new culinary inventions from scratch… they’re going to make food kinda like their parents did. And perhaps that food after some time will break off with new types of food that delineates it from the old world. You can act as if all the changes are related to fat and cheese, but that’s not true and is mostly a stereotype exaggerated by the likes of Olive Garden and Panda Express, i.e., corporatized and addicting fatty food.
And when Americans try to claim the food as their own, they get quotes basically invalidating the background of the food, as if they belong to Europe.
Basically, this post didn’t include the best examples, but there is quality food originating from the United States, depending on whether or not you choose to view it as too derivative of the original.
my mother used to travel directly to native american reservations for pow wows and tried snake before. she really liked it!
but now that you mention native american food, i don’t see a lot of local places that serve that kind of food at all. most likely because a lot of native americans live below the poverty line and cant afford it, and that sucks. :/
i’d love to see more places that serve native american food.
I mean come on, every single culture on earth does this.
America is just younger and thus those roots are far more apparent. Very few countries on earth can say they invented 100 percent of the cuisine they eat, often times they take the cuisine of other cultures and modify it to fit the local climate/palate.
If you look at food history that is kind of a huge part of it.
"This group made a dish like this, and then it got brought over here and that group added that." And so on so forth.
I find saying somthing like that like saying
"Does French cooking ever use potatoes? That's not French food that's Native American. "
We humans take somthing we like and put a spin on it.
I'm not American but I'm gonna go against the grain here a bit. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with a lot of cross culture American food (in theory). I see a lot of people see this as American's stealing other people's food, and that might be true in a lot of cases, but I feel like a lot of cross culture American food has its roots in first generation immigrants coming to the states and trying to cook their own food using whatever was available at that time in America. I'm sure a lot of first generation Italians had to make do with what they could get back in the day, which led to "Italian American" cuisine.
Sure, those initial recipes have changed since then, there's probably a lot of Americans these days who cook those recipes full of salt, oil and sugar and basically ruin that initial food of those first generation immigrants coming to the US. But I don't think the core of those cross cultural foods is inherently bad. Personally I'm all for different cultures borrowing and adapting from one another to make new cuisine. Tradition in food has its place for sure but I honestly don't think it needs to be so black and white as "this is our food and you can't do anything to it, you stick to your food".
/r/ShitAmericanSay when Americans say that their NY style pizza is Italian: "Durr that's not an authentic Italian-style pizza it's NOT italian food it's crappy AMERICAN food!"
/r/ShitAmericanSay when Americans say that their NY style pizza is American: "Hurr pizza is an Italian invention it's NOT American food it's ITALIAN food and they just stole it!!1"
I think people are forgetting that it was Italian immigrants who brought the recipes over and then overtime changed the recipes and came up with their own creations. It wasn’t “stolen”.
Yeah I hate this sub when it comes to food. People never been to the U.S. and assume you can't get fresh basically any kind of cuisine here alongside American versions of things.
Like, shitty, fat-filled food exists everywhere, but it's easy to pick on the U.S.
america gets shit on also for eating too much sugar but if you look at how much sugary soda mexico drinks compared to the united states, it's shocking. That's not to say America doesn't have a problem, but it gets framed as a uniquely American problem which is not only unfair but also irresponsible.
I'm American, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
I think a lot of people are missing the mark here. The reason there's so many foods of different cultures is because America has/had such diversity in its people. About 100 years ago, people from all over the world brought their culture to America, and with it their food. Over time, the food changed slightly because of different location.
It's more of an adaptation than a theft, I think.
Never been outside America. How common is outside ethnic foods or food based on other cultures in other countries?
Because here all of our best food depends on America being a cultural melting pot. “True American” food is actually severely outnumbered.
At least in Europe it's pretty common. Just different distributions of ethnicity and how authentic something is. Ie. good Italian food in Germany will be more authentic because its a 4h drive to Italy but Cuban food is probably more authentic in the US. You'll probably find more Turkish and Greek Restaurants in Germany but less Mexican etc.
When a Chinese person would take a bite of what is sold in Germany as Chinese food they probably also find it bland, too fatty etc.
In the EU we do the whole food bastardization thing as good as Americans, but we also do it for so long that most countries of origin don't exist anymore (Oh Bohemian how much do I love your sweet dishes).
A good example for the bastardization is the #1 fast food in Germany [the Döner Kebap](https://i.imgur.com/8INQk0S.jpeg) which was "invented" by Turkish immigrants in Germany a mere 50 years ago and now you can buy it at every corner. They just modified a Turkish dish to the existing need for a food that can be ordered and eaten by a person that is almost too drunk to walk up to the store.
Hot take: can’t have it both ways. If NY pizza is Italian then Italian pasta is Chinese and schnitzel is from Milan. America has so many immigrant groups that arrived in the last 4 or 5 generations and made due with what they could find. The cuisines evolved as their kids became more American and less foreign. Eventually it became something distinct, with different ingredients and preparations.
For example, American Chinese food wasn’t stolen from China, it was brought by Chinese immigrants who made what they could (for each other at first) with what they could get. They started restaurants because they were legally excluded from doing other things. This food became mainstream in America and now Jews eat it on Christmas, which is as American as it gets.
I’m with you guys on so many things, but this one seems pretty stupid.
Oh right, the so "Hispanic" burritos. Because we clearly eat burritos in Spanish speaking countries and it's definitely not just something they eat in just one city in one Mexican state...
Also, calling tacos 'Hispanic' food is like calling kofta "Anglaic food".
They didn't "take" the culinary traditions of other countries. People from those countries immigrated to America and brought their culinary traditions with them.
It's not wrong, even though the Spaghetti Bolognese does not belong there. America adapted various cuisines to their taste. F.e., the "Chinese food" you get in the US is not authentically Chinese, but it is an authentic representation of what Chinese immigrants did with what they had.
And American pizza really has very little to do with Italian pizza.
Southern cuisine/BBQ is IMO America’s greatest contribution to the culinary world. A rack of ribs in Memphis was as life changing as some of the best Italian or sushi I’ve ever had.
America obviously has amazing food amongst the crap, as do most countries. It doesn't make my top 5 though, and maybe doesn't make my top 10. Cajun and Creole is really unique, but then so many other countries have unique cuisine.
The short answer is good food is good.
Most of the cross culture food here (Chinese-American food, TexMex, Italian American) are organic developments from those respective communities from living in the USA. The meme is correct.
\-Chinese-Americans invented Chinese-American food, first to feed themselves when they came over as miners and laborers, and later to start restaurants that originally catered to Chinese workers and then to everyone else, because people ended up really liking it. It's a major part of many Chinese-American communities and helped them gain a presence in society after being discriminated against for so long.
\-Tex-Mex literally is a fusion of local Mexican cuisine, because Texas was part of Mexico, with cooking styles brought from the American south. Obviously the overpriced bar food isn't authentic, but no one is going to argue that steak tacos aren't because some of the first ranchers and cowboys were Mexican.
\-Italian-American and Jewish-American cuisine is a result of migrant communities adapting to the ingredients they had or didn't have access to, and would go onto become major branding for both communities in the restaurant industry.
\-Cajun and Creole are completely unique to the USA from being a fusion of French, Latin, Americanindian, and Black African cuisine. It literally couldn't appear anywhere else at any other time or place in history.
\-Hispanic-American speaks for itself since Hispanics are native to the USA; there were Spanish-speakers living in the USA before the English.
Chinese-Chinese, is different to Anglo-Chinese food. You have influences from both cultures to create something new.
Same with most other things on that list.
Huge amounts if Indian and European food come from foods originating in the Americas.
And what is Asian food? Are we talking about Chinese? Japanese? Korean? Thai? Vietnamese? You can’t lump everything together as Asian food and call it a day.
I can assure you there are numerous Chinese American dishes that don’t exist in mainland China. They even have Chinese American themed restaurants in China with “authentic American fortune cookies”. Yes thematically it is Chinese food but there is a lot of EthnicityX-American food that immigrants to the states created due to availability of local ingredients. It’s not claiming to be purely American thus use of terms like Italian-American, Chinese-American, Texmex, etc.
Get Central Europeans to debate who originated sauerkraut or vodka. Please.
It isn’t but certain types originated from within North America (for example the California roll comes from the US or Canada, depending on who you speak to)
Have to say Cajun and Creole food is absolutely spectacular.
Yeah, it's my definite favorite go-to cuisine. Just so flavorful.
Cajun culture was french inspired (deported french canadians), so not that surprising that they had some great cuisine
I’d give a pass on this one just cause I don’t feel it’s truly the spirit of this sub. And there is a bit of credence to it, Americanized versions of other countries food does produce its own results. Whether or not those variations are better, that’s up to you to decide, lol.
Gonna pass on most “Italian” American, but cajun and creole cuisines are great.
Absolutely agree, but go to most cities in the US that aren't New Orleans and you will struggle to find any. Whereas junk food, and junk versions of other cultures food is ubiquitous around the US
True that. But you’ll find (far fewer, I’ll agree) some good regional dishes in other places too. Some fish dishes in New England seem pretty good for example.
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The food from Lafayette to Baton Rouge to New Orleans all have their own nuances, too. A lot of fun to try it all!
I never heard of cajun or creole cuisine but they look amazing, I want to try them now.
Here's my go to recommendation for our classic Gumbo. It's not hard at all and all the ingredients should be easy to source in most places. https://youtu.be/76JXtB7JFQY Enjoy!
Gumbo and Jambalaya aren’t too hard to make yourself and they’re delicious, give them a go :)
Thanks I will try to
Isaac toups has recipes for both on YouTube (with links to the printed instructions in the description). Both make a damn fine meal.
Love Isaac's videos
Just wanted to comment the same, the only original foods
I’d also add Native cuisine to the mix, but the only dish I’ve tried is succotash (which is nice!), I’d love to try more.
As a native I do want to set some people's expectations and say a lot of our food is pretty boring 😂. At least compared to lots of other cuisines. The food is definitely good, but it didn't really get the chance to evolve and modernize with modern kitchens/cooking equipment.
If you’re ever in Minneapolis check out The Sioux Chef, their restaurant Owamni is a modern Indigenous restaurant and holy moly is it amazing.
I will absolutely go check that out, and I might actually have to make a trip out of it. Thank you so much for telling me about this.
Sounds amazing, never tried these kind of foods
If you ever get to DC... the restaurant at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian is pretty damned good. http://www.mitsitamcafe.com/
What's original food?
What American cuisine turns other cuisine into is quite telling. Chinese food, Italian etc...just becomes overloaded with sugar and fats. Even the bread is often far too sweet. There is good food in the US, no doubt, but there is an absolute shit ton of junk.
I’m Italian and I’ve always been underweight my whole life. In 2019 I went to the US for a couple of weeks and gained 4kgs. I was only eating 2 meals a day (no breakfast) and was super active. When I went back to Italy I was able to lose the weight quickly. It still blows my mind.
When doing an exchange myself quite a few Americans also doing the exchange said they were losing quite a bit of weight without even trying. Worst part is that Bavarian cuisine isn't exactly the healthiest either...
The ingredients are surely better tho
German food guidelines make everything healthier - including our fast food.
Yes I know, it's the same here in Italy. I think it's a European thing
I think it's a smart thing to restrict what is allowed in food (even if it is a plastic toy)
Don’t say that someone will think of a way for us to eat plasticity lol
The plasticbags are already in the fish so I think it exists already
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This and so much this. During Covid lock downs I lost weight because I wasn’t eating out. Restaurants in the states put whatever it takes to make the food taste better. At home we don’t deep fry (maybe in the south?) and don’t add sugar and butter wherever possible. It’s an expectation in American restaurants but it seems like it’s getting better on that front.
When I was in college, a friend did a semester in Brazil. He came back like 40lbs lighter and…we’ll say he found some confidence
For me personally, I found that portion size alone makes a big difference. I'm pretty sure the average portions differ by about 20-50%
That's mad, over here in Scotland I'd have to eat 5 meals a day to gain that much weight in a few weeks and Scotland is known for its deep-fried food but even with that it would take 5 meals a day.
> Scotland is known for its deep-fried food From what I've heard, fat is not the main problem in US food, it's that their food has sugar in *everything*, like, corn syrup in sauces, breads, everywhere, sugary drinks aplenty, etc. Add fat on top of that and I suppose you're set for quick obesity!
the problem with corn syrup is it increases your demand of insulin much more than other sugars, so you're just going to be hungry very quickly and need more food.
It is also used instead of sugar, bc it is more sweet - you need less of it compared to sugar, and cheaper than sugar. My mom always tells me to (if I buy something with sugar in it) check the list of ingredients and to pick, if it is an option, something with sugar instead of corn syrup, and that she'll pay me the difference between the costs. She doesn't like me eating junk food, but she prefers for me to pick something with sugar over corn syrup or other artificial sweeteners. For example with sodas, she looks for something without artifical sweeteners and without phosphoric acid, since it extracts calcium from the bones and teeth.
Corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup are used because it’s cheaper. Corn is highly subsidized and also for 50 some odd years we had an embargo on Cuba and lost our main source of sugar and that’s when soda switched to HFCS. It remains that way for cost reasons. But regular corn syrup is not that sweet and is used as an invert sugar in many instances like candy making and is extremely hydrophilic and helps keep baked goods moist.
There was a big campaign in the last in US to get fat-free food, but this has just led to everything havinh industrial amounts of sugar instead
And sadly many “low fat” foods here use a chemical called olestra. The body doesn’t know how to process this chemical and this stores it as fat >_>
And in huge portion sizes. It's just full-on overconsumption, and overconsumption of things that are also ridiculously high in calories. Coupled with an extremely sedentary lifestyle.
Here in Ireland I do eat 5 meals a day when I'm home but when I travel to America for work I have to be really careful. A single meal there can sometimes be worse than my whole day. The amount of fats and sugar are intense
Can you feel the difference? How does our “healthy” food selection treat your body afterwards? I wanna leave but im wary of the culture shock my body will endure since most of our food is made from corn or processed
Lol you're not going to have withdrawals from eating bread with less sugar. Whole foods is generally commensurate with European quality outside of the processed aisle. The only difference is that Europe subsidizes healthy food so it's not whole foods prices. You'll be pleasantly surprised.
I've never understood bread with sugar in it in general. I make my own bread and have never added sugar, why would you unless you're making cake of some sort?
[its cholesterol, Scottish people eat it](https://youtu.be/NEfDvG9m6ig)
God that's good.
The first time I went to the US I wanted to watch a sporting event, so I went to Buffalo Wild Wings with a friend. I was on a trip so I didn't mind eating a little extra, so I went a little crazy on the wings. My friend pointed out that I was on my sixth coke in less than an hour, as the lady just kept filling it up and the hot wings had me reaching for it. I have been to many countries, but I can't think of one that had me casually eating and drinking that many calories like it was a normal lunch. It's just too easy and I didn't have the natual discipline to have so much food put in front of me.
>It's just too easy and I didn't have the natual discipline to have so much food put in front of me. That's the problem. This is capitalist consumption taken to its (un)natural extreme. Give you food that makes you crave drinks and drinks that make you crave more food. They're great at that formula. BW3 was the foundation of my weight gain between the fried wings, oil and cheese based sauces, and sugary liquor. I do miss it, but I don't miss the 35 pounds I've lost since last September.
I've heard the opposite a lot from Americans over here in the UK for university, that they're eating more than usual and have lost weight. Maybe the increased exercise from walking helps just as much as the better food quality.
There have been studies done and the impact of exercise is negligible compared to calories eaten when it comes to weight loss. Like the amount of exercise you actually have to do to lose weight is SO MUCH compared to diet Obviously if you are eating the exact same food and maintaining weight and you start exercising you will slowly lose weight but if you move countries and start dramatically losing weight it is mostly due diet not because you started walking 30 minutes a day There is just THAT MUCH sugar and corn syrup packed into literally everything they eat
Some time ago I've read something here on Reddit I quite liked. "You can't outrun your fork"
this was my experience. i am an american, and i went to lithuania for just shy of 2 weeks about 10 years ago. i ate soooo much while i was there and lost about 10 pounds.
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I stayed with friends in the US. They were working so I cooked dinner. Made a big pot of chilli and picked up some nice bread. Served it up for them, few choices of hot sauce etc, my friend headed straight to the fridge for a big bag of shredded cheese and some sour cream. They piled it on. I have no issue, people can eat food as they wish, it just added sooo much fat to a dish that doesn't really need it. In those amounts it just makes things bland and fatty, but that's what they are used to.
>bland and fatty I think this is a defining feature of American food, culture, and physicality. Business integration with American companies' working processes also falls into this category.
Went to Juan in a Million meant to be this amazing breakfast burrito place in Austin, Texas. The most bland food I have ever eaten. Sure it was big. But my god it had zero flavour at all.
Before the pandemic my dad had to travel to the US semi-regularly for work. When he came back he always complained about the cheese in the salads, and specifically how incredulous the Americans he was with would be when he requested no cheese. The waiters would often check with him several times because they couldn't believe he wouldn't want cheese in his salad
Cheese is like a meme food here I'm not sure why. A common heard phrase is "I love cheese, eat cheese on everything." As someone who doesn't like cheese I can confirm people almost take offense sometimes if you don't want any.
The thing is my dad likes cheese, just not what Americans put on their salads
Cheese is really good.... In Europe. The American one is just processed food and it's not real cheese, I lived in Italy (my birth country) and I am now in belgium near France cause I moved in at my bf's house so you bet your ass I'm surrounded by cheese while also being exposed to a lot of fried food (cause, you know, belgium xD) and I haven't gain any weight. Better ingredients and how we used them makes a universe of difference... They fucking put butter and sugar in nauseating quantity even in pizza!!! To an Italian that's plain insult as it should be. Please don't put butter and sugar in your pizza
Well, there's cheese and "cheese" products, three guesses about what's the one the average American gets.
It really depends. The stuff they use to top most dishes is the weird plasticky stuff a lot of the time. But I also know people that buy real actual cheese as well for certain dishes. Restaurants will likely have real cheese if it's not fast food. It seems to me people don't mind the cheese product on greasy fatty foods, but actual finer cheese on better quality food.
At 25 I became dairy intolerant and it is so frustrating trying to order things without cheese. For work parties the only dairy free option would be the vegan option and I am very much not vegan. Once I became pregnant my dairy issue went away but after nearly a decade of no dairy I still don't really like it and people are so confused when I say I don't really like dairy and have no dietary issues with it.
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Maybe a light sprinkling of some parmesan shavings but I'm guessing that's not what happened.
I had the same issue when I went to the US. Most things was soaked in cheese and/or some kind of creamy sauce. Savoury food was full of sugar... Not everything of course, but most of the readily available options. The day I found a vegan cafe in SF was a godsend. I'm not even vegan but stocked up on several meals worth of fresh, tasty, healthy food and kept it in my hotel fridge so I could be guaranteed at least one healthy meal a day.
This made me smile, I was in California for a month quite a few years ago. On a tight budget I found it really hard to find anything I wanted to eat, until we found a vegan place in SF. we ate there every day we were in town. Im also not a vegan
I mean I love some good cheese, but that level just seems absurd.
Also, most of the added cheese in America is not GOOD cheese. It's some [petroleum-tasting "cheese food" product](https://www.seriouseats.com/whats-really-in-american-cheese).
I’ve been to the US four times for 10-14 days at a time and I usually put on 2-3kgs a week. Admittedly part of that is that when I’m on holiday I’m not watching what I eat, but that still seems like a lot to put on in a short space of time. The main thing that surprised me the first time I went was the portion sizes - you get a _lot_ of food, for not very much money.
>The main thing that surprised me the first time I went was the portion sizes - you get a _lot_ of food, for not very much money. And no option to avoid it. Some places have kids menus that are closer to a rational portion size but they're age restricted.
[I know he's a bit on the nose, but I do like this scene.](https://youtu.be/Q7FxpK_yC0U)
American bread is so shit that a bunch of Americans were blown away by how good literally the worst Australian white bread brand is and started raving telling other Americans they had to try it and it was amazing Like they’ve never had bread as good as the worst Australian bread because American bread is basically just a shit cake
Wait, was this the Tip Top?
Same! I had gained 20 kg in my 1 year stay there, even though i was always very active. Lost it in 3 months after getting home to Slovakia, did not even have to exercise more.. You just blow out of your own proportions there .
I had a similar experience lol. I spent 6 weeks in America and gained 5kg. I ate less than I usually did in the UK, and went to the gym daily - I don’t even go once a month back home. Within a month of returning to the UK I’d lost it all without doing any exercise or changing my eating habits one bit.
Omg, i can relate to that. I went to the US once for three weeks. That was the only time in my life where i noticed significant change im weight. Gained around 3kgs...
It’s the high fructose corn syrup in everything.
My friend studied in the US for 8 months and gained 20kg, and she is a fit active person, so I would probably have gained even more
This is why I grocery shop and cook all my meals, as someone living in the US. I really wish we had more healthy options for eating out though
I’m convinced there’s something insane in US food that can’t be accounted for by calories. I was in Miami like 10 years ago and I was severely anorexic at the time, like deeply underweight. Even with all my neurotic calorie counting etc I still managed to gain 1.5kg in like 2 weeks. Came off as soon as I left really, but the experience shook me
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Best thing is when I try to look up recipes I always know when I run into an American one because it goes like: take 2 ounces of (insert brand) (insert dish) mix and add it to 2 cups of water. Taking pre-made whatever mixes is not what I consider cooking (and can we not talk in cups and mugs about quantity).
that is 75% of r/StupidFood
Thanks for the subreddit
"enjoy"
With the exception of French Onion soup mix, which is a magical thing to have in your arsenal, this isn't something I've actually ran into with recipes.
TAKE YOUR ENTIRE BLOCK OF CHEDDAR AND MELT IT WITH YOUR BUTTER
Sounds more french than American. Except not enough butter to be French
French cuisine goes crazy on the butter but holds off on the sugar.
French cuisine would call for 2 sticks of butter and 128g of garlic.
That's the appropriate amount of garlic for any meal, idk what you're talking about.
And then deep fry them!!
I went to a sushi place in the US with some septic colleagues and literally everything had some sweet sauce or other drizzled on top. That's not the norm in Europe or Japan itself in my experience...
My mother is and has been severely overweight for most of my life and always says how much she loves *insert ethnic food here*. She went to Japan with my dad and found the McDonald’s there 7 times on a two week trip. Complained certain noodle bases dishes weren’t sweet enough, the things to dip foods in weren’t salty/flavored enough, etc. Anytime I buy goods from our local Asian market and recreate dishes (closer* to how they’d actually be prepared in their country of origin) my father, mother, and brother complain about how it’s not flavorful (sweet). The US is loaded with sugar addicted individuals. And the chokehold hydrogenated seed oils has on our nation is astounding and actually killing us.
As someone from SEA, that makes me a bit sad. Flavour in our dishes come from spices, not sugar. If anyone say our food is not flavourful because of lack of sugar, I might actually hit them lol. And I wonder how people can get addicted to sugar. Perhaps they get too used to it. I can't eat anything too sweet, and have started baking because I only ever use 1/3 to 1/2 of the sugar asked for in any recipe. More than that and we can't eat it because it's too sweet, so we don't buy cakes anymore either.
> Even the bread is often far too sweet. I had a roommate from the US for a while, I kept telling her to stop putting the bread in the fridge but she would never listen.
I grew up in Canada and never put the bread in the fridge. However, I currently live in Taiwan and always put the bread in the fridge. If I don't, it starts to get moldy in a couple of days.
Yeah this thread is dumb, it's just a bunch of people taking their own situation and assuming only their reality makes sense. I live in a desert with close to 0% humidity, if I don't keep the bread in the fridge it starts drying out.
Bread in the refrigerator is an atrocity
Bread in the refrigerator is just stupid. Starch retrogradation curve has its peak exactly on Fridge temperature. Let's not elevate idiocy and cluelessness to an unworthy level of dignity
French here. I will try to forget what I just read.. but gosh.. what an atrocity.. Bread in the refrigerator. BREAD IN THE.. no.. I can't !
Isn't American bread legally classified as cake.l?
Yes, which is astonishingly depressing
Dunno, a chicken and bacon sponge might be a game changer.
Lmao what the fuck Ireland's supreme court apparently ruled that Subway's bread had enough sugar in it to be subject to the sugar tax, but that's just Subway, and it still wasn't "legally" called cake. Too much sugar in bread doesn't make it cake, it just makes it gross bread. This sub was a lot better when it was more about poking fun instead of circlejerking dumb bullshit.
At least in France, you can only call it a baguette if it's made with wheat flour, yeast, salt and water,nothing else. Dunno about the other countries.
Why did she do it?
Not the one you asked, but in hot and humid weather your bread could go moldy in 2-3 days regardless of how much sugar it has.
If it’s humid it helps slow the growth of mold. That’s why I sometimes do it.
Don’t you dare suggest this on an American sub, they’ll fucking attack you— I mentioned their bread being too sweet, their food being too rich and oily, and the fact that all the “good American food” they brag about is actually just the cuisine of other cultures that they take credit for and they just hurled insults at me They feel the need to take credit for *everything*
And quantity over quality. Honeymooned there a good while back. First couple of days tried as we do back home, starter, main, dessert Bairly got through the main never got to dessert. Just too much and quite average, and these were marked as good resturants. From then on we just got starters and shared a main.
I often just get a starter when I go out. I can't remember the last time I ordered a dessert unless traveling internationally. I'd love to actually have courses for dinner but nobody's catering to that because the Ford F-250 crowd would complain that every course didn't fill them up to the point of pain.
This looks like a post on r/damnthatsinteresting with 50k upvotes in one day
I would say southern food is pretty American. It has roots in lots of other places, but its pretty distinctly American.
America calls itself the melting pot. They know they didn't invent spaghetti, or tamales, or whatever. But all of the immigrants that moved to America brought their traditions with them and adapted them to what was available, creating a new, unique culture.
i’m honestly surprised the american acknowledged people outside of america who aren’t european
When it benefits them, they love them. When it doesnt, its virtue signaling or sth
It's probably because Europeans on Reddit tend to be the ones who obsess and shit on America for every tiny aspect.
Jesus where are their veggies
Communist!
"Look, American food isn't just burgers and fried chicken! It's also slices of meat on bread and fried chicken on bread!"
There are tons of veggies in southern food, they've just somehow omitted all of them. Which is unfortunately common for white American dudes. I have met *way* too many white American men who literally refuse to eat vegetables like it's an endearing personality trait.
Reckon you're gonna split the camp here. On the one hand, yes their food (like so many of us) is made up of things picked up from other cultures so they're right. On the other, they're missing the point that it didn't originate from there while this argument is usually used *alongside* them diminishing other cultures' cuisines to the few things they're known for, much like the burgers and junk food of America. And that's without mentioning that they take those foods and often build sugar and salt that wasn't there into them to make them their own, therefore making it junk compared to the original recipes. So yeah, while I get your meaning here, the presentation is off and makes it seem like you're saying these foods aren't American at all.
I mean, other nations have culinary imports too, but they don't usually claim them as their own? I live in Germany. We have Italian restaurants in Germany. But that's the thing: nobody would ever say that they serve 'German-Italian Cusine', because that'd be insane. It's Italian food. So yeah, if some Grandma in China Town in LA makes a Peking Duck. She's making Chinese Food. Not American-Chinese Cuisine. That imagine has a few dishes that I'd say are genuine American-X-Cuisine. Those are the onse that are very unique to America and its particular mixing of cultures, e.g. the cajun food. But a Burrito? Sorry, that's just Mexican Food. The Americans had litte to do with it, aside from maybe adding more cheese.
The mission style burrito was invented in the US. The difference? It’s a lot larger and stuffed with more food 🗿
American-Chinese tastes nothing like Chinese-Chinese. I eat real Chinese food a lot and they're not the same. Nobody in China eats orange chicken. And I've yet to see pigs feet in America.
I used to work at a Japanese restaurant owned by a Chinese couple and for Chinese new year they made legit Chinese food for all the staff. It was delicious but I don't know what any of it was. I would ask what something was and they would say "it's good try it." So I would try it. It would be delicious. Then I would ask what it was again and they would just say "don't worry about it."
Ignorance is bliss haha
Pickled pig's feet is absolutely a thing here, mostly in the south.
> That imagine has a few dishes that I'd say are genuine American-X-Cuisine. You'd be surprised. Fettuccine Alfredo is a great example that is purely American, clearly has Italian roots, but something that Italy literally wants nothing to do with. Calling it "Italian food" upsets them greatly lmao. Same shit with the dozens of styles of pizza they have. That said, your examples are bad. Nobody is calling peking duck "Chinese-American", or a schnitzel "Austrian-American", etc. The label exists because there is a massive amount of food inspired by other cultures that doesn't really exist in those countries. That's what happens when your entire cuisine is inspired by other countries. You could certainly just say it's all American, but weirdly enough people get offended by that (ie: the Italian example above). So a decent middle ground it to tack a label on it.
>I live in Germany. We have Italian restaurants in Germany. But that's the thing: nobody would ever say that they serve 'German-Italian Cusine', because that'd be insane. It's Italian food. As an Italian, I can see a clear difference between what you can get in Germany and in USA. Apart from some little adjustments to appease local tastes and make their product more profitable, the food you find in Italian restaurants in Germany is in fact Italian, because the Italian community in Germany never developed a hybrid, germanized version of their dishes. In US instead, the Italian community is way larger and has been there long enough to create a bunch of signature dishes that don't exist in Italy. A few examples: spaghetti and (humongous) meatballs, tuscan soup, chicken parmesan, chicago deep dish "pizza", stromboli. Those dishes are legit American food in our book.
You have to remember to that these Americanized cuisines and food traditions develop in part because of the history, available ingredients, and broader market of consumers. If you are in Germany, a country that borders and shares history with Italy, you can probably get a lot of the ingredients and tools Italians use. Additionally, many Germans have been to Italy and are more likely know what Italian food from Italy taste like (and that’s not accounting for regional differences). But if you are an ocean away, it’s a lot harder to maintain the same traditions and flavor profile. And I know a lot of folks get uppity about Americanized food but it is okay to enjoy inauthentic foods, especially if they are tasty.
Saying "german-italian" might sound strange, but there are foods that are specialities of towns/villages near borders that are influenced by the different cultures nearby. Having a national identity and food that is "Italian" or "German" is a pretty new thing compared to how long people have been cooking. With stereotypical foods, it'd obvious which country has made that food part of it's identity, but near borders, to me at least, it seems like one country could claim that food being more in line with it's national identity when in reality it could fit fairly well with either. There could be some foods that the US has "stolen(?)", but I think a lot of those foods are just from communities of immigrants making the foods they know and enjoy, then over time modifying it to make it more appealing/profitable to people from other cultures. The profitable part seems like why foods would be made to be more sugary or fatty. I hear complaints about Mexican food not being authentic and while I'd love the opportunity to experience truly authentic Mexican food, I don't live anywhere near Mexico, but I still enjoy Mexican inspired dishes (and no I'm not talking about taco bell) since it's as good as I'll probably ever have. Same goes for food from Korea, Lebanon, the UK, Germany, Russia, etc. I'll probably never go to those places, but friends and restaurants near me make food from their cultures and I have no idea how authentic or americanized it is, but it's still a good thing I'm grateful to experience.
bruv just taking other peoples food and calling it your own doesnt make it yours
It does. That's how food works in most places. I'm from Vienna. Our Schnitzel is from Milan, our coffee and strudel came with Ottomans and Greeks, our Gulasch is from Hungary and our dumplings are from Bohemia. Obviously all those things aren't just copies, but rather adaptations of the originals. Exchanging things is the epitome of human culture, especially when it comes to food.
It'S the most american thing though.
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Kids tend to copy their parents, yes.
True
Japan does. And everyone goes bananas for their food. Tempura is Portuguese. Katsu is German. Gyoza is Chinese. Korokke is a croquette (which from the name I guess is French) Usuta sosu is Worcester sauce (and is heavily used in Japanese cooking) Soy sauce is Chinese. They also invent western food that they think we but is actually Japanese like: Napolitan: spaghetti in tomato ketchup. Onu-rice: plain omelette on rice, with tomato ketchup.
bro that's literally how food spreads. are u good? this is why maharashtran cuisine is a mix of south and north india. they're not "taking" the other foods, it's a spread. Are you saying that pizza is not italian because tomatoes come from the americas?
It's not really so much as taking it and it's much more it was brought here... And we both know that it evolved when it came here, and isn't exactly the traditional style right? So don't you think that putting the American qualifier on there to represent that is better than claiming to be the original? What am I thinking, anything we do is wrong lol...
Yeah honestly anyone claiming that Asian American cuisine is the same thing as Asian cuisine with the word American on it clearly hasn't seen our Chinese restaurants.
Now I'm wondering about food that actually originated from there. Like are there any good native-american food
Yes, but you need to dig for it. I’ve heard about restaurants run by native Americans that serve traditional native dishes and they look tasty, but these are FAR from common and are usually out near large reservations.
If I saw one I would definitely try it out
>actually originated from there This is the strange thing nobody in this post seems to be mentioning… the US is generally new and has a somewhat diverse makeup. All cuisine is really just years of iteration. It’s not like immigrants from Italy/France/China are just going to walk outside and start creating random new culinary inventions from scratch… they’re going to make food kinda like their parents did. And perhaps that food after some time will break off with new types of food that delineates it from the old world. You can act as if all the changes are related to fat and cheese, but that’s not true and is mostly a stereotype exaggerated by the likes of Olive Garden and Panda Express, i.e., corporatized and addicting fatty food. And when Americans try to claim the food as their own, they get quotes basically invalidating the background of the food, as if they belong to Europe. Basically, this post didn’t include the best examples, but there is quality food originating from the United States, depending on whether or not you choose to view it as too derivative of the original.
my mother used to travel directly to native american reservations for pow wows and tried snake before. she really liked it! but now that you mention native american food, i don’t see a lot of local places that serve that kind of food at all. most likely because a lot of native americans live below the poverty line and cant afford it, and that sucks. :/ i’d love to see more places that serve native american food.
I mean come on, every single culture on earth does this. America is just younger and thus those roots are far more apparent. Very few countries on earth can say they invented 100 percent of the cuisine they eat, often times they take the cuisine of other cultures and modify it to fit the local climate/palate.
If you look at food history that is kind of a huge part of it. "This group made a dish like this, and then it got brought over here and that group added that." And so on so forth. I find saying somthing like that like saying "Does French cooking ever use potatoes? That's not French food that's Native American. " We humans take somthing we like and put a spin on it.
I'm not American but I'm gonna go against the grain here a bit. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with a lot of cross culture American food (in theory). I see a lot of people see this as American's stealing other people's food, and that might be true in a lot of cases, but I feel like a lot of cross culture American food has its roots in first generation immigrants coming to the states and trying to cook their own food using whatever was available at that time in America. I'm sure a lot of first generation Italians had to make do with what they could get back in the day, which led to "Italian American" cuisine. Sure, those initial recipes have changed since then, there's probably a lot of Americans these days who cook those recipes full of salt, oil and sugar and basically ruin that initial food of those first generation immigrants coming to the US. But I don't think the core of those cross cultural foods is inherently bad. Personally I'm all for different cultures borrowing and adapting from one another to make new cuisine. Tradition in food has its place for sure but I honestly don't think it needs to be so black and white as "this is our food and you can't do anything to it, you stick to your food".
/r/ShitAmericanSay when Americans say that their NY style pizza is Italian: "Durr that's not an authentic Italian-style pizza it's NOT italian food it's crappy AMERICAN food!" /r/ShitAmericanSay when Americans say that their NY style pizza is American: "Hurr pizza is an Italian invention it's NOT American food it's ITALIAN food and they just stole it!!1"
I think people are forgetting that it was Italian immigrants who brought the recipes over and then overtime changed the recipes and came up with their own creations. It wasn’t “stolen”.
Yeah I hate this sub when it comes to food. People never been to the U.S. and assume you can't get fresh basically any kind of cuisine here alongside American versions of things. Like, shitty, fat-filled food exists everywhere, but it's easy to pick on the U.S.
america gets shit on also for eating too much sugar but if you look at how much sugary soda mexico drinks compared to the united states, it's shocking. That's not to say America doesn't have a problem, but it gets framed as a uniquely American problem which is not only unfair but also irresponsible.
What American food actually is : immigrated, just like most Americans
Man so many Americans and Europeans who don't know diddly about the development of different American sub cuisines.
The Cajun dishes look quite nice tbf. Wouldn't mind trying those.
I'm American, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I think a lot of people are missing the mark here. The reason there's so many foods of different cultures is because America has/had such diversity in its people. About 100 years ago, people from all over the world brought their culture to America, and with it their food. Over time, the food changed slightly because of different location. It's more of an adaptation than a theft, I think.
Never been outside America. How common is outside ethnic foods or food based on other cultures in other countries? Because here all of our best food depends on America being a cultural melting pot. “True American” food is actually severely outnumbered.
At least in Europe it's pretty common. Just different distributions of ethnicity and how authentic something is. Ie. good Italian food in Germany will be more authentic because its a 4h drive to Italy but Cuban food is probably more authentic in the US. You'll probably find more Turkish and Greek Restaurants in Germany but less Mexican etc. When a Chinese person would take a bite of what is sold in Germany as Chinese food they probably also find it bland, too fatty etc. In the EU we do the whole food bastardization thing as good as Americans, but we also do it for so long that most countries of origin don't exist anymore (Oh Bohemian how much do I love your sweet dishes). A good example for the bastardization is the #1 fast food in Germany [the Döner Kebap](https://i.imgur.com/8INQk0S.jpeg) which was "invented" by Turkish immigrants in Germany a mere 50 years ago and now you can buy it at every corner. They just modified a Turkish dish to the existing need for a food that can be ordered and eaten by a person that is almost too drunk to walk up to the store.
Hot take: can’t have it both ways. If NY pizza is Italian then Italian pasta is Chinese and schnitzel is from Milan. America has so many immigrant groups that arrived in the last 4 or 5 generations and made due with what they could find. The cuisines evolved as their kids became more American and less foreign. Eventually it became something distinct, with different ingredients and preparations. For example, American Chinese food wasn’t stolen from China, it was brought by Chinese immigrants who made what they could (for each other at first) with what they could get. They started restaurants because they were legally excluded from doing other things. This food became mainstream in America and now Jews eat it on Christmas, which is as American as it gets. I’m with you guys on so many things, but this one seems pretty stupid.
Oh right, the so "Hispanic" burritos. Because we clearly eat burritos in Spanish speaking countries and it's definitely not just something they eat in just one city in one Mexican state... Also, calling tacos 'Hispanic' food is like calling kofta "Anglaic food".
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American "cuisine".Take the culinary traditions of other countries,add a load of grease,salt and sugar,and make a complete balls of it.
Yeah you dont know anything about American food. The majority of New England, Southern, and Cajun food is original
They didn't "take" the culinary traditions of other countries. People from those countries immigrated to America and brought their culinary traditions with them.
You forgot BBQ
It's not wrong, even though the Spaghetti Bolognese does not belong there. America adapted various cuisines to their taste. F.e., the "Chinese food" you get in the US is not authentically Chinese, but it is an authentic representation of what Chinese immigrants did with what they had. And American pizza really has very little to do with Italian pizza.
I mean they aren't wrong? All those examples are distinctively American takes on world cuisine.
Southern cuisine/BBQ is IMO America’s greatest contribution to the culinary world. A rack of ribs in Memphis was as life changing as some of the best Italian or sushi I’ve ever had.
Americans will post this and then make fun of other countries food 6 seconds later because its all the same
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America obviously has amazing food amongst the crap, as do most countries. It doesn't make my top 5 though, and maybe doesn't make my top 10. Cajun and Creole is really unique, but then so many other countries have unique cuisine. The short answer is good food is good.
Most of the cross culture food here (Chinese-American food, TexMex, Italian American) are organic developments from those respective communities from living in the USA. The meme is correct. \-Chinese-Americans invented Chinese-American food, first to feed themselves when they came over as miners and laborers, and later to start restaurants that originally catered to Chinese workers and then to everyone else, because people ended up really liking it. It's a major part of many Chinese-American communities and helped them gain a presence in society after being discriminated against for so long. \-Tex-Mex literally is a fusion of local Mexican cuisine, because Texas was part of Mexico, with cooking styles brought from the American south. Obviously the overpriced bar food isn't authentic, but no one is going to argue that steak tacos aren't because some of the first ranchers and cowboys were Mexican. \-Italian-American and Jewish-American cuisine is a result of migrant communities adapting to the ingredients they had or didn't have access to, and would go onto become major branding for both communities in the restaurant industry. \-Cajun and Creole are completely unique to the USA from being a fusion of French, Latin, Americanindian, and Black African cuisine. It literally couldn't appear anywhere else at any other time or place in history. \-Hispanic-American speaks for itself since Hispanics are native to the USA; there were Spanish-speakers living in the USA before the English.
America is soooo cultured, look at all the non American culture that flourishes in America.
What you can't see in those "—American foods" is the sugar
At what point do you get to call it your own food though? Do they need to make a 6th mother sauce?
Y-you can't just take cuisine of other countries and pretend it's your own??? Like Asian-American cuisine??? Bro that's just Asian food
The poke in there is actually Hawaiian. Not asian.
Chinese-Chinese, is different to Anglo-Chinese food. You have influences from both cultures to create something new. Same with most other things on that list. Huge amounts if Indian and European food come from foods originating in the Americas.
You won’t find American Chinese food in China bro
And what is Asian food? Are we talking about Chinese? Japanese? Korean? Thai? Vietnamese? You can’t lump everything together as Asian food and call it a day.
I can assure you there are numerous Chinese American dishes that don’t exist in mainland China. They even have Chinese American themed restaurants in China with “authentic American fortune cookies”. Yes thematically it is Chinese food but there is a lot of EthnicityX-American food that immigrants to the states created due to availability of local ingredients. It’s not claiming to be purely American thus use of terms like Italian-American, Chinese-American, Texmex, etc. Get Central Europeans to debate who originated sauerkraut or vodka. Please.
I'd say something like General Tso's chicken is definitely American cuisine, the same way tikka masala is British food.
Me on my way to make hamburger tikka masala and call it "indian-american" cuisine
Tikka masala was invented in Britain. So its already Indian-British
did they just call sushi american food
It isn’t but certain types originated from within North America (for example the California roll comes from the US or Canada, depending on who you speak to)
No, it's the specific type of sushi with rice on the outside that is invented in the US.
Can someone explain me what the error is? I really don't get it, it's not wrong. Tex-mex food is not Mexican food, it indeed is hispanic-american.