American food

[cherrypiepie]

I've a few questions about America food or cuisine. What is they day to day reality of food for those in the US?

I've just been on a cruise on an American orientated ship.

I read Michelle Obama's autobiography.

I've seen a few things in the internet.

What I noticed is that compared to the uk the food seemed ultra processed, even the same foods eg American Fanta, McDonald's fries (uk is potatoes salt and oil US is much more and lots of chemical additives), sliced bread. Fresh whole foods are not as prevalent in supermarkets so a whole shoe called Whole Foods has this market. I watched a person (wholesome family type) do a few recipes in you tube and they were "cooking from scratch" but they used cake mix for a cake recipe and jarred sauces for everything. Michelle Obama's description of the lack of ability to change the unhealthy school lunches as they are controlled by big business is a contrast to the uk where attempts have been made to address this issue. School lunches are hot dogs and pizza and fruit cup things.

The food on the cruise was nice but lacked the finesse of uk or continental food. And it wasn't as adventurous as a UK based cruise line. So the key lime pie would be similar to what I'd expect from a Pizza Hut type place not a £75 a head restaurant. (Appreciate this might just be this cruise line) The blue cheese salad was just called blue cheese not Roquefort or Stilton etc as it would I the uk. DH Fanta was bright orange (and he loved it!) I've read about people going nuts for American sprite too.

I wonder if any one can add any understanding to this?

I do love American food and we cook many seriously good American BBQ recipes and appreciate that there are some amazing food cultures in the US but wondered what the day to day reality is?

I've had some amazing food in the US but also watched in horror as our work canteen in upstate NY started to prepare mine and my team members (who was vegetarian for religious reasons) veggie sarnie on where they had just placed meat such as salami, with meat juiced hands.

When talking to our US colleague they said veggies were considered hipsters and grew out of it.

I was going to say about the banned food colourings and additives. Remember when blue smarties were banned in the UK cos they made kids hyper? That blue food colouring is still used in the US.

Last time we went over, I remember finding it so odd that everything sweet seemed to have nuts in it. And every flavour of crisps seemed to be some variety of cheese. I've never craved Salt and vinegar crisps so much in my life.

This is the most absurd thing I've ever heard. Do you only know two people in America? 😂

I was last in the States about 17 years ago. I found the food to be varied , some good , some not so good but what shocked me most was the portion sizes. Absolutely huge. Went in Mcdonalds and was told we could double our order for an extra dollar. No way could we have eaten double!!. In a restaurant they had huge gateaux on display, I ordered some and the server was puzzled when I only wanted a slice, not the whole cake!!
The obesity levels were horrendous, people riding mobility scooters because they were too huge to walk, some even with oxygen tanks because they could barely breathe. There was a Macdonalds on virtually every block, and every other food outlet imaginable in between.
This was in Florida around all.the Disney parks

I’ve had similar food based conversations with my US friends. One, a New Yorker married to an English ex pat, was amazed to find that we put savoury fillings in pies.Apparently, fruit or sweet pies are the norm in the US. But they’re either shop bought or made with tinned fruit in a bought pastry case. She was ecstatic over a suet crust steak pie I knocked up for supper.one night 🤷‍♀️
i didn’t know whether to be pleased or mortified when she told me, very proudly, that she’d used my recipe at a posh dinner party for her husband’s boss, a very high up in a major financial company. 😱😂
Apparently they all loved it and she asked me if she could pass the recipe on..

But yes to loads of processed foods. Bread in particular is very sweet compared to UK bread. Day to day food is more or less like here, at least with my family back in the US. Lots of fresh fruit and veg but also a lot of meat and potatoes.

Something is different, though. Neither of my kids like US food (except one will eat snacks and desserts, the other one basically goes on a hunger strike until we come home again).

If you don't want to eat over processed, GMO, chlorine washed chicken etc then it is very expensive, way more expensive than here, to eat decent food.

Even McDonald's, a fast food here is way superior to the American version.

I'm always impressed with the authority and confidence people assert on these "what it's like in the US" threads! I always learn a lot about the US that I didn't know, despite having lived here my whole life :) The grocery stores I have access too are loaded with fresh produce, including things not in season, though it's not the same for everyone. I have read that grocery spending in the US and UK are comparable. There is a huge amount of variety in American food as it is a vast country.

I can't say what other people are eating but I had an egg, coffee with milk and a peach (local) for breakfast, homemade Dahl for lunch, and dinner will be tofu and broccoli on brown rice with rosé.

I grew up in the US and honestly food is the same as the UK, though agree school lunches are pretty rubbish. But it’s obviously very class dependent.

I’m quite middle class. I grew up eating loads of fresh fruit and veg. Grandparents had a big veg garden. Even as a uni student, I was buying nice stuff from farmers markets. ‘Whole Foods’ is just a poncy Waitrose. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the only place to buy actual whole foods. 😂 There’s one in Kensington if you want salad at £15 per kilo from the salad bar or a £8 pot of chia pudding.

That said, I do think eating is overall healthier in the UK but that’s because we’re more connected to where our food comes from and actually I think it’s more affordable here. I’m always shocked by food prices in the US when I go back: $8 for a punnet of strawberries when it’s £2 at my Tesco. I think this is why processed food is so much more accessible for many people.

This thread is hilarious! Yes of course normal supermarkets sell fresh food, don't be daft.

The first time I came to the UK as a tourist I had some fish and chips from some random cafe, I could not believe how greasy and enormous it was, it was kind of gross really. Did I go home and tell everyone British food sucks? No because that's silly.

Agree with PP that in both our countries it's about region and class.

Quite different in US truly. I was in the Midwest with family. Was getting almost ill with the amount of meat constantly bring offered. And everything covered in cheese too. Did manage to get to a really nice food store where I bought lovely fish for a change . Asked my cousin to recommend some salads , brought them home. One was what I thought was a Waldorf salad with apples and nuts , mayo a bit lumpy , I thought. Turned out it was Marshmallow bits in it . Disgusting.

I live in the Midwest. All grocery stores around here have big fresh produce sections. We often have social get togethers where everyone brings a dish and they are almost all freshly made family recipes.
But I live in a very educated middle class area. People can afford to buy fresh food and they care about what people would think if they brought a party bag of Doritos to someone's house. If you go somewhere more rural it's easy for someone to live a couple of hours from a store with fresh produce, and there will be families who simply can't afford it.

I do find it takes a while to adapt back to American salt and sugar levels after I've been to the UK to visit.

This!
The food in supermarkets is very similar to the UK. Generally our fresh produce, cheeses, fruit and veg are even more varied than the UK. Everyone I know cooks with fresh produce and they don't go to Whole Paycheck to buy it.
Bread, on the other hand, isn't great, and is full of sugar.
McDonalds tastes exactly the same.
BUT it is much more expensive.

'Blue cheese' is a cheese called Danish Blue. It's not Roquefort or Stilton or gorgonzola or any other similar cheese.

American cake mixes are lovely. You can gussy them up with an extra egg yolk or a dollop of hellmans mayo or substitute melted butter for oil if you want to produce something sublime.

@ZuzuSusu YYY to your astonishment at all the stuff you can learn here about American food and supermarkets.

I could go to any supermarket in my area and spend hours looking through the vast fruit and veg section. There is a selection to suit pretty much any ethnic cuisine or any dinner ambition. And I live in the dreaded midwest...

Tonight I'm having green split pea soup, home made with dried split peas, home made chicken stock (two chicken thighs, an onion, five cloves of garlic, a few rosemary sprigs from the herb garden I grow on the deck of my apartment, and parsley I froze a few weeks ago), with a little smoked hammy flavour coming from a small piece of smoked ham, no less (smoked on site at my nearest supermarket). I'll put a small dollop of sour cream into the bowl when I serve it. I made some whole grain no-knead bread on Wednesday using my handy Aldi Dutch oven and I'll have a slice with the soup.

It's BVO, not Bromine, that used to be found in some fizzy drinks in the US upbto about 2014.

@mathanxiety you're mistaken, in the Midwest you can only get canned soup, box cakes, and bread full of sugar. Your soup must taste very strange!

I spent a week on a road-trip with my lovely American friend with our families. At the end of it I joked that I wasn't feeling that great because of all the processed holiday food we had been eating. She was like, huh, this is how we normally eat?
We had been giving the kids those little crackers shaped like fish, cans of soda, processed cereal for breakfast that sort of thing 😬

I also live in the dreaded Midwest.
Strangely I find that my local supermarkets have plenty of fresh veg in them.
I can go to a lot of pick your own for everything from berries to apples.
There is a lot of wine, which isn't healthy. But vineyards are fun to visit.
Other than corn on the cob fresh veg can be expensive but that is down to a lack of farming subsidies.

OrNge Fanta in the USA I looks radioactive.

been there for a few weeks at a time (Connecticut) for work pre covid and I’m not a fish eater and there were a lot of what seemed fresh seafood shacks. But most of the food was processed fruit was bloody expensive, food was stodgy, processed and awful. Only good food I had was at a colleagues house when they did a proper bbq (they were from Louisiana)

yet all the time I constant got jokes about British food

I travel all over the US for business and generally found the food to be poor which is a shame because they have every climate for growing crops.

Lots of beef, huge steaks. Lots of very sweet and processed stuff, but seriously lacking in a variety of fruit and vegetables, fresh herbs are lacking, just the endlessly tasteless green salad. The Americans don't really do cheese either, it's either 'swiss cheese', 'blue cheese' or those disgusting rubbery slices in burgers.

There is a reason the majority of Americans are overweight or obese.

The exceptions are NYC and maybe San Francisco, where good overseas food is available.

After a week on American food, I come home craving raw celery, and I don't like celery much . 😁

Also one time I snook some actual clotted cream in after a colleague tried their best with making me some scones so thought next time would treat them to real clotted cream seeing as it’s banned over there as is unpasteurised

, I come home craving raw celery, and I don't like celery much

This I find ironic because I absolutely detest celery and find Americans put it in everything.
Particularly with tuna, I really like tuna but can hardly ever eat it in the USA because celery is so often mixed with it.
I do like the American habit of having roasted Brussels as a normal side dish though.

I would be very interested to know where exactly you eat on your business trips, @MintJulia.

If it's mainly steakhouses then you're going to find a lot of steak on the menu.

Have you ever visited a Mexican restaurant like one of Rick Bayless' in Chicago?