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 only have limited experience of American cuisine but did find that eating out involved enormous portions.

However, although of course there are many individuals in the US that cook and eat healthily, like those who have posted on this thread, I would be interested to know more about general trends. I know that many food additives etc that are banned in Europe are authorised by the FDA but I don't know how commonly they are used in products. I would be interested to know, eg if, as a trend, fresh fruit and vegetables are less commonly eaten than in the UK or how frequently people in both countries eat fast food, or if drinking Fizzy drinks is more common. Does anyone know if any comparable studies have been done. A quick Google didn't show much.

I would be interested to know, eg if, as a trend, fresh fruit and vegetables are less commonly eaten than in the UK

According to this, which google found quite easily, fresh veg consumption in the US is stable over time at about 140 pounds per person per year. I don't know how this compares to the UK, but it shows that the idea of fresh vegetable consumption in the US being very low is absurd.

Per capita consumption of fresh vegetables in the United States from 2000 to 2021 (in pounds)

It's been a while since I travelled in the states but I really enjoyed a lot of the food - I wouldn't say it was healthy but there was plenty that was tasty. In LA I went to a seafood restaurant which was lovely, in Boston it was bagels, and in NY lots of brunchy stuff at diners. I also used to go to delis at supermarkets and get mac cheese and brownies for lunch. Not that healthy but I was young and walked it all off.

Here are some photos I found on the internet of the grocery store nearest to my home in Houston. I also included the photos of a grocery store that was closest to me in my home town five miles from the US/Mexico border.

There's plenty of cheese, plenty of vegetables and fruit and there are bakeries that produce their own bread. In fact, some have tortillerias, which means they make their own corn and flour tortillas to serve the Hispanic community.

Here's the local with a tortilleria:

I couldn't add more than two at a time but here's more of the local place.

Plenty of fruits and vegetables in our stores.

@MissConductUS : your blueberry loaf recipe is making me drool. Do you reckon I could sub SR flour for AllPurpose+baking soda? I don't want to use a tiny amount of baking soda from a box we would never get through. it will go smelly before I used it enough.

There was a whole thread on one of the American ex-pat facebook groups which British Flours are most comparable to which types of American flours. (for the American ex-pat community who never bakes harhar...). I don't want to get that technical about it, though.

Yes, self rising flour should work a treat. If I'm not mistaken it has either baking soda or baking powder already mixed in.

The blueberry loaf is delicious. It makes a nice gift too. I usually make two and put one in the freezer. Frozen blueberries work fine if you can't get fresh ones.

BVO is brominated vegetable oil, which containes Bromine and is still found in some US (and Canadian) soft drinks, including original recipe Mountain Dew which is sporadically still produced and lots of own brand citrus drinks. It's not banned in the US but is more regulated than it was.

Umm, that's about 175grams years of veg a day. I wouldn't say that's much considering the average weight of a carrot is 140g.

It’s the same in the UK - just over a kilo per person per week: www.statista.com/statistics/284411/weekly-uk-household-consumption-of-vegetables-excluding-potatoes/

Clearly many people just don’t eat vegetables.

The funniest thing about this thread is that all the stereotypes being thrown at American food are pretty much the same stereotypes that Europeans have about British food :)

I.e. British food is all beige and stodgy, everyone eats ready meals and junk that's why everyone is obese, the fruit and veg don't taste like anything, they only have 3 kinds of cheese etc

@JackandSam that's a little different from the original claim then.

A very small number of sodas still contain BVO, including Mountain Dew Throwback. Major soda producers have for the most part eliminated BVO from their products.

I have spent a lot of time in the US for work, but almost all coastal America. The one thing that strikes me is the sugar in dishes that are supposed to be savoury. sugar sprinkled on a chicken sandwich in DC recently. WTF?!

As a kid in the 70s/80s I thought all the options in the US were really exciting when we visited - from junk food drive throughs to Cantonese restaurants,, and even in the late 90s the deli bars seemed amazing. But I do think the UK has caught up a lot. I am comparing wealthy Uk to wealthy US here.

everyone eats ready meals

That's one of the things conspicuous in their absence in the US - ready meals! I certainly missed the convenience of that.

I want to know what makes chili 'proper'.

Considering that chili is an American dish described by Spanish explorers and colonisers as early as the 1500s I think Americans can cook it any way they want.

I lived in DC for 15 years and I swear to you, never in my life have I heard of putting sugar in a chicken sandwich. That sounds like someone just trying to be weird.

The funniest thing about this thread is that all the stereotypes being thrown at American food are pretty much the same stereotypes that Europeans have about British food :)

It's only fun on MN if you're rubbishing the US. 😁

Yes - my US family go crazy for m and d when they’re over.

M and S

Lived there for three years (albeit 20
Years ago so I might be way out of date).
Plenty of fresh food in supermarkets but my trolley/cart was frequently commented on along the lines of 'wow are you gonna cook lots from scratch?'
Americans eat out more than brits and the portions are huge. Or were.
I never liked the meat I bought there - chicken was watery and flavourless.

I recently listened to a podcast run by the Zoe health people. Brits consume an average of 56 grams of sugar per day (which is too much); Americans it's 70 something grams (way too much!)

@SusanKennedy it's not 'a mayonnaise cake'..

It's a cake mix with a dollop of mayo added. Mayonnaise is made from oil, egg and egg yolk, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, sugar. It's a trick originating in the 1930s or 40s and produces a moist cake.

There are many more uses for mayo in baking.

Americans tend to use mayo in sandwiches instead of butter.

I find the food very sweet it’s very hard to get plain food like crackers/cereals. bread is extremely sweet even in shops considered to sell healthier food.

my family who live there eat far less fresh vegetables

unless in a curry (which will have a ton of salt) and when using a sauce the food will be swimming in it rather than just a little on the side, Meat is smothered in flavoured seasoning when we have a bbq I separate mine and just at a little pepper, chilli and lemon maybe some garlic and I’m told it’s tasteless 😬

I crave plain food after being there for a week and will eat plain rice with a few steamed vegetables

we eat out quite a bit as it’s so cheap to and food is better quality do love In-n-Out Burger though

We have prepared meals in supermarkets, if that's what you mean by ready meals. This is from my local Italian supermarket. The meals are really good.

uncleg.com/departments/prepared-foods/

@Comedycook a friend and her H recently took their three grandchildren to a McDonald's drive through. The bill for the five of them came to just under $30.

That is not cheap by any reckoning.

........
An an aside, wrt McDonald's, am I the only one to notice the number of posters criticizing the quality of McDonald's food in the US? I would consider that a tautology.

It's also ironic when there's a comparison presented with British McDonald's on a thread despairing of the quality of food in the US. If someone is a connoisseur of McDonald's on both sides of the Atlantic maybe they're not the judge of cuisine they think they are.