To adore American food and snacks? Please share your favourites

[giantwaterbottle]

I don't actually think I'm unreasonable though my husband does!

Americans please tell me about your favourite American meal or snack, or even better, both!

Hamburger helper:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_Helper
Seems to be instead of breadcrumbs

Correction, it's more for minced beef dishes (I think they call minced beef "hamburger". Or am I making that up?

They sell abusers pretzel prices in my local shop aswell as Cheetos flaming hot

That should say snyders bloody spell check

I'm afraid I found the snacks and other popular foods in the US too artificial - plastic "cheese", artificial "cream" (kool whip, I think it was called), revolting vegetable fats called "shortening", horrible hypersweet "cakes" (do Twinkies still exist?), disgusting donuts, nasty overly sweetened candy and chocolate bars and, to cap it all, virtually everything covered in peanuts!

I didn’t eat most of that either growing up in the US. Never liked twinkies. Saying that, I feel the same about the store-bought cakes in England. They’re overly sweet here too that I just bake my own and end up cutting out 3/4 of the sugar. I will say though I do prefer the Krispy Kreme donuts here over the ones in the States.

Can’t recall if I mentioned this, but I miss the McDonalds’s grilled chicken snack wraps which were half the size of the U.K. McDonald’s wraps last time I had them. I wish the U.K. offered grilled chicken ones.

Minced beef is 'ground beef'.

...they refer to these processed, packaged foods as if they were a “real” food/ ingredient. I can’t explain what I mean! They said something like “Oreos” or “twinkies” as if they are saying “carrots” or “rice” or something.

Surely it would be like saying digestives in a recipe, e.g. for cheesecake that involves a crumb crust? Or ginger snaps - nobody expects you to bake your own before putting them into your blender.

I've never eaten a Twinkie or anything made with Hamburger Helper. I do love a Krispy Kreme on a weekend morning, though, a legacy of growing up in the Southern US (for many years, they were only available in the South). My dad would get up early on Saturday mornings so he could bring us warm doughnuts fresh from the Krispy Kreme bakery conveniently located about a mile from our house.

@mathanxiety

Minced beef is 'ground beef'.

It's also commonly referred to as hamburger meat, since that's what it's most often used for.

I bouth some ground sirloin at the posh Italian supermarket this morning. Sometimes the specific cut of meat is named, like ground round, ground chuck, etc.

I'm wondering if that's a Southern thing? My exMIL, now 88, used to call it 'hamburger'.

YY to 'ground round', 'ground chuck' in supermarkets, though they also mention the percentage of fat/lean on the packaging around here.

They don’t sell Krispy Kreme donuts anywhere near me here in the US, but my sister buys them at her local Tesco in Scotland.

My New York cousins call it chop meat. It seems to be quite regional.

-An apple fritter from Albertson's grocery store
-Taco bell- just the simple bean burrito and crunchy taco from my childhood though
-Ranch dressing
-American breakfast: hash browns, bacon, pancakes
-Freshly brewed iced tea available everywhere with no sweeteners, although most people add their own sweetener
-Grape jelly (Jam)
-Candy cane ice cream in winter
-Honey baked ham bought from the official store
-Proper Californian Mexican food
-Red Hots ( spicy cinnamon candy)
-Saltwater taffy ( peppermint flavour)
-Wintergreen lifesavers
-Monterey Jack cheese
-Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
-Strawberries and cream flavoured instant oatmeal
-Wendy's Frosty

• In and Out Burger

( I'm veggie now so half of these foods are destined to only be fond memories)

I live in Maryland so everything is about blue crabs (which are smaller than European brown crabs so fussier to eat) and Old Bay seasoning, which is a bit of an acquired taste!

I love American baked goods when they're properly made and fresh not packaged supermarket crap. Also down South, there's so many styles of BBQ and they're all good but different. I love real Mexican food, too.

Also down South, there's so many styles of BBQ and they're all good but different.

Yes indeed. The key ingredient in real barbecue is wood smoke. If you don't have smoke, you don't have barbecue. Low and slow over wood smoke (and indirect heat), preferably a whole hog cooked in a pit in the ground, North Carolina style.

The main differences are meat (pork in the Southeast and beef in Texas) and sauce. My favorite sauce is Eastern North Carolina vinegar based sauce. Supposedly this particular sauce is one of the oldest varieties and was developed by Scottish settlers.

By the way, cooking things like burgers and steaks on a grill outside is not barbecue. It's just grilling or as we say in the Southern US, a "cook-out."

Another vote for peanut butter M&Ms.

And before, I would have said ranch dressing. Now I make it. Sooo much nicer. The powder is just rank in comparison.

barefeetinthekitchen.com/homemade-ranch-salad-dressing/

Ooooooo! Chef Paul Prodholme magic seasonings! Poultry magic is my favourite... I came home from Hawaii with 15 jars 😂😂😂

@knitnerd90

I live in Maryland so everything is about blue crabs (which are smaller than European brown crabs so fussier to eat) and Old Bay seasoning, which is a bit of an acquired taste!

I love American baked goods when they're properly made and fresh not packaged supermarket crap. Also down South, there's so many styles of BBQ and they're all good but different. I love real Mexican food, too.

Old Bay Seasoning. My parents love this. They bring over a couple of small tubs of it every time they go to the states.

Almond M&M's
Everything at IHOP

I have old bay in my cupboard, good old Amazon!

Forgive me, but aren’t Reese’s Pieces basically the same thing as Peanut Butter M&Ms?

I’ve never tried the latter so forgive my ignorance but... sounds like they’d be pretty similar.

@80sMum Oh do tell-the water is polluted and nasty in America,right? There, I corrected your statement to match the overall tone of your diatribe

[quote EKGEMS]@80sMum Oh do tell-the water is polluted and nasty in America,right? There, I corrected your statement to match the overall tone of your diatribe [/quote]
No, I never had any problems with the water in the two years that I lived there. As far as I am aware, all tap water in the US is safe to drink.
I didn't like a lot of the food though, for the reasons given.

@AngeloMysterioso, the peanut butter in Reese's Pieces is far less cloyingly sweet than the PB in M&Ms. It's also slightly grainy.

Tap water in the US has problems - mainly lead in old municipal pipes and pipes in old buildings is an issue in urban areas, but also local outbreaks of bacterial contamination due to occasional problems with filtration. Many people buy bottled water. I use a filter system for drinking water in my home.