To be more than a Lidl appalled?

[SurelyTheyCanDoALidlBetter]

I'm a regular Lidl shopper, and particularly enjoy sampling the delicacies on offer during their various world food weeks. Interestingly shaped pasta? Of course. Sushi with all the accompanying sauces? Yes please. Wines from around the world? Into the trolley they go.

But this week is American food week, and I just can't.

Caveat: I myself am American. But surely Lidl could have come up with better offerings than marshmallows, peanut butter, pickles, Duff beer, and frozen hot dog pockets? Where is the cobb salad? Pot roast? Jambalaya? Grits? Clam chowder? Apple pie?!

The lack of proper food on offer during their America week is just embarrassing.

Am I wrong in thinking this is only a problem for American food, or are all of Lidl's food weeks filled with the junkiest options from every country and I just don't realise?

Given that you’re American you have presumably been in the ‘British food’ aisle at Meijer/Walmart? Baked beans, wine gums, and Ribena basically…

Fact is I don’t think any Japanese person looks at Lidl supermarket sushi and thinks ‘wow so authentic!’ Where is the tempura? The fresh fish? The rich katsu curry? And when I went to Rome I definitely wasn’t eating the ravioli Lidl sells in packets. Basically you’re happy to enjoy watered down caricatures of other cultures but feel annoyed when it’s yours.

Grits are horrible, like porridge

I think YABU because, having lived in America, most of the things you listed are cooked from scratch and not available on the shelves of the supermarket. I mean, tins of clam chowder could be doable but we'd struggle with importing them to Europe due to the price of clams TBF.

I eat most things that anyone else eats, I've lived here a long time. Jacket potatoes with beans tonight!

Thanksgiving dinner is very similar to Christmas dinner, in that it's a roast with trimmings that are usually decided via family tradition.

Biscuits and gravy is a savoury breakfast and/or side dish, from the south. The biscuits are more like savoury scones, and the gravy is sort of a bread sauce, spicy, and with with minced beef.

Grits are served with fried eggs.

And of course they could sell apple pies or meat and veg for meatloaf - but Lidl already sell those things year round! The point here is it’s supposed to be a gimmick and so they need to sell things they don’t normally sell.

I agree American week is awful! My DH is American, last year I popped in to see if they had anything he would like but they didn’t. Most of it is stuff you can buy in the UK easily anyway.

Oh I love the American style pancakes that they sell in the European country I live in during American week but other than that, it is complete rubbish, agreed!

I mean I suppose second-rate quick cook parboiled rice "gumbo" out of a box was a convenience food I sampled in America that Lidl could offer but I'm glad they don't

Definitely Greek week here

An abomination. A sort of weird savouriy porridge side dish in the South made from cornmeal.

Biscuits are basically savoury scones.

Apple pie isn't particularly American, it's a bloody weird saying.

Personbally I think the Reuben sandwich is a great American contribution to food.

Great thread title, OP. Made me grin.

Some friends and us used to have dinner parties years ago based on a cuisine - we did Indian, Middle Eastern, Italian etc. One time we thought we'd do American. We made home made baked beans, fried chicken, corn bread... can't remember if I did a dessert. Drinks? Bourbon and coke!

Now none of us is American or knew any Americans well or had travelled to America - but I tried to find actual American recipes.
By the end of the night I felt ILL. And so much worse the next day. So buzzed on sugar and fat and salt with additional alcohol, it was gross.

Help me, op - what was I doing wrong? What should I have made instead for a more balanced meal that didn't feel like self-harm?!

That was my guess too from the list you gave, OP - they sound like the dishes you’d make, rather than the things you’d pick up ready made from the supermarket. And I guess the ingredients are just normal ones - same as fancy shaped pasta and nice Italian sauces or antipasti you buy and combine yourself into decent meals? Not sure! Or perhaps it’s easier / cheaper to import fresh ready meal type things from Italy than america?

I think the main issue is that Lidl don't really sell that many branded products and American food is branded to the hilt and consequently can't really be represented very well in a discount food shop especially when you factor in import tax - just look at the price of Snapple in other supermarkets.

But I'm a sucker for corn dogs

I believe they're like scones or sometimes we call them cobblers.

Thank you! And yes. The "food" is neither imaginative nor unique.

I take the point from a PP about watered down culture, but I still feel defensive that the best people can come up with for American food is utter shite. At least you can make meals out of the foods available during other country's weeks.

I once went to an outstanding American restaurant (selling American food) in New York called Deborah.

The thing I love most about American food in general, though, is Mexican food. 😁

Back home in Germany, the Lidl British week offers cheddar cheese, baked beans and Worcester sauce. It absolutely flies off the shelves.
They are all things that people in the UK eat regularly.

Lidl’s theme weeks are variable in quality. Spanish week is always a massive hit among the Iberian contingent in my office. They all love stocking up on authentic gazpacho, picos, jamon, queso, churros etc. German week is, unsurprisingly, also excellent, but American week is by far the worst. I would love to buy some USDA Prime steaks, proper crunchy Cheetos, authentic hot dog weiners etc but it’s all rubbish so I never buy anything.

Iberian week is fabulous and I love the tortelli di zucca in Italian week too.

American will start on Thursday. If you have the app you will see the next flier there

I was in Italy a few years ago for British Week..... it was hilarious!!!

Out of interest, the British week in European Lidls features cheddar/Stilton, shortbread biscuits, millionaires shortbread slices (not great but completely addictive), teabags, jams (including blackcurrant, excitingly!) and marmalade, mini cheesecakes and beers, not much else!

yup you can get it at universal studios as well as other places, ive tried the non alcohol version and its just an energy drink

Did they invent Duff beer after the Simpsons, or did it already exist?