# 15 things Americans eat that Foreigners hate **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 4, 2014, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307 "2014-12-04T12:38:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/181 "2014-12-05T15:05:35Z")
Rootbeer Floats - I’ve never had root beer, but it’s pretty easy to get hold of in the UK (supermarkets and candy stores with international sections usually have A&W). The idea of ice cream in soda makes me gag though. That acidity and the milk together? No thanks. Sloppy Joes - Never had one, but they seem pretty inoffensive. Velveeta - I always thought this was cream cheese, but apparently not. It looks like a solid block of those plastic-wrapped artificial cheese slices. Gross. Hot dogs - yum. How can you not like them? Cheese Whiz - we have something similar called Primula, which comes in a toothpaste tube. Absolutely vile. Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie - rhubarb pie is nice, and I’m sure it’s just as good with some strawberries mixed in. Pumpkin Pie - over here, we only buy pumpkins to carve them for Halloween. I’m not convinced that they’re edible… they’re so slimey and they smell so bad. I suspect that Americans made up pumpkin pie as a prank on foreigners, like Australians made up drop bears. Frito pies - I hadn’t heard of it before this thread, but it sounds basically the same as nachos with chilli, which is awesome. Grits - looks like a really nasty plain bowl of porridge. Is it gritty like the name suggests? Ew. Never seen it over here - even in the US, it’s pretty much a Deep South thing right? Corn dog - personally I don’t like batter, but they seem pretty inoffensive. Jello - who doesn’t like jello? Delicious, low in calories, and good for your hair and nails. Unless we’re talking about those 1950s jello salads, in which case run for the hills! Chicken fried steak - the name is really confusing. How can it be chicken and steak at the same time?! Ok, I’ve looked it up…the steak looks really dry and unappetising, and what the hell, has someone thrown up on top of them? That’s some nasty, congealed-looking sauce. Red velvet cake - it’s been all over the place the past few years. I’ve never eaten it because I can’t have gluten, but it looks nice. White sandwich bread - every country in the world has this right? Grew up on it. Bland, mushy and vastly inferior to wholemeal. And the gluten-free variety is even worse. Peanut butter - I like peanut butter, but the American stuff is far too sweet and artificial. Peanut butter should be nothing more than peanuts, oil and salt. And it needs to be crunchy. Also, why does 90% of American chocolate contain peanut butter? It’s gross, the flavours don’t go together at all. Biscuits and gravy - ewwwwwwwwwwww. That vomit stuff looks even worse than the one on the chicken fried steak. Do people actually eat this? Also, I had no idea that American gravy was different from ours. Ours is brown and doesn’t have…chunks…in it. The biscuits look fine though…they would probably be nice with melted cheese. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/182 "2014-12-05T15:34:51Z")
Those “chunks” are usually little bits of sausage and they help make it positively dreamy. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/183 "2014-12-05T15:44:53Z")
Add me to the “yuck” camp for biscuits and gravy. It seems like you take perfectly good biscuits, and then make them soggy by pouring a nasty gravy which would be a flavorless white sauce except that someone crumbled pork sausage into it. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/184 "2014-12-05T16:00:22Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Add me to the “yuck” camp for biscuits and gravy. It seems like you take perfectly good biscuits, and then make them soggy by pouring a nasty gravy which would be a flavorless white sauce except that someone crumbled pork sausage into it. This is my wifes opinion too. I can take em or leave em. I like variety with my breakfast. I would like to see biscuits and gravy more of a side item. Maybe just one instead of sausage or something. A whole plateful seems a bit much. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/185 "2014-12-05T16:17:21Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Indeed, the only time I came across rhubarb at all was when I once found some canned rhubarb pie filling in the specialty _British Imports_ section of one (non-chain) supermarket. I bought it, because I rather missed rhubarb, which I had come to believe it was (like, say, Marmite or Golden Syrup) just not an American thing. Rhubarb is fairly ubiquitous in the northern Great Plains. It seems every one, including me, has a patch in their yard. It’s pretty much weed-like in that it’s very easy to grow and it seems to be everywhere. Also a lot of people have strawberry patches. And thus one of the greatest culinary creations every comes together. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/186 "2014-12-05T16:26:10Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Add me to the “yuck” camp for biscuits and gravy. It seems like you take perfectly good biscuits, and then make them soggy by pouring a nasty gravy which would be a flavorless white sauce except that someone crumbled pork sausage into it. Pork sausage, and lots of black pepper . . . yum! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/187 "2014-12-05T16:35:54Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > Pork sausage, and lots of black pepper . . . yum! That’s the key. You have to pepper the gravy to within an inch of its life. Properly made biscuits & gravy are what they serve in Heaven. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/188 "2014-12-05T16:38:43Z")
> [@Kiyoshi](#): > > Also, I had no idea that American gravy was different from ours. Ours is brown and doesn’t have…chunks…in it. The biscuits look fine though…they would probably be nice with melted cheese. We have many different types of gravy. Generically, gravy is usually something like [this](http://www.simplyrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2005/12/gravy-web.jpg). But for chicken fried steak or biscuits and gravy, it’s a white gravy (basically, a type of bechamel), often with sausage especially in the case of biscuits and gravy. You will sometimes specifically hear this referred to as “sausage gravy.” There is also the term “sawmill gravy” which seems to span a couple of variations, some including sausage, some not, but generally being white gravies with a heft dose of pepper at the base. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/189 "2014-12-05T16:47:05Z")
Made a fresh pumpkin pie this year. The hardest part was scooping out the seeds, which my wife then separated, salted and roasted. Once that’s done, you cut the pumpkin in half, roast it cut side down for an hour or so, and scoop out the flesh, which practically scoops itself. Granted, it’s harder than opening a can, but the level of difficulty is about a 2 of 10. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/190 "2014-12-05T16:59:24Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Orange, eh? That’s new and interesting. Beans yes, tomatoes no, right? How about cinnamon? I usually put beans in it, which makes my wife mad- she prefers her chili without beans, I like mine to be more of a stew- and I do occasionally use stewed tomatoes. I also use beer (usually Shiner Bock) for the moisture- it normally works out to about five bottles of beer over the course of the 24 hour simmer. I haven’t tried cinnamon- that’s not a bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/191 "2014-12-05T17:27:07Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > I guess that’s going to depend on what part of the world you are in. It’s very common in the UK, has been all my 40 odd years, as a (savoury) spread for toast or sandwiches, although perhaps something more for kids and students than adult food. Perhaps we just don’t eat it as much as you do. After all, we have marmite 😃 Yeah. Over the past decade and a half I’ve seen it written here countless times that Europeans don’t like peanut butter. To be frank, that’s absolute bollocks. Peanut butter is widely available here. As a Brit I had it loads as a kid and will happily eat it out of the jar. Here in Sweden it is easy to find. What we get confused by is the addition of jam/jelly/whatever. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/192 "2014-12-05T17:28:22Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, there’s some odd ones in there. The “chicken fried steak,” especially, since it’s basically just a schnitzel made of beef instead of veal (or pork). I guess I could understand pumpkin pie but, in my experience, when we had Thanksgiving overseas, the non-Americans would gobble up the pumpkin pie as much, if not moreso, than the Americans. Root beer, though, yeah, that one is an acquired taste. And hot dogs? Really? No shortage of hot dogs that I saw throughout Europe, although they may go under a different name (though in Hungary, they were sold as “hot dogs.”) I am pretty sure IKEA sells dirt cheap hotdogs worldwide. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/193 "2014-12-05T17:29:34Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > I haven’t tried cinnamon- that’s not a bad idea. You should give this a try. I sometimes eat it with macaroni (elbow, not spaghetti) for Chili Mac, but usually I use it to top chili cheese dogs. [http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cincinnati-chili-i/](http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cincinnati-chili-i/) > **[Cincinnati chili](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_chili)** > > Cincinnati chili (or Cincinnati-style chili) is a Mediterranean-spiced meat sauce used as a topping for spaghetti or hot dogs ("coneys"); both dishes were developed by immigrant restaurateurs in the 1920s. Its name evokes comparison to chili con carne, but the two are dissimilar in consistency, flavor, and serving method; Cincinnati chili more closely resembles Greek pasta sauces and spiced-meat hot dog topping sauces seen in other parts of the United States. > Ingredients include ground beef... ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/194 "2014-12-05T17:34:41Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > What we get confused by is the addition of jam/jelly/whatever. Be advised that “jelly” here is just jam without the fruity chunks, not what Americans would call “Jell-O.” PB&J sandwiches are wonderful. My favorites are with blackberry, Concord grape, pineapple, and strawberry jams (not all together). I’ll use plain jelly in a pinch, but jam makes them so much better! It also helps if you add a thin layer of sweet dairy butter to the sandwich. :o ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/195 "2014-12-05T17:46:04Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > Pork sausage, and lots of black pepper . . . yum! And the sausage is flavored with sage. Sage, ground cloves, and brown sugar. (I like to add some crushed red pepper flakes, too.) :o I don’t know if people outside of North Am know that what we call “breakfast sausage” is often just the ground pork mixed with spices and not packed into casings. Those are what we would call “sausage links.” The former is often shaped into “sausage patties” (like little hamburgers) or “sizzlers” (like links, but with no casing). It’s the ground-up meat that’s used to make sausage gravy after it’s browned in a skillet with some minced onion. Then add milk, salt, and pepper, and stir in some flour intil it’s as thick as you want. It’s done when it bubbles. Sausage patties and sizzlers are wonderful eaten with hot buttered pancakes smothered in real maple syrup … mmmmmmmmmmmm! :o ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/196 "2014-12-05T19:16:07Z")
> [@chiroptera](#): > > Late 1960s through early-mid 1970s UK: > > We used to buy Jello (or jelly, whatever) in bricks broken down into solid cubes you could break off. The idea was to mix with boiling water to create jelly/jello but us pre-teen girls would eat it plain because it was supposed to contribute to long nails. > > Please someone tell me I am not the only person to remember this. You’re not. We had the same commercials in America for Knox gelatin. I feel grossed out now to remember that when I was a pre-teen I was taken in by that too. The Knox people directed us to mix with hot water and drink it like some demented kind of instant cow-hoof tea. I don’t remember any notable improvement to my nails. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/197 "2014-12-05T19:32:30Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Be advised that “jelly” here is just jam without the fruity chunks, not what Americans would call “Jell-O.” > > PB&J sandwiches are wonderful. My favorites are with blackberry, Concord grape, pineapple, and strawberry jams (not all together). > > I’ll use plain jelly in a pinch, but jam makes them so much better! It also helps if you add a thin layer of sweet dairy butter to the sandwich. :o Technically, Jelly is a spread made of fruit juice thickened with pectin. Jam is made from whole fruit and pectin. That’s why it has “lumps” Fruit preserves and things like Polaner All-Fruit are like fancy jams, using the fruit and maybe less pectin. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/198 "2014-12-05T19:41:22Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > You’re not. We had the same commercials in America for Knox gelatin. I feel grossed out now to remember that when I was a pre-teen I was taken in by that too. The Knox people directed us to mix with hot water and drink it like some demented kind of instant cow-hoof tea. I don’t remember any notable improvement to my nails. I remember my mother doing this back in the '60s. I always thought it was really weird too. The gelatin she drank (also Knox) came in granulated form, in boxed packets. Not as bricks. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/199 "2014-12-05T20:21:29Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Yeah. Over the past decade and a half I’ve seen it written here countless times that Europeans don’t like peanut butter. > > To be frank, that’s absolute bollocks. > > Peanut butter is widely available here. As a Brit I had it loads as a kid and will happily eat it out of the jar. Here in Sweden it is easy to find. What we get confused by is the addition of jam/jelly/whatever. I had peanut butter occasionally as a kid in the UK, but I did not like it much. I think though, that that was because my mother treated it as a spread in its own right, and gave me just bread with peanut butter on it. When I was bit older, though, and living by myself, I suddenly twigged (from US TV shows) that the thing that was so popular in America was not bread with peanut butter on it, but bread with peanut butter and jam (what Americans call jelly). I decided to give that a try, and found that it was very good. Not only did the combination taste far better, but the jam acted to prevent the peanut butter from getting stuck to the roof of my mouth, or around my teeth, as it tends to do otherwise. So, I think Americans actually have it right here. Peanut butter definitely _should_ be eaten with jam. On a somewhat similar note, the first time I ate breakfast in an American diner, I was somewhat flabbergasted when my bacon, sausages and “French toast” arrived together with a small pot of maple syrup. However, I decided to give it a try, and found, rather to my surprise, that the combination was actually pretty good. Americans seem to have discovered that sweet and savory together, can actually, sometimes, work. But yeah, peanut butter is common enough in Europe. It is not such a staple as it is in America, and perhaps some Europeans, like my mum, don’t realize that it really needs that jam, but, even though not everyone may like it, it is not something that is widely reviled. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/200 "2014-12-05T20:50:36Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I had peanut butter occasionally as a kid in the UK, but I did not like it much. I think though, that that was because my mother treated it as a spread in its own right, and gave me just bread with peanut butter on it. When I was bit older, though, and living by myself, I suddenly twigged (from US TV shows) that the thing that was so popular in America was not bread with peanut butter on it, but bread with peanut butter and jam (what Americans call jelly). I decided to give that a try, and found that it was very good. Not only did the combination taste far better, but the jam acted to prevent the peanut butter from getting stuck to the roof of my mouth, or around my teeth, as it tends to do otherwise. So, I think Americans actually have it right here. Peanut butter definitely _should_ be eaten with jam. > > . Actually, if you lived in the US in the 1980s, you’d know from Annette Funicello that peanut butter by itself on bread is good (She was the spokesperson for Jif peanut butter then --“Coosy mothers choose Jif!”. If you’ve ever seen the movie **Back to the Beach** , this explains why her character was so gung-ho on peanut butter sandwiches.) I LIKE just peanut butter on bread, without jelly, myself. _De gustibus non disputandum est_, I guess. Another advantage of using peanut butter with jelly is that, if you put peanut butter on both slices of bread, and sandwich the jelly (or jam) between them, the jam/jelly won’t soak into the bread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307.md?page=11)