# 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:** 7
**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, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/121 "2014-12-05T01:09:51Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Frito pie is good. Especially with a dollop of sour cream. Well la ti da! Aren’t we fancy? Plain ole Frito pie not good enough for you? 😛 I loves me some Frito pie. Everything on the list is quite yummy. Chicken-fried steak, grits and biscuits & gravy are a go-to breakfast for me (about twice a year). ---
**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, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/122 "2014-12-05T01:12:03Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I assume “chicken fried” means battered and fried in oil. Beats me. 🙂 You know, looking online, it seems chicken fried steak can be either breaded or battered, so you’re right (or at least not wrong. 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/123 "2014-12-05T01:14:33Z")
I love most of things on that list. Corn Dogs? Love 'em. Biscuits and Gravy? Hell Yes! Chicken Fried Steak? Yes, please! It’s like a dream menu at my new favorite restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/124 "2014-12-05T01:19:45Z")
> [@chiroptera](#): > > [Spotted Dick](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick) isn’t made with peanut butter. Yes I know, I was commenting on the poster taking the name of the food literally. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/125 "2014-12-05T01:25:31Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Bolding mine. > > What the fuck does that mean? Where do get the idea it is a “Mormon food” (whatever that means)? Jell-o is for everybody! I made Jell-o for Thanksgiving. There’s always room for Jell-o! I was at a conference in the SLC convention center. At lunch they served Jello for desert. I’ve never seen at at any of the zillions of conferences I’ve been at. I think Utah is the #1 Jello market per capita. So Mormons appear to love Jello far beyond anyone else. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/126 "2014-12-05T01:27:45Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Slightly related: > > Here’s a youtube page with videos of people, mostly Americans, trying snacks from countries not their own. > > [https://www.youtube.com/results?search\_query=americans+try+japanese+snacks](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=americans+try+japanese+snacks) > > I was told that in America jelly is made from the juice of a fruit and jam is made from the fruit. I’m not sure what they are made from, but in the US jam, jelly and Jello are quite distinct. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/127 "2014-12-05T01:40:08Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Chicken fried steak - Battered and fried ground beef patty smothered in gravy. I can see how that would be weird if you didn’t grow up around it. The chicken fried steak I’ve had in Texas has been actual steak, though a cheap cut as mentioned above. Salisbury Steak is a ground beef patty in gravy - I assume battered, though the only ones I’ve eaten were in Swanson TV dinners when I was a kid. Takes me back. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/128 "2014-12-05T01:40:42Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > I make a mean chili. And I mean “mean”- it’s got habaneros, orange, chocolate, and is simmered for 24 hours- it’s damn good. But the best way to eat it is as Frito Pie. Orange, eh? That’s new and interesting. Beans yes, tomatoes no, right? How about cinnamon? ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/129 "2014-12-05T01:40:58Z")
Strangely enough, the best corn dog I’ve ever had was from that cart at Disneyland where the line’s always twenty or thirty people long. ---
**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, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/130 "2014-12-05T01:45:28Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > To me, as a Brit, rhubarb pie is great. What seems a bit odd and redundant (though not in the least gross) is to mix strawberries in there too. > > Anyway, I think strawberry-rhubarb pie must be a very regional thing in the USA. I spent over 20 years living in the USA (mostly, but not exclusively, in Southern California) and never came across it. 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. > > Where do they have strawberry-rhubarb pie in the States? If I had known it existed, I would probably have tried to get some. Well, you can find it in my kitchen a few times each spring, during strawberry and rhubarb season… I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it commercially, but I’ve had it served a lots of people’s homes. It’s an easy pie to make, and fairly popular. Personally, I prefer blueberry or blackberry or cherry pies, but strawberry-rhubarb is tasty enough. I live in the northeast. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/131 "2014-12-05T01:47:05Z")
My husband is always disgusted whenever I make a PB&J sandwich. I never thought of that as particularly American, but the first time I made one he almost had a stroke. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/132 "2014-12-05T01:48:00Z")
Frito Pie–back in the days after WWII–was kiddy camp food. You went off to summer camp and opened a single serving bag of fritos and someone ladled a serving of chili made over a camp fire into the bag. The fritos kept you from getting burned, and the chili was hot enough to melt the cheese on top (onions and jalapenos optional). It was kid food. And probably invented in Texas where the Fritos were invented. Anyway, I can remember eating frito pie in the early fifties in Texas. Why all the hate I don’t know. It’s not gourmet food. It’s something people throw together when they don’t want to haul paper plates in and out of a campground and they have to feed forty kids. PS Strawberry rhubarb pie is very nice. I used to make it. There is a frozen commercial version that is not to my personal taste. It’s also brightly colored red and if properly handled could substitute for body parts in a horror movie. Homemade strawberry rhubarb pie is tasty and more pinkish. I’ve also made a strawberry rhubarb compote that is a fine summer desert if chilled. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/133 "2014-12-05T01:58:24Z")
I must say the Sloppy Joe sounded rather gross until someone up-thread pointed out its much the same a shepherds pie but with no potato topping. Which leads me on to the Meat Pie which enjoys a similar popularity in Australia and New Zealand. This is a hand sized pastry case filled with minced beef which is traditionally munched upon while watching sports matches or anywhere you fancy. Hamburgers have stolen some of the gastronomic ground latterly. For a truely rich experience there is the mutton pie and the pork pie. [http://www.odt.co.nz/files/story/2013/05/photo\_by\_odt\_\_51a5ee9340.JPG](http://www.odt.co.nz/files/story/2013/05/photo_by_odt__51a5ee9340.JPG) ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/134 "2014-12-05T02:04:43Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The chicken fried steak I’ve had in Texas has been actual steak, though a cheap cut as mentioned above. Salisbury Steak is a ground beef patty in gravy - I assume battered, though the only ones I’ve eaten were in Swanson TV dinners when I was a kid. Takes me back. Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever had a battered and fried actual steak. Chicken Fried and Salisbury to me is the same thing. When I was stationed in Texas I was amazed at the steak. Steak everything. Go to to a steakhouse and every course is steak. Steak appetizer, steak side dish along with the steak main course with a steak-only salad and a nice glass of steak wine. Steak pie for dessert. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/135 "2014-12-05T02:07:34Z")
American, living in Asia. “Hot dogs” are kind of popular here in China, but they are not the kind we eat in America. They are liquid meat inside a thick (sometimes plastic) skin that you suck out of it, unheated. I actually found some Johnsonville Brats at a local store once, but they never re-ordered it so I can’t get them on any kind of predictable basis. The same store does sell what it calls “Polish sausages.” They have too much garlic, which is actually the only good thing I can say about them. “Jell-O” would be hard to make from scratch, as gelatin is derived from cattle hide. I would recommend buying commercial packets. Pumpkin products are popular in Korea. I don’t recall eating pumpkin pie there, but it’s probably available. There is an island in the East Sea (or “Sea of Japan” if you’re not Korean) called Uellong-do, where they grow a lot of pumpkins and make every imaginable kind of pumpkin treat, soap, and probably liquor. Their other specialty is squid. The docks of their main city have acres of caught squid hanging out to cure/dry and it looks like some sort of squid holocaust atrocity. Every restaurant without exception sells squid specialties. The island’s anime-style mascots are “Squid Boy” and “Pumpkin Girl.” The American food I miss the most over here is canned chili. I can do without the Fritos, though. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/136 "2014-12-05T02:14:36Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Jello (kid stuff. Why would a grownup eat this?) Preparing for a colonoscopy, that’s why. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/137 "2014-12-05T02:21:11Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > For a truely rich experience there is the mutton pie and the pork pie. > > [http://www.odt.co.nz/files/story/2013/05/photo\_by\_odt\_\_51a5ee9340.JPG](http://www.odt.co.nz/files/story/2013/05/photo_by_odt__51a5ee9340.JPG) That’s either a tiny pie or a huge ketchup bottle. ---
**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, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/138 "2014-12-05T02:23:09Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever had a battered and fried actual steak. Chicken Fried and Salisbury to me is the same thing. Yeah, the chicken fried steak I’ve had has always been something like cube steak or just plain round steak. Chicken fried and salisbury are different in a couple of ways (Salisbury is usually not breaded or battered. It’s basically just meatloaf in the shape of a patty.) ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/139 "2014-12-05T02:42:57Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > I must say the Sloppy Joe sounded rather gross until someone up-thread pointed out its much the same a shepherds pie but with no potato topping. I’d say it’s more of a really cheap reddish minced beef spaghetti sauce with extra sugar and maybe chili spices, slopped over a hamburger bun. To me, Shepherds pie is like a thick stew with mashed potatoes on top and baked. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307/140 "2014-12-05T03:13:21Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Frito pie is not too dissimilar to a taco salad, especially the heavy tomato kind. Heck, I’ve seen taco salads with a chili dressing. > > In a tomato sauce, but yeah. Wait, what? Frito pie is nothing like taco salad, in my experience. Do you not put lettuce in your salad? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-things-americans-eat-that-foreigners-hate/706307.md?page=8)