15 things Americans eat that Foreigners hate

Cafe Society
41

A lot of folks try something like Denny’s grits and then think they don’t like them, which is a bit like eating instant noodles with margarine and deciding you don’t like pasta. Get some good yellow grits and slow-cook them with salt, adding a bit of cream and butter halfway through cooking, stirring in some sharp cheese, and then try them. If you don’t like them then, fair enough.

Whoever mentioned frying grits–while they can be fried, I’ve almost never had them that way. It’s a pretty rare preparation.

The dislike of peanut butter is understandable to me: it’s basically a greasy bean paste. I think it’s delicious, but it sounds kind of gross.

The dislike of pumpkin pie? What is WRONG with you philistines?

42

Sweet potato pie is superior to pumpkin pie in every conceivable way. The primary reason being because it contains no pumpkins.

43

Here’s my American take on this list:

Things I eat frequently:

Peanut butter (but it’s gotta be natural. Trader Joe’s creamy unsalted is my favorite)
Pumpkin Pie (I bake them frequently at this time of year)
White sandwich bread (but Arnold or Pepperidge Farm white, not the puffy Wonder Bread-type stuff)

Things I eat occasionally, but enjoy when I eat them:

Hot dogs (I’d eat them more often, but my wife can’t stand the smell of them cooking)
Red velvet cake (I’d eat this every day if it magically had no calories)
Grits (they go well with bacon and eggs)

Things I’ll eat if they’re served up, but don’t see the point in:

Sloppy Joes (why wouldn’t you just grill some burgers with that ground beef?)
Biscuits and gravy (I’d rather just have butter on that biscuit, not gravy)
Rootbeer Floats (IMHO, I’d rather have the ice cream and root beer separately)

Things I haven’t tried, and prefer it that way:

Frito pies (see comment below)
Corn dog (a hot dog, on a stick, covered with some sort of corn batter…nah, don’t get it)
Chicken fried steak (what sort of crappy steak is this, that you’d want to fry it like chicken?)

Things I’ve tried, and am done with:

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie (why would you ruin a perfectly good strawberry pie with something that’s got the texture of asparagus?)
Jello (kid stuff. Why would a grownup eat this?)

Additives I’d just as soon avoid:

Velveeta
Cheese Whiz

Frito pies: from the thread so far, I gather it’s like if you filled a bowl with Fritos, and poured chili over it, only instead of a bowl, you’re using the Fritos bag.

I could see crumbling some Fritos over chili the way people do with saltines (in fact, it would probably be an improvement over saltines), but that sort of density of Fritos in (and with my chili, mostly just under) the chili would really get in the way of eating the chili.

44

I’ve made my share of sweet potato pie, and I like it a lot. But given the choice, I’ll have pumpkin pie from canned pumpkins instead. Both of them are custard pies, and canned pumpkin leads to a smoother custard than even the best-cooked sweet potatoes. YMMV of course, but I like the texture better.

45

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 :smiley:

Ah, ok. I think I’ll stick to potato or pasta as my carb accompaniment.

46

To understand Frito Pie, it’s essential eating on a chilly November night in Texas while watching the local High School Football team. It’s the first thing I think of when I think about Friday nights as a kid when Dad would take us to the game.

47

Frito Pie in the bag is the cheap and convenient way people eat it if there’s no other way, but the majority of the time it’s in a bowl. The right consistency (for me) is about the same as nachos. You have a base of Fritos, then enough chili on top to cover but not make the fritos soggy, then cheese, onions, jalepenos, and sour cream. Each bit should be crispy and meaty. Just thinking about it tells me this is what I’m having for dinner tomorrow night. Yum.

  • while there’s a debate on chili with beans, Frito Pie is best served with no beans
48

To be fair, there is a LOT of really, really crappy pumpkin pie out there. I’ve yet to have a bite of a store-bought pumpkin pie that’s been worth a damn. And I’ve had homemade pumpkin pies that weren’t noticeably better.

The thing that’s really irritating is, it’s incredibly easy to make a good pumpkin pie. A store-bought deep-dish graham-cracker crust, and follow the recipe on the can of Libby’s pumpkin - but double the cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. (I also use a bit less than the full can of evaporated milk, which IMHO speeds the baking time and improves the texture. But that’s a minor point.)

49

I’d be okay dipping Fritos into a bowl of the rest of it. But dumping the sauce on the Fritos so it’s all a soggy mess sounds nasty to me.

50

Grits is just cornmeal porridge which is eaten under different names literally across the planet. The inclusion of grits on this list is nonsensical.

Others–like velveeta and cheese whiz–are reviled by all right thinking people, including Americans. Fake cheese is fucking horrible.

51

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.”)

52

OK, you know that it takes 2 minutes of work to make a cracker crust? I understand not wanting to go to the effort of making real pie dough, it’s a pain in the ass. That’s why cracker crusts were invented–smash some crackers, mix with melted butter, press into pan, toast for 5-10 minutes.

53

I also think cracker/cookie crusts taste better on a pumpkin pie. Either go for ginger snaps or the usual graham cracker. (I personally find the Libby’s spicing just fine in amounts, although I use a different mix. I prefer my pumpkin pies to taste of pumpkin with a hint of spice, not the other way around. This is probably the reason I hate most pumpkin beers, too. Too much pumpkin spice.)

54

Rootbeer Floats hate root beer and floats
Sloppy Joes never had
Velveeta it’s grand like
Hot dogs hurrah for hot dogs
Cheese Whiz never had this but my friend loves it
Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie never had this but sounds tasty
Pumpkin Pie incredible
Frito pies never had but sounds great. People in Ireland regularly eat crisp sandwiches.
Grits never had them
Corn dog never had them
Jello I love jelly and ice cream the odd time.
Chicken fried steak don’t think I’ve had this but it sounds nice
Red velvet cake not had this
White sandwich bread Like Wonderbread? If so yuck, too artificial.
Peanut butter There’s a myth that peanut butter is unavailable in Ireland. Perhaps that was true in the past but peanut butter is very common here. I love it.
Biscuits and gravy not had gravy but love biscuits

55

Fritos are fairly resistant to soaking so they tend to stay, if not crunchy, at least in one piece.

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. There’s just something about the combination of the salt, chili, and corn that just comes together.

For me, you have to have Fritos, chili, cheese, and onion- otherwise it doesn’t really work. I know, it sounds disgusting. It actually looks disgusting. But the flavors all work together.

56

I have a theory that the Europeans who want funky herbal flavors opt for the herbal liqueurs like Jagermeister or , and for whatever reason, in the US, that particular itch has been scratched by non-alcoholic root beer.

Frito pie is one of those things that is more than what it sounds like; I think the classic one is Fritos corn chips (not tortilla chips) and Wolf brand chili with no beans, along with shredded cheddar cheese. It’s kind of along the same lines as chili cheese fries, but with crunchy corn chips instead of fries.

57

Just remember that this is american-style biscuits, in case anyone is confused. And the gravy is usually crumbled pork sausage and white gravy. So it’s not fish fingers and custard level weird.

58

Or American-style poutine. :smiley:

59

I had root beer, and sarsaparilla as a kid in the UK; admittedly not as a float, but I guess as we don’t really get much hot weather, icy cold drinks just aren’t as big a thing. Jelly is a must at any UK children’s party, strawberry and rhubarb is my favourite fruit combo, peanut butter is an everyday food…

As for the rest, I’m a vegetarian cheese snob personally, but we have our fair share of fake cheese, hotdogs, suspicious snack foods and plastic bread. It’s not classy here either, but I can’t think that people ‘hate’ them. They sell.

The only one really unavailable in the UK is pumpkin pie, and that sounds pretty good to me. The sweet potato pie I made last week certainly got the thumbs up from both my housemates, and apparently that’s pretty similar. Oh, and biscuits and gravy. Probably because people would think something very different. Custard cream and bisto?!

60

Yeah, that one is probably on the list only because people didn’t understand what it meant. This is what Americans mean: Biscuits and Gravy Recipe