# American foodstuffs - a few questions **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 8, 2001, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736 "2001-07-08T21:30:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/81 "2001-07-11T08:17:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Biggirl \* > \*\*Can blintzes be found in the UK? (Sweetened cream cheese inside and cherry sauce on the side) > > What do you eat at fairs, or midways (I’m not sure what you would call them.) My favorite fair foods are corncakes (2 sorta like cornbreadish type patties with mozzarella cheese in between, grilled) and funnel cake (fried dough with sugar) \*\* No, I’ve never seen blintzes for sale here (I believe they are some sort of pancake, related to Blinis?) - are they made using buckwheat? I’m afraid that the food offered at funfairs over here is rather base, consisting mainly of: Burgers Hot dogs Candy floss (cotton candy?) Mountains of confectionery (nougat, toffee, fudge, plus loads of hard sugar stuff) Doughnuts (fried rings of batter dumped in sugar, sounds a bit like your funnel cakes)… …Unless it’s a funfair at a seaside resort, in which case all kinds of seafood might also be offered (whelks, cockles, mussels, dressed crab, prawns\*, oh and of course fish and chips) \*UK ‘Prawns’ = USA ‘Shrimps’ USA ‘Prawns’ = UK ‘King Prawns’ (I think) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/82 "2001-07-11T08:22:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hanofer \* > \*\*Hmmm. Sounds similar to these: > > [Aplets and Cotlets](http://www.libertyorchards.com). \*\* I couldn’t find any details of the exact ingredients for these, but it looks like they are maybe made from (or including) fruit puree? ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/83 "2001-07-11T12:40:17Z")
From the UK. Am I right in thinking that cinnamon is a much more popular flavour for things in the US. Can you get a cinnamon fudge in the US? ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/84 "2001-07-11T12:41:15Z")
Doughnuts are cut into circles before hand; funnel cakes are freehand, abstract, and much larger. What about these? Hominy Maple syrup Blueberries or cranberries Corn relish and pickled watermelon rind Cream of Wheat Lite beer (bleh!) And you are a deprived people if you can’t get Indian tacos. Most of the United States is deprived, so I know you don’t have these. Warm fry bread topped with pinto beans, seasoned ground beef, lettuce, tomato, and rat cheese. Yum! And on a final note, I am close to posting a pit thread for all these idiots uttering the _ **BLASPHEMY** _ that chocolate can ever be bad tasting. For shame! ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/85 "2001-07-11T13:29:18Z")
Well, cinnamon is a fairly popular flavoring for baked goods, but I don’t think you could get cinnamon fudge anywhere except in those specialty shops where they produce 1000 flavors of fudge, many of which are disgusting. 🙂 It sounds horrible to me. Fudge should be predominately chocolate in flavor. (Maybe I can make an exception for Maple). Cinnamon goes into things like: Apple pie Hot Apple Cider Baked Apples (any kind of apple-related dessert, really) Coffee cake ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/86 "2001-07-11T13:40:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by don Jaime \* > \*\*Doughnuts are cut into circles before hand; funnel cakes are freehand, abstract, and much larger. > \*\* Fried ring dougnuts over here are usually extruded using a special (funnel like) device; the batter is too soft to handle any other way, but no matter, they sound like they are pretty similar apart from shape (I think that your ‘donuts’ are often baked, not fried, is this right?) > [@](#): > > **What about these > Hominy** nope, probably available from specialist stores, my understanding it that this is some sort of cornmeal porridge, not unlike polenta, am I way off? > [@](#): > > **Maple syrup** Yes, but it’s not tremendously popular, my impression is that people in the UK will buy it mainly when they are creating something specifically ‘American (or Canadian) style’ \*\* > [@](#): > > Blueberries or cranberries\*\* Yes and yes, these can be grown quite successfully in our climate (but they aren’t grown commercially very much) - I’m thinking about getting a blueberry bush or two for the garden. Cranberries are quite popular mainly as sauce (with turkey) or juice. We have a native (related) equivalent of the blueberry, _Vaccinium Myrtillus_ variously known as _bilberry, whinberry, blaeberry, whortleberry(!)_ it’s common on acid moors and heaths (growing wild), particularly Dartmoor and in Scotland, the berries are smaller (up to about 8mm in diameter) and the flavour is similar, but slightly more aromatic. Because of their small size, they aren’t often picked in any quantity (shame). > [@](#): > > **Corn relish** Yes, but only one brand - Bicks, it’s quite nice, but it’s something of a rarity > [@](#): > > **pickled watermelon rind** Nope \*\* > [@](#): > > Cream of Wheat \*\*Errr, not unless we know it by some other name, please describe? \*\* > [@](#): > > Lite beer (bleh!)\*\* I _think_ so, at least we have beers with ‘lite’ or ‘light’ in the name, but I’ve never examined them, so I’m not really sure what the difference is \*\* > [@](#): > > And you are a deprived people if you can’t get Indian tacos. Most of the United States is deprived, so I know you don’t have these. Warm fry bread topped with pinto beans, seasoned ground beef, lettuce, tomato, and rat cheese. Yum!\*\* Tacos of any description are uncommon over here, or at least they are in my part of the country, maybe in London it’s different. ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/87 "2001-07-11T13:51:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mangetout \* > **What seems to be coming across more than anything in this thread is that when you travel abroad, you should try to find the local delicacies instead of hoping that your own favourites will be faithfully reproduced, for me that’s part of the fun of travelling.** Exactly. When the Mrs. and I went to London and Dublin last year we found this to be the case. Personally, I could eat some form of meat pie at every meal. But on the two occasions when I was stupid enough to order American type food I was very disapointed. Case #1: At one point in London, my brain stayed at the hotel and I foolishly ordered a cheeseburger. What the hell was that?? I sure didn’t taste like beef to me. Perhaps it was just a problem with that particular eating establishment, but I learned my lesson - or so I thought. Case #2: In Dublin one evening we were wandering around after most of the pubs stopped serving dinner. We found a place serving pizza. The sign said “Best pizza in Dublin” or words to that effect. The resulting pizza was not so much bad as bland. I do love European candy, but I do have one question. In the week we were in London I don’t think I ever saw anybody buy chocolate from the vending machines in the Underground. Are the machines just there as a joke? ---
**Author:** ![deepbluesea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ba9def/32.png) [@deepbluesea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deepbluesea)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/88 "2001-07-11T13:54:43Z")
Cream of Wheat is farina. Does that help at all? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/89 "2001-07-11T14:20:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by deepbluesea \* > \*\*Cream of Wheat is farina. > > Does that help at all? \*\* Hmmm, I’ve seen a pack of ‘farina’ in a shop, but it was potato flour (I think farina just means ‘flour’ in Italian) So is your cream of wheat a powder/liquid/solid? - which part of the grain is it made of? what do you use it for? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/90 "2001-07-11T14:32:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Trion \* > \*\*I do love European candy, but I do have one question. In the week we were in London I don’t think I ever saw anybody buy chocolate from the vending machines in the Underground. Are the machines just there as a joke? \*\* It’s been a few years since I last went to London, but I think that people do use the machines (I’ve bought chocolate from a platform vending machine at my local train station anyway) - maybe in the tube stations they only get used at certain times of the day, like commuters using them to grab a quick sugar boost on the way home or something. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/91 "2001-07-11T14:48:14Z")
**don Jaime** - I meant to add that blueberries are reasonably popular, people tend to use them as a garnish on desserts (maybe a handful scattered on an ice cream sundae), or in cakes/muffins\*, rather than a pie filling because they are quite expensive, being imported. \*Much confusion as to what constitutes a muffin over here (we describe both types as ‘muffins’ - probably because calling them English muffins would be weird) ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/92 "2001-07-11T14:48:18Z")
The hominy you’re thinking of, properly called hominy grits, is the maize corn equivalent to Cream of Wheat. It’s a fine ground grain that’s made into a thin porridge for breakfast. The hominy I meant is whole maize kernels after they’ve been through the lye soak but haven’t been ground. This means the germ and hull are just barely hanging on. Available canned, big in the South and in Latin America. How about squash and okra? ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/93 "2001-07-11T14:54:20Z")
For the record, while living in London, I would occasionally buy chocolate from the vending machines in the tube stations. The main problem with doing this is that you’re often left farting about with the machines, pushing and pulling buttons and trying to get your change back (they _never_ work correctly) while the train’s hurtling towards the station and you’re trying to hold all your bags together, check that you’re catching the right train, that no-one has stolen your wallet and that you don’t stand too near the scary shouting man. And then, if you’ve actually managed to do all that, you can’t touch the chocolate because god knows what kind of dirt you’ve touched on your travels. Man, I miss London. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/94 "2001-07-11T15:03:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by don Jaime \* > \*\*The hominy you’re thinking of, properly called hominy grits, is the maize corn equivalent to Cream of Wheat. It’s a fine ground grain that’s made into a thin porridge for breakfast. > > The hominy I meant is whole maize kernels after they’ve been through the lye soak but haven’t been ground. This means the germ and hull are just barely hanging on. Available canned, big in the South and in Latin America. \*\* No, we don’t have that, is it nice (it doesn’t sound nice, but that might be just the way you’ve desribed it!) > [@](#): > > \*\*How about squash and okra? \*\* Yes and yes. Quite a variety of squashes are available, Including (but not limited to) butternut, pattypan, acorn, gem, kabocha, but courgettes (zucchini) are much more popular. I’ve not seen ‘yellow summer squash’ on sale over here. I’m growing kabocha (a green winter squash) on my allotment this year. Okra is available, but the quality is often poor (I don’t think it travels well) - I would buy it more often if it wasn’t usually slightly shrivelled with flecks of brown. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/95 "2001-07-11T15:08:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by IJGrieve \* > \*\*From the UK. Am I right in thinking that cinnamon is a much more popular flavour for things in the US. Can you get a cinnamon fudge in the US? \*\* I haven’t seen cinnamon flavored fudge, but we have the candies. Red Hots and Hot Tamales come to mind. Big Red gum. We a candy/mint called Violets which I always thought were English. I don’t know why I thought this, they just _seem_ English. Do you have them across the pond? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/96 "2001-07-11T15:31:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Biggirl \* > \*\*We a candy/mint called Violets which I always thought were English. I don’t know why I thought this, they just _seem_ English. Do you have them across the pond? > \*\* We have something called ‘Parma Violets’, which are little purple sugar floral-tasting sweets, originally sold as a breath freshener I believe. (but there’s no mint in them; I couldn’t work out from your question whether yours do contain mint) ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/97 "2001-07-11T15:43:23Z")
While I’ve got you all here, I want to know… \*What is Bubka (sp?). I’d never heard of it until Seinfeld, when they were talking about buying a chocolate bubka (but the other party guest beats them to the last one, so they get a cinnamon one instead). \*What is Cheese Whiz? It sounds vile. \*Do you have passionfruit? \*Is it true that most of the citizens of the UK are now vegitarians? It sounds like the UK has a lot of foods in common with Australia, but some of the American ones are just making their way over here now. Hersey’s has been in Australia for about 10 years (I think), but I don’t see how they manage to compete against Cadburys. Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups are fairly new here too, and I love them! We have Curly Wurlys, and Cherry Ripes - do you have them in the UK? I know the US doesn’t have them… what, is the US a third world country? No vegemite, no pavlova, no Cherry Ripes, no pineapple on their pizza, and apparently no one in the US ever thought of putting jam (jelly) and whipped cream on a scone (biscuit). 🙂 Mmmm… vegemite… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/98 "2001-07-11T16:57:36Z")
A babka is a type of sweet yeast bread which is almost cake. Well, it is eaten like a dessert … but it has a bready texture. It is really only available in places that have a high Jewish or Polish population, like NYC. Chicago is a pretty good bet, too. Possibly Detroit. Anyhoo, it is incredibly dense and rich tasting. A chococlate babka has a thick swirl of chocolate twisted into the rest and is very, very delicious. mmmm. BTW, the humor on Seinfeld is _very_ New York-centric, so don’t assume anything you see on it is typical for the US. Cheez whiz is fairly gross, imho. OTOH, I have an occaisional craving for easy-cheez on a triscuit. Easy-cheez is more-or-less cheez whiz packed under pressure in a can and is dispensed through a nozzle, like whipped-cream-in-a-can (do you have that?) Awful, isn’t it? I am so ashamed. You can get passionfruit, imported from the carribean, sometimes. A few juices are flavored with it. I don’t like, it personally. Cream of Wheat is a porridge that people eat for breakfast. It comes as a fine grain in a box and you boil it up with milk, & serve with brown sugar and maybe a little extra cream. If you let it get cold it solidifies just like polenta. But unlike polenta it is not considered a dinner side dish by most people. Oh, and all doughnuts are fried here, its just that there are two types: cake doughnuts and raised doughnuts. Cake doughnuts are make out of what is essentially thick cake batter. Cut into the desired shape and fried. Raised doughnuts have yeast in them and are allowed to raise before frying, getting airy and flaky in the process. Probably the most famous raised doughnuts in the US are made by a company called Krispy Kreme ([http://www.krispykreme.com](http://www.krispykreme.com)) that operates stores predominately in the south… if you ever get the chance to try a fresh one, go for it!!! And, I am apparently the only one here who can’t stand cadbury’s chocolate. The taste is too… uch. Milky?? Oily? Just plain gross? I am not a fan of milk chocolate anyway, so making it milkier makes it worse to me. I do buy Crunchie bars whenever I’m in Canada but I scrape the chocolate off. OTOH I love Turkish Delight, with pistachios, flavored with rosewater and coated in powdered sugar – a chunk whacked off a huge coil in a middle-eastern grocery is preferred. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/99 "2001-07-11T17:53:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Francesca \* > **For the record, while living in London, I would occasionally buy chocolate from the vending machines in the tube stations. The main problem with doing this is that you’re often left farting about with the machines, pushing and pulling buttons and trying to get your change back (they _never_ work correctly)** I use them all the time when I’m in London, and only once have I ever had a problem: the machine dispensed only the _wrapper_. There was no candy bar inside it! ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736/100 "2001-07-11T19:03:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cazzle \* > …no pineapple on their pizza, and apparently no one in the US ever thought of putting jam (jelly) and whipped cream on a scone (biscuit)… This is a vile slander! You can indeed get pineapple on pizza (especially with ham…mmmm) in the right places, and I grew up eating biscuits with jelly and (whenever it was on hand) whipped cream (real stuff, not Cool Whip). Of course, we also put bacon, sausage, ham, eggs, cheese, fried chicken, smoked turkey…and, well, pretty much anything else that would fit on biscuits. Oh, well. I suppose we can’t expect any better out of anyone who actually _likes_ vegemite. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-foodstuffs-a-few-questions/71736.md?page=6)