# Foods Americans like that non-Americans find disgusting **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 21, 2015, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054 "2015-09-21T01:22:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/121 "2015-09-23T01:51:13Z")
I don’t do flavoured coffee. I prefer Barista coffee, I have a coffee capsule machine at home although I don’t mind decent drip filter coffee but the drip filter coffee I had in Vegas tasted like mud. It had little actual coffee flavour. it was as if the grounds in the filter had been used before or were crap quality coffee beans. And it wasn’t the water, I was refilling water bottles with tap water frequently, that tasted fine. Even the flat white I got from Starbucks one morning tasted like a bad Sydney coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/122 "2015-09-23T01:58:22Z")
Americans generally drink bad coffee and it starts with bad coffee grounds. The vast majority of coffee in the United States comes from Keurig, Maxwell House, Starbucks, and Folgers, all of which sell some combination of low quality, improperly ground, improperly roasted, or improperly brewed coffee using grounds that are long past their expiration date. That makes most American coffee acidic, bitter, ash-flavored and burned. That’s why Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks are so successful with their strategy of dumping tons of milk, sugar, and other favors into their horrible tasting coffee. Good or excellent coffee is readily available in most metropolises, but most Americans aren’t bothered to find out about them. In general, the American food and beverage market is dominated by low price and high convenience. Quality of flavor is not what drives the most popular products. ---
**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:** [September 23, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/123 "2015-09-23T02:06:23Z")
The coffee you get in American restaurants is usually the drip variety, and it sits around on a warmer for a long time before it gets served. So yeah, it frequently tastes like sludge. When this happens, the best thing to do is send it back and ask for a fresh cup. Any good establishment will be happy to accommodate you and throw the vile stuff out. I remember when McDonald’s put coffee on their menu in Russia back in '94. I had a hard time convincing people it was often better than the brew being served in posh restaurants. I read one restaurant manual (don’t remember which) that specifically said NOT to use filtered water when making coffee. IIRC, the minerals in hard water remove compounds in the coffee that make it bitter. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/124 "2015-09-23T02:57:50Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The coffee you get in American restaurants is usually the drip variety, Drip or filter is a perfectly good way of making coffee if your input and your technique are good and if you don’t let it burn or separate. > [@](#): > > and it sits around on a warmer for a long time before it gets served. So yeah, it frequently tastes like sludge. > > When this happens, the best thing to do is send it back and ask for a fresh cup. Any good establishment will be happy to accommodate you and throw the vile stuff out. Fresh bad coffee is only marginally better than old bad coffee. > [@](#): > > I remember when McDonald’s put coffee on their menu in Russia back in '94. I had a hard time convincing people it was often better than the brew being served in posh restaurants. Then the coffee in posh Russian restaurants must be truly awful because I’ve never had a McDonalds coffee that didn’t taste like it had been served after having been used to rinse an ashtray. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/125 "2015-09-23T08:10:04Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Okra is only bad when it is cooked incorrectly (which is admittedly easy to do). It is an essential base ingredient in Gumbo which is one of the best American dishes of all. It is also very good when it is deep fried correctly. I even like it pickled myself. > > Where people go wrong is just trying to half-ass stew or stir-fry it. That creates a slimey monstrosity and I completely understand why people don’t like it in that form but that is the fault of the cook and not the okra itself. Yeah, I don’t really recommend stir-frying okra. If you aren’t going to deep fat fry it, steam it or bake it. ---
**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:** [September 23, 2015, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/126 "2015-09-23T08:45:18Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Drip or filter is a perfectly good way of making coffee if your input and your technique are good and if you don’t let it burn or separate. Never said it wasn’t. > [@](#): > > Fresh bad coffee is only marginally better than old bad coffee. This goes without saying. > [@](#): > > Then the coffee in posh Russian restaurants must be truly awful because I’ve never had a McDonalds coffee that didn’t taste like it had been served after having been used to rinse an ashtray. At that time, yeah, it was; a lot of it was of the so-called French Roast variety, which I abhor. On the other hand, I will happily put McDonald’s coffee up against most other commercial brands. The Russians now have Starbucks and clones of it that are both pretentious and way overpriced; I seldom patronize them. If I had to pick an American brand of coffee, I’d probably go with Montana. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/127 "2015-09-23T11:16:40Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > At that time, yeah, it was; a lot of it was of the so-called French Roast variety, which I abhor. French roast is a style of roast and a matter of preference. It doesn’t make the difference between good and bad coffee. > [@](#): > > On the other hand, I will happily put McDonald’s coffee up against most other commercial brands. McDonald’s might be the best of the worst, but it’s bad coffee. > [@](#): > > If I had to pick an American brand of coffee, I’d probably go with Montana. There are dozens of roasters producing good quality coffee in America. My current favorites are Stumptown ([https://www.stumptowncoffee.com](https://www.stumptowncoffee.com)) and Counterculture ([https://counterculturecoffee.com](https://counterculturecoffee.com)). However, 90 percent of Americans have never heard of any of them. The Washington Post recently wrote about this — [http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/24/its-true-americans-like-to-drink-bad-coffee/](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/24/its-true-americans-like-to-drink-bad-coffee/) — none of the top coffee brands in America are good. Hint: if you’re buying coffee and no one can tell you exactly what day the roasted beans were ground—or unless you are grinding them yourself—it’s not good coffee. Grounds have to used quickly. Anything that has been ground and sitting around in a warehouse or on a retail shelf is past its due date. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/128 "2015-09-23T13:57:41Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Hint: if you’re buying coffee and no one can tell you exactly what day the roasted beans were ground—or unless you are grinding them yourself—it’s not good coffee. Grounds have to used quickly. Anything that has been ground and sitting around in a warehouse or on a retail shelf is past its due date. And this is why I use a single serve coffee machine, buy whole beans, store them in an air tight container specifically for coffee beans and have a grinder that will grind enough coffee for just one cup. Can’t get much fresher. Other good coffee roasters are [Jumping Goat](http://www.jumpingoatcoffeeroasters.com/) and [Land of 1000 Hills](http://landofathousandhills.com/). ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/129 "2015-09-23T22:20:32Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Okra is only bad when it is cooked incorrectly (which is admittedly easy to do). It is an essential base ingredient in Gumbo which is one of the best American dishes of all. It is also very good when it is deep fried correctly. I even like it pickled myself. > > Where people go wrong is just trying to half-ass stew or stir-fry it. That creates a slimey monstrosity and I completely understand why people don’t like it in that form but that is the fault of the cook and not the okra itself. I’ve had gumbo in a few places and if you were to leave the okra out, I’d be perfectly content. You are right about gumbo though and it’s a good thing I don’t live in Louisiana because I’m pretty sure I’d weigh 800 lbs filling up on shrimp etoufee, beignets and black coffee, gumbo, steamed mudbugs and pretty much everything else N’Awlins had on offer! ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/130 "2015-09-23T22:47:58Z")
> [@Motorgirl](#): > > I grew up on Hershey’s chocolate. Are there chocolates from around the world that I love? Yup. And some that are pretty awful. Do I love Hershey’s chocolate too? You bet I do. Yum yum. Tastes like home. Yes, it has a faint sour flavor, but I like it. > [@YogSosoth](#): > > Cheese Whiz Cheez Whiz comes in jars. It’s not the same as Easy Cheez, which is sprayed from a can. We tried some Hershey’s chocolate from the local Costco last year: it tasted like good milk chocolate that had gone stale, with a kind of unpleasant ‘gritty’ texture. More like carob ‘chocolate’ than the real stuff. [/QUOTE] I also grew up in America with Hershey but my parents also kept Cadbury and Nestle. Hershey chocolate is nasty. Kisses are nastier. Hershey’s syrup is nastiest. It’s vile, rancid stuff. > [@TBG](#): > > The root beer thing isn’t surprising, since it came about in the US during prohibition, then just stuck around. Other countries that still had regular beer in that time never had a time to get hooked The real reason is that the main flavor in root beer actually is used in Europe to flavor medicine, so they have developed a negative association. ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/131 "2015-09-24T00:51:26Z")
Meh, Hershey’s is edible if it’s what you grew up with. I don’t particularly _like_ it (although it’s okay as one component in, e.g., a potluck-style sheet cake), but it’s not as though it tastes like vomit to me or anything. I don’t get the extreme hate – in various parts of the world people eat Marmite, surströmming, century eggs, tarantulas thrown onto the fire for a moment to remove the bristles, raw witchetty grubs. These things aren’t disgusting in any objective sense. It’s probably best to see Hershey’s chocolate (or American coffee) not as vile pretenders to the real thing, but as a different animal entirely. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/132 "2015-09-24T01:50:43Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Cheez Whiz comes in jars. It’s not the same as Easy Cheez, which is sprayed from a can. Cheez Whiz certainly does come in a can. [http://www.shopfoodex.com/images/021000055845.GIF](http://www.shopfoodex.com/images/021000055845.GIF) It’s on the shelves at my local Wal-Mart. It’s in a can as well as in a jar. And they also have Easy Cheez, so I’m not confusing the two products. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/133 "2015-09-24T02:12:11Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Many people outside of New England would raise an eyebrow at cheddar cheese on top of a slice of apple pie… I’ve never encountered this in the wild. But that one makes sense to me: a fruit and cheese plate is a frequent snack or appetizer or dessert. This is just that but with hot pastry, so I’m down with that. ---
**Author:** ![SacFly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@SacFly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SacFly)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/134 "2015-09-24T02:22:19Z")
I’m pretty sure okra is popular in some pretty non American places, like India, so that’s not such a good choice. ---
**Author:** ![Reluctant\_A](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@Reluctant\_A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reluctant_A)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/135 "2015-09-24T03:00:09Z")
> [@grude](#): > > They hate wonderbread type loaves cuz they taste like cake, too sweet and the texture is all wrong. If Germans think that Wonder Bread tastes like cake, then I never want to eat a German cake, ever. Also, where the hell is this cough syrup that tastes like root beer? That don’t sound like my daddy’s Robitussin, at all. If they made cough syrup that tasted like root beer when I was a kid, I might be an alcoholic by now. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/136 "2015-09-24T05:12:46Z")
Back to American coffee. If Hawaii qualifies as America then you should try good Kona coffee made in Hawaii. Fresh beans freshly ground and that special Hawaiian water. Heaven! ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/137 "2015-09-24T05:15:47Z")
Isnt American ice cream different than in other places? ---
**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:** [September 24, 2015, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/138 "2015-09-24T10:08:37Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Isnt American ice cream different than in other places? More variety, that’s for sure (my favorite is peach). Depends on how you define “ice cream,” and what company makes it (e.g., Baskin–Robbins, Ben & Jerry’s, Häagen-Dazs). Personal note: I spent three summers at Middlebury in Vermont; every day in the cafeteria we had big buckets of ice cream trucked in from Ben and Jerry’s. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven! :o ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/139 "2015-09-24T11:49:10Z")
> [@RadicalPi](#): > > Pumpkin pie. That’ll raise an eyebrow in most of Europe. > [@Asympotically\_fat](#): > > Pumpkin pie: Pumpkin is the least edible of all vegetables, so why make a sweet pie out of it? Though I have never tried this uniquely American dish. It does strike me that people outside North America have difficulty, on the whole, “getting” the notion of pumpkin pie. (I’ve never tried it.) Hilaire [sp?] Belloc, in a humorous poem about strange things eaten in foreign parts, expresses a certain lack of enthusiasm for assorted American food and drink: including pumpkin pie – in fact, he seems to discern a general New England pie obsession, striking him as borderline-creepy. “In Maryland they charge like sin For nasty stuff called terrapin; And when they ask you out to dine At Washington, instead of wine, They give you water from the spring With lumps of ice for flavouring That sometimes kill and always freeze The high plenipotentiaries. In Massachusetts all the way From Boston down to Buzzards Bay They feed you till you want to die On rhubarb pie and pumpkin pie And horrible huckleberry pie, And when you summon strength to cry, ‘What else is there that I could try?’ They stare at you in mild surprise And serve you other kinds of pies.” > [@Shalmanese](#): > > Many people outside of New England would raise an eyebrow at cheddar cheese on top of a slice of apple pie. > [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I’ve never encountered this in the wild. But that one makes sense to me: a fruit and cheese plate is a frequent snack or appetizer or dessert. This is just that but with hot pastry, so I’m down with that. Cheddar cheese served with apple pie, is quite often encountered in the UK – I like the combination well enough. ---
**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:** [September 24, 2015, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054/140 "2015-09-24T13:03:24Z")
FYI, pumpkin pie is basically custard pie with pumpkin mixed in; i.e., the vegetable is cooked in small pieces until it’s soft and then scooped away from the hard outer shell with a spoon. (I’ve never heard of anyone eating the stringy pulp, but I suppose it’s possible.) The whole shebang is then blended with eggs and milk and mixed with sugar (I use brown) and spices (a mix of mostly nutmeg and cloves). This filling is poured into a pastry shell and baked until it sets. Since pumpkins are pretty much a seasonal veg, the pie is generally eaten from October through December, i.e., at Thanksgiving (both Canadian and American) and often at Christmas. It’s best with a gob of whipped cream or a scoop of cinnamon ice cream on top. :o **PS:** Like most pies, it can be eaten either hot or cold. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-americans-like-that-non-americans-find-disgusting/732054.md?page=8)