ISTM that it’s fairly common for food to be eaten at room temperature, especially baked goods. But it’s relatively uncommon for drinks to be consumed at room temperature. Why is this?
You’re insane.
Aside from the Greeks, most people want cooked food served hot. Aside from the Americans, most people do not drink iced beverages.
This seems like an odd subject to be so passionate about …
Drinks at room temperature suck. Water, soda, juice, and beer all taste better chilled. Coffee and tea, you can take either way, hot or iced, but they taste lousy at room temperature. Though this is just one guy’s opinion.
I know it’s different in other areas, but here…
Drinks seem to fall into two categories hot or cold. I want hot drinks hot, and cold drinks cold. Coffee, though, I will drink at any temperature.
Food, however, seem to be less ridged. People eat pizza hot, room temp, cold. Cake is eaten warm, room temp, or cold. I’ll eat leftover Chinese food hot or room temp, but not cold. Ice cream? obviously cold.
Except for Ruffles and similar potato chips.
Ukulele Ike, most people might prefer their bread fresh out of the oven and still hot, but nobody would think it at all odd to eat room-temperature bread. Nor is it odd to eat cheese, vegetables, or fruits at room temperature.
Personally, I like my hot foods hot and my cold foods cold. Same with drinks. Room temperature food is distinctly less satisfying than hot food. Room temperature coffee is gross, while both hot coffee and iced coffee are great. This is one reason why I eat so fast, so there’s no time for it to cool off or get warm. (The other reason is because I was in the Army, and eating fast is a necessary skill that was drilled into me in basic training.)
I always hated bringing lunch to school because I’d end up with a warm sandwich and warm milk. My mom eventually bought me a cooler and a nicer thermos, with ice packs, but by then I was already in the habit of eating the hot lunch from the cafeteria.
I don’t think I’m alone in this, but it does vary. My girlfriend dilutes her coffee with milk or water so that it is lukewarm, and she lets her ice cream sit until it’s just super sweet, thick, lukewarm cream. Sometimes I don’t know why I date someone that disgusting.
I’ll eat some things lukewarm, like cookies, pie or cake, but I still prefer them cold or hot. And yes, I’m always disappointed when I eat at a foreign restaurant and they bring me a can of Diet Coke (which may or may not even be chilled) instead of a tall, icy fountain soda.
Fruits and vegetables that are stored in the fridge taste better when they reach room temperature.
Virtually all fruit tastes way better when it’s cold–unless you’re talking canned fruit.
Bread is good at room temperature; so is SOME canned food. Some desserts are good that way too. Virtually everything else is meant to be eaten either hot or cold, depending on the food.
We’ve just discovered fire. It’ll take some time for freezers to reach us here in the Hinterland, outside the U.S. True Fact.
We could talk for hours about the McDLT.
I don’t think that’s true. Perhaps you’re basing this on the British preferring their beers and ales to be room temperature.
Why so many insane people here? 
You’re completely and utterly wrong, especially about canned fruit. Canned fruit is syrupy and overly sweet; you need to eat it cold in order to suppress that unnatural extra sweetness. We perceive things as sweeter when they’re warm.
There’s probably a genetic/evolved component to what we find tasty – cold water was more likely to be fresh, hot food was recently cooked. Lukewarm food that has been cooked is the most germy and the least appetizing. Foods that aren’t especially exposed to germs taste fine to us at room temperature like carrots and bananas.
DOES NO ONE HERE DRINK RED WINE? What’s wrong with you people???
We enjoy some ales at cellar temperature (cellars round these parts are pretty cool), for the same reason people don’t refrigerate decent red wine. It’s to enjoy the flavour. These ales also aren’t fizzy.
That fizzy pale stuff you call beer, we also drink ice cold, for the record.
Yep. I attended a beer event (in the US) where the presenter served us each a taste of beer out of a growler kept at a “cold” temperature (I forget the specific numbers).
He then served successive tastes of the same beer at varying temperatures, slowly approaching cellar temperature. There were four pours in all, with each tasting like a totally different beer.
At my everyday beerporium, beers are served a bit too cold (other than cask beers which they have perfect), but you can see guys warming their glass in cupped hands
Many of the small craft breweries in the UK bottle or can their beers. The problem at the pub is that these get stuck in the chiller with the Bud, white wine, and WKD. You don’t want your Meantime Coffee Porter at the same temperature as a Corona.
I always found it odd that so many people love cold chocolate bars. When I was a kid in the 70’s it was a big thing to put Milky Ways and Snickers bars in the freezer. To me, there is no taste to ice cold chocolate. It has to be room temp for the best flavor. ALTHOUGH I do like to slightly chill (refrigerate for maybe 15 minutes) my Reeses Peanut Butter Cups just to firm them up!
What?! Oh, hell no. Fruit is definitely room temperature food. Cold fruit just loses much of its flavor. No, no, no, no, no!
I’m actually one of those weirdos who drinks most of his stuff room temperature, even beer. I’m just too lazy to find room in the fridge to stick the beer in. If I’m lucky, the beer is in the basement, and it’s winter, so at least I have something resembling “cellar temperature” beer, but I’m not picky. Soda is always kept room temp. If you want it cold, use the ice from the fridge’s ice maker, but most of the time I just drink it as is. I will admit that this is unusual, especially for an American.