# Ugly American cuisine **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 16, 2013, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812 "2013-04-16T04:18:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [April 16, 2013, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/21 "2013-04-16T08:18:20Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > OH one that does come to mind is bacon with maple syrup. Pretty rare to see that here and most Aussies I think would be aghast at ruining that salty goodness. Served with pancakes or waffles, drenched in melted butter and maple syrup? I love it! I also love pancakes with fried sausage in maple syrup. The saltiness and sweetness complement each other beautifully. I sometimes make my own breakfast sausage. It always contains ground cloves and dark brown sugar in addition to the sage and hot pepper flakes. Pure heaven! ---
**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:** [April 16, 2013, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/22 "2013-04-16T08:33:35Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > eek cream in the gravy, pumpkin pie is something I have tried but yeah pretty bland. Pumpkin roasted or in soup is very popular but not in a pie. > > Peanut butter is a staple of most pantries. Yeah, I’ve never been game to try Pumpkin Pie. It just seems wrong to have it as a sweet.😕 Pumpkin soup is Yum. Dr. Pepper is vile stuff, I’ve never tried American Root beer so I can’t comment. I’ve watched “Man vs Food” a few times and some of it looks yum but the portion sizes always freak me out. Oh Yeah, and Maple syrup with Bacon. WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/23 "2013-04-16T08:41:23Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > I understand that some Europeans find corn on the cob to be disgusting. They think of it as animal fodder. Yesterday I saw a sign I found funny. While both popcorn and loose roasted corn are popular in Spain, corn on the cob isn’t; I don’t think the varieties grown locally are good for it. This sign was in a colombian bodega’s door in Barcelona’s metro area and said they had corn to make on the cob, that it is a specific variety and how to prepare it. Educating the clientele, as it were 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/24 "2013-04-16T08:56:52Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > I understand that some Europeans find corn on the cob to be disgusting. They think of it as animal fodder. Not disgusting, just unknown. Very common favourite in BBQs in the UK, however. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/25 "2013-04-16T08:57:56Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > [http://www.food.com/recipe/southern-biscuits-and-gravy-236284](http://www.food.com/recipe/southern-biscuits-and-gravy-236284) > > It really does look like that. Ewww, I’m voting for this one. Not remotely like yorkshire pud, which is food of the gods. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/26 "2013-04-16T09:05:01Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > I understand that some Europeans find corn on the cob to be disgusting. They think of it as animal fodder. There are at least two kinds of maize that I know of, sweet corn and field or feed corn. The sweet corn is, as one might expect, fairly to extremely sweet. The field corn IS animal fodder, though sometimes country folks will eat it. From what I understand, it’s just not as flavorful as sweet corn, even leaving aside the fact that it’s not sweet. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/27 "2013-04-16T09:13:46Z")
Compare the sour taste of Hershey’s vs sweet Cadbury and you can guess why Europeans call US chocolate “vomit candy.” ---
**Author:** ![JLRogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@JLRogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JLRogers)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/28 "2013-04-16T09:20:06Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The biscuits are a form of soda bread, not sweet. (What you might be thinking of are cookies, which are sweet.) > > The cream gravy often contains browned sausage; by that, I mean sage-seasoned ground pork. The really good stuff also contains red pepper flakes, so it has a bit of a bite to it. (Jimmy Dean Pure Pork Sausage, yum-O!) > > The gravy made with coffee is called Red-eye gravy. It’s basically strong coffee poured into the pan drippings left from frying ham. The name supposedly comes from the different layers settling in a bowl and forming what looks like an big eye staring up at you. Often eaten by po’ folk in the South. I know what biscuits and gravy is, believe me. We make it occasionally, but only with sausage. We don’t keep crappy coffee in the house and wouldn’t waste good stuff on that. The question was whether it qualified for the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/29 "2013-04-16T09:27:02Z")
I don’t know if this is just my issue, but … peanut butter cups, anyone? I think they’re pretty foul, but I know they’re considered food of the gods by some in the US. Also, PB&J. I don’t know if most Australians would find it exactly _awful_ (my weird-ass spouse and kids go for peanut butter and honey - the horror!), but it’s definitely not a popular foodstuff. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/30 "2013-04-16T09:28:29Z")
Just my opinion: anything that’s coated in batter and then fried. Trouble is, my countrymen have taken to imitating it; producing an even yuckier product. Bad made worse. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/31 "2013-04-16T09:41:19Z")
Deep-fried random foods is actually originally a Scottish thing: > **[Deep-fried Mars bar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-fried_Mars_bar)** > > A deep-fried Mars bar (also known as a battered Mars Bar) is a Mars-brand chocolate bar covered in batter then deep fried in oil. The dish originated at a chip shop in Scotland as a novelty item. Since various mass media began reporting on the practice in the mid-1990s – often as a critical commentary on how unhealthy the Scottish diet was – the popularity of the dish has spread. > The dish is prepared using standard commercial Mars bars. The chocolate bar is typically chilled before battering, to... ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/32 "2013-04-16T09:46:15Z")
Regardless, it’s my country I’m sorry for. The other one that makes my list is sweet canned spaghetti. Here people imitate it, producing spaketchup (using you-know-what as the main sauce ingredient.) ---
**Author:** ![Remember\_me](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/82dd89/32.png) [@Remember\_me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Remember_me)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/33 "2013-04-16T11:32:59Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Compare the sour taste of Hershey’s vs sweet Cadbury and you can guess why Europeans call US chocolate “vomit candy.” Yep. I’d like to second that. I once tried a Hersey’s bar that I bought in a “US food” aisle in a Walmart in Hungary. It tasted “vomit-ish” to me, the taste of butyric acid was definitely present. It might have been off, due to long transport times and probably a long storage time in the shelf, though. Root beer tastes quite like medicine to my European taste buds, but I started to like that after a short while. For many Europeans you have too much ice in your drinks. Most people here prefer either no ice, or at most maybe two or three ice cubes in their glas. Chicken and waffles is something I find quite strange - but not downright disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/34 "2013-04-16T11:41:14Z")
Grits. Yuck. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/35 "2013-04-16T11:51:48Z")
American cuisine seems to do some weird stuff under the general heading of “casseroles”. I’ve seen a lot of references in the past couple of years to green bean casserole – seemingly popular at Thanksgiving. Something I find hard to imagine, save for a general feeling that it sounds a bit disgusting. Would be pleased to discover that I was mistaken there. ---
**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:** [April 16, 2013, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/36 "2013-04-16T11:56:09Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > There are at least two kinds of maize that I know of, sweet corn and field or feed corn. The sweet corn is, as one might expect, fairly to extremely sweet. The field corn IS animal fodder, though sometimes country folks will eat it. From what I understand, it’s just not as flavorful as sweet corn, even leaving aside the fact that it’s not sweet. In Russia, they sell it on the street as a snack around harvest time; it’s kept steamed in big insulated containers. I tried it once; it’s vile. Tough and chewy, and it tastes like straw. :mad: It would never occur to me that root beer is an acquired taste; I’ve been drinking it since I was a kid, and I love it, especially with drive-in food (bacon cheeseburgers, chili cheese dogs, french fries cooked in lard—real artery-clogging stuff). The best brands are A&W and Barq’s. Served ice-cold, they’re smooth and creamy. Pour over a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a frosted mug, and you have a Root Beer Float, which is to die for! 🆒 The predominant flavor in root beer is, I believe, sarsaparilla, though I don’t know if they still use actual plant extracts to make it. Dr Pepper you either love or you hate. I quite like it; I don’t know what chemicals they use to make it, but I think it has a fruity flavor. Some people drink it hot in the wintertime. Traditional Hershey bars taste sour because the milk used to make them _is_ slightly sour. Milton Hershey, so the story goes, once made a batch of chocolate using milk that had gone off (apparently he didn’t have any that was fresh) and it caught on with consumers. ---
**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:** [April 16, 2013, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/37 "2013-04-16T12:03:43Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Ewww, I’m voting for this one. > > Not remotely like yorkshire pud, which is food of the gods. Sorry mate, you can stick your yorkshire pud where the sun doesn’t shine. Bloody horrible stuff. ---
**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:** [April 16, 2013, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/38 "2013-04-16T12:04:59Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > American cuisine seems to do some weird stuff under the general heading of “casseroles”. I’ve seen a lot of references in the past couple of years to green bean casserole – seemingly popular at Thanksgiving. Something I find hard to imagine, save for a general feeling that it sounds a bit disgusting. Would be pleased to discover that I was mistaken there. Green bean casserole is okay, but it’s only meant to be eaten as a side dish. Tuna hot dish (made with canned soup and egg noodles) and hamburger hot dish (made with canned soup and rice) are main courses. I now refer to such fare as “Depression Food,” but it’s what I was raised on in South Minneapolis. I also love Chicken a la King and SOS—real “Army Food”! 🆒 ---
**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:** [April 16, 2013, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/39 "2013-04-16T12:08:15Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > Sorry mate, you can stick your yorkshire pud where the sun doesn’t shine. Bloody horrible stuff. Did you eat it hot, with roast beef and savory gravy? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/40 "2013-04-16T12:17:10Z")
The green bean casserole belongs to a genre of home-cooked “[food](http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/minuterice/9.html)” that basically involves dumping cans of Campbells Cream of Something Soup in a dish with a few other ingredients. I’ve never seen anything like it in restaurants. And as a way of making… “food” at home, I think it used to be a lot more popular several decades ago, though it’s not unheard of today. The green bean casserole also originates from a time when vegetables where supposed to be cooked until they [could not be recognized](http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/vegetables/2.html). Thus, at thanksgiving, I make it because my family expects it, because Mom made it for thanksgiving, because Grandma made that sort of thing all the time. I find the stuff vaguely disgusting. James Lileks’ [Gallery of Regrettable Food](http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/index.html) contains some iconic and horrifying American food from decades past. Luckily the country has moved on from that era. Mostly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812.md?page=3)