British Undeservedly Snotty about American Cuisine

[Richard Hakluyt]

The worst cuisine anywhere is the stuff dished up to tourists, especially in major cities. Iormlund and the Larch are having a good laugh; but I ate some memorably awful food in Madrid back in 1980..........comparable to Athens at it's worst 

I think people are almost bound to see their native country's cuisine through rose-tinted glasses simply because they are less likely to make mistakes and buy food that they don't like.

Having said that, I still think the situation in Britain is notably below average. One has to be much more careful than in the USA and most of the continent. Even when the food is good it often is far too pricey for what it is.

I also agree with Tyr about France, one of the easier countries in Europe in which to be served garbage; though, OTOH, many of my most memorable meals (in the good way) have been eaten there 

[Sheilbh]

Try: Cantonese BBQ pork, Peking Duck, whole chicken dishes, steamed whole fish

I will. 

Also I'd add that I don't mean cheap cuts in a bad way.  I am never so happy as when I've got a plate of stew in front of me.  I love all the great stews enormously.  If the French had stopped at the daube they'd have a winning cuisine in my opinion.

With Chinese foods one of the things I most love about it is the sheer variety of belly pork and like dishes, and how many ways chefs can make an inch of fat taste good

[Eddie Teach]

Ah, culinary cripple fight.

You copy my thoughts. 

Like our neighbors to the south, we have far surpassed the old country in that department.

[Sheilbh]

I think people are almost bound to see their native country's cuisine through rose-tinted glasses simply because they are less likely to make mistakes and buy food that they don't like.

Also it's our mother food.  Comfort food that we can link back to our childhood and so on.  I think no matter how much other stuff I ate from anywhere in the world I would always think that shepherd's pie followed by arctic roll is the peak of good eating.  I feel similar about things like macaroni cheese, live and salt fish because I got hooked on them young by my dad's faltering steps into home management. 

With the exception of the macaroni cheese (his secret: four types of cheese in the sauce) he cooked what he knew, which was what was available in post-war Liverpool.  Every meal was an age of austerity.  But that's one of the sorts of food I know love.

[Caliga]

Spellus, stop with the goddamn Chicago pizza.

[alfred russel]

Spellus, stop with the goddamn Chicago pizza.

Chicago pizza is not that good.

Cajun food and american barbecue are dishes we can be proud of. We should also get some credit for tex mex. The problem with new world foods is that we don't get credit for what we exported to europe, but europe gets credit for what the export back (even after we modify it). For example, tomatoes are from the new world, but I never hear of tomato based sauces from Italy having an American influence, but anything pasta or pizza based gets an italian label.

[Sheilbh]

Cajun food and american barbecue are dishes we can be proud of. We should also get some credit for tex mex. The problem with new world foods is that we don't get credit for what we exported to europe, but europe gets credit for what the export back (even after we modify it). For example, tomatoes are from the new world, but I never hear of tomato based sauces from Italy having an American influence, but anything pasta or pizza based gets an italian label.

Surely that's because pasta and pizza are techniques, tomatoes and potatoes are produce.  We don't regularly refer to coffee as Yemeni, or Middle Eastern; but the technique or brewing coffee (or of spicing it) is referred to as Turkish/Arabic.

[Admiral Yi]

The problem with new world foods is that we don't get credit for what we exported to europe, but europe gets credit for what the export back (even after we modify it). For example, tomatoes are from the new world, but I never hear of tomato based sauces from Italy having an American influence, but anything pasta or pizza based gets an italian label.

That's silly.  Cusine is about human artistry.  The fact that some European explorers grabbed some vegetables and took them back home does not reflect on the artistry of the Western Hemisphere.

Woops.

[alfred russel]

Cajun food and american barbecue are dishes we can be proud of. We should also get some credit for tex mex. The problem with new world foods is that we don't get credit for what we exported to europe, but europe gets credit for what the export back (even after we modify it). For example, tomatoes are from the new world, but I never hear of tomato based sauces from Italy having an American influence, but anything pasta or pizza based gets an italian label.

Surely that's because pasta and pizza are techniques, tomatoes and potatoes are produce.  We don't regularly refer to coffee as Yemeni, or Middle Eastern; but the technique or brewing coffee (or of spicing it) is referred to as Turkish/Arabic.

I don't know the history of who was the first person to make a tomato based sauce, but surely there was more going on in new world cuisine besides eating raw tomatoes, potatoes, and corn. If you ask for the American innovation related to the potato, you will here french fries and potato chips. I can't imagine we also shouldn't get credit for at least the baked potato.

[Faeelin]

What I find interesting is how much American food is associated with southern food; barbecue, fried chicken, etc. I wonder what counts as Yankee food?

[DisturbedPervert]

Yankee food?  Boiled cabbage, potato, and meat

Where I grew up Mexican was American food and I ate that every day.

[The Larch]

The worst cuisine anywhere is the stuff dished up to tourists, especially in major cities. Iormlund and the Larch are having a good laugh; but I ate some memorably awful food in Madrid back in 1980..........comparable to Athens at it's worst 

Don't tell me about it, we serve most of our tourists really crappy stuff, and they still think it's great. I guess they're so thoroughfully schlossed out of their minds with cheap beer and sangría that they don't really care (or are able to notice anymore).

[Ed Anger]

I would open this thread near lunchtime. 

[Queequeg]

What I find interesting is how much American food is associated with southern food; barbecue, fried chicken, etc. I wonder what counts as Yankee food?

Thanks giving fare seems to be based, at least partially, on New England tradition; cranberry sauce, turkey, various pies.  New England Seafood, like lobster (Legal Seafood,  ).  New England has a great tradition of Cider that was greatly damaged by the popularity of German-introduced beer.  There is a lot of great Mid-Western Fare, but it tends to be of obvious German, Italian or Scandinavian origin.  I think the South tends to produce more "original" American cuisine, due to the relative lack of migration compared to the North. 

Also, I think it is possible that the presence of a real aristocracy in the South helped develop what is in many ways a superior cuisine.  In Missouri and Indiana, German immigrants in the Cattle industry developed the Beef-brain deep-friend sandwich to save money and not waste other parts of the cow, while in the South decedent landowners could afford to be innovative and decadent, resulting in a batter cuisine. 

[Iormlund]

The worst cuisine anywhere is the stuff dished up to tourists, especially in major cities. Iormlund and the Larch are having a good laugh; but I ate some memorably awful food in Madrid back in 1980..........comparable to Athens at it's worst 

Don't tell me about it, we serve most of our tourists really crappy stuff, and they still think it's great. I guess they're so thoroughfully schlossed out of their minds with cheap beer and sangría that they don't really care (or are able to notice anymore).

Don't know about that. I can walk into a random place at La Malvarrosa, which is both touristry and unknown to me, and eat a very good paella. Meanwhile every single place I went to in London was absolute crap.