Chips = Crisps, Fries = Chips, Cookies = Biscuits, Biscuits = ??

[Peelee]

mad respect for him for categorically refusing to carry diet soda in his restaurant due to the absurdity of people who'll order a 2k Calorie meal with a diet soda.

I, too, hate diabetics. Hey, it's their choice.
If they go there.

Well of course we didn't - spices are a form of food preservation, plus they hide the taste when meat has started to go bad.

I think most rice-based cuisines spiced the hell out of their food for flavor, not to preserve the rice.

This is probably hugely skewed by pizza, Italian food and sandwich shop purchasing...but still seems to be the best I can do at the moment.

And fast food. Most burgers use processed American instead of a good cheese.

[Mordar]

I, too, hate diabetics. Hey, it's their choice.
If they go there.

I think most rice-based cuisines spiced the hell out of their food for flavor, not to preserve the rice.

And fast food. Most burgers use processed American cheese food instead of a good cheese.

I hear ya both on the soda thing, but to me strong flavors need a flavored and carbonated option to wash them away (and prepare you for the next). Thus I like Coke Zero, but not from any perspective other than "I wanna save my calories for food, and Coke Zero tastes pretty good" perspective.

Fixed that last line for ya!

- M

[Rynjin]

I don't drink soda as much nowadays (and would never go out of my way to order a diet soda), but I've had Coke Zero a few times. It has an interesting flavor. Not as aspartame-y as Diet Coke, but not the same as regular Coke either. I can see why people would drink it even if they're not watching their calorie intake.

[Peelee]

Fixed that last line for ya!

- M

Still better than cheese product. Seriously, when non-American complain or joke about American food, how do they never hit on cheese product or taco filling?

[Anonymouswizard]

Still better than cheese product. Seriously, when non-American complain or joke about American food, how do they never hit on cheese product or taco filling?

Because some things are better left unsaid, and most of us don't eat tacos.

[Peelee]

most of us don't eat tacos.

Well that's depressing.

[Mordar]

Because some things are better left unsaid, and most of us don't eat tacos.

Well that's depressing.

Huge miss, I agree. More for us!

Englanders - when you want to experience tacos, come to Tucson. We have lots of great places that make so many different kinds (taking into account regional specialties, ingredients, etc).

*AND* we have Sonoran Hot Dogs!!

- M

[halfeye]

And fast food. Most burgers use processed American instead of a good cheese.

Cheddar is a small village in the middle of nowhere. Cheddar cheese is made by the kilotonne, mostly in factories. There is some good cheddar cheese, but mostly it's not. American cheese is probably pretty much the same as standard grade cheddar.

[Rynjin]

Cheddar is a small village in the middle of nowhere. Cheddar cheese is made by the kilotonne, mostly in factories. There is some good cheddar cheese, but mostly it's not. American cheese is probably pretty much the same as standard grade cheddar.

It's...really not.

[halfeye]

It's...really not.

Which isn't what?

Unless you know bog standard cheddar, and the american article, you probably shouldn't say that. There is good cheddar, some of the expensive stuff is good (some is overpackaged and/or over mixed with strange stuff), it's probably the expensive stuff that gets exported.

[Rynjin]

Which isn't what?

Unless you know bog standard cheddar, and the american article, you probably shouldn't say that. There is good cheddar, some of the expensive stuff is good (some is overpackaged and/or over mixed with strange stuff), it's probably the expensive stuff that gets exported.

Pretty sure Kraft cheddar is made here in the USA, and it's as bog standard as it gets. It's not great cheddar, but it's still a thousand times better than American cheese.

[Peelee]

Pretty sure Kraft cheddar is made here in the USA, and it's as bog standard as it gets. It's not great cheddar, but it's still a thousand times better than American cheese.

The thing is, I've had good American cheese. A block of white American was quite tasty. The individually wrapped slices, in addition to being a huge trash issue, is what I will never buy myself. A crappy Cheddar is way better.

[factotum]

I, too, hate diabetics.

Diabetics have problems with all carbohydrates, not just sugar, so I don't think they'd be after a 2K calorie meal like that in the first place.

As for the cheese conversation--I've had something that claims to be Monterey Jack and it's not terrible. Cheddar is better, obviously, but I wouldn't throw the other cheese in your face if you served it to me as part of a meal.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Yeah, wasn't trying to hate on diabetics, but agree with not the kind of food a diabetic should be going for. I'm personally of the "I'd rather have a reasonable amount of unrefined sugar than a half gallon of aspartame" mindset.

We make all cheeses by the ton in this country. Just varying qualities from different sources. There's many high quality cheese makers, especially in Wisconsin, Vermont and Texas. Then there's mass product factories that churn out processed crap. In general though what you want in flavor and texture and what you're making with it should make your cheese choice. Hoffman's super sharp American is the only American I'll buy personally, it's almost like a super creamy cheddar, and really super melty.

[Algeh]

Pretty sure Kraft cheddar is made here in the USA, and it's as bog standard as it gets. It's not great cheddar, but it's still a thousand times better than American cheese.

Which isn't what?

Unless you know bog standard cheddar, and the american article, you probably shouldn't say that. There is good cheddar, some of the expensive stuff is good (some is overpackaged and/or over mixed with strange stuff), it's probably the expensive stuff that gets exported.

I think some of us are talking at cross purposes here. See, my understanding is that in Europe, a lot of food words are region-locked to foods made in a specific place, such that "cheddar" implies a cheese made in a specific place. In the USA, those words are instead used to describe styles of food rather than location.

So, for example, I have two different kinds of things in my fridge right now that say they are cheddar cheese. I have two cans of Cougar Gold, one of which I've been aging since last year (I have a relative that gives them to me for Christmas each year, and I'm a fan of well-aged cheese so I let them sit a year first since they keep indefinitely under refrigeration). Those come from an ag college in Washington state. The other is a few bricks of my "everyday" cheddar cheese, which is Darigold sharp white cheddar, which is another fairly local product from a dairy co-op in my region. (I also have some goat cheese, but that is not cheddar.)

What Americans call American cheese is "processed cheese food", which has the redeeming quality of melting really well and the less redeeming quality of not even being legally considered cheese by even our standards. (It has soy in it, among other additives.) I assume it is probably also made in America, but we'd still call it "American cheese" if, say, Canada decided to make some too.

[Khedrac]

I think some of us are talking at cross purposes here. See, my understanding is that in Europe, a lot of food words are region-locked to foods made in a specific place, such that "cheddar" implies a cheese made in a specific place. In the USA, those words are instead used to describe styles of food rather than location.

And "Cheddar" cheese isn't one of them - it really is just a style of cheese. I used to live about 7 miles from Cheddar, and for most of my life no cheddar chese was made in Cheddar (there was some goat's milk cheese made there). The closest to cheddar cheese from Cheddar that one can find I believe to be the "Cave Matured" and "Cave Aged" Cheddar brands. "Cave Aged" has been around a lot longer and is aged in the access tunnels for Wookey Hole caves which are 7 miles from Cheddar village (so it's not really aged in caves - they are artificial caverns); "Cave Matured" is much more recent but does claim to be aged in the caves of Cheddar Gorge, but I haven't been in since they started keeping cheeses there - and so is genuine Cheddar cheddar.

In my experience, the British talk about "American cheese" we usually refer to the cheap processed kind (and we are equally rude about our own processed cheeses) - probably because we rarely experience the better American cheeses. There are a few exceptions, but I believe that most of them are also at the bottom end of the cheese scale e.g. Monterey Jack.

[Florian]

I think some of us are talking at cross purposes here. See, my understanding is that in Europe, a lot of food words are region-locked to foods made in a specific place, such that "cheddar" implies a cheese made in a specific place. In the USA, those words are instead used to describe styles of food rather than location.

Basically true. Not just a specific place, but often also in a specific way and oftentimes even with specific methods and tools. You'll basically always find between one and three different seals, logos or TLAs on those products. One is always either the red or blue EU PDO/PGI seal, the next is the regional seal of the member state (ex: DOP for Italy, Spain or Greece), mostly followed by the standardized bio category seal (ex: EU-BIO, EU-DE-BIO, EU-IT-BIO and so on, with EU announcing the basic standard, and the member state specific version (DE, IT..) announcing even stricter standards. Beware of EU member states that opted-out of the quality system (Yes, UK, you!)). Beyond that are some more ..erm.. organization-specific things, like for example only the monk/nun abbeys of specific orders being allowed to call their produce in a certain way, with a seal that's also covered by the aforementioned laws (You can basically only brew a Trappist or Benediktiner beer when you're a brewery as part of one of the abbeys).

Beyond that, certain styles are so common and widespread, they fall either under the pure PGI or none at all. For example, Feta is recognized as a general Greece product, while cheese-style like Camembert, Gouda or Emmentaler have spread too wide beyond their initial regions. Cheddar is a funny case here, as the production is still centered around the anglo-american countries and hasn't progressed too far south of UK and Ireland.

[Anonymouswizard]

Well that's depressing.

Look, we don't have many Mexicans, so the Mexican food is a little scarce even when we do have Mexican places tacos seem to be the thing left out because we're not used to them.

Cheddar is a small village in the middle of nowhere. Cheddar cheese is made by the kilotonne, mostly in factories. There is some good cheddar cheese, but mostly it's not. American cheese is probably pretty much the same as standard grade cheddar.

I've been to Cheddar, it's interesting. I think they had cheese production going but only as a tourist tiny, not an actual export.

On a related note Stinking Bishop, the cheese prominently featured near the end of the full length Wallace and Gromit film, is made in quantities of about twenty tonnes a year. There's a rumour that the maker was offered a contract to distribute the cheese more widely after the film, but refused because he believed that the demand wood be short lived. It's a very nice cheese, rather mild in taste.

[lesser_minion]

Cheddar is a small village in the middle of nowhere. Cheddar cheese is made by the kilotonne, mostly in factories. There is some good cheddar cheese, but mostly it's not. American cheese is probably pretty much the same as standard grade cheddar.

When it comes to "American cheese" in the sense of "cheese that happens to come from America", there's no particular reason why it would be better or worse than cheese from anywhere else.

But I think most people who hate on "American cheese" are imagining the sort of massively processed stuff that only contains cheese in the loosest, most technical sense imaginable, and seemingly only does so in order to spite vegans. And yes, someone will probably be along now to take away my food snobbery license for implying that being unable to eat this stuff is a bad thing.

[Florian]

Well that's depressing.

Not really.

Ok, last time I was in Manhattan, I visited a great Mexican restaurant (somewhere around 6th street, IIRC) and it was good, no questions there, had some great Burritos and a Cesar Salad with Red Snapper, nothing to complain there.
(When I was stationed in Arizona, going to a telmex deli was more or less self-defense)

But we do have that great influx from the MENA region (Middle East, North Africa), so who you have Döner Kebap, Falaffel or a Tajine dish as an option, or, more the case in the UK, heavy influence from the indian sub-continent, you don't really miss out on anything and, truth be told, the stuff coming out of the arab countries is actually pretty healthy.

[Aotrs Commander]

Also scones are pronounced 'skon' unless you're from down South or trying to produce a faux-'posh' English accent which is really far removed from how most people speak in most of Britain.

Only if you define Derbyshire as "south..."

[Celestia]

I actually had a thread on this exact question a few years back! It became kind of generic language differences thread for a bit, but yeah, IIRC "scones" was the answer. And what we call scones are what they call abominations and the result of poor baking skills.

The English criticizing another country's cooking skills is simply ironic.

[Mith]

The English criticizing another country's cooking skills is simply ironic.

A full English breakfast is amazing. Best meal for when I've had too much beer the night before.

[halfeye]

When it comes to "American cheese" in the sense of "cheese that happens to come from America", there's no particular reason why it would be better or worse than cheese from anywhere else.

But I think most people who hate on "American cheese" are imagining the sort of massively processed stuff that only contains cheese in the loosest, most technical sense imaginable, and seemingly only does so in order to spite vegans. And yes, someone will probably be along now to take away my food snobbery license for implying that being unable to eat this stuff is a bad thing.

When we are talking about a generic dairy product, cheddar cheese is it. If america produces a non-dairy, or only partly dairy product and calls that cheese, it may be worse than cheddar, but so long as it's pure dairy, the worst of it won't be worse than the worst cheddar.

[lesser_minion]

The English criticizing another country's cooking skills is simply ironic.

The idea that English food is bad is just a lazy stereotype. It's true that we had a few decades in the last century where there was basically nothing to work with, and it's true that a lot of us have trouble finding time to cook, but there's nothing to suggest that our cooks aren't at least as good as those found basically anywhere else, and our signature foods are great.

[Peelee]

but there's nothing to suggest that our cooks aren't at least as good as those found basically anywhere else

British restaurants are not nearly as well known as Italian, French, German, Mexican, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, etc. restaurants, over here. This isn't proof, and as evidence is shaky (since many of these are Americanized versions of those cuisines), but it is something to suggest that.

[Anonymouswizard]

British restaurants are not nearly as well known as Italian, French, German, Mexican, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, etc. restaurants, over here. This isn't proof, and as evidence is shaky (since many of these are Americanized versions of those cuisines), but it is something to suggest that.

Important thing to note, Americans don't seem to consider Americanised versions of British dishes British cuisine, leading to people eating British-style food and not noticing it*. While there's still a lot of British dishes not seen much outside the UK, there's also a number that are well known.

Anywhere that does Fish and Chips, a Shepherd's Pie, or a Cottage Pie is doing an English dish, and I believe English-style roast dinners are the most popular version in the US. There's also a lot of curry styles that are bastardised English versions, generally noted by not being as hot as Indian curries with a nonsense name, although I have no idea how much of a thing those are in the US.

Plus your bacon is just wrong. Wrong I tell you!

* EDIT: I suspect that this is at least partially due to at least some of the original states being UK colonies (no, I am not going to bother looking up how many, I suspect it's most or all).

[DavidSh]

…*...
* EDIT: I suspect that this is at least partially due to at least some of the original states being UK colonies (no, I am not going to bother looking up how many, I suspect it's most or all).

Yes, by the time of the Revolution, all of the original 13 states were UK colonies. New York and New Jersey were originally New Netherland, but the English took over, as implied by their later names. (I'm saying English rather than British, because I believe this was before the union of the English and Scottish parliaments.)

[factotum]

Only if you define Derbyshire as "south..."

You mean it's not?

Yes, by the time of the Revolution, all of the original 13 states were UK colonies. New York and New Jersey were originally New Netherland, but the English took over, as implied by their later names. (I'm saying English rather than British, because I believe this was before the union of the English and Scottish parliaments.)

It was indeed before the Scots joined up. New Netherland ceased to exist in the latter half of the 17th century, Act of Union between Scotland and England was 1707--although we did share a monarch with Scotland from 1603 onwards, we still weren't one country at that time.

[lesser_minion]

British restaurants are not nearly as well known as Italian, French, German, Mexican, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, etc. restaurants, over here. This isn't proof, and as evidence is shaky (since many of these are Americanized versions of those cuisines), but it is something to suggest that.

I'd argue that it's not much. Not all restaurants serve good food, and not all good food lends itself to being served in a restaurant.