HP: 15 American Foods That Are as Weird to Foreigners as Poisonous Blowfish Is to Us

[pjfootballer]

I love foreign food. Its probably my favorite part of traveling, but man does this drive me nuts. When do you people drink liquids to stay hydrated? I'm constantly thirsty while abroad during meals. Not only are the refills not free, but they hardly give you much to drink to begin with.

God bless America for free refills

Or Ice. Who wants a warm bottle of water?

---------- Post added March-22nd-2012 at 04:19 PM ----------

My wife is from Peru and she has eaten everything on that list. The only thing she doesn't care for is Grits. She tried them and doesn't care for them. Now the woman from Chile is a moron because you can buy peanut butter in South America. She must have been stuck on a mountain in the Andes her whole life and never visited a grocery store.

[Pick6]

Doesn't diet sodas lead to cancer???

What the heck is a Frito pie?

Everything gives you cancer.

[RVAbrendan]

Some of you really haven't heard of Frito Pie? Tastes better than it looks!!

[War Paint]

I like mayonnaise. I find it lubricates my food enough to just pleasantly slide right down my throat.

That sounds so wrong, but maybe I've watched too much Beavis and Butthead:ols:.

Some of those foods on the list I don't like. I love grits though. :point2sky

[Enter Apotheosis]

I like how they interviewed three or four people rather than a wider sample. This didn't feel like a whole lot of effort was put into it.

Seconded. It was very poorly composed and the people polled weren't very imaginitive.

I like mayonnaise. I find it lubricates my food enough to just pleasantly slide right down my throat.

This was as bad an endorsement of mayo as I can possibly imagine.

[Predicto]

Everything gives you cancer.

1oDAkmfoAgA

[big#44]

Count me as one of the Americans who never jumped on the Biscuits and Gravy, and Grits wagon. I will however take my bacon and eggs, and peanut butter.

[Dan T.]

aspartame for the loss

Oh please. I'll die happy and hydrated... In my late 90s or so.

Everything gives you cancer.

Exactly. So pick your poison.

[jujuskinsfan]

what's wrong with free refills and portion sizes?? It makes America even more awesome if you ask me. annnnnnd biscuits and gravy is delicious!

[thebluefood]

what's wrong with free refills and portion sizes?? It makes America even more awesome if you ask me. annnnnnd biscuits and gravy is delicious!

Agreed. This is the land of plenty. The fact that we can provide large portion sizes is a testament to our prosperity and generosity (especially if you go down south where they just can't stop putting food on your plate).

Now, over eating isn't something to be proud of and we are guilty of doing that.

[DallasCowboyFan156]

A friend of mine from Japan thought that Dr. Pepper was weird and disgusting.

[Koolblue13]

Doesn't diet sodas lead to cancer???

What the heck is a Frito pie?

Diet soda causes cancer and makes you gain weight. It's a total head scratcher.

Frito pie is random southern carnie food.

[DeaconTheVillain]

I've heard from Non Americans throughout my travels that they think that peanut butter and jelly is gross

[big#44]

Diet soda causes cancer and makes you gain weight. It's a total head scratcher.

Frito pie is random southern carnie food.

Diet soda doesnt make you gain weight. Eating at a caloric surplus does. That said I can see how diet soda indirectly causes you to gain weight because

-someone drinks diet soda and thinks their saving more calories then they would have.

-they end up eating more food to compensate, compared to if they would have had regular soda

-more calories=more weight gain.

[The 12th Commandment]

Diet soda causes cancer and makes you gain weight. It's a total head scratcher.

Frito pie is random southern carnie food.

Frito pies are good, it's all down to quality chili and cheese, are common in northern New Mexico (when I worked in Santa Fe I used to eat them for lunch all the time) and are something you find a lot of up there. Not a one of them in southern NM or far west Texas.. One made with Wolfbrand and Orange cheese would be gross as anything I could think of.

I figure that diet drink must be bad because the only food that will set my MS off more than aspartacrap is MSG. Hoo, that stuff is good for a ride I don't like and so is aspartame, wonder if maybe Asians are anti-lactose and pro-glutamate genetically? I will say it makes stuff taste better but for whatever reason the MS makes me attuned to the effects - it's got to bad for everyone else too.

[Madison Redskin]

I'm lactose intolerant. So, I didn't have a lot of dairy growing up (except ice cream). Cheese? Out, unless it's mild and on lasagna or pizza. Mayo? Out. Salad dressing? Out, except for a light vinaigrette. Basically, if it stinks like dirty feet or resembles man goo, I don't put it in my mouth. Half of the stuff on that list IS disgusting.

[AsburySkinsFan]

The woman from Chile commenting on peanut butter made me think of that. You'd think, since peanuts come from South America, that they would have ground them up at one point or another.

As for peanut butter, in Guatemala peanut butter is definitely an equired tadte there. One of my friends after 6 years has accepted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but another friend simply can't stand it.

I'm not going to qubble about some items not being a "food", that said free refills are strange to lots of countries. KFC and Taco Bell have made themselves EXTREMELY popular in Guatemala simply by offering free refills.

I'll add another: most Latin American food is not nearly as spicy as Americans make Latin American food, seriously they think we're crazy eating food that hot! Chuey's restaurant is a perfect example of this, Mexican food that scortches your face...seriously what is wrong with their chef's mouths?!

[DeaconTheVillain]

Acquired taste is euphemism for "nasty as rats butt hole"

I learned this when someone told me to try Vegemite.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Acquired taste is euphemism for "nasty as rats butt hole"

I learned this when someone told me to try Vegemite.

No doubt!! Found this out with sea urchin sushi! The chef said "it is a Japanese delicacy", after eating it I told him, "Now I know what delicacy means in Japanese....something you eat when you lose a bet!". :puke:

[Koolblue13]

Frito pies are good, it's all down to quality chili and cheese, are common in northern New Mexico (when I worked in Santa Fe I used to eat them for lunch all the time) and are something you find a lot of up there. Not a one of them in southern NM or far west Texas.. One made with Wolfbrand and Orange cheese would be gross as anything I could think of.

I figure that diet drink must be bad because the only food that will set my MS off more than aspartacrap is MSG. Hoo, that stuff is good for a ride I don't like and so is aspartame, wonder if maybe Asians are anti-lactose and pro-glutamate genetically? I will say it makes stuff taste better but for whatever reason the MS makes me attuned to the effects - it's got to bad for everyone else too.

Frito pie is delicious, I'm not knocking it at all.

MSG is delicious also, I like it a lot, but don't use it much. I prefer kosher salt just because it's easier to handle.

Aspartacrap has chemicals in it that will cause you to retain weight. I just learned that all the zero calorie sweeteners contain 4 grams of fat per pouch, but it's because of the chemicals that make it look like sugar, so it isn't an actual "ingredient".

[The 12th Commandment]

I'll add another: most Latin American food is not nearly as spicy as Americans make Latin American food, seriously they think we're crazy eating food that hot! Chuey's restaurant is a perfect example of this, Mexican food that scortches your face...seriously what is wrong with their chef's mouths?!

Mexican food is really the only one I think of as being chile hot, and only certain parts of Mexico at that. The rest of Latin America eat rice and beans (and a lot of other good stuff), but certainly not anything with chile in it. As for Mexican food, as American food is, there are a lot of regional variants.

The food that comes from the part of Mexico I live very close to (as well as the history of growing chile in NM) is usually called ranchero food and is known for being chile hot. We grow chile here (I'm about 20 miles south of Hatch, NM which chile heads will know about) and as a result it goes in almost everything. While there is some that is simply too hot, what folks here would consider normal would scorch your face as you put it, I'm sure. There's a certain bravisimo quality to it undoubtedly.

The food you would find in Veracruz, the DF, the west coast, etc. are all very different from one another and for the most part use different chiles that aren't as a hot. What you get in Tennessee can't be used for any sort of judgement. Just like I don't expect to get Carolina pulled pork here and if I did find it I wouldn't expect it to be representative of what you get in Carolina.

No offense, ASF, just my take on it.

[AsburySkinsFan]

No offense, ASF, just my take on it.

No offense taken, and I completely agree, there are some regions which have hot food, but by in large a lot of Americanized Mexican/Latin American food is presented as being loaded with chilis and spicy as hell. This is the main reason I only go to authentic Mexican/Latin American resaurants...owned and opperated by actual immigrants or their families. If I walk in and they have nothing but 22 year old co-eds for waitresses, I turn around and leave.

[PCS]

We have an authentic one here. Fantastic place. Except all the tourists know about it now. :mad: I believe it's owned by a local,but operated strictly by members of our local hispanic population. The menu,especially specials,is made up by them and as authentic as you can get,especially in these parts. The help many times speaks very broken English,but I think that's pretty cool and adds to the atmosphere. Oh. And someone from the staff clearly hails from one of those "hot" regions,( I learned about the regional cuisine and music from my hispanic coworkers on the last construction crew I was on several years ago). There's a warning on one of the Salsa specials about just how hot it is right in front of the bowl.

*

Bacon on there? Really? :mad:

[The 12th Commandment]

Just for you all's edification: chili is the concoction with beans which has chiles in it, chile is the fruit of the chile pepper plant. I figure we grow it, we name it and that's how it's referred to here and in Mexico. /end chile geek rant

[Dan T.]

I just learned that all the zero calorie sweeteners contain 4 grams of fat per pouch, but it's because of the chemicals that make it look like sugar, so it isn't an actual "ingredient".

Koolblue, love ya man, but that's either a miracle, or bull****, because a "pouch" of sweetener is only 1 gram total weight. So tell me how 1 gram of a product can contain 4 grams of fat?