We’re talking about the US where everything is bland by default.
It’s like asking why you would eat wheat without the bran. For some unknown, godforsaken reason, they remove it here before it makes it to the shelves, and if you want the stuff with the bran intact then it’ll cost extra because that apparently makes it “artisan” or some shit.
And a significant portion of the population here looks at everything beyond the bland defaults as snobby excess. “Why are you eating a cheese I can’t pronounce? Are you a commie or some’n?”
There’s one thing I would describe food in the US as it’s not bland. We show up together more different cultures foods than anywhere else on the planet… If anything, our food is a horrible abomination of overly seasoned monstrosities.
I legitimately can’t think of a single place in America where what you’re saying is remotely true outside of maybe like North Dakota…
Like America still holds the record for most cheese consumed per capita. Hell America’s third, in the most types of cheeses consumed and produced only behind France and Italy. When it comes to cheese, America does not f*** around.
Hell this entire section’s America wear insulting someone’s cheese can get you a shot. We give France a run for their money when it comes to cheese snobbery. You have to be incredibly ignorant to think America doesn’t care about cheese.
The only real thing that America struggles with is heat. We love spices. We love peppers. We love flavors and herbs. But just pure raw heat for heat’s sake is sort of Hit or Miss.
But at the same time we also consume more hot sauce than anyone else in the world. So figure that one out.
Except that at least half the country only eats that plasticky “american cheese” because they think anything else isn’t patriotic.
All that other stuff: hot sauce, chips, etc., it’s all just overly-processed, mass-produced, artificially-flavored crap that tries to overcompensate for the blandness of everything else that’s a staple of “american” cuisine.
In other countries they actually blend spices and herbs and chilis and they use good ratios to make complex and harmonious flavors. That’s not the same thing at all as putting ranch on your chicken nuggets.
And yes, I know there are immigrant communities with ethnic cuisine. But those are indicative of the cuisines of their homeland. America cannot take credit for that. Especially because there’s at least a third of the country who won’t eat it because they think it’s too “foreign.”
So providing counterexamples doesn’t refute my statement because it wasn’t absolute. I didn’t say “all americans are like this” or that “you can’t find flavorful food anywhere in america.”
But the fact remains that a significant portion of the american population does avoid anything beyond white bread, american cheese, and all the most basic stuff they consider “american” or “normal” foods.
If you’ve never had the displeasure of knowing someone like that, good for you. You might live in a vibrant and progressive area. I haven’t been so fortunate, and all my life I’ve been judged for enjoying fancy cheeses, herbs and spices, various types of cuisines from cultures around the world, etc. So don’t tell me my experience isn’t real.
My 4 year old nephews always asks to get the “green stuff” removed from their pizza’s because it looks like vegetables. I imagine Americans the same way.
Edit: seeing the downvotes, I’ll double down with some examples to illustrate my point. Adapting dishes to the American public generally just involves removing vegetables and making it less healthy generally by adding more sauce, sugar, fat and/or salt.
Chinese food -> More sauce and remove the vegetables
Gyros -> remove the fresh vegetables
Burritos -> overload with just meat, cheese, sour cream, remove the vegetables
Tacos -> whatever Taco Bell does, you don’t really want to eat their raw vegetables anyway
Crepes -> remove the fruits, just do nutella and sugar
Pasta/Macaroni dishes -> just cheese (Mac n cheese)
Curry dishes -> just the meats and rice please, remove the vegetables
Outside of fast food which does everything you’re describing is a manner of cost cutting. Not a single thing you said here is remotely true like at all.
But if you want to use the literal cheapest low quality option as the example for what the entire country prefers ignoring every single cultural region in the nation… I guess you’re technically right?
I’ll take it! Being the motor behind McDonaldisation I do think the US has a habit of creating cheap, unhealthy versions of many culinary dishes and exporting the formula worldwide.
Of course it’s a bit of a generalisation to say all Americans are like toddlers, I still think as a country they deserve me imagining them as such.
Marg has basil
Why would you ever have a pizza without basil? :o
There’s over a thousand ways to prepare a pizza. You don’t need the same thing on all of them.
I agree, but passata usually just has basil as part of it so it becomes kind of a given for pizza.
I like basil too, but it doesn’t need to be on every pie
Why would anyone have the nerve to eat anything I don’t like!?
If you bought “pizza sauce” in a jar you are already in fact eating it and presumably already liking it
I was making fun of the other poster
We’re talking about the US where everything is bland by default.
It’s like asking why you would eat wheat without the bran. For some unknown, godforsaken reason, they remove it here before it makes it to the shelves, and if you want the stuff with the bran intact then it’ll cost extra because that apparently makes it “artisan” or some shit.
And a significant portion of the population here looks at everything beyond the bland defaults as snobby excess. “Why are you eating a cheese I can’t pronounce? Are you a commie or some’n?”
There’s one thing I would describe food in the US as it’s not bland. We show up together more different cultures foods than anywhere else on the planet… If anything, our food is a horrible abomination of overly seasoned monstrosities.
I legitimately can’t think of a single place in America where what you’re saying is remotely true outside of maybe like North Dakota…
Like America still holds the record for most cheese consumed per capita. Hell America’s third, in the most types of cheeses consumed and produced only behind France and Italy. When it comes to cheese, America does not f*** around.
Hell this entire section’s America wear insulting someone’s cheese can get you a shot. We give France a run for their money when it comes to cheese snobbery. You have to be incredibly ignorant to think America doesn’t care about cheese.
The only real thing that America struggles with is heat. We love spices. We love peppers. We love flavors and herbs. But just pure raw heat for heat’s sake is sort of Hit or Miss.
But at the same time we also consume more hot sauce than anyone else in the world. So figure that one out.
Except that at least half the country only eats that plasticky “american cheese” because they think anything else isn’t patriotic.
All that other stuff: hot sauce, chips, etc., it’s all just overly-processed, mass-produced, artificially-flavored crap that tries to overcompensate for the blandness of everything else that’s a staple of “american” cuisine.
In other countries they actually blend spices and herbs and chilis and they use good ratios to make complex and harmonious flavors. That’s not the same thing at all as putting ranch on your chicken nuggets.
And yes, I know there are immigrant communities with ethnic cuisine. But those are indicative of the cuisines of their homeland. America cannot take credit for that. Especially because there’s at least a third of the country who won’t eat it because they think it’s too “foreign.”
So providing counterexamples doesn’t refute my statement because it wasn’t absolute. I didn’t say “all americans are like this” or that “you can’t find flavorful food anywhere in america.”
But the fact remains that a significant portion of the american population does avoid anything beyond white bread, american cheese, and all the most basic stuff they consider “american” or “normal” foods.
If you’ve never had the displeasure of knowing someone like that, good for you. You might live in a vibrant and progressive area. I haven’t been so fortunate, and all my life I’ve been judged for enjoying fancy cheeses, herbs and spices, various types of cuisines from cultures around the world, etc. So don’t tell me my experience isn’t real.
My 4 year old nephews always asks to get the “green stuff” removed from their pizza’s because it looks like vegetables. I imagine Americans the same way.
Edit: seeing the downvotes, I’ll double down with some examples to illustrate my point. Adapting dishes to the American public generally just involves removing vegetables and making it less healthy generally by adding more sauce, sugar, fat and/or salt.
Chinese food -> More sauce and remove the vegetables
Gyros -> remove the fresh vegetables
Burritos -> overload with just meat, cheese, sour cream, remove the vegetables
Tacos -> whatever Taco Bell does, you don’t really want to eat their raw vegetables anyway
Crepes -> remove the fruits, just do nutella and sugar
Pasta/Macaroni dishes -> just cheese (Mac n cheese)
Curry dishes -> just the meats and rice please, remove the vegetables
Outside of fast food which does everything you’re describing is a manner of cost cutting. Not a single thing you said here is remotely true like at all.
But if you want to use the literal cheapest low quality option as the example for what the entire country prefers ignoring every single cultural region in the nation… I guess you’re technically right?
I’ll take it! Being the motor behind McDonaldisation I do think the US has a habit of creating cheap, unhealthy versions of many culinary dishes and exporting the formula worldwide.
Of course it’s a bit of a generalisation to say all Americans are like toddlers, I still think as a country they deserve me imagining them as such.