What's a traditional American food everyone seems to love but you don't?
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who does not like ranch flavoring. To a lesser degree, I don't like apple pie either. Like, if I was served a slice of apple pie and courtesy required me to at least eat a few bites, I would. But I would absolutely not if it was a dish, say, covered in ranch dressing.
I think most people would refuse apple pie covered in ranch dressing, too.
For me, it's steak. It's... okay, but not all that exciting. But I don't get the reverent devotion to it that a lot of Americans have. If I'm going to eat plain animal muscle all by itself, I prefer chicken. (Both are better as an ingredient in a dish.)
Steak is one of those things that can go from meh to heavenly depending on the cut and how you cook it.
Cheap sirloin grilled without seasoning... eh...
For my birthday this year I splurged on some thick, prime ribeye cap steaks, took the time to season them and let them dry in the fridge for about 24h, and then cooked them to a nice rare in a cast iron pan with a silly amount of butter, some garlic, and a few sprigs of rosemary, and it was easily one of the best things I've eaten all year.
I think most people would refuse apple pie covered in ranch dressing, too.
I did phrase that poorly, lol, but I know people who probably would consider that a delicacy 🤮
How has American vomit chocolate not been mentioned yet?
It's a complete mystery
Literally anything from McDonald's. I have no nostalgia for it as we couldn't afford to eat out when I was growing up. The chopped onions on the burgers are such a particular flavor and texture that I now refuse to prepare onions this way when cooking. The breading on the chicken nuggets are some kind of sweet tempura batter that is revolting.
Yup, I can't stand the taste of their beef patties on their own. The buns do some serious heavy lifting with their burgers. I imagine it's part of their tricks to keep the costs down while tricking your brain into thinking you're eating something good.
I have no nostalgia for it as we couldn’t afford to eat out when I was growing up.
We were new immigrants so we were broke af, but still, me and my (older) brother, occasionaly went to a nearby McDonalds. Around 2010s. Stuff was good. Big Mac, McChicken, and I think the most memorable were McNuggets and Fries. Big Mac was like $4/$5 so its rare to have those. Like maybe once in a while, there's a promotion buy 1 get 1 free or half off and me and my brother would each have one.
You know the 20 piece McNuggets that is in one box, well that was so much trouble, we had to split it, and literally had to count each one, and there's always a fight about like fairness, like which pieces are bigger or something, and its its odd numbered, that's gonna be even more problems, so we'd just let mom have it. Thanks bro, appreciate it lol. Buy hey, at least we both have less lmao, so smart of you...
Nowadays, their stuff taste so bad.
I've never liked Pepperon pizza. The slight sweetly-sour taste, combined with the amount of grease. Ugh. I don't even like thinking about it.
I think that the strongest argument in favor is that the large slices do a good job of adhering to the pizza. They don't normally roll off easily, as some other meat options do.
That's true. I've always felt the best topping was slices (not crumbles) of Italian sausage for the same reason.
I had a hard time thinking of something but while we don't hate it per se. My wife and I never go out to get pepperoni pizza. We generally only have it because it came on pizza with other toppings or its at a party with few other options. Like we might eat it over plain cheese, so again we don't hate it. But if there is any other pizza with toppings we don't explicitly hate then we are going for that over pepperoni.
ranch
Ranch dressing is okay wirh me as a vegetable dip, but outside that, I'm not a big fan either.
As a chip dip, it's pretty bland; I'd rather use guacamole or salsa or something.
Dipping things like fried chicken in ranch dressing is just bizzare to me. Doesn't work from a temperature or flavor standpoint for me.
I can't think of many things that are ranch-flavored other than a few fried snacks like chips. I don't think that they're bad, but also not that great.
It's apparently popular as a salad dressing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranch_dressing
In 2017, 40% of Americans named ranch as their favorite dressing, according to a study by the Association for Dressings and Sauces.[3] Ranch dressing is most prominently used in the Midwest region.
As a salad dressing, it's not especially offensive, but it also seems pretty uninteresting to me. Not much flavor to it. I'd rather have caesar or blue cheese.
Tomatoes
Pork roll! I'd rather get sausage.
I've never even heard of that. A web search shows it's mainly just a new jersey thing rather than a national American thing
Indeed it is a nj thing. And I hate it, lol. I'm bad at being jerseyian. What is our nickname. Dinguses maybe?
*Taylor ham
Scrapple. It's been decades since I went vegetarian, but I still remember how slimy even fried scrapple was.
New England Clam chowder. Warm salty milk with bits of rubber. But that was just bad chowder, you say? Then every single time I had it was bad.
Pecan pie. Just dip a pecan in karo syrup and save yourself the trouble.
Barbeque. Even the meat is America has to be sweet, apparently. Yeah yeah, vinegar type exists, too, just never anywhere I lived and it's too late to try now.
I've never been able to handle scrapple either, and I grew up right in the heart of PA Dutch country. Everyone else in my family loves it.
I don't like Bacon or Shrimp. I kept kosher growing up, and I guess I just never developed the taste? I've eaten kangaroo and I liked that better.
Cranberry sauce. The sauce itself is okay, but try drinking milk after eating some. It's makes the milk taste absolutely horrible. Just not a good Thanksgiving option.
Im not here to yum your yuck but I found I vastly preferred making my own cranberry sauce. I love it with enough citrus to be tart.
fresh made is the bomb.
Homemade with citrus, and enough spice (to taste) is an incredible condiment
So I don't like seafood. Shrimp and stuff is pretty popular in the us and now sushi in recent decades. Honestly though it means there is food popular in almost all countries that I don't like. EDITED - totally forgot. I don't like popcorn unless slathered in something I do like like cheese or carmel or chocalate. Plain buttered popcorn like in a theater. nuh uh.
Turkey
Lol this so much. Chicken just taste better lol, why even have turkey.
I hate cheese on sandwiches lol. Or hotdogs.
Like... On Pizza, its good, Burgers, fine, sandwich, nah.
Also wtf apparantly a stick of cheese is "food", I never understood that lol.
Bacon 🫣
BBQ. It's a dessert!
Wait, I need to hear more about this theory! Are you referring to barbeque styles that are heavily sauced and sticky?
Because I can kind of see how a sweet, sticky, glazed pork rib could be considered a dessert, but I can't for the life of me imagine how you get dessert fron Texas style barbecue, for example.
Oh, I'll have to admit I'm biased on this one. I don't know about Texas BBQ, and I'm sure they have different styles that are mild and delicious. But the ones my family bought from the store growing up were a thick, syrupy, gooey mess that always left me feeling like I had eaten a bag of candy. They loved it, but I kept thinking to myself, how is this a meal?? My mom's cooking is excellent and balanced, so the stark contrast always stuck with me.
Hamburgers. Sure, with the right toppings they're OK but the fundamentals of bread and ground beef are just not very interesting. I don't get the obsession.
They don't excite me that much today, but I remember really liking them as a kid, so might be familiarity breeding contempt.
I think that one selling point is in the "fast food" role. They're the one of the few foods that at least vaguely approximates a meal --- like, meat, carbs, some vegetable --- that you can get at pretty much any hour in a lot of the US. Always some sort of burger joint pretty much anywhere there are more than a few people living together.
Compact, easy to eat without utensils or plate, fast to eat.
How can people eat peanut butter? It's disgusting.
Just out of curiosity, do you specifically dislike peanut butter, or do you generally dislike nut butters? Like, do you dislike almond butter?
Never tried almond butter. Actually, I have never seen it as a product here.
Peanut butter raw is yucky, it sticks to the top of the mouth, a horrible feeling, destroying any joy in eating. Peanut butter as an ingredient for cooking is OK, though.
Nice, I'm not the only one! I always found it so repulsive and used to give all my Reeses away on Halloween. Also, PB&J? Barf.
Hash browns
There are a million better way to make potatoes
Peanut butter jelly sandwiches
(It is so funny because all the non Americans I know seem to hate it)
other way round, I think most American food is in general bad. (don't fight me on personal tastes). however, buiscuits and gravy are absolutely amazing.
You people are traitors!
I don’t know if this is strictly American (90%) but mine is ketchup. I think it’s sweetly disgusting. If it’s on a burger I can deal but dipping fries into it? Barf
I'm the opposite, love it on fries with malt vinegar. I won't let it come within arms length of my burgers though.
Granted I'm Canadian so kraft mac & cheese /w ketchup was instilled into me from birth
Oh, macaroni & cheese is a good one for my "dislike but popular in the US" list.
I don't absolutely hate it, and there are some types that are more-palatable. But the texture is disappointing, just feels slimy. I don't like the amount of liquid left behind. The flavor isn't something I like. Not a good use for pasta, in my book.
I didn't eat it growing up --- not on my comfort food list, though it is for many --- and maybe that's what causes that. I'd probably do spaghetti with meat sauce or tuna noodle casserole as my "inexpensive comfort food" instead.
I’ve always been curious about malt vinegar on fries! I need to try it sometime.
Primal Kitchen has some good ketchup, both "Unsweetened" and "A Tad Sweet" are normal levels of sweet. To the point where I've seen little kids that are used to the liquid sugar style exclaim "This ketchup tastes sour!" and refuse to eat it
Same. I won't ask for someone to not put it on in the burger, but I'm not going near the any fries that have seen ketchup.
As a kid I definitely liked it. As an adult, it's way too sweet.
AGREED!! Home-made ketchup is great though. But Americans basically like red, liquid sugar, and that’s just dis-fucking-gusting!
You're not alone. I also don't care for ketchup on anything. Though I have dipped fries in BBQ sauce, so maybe that's equally gross.
I think you meant to say "delicious" there 😉
I agree, I can only eat it on hot dogs and that's because I don't like hot dogs either.