Non-Americans Share Which American Foods They Find Disgusting And It's Hysterical

Your soda, or pop or whatever. I appreciate that you can get mass amounts in a cup for a dollar that will last you the whole day, but fuck, it's just not satisfying. I can drink a can here in Oz and think "well, that was nice. I'm satiated." Your soda, it's kind of oily in texture and just missing something. It's not strong enough to hit the spot. I get that it doesn't have sugar in it and that's probably why. Very bland-tasting.

This, and all your weird flavours for things. Here, if you have candy or soda or whatever, you'll have strawberry, apple, banana, raspberry, blackcurrant, sometimes mango. Fruits people eat. You know, fruits? Those things you're supposed to eat? Go to the US, and all you'll find is grape (HORRIBLE artificial grape that tastes NOTHING like a grape does. Grapes are red or white. Why is it purple?!), cranberry, watermelon. Or some sort of generic colour that isn't really a flavour. "Red." Never normal flavours.

foodandart

a couple things i learned when i moved to the US from Germany 5 years ago:

1. Sour cream == cream cheese (speaking English probably would have helped)
2. milk doesn't last months at room temperature anymore. also less sweet
3. corn-dogs are the shit
4. cheese. cheese on everything.
5. drinking water fountains exist! turns out, those water things from cartoons actually fucking exist.
6. there are always snacks around at people's houses.

velonaut

I was watching some show where the asked Anthony Bourdain the same question. He thought a lot of cultures would find a Cinnabon disgusting, and I tend to agree, particularly that white, glutinous paste that they slop all over the bun.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a fat American who will happily stuff my fat face with Cinnabon, but I can understand how someone could find it revolting.

VenisonMogambi

Hershey's Milk Chocolate is very poor tasting. There is actually a reason behind this though. Hershey's uses a secret method to prepare the dairy portion of the recipe, which allows them to use cheaper older milk giving their chocolate a funky bitter taste. This also allowed them to sell their chocolate at a much lower price and back in the day chocolate was very expensive. Since Hershey's was the only kind of chocolate the average person could afford, most Americans became accustomed to that distinct flavor and don't really enjoy the taste of good quality chocolate like the stuff coming from Europe.

doesntgeddit

It's not so much the food but more the portion sizes. I'm Australian and was raised as a kid to eat everything on my plate. I brought that mentality to the US. over a month I put on 5kg!
The portion sizes are obscene. I could hardly finish a meal there without feeling ill from eating to much. I think implementing cheaper, smaller portion options would be great. It would also cut down on wasting food (as I noticed a lot of people didn't eat all of their meal).
That said, American food on the whole was great. I spent a lot of time in the Deep South and I loved BBQ, baked beans, grits, sweet tea, Cajun food, Po Boys. Even Waffle House wasn't half bad.

mrphasedance

English man here, just spent 3 months over in the states. Nothing i came across was disgusting, but the serving sizes were crazy. I didn't care and ate everything, gained 25 lbs. Going back in January. DAT CHIPOLTLE.
EDIT: Yes, The Guacamole was great. OBVIOUSLY, Chipotle was the only food I tried and enjoyed in America (like I stated), also, I DEFINITELY mentioned above that Chipotle is American food and not Mexican.
I know they have the in England, down South, I'm up north and I'm jealous.
EDIT 2: As I'm going back over in January, recommend me some foods to eat, I love food. I'll be on the east coast up north.

Crofty44

my foreign friends aren't big on cheese, and one of them refuses to even TRY cheesecake because cheese + cake = confusion for her, and she thinks root beer tastes like medicine.
she's native Korean. and man have I tried over and over to explain that cheesecake is the best shit ever and it's not like someone is slapping a chunk of sharp cheddar on top of a birthday cake.

Odd

Joining in on the circle jerk here but chocolate. I was kinda surprised that American chocolate was so poor when I first had it, given America's reputation for candy. That said, what you put in your chocolate candy can be pretty great. Pretzel M&Ms are the best, ever.
But truly, that's it. I have lived in NYC for ten months now and I've yet to find a new thing that actually repulsed me. I've had badly made stuff, but then I've had the same dish elsewhere that's been amazing.

One thing that annoys me in NYC though is the absolute disdain held for chains by a lot of my friends, mainly my Manhattan ones. They automatically assume chain = bad food. Bullshit. The best pancakes I have ever had were from Perkins and Papa John's cookie pizza thing takes some beating.
I've yet to find a truly awesome burger in NYC though. The best sit-down burger I had was upstate in Binghamton, and the best fast food one was Super Duper Burger in San Francisco. Shake Shack is horribly overrated (and yes, I mean the original one in Madison Sq Park), though I'll take a frozen custard if you're offering.

RascalMultitude

UK here. We very much approve of your massive steaks and wide variety of BBQ delights. However, we regret to inform you your chocolate is a bit minging.
(I'm sure that's probably unfair and you chaps have lovely chocolate, but all the Americans I ever knew raved about the sweets and then tried giving me some of that Hershey's stuff.. should have a warning on saying "May contain traces of chocolate"..

ZenPad

Brit here, went to America for a couple of months.

I honestly can't think of a food I disliked. I mean, yeah, Hersheys and the "cheese", but even you Americans know they aren't the best (I was near enough forbidden to try "cheese" over there by my fiancee and was given an odd look when I bought some Hersheys).

But seriously, everything I tried, I liked. The sushi, Mexican, Vietnamese, even the god damn burgers from Five Guys. IHOP was fun and tasty, Krispy Kreme was fucking delicious and despite my hesitance, a breakfast burrito is a remarkably delightful idea. Jerky is amazing, too. I ate like a king and was extremely happy doing it.

But fuck corn dogs, they suck.

splendidtimwah

Not so much disgusting as bland: Strawberries and tomatoes.
I remember going into a supermarket and seeing these absolutely huge strawberries. Biggest I'd ever seen. And bright red, like they were the juiciest, most ripe ever grown. Bought a punnet, went home and ate them, they tasted like wet cardboard. What a disappointment.
I'd say it was false advertising.

EDIT: Also, Twinkies. I grew up with Marvel comics and they had ads for all sorts of things at the back. One of the few ads I remember were for Twinkies. They looked delicious so when I got to the US I had to try one. Dessicated sponge wrapped around fake cream. The sponge was so dry and the filling so obviously unnatural that no self-respecting mould would go near the thing, I reckon it probably had a longer half life than platinum. I'm sure if humans nuke themselves into extinction any uneaten Twinkies will still be around when the lizards evolve civilization.

total

As a Dutch pescotarian I can't really comment on the many types of meat, but there were some things that amazed me when I went to the US. The sizes are simply insane, especially the drinks. A small there is as big as a large McDonalds drink here (which, by the way, is the only widespread American fastfood chain we have, there are like 5 KFCs and 20 Burger Kings and that's it) They are also constantly refilled. Here you would pay like 2 euro for a drink of that size and you'd need to buy another one if you were still thirsty.

Another thing was the fact that everyone drinks soda/whatever you wanna call it during dinner. An adult orders water here, and occasionally wine or something.

The first time we got the bill we thought there was something wrong because the water wasn't on there but apparently it's free o_o

The bread is also way too fluffy. You practically need to toast it before it's edible. I'm used to...freshly-baked, non-fluffy bread. It's hard to explain if you haven't tried it.

I didn't want to touch the plastic bricks you call cheese (that stuff looks way too unnatural), so I don't really know about those.

I'm on my phone so forgive any typos and strange sentences.

102849

"You Americans got your tea all backwards. First you make it hot, then you put ice in it to make it cold. Then you put sugar in it to make it sweet, then you put lemon in it to make it sour . . . it's pretty good though", quoted from a British kid me an my pals took to Denny's one morning. Pretty insightful I would say.
He also ordered pancakes and spooned the whole butter ball on top of the stack into his mouth and wretched it back out onto his plate.

xillWillx

I am English and live in America, there is plenty of good food to be had but I never ever eat at McDonalds or Taco Belle or anywhere similar that stuff is just revolting. There are plenty of fast food places that are good but why people eat at those places is totally beyond me. Hamburger helper WTF is that all about ewwww.

Cereal is massively over-sweetened, my nephews and nieces from England visited and we got them the same cereal they enjoy at home, Frosties I think and they wouldn't eat it. The beer - nuff said! High fructose corn syrup in everything! Before I get attacked before being anti-american, I am not, like I said there is a lot of food I enjoy here.

mycakeisalie1

I usually love Denny's food. I'm the type of person that believes breakfast should be eaten at least 2 meals a day, I'd be okay if it were all three. So I'm in podunk Pennsylvania for a lacrosse tournament and our bus pulls over for food. The beautiful "Denny's" sign is standing erect, alerting me to the pleasures inside. So my friends and I walk in and sit at the bar, instead of a booth.

Now, the lady that serves us is easily 350+ pounds. Her voice is the rare combination of painfully high, and as raspy as a 3-pack-a-day smoker. Now, I order my pancakes and hashbrowns or something and, sitting at the bar, we have the opportunity to watch it be made. Sure enough, the lady that serves us is the same person picking up the food/adding sides and extras. She is sweating profusely and has sweat stains under her arms, boobs, lower level of boobs, all of her chins, and her nose.

She picks up the plate, putting her thumb in the hashbrowns and goes to add butter, which is in a bucket à la ice cream style. She scoops some butter, getting some stuck to her knuckles. She licks her knuckles and goes back in for another scoop. She then gave us our food. We took a few small courtesy bites before I found a hair, paid our bills, and left

TLDR; I was served by a woman I felt physically ill looking at.

sickkbro

Disgusting - not much. Disappointing - dessert menus - if you don't like peanut-butter or cinnamon your options get very limited. Sweet stuff in general is below par - cookies, chocolate, baked goods, cupcakes. Maybe that set of tastes is a little primal - i.e. it's hard to wean off what you grow up with. Doesn't stop me trying every variety and combination in my mission to satisfy these primal urges though.

DutchGold

Turkey bacon. It's vile. Only pork should be made into bacon, I care not what ye say.
Edit: can people stop being butt-hurt about religious and health reasons. The question was 'what food do I as a non-American find disgusting' not 'what food do I as a non-American god disgusting that also doesn't have reasons for having being made due to religious bollocks because otherwise the very creation of said item would prove that, due to its vileness there can be no god' thanks.

Jhasso

German here. Havent eaten stuff in the US yet, but everytime I watch watch a video of someone from the US on youtube, and they go out for lunch even in smaller towns, I am super surprised that there is actually such a huge variety of foods. You have things we dont quiet have here at all. For example they went to some taco restaurant with like a thousand different sauces to chose from.

What I find a bit strange is that I have seen some sandwiches with salad and potatoe Chips. CHIPS?!
Conclusion: I'd be super fucking fat if I lived over there. Not to blame you guys, I'd be my fault :D

/tehgnz

All of it. I also find all of it fucking delicious. Let me explain.
I love how it tastes, but at the end of the day I feel like I'm shitting grease.
It's like all of your food is junk food, even food from fancy restaurants. It tastes amazing but absolutely everything is just crammed full of sugar salt and fat. It's like all the dials are turned up to '11', all of the time - there's no subtelty.

I eat like a king when I'm over there (I'm from the UK btw), but lordy do I pay for it. My digestive system just cannot cope with two weeks of nothing but American food, while it does taste good it plays havoc with my stomach. Last time I was there I was desperately trying to find food without meat or cheese in it to give myself a break... nope! Being a vegan in Boston seems like it would be pretty tricky, if there wasn't meat in it, there was cheese. So that made things a lot harder, because when I've got a dicky tummy the last thing I want is either of those.

Troggie42

I always assumed this was worldwide knowledge, but in America you get what you pay for. Americans understand that if you go to a place with cheap food you will get low quality and probably large portions. Dont be surprised when your Cici's pizza or big mac or chalupa taste like crap. if you dont shell out some real money for food, it is going to be low quality.

Curbb