I’ve seen some wild things that people label as ‘American’ while traveling abroad. My favorite things though are American foods that are just done so poorly to the point where ur just like “Wow, I thought WE were bad lol.”
For example, I had some “nachos” in Edinburgh that were just stale tortilla chips with microwaved cheese over the top with green sour cream (“guac”) on the side. It still haunts me to this day. And not strictly American, but I saw “tacos” in France that were some sort of panini type of deal.
Have you seen anything like that in your travels?
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This dude on IG eats chicken tenders and fries in Ireland. They are the most pathetic looking things I’ve ever seen
Leave French tacos out of this. They’re a whole other thing that have nothing in common with tacos than a similar name. Europe is full of shitty burgers trying to be American. A French tacos is decidedly French. And it’s amazing. Just don’t expect a tacos to be a taco. Or anything like a taco.
I used to teach US culture in Europe, my colleagues and students loved to show me “authentic American” food, how much time do you have?
My personal favorite were restaurants that named random dishes after US cities and acted as though they got the recipe there or doing the same with native American tribes. Apparently the Mohicans are known for spicy chicken sandwiches.
The most appalling was a bagel with spicy ketchup/mayo, labeled as a “frontier breakfast roll”. I asked the owner, he swore up and down it was an authentic cowboy recipe.
Why is Europe so bad at burgers? Always overcooked, nearly always too much bread, lack of condiments.
I’ve had Mexican food in Japan, and it was extremely mid.
I used to deploy to NAS Atsugi in Japan often in the 90s. The enlisted club had a tex-mex place with cute Japanese girls behind the counter. The burritos were more like a big eggroll with beans, taco meat and cheese. I mean they were good, just not quite what I was expecting. I would still get a couple about every other day.
Fah-JI-tuss in London.
The word “Tex-Mex” is what clued us in that they meant fajitas. My friend ordered them. They were… Not recognizable.
In South East Asia anything w/ ketchup is considered “American”
I think it goes back to when GI’s who didn’t like the local food would put ketchup on everything while stationed there.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_fried_rice
Not American food, but I’ve tried Mexican food in Europe and it was brutal
I went to a “burrito” restaurant in London about a decade and a half ago and ordered a “Mexican Burrito.”
I… honestly don’t think the folks there have ever seen a burrito before.
They did sell me a flour tortilla wrap, so that part was right. As to the contents–I mean, it was interesting. There were boiled navy beans, and some sort of unfamiliar meat filling, and someone decided that cottage cheese is the same thing as ~~cream cheese,~~ sour cream, right?
Mexican food at Taco Bills in the outback of Australia was pretty bad.
The strangest thing to me is how different American brands taste overseas. Obviously it makes sense with different suppliers and stuff but idk, I just expected a Whopper to taste the same in Dubai as it does in Michigan.
I had pizza in Afghanistan and it was odd. Looked like pizza, mostly, but tasted like Afghan food. It was not that good. But it scratched the itch so…
I got French fries in France as a joke mostly. Happened to stumble upon a McDonalds over there. Got a large size fry. Not only were they unsalted, they only gave me ONE of those small ketchup packets. When I asked for more ketchup, they gave me one additional packet. I was in a group of four people sharing these fries. They told me anymore and they would charge me. I honestly debated going off on them at that point I felt so disrespected
Cheeseburgers in Brazil. It’s still a hamburger patty with cheese on a bun, but the meat, cheese, bread even the ketchup and mustard are qualitatively different just enough that it’s almost a different food altogether. And they’re delicious, but when I was feeling homesick for a burger, these never hit the spot.
And hotdogs carts in Rio are wild. For one, you want the hot dog water, they flavor it with tomato paste and peppers, you could dip the bun in it. They also use mayonnaise and quail eggs and fifty other things that might seem offensive to the average American passerby.
Most of my time in Brazil I always ordered my dogs sort of how you’d eat them here, but by the end I just said fuck it and started to order them with everything.
But honestly the most offensive food I ever ate was a burrito I got in Providence, Rhode Island in the 90s. Yeah, it was wrapped in a tortilla but it was served with white rice on the side. It contained pinto beans, to their credit, but stewed beef dashed with cumin, and cheddar cheese is an odd choice. It didn’t make any sense, it’s like they weren’t even trying.
I’ve posted this before but in Hungary I went to an ‘American’ restaurant that was adorned with the weirdest mix of Route 66 memorabilia and Canadian license plates. I ordered the hamburger and I swear they recreated it from a picture of a hamburger. The bun was like a focaccia? The patty was a pork/beef combination that in anything else would be great but not here. Instead of pickles they had sliced cucumbers (???)
I had corn put on my Subway sandwich at the NEC in Birmingham and instantly fully understood the Revolution.
I don’t trust burgers in Eastern Europe unless it’s a chain. I was really hungry in Slovakia one day and I ate a burger and I don’t know if they were using a weird part of the cow or what but it was inedible. It takes a lot for a burger to be inedible. But this place managed to do it, they steamed cooked it which isn’t unusual but it was like they steamed it for 5 hours or something. But European food in Europe is about the best thing in the world.
While not abroad, I work on cargo ships with foreign crew/cooks. I’m a big fan of Indian food but I guess the idea that Americans can handle spice hasn’t made it to them. I have on multiple occasions received a hotdog cut down the middle with a somehow shittier version of a Kraft single on top severed inside a hamburger bun.
While not American I have noticed that other nationalities have terrible offerings when it comes to breakfast. The idea of not “wasting” meat on a breakfast dish seems to be a common theme. Most common item I’ve seen is just sliced cheese on untoasted white bread…
Had a work event in Switzerland at a “Western” themed bowling alley. Bar had the classic western bar swinging doors. Served like it was the finest caviar was a tiny cup of what could only be Pace salsa with tortilla chips that looked and tasted like they had come out of one of those huge, clear plastic bags.
went to a wild west themed restaurant in southern france, the decorations ranged from innacurate to very racist (lots of weird depictions of native americans). the food was interesting, it was pretty good but it was not at all ‘authentic’. the desert was ‘american pancakes’ which was a very cold, sweet, and dense pancake with dark chocolate sauce on it.
Haha I had a similar nacho experience at a place in Germany that marketed itself as an “American sports bar”. It was straight up just a bowl of Doritos (or Dorito replica) with a side of microwaved cheese sauce
American style Chinese food in western Ireland. So oily, bland, no veggies, and the chicken was dryyyyy. But at least I could still get a few Bulmer’s to wash it down.
Dear Germany
Salsa isn’t ketchup with corn.
“Tacos” in London that were just unseasoned ground beef and ketchup.
I had to give them at least a little credit for serving it on a tortilla.
I had nachos at a pub in London. The corn chips, mild salsa, and pickled jalapeños were all absolutely fine. The bright orange “cheese” sauce poured over everything was not.
At another London pub, though, I had a good and decently spicy vegetarian chili topped with fresh cilantro and diced avocado, so lousy Tex-Mex wasn’t universal (I didn’t intend to eat Tex-Mex in the UK, but those were often the gluten-free options on pub menus).
1972-ish, I was on a sub refitting out of the Holy Loch in Scotland, my first night off, after being in refit for 9 days, I finally made it to the big town of Gurock because I’d been advised against the closest town of Dunoon. And I was starving, I’d worked through dinner so that my work would be done for the day and I could get off the boat. I couldn’t find an open restaurant, but I did find a Fish and Chips shop.
The idea of a huge plank of fish and french fries wrapped in newspaper didn’t appeal (I learned a bit of culture later), but there on the menu board was ‘hamburger’, so I ordered it.
They deep-fried a frozen hamburger, bun and all, in the same oil they used to cook the fish. This served to fossilize the poor thing, making everything the consistency of cardboard. I threw it away and ate the fries (which were amazingly good) made my way back to the boat pier and waited four hours for the Mike-8 that took me back to the Tender, down to the boat, to the crew’s mess, made a peanut butter sandwich, ate it, found my bunk, and never left the boat again until we got back from patrol 90 odd days later.
Four years later, I was sent to the Holy Loch for a tour on the Tender, met, romanced, and married a local Scottish girl.
Most of 40 years after that, my wife and daughter went to Scotland for a vacation, the first where our daughter was an adult, while I stayed home because I had too many projects going on to get away. On their 3rd day there, my BIL took the girls out to a ‘Chippie’ for lunch.
And my daughter ordered the hamburger.
I got a twenty minute call that night where she described the horror.
Lesson learned: Don’t try to order ‘American’ food when you’re not in the US.
Dude, having a Cheesesteak outside of the Philadelphia area can be wild.
Order a burrito in New Zealand. Corn tortillas with white rice and shredded cheddar cheese. It came with a side of spaghetti.