Is there a food you think American makes better than its origin country?

28 comments

1. Bourbon.

   The French suck at making Bourbon. They suck so bad at making Bourbons that their own people executed all of them.

   Seriously though, many beers. The US has just gotten supremely good at making beer in styles that the old country made up. You can get beer in almost any style here as good or better than the same style back in the old country and you likely have more options too.

2. I’d argue pizza. I’m sure Italy has amazing pizza but nothing beats a NY/NJ style slice, nothing.

3. Poutine

   <ducks>

4. I think that Chicken Fried Steak is a huge improvement on Schnitzle. Maybe most people don’t have either very often but damn do I love Chicken Fried Steak.

5. Pizza, purely because of how diverse you can have it. You can have anything from something that would look straight out of Italy to the abomination that is Chicago.

6. I’m not sure we make anything “better” but we certainly make things differently in a way people here like better, but it’s an opinion of taste, we don’t objectively make anything better than anywhere else.

   Take pizza for example, Italian and American pizza are two totally seperate foods, but neither is really “better” than the other. I remeber asking my Italian friend what he thought of New York style pizza, and he responded it was one of his favorite foods, but it’s not something he recognizes as pizza.

   Tex mex is another good example. Tex mex is amazing imo, and in the opinion of a lot of people, but its not “better” then Mexican, it’s a fundamentally different type of food. Much like my Italian friend with nyc pizza, many Mexican/hispanic friends of mine absolutely love tex mex, but see it as totally seperate from Mexican food.

   It’s hard to take any Americanized version of a food and call it “better” or “worse” because we don’t simply mimic foreign foods we take them and make them into something totally unique. Because of that, you can’t say which is better, because it’s like asking which is better when comparing apples to oranges, they’re different things so it’s down to your opinion.

   This felt rambly, I’m sorry if it’s hard to follow.

7. I’ve heard British people say that fish and chips is about the batter and not the fish.

   They’re wrong. The emphasis should be on the fish. The fish and chips in the US is superior to that in the UK. BITE ME BRITS.

   Also, eating food out of a newspaper is disgusting.

8. Burgers. No doubt, burgers. Pizza as well.

   Some beer.

9. I’m going to get hell for this, but I think Tex-Mex is as good as food in Mexico.

10. May be an unpopular opinion but I prefer American pizza over Italian pizza… and I don’t mean that chain restaurant pizza, but those from small businesses. I remember eating this delicious cheese pizza from NYC on my trip last year and it was better than any pizza I tried at Italy when I went on summer trip there 3 years ago… and believe me, I tried a good amount of places. May just be my taste buds tho….

11. Sorry Germany. America took your burger, ran with it, and got all the gold medals.

12. All of them.

    Edit. The man deleted his account to own me. That was unspeakable based.

13. I’m gonna throw a weird one out there, but bagels.

14. I do not really view it as “better,” because this is a personal preference.

    I prefer American pizzas over Italian pizzas.

    Why?

    I can successfully eat American pizzas as finger food without making an absolute mess of things.

15. Waffles and Fries.

    Not sorry Belgium.

16. Bagels and pastrami.

17. The origins of the different food from other countries that has been Americanized, probably can be traced to immigrants who came here and opened resteraunts and later altered their receipes to reflect the tastes of the locals.
    If that’s true and I think it is, then Americans in general would prefer their own version over the original.

18. Pretzels. Pennsylvania has that shit down. Whether you’re talking a baked fresh soft pretzel or a bag of minis, gimme whatever’s cooking in the US alongside some horseradish sauce and a good beer cheese.

19. A sushi burrito is my favorite American bastardization of a foreign food

20. Beer, any meat products

21. Mexican food in San Diego

22. Pizza and beer.

23. As I understand it, pastrami originates from Romania. I have not been to Romania. But I believe the apotheosis of pastrami is the reuben sandwich, and that’s all American.

24. I like our restaurant portion sizes better.

25. A lot of cured meats but especially bacon. Prague Powder #1 makes a big difference

26. Cuban food is better in Miami than in Cuba.

27. Detroit-style Pizza.

28. Wine — Napa/Sonoma wine is just as good if not better than European wines. So much so it caused a major huballoo back in the day and there was a rather famous event called the [Judgement of Paris](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/05/24/479163882/the-judgment-of-paris-the-blind-taste-test-that-decanted-the-wine-world) where there was a blind taste test of wines in France that pitted California wines against French wines and California came out on top much to the chagrin of, well, pretty much every wine snob out there.