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Americans who visited other countries - what food did you find to be uniquely american? (self.AskUSA)

submitted 21 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) by breadsmasher to c/[email protected]

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I am currently visiting the USA, and before I leave I want to try some food that is "uniquely" american - IE, you can't really find it outside of the country.

UK stores do tend to have a "USA section" which has a small amount of sweets and other products. But I am wondering what americans specifically missed / couldn't find in other countries.

As an example - Wendy's as far as I've seen, isn't local to the UK or at least where I live. So trying that was a "unique american food", to me.

I'm also in Chicago at the moment, so I made sure to try a proper (real?) Chicago deep dish pizza (loved it, by the way).

Alternatively, any other suggestions of food to try?

Immediate edit - turns out Wendy's is in some locations in the UK. I just assumed incorrectly!

Thanks for all the suggestions!!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

I've traveled all around western Europe and didn't find much in the way of American food. Spend a month between Germany, France, Italy, and I was dying for something like home. Spend two weeks in the Netherlands where I bought what I thought was a cheese Danish pastry from this bakery, take a bite and it has fish and a slab of cheese in the middle. Order fish and chips and turns out the fish was the whole damn fish, scales, and bones with the head removed. The only American experience I could find was a Burger King or Macdonalds. It's not like the food in the places I traveled around bad, just often time bland or heavy. Garlic and butter can't be the only spices ya'll use, right?

I now understand why my foreign coworkers and friends are so happy to come back home with two suitcases full of their favorite food and snacks from their country.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

Order fish and chips and turns out the fish was the whole damn fish, scales, and bones with the head removed. The only American experience I could find...

Fish-and-chips is a British dish, albeit popular in the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_and_chips

Fish and chips is a hot dish consisting of battered and fried fish, served with chips. Often considered the national dish of the United Kingdom, fish and chips originated in England in the 19th century. Today, the dish is a common takeaway food in numerous other countries, particularly English-speaking and Commonwealth nations.

Fish and chip shops first appeared in the UK in the 1860s, and by 1910 there were over 25,000 of them across the UK. This increased to over 35,000 by the 1930s, but eventually decreased to approximately 10,000 by 2009. The British government safeguarded the supply of fish and chips during the First World War and again in the Second World War. It was one of the few foods in the UK not subject to rationing during the wars, which further contributed to its popularity.

If you were in the Netherlands, you were actually just a small bit of ocean away from the fish-and-chips epicenter.

EDIT: and it's really the only time one sees the British term "chips" used in the US; usually we'd call them "steak fries", but the term got attached to the dish.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 18 hours ago

Yeah I get that and the Netherlands has their own spin on all things fish which typically ment the whole damn fish. I'm from Seattle Washington and we're a big seafood city and usually fish and chips is a battered fish fillet with fries. Pretty much the same anywhere in America when you order that dish. I did have a rpetty good burrito (Tex-Mex style) in Amsterdam, but the owner there was Mexican.