The amount of meat and oil and stuff being tremendously indulgent by Old Country standards and yet the level of craftsmanship and quality etc. being at the level of the meanest peasant food The invention of junk food/fast food The whole American experience in a nutshell
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My favorite thing about this is the invention of orange chicken Traditional Chinese haute cuisine did in fact use orange *peels* in chicken marinade, which isn't that different than French chefs making Duck a L'Orange
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The Chinese-American takeout version of this is to completely drown breaded pieces of chicken in an orange sauce with large amounts of sugar added so the dish *literally tastes like you're eating an orange* and barely tastes like meat at all (because the meat is low-quality)
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This is something the US public finds irresistible while actual chefs from both cultures find it gross There was a great thread here a while back of a NY chef adding "director's commentary" to his menu saying "I hate orange chicken but they won't stop ordering it so here it is"
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If I were to name one thing that's specifically distinctive about "bad" American cuisine it wouldn't be fat or salt, it'd be *sugar* No question -- it's the one thing other countries can't stand about eating here, everything is so fucking sweet
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We joke about this being the result of high fructose corn syrup flooding the market due to corn subsidies but that's putting the cart before the horse "Syrup culture" was a thing before HFCS that led to the invention of HFCS Goes back to the triangle trade and whatnot
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Huge part of our economy was tied to Caribbean sugar plantations, rum being the primary product used as a trade good but cheap molasses being a cheap by-product, that poor Southerners ended up putting on everything
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This is a scene in To Kill a Mockingbird, when the high-class Finches have a little farmer boy over for dinner, who politely asks for a jug of molasses and then douses his entire plate in it Scout gasps in revulsion and Calpurnia scolds her not to shame their guest for his ways
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Replying to @arthur_affect @_raniamu
I’d say there’s definitely an upper limit for sweetness that’s tolerable, but from Europeans specifically, sweetness has had moral implications, so I wonder if that’s playing into the scorn for US food sweetness from them.
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Replying to @renaissanceeast @_raniamu
There was a whole thing about how Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's birthday fell during a state visit once and Obama presented him with a birthday cake and people muttered this was a diplomatic faux pas because in Japan an adult man eating sweets is seen as emasculating
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It was pretty common in the olden days -- ironically, especially in the Protestant work ethic cultures that America sees its own roots in -- to think of eating desserts as a decadent luxury for the idle rich etc. that a strong working man is supposed to outgrow
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But Americans don't give a shit about that anymore -- for us hardworking blue-collar men eating candy bars and shit is totally normalized Donald Trump getting two scoops of ice cream after every dinner
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People were making fun of this one UK brand of chocolate that made these commercials trying to call it "Chocolate for MEN" and as universal as toxic masculinity may be in marketing, I really feel like that's a UK thing no one would think to try here
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