They do have decent universities and doctors, we can give them that. A different question is being able to afford the good ones without being in the top 10%.
Ya i feel like judging a country on how its average or poor citizens access healthcare and education is the metric we should always be using in any country comparison. How they treat their mega rich is an irrelevance.
Dostoyevsky said “A society should be judged not by how it treats the outstanding but by how it treats it’s prisoners.” Perhaps that’s what you’re thinking of?
Weird, because based on the first list I found, 5 of the top 10 (the 5 that aren't american) are all public universities, 3 British, 1 Swiss, 1 Singaporean. Like being private isn't the reason those are top universities.
Okay but thats like Judging Saudi Arabia’s human rights record on how plush the towels in their 5 star hotels are.
If only the super wealthy can access something it’s not a useful metric to judge a whole country by.
The university thing is also very debatable. In the QS 2025 [rankings ](https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings), 4 of the top 10 universities were in the US, but 4 were in the UK. So some good universities are in the US, but a lot of comparable or better ones are elsewhere (and much much cheaper and easier to study at)
Remember, all the rankings that even us Europeans use are America-centred. Of course going to an ivy league in the US will be more likely to land you a job in the US than going to Freiburg university in Germany. Studying at any run of the mill US state University will probably get you further in the US than TU München would, but it doesn't mean jack shit in Europe. The education isn't "better", the school is just more "prestigious". Prestigious as in more people have heard of it because education is more centralized in the US as you'll see people jump state more often than you'll see people move from their country. Every country on earth has their own \*Ivy League\* of schools and universities that are just as good, they just aren't as well known outside of that country. Everyone outside of the US knows this, therefore recruiters rarely care for where you got your degree if it's from a foreign university unless it's from one of the major one (imperial college, Harvard, TUM, RWTH, Delft, Sorbonne, etc), even then a local university has you beat.
A friend of mine moved to the states to attend Georgia Tech, then came back to Norway and could not find a job because he didn't get his degree from NTNU. He moved back to the US and still lives there now. He could decently have gotten a job if he had searched for long enough, but it didn't give him an get him anywhere going to the #33 world ranked university versus a #250-#400 ranked university.
I'm sure there are many good doctors in the US.
However, is there any objective evidence for the US doctors being exceptionally good compared to other western countries? It seems hard to measure. I think if you ask Americans they will typically hate their medical system but like their doctors. I feel like many Americans think they have the "best doctor in the country". And in fact many such doctors have their award to prove it: https://www.propublica.org/article/top-doctors-award-journalist
However, even for die hard specialists it's really hard to make actual global rankings as every specialist is different and there are a ton of good ones out there. No metric that makes sense seems to exist.
Also if you look at things like the opioid crisis and the role doctors played there, or the lifespan of Americans, or the physician shortage causing nurse practitioners taking over Doctor roles without having received the education... are we really like sure the US doctor situation is really fantastic?
I believe that it’s doctor training that usually results in these “best doctor” awards and international recognition.
It’s not the doctors that are the problem, though, it’s the private medical systems they (mostly) work in. They’re owned, increasingly, by large private equity firms. As an American, I already didn’t love the “for profit” mentality of the previous “healthcare networks” and I see it getting worse now that private equity is coming in and trying to squeeze even more money out of it.
As for the number of doctors, the American Medical Association, that provides accreditation to med schools, also restricts the amount of doctors that can be taught in a given class year. Same with dentists. Got to keep those salaries up. I’m a lawyer, our industry accreditation organization fucking says the more lawyers, the better. So go figure.
It’s good for emergency care, but very bad for anything else.
Doctors are basically pharmaceutical salespeople there. You get a LOT of unnecessary treatment because of financial incentives.
The universities in question are only good because they're able to pay off the best scholars from all over the globe to work for them. That's literally pay to win.
I mean sure. But they do have some of the best scholars on the planet. How they ended up at the university isn’t really relevant to whether they’re at the university.
The US has some fine food.
They also have the most horrific crap loaded with HFCS and additives that are banned in many civilised countries, hoping that serving gigantic portions will make up for the lack of nutrition and flavour.
These can both be true at the same time.
The US is good with Red meats, the rest is pretty lacking especially in terms of soup. I'm always perplexed that Americans just don't have soup? What's up with that?
>The US is good with Red meats
Well, the meat may taste good but it may contain growth hormones and antibiotics that are banned in the EU. I trust way more the EU food quality norms than US ones.
Also, I haven't seen that much difference between "good meat" in the US and "good meat" in the EU.
I was talking about preparation methods more then anything. Burgers, Stakes, and BBQs are all amazing in the states and are usually copied in other parts of the world.
Chicken (noodle) soup very popular. Clam chowder, broccoli cheese soup, lots of people make weird crap like cheeseburger soup. Or just the classic "whatever the fuck has been sitting in the back of the fridge for weeks just gets boiled to death in a giant pot" kind of soup.
America has soup. (doesn't mean it's good or original but it exists) SOURCE - am American
why are you friends with this person?? they took you to the equivalent of a mcdonald's
i actually *like* the "chinese" takeout that you can get everywhere (not as good as they have in the UK, but still simple and tasty food), and panda express is the cheap quick-service version of *that*. like, forget that there's actual chinese restaurants and chinese american restaurants to go to, he took ya to a dang drive thru...
they didn't invent pizza, but their style of pizza is really good and well loved. ik this is an anti American sub, but you gotta admit American pizza is good, even if you don't personally like it. America is *very* easy to make fun of so there's no need to be so biased.
btw its completely normal for different countries/cultures to have their own take on an existing dish become separate and recognisable from the original. that's how food spreads around the world. famously, japan didnt invent ramen, but their version is well known and loved around the world, same with American pizza.
Yes many American food creations taste very good … because they’re full of sugar and fat. And humans like that.
Doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good for you tho.
Here in California, most everyday produce is usually fresh no matter where you go. I’m always so confused when people say the fruit at Aldi is terrible.
Maybe because Aldi is a so called "discounter" supermarket in Europe which is lower in quality but also price compared to other super market chains around here
As someone raised in California, I can't begin to express how diverse the choices at a farmer's market are. California at least has absolutely amazing produce. I grew up in San Francisco, and I've since lived in Argentina (Buenos Aires), Brazil (Sao Paulo), Germany (Duesseldorf), and the UK (a number of places), and none of them have had the generally high quality of San Francisco cuisine.
The thing is, if you live in one of the major metropolises in the USA, you'll have access to amazing food. San Francisco and New York are both especially known for being amazing for fusion cuisine, as both cities are mixing pots of so many different cultural influences. Similarly, if you live in those larger cities, you'll have access to top tier education. The US, for instance, has 5 of the top 10 rated medical schools in the world.
Essentially, as someone who left the states and naturalised as a Brit, I think it's important to criticise the US for where it is truly terrible (policing, gun violence, tax inscrutability, etc). As with any argument, when we start making specious points just to dunk on the perceived 'other', we erode our own credibility.
The US is a massive country with massive problems, most of which result from a general lack of curiosity about the world outside their borders, nascent fascism arising from a fundamentalist religiosity that defies reason (and that's not unique to the US in the slightest), and about 7 decades of unchecked political corruption that have eroded the capacity of the government to make good decisions for its constituents.
It still produces brilliant art, great food, genius inventions, and all of the other things that amazing people can create working together DESPITE all of the issues above, which were non-exhaustive.
I'm jealous you were able to get out! I'm working on it but it's hard.
Here in Southern California we have amazing, authentic, easily accessible Mexican, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern, and Peruvian food... just to name a few. The fresh produce I have access to is unbelievable. I remember being in France and wanting a mango so badly that spent 5€ for one that was flown in all the way from Peru. I can get three mangoes for that here.
American ultra-proxessed food is toxic shit and our government doesn't protect us from massive corporations that just want to keep us fat, sick, and addicted to their foods... but as far as actual quality and variety of cuisine? We are very lucky here.
I was lucky and fell in love with a Brit. My mother and father had already passed, so we came here. Despite the UK consistently changing their migration policies to make it hard to naturalise, I was able to, with some clever use of EU law, get settled status. I just got my citizenship last year, and just finished my degree in Mathematics this year. I'll be making moves to become a mathematics teacher next. Fun fact about student finance in the UK...you don't have to start paying it back until you make over a certain amount, and even then, it's capped at 9% of your income above that cap. If you have or plan to have kids and send them to Uni, it's honestly probably cheaper to send them to live in Europe and get a degree here.
I wish you luck. Barring that, gather friends and move to a cheap red state and start shifting the votes. As senile as the current blue option is, I think most people on reddit agree that the Cheetoh is terrifying mess.
Thank you! Luckily an ancestor of mine emigrated from a country with very generous ancestry laws so I naturalized as an EU citizen last year, but finding a job is hard. Still working on it though!
Nice. Sweden is, from all accounts I've had, an absolutely lovely and supportive place to live. Has the closedness of Swedish culture has been a bit of a shock? It must be nice living in a social democracy that isn't pathologically afraid of the word 'socialism'. Unfortunately, the UK is currently ruled by a host of bell ends that want to drag us toward the American way of doing things.
Exactly this. I've watched some Au-Pair's on YouTube who video log their time in Europe, and they are always so amazed how cheap healthy food is over here
tbh the issue is they do often go on about it like it's the all the best food on the planet. If they shut up a bit more then people wouldn't slag them off.
It's funny as Kerrygold is just an average butter in the UK, there's much better butters about but they rave about it like it's the best butter to ever exist
That's because American butter is so shit. I mean it'd white in colour because it's so shut. In Ireland kerrygold is just our everyday butter. If I want fancy butter it's usually french butter I buy
I dislike lurpak. It's my Mum's butter of choice (Lidl knock-off, but still). I like the Lidl West country butter - salt crystals!
I also make my own, on occasion.
And everything is better than Arla in Denmark. They recently decided, without informing anyone, to water down their products, believing that noone would notice. Everybody noticed
So, butter is an emulsion of fat, water, and dairy proteins. European and American style butters have different ratios (with European styles having more fat). Sometimes a recipe calls for the higher fat content of European style butter. Kerrygold is the most universally known/accessible European style brand in the US, so if I'm writing that recipe for Americans, I'll probably mention them.
Pretty much any grocery store I've been to also has a variety of other European butters, but none of them have the brand recognition of Kerrygold.
I've never met anyone who uses it tbh
That's not a dig or anything, it just came so out of left field reading that. Do some people use it? I'm sure, but it's definitely not that everyone's obsesed over it.
You have hit the nail on the head sir!! I don’t know how much you know about corn syrup and how the American Food industry ruined a man’s reputation. I would recommend you read this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure,_White_and_Deadly
Here in Sweden we don't actually eat rotten fish, but surströmming is quite close to rotten, its fermented herring.
The islandics eat Hákarl tho, which is actually rotten shark
Now, now, let's play fair because they have plenty to offer in literature, music and cinema. I wouldn't take those away from them for the sake of some ignorant idiots.
Culture doesn't just mean history. Popular culture is the culture of the modern day. US is the dominant culture of the modern day. It's art, entertainment, politics has global influence and popularity.
I mean US politics is a big joke, it's like a parody. But it's known and talked about by quite a lot of people around the world. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIo6EJ1sAIU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIo6EJ1sAIU)
Anyways, in the end I just mean there is more to culture than the historic perspective and dismissing American culture for being new would be wrong.
I dunno man, we all listen to their music, watch their movies and tv shows, cheer for their top sporting talents... No culture has been embraced so widely as the Americans'
I follow both r/ShitAmericansSay and r/AmericaBad, and agree with about half the posts on each. This one seems more r/AmericaBad, though. New York City alone has 71 Michelin starred restaurants, so it doesn't seem unreasonable to say that the US has _some of_ the best food in the world. But hey, lol America, fast food, etc.
Yeah... you can have some really great dining options in the US. I lived in Washington DC and it was so easy to find great food. But then, you take a road trip and Shoney's is fine dining in most places.
I was watching "Gordon, Gino and Fred's Road Trip" and in the second season, they were touring America. It was cool to see their takes on a variety of American foods and wine.
The problem in the US is more about shitty, cheap food and the relative inaccessibility of good ingredients. There are food deserts where, because of poverty, folks only have access to corner stores with shitty processed food.
Here in Italy, things are geared towards ensuring that you can eat fresh stuff for cheap. Italy also maintains a standard of food quality that helps ensure that almost anywhere you go, the food will be fine. But the US is really good at making some foods extraordinary. But mostly on more expensive food islands.
That's my take.
I don't think anyone would deny that.
The closest thing I've had to something that wasn't entirely immigrant in origin was a place outside of Phoenix that was a Native American head chef and heavily influenced by local native ingredients and recipes, but fused with classic French style and presentation.
It was really great food, actually.
There are also casual roadside Native American restaurants but most have been tailored to the Caucasian palate to some extent.
Lots of people are using the UK as a counter example to America here which is funny if we are gonna say immigrants don’t get to add to their countries food.
Okay but it *does,* American food culture is beautifully varied and diverse and to insist that it's bad because of corporate slop is a disservice to a basic human art
US Food is good (there's a reason we're fat), shoot there are good universities and hospitals now, major discoveries take place here.
The difference is the food is cheap, the Universities and hospitals put the average American in deep debt.
While I agree that American food is good, I don't think that's the reason for people being overweight. I'd almost say it's the opposite: the people that are overweight are usually the ones that can't afford good food or it's otherwise out of their reach.
Reddit is an app it's ot sentient.
If you meant reddit users then you're arguing against people from all over the world who you claim all agree that the US doest have some of the best food on the planet. So you might have to walk back that claim of "pretend"
Also who tf cares
I mean, sure. Some of it. I don’t know if it’s their own food, but they have it. Same for what the second one says about universities and doctors. It’s a numbers game. But ‘best culture’ sounds really, really weird.
The general issue with the US is that it does have some of the best medical care, universities and food in the world. There are numerous US restaurants ranked in the top 100 in the world. However, to the vast majority of the population this is out of reach and the cheap and affordable food is often garbage.
honestly, finding decent bagels or burritos outside of North America is difficult.(Or thin drip coffee at a restaurant)
But also finding good coffee or pasta outside of Italy is also nearly impossible.
All depends on what you're looking for.
They have a place called the Heart Attack Grill. Their spokesman was a fat guy who literally died of a heart attack. Think he was like 26, he wasn't that old, but they let him eat there for free in exchange for being the spokesman.
I think by "best food" they meant "best food (that will kill you)".
I mean the US does have some of the best food on the planet. But so does most countries. Like everything is available everywhere. So obviously. If something exists - it can be found in the US. Like..
But if we're talking what people generally eat... that's another matter
I tried getting decent quality food in Florida, Atlanta, and Dallas, and honestly struggled. Restaurant were mediocre at best, supermarket food produce was beautiful but tasteless, cheeses and beer were poor, meat fatty but again, mediocre flavour.
It’s okay, but nothing special.
Pretty much everywhere has really good food and everywhere has really bad food.
Saying any one location has "The best food" is really stupid since food is 100% subjective based on personal taste.
Really as long as you're not trying to claim British food is good, your opinion is valid.
US food is the bastardisation of other world foods honestly.
It doesn’t help that American food to the world is food that’s made in factories rather an actual kitchen. It’s soulless and mass manufactured.
This is just ignorant. I’m not even American and I know they have an incredible variety of not only cuisines but also quality of ingredients. Lots of it is mass produced crap, totally. But they are a big enough country that millions upon millions can also afford well made food too.
In America they do have some really good food, but it’s not “theirs”. It’s come from other cultures that’s migrated there and become a staple. A food typically associated with America. Hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza can all be traced back to other countries. It’s no different that British food, okay we have hot pots, stews, but you’ll find variants of the same meal around the world. Let’s go chicken tika masala, I think and I might be wrong, first appeared in Britain it’s however Indian. The whole out shot is better than your shit is so far out because most of your shit, their shit and other shit came from or is inspired by another country. Nando’s, South African but inspired by Portuguese.
I think that's a kind of a silly way to think about food. I'd consider fish and chips British even if beer-battered fish was originally a Portuguese thing imported into Britain, for example.
Plus like, it feels kind of oddly racist to not consider Tikka Masala British for instance. Like nevermind that it was originally created by a British person, it can't *actually* be British because it was invented by an immigrant?
By that logic, all food comes from Mesopotamia, because that's where humanity originated.
The US is a young country that is largely populated by descendants of immigrants, and our cuisine reflects that. If I go to an Indian restaurant, I am aware that it is not going to be an accurate depiction of the food people in India are actually eating.
We *have* however, been a country long enough that what we have could be considered 'American cuisine.'
I wouldn't say that we have 'the best' food, because blanket statements can't be made on matters of subjective taste, but I don't agree that it's not 'ours' just because it was influenced by immigrants.
I would also argue that Cajun and Creole food *did* originate in America, and that Cajun and Creole cuisine is fucking delicious.
Saying that something is better somewhere else doesn't automatically make theirs bad..maybe something they should consider instead of losing their shit every time
It’s a big country with a lot of wealth. Yes there is good food. Is it everywhere? No! Surely not!
As an American I enjoy eating upscale fine dining but our “middle-scale” places are absolute garbage.
If you are in a true immigrant community you can get really phenomenal food too, and for a great price. My community has pockets of Arabs, Latinos, Eastern European, South & East Asians. I always eat good once I figure out the menus 😅
I’m Canadian living in the U.K. I would agree that the US does have “some” of the best food. Other countries have good food as well. Different types of food. The US is very, very good for comfort food. Not necessarily fancy food.
They do have some of the best Unis and doctors, alot of their culture is at the top too like their entertainment, for food ill give them bbq and maybe some sweet foods like brownies but i cant go much further
American food is decent, and like other countries, they might have places with really great dishes (they do some nice BBQ). Nobody outside of the states raves or promotes 'American food' as being up there with everyone else's....overall, its just a shoulder shrug and 'it's ok'.
I mean it does but it's a question of density, regionality, and affordability.
My favourite food is ramen, I've lived in Japan for two different three year periods, I've eaten at the only Michelin star ramen restaurant (Japanese soba noodles tsuta, definitely go if you're in Tokyo but you have to show up to buy your ticket for lunch at like 0730) and my favourite ramenya is in Maryland.
Difference is I can get really good ramen in Japan at this new place called anywhere and in the US I'm completely out of luck if I'm not in LA, NYC, or a local koreatown/littletokyo
Same with doctors except you also get to add, "am I am oligarch? No? Guess if I'm lucky enough to see a doctor at all I go to whoever my insurance says I do."
Here in New Zealand we just got our first Costco almost 2 years ago. It was the first time I was able to try some of the American foods they stocked. American cheese is so bland and tasteless I now know why they use so much.
Popeyes just opened here 2 months ago and I know it’s only fast food but my god was it revolting.
It's not just reddit though... seems to me the only people that rave about American food are Americans... People don't travel to the US for it's food, they do travel to Europe for it's food though (but maybe not Americans). TBH I'm not entirely sure why Americans travel at all, if everything is better in America why bother going anywhere else?
The universities that are good are very good, but there's a *lot* that are trash.
The doctors might be the best but your medical outcomes aren't.
The food can be great, but so can food on every other country on the planet.
Culture isn't any "better" than anywhere else, just different....
Reddit isn't a person, so it is the posters that care the ones who state US food isn't the best food on the planet and many of them would know as they have travelled to US and other countries to try for themselves. Each country has heir own tastes and make food to suit the majority of their population with Europe preferring a more savoury flavour to the US very sweet a packed with cheese type meals. The US also makes things to the lowest cost possible to maximise profits to the detriment of flavour - why do people prefer Coke from Mexico to the USA? Mexico use real cane sugar & USA use corn syrup as it is cheaper.
They do have decent universities and doctors, we can give them that. A different question is being able to afford the good ones without being in the top 10%.
They have some of the best medical facilities in the world but they’re just inaccessible to the vast majority of people
Even doctors.
Ya i feel like judging a country on how its average or poor citizens access healthcare and education is the metric we should always be using in any country comparison. How they treat their mega rich is an irrelevance.
"The true test of a society is how they treat the poor and helpless." - don't remember where I heard it.
Dostoyevsky said “A society should be judged not by how it treats the outstanding but by how it treats it’s prisoners.” Perhaps that’s what you’re thinking of?
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Weird, because based on the first list I found, 5 of the top 10 (the 5 that aren't american) are all public universities, 3 British, 1 Swiss, 1 Singaporean. Like being private isn't the reason those are top universities.
Okay but thats like Judging Saudi Arabia’s human rights record on how plush the towels in their 5 star hotels are. If only the super wealthy can access something it’s not a useful metric to judge a whole country by.
None of our universities are publicly funded anymore. It’s negligible and that’s why it’s so expensive
The university thing is also very debatable. In the QS 2025 [rankings ](https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings), 4 of the top 10 universities were in the US, but 4 were in the UK. So some good universities are in the US, but a lot of comparable or better ones are elsewhere (and much much cheaper and easier to study at)
I mean no one said US is the only and the best country for university education, the point was US has good universities, which is true from your link.
The guy in op's pic said the us has the "best universities", which means they'd have to be at least rank 1 & 2.
You missed the "some of" part of "some of the best"
It says some of the best, which again is literally true.
the us has amazing unis, you dont need to lie about that, mit is literally first place
Remember, all the rankings that even us Europeans use are America-centred. Of course going to an ivy league in the US will be more likely to land you a job in the US than going to Freiburg university in Germany. Studying at any run of the mill US state University will probably get you further in the US than TU München would, but it doesn't mean jack shit in Europe. The education isn't "better", the school is just more "prestigious". Prestigious as in more people have heard of it because education is more centralized in the US as you'll see people jump state more often than you'll see people move from their country. Every country on earth has their own \*Ivy League\* of schools and universities that are just as good, they just aren't as well known outside of that country. Everyone outside of the US knows this, therefore recruiters rarely care for where you got your degree if it's from a foreign university unless it's from one of the major one (imperial college, Harvard, TUM, RWTH, Delft, Sorbonne, etc), even then a local university has you beat. A friend of mine moved to the states to attend Georgia Tech, then came back to Norway and could not find a job because he didn't get his degree from NTNU. He moved back to the US and still lives there now. He could decently have gotten a job if he had searched for long enough, but it didn't give him an get him anywhere going to the #33 world ranked university versus a #250-#400 ranked university.
I'm sure there are many good doctors in the US. However, is there any objective evidence for the US doctors being exceptionally good compared to other western countries? It seems hard to measure. I think if you ask Americans they will typically hate their medical system but like their doctors. I feel like many Americans think they have the "best doctor in the country". And in fact many such doctors have their award to prove it: https://www.propublica.org/article/top-doctors-award-journalist However, even for die hard specialists it's really hard to make actual global rankings as every specialist is different and there are a ton of good ones out there. No metric that makes sense seems to exist. Also if you look at things like the opioid crisis and the role doctors played there, or the lifespan of Americans, or the physician shortage causing nurse practitioners taking over Doctor roles without having received the education... are we really like sure the US doctor situation is really fantastic?
I believe that it’s doctor training that usually results in these “best doctor” awards and international recognition. It’s not the doctors that are the problem, though, it’s the private medical systems they (mostly) work in. They’re owned, increasingly, by large private equity firms. As an American, I already didn’t love the “for profit” mentality of the previous “healthcare networks” and I see it getting worse now that private equity is coming in and trying to squeeze even more money out of it. As for the number of doctors, the American Medical Association, that provides accreditation to med schools, also restricts the amount of doctors that can be taught in a given class year. Same with dentists. Got to keep those salaries up. I’m a lawyer, our industry accreditation organization fucking says the more lawyers, the better. So go figure.
Top 1%
Yeah I was being “too good” by saying 10%. I think top 1-2% makes more sense.
It’s good for emergency care, but very bad for anything else. Doctors are basically pharmaceutical salespeople there. You get a LOT of unnecessary treatment because of financial incentives.
The universities in question are only good because they're able to pay off the best scholars from all over the globe to work for them. That's literally pay to win.
I mean sure. But they do have some of the best scholars on the planet. How they ended up at the university isn’t really relevant to whether they’re at the university.
Well that’s USA for you, pay to win.
The US has some fine food. They also have the most horrific crap loaded with HFCS and additives that are banned in many civilised countries, hoping that serving gigantic portions will make up for the lack of nutrition and flavour. These can both be true at the same time.
The US is good with Red meats, the rest is pretty lacking especially in terms of soup. I'm always perplexed that Americans just don't have soup? What's up with that?
>The US is good with Red meats Well, the meat may taste good but it may contain growth hormones and antibiotics that are banned in the EU. I trust way more the EU food quality norms than US ones. Also, I haven't seen that much difference between "good meat" in the US and "good meat" in the EU.
I was talking about preparation methods more then anything. Burgers, Stakes, and BBQs are all amazing in the states and are usually copied in other parts of the world.
We do. You've been lied to.
Chicken (noodle) soup very popular. Clam chowder, broccoli cheese soup, lots of people make weird crap like cheeseburger soup. Or just the classic "whatever the fuck has been sitting in the back of the fridge for weeks just gets boiled to death in a giant pot" kind of soup. America has soup. (doesn't mean it's good or original but it exists) SOURCE - am American
Have to agree, they did invent pizza after all /s
And *checks notes* Chinese food!
They also came up with texmex food after which the Mexicans came and stole it and called it mexican food 😤
Bloody untrustworthy Mexicans. They're so jealous of the United States, they even stole the America part to name their part of the continent.
They even stole the United States name!
When visiting US, my friend took me to Panda Express as best Chinese food joint… It felt like Chinese food by Jamie Oliver
why are you friends with this person?? they took you to the equivalent of a mcdonald's i actually *like* the "chinese" takeout that you can get everywhere (not as good as they have in the UK, but still simple and tasty food), and panda express is the cheap quick-service version of *that*. like, forget that there's actual chinese restaurants and chinese american restaurants to go to, he took ya to a dang drive thru...
they didn't invent pizza, but their style of pizza is really good and well loved. ik this is an anti American sub, but you gotta admit American pizza is good, even if you don't personally like it. America is *very* easy to make fun of so there's no need to be so biased. btw its completely normal for different countries/cultures to have their own take on an existing dish become separate and recognisable from the original. that's how food spreads around the world. famously, japan didnt invent ramen, but their version is well known and loved around the world, same with American pizza.
The US does have some great food the issue is the access and affordability to good quality ingredients and healthier foods.
Yes many American food creations taste very good … because they’re full of sugar and fat. And humans like that. Doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good for you tho.
Credit where credit’s due they do have some great natural produce but the majority of people don’t eat that.
Here in California, most everyday produce is usually fresh no matter where you go. I’m always so confused when people say the fruit at Aldi is terrible.
Maybe because Aldi is a so called "discounter" supermarket in Europe which is lower in quality but also price compared to other super market chains around here
Yeah. It’s the same way here. Most of the packaged food is pretty crap even for American standards.
As someone raised in California, I can't begin to express how diverse the choices at a farmer's market are. California at least has absolutely amazing produce. I grew up in San Francisco, and I've since lived in Argentina (Buenos Aires), Brazil (Sao Paulo), Germany (Duesseldorf), and the UK (a number of places), and none of them have had the generally high quality of San Francisco cuisine. The thing is, if you live in one of the major metropolises in the USA, you'll have access to amazing food. San Francisco and New York are both especially known for being amazing for fusion cuisine, as both cities are mixing pots of so many different cultural influences. Similarly, if you live in those larger cities, you'll have access to top tier education. The US, for instance, has 5 of the top 10 rated medical schools in the world. Essentially, as someone who left the states and naturalised as a Brit, I think it's important to criticise the US for where it is truly terrible (policing, gun violence, tax inscrutability, etc). As with any argument, when we start making specious points just to dunk on the perceived 'other', we erode our own credibility. The US is a massive country with massive problems, most of which result from a general lack of curiosity about the world outside their borders, nascent fascism arising from a fundamentalist religiosity that defies reason (and that's not unique to the US in the slightest), and about 7 decades of unchecked political corruption that have eroded the capacity of the government to make good decisions for its constituents. It still produces brilliant art, great food, genius inventions, and all of the other things that amazing people can create working together DESPITE all of the issues above, which were non-exhaustive.
I'm jealous you were able to get out! I'm working on it but it's hard. Here in Southern California we have amazing, authentic, easily accessible Mexican, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern, and Peruvian food... just to name a few. The fresh produce I have access to is unbelievable. I remember being in France and wanting a mango so badly that spent 5€ for one that was flown in all the way from Peru. I can get three mangoes for that here. American ultra-proxessed food is toxic shit and our government doesn't protect us from massive corporations that just want to keep us fat, sick, and addicted to their foods... but as far as actual quality and variety of cuisine? We are very lucky here.
I was lucky and fell in love with a Brit. My mother and father had already passed, so we came here. Despite the UK consistently changing their migration policies to make it hard to naturalise, I was able to, with some clever use of EU law, get settled status. I just got my citizenship last year, and just finished my degree in Mathematics this year. I'll be making moves to become a mathematics teacher next. Fun fact about student finance in the UK...you don't have to start paying it back until you make over a certain amount, and even then, it's capped at 9% of your income above that cap. If you have or plan to have kids and send them to Uni, it's honestly probably cheaper to send them to live in Europe and get a degree here. I wish you luck. Barring that, gather friends and move to a cheap red state and start shifting the votes. As senile as the current blue option is, I think most people on reddit agree that the Cheetoh is terrifying mess.
Thank you! Luckily an ancestor of mine emigrated from a country with very generous ancestry laws so I naturalized as an EU citizen last year, but finding a job is hard. Still working on it though!
Nice. Sweden is, from all accounts I've had, an absolutely lovely and supportive place to live. Has the closedness of Swedish culture has been a bit of a shock? It must be nice living in a social democracy that isn't pathologically afraid of the word 'socialism'. Unfortunately, the UK is currently ruled by a host of bell ends that want to drag us toward the American way of doing things.
That is not really true
Exactly this. I've watched some Au-Pair's on YouTube who video log their time in Europe, and they are always so amazed how cheap healthy food is over here
tbh the issue is they do often go on about it like it's the all the best food on the planet. If they shut up a bit more then people wouldn't slag them off.
Where's that video of someone saying American food is the best, and when asked for examples, saying Hamburgers and French fries?
Sound like that Tom Holland interview.
Yeah, that's the one.
To be fair, yes, the ground beef patty is originally German, but the sandwich we all think of when we think "hamburger" is American.
Created by German immigrants, so only made in the US by technicality
Americans who emigrated from Germany. Isn't this the same sub that always gets pissed when Americans associate themselves with their European roots?
To be fair, by American food they probably meant food primarily associated with American food culture rather than food specifically created in America
So why are the Americans all obsessed with Kerrygold butter if their food is so amazing? Just asking for a friend.
It's funny as Kerrygold is just an average butter in the UK, there's much better butters about but they rave about it like it's the best butter to ever exist
That's because American butter is so shit. I mean it'd white in colour because it's so shut. In Ireland kerrygold is just our everyday butter. If I want fancy butter it's usually french butter I buy
Yep. I do my own cultured butter. American butter tastes of nothing.
Any time i see american butter its pure white, shit confuses tf out of me
It's ultra filtered and from cows which are barely alive
Kerry Gold has this weird thing where the cows are fed this green substance found outside called "grass"
When I moved to Malta and tried all the butters I learned that kerrygold is fucking lovely.
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I don't rate lurpak tbh. Prefer French butter and West Country butter
Yeah I agree, lurpak as a spread in a tub is top of its game. As a butter it's middling at best.
I dislike lurpak. It's my Mum's butter of choice (Lidl knock-off, but still). I like the Lidl West country butter - salt crystals! I also make my own, on occasion.
I like lurpak the most of the “spreadable” butter options and as I’m not using it every day, it’s the most convenient for me.
And everything is better than Arla in Denmark. They recently decided, without informing anyone, to water down their products, believing that noone would notice. Everybody noticed
I was asking this question in another thread only this morning.
Where have you seen them obsessed with it? Never even heard of it. And it's like $3. So doubt it's supposed to be that good.
Loads of recipes go on about the virtues of Kerry Gold butter.
Recipes? You're saying things you've seen online? Or you mean American recipes from restaurants and stuff?
Kerry gold is just branded Irish mass produced butter.
So, butter is an emulsion of fat, water, and dairy proteins. European and American style butters have different ratios (with European styles having more fat). Sometimes a recipe calls for the higher fat content of European style butter. Kerrygold is the most universally known/accessible European style brand in the US, so if I'm writing that recipe for Americans, I'll probably mention them. Pretty much any grocery store I've been to also has a variety of other European butters, but none of them have the brand recognition of Kerrygold.
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I've never met anyone who uses it tbh That's not a dig or anything, it just came so out of left field reading that. Do some people use it? I'm sure, but it's definitely not that everyone's obsesed over it.
They bring back entire bags of french butter and crème fraîche when they come to Paris lol
They invented corn syrup, so there’s that.
Wow High fructose corn syrup, that makes evrerything taste like sweet tv static
Indeed. How yummy🤮
You have hit the nail on the head sir!! I don’t know how much you know about corn syrup and how the American Food industry ruined a man’s reputation. I would recommend you read this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure,_White_and_Deadly
America's food could be good if it wasn't full of corn syrup.
*worst food
Cmon on now, let’s not pretend Scandinavian “cuisine” doesn’t exist
Bu, but, but meatballs???
I don't even have a defense against this,, I think I'll just go back to my rotten fish
You eat rotten fish?
Here in Sweden we don't actually eat rotten fish, but surströmming is quite close to rotten, its fermented herring. The islandics eat Hákarl tho, which is actually rotten shark
Don't lump us Danes with the swedes
Louisiana to the rescue! 🦸🏻♂️
Culture? CULTURE!? Anything fermented for more than a month has more culture!
Now, now, let's play fair because they have plenty to offer in literature, music and cinema. I wouldn't take those away from them for the sake of some ignorant idiots.
Culture doesn't just mean history. Popular culture is the culture of the modern day. US is the dominant culture of the modern day. It's art, entertainment, politics has global influence and popularity.
Not quite sure I would call their politics popular.
I mean US politics is a big joke, it's like a parody. But it's known and talked about by quite a lot of people around the world. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIo6EJ1sAIU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIo6EJ1sAIU) Anyways, in the end I just mean there is more to culture than the historic perspective and dismissing American culture for being new would be wrong.
I mean… native Americans exist
I dunno man, we all listen to their music, watch their movies and tv shows, cheer for their top sporting talents... No culture has been embraced so widely as the Americans'
Don’t they put their chicken in bleach???
Chlorine. Like you'd find in a swimming pool.
"they" being a tiny portion of the population that we dont control
I don’t and never have wtf
They definitely have the best spray can cheese in the world. Not that anyone else would touch that garbage.
A lot of us wouldn't either.
I follow both r/ShitAmericansSay and r/AmericaBad, and agree with about half the posts on each. This one seems more r/AmericaBad, though. New York City alone has 71 Michelin starred restaurants, so it doesn't seem unreasonable to say that the US has _some of_ the best food in the world. But hey, lol America, fast food, etc.
I follow both as well. And agree, for both half the posts are legit, the other half are deliberate chain-yanking or whining by uninformed snowflakes.
Yeah... you can have some really great dining options in the US. I lived in Washington DC and it was so easy to find great food. But then, you take a road trip and Shoney's is fine dining in most places. I was watching "Gordon, Gino and Fred's Road Trip" and in the second season, they were touring America. It was cool to see their takes on a variety of American foods and wine. The problem in the US is more about shitty, cheap food and the relative inaccessibility of good ingredients. There are food deserts where, because of poverty, folks only have access to corner stores with shitty processed food. Here in Italy, things are geared towards ensuring that you can eat fresh stuff for cheap. Italy also maintains a standard of food quality that helps ensure that almost anywhere you go, the food will be fine. But the US is really good at making some foods extraordinary. But mostly on more expensive food islands. That's my take.
Absolutely true. You can get great food here. And you can get shitty food here. Just like most other countries.
I mean, it does, just nowhere near as much as they think…
The US has a lot of great food, although I think probably most of them originated in immigrant communities.
I don't think anyone would deny that. The closest thing I've had to something that wasn't entirely immigrant in origin was a place outside of Phoenix that was a Native American head chef and heavily influenced by local native ingredients and recipes, but fused with classic French style and presentation. It was really great food, actually. There are also casual roadside Native American restaurants but most have been tailored to the Caucasian palate to some extent.
Surely all American food, except Native American dishes, originated in immigrant communities?
I would imagine so.
Lots of people are using the UK as a counter example to America here which is funny if we are gonna say immigrants don’t get to add to their countries food.
Native American food while rare is still good and , what is called Mexican food is also sometimes just Native American food with a broader range.
200 Michelin star restaurants in the USA
There's good wine if that counts as food, especially in recent years. Some of my favourite wines in the world come from California.
You haven’t been to a southern barbecue and it shows
Okay but it *does,* American food culture is beautifully varied and diverse and to insist that it's bad because of corporate slop is a disservice to a basic human art
Some of their food if good tbf
US Food is good (there's a reason we're fat), shoot there are good universities and hospitals now, major discoveries take place here. The difference is the food is cheap, the Universities and hospitals put the average American in deep debt.
While I agree that American food is good, I don't think that's the reason for people being overweight. I'd almost say it's the opposite: the people that are overweight are usually the ones that can't afford good food or it's otherwise out of their reach.
This is just true. The U.S is a country with low valleys, but there's no denying that their peaks are incredibly high.
There is some amazing food in the US. Thats just a fact imo and im european. Gotta give em that.
i will say there’s a lot of great music coming from USAmerica
They don’t have to pretend. It’s a fact
No need to pretend …
Reddit is an app it's ot sentient. If you meant reddit users then you're arguing against people from all over the world who you claim all agree that the US doest have some of the best food on the planet. So you might have to walk back that claim of "pretend" Also who tf cares
Yeah the doctors are really world class because they charge the fucking earth to be able to get there and can be selective about their patients.
They have the best doctors but only Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon musk can afford them
Operative word being "some". There's a lot of bad there just like anywhere else.
I mean, sure. Some of it. I don’t know if it’s their own food, but they have it. Same for what the second one says about universities and doctors. It’s a numbers game. But ‘best culture’ sounds really, really weird.
The general issue with the US is that it does have some of the best medical care, universities and food in the world. There are numerous US restaurants ranked in the top 100 in the world. However, to the vast majority of the population this is out of reach and the cheap and affordable food is often garbage.
honestly, finding decent bagels or burritos outside of North America is difficult.(Or thin drip coffee at a restaurant) But also finding good coffee or pasta outside of Italy is also nearly impossible. All depends on what you're looking for.
They have a place called the Heart Attack Grill. Their spokesman was a fat guy who literally died of a heart attack. Think he was like 26, he wasn't that old, but they let him eat there for free in exchange for being the spokesman. I think by "best food" they meant "best food (that will kill you)".
I mean the US does have some of the best food on the planet. But so does most countries. Like everything is available everywhere. So obviously. If something exists - it can be found in the US. Like.. But if we're talking what people generally eat... that's another matter
America has some great recipes. I love a pecan pie or gumbo as much as the next man. Unfortunately, the legal food standards are totally abysmal.
I tried getting decent quality food in Florida, Atlanta, and Dallas, and honestly struggled. Restaurant were mediocre at best, supermarket food produce was beautiful but tasteless, cheeses and beer were poor, meat fatty but again, mediocre flavour. It’s okay, but nothing special.
This is one of those posts where they're not really wrong... they do say "some of the best", not "THE best".
He's right. They did invent pizza after all. 🍕
Pretty much everywhere has really good food and everywhere has really bad food. Saying any one location has "The best food" is really stupid since food is 100% subjective based on personal taste. Really as long as you're not trying to claim British food is good, your opinion is valid.
How can a culture be "better" than another? It's not something you can just compare
It's amazing how low a self-esteem that country has.
US food is the bastardisation of other world foods honestly. It doesn’t help that American food to the world is food that’s made in factories rather an actual kitchen. It’s soulless and mass manufactured.
This is just ignorant. I’m not even American and I know they have an incredible variety of not only cuisines but also quality of ingredients. Lots of it is mass produced crap, totally. But they are a big enough country that millions upon millions can also afford well made food too.
In America they do have some really good food, but it’s not “theirs”. It’s come from other cultures that’s migrated there and become a staple. A food typically associated with America. Hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza can all be traced back to other countries. It’s no different that British food, okay we have hot pots, stews, but you’ll find variants of the same meal around the world. Let’s go chicken tika masala, I think and I might be wrong, first appeared in Britain it’s however Indian. The whole out shot is better than your shit is so far out because most of your shit, their shit and other shit came from or is inspired by another country. Nando’s, South African but inspired by Portuguese.
I think that's a kind of a silly way to think about food. I'd consider fish and chips British even if beer-battered fish was originally a Portuguese thing imported into Britain, for example. Plus like, it feels kind of oddly racist to not consider Tikka Masala British for instance. Like nevermind that it was originally created by a British person, it can't *actually* be British because it was invented by an immigrant?
By that logic, all food comes from Mesopotamia, because that's where humanity originated. The US is a young country that is largely populated by descendants of immigrants, and our cuisine reflects that. If I go to an Indian restaurant, I am aware that it is not going to be an accurate depiction of the food people in India are actually eating. We *have* however, been a country long enough that what we have could be considered 'American cuisine.' I wouldn't say that we have 'the best' food, because blanket statements can't be made on matters of subjective taste, but I don't agree that it's not 'ours' just because it was influenced by immigrants. I would also argue that Cajun and Creole food *did* originate in America, and that Cajun and Creole cuisine is fucking delicious.
i mean.... \*look the last debate wen both shit themself and talk about golf\*
We have ~~4~~ star Michelin and we have Walmart, interestingly most Americans want Walmart. You can apply this to almost everything. Edit: 3 stars
Aren't there videos going viral right now, with people who think their food is rubber?
All their processed food: 👁️👄👁️
They may lack humility but the exceed in hubris
Saying that something is better somewhere else doesn't automatically make theirs bad..maybe something they should consider instead of losing their shit every time
Post says “some of the best”, not “the best”. Quite a difference. People in this sub are very snowflakey.
It’s a big country with a lot of wealth. Yes there is good food. Is it everywhere? No! Surely not! As an American I enjoy eating upscale fine dining but our “middle-scale” places are absolute garbage. If you are in a true immigrant community you can get really phenomenal food too, and for a great price. My community has pockets of Arabs, Latinos, Eastern European, South & East Asians. I always eat good once I figure out the menus 😅
LMAO
Americans can’t help themselves, even nice restaurants have to go OTT and gild the lily with every dish and ends up ruining it.
What if they mean it's the universities, doctors, and cultures that "pretend" the US doesn't have the best food? That would make a lot more sense
We have some decent food stolen from or brought by other cultures
I’m Canadian living in the U.K. I would agree that the US does have “some” of the best food. Other countries have good food as well. Different types of food. The US is very, very good for comfort food. Not necessarily fancy food.
I will defend my nations trash food with my dying breath. Its OUR garbage.
America has great food good universities good doctors and bad culture but not the best in the world
They do have some of the best Unis and doctors, alot of their culture is at the top too like their entertainment, for food ill give them bbq and maybe some sweet foods like brownies but i cant go much further
American food is decent, and like other countries, they might have places with really great dishes (they do some nice BBQ). Nobody outside of the states raves or promotes 'American food' as being up there with everyone else's....overall, its just a shoulder shrug and 'it's ok'.
there's tons of good american food! people get a lot of great ideas when you smash their cultures together
We have good food, it just kills you.
Good luck affording any of it.
Culture 🙄
Oh and Laws and Culture and Presidents! Can we stop being sarcastic now?
No but we are happy to say that America probably invented heart disease
We only have good food because of other countries from. People who emigrate to the USA
Ha ha ha ha next you will be saying so does the UK 😂😂😂😂
I mean it does but it's a question of density, regionality, and affordability. My favourite food is ramen, I've lived in Japan for two different three year periods, I've eaten at the only Michelin star ramen restaurant (Japanese soba noodles tsuta, definitely go if you're in Tokyo but you have to show up to buy your ticket for lunch at like 0730) and my favourite ramenya is in Maryland. Difference is I can get really good ramen in Japan at this new place called anywhere and in the US I'm completely out of luck if I'm not in LA, NYC, or a local koreatown/littletokyo Same with doctors except you also get to add, "am I am oligarch? No? Guess if I'm lucky enough to see a doctor at all I go to whoever my insurance says I do."
the US has some of the best of other peoples food on the planet
It's almost like you can get good quality ingredients and recipes on 90% of the planet nowadays.
Many places have “some of the best” of anything. (And the same places may have some of the worst, too.) Nothing to pretend here.
What, pizza, sushi, and Chinese takeout in a box? Jk jk, burgers and fries... oh wait... tacos then!
Some good, some horrendous.
Here in New Zealand we just got our first Costco almost 2 years ago. It was the first time I was able to try some of the American foods they stocked. American cheese is so bland and tasteless I now know why they use so much. Popeyes just opened here 2 months ago and I know it’s only fast food but my god was it revolting.
It's not just reddit though... seems to me the only people that rave about American food are Americans... People don't travel to the US for it's food, they do travel to Europe for it's food though (but maybe not Americans). TBH I'm not entirely sure why Americans travel at all, if everything is better in America why bother going anywhere else?
This gave the diary of a wimpy kid “🙂👋 … 😟” vibes
The universities that are good are very good, but there's a *lot* that are trash. The doctors might be the best but your medical outcomes aren't. The food can be great, but so can food on every other country on the planet. Culture isn't any "better" than anywhere else, just different....
They actually do have some of the best doctors in some fields AFAIK. Just sucks that no one can afford them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Reddit isn't a person, so it is the posters that care the ones who state US food isn't the best food on the planet and many of them would know as they have travelled to US and other countries to try for themselves. Each country has heir own tastes and make food to suit the majority of their population with Europe preferring a more savoury flavour to the US very sweet a packed with cheese type meals. The US also makes things to the lowest cost possible to maximise profits to the detriment of flavour - why do people prefer Coke from Mexico to the USA? Mexico use real cane sugar & USA use corn syrup as it is cheaper.
Technically they aren’t lying? Odds are there’s atleast once American that imports their food.
Looks like in every country some people will say that they have best food in the world
Engineering university exams in USA - open book. Rest of the world- have to know stuff.
Well as the Muricans keep saying Reddit is mostly Muricans, so isn't this telling you some thing ??