In fairness to the op, Fazolli's is probably the best option for Eyetalian food in Heath OH.

*according to the store locator on their website.
http://fazolis.com/menu/


I must try this place. It is rare that one can find a Submarino (tm) that features the Italian classic Ham & Swiss Cheese Submarino with lettuce, tomato and mayo. Manga!

While the debate is fun to go through, in the end this is a rather ridiculous topic to be going back and forth on. At the end of the day, even the posters who disagree with the OP couldn't select the country or cuisine that does reign supreme over America. Is it China? India? Spain? France? We all like what we like. There is no best. Just the best for you.

It's like arguing about which color is the prettiest, or which sport is the most entertaining.

For what it's worth, I enjoy American food, but found the food in Thailand, Japan, and Greece better.

I would say that America has the best of all foods on average. That is to say, it may not have the best of one particular type of food. But if you took all world-wide cuisines, America probably has the best on average of everything.

For instance, if you want the best French food, of course, France is the best. But France may not have even reasonable Chinese or Korean food. If you want the best Japanese food, Japan would win, but they may not have great Italian or German.

The USA has excellent represntations of French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Middle Eastern, Thai, Vietnamese, etc. The USA may not have the best in one individual category, but I think if you take it all together, it has an excellent representation of most foods in the world.

I enjoyed reading this thread.

In my experience and travels food is best when experienced in its native environment: Thai food is the best in Thailand, Chinese Food is best in China (Peking Duck is best in Beijing, Dim Sum is best in Guangzhou), French Food is best in France and on and on.

But, what I love about America is that I am exposed to the cuisines of so many other cultures. Trying food in America has convinced me to visit other places. For example, I have been on a Pho kick, and am going to Vietnam this summer because of it.

If all food was best in America, then the Cheesecake Factory would be the greatest restaurant in the world since you can do a world tour from the appetizers through dessert. With large portions and all.

I love this argument about 'the best' as the OP is most likely asking fellow Americans, in a similar socioeconomic, age and lifestyle group about their judgment of American v. every other country's food.

Ask this of similar Americans who reside in different parts of the country or who lead a different lifestyle (e.g. 9-5er v. road warrior v. homebody v. party animal v. retired person v. student v. farmer; you get the idea) and you will get all kinds of answers.

Just because you (or I) like something, or if lots of us like it, that does not make it 'the best', only the most popular.

If you believe that the food that you are consuming is, overall, of a higher quality than every single country in the world, bully for you.

I think asking this questions to business travellers who happen to dine in some great cities and restaurants as well as sampling local street cuisine, is hilarious!

Thanks!

(I'd rather continue my on/off travel around the world and sample life and cuisine - one of life's pleasures for me.
My world's best could even include some American food, but I couldn't agree with your hypothesis USA Foodie#1!, unless it's specific to a few dishes, where I've not had better elsewhere!)

I know it's probably not worth your while, but it might be worth considering which major, developed western countries have also had large migrant inflows, before declaring the US the one true source of multiculturalism and dining!

+1 'best' food is subjective, I have had memorable meals in almost all countries I have been in - chicken in Greece, lentils and rice in Cairo, pigeon in HK, dim sum in Toronto/HK, Thai food in Chiang Mai, pizza in Florence. the list is endless, paella, steak, burgers, poutine, smoked meat, seafood. No country holds a lock on being the best!

I may be snobbish, but when the OP mentioned Olive Garden, all I can remember from OG was that the food was greasy and salty. If that's your thing, then places like OG, Pizza Hut, greasy Chinese restaurant go far, for me, its fresh ingredients I can pick out when I take a bite that make the foodie experience!

A very detailed reply, but did you not get the question? It was certainly not Is American Food The Best?

Any idiot knows the answer to that question.

You left out the Mueller's with Prego. Believe it.

I went to several holes in the wall around Trevi fountain. The places were "OK" to me. I was expecting to be blown away.

There you go. Your post resonates with the subconscious reason I bothered to post in the first place.

Ha!

Anytime! I thought I'd enjoy seeing some heads explode saying that I like Olive Garden and Pizza Hut more than authentic Italian food :-D

I'm not taking it THAT seriously! When talking to my peer group to people who have traveled similar places to me, when I say the thesis of my OP, people look over their shoulder, make sure no one's listening, and say (really, whisper), "I agree with you."

Basically, I think we glorify far-off cuisine. I will always love traveling and trying new food. It's the best part of traveling to me, is trying new things. But I still never have been able to shake that feeling that foreign food really isn't that much better than what we have here.

Doesn't mean I'm right, just my opinion.

And I think the fact that some posters don't see the obvious tongue-in-cheek aspect of my comparison of, for example, Prego to Italian marinara, is just hilarious to me.

[QUOTE=judolphin;13280019].

How about Italian food? I will be hanged in effigy and laughed off the stage by many for this, but everything on this list was better to me than almost anything I had in Italy, in this order (again, just my opinion):

• Mom-and-Pop Italian
• Carrabba's
• Olive Garden
• Fazoli's $3.99 spaghetti with meat sauce (try finding something edible for that price in Rome)
• a box of Mueller's and a jar of Prego

QUOTE]
Pretty unbeliveable is the crap at Olive Garden even food?

This post reminds me of the Sopranos episode when they were in Italy and presented with a gourmet dinner by their hosts Paullie said " what this s***
bring me some gravy"

mike

But I think you're right, and you do have a point.

For instance, many of us in San Francisco think that the Peking duck in SF is actually better than the Peking duck in Beijing. I just went to Beijing last June, and it was, quite honestly, just mediocre. It was not very flavorful, kind of bland, and just okay. The USA version of Peking duck was simply superior. And I have heard this opinion from non-USA citizens from Asia who have stated this.

Another example. I just got back from Rome, where we had great Italian food daily. It was quite delicious. However, I also just got back from Babbo in New York City, where the pasta there clearly blew away the pasta in Rome. We had many meals there in Rome, and both my wife and I agreed that the pasta in Babbo was way better than any pasta we had in Italy.

Sushi. I had sushi in Tokyo and Osaka. Expecting to be blown away by the freshness of the fish and the delicate subtle taste of the fish, I was quite unimpressed. It was very similar to the sushi here in SF. Absolutely nothing to write home about. It was basically the same thing. It was not bad in Japan, but I thought that we could get just as good in USA.

French. I have eaten at Cordelian Bages, Le Cinq, Taillevent, Bernard Loiseau (before he killed himself after losing the 3rd Michelin star), and Chantecler just to name a few Michelin starred French restaurants. These were fantastic French meals, no question. But, having eaten at Daniel, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, Aureole, Joel Robuchon Vegas, French Laundry, Gary Danko, Michael Mina, Charlie Trotter, and other great American places, they were easily just as good as their French counterparts. Not only were they just as good, they were so much cheaper. They were the true bargain compared to the French places! Were the French places more authentic and more delicious in certain dishes? Maybe a few dishes here and there. But were the French places clearly superior to many of the American high-end places? No way. They were pretty much comprable, overall.

So I would say that the USA has a terrific selection of international cuisines, no question. Certainly, the high-end stuff here is comparable to high-end stuff in many parts of the world. But not only does it have the depth of good cuisine, it also had the breadth. Great, authentic Chinese in Flushing, phenomenal Korean food in L.A., fantastic French in New York an S.F., great Italian in the Bronx, and of course, everything you could ask for in Las Vegas. So I think your original post is valid. The USA has a great breadth and depth of international cuisine that is really hard to beat.

I agree with a couple points you've made.

But your tongue-in-cheek just sucks.

IMHO it's fair to say there's a greater variety of cuisines available even in many smaller towns and cities in some parts of the U.S. (and in Canada) than in many if not most other places in the world.

We've experienced superb, mediocre, and lousy food in so many places in the U.S. and abroad that my only generality about the relative merits would be � chacun ses go�ts.