Does the U.S. have the best food in the world?
Jan 31, 2010 | 5:10 am
#91
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I would agree with much of your statement. I personally prefer French food. I think the Burgundy region is quite wonderful. However, after you eat at Cote St. Jacques, can you go the next morning for some great dim sum, have a nice sushi lunch, then go eat chicken tikka masala for dinner in Burgundy?
The other reason is that I am a frequent flyer and can pop over to Bombay or Hong Kong for a quick bite.
Jan 31, 2010 | 8:37 am
#92
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Jan 31, 2010 | 8:51 am
#93
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Jan 31, 2010 | 10:37 am
#94
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Exactly
That link to the japanese place looks great, though!
Jan 31, 2010 | 11:02 am
#95
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I would say the US has some of the best restauraunts but the worst street food.
Living in DC, tell me another area that has authentic (yes AUTHENTIC) Chinese, Japanese, Ethiopian, Afgan, Peruvian, Austrian, Bolivian, Cuban, Egyptian, French, Italian, Greek, Guatemalan, Indian, Korean .... you get the idea. Just about the only thing we lack is decent Mexican food (mainly due to the fact that a majority of the Hispanics in DC aren't from Mexico).
Many of my friends from those respective countries tell me the food is just as good as back home. Like I said, we just have crappy street food (which is one of my favorite parts of traveling).
Mmm street food :-)
Living in DC, tell me another area that has authentic (yes AUTHENTIC) Chinese, Japanese, Ethiopian, Afgan, Peruvian, Austrian, Bolivian, Cuban, Egyptian, French, Italian, Greek, Guatemalan, Indian, Korean .... you get the idea. Just about the only thing we lack is decent Mexican food (mainly due to the fact that a majority of the Hispanics in DC aren't from Mexico).
Many of my friends from those respective countries tell me the food is just as good as back home. Like I said, we just have crappy street food (which is one of my favorite parts of traveling).
Mmm street food :-)
Last edited by GoodOmens; Jan 31, 2010 at 11:08 am
Jan 31, 2010 | 11:06 am
#96
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Just curious if I'm the only one who thinks so. I do realize people from other countries frequent this board, so try not to be too offended!
Example: I swear I feel that anyone who longs for "authentic" Mexican food hasn't been to Mexico. The average hole-in-the-wall Mexican place in the U.S. is miles better to me than anything I know of there. Fresher food, better quality meat and veggies, more flavorful dishes.
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):
Corner pizza places in New York City, Chicago pizzerias, hell, even Papa John's & Pizza Hut were more pleasing to my palate than any I've had in Italy. And believe me I've tried plenty both here and there.
How about Mediterranean food? In the U.S. restaurants focus on things like hummus, falafel, gyros, shawarma, grape leaves, kibbeh, rice, olives and olive oil, salads with crumbles of feta -- the best part of the cuisine. We're spared the fried liver, cabbage rolls, rancid cheese, etc. in U.S. restaurants.
We like to think American food is watered down and other food "exotic". I was expecting this when I traveled new places. But repeatedly, I found myself thinking the Americanized stuff was better.
I suppose I like to think that when it comes to food, we adopt the best the world brings to us, and try to make it a little bit better. I think it's because we're free to mess with tradition a bit to make something actually taste a little better than the original.
Or maybe it's just because I'm used to American food!
(BTW, very thankful here that I've had the opportunity to travel to other places to try foreign cuisine in the first place.)
Example: I swear I feel that anyone who longs for "authentic" Mexican food hasn't been to Mexico. The average hole-in-the-wall Mexican place in the U.S. is miles better to me than anything I know of there. Fresher food, better quality meat and veggies, more flavorful dishes.
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
Corner pizza places in New York City, Chicago pizzerias, hell, even Papa John's & Pizza Hut were more pleasing to my palate than any I've had in Italy. And believe me I've tried plenty both here and there.
How about Mediterranean food? In the U.S. restaurants focus on things like hummus, falafel, gyros, shawarma, grape leaves, kibbeh, rice, olives and olive oil, salads with crumbles of feta -- the best part of the cuisine. We're spared the fried liver, cabbage rolls, rancid cheese, etc. in U.S. restaurants.
We like to think American food is watered down and other food "exotic". I was expecting this when I traveled new places. But repeatedly, I found myself thinking the Americanized stuff was better.
I suppose I like to think that when it comes to food, we adopt the best the world brings to us, and try to make it a little bit better. I think it's because we're free to mess with tradition a bit to make something actually taste a little better than the original.
Or maybe it's just because I'm used to American food!
(BTW, very thankful here that I've had the opportunity to travel to other places to try foreign cuisine in the first place.)
Last edited by GadgetFreak; Jan 31, 2010 at 11:11 am
Jan 31, 2010 | 11:14 am
#97
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As a physician you will appreciate this diagnosis, "Extreme gastroenteritis of a mildly invasive nature". When I told the doctor in Livingston that I was taking cipro for it he laughed and said, "That wont do anything to the bugs we have here!" Although it wasnt Campy precisely I suppose.
Jan 31, 2010 | 11:16 am
#98
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That is the whole point of the thread: that you have to get on an airplane to get good Indian food or dim sum. In SF or NYC, I just get in a taxi (or take the bus). I can eat at Le Benardin or Jean Georges, then go eat great sushi, then eat tikka masala, without ever leaving the city of New York. In SF, I can eat dim sum for breakfast, dosa at lunch, then eat at La Folie or have Alsacian French at Fleur de Lys. I never have to leave the city.
That link to the japanese place looks great, though!
That link to the japanese place looks great, though!
Jan 31, 2010 | 11:33 am
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Jan 31, 2010 | 11:38 am
#101
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Jan 31, 2010 | 12:08 pm
#102
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I once remarked to my dinner companions that I'd just spent a week in Istanbul, but the best Donner Kebab I'd ever had whas right there in Nizam's restaurant in Vienna VA. Old Nizam Oskar, the owner overheard, and proceeded to give us a run-down on just why he could out-do in Virginia the chefs in his native Turkey. It came down to availability and variety.
Doner Kebap was created in Berlin (at least the common fast food style is), it's a German-Turkish food not Turkish. Similarly Chicken Tikka Masala is more a UK dish than it is an Indian dish. I'm not surprised to find that the best versions of those dishes are to be found outside of the homeland I'd agree with the above that America has the best America-XXX food. Outside of Thai-town in LA the Thai places in the US seem to have the same subset of wet curries and not the broad range of foods found in Thailand. Most "Indian" food in the US is Mughal/Punjabi with the exception of places with lots of software engineers
. With the exception of a few Chinatowns the menus are always Chinese-American. This produces a very American uniformity in menus 
Jan 31, 2010 | 12:20 pm
#103
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Yes, the common cheap Euro variety. But Kebap was invented in Turkey. In fact I visited the original restaurant and started a thread about it here somewhere if you look.
Jan 31, 2010 | 12:24 pm
#104
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That is the whole point of the thread: that you have to get on an airplane to get good Indian food or dim sum. In SF or NYC, I just get in a taxi (or take the bus). I can eat at Le Benardin or Jean Georges, then go eat great sushi, then eat tikka masala, without ever leaving the city of New York.
Jan 31, 2010 | 12:49 pm
#105
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My experience from eating all over the world, is that the source always offers the best version of a particular dish. Indian food, despite the great efforts of expats in England, is always better in India. Chinese food is better in China. Or to be more specific, Hunan cuisine is better in Hunan. Cantonese is better in Canton, etc. Provencal is better in Provence.
Indian food available in restaurants, at least until very recently and now only in a few select cities, is not great in India. It is certainly more authentic but I can do with some ingredient improvement