Bridging the Gap - The cultural exchange thread

[TonyAyers]

Also, as a fun aside, some American food wouldn't be deemed fit for human consumption in various other countries, because they include ingredients that are prohibited for health reasons. Including anything with such high levels of HCFS.

American Coca-Cola can't legally be sold in EU stores, when we talk about Coke we're literally talking about two different drinks. That's a brain-bender right there.


On that note, I'm not dumping on any Americans here, but do people there know that their food is kind of a running joke in other countries? I mean that question totally up front, are Americans aware that other countries make fun of them from it? Feels like something Americans would be more defensive about.

You're absolutely right and it saddens me as an American. They put the most obscene things in these products they dare label as "food" and I don't understand how it even became this bad. 

As for the whole Coca-Cola ordeal, I had always assumed EU and US cokes were entirely different things. It's not a brain bender for me because of your aforementioned statement about the "ours vs theirs" food regulations. My question instead would be to confirm where people use the terms "coke", "fizzy drink", "soda", "soft drink", etc. I've heard them all where I live (not surprising, I suppose XD), but I'd love to hear where you've heard these or what you've heard these drinks being called.

There's also a similar idea running along the lines of what I call a "sub" sandwich (at least in the USA). Some call it sub, like I do, but I've heard that people may say "hoagie", "hero", "grinder", and "baguette" to mean the same thing. I've used some of those terms myself, so the only ones that are a bit alien to me are "hoagie" and "grinder".  Just in case someone doesn't know what I'm referring to, here's an image of a typical sub here:

And nah, you're all good, friend. Many of us are aware that our "food" is considered sub-par in other countries and mocked openly and a good number of us would like to fix it. But, not all of our food is actually bad, unlike the media would like to have you believe. Every country has something good or bad about their food and much the same can be said about ours. 

One last thing, people will make fun of (or hate)  Americans no matter what. I've been seeing it all my life and I doubt it's going to stop any time soon. In fact, sometimes we make fun of ourselves! Since we're such a big country with a vast variety of people, some do take these things harsher than others. Some can laugh off being made fun of whereas others sincerely take it to heart and feel heartbroken about it.