30 "American" Versions Of Foods That Gross Out Non-Americans
Try not to get too heated.
We asked non-American members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us a dish from their country that the United States has totally ruined. Here are their complaints:
1. Drowning Chinese food in sauce and grease.
"The US seriously screwed up their version of Chinese food. The 'Chinese' food you find here is ridiculously greasy and drowned in sauce. As a Chinese American, I can definitely tell you that's not even close to real Chinese food."
2. Using croissants for sandwiches.
"I will never forgive America for what they did to our beautiful croissants. Used as a sandwich? Grilled with cheese?? Deep-fried??? We gave you something so pure and you couldn’t handle it, you monsters!"
3. Hummus as a "healthy" or "low-carb" snack.
"It wasn't supposed to be some vegan, low-carb food for people to gently dip their vegetables in. This is a glorious, greasy dish made in heaven with a ton of tahini and olive oil. 'חומוסיות' are restaurants that only sell hummus, topped with either beef, an egg, or cooked beans, alongside falafel and an infinite supply of pita flatbreads."
4. Smearing frosting on cinnamon rolls.
"I think it's quite disturbing that Americans put that weird frosting-type thing on top of cinnamon rolls. I'm from Sweden and here we only ever put egg wash and pearl sugar on top before baking our kanelbullar."
5. Using hard shell tacos and pretty much every other stereotypical ingredient involved in an American "taco night."
"Tacos with the hard shell, cheese 'sauce,' 'taco-flavored' ground beef, heaps of sour cream, and then instead of using real salsa, just flavorless diced tomatoes. Sad, sad."
6. Putting too much cream in Indian food.
"Yes, our food is rich and flavorful and colorful, but not to the extent that a lot of Americanized restaurants portray it as. Americanized Indian food is full of cream and is TOO rich at times."
7. Heating up avocado.
"When people heat up avocado, it is a desecration of holy proportions. Leave avocados alone. They’re perfect! Stop ruining them with your ignorance."
8. Making spaghetti with tomato sauce, but not using any garlic, onions, or spices to add flavor.
"Way too many times I've seen people drop plain tomato sauce on spaghetti. No sautéed onions or garlic, no spices, NOTHING. Abomination."
9. Mixing wasabi in soy sauce and using ginger as a sushi topping.
"Don't mix wasabi into soy sauce. Also, pickled ginger is a palate cleanser, not a sushi topping, kthnxbye."
10. Using tea bags and heating the water in the microwave.
"No proper tea comes in a bag, and then they have the nerve to microwave the water for the tea."
11. "Hipster" banh mi sandwiches.
"Banh mi. It literally translates to bread — specifically a special baguette. Please go to an actual Vietnamese restaurant or deli for one...Not some hipster fusion place where they put cilantro, pickled daikon, and carrots on top of whatever and have the audacity to call it banh mi."
12. Smearing Vegemite thickly on toast.
"Australia here. Vegemite. It is NOT meant to be spread like peanut butter or nutella. You only need a smear."
13. "Pierogies" with cheddar cheese.
"I cringe whenever I see frozen 'pierogies' with cheddar. That's so wrong. It's 'pierogi' and cheddar does not belong to them."
14. Low-quality fish and chips.
"I’m English living in LA and I’ve travelled far and wide trying to find fish and chips like home. It’s impossible. Please someone prove me wrong and tell me where!!!!!!!"
15. Putting anything besides fries, cheese curds, and gravy in poutine.
"Poutine is supposed to be only potato, gravy, and cheese curds. When you add mozzarella, bacon, jalapeño, or whatever it is no longer poutine — it's disco fries."
16. Making carbonara with cream sauce.
"Carbonara.
CarboNARA.
CARBONARA.
CARBOOOOOOONARA.
There is NO CREAM in it. Come on, guys.
Love, an Italian."
17. Putting a meal on a smaller plate and calling it "tapas."
"I am originally from Barcelona. All these new hipster places claim to be 'tapas bars' but they are nothing more than fancy South American food places. They just place the meal on small dishes (nothing wrong with South American food btw) but that’s definitely not what tapas are!"
18. Adding pasta to goulash.
"Goulash. It's not a stew; it's not a pasta dish; it's a hearty soup made with beef shanks, root vegetables, potatoes, and Hungarian dumplings (galuska or csipetke)."
19. Serving lamb with mint jelly.
"Why you gotta ruin anything you call Moroccan? We don't serve lamb roast with mint sauce and pomegranate."
20. The invention of deep-dish pizza.
"It's not pizza. It is disrespectful to the Italian culture and Neapolitans. Deep-dish completely ruins pizza!"
21. Using tea bags for chai and calling it "chai tea."
"The whole thing is an abomination straight from the depths of hell. Real chai (not chai tea, chai literally means tea) is hot, has a lovely medium to dark brown color and requires tea leaves, NOT tea bags. And it doesn't always need that ghastly blend of spices. A good cup of chai should be able to taste amazing on its own."
22. The invention of crab rangoon.
"Crab rangoon doesn’t exist in Asia. Most Asian countries rarely incorporate milk in traditional food."
23. Wrapping hot dogs in a pastry (aka pigs in a blanket) instead of in bacon.
"I'm honestly surprised Americans have taken 'pigs in blankets' to mean a little sausage wrapped in pastry. Considering your love of bacon is well-known, I would've thought the British 'pigs in blankets' would be an instant hit with you guys. For us it's a little sausage wrapped in bacon and is one of the best parts of a Christmas dinner."
24. Making chocolate that tastes both too sweet and too bland.
"American chocolate is somehow too sweet and too bland at the same time. The texture is weirdly gritty as well. How do you ruin chocolate? Why would you ruin chocolate?"
25. Assembling poke in a line with a lot of ingredients.
"It’s supposed to be pre-mixed with a FEW simple ingredients and definitely not assembled in a line like a burrito bowl at Chipotle. Most of those ingredients have nothing to do with poke.
26. Putting chorizo and hard-boiled eggs in paella.
"Chorizo DOES NOT belong in paella. Boiled eggs DO NOT belong in paella. You DO NOT put paella in the oven. Stop it, thank you."
27. Preparing French dressing with mayonnaise and ketchup.
"What an abomination. Real French dressing is extra virgin olive oil, a bit of mustard (preferably Dijon), a bit of vinegar of choice, sometimes shallots or raw garlic, and a bit of salt. Whip it up, pour it over. The red ketchuppy French dressing is not French, but, well, American."
28. Adding shrimp and seafood to pho.
"There’s no such thing as 'seafood pho' or 'shrimp pho,' and boiled eggs don’t go in pho. Stop putting whatever you want in a bowl of rice noodles and broth and calling it pho."
29. Making bubble tea "smoothies."
"You can’t put tapioca pearls in a honeydew/strawberry/mango/etc. smoothie and call it bubble tea. Where’s the 'tea' part??"
30. Putting cream cheese and fruit in sushi.
"Sushi with cream cheese and with random fruit. What an awful thing to do."
Some submissions have been edited for clarity and grammar.