Recently, Redditor u/ergoegthatis asked, "Non-Americans, what is the nastiest American food ever?" They spilled some of the most popular American foods they don't quite understand — or that seem, well, very gross. Here are the most shocking responses:
1. "Those Midwestern 'fruit salads' where half the ingredients are marshmallow fluff or mini marshmallows, jello, whipped cream, etc. I have a high tolerance for American food, but I cannot handle these or even comprehend why and how they exist."
2. "American bread. I'm sure you can get good bread somewhere in the US, but the generally available, sugary, long-shelf-life bread is so appalling."
"Now, of course, your export of fast-food restaurants has nothing to do with haute cuisine, but any burger would be so much better if at least you used acceptable bread."
3. "When they introduced me to Chicago pizza, something in me died. That should not be called pizza — it's just a devil fat pie."
4. "The chocolate out there is FOUL."
“Ghirardelli, Guittard, Dove, Scharffen Berger, and hundreds of smaller companies are fine. Pretty much just avoid anything you would find near the register at a grocery store”
“I tried a big-name American chocolate brand once but couldn’t eat it due to the vomit smell and taste.”
5. "The prevalence of high fructose corn syrup in EVERYTHING. Unfortunately, being in Canada, it's bleeding over the border as a lot of products here are manufactured in the USA."
6. "I find biscuits and gravy to be absolutely disgusting."
"But I'd like to counterbalance that by adding how crazy delicious corn bread is, and why on earth hasn't it become a staple here in Europe? It's SO yummy!"
7. "Some of the savory jello recipes from the '50s and '60s look grim."
8. "That bright orange plastic that you call 'cheese.'"
9. "Boiled peanuts. My wife loves them, and every time we drove through South Carolina, we had to stop and buy them. The stench was so bad, I would have to roll the windows down."
10. "Cincinnati 'chili.'"
"As someone who lives in Cincinnati but grew up on Southern-style chili, I second this. Cinnamon and cloves in chili?! What is this, pumpkin pie?"
11. "Pancakes! I don't understand the point of drowning a stack of those in syrup and calling it breakfast."
12. "I hate scrapple. There's a reason the word 'crap' is in the middle of it."
13. "Candy corn."
14. "Ranch dressing. I once had a pizza in America, and it had ranch dressing on it. Ranch dressing doesn't really exist in Europe, and it's this weird, salty, fatty, mayo-like sauce — and it certainly does not belong on a pizza...or inside a human body for that matter."
15. "Their desserts. I lived there for three years, and the amount of sugar they dump into their desserts is mind-blowing. Beautiful to look at, but they were sweet as hell."
16. "That Thanksgiving dish Americans love with marshmallows on top of sweet potatoes — it sounds and looks disgusting."
17. "The thought of peanut butter and jam (I think you call it 'jelly' there?). Together, it seems terrible."
And finally...
18. "The felt obsession with anything deep-fried is unnerving to me. There's a good few things that are excellent deep-fried, don't get me wrong, but putting literally anything in batter and frying it seems...self-destructive at best."
Americans, do you agree with these opinions? And non-Americans, what other American foods actually seem "gross"? Let us know in the comments below!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.