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[wierd]

That's a bit of a tanget;

The real point was that "Peanut butter and jelly" is a US invention.  It's a specific KIND of sandwich.

Go to another country, and those same words can describe something that is TOTALLY NOT what an american wants, if they ask for one.



That situation is analogous to the "Taco" situation, with people in mexico, WHO INVENTED THE DAMN THINGS, having a certain expectation-- and us white morons in the north calling something completely different by that name.

They aren't. Real hard-shell tacos are fried *after* filling (and sealed), and are then softened with another liquidish food on a plate.

Do you know where I can find a recipe for that. Putting “How to make authentic Mexican tacos” into google isn’t giving me good results.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/tacos-carne-asada-recipe-1914781

https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/tacos-al-pastor

etc.

Flying Dice is probably thinking of either a "Taqueria" style taco (which looks like a giant taquito), or what a mexican thinks when you say you brought gorditas.

[Naturegirl1999]

The jam/jelly/preserve distinction is not exclusive to the US, nor does it originate there. It's just more common there.

Out of curiosity, what other countries have the distinction?

[Arx]

All English speaking countries You just need varying levels of education and/or pedantry to find someone who cares about the distinction in many or most of them. It takes a certain kind of person to respond to "do you want jam on your scone?" with "actually, you don't have jam here, only jelly. I only eat true jams on my scones."

[wierd]

The US is the strange one, vis-a-vis "Jelly"

Pretty much every other english speaking country calls what we call "Jelly", "Jam."

Here in the US, "Jam" has a special meaning; It's got bits of fruit in it, where Jelly does not. In the UK (and most english speaking countries), both are "Jam".   
In the US, we take it even further, and have an ADDITIONAL name for the stuff, if it also has the seeds in it. "Preserves".  Again, In the UK and co, "Jam".

I've seen jams called preserves over here in the UK. But in general, you're right.

Also jelly is a dessert.

That is precisely my point! For you, "Jelly" is the stuff you put into a mold, and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours. It's made out gelatin, extracted from boiled bones, mixed with a colorant and a fun fruit flavoring.

For me, that stuff is called "Jello".  (It's the major name brand for the product, which gained traction as the name for the desert, even though the desert is FAR older than the jello company. Jello made it easy to make, with the convenient "Add hot water then cool" packets, which transformed it from a thing only very rich people who could afford a dedicated cooking staff ate, into a commodity dessert.) I suppose more properly, it's a "Gelatin dessert". But everyone just calls it Jello.  "Jelly" is the stuff you put on toast.  For you, that's "jam."

This "Same word, very different meaning" leads to utter disgust when the topic of "Peanut butter and jelly" comes up.  Americans are like "Oh yeah, I ate that all the time as a kid" and people in the UK go "What the bloody hell is wrong with those Yanks?"



RE: Arx

In the US it's usually the other way around.  Cranky old people will demand actual jellies, instead of jams. (Mostly because they dont like the fruit bits in their false teeth I think.)

[Arx]

That wasn't really the point That's interesting, though. I vastly prefer real jam for pretty much anything other than possibly PB&J sandwiches. Jelly just isn't as nice! I enjoy the varied texture and less uniformly oversweet flavour of jam.

Edit: this may be because growing up, jam was a luxury for me and jelly was not. Now I rarely eat either because 70% of what I eat is optimised for nutrition first, flavour second, and neither form of conserve offers much in the way of nutritive value.

[wierd]

Actually, I find that pineapple jam is amazing in PB&J, but meh. It's not overly fibrous, but its still plenty sweet (pineapple has lots of natural sugar).

Usually I don't really care though, unless I am using it for cooking.  Some things you need to completely melt and be able to soak into a baked substrate, and for that you want a jelly. (See for instance, an apricot kuglof, which uses a mixture of rum and apricot jelly that gets soaked into the otherwise entirely too stiff and bland bunt cake. A jam would never work.) Or for something like sweet crepes, where you want the less sweet, and more textured effects of a preserve or a jam.

I've kinda become a bit of the opposite of you I think; A foodie that takes hedonistic pleasure in the fineries of needlessly elaborate, but highly delicious food.

[Arx]

Oh, my food is always tasty; I could never live off Soylent or whatever meal replacement the kids are using these days. It's just always fundamentally utilitarian unless it's specifically a treat food, and something that's mostly sugar is only occasionally useful for that.

[Rolan7]

Wierd you have thoroughly convinced me that Taco Bell does not serve authentic Mexican food, thanks *thumbsup*!

Really I'm glad my thoughtless comment sparked such informative discussion instead of any anger, I was up waaay too late partying with friends.

Taco Bell is delicious though.  Of course it isn't authentic, it's fast food.  Of course the rest of the world looks down their noses at it, Reelya.  I don't care, it tastes great and has a lot of beans, and it's cheap and fast.  Of the low-quality convenient foods industry, I think Taco Bell is near the top.  I don't eat out nearly as much as I used to, but I'm certainly not eating the wet paper of McDonald's or supporting Chik-Fil-A's bullshit agenda.  I'm getting some cheap tortillas full of beans, veggies and salt.

The ones I roll myself are better but way less convenient, so nyah

[MrRoboto75]

One could argue taco bell isn't even authentic food.

[Egan_BW]

I'm not reading that whole conversation but there's a taqueria right near my house which is great.

[Lord Shonus]

Taco Bell is delicious though.  Of course it isn't authentic, it's fast food.  Of course the rest of the world looks down their noses at it, Reelya.  I don't care, it tastes great and has a lot of beans, and it's cheap and fast.  Of the low-quality convenient foods industry, I think Taco Bell is near the top.  I don't eat out nearly as much as I used to, but I'm certainly not eating the wet paper of McDonald's or supporting Chik-Fil-A's bullshit agenda.  I'm getting some cheap tortillas full of beans, veggies and salt.

I live in a Taco Bell test market, which (besides getting all their experimental menu items first) means that Corporate puts a lot more effort into quality control and keeps their franchisees on a tight leash (so they can be sure that a failure of a test product is because it sucks, not because the staff cooked it in a dishwasher or something).


If I were starving to death, and a Taco Bell was offering a 100% off sale, I'd still walk past. Taco Bell is "food" in the same way that Jersey Shore is a thoughtful documentary.


Their sole virtue is that they do not use the demon-plant known as cilantro, so their food does not taste like deadly poison, despite being borderline poisonous.

[Frumple]

Their little twisty cinnamon/sugar things are okay-ish. Not even in the same ballpark area code as proper whatever-they're-called, but okay. Pretty close to literally the only thing I'll consume off their menu, though, now that I've stopped drinking most sodas.

[Rolan7]

Ironically I can't stand their cinnamon twists, they're dry and too sweet!  Fortunately I found out you can switch them for guacamole

I don't understand why it's so fun to pretend it's "not food" and junk but whatever, they're not paying me

Edit: I don't eat a lot of sweet things in general so I'm not the market for the cinnamon things

[Frumple]

Yeah, the dryness you basically have to suck on them for a bit, let them soften that way. Just crunching them is extra meh on top of meh. It's cheapass food solution to sweetness, too, so yeah it's kinda' excessive on that front. You take it slow, basically like nursing leftover ice cubes in a drink.

They're okay, though. Not good, just not inedibly terrible.

E: Though to your edit, cinnamon itself isn't really super sweet, or particularly sweet in and of itself much at all. It's a pretty good spice specifically for folks not particularly into sweet stuff. In this case (most cinnamon usage situations, really, sadly) they just pile on a stupid amount of sugar to go with it, so... yeah.

[Kagus]

Y'all ain't talking about churros now, is ya?