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[wierd]

@ Naxza == Triggered

1) Most americans do not like to cook.   [2][3][4]  (Really, this is VERY well researched. Americans are unwilling or unable to cook, due to a lack of desire, and a lack of sufficient time to plan and prepare a meal. It's cultural. Deal with it.)

2) Due to the above, many americans subsist on either fast food, or prepackaged products.  The comprehension of what food "is", and how flavors interact with each other, is an essential part of cooking as an activity, which again, has been exhaustively shown to be not an appreciated activity by the general american public.  This is why people add epic fucktonnes of cheese to their au gratin, when what they really need to add is a protein source and some salt, along with a little starch to gel the sauce, and enhance the flavor of the cheese that is already present.

3) Glad you agree. Sadly, at least here in flyoverland USA, when you mention "Cheese", the usual things people think of are "Kraft Singles" (which again, ARE NOT CHEESE), and "Cheddar."  The number of times I have seen people try to make home-made pizza with shredded cheddar is astounding; Really, the people here (at least) have no fucking clue how to use cheese, or why you should use different kinds of cheese for different kinds of foods.

4)  While Wisconsin is a part of the USA, not all Americans are from Wisconsin.  In fact, most americans are not from Wisconsin.  As such, your anectdote does not really help with the general statement that americans dont understand cheese.  People in Wisconsin understand cheese; they have a culture for it.  The rest of the US?  Not so much.


I actually really enjoy cooking, and of my own volition, learned how to use different flavors, including cheese.  I am an outlier.  -- As demonstrated by the multitudinous studies that demonstrate that. 

[Kagus]

I used to be pretty big on Stone, but they've gone international now with a brewing and distribution center in Berlin, and the founder-CEO stepped down during a great big kablooie of major breweries gobbling up the west coast craft scene. Lagunitas... why? Why sell out to Heineken?

...right, anyways...

Yeah, umeboshi is the pickled plums. We'd use the paste as an ultra-tangy addition to homemade rice rolls and give things a little kick. It's also surprisingly functional with corn on the cob, the tang and sweetness contrasting each other... Although, that's probably several different forms of blasphemy and not something I should admit openly.

[Tack]

Well, I put shredded cheddar on pizza and love it, so hey. I also have ready access to the other cheeses and use them, but cheddar is about the sharpest thing I can put on pizza without it burning. I'll also say that I've had friends move to America and say that it's incredibly difficult to cook there. Apartments with full kitchens are incredibly rare, and somehow all food has some level of preservative just suffused throughout it at all times.

Also as an Aussie, our national caffeine seems to be the Cappuccino.. which is weirdly dainty for such a place which prizes itself on ruggedness. But yeah, absolutely it's a flat white with chocolate on.
... We probably can't act like we're better for eating sugar instead of HFCS when our climate doesn't support corn.

[wierd]

@cheddar on pizza


Cheddar has the wrong melt properties for a pizza.  You might be able to use it very sparingly on top of mozzarella, or some other, more compatible cheese, but using straight cheddar is how you end up with dry crusty bits of something that resembles cheese, and a sea of orange oil dripping out of your pizza, with no stretch to your cheese at all.  There are several cheeses that have suitable melt characteristics, but they are going to impact the flavor of the pizza very significantly.  Mozzarella has both a good melt profile, and a very mild flavor profile that allows subtle flavors like mushroom to show through.  For a more experimental flavor, instead of a traditional one, you could try more pungent cheeses and spicier toppings that can shine through/add-to such a bold cheese. For normal pizza though, cheddar is not the cheese for it.  It will turn into a dry crispy and brittle surface that bleeds orange grease, every single time.

[Hanslanda]

Ahem, I'm an American and I made homemade lasagna with layers of ricotta/mozzarella/parmesan, ground venison, a little Italian sausage, and a layer of black olives.

Some of us know how to cook, thanks.

[Jopax]

I did some uninstalling the other day, mostly stuff I haven't played in a while. Amongst it was the b.net launcher which was on C since I forgot to switch to the secondary drive. It was for some reason over 1 gig large (despite me not having any blizz games installed at the moment). So I got rid of that whole thing and my C drive jumped up to about 9 gigs of free space (it's farily small and only keeps the system and some odd programs like the browser and such), today for some reason it's back to under 7, I have not really installed anything in the mean time, or downloaded stuff either so I'm completely baffled by the change.

To make things even stranger, the Win10 disk cleanup utility claims I have over 22 gigs of temporary files on that drive, where exactly they've been hiding is beyond me, and getting rid of them is a long and annoying process since the utility seems only capable of deleting 2 or so gigs at a time :V

[Kagus]

I grew up lactose intolerant after my mom, but I eventually grew out of it in my teens. As such, we never really had butter around the house and didn't use it for anything. So, yeah, just a thin spread of umeboshi paste (it's kinda overpowering in large quantities, not that that stopped me from lumping it a few times), and then sweet yellow corn.

The rolls we made were pretty simple too. We tended not to use polished rice, so it was basically just unpolished short grain (jasmine? I think it was jasmine) rice, spread some plum paste on it, then add a few thin spears of cucumber and carrot. Pretty simple, and they disappeared very quickly. I also used to snack on the plain nori sheets a lot as a kid... y'know, the ones that strangle you if you bite off too much and it attaches itself to the back of your throat.


We also had little umeboshi pills you were supposed to take for nausea/stomach pain. Yeah... A lot of herbal remedies around the house growing up. We were that household that always had the Echinacea extract and the herbal teas

[Ulfarr]

Fakeedit: and don't get me STARTED about our beer-

For what it's worth I've had some great american beers, I wholeheartedly recommend Flying Dog's Snakedog and Raging Bitch (both IPAs).

[Hanslanda]

Fakeedit: and don't get me STARTED about our beer-

For what it's worth I've had some great american beers, I wholeheartedly recommend Flying Dog's Snakedog and Raging Bitch (both IPAs).

Sam Adams Cream Stout is quite nice, as are most local microbrews.

[Kagus]

Flying Dog's got some great bottle art. The artist also did the label for a wine called Cardinal Zin (a zinfandel, of course).

As for pizza cheese, I've also had feta (proper sheepy feta, none of that cow nonsense) crumbled on top. Doesn't melt at all, but it does brown and get a little sweet... Worth a try if you're into experimenting outside the bounds of traditional American pizza.

[TD1]

I can cook! Sorta. Mostly only with recipes.
And I'm not American, hah.

As an aside, one does hear bad things about American cuisine. It's either too much, too salty, or too sweet. And that's when it hasn't been horribly mauled with artificial additives (or conditions, such as the rather disgusting state of eggs over there.)

I'm sure that this isn't wholly true, but it is the stereotype for American food.

[Ulfarr]

Sam Adams Cream Stout is quite nice, as are most local microbrews.

Never had the chance to taste a Sam Adams, but yes that is also my experience with most microbreweries.

As for pizza cheese, I've also had feta (proper sheepy feta, none of that cow nonsense) crumbled on top. Doesn't melt at all, but it does brown and get a little sweet... Worth a try if you're into experimenting outside the bounds of traditional American pizza.

Feta from goat milk (or both sheep/goat) milk is also very good,  it tends to be more salty but I personally like it.

Heretical edit: Feta can be quite good on pasta too.

[Arx]

Feta's great on pretty much everything. I think I had a feta/piquante pepper pizza once and it was amazing. Similarly, spinach/feta is hard to go wrong with. Sandwiches, sauces, salads...

Complaining about American food isn't really a problem with America, though, it's a problem with urban food. There's plenty of rich culinary culture in the States, it's just not as mainstream these days. Exactly the same junk gets sold in the cities here, in Europe, and all over the world.

[Hanslanda]

I ate a container of feta straight last summer. Crackers on the side. Stuff is so good.

[Castlecliff]

Feta is pretty good. A blue is pretty fucking good too.
But pizza. Cheese does not belong on a pizza.