Before traveling to America, my parents prepared several packets of pickles and a large piece of Wenzhou fish cake. "If you don't like it, you can be a side dish."

Of course, I scoff at this remark: Just kidding, can't a country with more than 311 million people and 5 million Chinese even find food to fill their stomachs?

But in fact, those packages of pickles have played a great role. They have been made into pickled mustard tuber and egg drop soup, fried pork slices with snow vegetables and stewed beef with sauerkraut, which soothed the China stomach of the whole family. And the Wenzhou fish cake was heroically killed at the bottom of the nose of the police dog at the airport security check, and we shared it clean before entering the customs. According to the elders, it is: "the most delicious thing in the United States for more than half a month."

Although I spared no effort to recommend all kinds of American food to them all the time, I didn't like it or not, and "America doesn't taste good" became their knowledge.

Probably most China people who have been to the United States have this judgment.

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Is there really a shortage of good ingredients and skilled chefs in America?

Of course not. There are bread crabs, salmon and mussels on the west coast. In the fertile California valley, the best beef in North America is raised and a large number of standardized vegetables and fruits are planted. Even a barren land like Mojave Desert is a famous nut producing area, and huge American pistachios and almonds are produced from this sunny land.

As for chefs, under the banner of "American Dream", as a place based on attracting talents, of course, there are many best chefs from all over the world. In Las Vegas, I even ate the most authentic Yunnan rice noodles and Lanzhou beef noodles, which were as authentic as the old brands on the streets of Kunming and Lanzhou.

However, the idiosyncrasies of individual cases can't cover up the overall unpalatability. The most intuitive and simple reason is that Americans are not particular about food inherited from Britain.

As the main source of American culture, Britain, which is famous for its dark cuisine, has contributed greatly. This is just like the culture of Guangdong and Fujian immigrants has set the tone for the "Nanyang" region. Even if other ethnic groups toss and turn, they can still eat some delicious soup in Thai Dongyin Kung, Vietnamese rice rolls and Malaysi.

The rotten country has the most ridiculed food in the world, which is simple and rude, and even has wonderful dishes (you can search for the starry sky pie and black pudding by yourself ...). Except for the breakfast with sausages, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, baked beans and toast, it barely maintained the living habits of medieval nobles, and the rest was almost useless. As the writer Mao Mu said: Eat like a king in the morning and like a beggar at noon.

During the Reformation in the 16th century, Calvin and other reformers strongly criticized the extravagant life of the Holy See, and advocated that believers should concentrate on spiritual life. Later, Cromwell, a British lord protector, promoted Puritans' puritanism, opposed all kinds of hedonism and advocated hard work. Invisibly, people began to follow light and simple eating habits.

This habit was brought to the United States by may flower. In the process of competing for resources with Indians, British immigrants found that it was the most practical to live with yogurt instead of cheese and mashed potatoes instead of flour. Although the dishes were not as luxurious as French meals, they could ensure that they were not hungry in a strange land.

In essence, today's United States is still a conservative Puritan country. Whether gay marriage and abortion are legal is still the focus of debate in bipartisan elections. Few people talk about "sex" in public. Except for Las Vegas and a few other places, every state severely cracks down on whoring, and policewomen even pretend to be call girls. As long as men take the bait and drive to hotels, they will be handcuffed directly.

In Europe, call girls have long been an open secret.

if you treat sex like this, you can naturally cope with food that is also "food-eating". Although people in China eat three meals a day, Americans often eat three meals more casually. It is a common practice to "eat when you are hungry". There is almost no fixed "meal rush hour" except for breakfasts. Even if you go to a fast food restaurant at three o'clock in the afternoon or ten o'clock in the evening, you can see people munching on a hamburger in a hurry.

It is said that in several states that were former French colonies, such as Louisiana and Missouri, it is obviously better than other states in the United States, which also confirms this reason.

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Simple way of thinking is another reason why America is not delicious, and it is also the biggest difference between American food and Chinese food.

For example, in order to eat, people in China can take the trouble to stew fresh shrimp, green crab and squid with good japonica rice for three or four hours until protein is decomposed into small amino acids and starch becomes dextrin or maltose with shorter carbon chain. A spoonful of seafood porridge is slightly sweet, and finally a thumb is raised: "Fresh and sweet"!

But Americans are different. If you want to eat sweet, just a few spoonfuls of sugar. Why bother to save the country? American ice cream, for example, is a dessert. Just put sugar in it. In the face of that kind of Italian ice cream that is not sweet or greasy, I will definitely lament: "Europeans live in trouble."

For another example, people in China emphasize that cooking should be "savory". With limited seasonings, they cook with civil and military fire, knife work and scalding, so that the flavor can seep into the food. But Americans will think, isn't this just to be salty and more flavorful? Just sprinkle salt.

This is also the reason why many people eat American hamburgers, which are so salty.

When reading hofstede's "Culture and Organization", I was told that Americans are more accustomed to the single-task mode, while everyone in the Middle East and Latin America prefers the multi-task mode without much perceptual knowledge.

In fact, the thinking of China people is also the representative of this "multi-task mode".

From the two search engines, GOOGLE and Baidu, we can see the difference between these two ideas. For platforms and web pages developed with American thinking as the starting point, such as GOOGLE, all links are opened in a window and will not jump to a newly opened page; The web links developed by Baidu and other Chinese people are all links to a newly opened page. This determines that you can only follow a vine in a foreign website with GOOGLE mode, and if you want to return to the original point, you can only keep BACK. And the websites of China mode are all followed by the trail. You will open many melons and windows, browse a lot of information and do different things at the same time.

This kind of thinking difference can't simply evaluate which is better or worse, but when it comes to food, it is hard for people in China who claim to be foodies to accept it.

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Being good at inclusion may be a cultural advantage in other aspects, but in terms of food, it is definitely a BUG in American food.

this kind of inclusiveness is by no means like that of Hong Kong, the capital of food. It truly reflects the tolerance of global food. It's not like the Japanese, who changed West Point into foreign fruit in order to improve the taste.

Perhaps out of strong cultural self-confidence, American chefs often make foods from different countries conform to American lifestyles and eating styles first, and taste is second.

For example, like the United Kingdom and other European countries, Americans have the problem of "only eating out", and think it is impolite to spit out what they have eaten in their mouths, such as bones and shells.

I ate a plate of fish with Chinese sauerkraut in a small town near Highway 1. All the fillets were made of large, spineless Sabah fish. The taste is not bad, but it loses the fun of picking the bones that are delicious when eating pickled fish, and also makes the fish become "wooden" and lose the layered taste.

By analogy, things like chicken wings, lake crab and pecans are also rejected in the mainstream American diet and can only be bought in Chinese supermarkets frequented by Asians.

For another example, Mexican neighbors in the United States like to eat spicy food. It is said that the hottest peppers in the world are produced in Mexico, and peppers from China were first introduced from Mexico in the Ming Dynasty.

However, Americans are not as good at spicy food as Lao Mo, so American Mexican food, on the one hand, inherits the characteristics of Mexicans' emphasis on frying and sauces, and is not boring at all. But the appetizing pepper was "castrated".

As a result, Mexican food in the United States is too greasy to be imported, even in Tijuana, a small town adjacent to the United States. It's not absolutely heavy, and it's definitely unacceptable.

another example is that Japanese food in the United States has also obviously increased its strong flavor suitable for the local area. For example, as I mentioned before, the YAYOI in Stanford University Street is almost as sweet as dessert.

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What should I pay attention to when eating Chinese food in America?

actually, it's very simple: you must go to a place where Chinese restaurants are concentrated. A place where Chinese restaurants are concentrated means a Chinese community, where Chinese supermarkets have authentic ingredients and cooking methods that have not been assimilated by the environment-otherwise, are you sure that the shallots in cold tofu can be replaced by rosemary or parsley?

If you really want to eat Chinese food, but you really can't find a Chinese community, remember to eat less stir-fry and try to choose hot pot: you can't eat clearly in the southeast, northwest, and north together in one pot.

well, what's the saying? it's not enough to talk about the world outlook without eating all over the world.