I think most cuisines have some lovers, some indifferents, and some haters.
I was shocked when a friend I had roomed with on ski trips for years told me she disliked Mexican food. I can understand someone avoiding spicy food because they can’t handle spice or have ulcers. She wasn’t willing to join me for a meal at a restaurant so I went to the Mexican restaurant alone and ate at the bar. And she went to some regular place serving grilled salmon and Caesar salads, raved about it, like I missed out on something. (I went there the last night, I had not missed out on anything).
In my circle and in my family, the easiest cuisines for a group of 6 or more for dinner are Thai, French, regular plain American (whatever that is, I won’t bother defining it), soul food, Greek, and Italian.
I have recently met people who really dislike Greek food and Lebanese food, so there’s that. LOL
Since I tend to be the organizer of dinners, and I don’t like emails that go around and around for weeks as people decide when and where to meet, lately, I send out 3 suggested restaurants, with their links and menus, and ask my friends to tell me which one they want. If they don’t like any of the 3 suggestions, I am happy to go whichever option they suggest instead. Done.
She is a Torontonian raised in a small city called North Bay.
We were in Montana, at Big Sky.
The Mexican restaurant I visited was quite good, the highlight of food for me that week. It served dishes I crave that I cannot find in Canada. It was located about half way between Bozeman and Big Sky.
The place she liked, I could probably find the menu. The same menu you see in every resort town across the USA and Canada. Caesar Salad, grilled Salmon, Steak, Grilled Chicken Breast. It’s fine for what it is.
I wasn’t going to touch the Italian part of his comment.
To be fair, I’ve yet to have Italian food in the US that compares to any Italian food I’ve had in Germany — but there are certainly plenty of good Italian restaurants all over the US that are better than OG. Of course, that’s about as low a bar as it gets.
I have been (back when I delivered food), but have never eaten any of their products. None of them look appealing to me. In fact, their commercials almost seem intent on making their food look about as unappetizing as humanly possible.
But I feel that way about most FF places / commercials
I’m sure the generations of Italian families in Boston’s North End, South Philadelphia, Federal Hill in Providence, RI, Arthur Ave in Brooklyn, and the various “Little Italys” around the country appreciate hearing that. I mean, c’mon.
I ate there probably a thousand times during my teenage years. But haven’t had the pleasure in 20+ at this point. Fast food Mexican these days, I’m heading to Chipotle.
Yo quiero Taco Bell. I also like Tex Mex, Mexicali, fancy Mexican, Mexican Mennonite, Mission burritos, Baja fish tacos, Chevy’s, Canadianized Mexican, Mexican food made by Salvadorans, you name it.
I could limit my world cuisines to Mexican, Thai, Greek and Italian and live a very happy life.
Fun fact: I didn’t like “Mexican” food until just before the pandemic, having only had sub-par Tex Mex in Germany and the US before. Germany is not exactly a hot bed of good Mexican food, and I’m not sure if Taco Bell has made it there yet.
But around 2018, a legit Oaxacan place opened up in a gas station in town that served up proper tacos, birria, elote, tlayudas, etc. etc., where we grabbed lunch about twice a week during the pandemic. Since then, a fantastic fusion taco place we visit almost every Friday for lunch (Cajun shrimp tacos, anyone?) opened, and a local “chain” consisting of two restaurants that have birria ramen on the menu as well as excellent carnitas just down the road from us provides us with all the Mexican food we could ever want
OTOH, a highly popular locally owned Mongolian grill was just torn down to make room for the second or third Chipotle in town. Meh.
Many Italian restaurants in the US have too many US influences that they are a unique cuisine (Italian-American) that is pretty far and hasn’t much to do with “original” Italian cuisine. But those “Italian-Italian” restaurants in the US which really capture the mind of Italian cuisine” can often easily compare to very good Italian restaurants in Germany. Often they actually care more about making ingredients in-house like pasta which I am often surprised is less common in Italian restaurants in Germany. (and the pizza quality, especially Napolitanean and closely related styles, is overall much better in the US than in Germany)
I find this whole process of generalizing about food being ‘better’ in one country or another is just such a rabbit hole of absurdity-- almost as absurd as saying that every Mexican restaurant in America is gussied up Taco Bell. I doubt Enrique Olivera would agree.
I wasn’t referring to Italian-American cuisine, which is a cuisine of its own right based on predominantly Southern Italian/Sicilian — given the vast majority of early immigrants came from the area, and which explains the predominance of “red sauce” at these places.
I’ve had regional Italian in both Philly and NYC, and they did not compare to what I’ve had in Berlin, surprisingly
Of course, I’ve not dined at every single Italian restaurant in the United States like Steve
