I found the ones I didn’t have from used book sellers on Amazon. Reasonably priced.
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American cheese - grew up on the white Land o’ Lakes. Got back into the habit of buying the white Kraft Deluxe during the pandemic. I don’t find a particular difference from the yellow? 
Cheese and fish/seafood - it has its place. My belly. That is its place. If it’s not your thing, then you do you.
Most unexpected place to encounter cheese and fish - O Ya in Boston. A sashimi dish of ocean trout, torched Gruyere, and grapefruit. It was good.
Tomatoes in chili - not in mine. My red ones are red from dried chiles. However, diced tomatoes and grated cheese on top if I am in the mood.
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The first French dips I ever had, years ago, did not include cheese. Or anything else, like sautéed onions. They were just beef and a toasted baguette, and the bowl of jus. And that’s how I like them.
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Obviously there are exceptions to the rule (as I mentioned). Clam chowder (and other soups) are good, but Coquilles St. Jacques and creamed shellfish pastas are something I would never make/order… oh wait - Paul Prudhomme’s tasso/oyster pasta has cream and is amazing.
But for the most part… seafood as a main is something I’d rarely do with cheese and cream.
I suppose “coquilles st jacques” can be a recipe from anywhere in the world, but I’d like to add a couple of things so as to make it clear:
In France, cocquilles st jacques is simply the name for scallops, not a recipe. Since the name is French, people might assume it’s some kind of French recipe. To be a French recipe or menu item in a restaurant, it would usually be indicated as “st jacques a la…” or “st jacques gratinee.”
Cheese is not a requirement. There are some French recipes with cheese and others without.
It does seem like the gratin recipe is simply called Coquilles St. Jacques, too, which might explain the confusion.
You’re right, it is confusing.
Just to note that, in France, coquilles is the word for shells and St Jacques (St James) denotes what kind of shell, scallops. The word petoncles is sometimes used for scallops, and at one point petoncles were seen as being a subset, but now they too can officially be called coquilles st jacques.
On most French menus, there will be a clue added as to how they are prepared.
How other places around the world do it can be an entirely different matter.
My grandmother’s “chili” was spaghetti noodles, some ground beef, a can each of smashed tomatoes and tomato sauce, and a can of beans, with about 1 teaspoon of McCormack’s chili powder sawdust that had passed its BBD a couple of years prior to my conception.
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Sounds like my mother’s “chili,” except that hers had 1/2 tsp of chili powder sawdust and elbow macaroni.
I make mine starting with an assortment of dried chiles, toasted and ground in a spice grinder. And maybe some fresh green and red chiles, roasted and peeled, and some canned chipotles in adobo. And Rancho Gordo dried beans freshly cooked…
I eat scrambled eggs or grilled cheese or cheese and fruit and nuts with some good salami or Trader Joe’s hatch chile mac and cheese on some days. I will never either make or eat my mother’s chili.
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I’ve usually got 6-7 types of chiles in mine, if you count paprika as one of them. A local supermercado has a great variety of dried/bagged chiles.
Grams was a lovely lady but couldn’t cook to save her life (my mother was also a lousy cook). When I transitioned to my last duty station my apartment wouldn’t be available for a month and Grams/Gramp’s house was a doable if longish commute so I stayed with them. I took over grocery shopping and dinner cooking that month (generally making enough for them to eat lunch leftovers, too) and they both gained close to 10 pounds.
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Even if you weren’t a lump-a-phobe, there is no way that a country as vast and as populous at the US could be homogenous in any fashion. All you need to do is read our political news, and by politics unfortunately I mean everything under the sun, to see that not only can’t we agree, we can’t even discuss.
It STILL is one country, with one constitution, one government, one official language (as opposed to Europe, which continues to be brought up as if it were).
I don’t think anyone here claimed it to be homogenous in any shape or form.
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It sounds like you and @Madrid both had variations of Cincinnati chili, a weird hybrid beast traditionally served over spaghetti. I recall some site did a bit of investigation into its origins (It might have been The Takeout). The conclusion was it was likely created by Greek immigrants, and is, essentially, a Greek take on Italian-American groundbeef bolognese. The main difference between classic Italian-American meat sauce and Cincinnati chili is the spices and aromatics, which usually favor cumin, rather than leaning heavily into the garlic. This makes it taste chili-adjacent, so that’s what people called it.
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We have a long chill thread and I believe Cincinnati is discussed.
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Have you been living in Oregon too long @bbqboy? I think you meant a long chili thread, but you wrote a long chill thread lol. 
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Cheesy bakes and cheesy veg are very much a part of UK cuisine.
And I agree with you about the treatment of the US as monolith. Most Europeans I know who’ve been to the US are familiar with the range of cheeses and enjoy them. It just hasn’t ever helped America’s case that this cheese is called “American”.
And while there’s brilliant cheese in Europe, processed cheese is also available and eaten. Of course, I should avoid the generalisations and simply note this shocker:
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Both are true!
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from the article:
However, we’re not all cheese lovers – one in 10 men saying they can’t stand cheese and the same number of Brits strongly agreeing with the claim that ‘eating cheese before bed gives you nightmares’.
I wonder if this claim is soley because of A Christmas Carol…
“Why do you doubt your senses?”
“Because,” said Scrooge, “a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”
Also, this article has made me realize I have never had halloumi. I must remedy that.
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She grew up not far from the Kentuckinnati area, on the Indiana side, so that’s a possible influence. Or she was just stretching stuff, pasta being cheaper than adding more beef. She was the type to get 3-4 cups of tea out of one worn-out Lipton teabag…
I’ve had the Cincinnati chili on hot dogs and also over spaghetti, seems it had a lot (too much for me) of cinnamon and nutmeg in it, too.
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We’re getting close to Johnny Marzetti territory .
