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What food from the USA would anyone in Europe actually want? Genuine question.
American expat in Portugal here. The only things from home I buy with any regularity are peanut butter (the crunchy kind) and bourbon. Pretty much everything else has an EU-made equivalent with way less scary sounding chemicals on the ingredient list.
american food
look inside
carcinogen
Well the fact that, no fewer than 3 times, the Great British Bake-off judges have said something to the effect of “Wow! Your combination of peanuts and jam is a brilliant and unique flavor!” has taught me that maybe we really do have something to share with the world.
Besides the stuff people already listed, I know sections like this here in Germany, and they often (not always) just have "American style" products - basically some weird hybrids of what a European imagines America to be like, but for European palates. So I bet - unless this was a section with true import stuff - any American would be confused why they never heard of any of these products.
We have Domino cookies from Finland that are better anyways
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_(cookie)?wprov=sfla1
There's a Turkish alternative that actually tastes better. I keep forgetting the brand name though.
Are you thinking of Hydrox? (Which actually invented the cookie that Oreo stole.)
No. I just looked it up, it is "Eti Nero”. In the past it had an unfortunate name if you are in an English-speaking country. Though I don't think the rebrand is any less unfortunate.
Yeah, no. Those things are really an acquired taste.
Pressed sand discs with sweetend elephant semen between them? No, thank you.
Excuse you, it’s sweetened orangutan habitat.
Thats one way to describe them
I'm imagining peanut butter, BBQ sauce, pumpkin pie filling, and maybe a few breakfast foods like cream of wheat. Not all of our foods are terrible nightmares, they're just either available in different aisles or not super popular to justify being everywhere.
The intersection of "American", "novelty" and "popular enough to import but not enough to fully stock" is probably mostly candy, pop tarts and Lucky charms.
https://www.thetimes.com/article/us-trade-war-german-peanut-butter-lovers-feel-crunch-q55bs3r8t
The last time trump was around and pulled this type of shit peanut butter was one of the things people had issues with, since the US produces a lot of peanuts and peanut butter.
I'm German and I suspect it's a bit cringier than that. Out of the products you listed peanut butter is the only one that's available virtually everywhere. You can get all of the other stuff as well but mostly online or at dedicated candy shops. The only other item I can think of is Jack Daniel's and probably some other spirits. So what was sold in the US section? The answer is probably German made stuff that's stereotypically American. This may include spray cheese, creatively flavored bbq sauces, other condiments like relish, brioche burger and hot dog buns, cookies, brownies, muffins, donuts and my favorite because you guys don't even eat that: actual plastic buckets filled with sweet popcorn.
Heh, fair enough. I took a look at some pictures of US grocery sections at European stores and applied the huristic of:
- if it's there, it's not super popular.
- If I would buy it regularly, chances are a European would too, just not as many, see point one.
- if it's awful it's being sold as an amusing novelty.
- if I wouldn't buy it often but I recognize it's American it's a fun novelty or comfort food for the homesick.
Based on that metric, I concluded there was a contingent of Europeans who viewed American peanut butter, BBQ sauce and hot porridge as superior enough to justify spending extra on. That spray cheese was correctly regarded as a disgusting novelty, and that pop tarts, lucky charms and marshmallow fluff are noveltys that are "fine".
Wouldn't have expected you to put relish there though! I kinda figured that was one everyone had that they tweaked a little for regional taste, like mustard.
Lucky Charms and Nerds. I think it’s mostly for Americans in Europe actually. It’s all quite expensive and I’ve never seen anyone buy it.
Decent crunchy PB.
Aldi (Nord) here in Europe has some amazing ones.