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i-will-never-be-ginger:

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kreiaisarrenkae:

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o0idiosyncrasy0o:

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*slams down mint chocolate chip ice cream* fight me

But also yes, a lot of the mint chocolate I have tasted in the US is awful. But that is because US chocolate is an abomination.

Wait, our chocolates are different? Really?? How so??? Why have I never heard this????

As I said to another comment, yea, it’s drastically different. To quote my previous post:

It’s got this weird plastic…almost burned acidic taste to it whilst also
being horrendously over sweet. It’s a weird taste experience for
someone who grew up in the UK eating European chocolate. Even chocolatier chocolates over here taste wrong. 

So if you ever get the chance to have some actual chocolate from Europe and not just chocolate claiming to be Belgian (I am convinced Godiva US burns the shit out of their chocolate when they make it because Godiva UK tastes entirely different too) I’d recommend giving it a try.

Interestingly the chocolate in the US triggers my acid reflux issues, but European chocolate does not. So there’s that too.

Sorry to butt in here, but I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that in a lot of Hershey’s branded chocolate (idk about other brands) their supposed “trade secret” recipe results in butyric acid being created. I’m a thousand times certain that it is NOT in any European chocolate at all.

I got used to it after awhile. I came to America from England when I was relatively young (I was going on nine). However I prefer European chocolate. My mother, on the other hand, can’t stand American chocolate.

It could well be, although I avoid Hersheys like the plague that it is because I can tolerate most chocolate to some small degree, but a hersheys bar results in vomiting within twenty minutes of consumption. And it’s not a psychological thing either because people have tried telling me before “oh no don’t worry it’s not hersheys” and I’ve ended up in the ER for pain treatment.

As @finnglas said the US also uses more paraffin wax in their chocolate too, which is another cause of sore GI upsets for those of us with sensitive insides.

So yea. American chocolate very acidic and padded out with lots of other stuff which may or may not make you shit yourself. Fun!

(i know you’re talking about the creamier stuff but have you ever had mexican chocolate?)

I have! I actually have Mexican drinking chocolate although I am dangerously low and need to stock up before the Minnesotan winter hits and I go back into hibernation. It doesn’t hurt my stomach which is nice, although I can only have chocolate sparingly these days anyway.

They do carry Lindt chocolate here which is literally the only chocolate widely accessible here that is supposedly from Switzerland and doesn’t taste like absolute garbage. It’s nice cause it’s carried in Walmarts and most grocery stores. It’s a bit pricey at like $3+ a bar but I definitely recommend.

While I previously enjoyed those little chocolate bunnies at Easter and their reindeer at Christmas, Lindt USA is unfortunately associated with Autism Speaks which is considered to be an awful charity by many persons with autism. So while I doubt they miss my few dollars, I still prefer not to support them where possible. Just like I try not to buy Nestle products either, although sometimes trying not to buy Nestle is a bit like trying not to breath as they apparently own a lot of companies over here.

Green and Blacks organics chocolate is also a good brand available over here, but the prices I have seen it for are extortionate.

I’m pretty sure the US just doesn’t know how to properly roast beans, since their generic filter coffees also have that disgusting “molten plastic” and overly acidic taste to them.

They either burn or under cook things, there is no in between. I had to retreat to Starbucks the other day while the ants took over my kitchen and I eventually had to take my headphones out and plead with the barista to stop burning the milk. The steamer is not meant to screech like that. (I was nice about it. It’s amazing how much more receptive people are to a Scottish accent over here, even when you’re saying things like “um, dae yea mind love, but I think I kin help you wi sumfin, just a wee thing mind, but uh, dae ye ken yer fair burning the arse out of yer steamer pot?”)

I was trained by Italians back in the UK, everyone here always comments on how Amazing my coffee is and don’t believe me that my “secret” is just literally “don’t burn shit”.

And it seems to be an acquired taste? Like they’re genuinely surprised that XYZ doesn’t need to be this way? I see a lot of “how white people season” things and even for my Scottish palate (anyone who has ever had real haggis can tell you it’s actually a rather spiced dish), American cooking is either bland, salt, or just sweet.

Which makes me wonder how much of that kind of thing came about from no longer having domestic slaves/servants and all of a sudden you’ve got to fend for yourself and that’s why your pie crust is soggy and the coffee tastes like acid because they went through a period of How Do You Do Things Oh My God.

I thought that was just me! Every time I visit American relations, the food is so bland! And the coffee is terrible. When they come over, they go on and on about how “Irish grown food tastes so good”, “there’s such variety”, “but exactly how do you manage that” (terrible question to ask in my house, it’s always ‘a bit of this spice, some of that, whack in a batch of the other, see how it’s blending and work from there, what do you mean exact measurement?) is that because they can’t cook???

Lmao. Oh man. So. My in-laws are this mixture of Italian American meets Irish American. And every Easter they make this “Irish stew” and I just want to cry because it tastes like burned boots and hard potatoes. And when they asked me if it tasted genuine (Never mind I am Scottish) and I was like yea, I mean…yea, sure I mean…someone probably ate something like this during the potato famine…lets go with that.

And it’s lamb, they’re spending a fortune on lamb (because lamb is hella expensive here) and it’s cooked like you’d cook beef and I just want to rescue it. I see the poor leg going into the slow cooker and I just want to run off with it, find some Guinness, some fresh veg and some parsley and make it all okay but I can’t because it’s great grandmas recipe and oh god the soda bread, Jesus God save me from American “Irish” soda bread. It’s like eating raw clay with raisins in it.

And it’s not just one family can’t cook, it’s like that everywhere.
(At least in the north, I can’t speak for other styles or cultural cooking)

*stares*

Your in-laws are barbarians.

Lamb should not go into a pot. Lamb goes into the oven. Just. Oven. *hovers protectively over their lamb* Unless it’s stew meat, which leg of lamb is not.

If they want a non-beef meat for the slow cooker, than find a decent butcher to get a leg of goat from. It does better in that environment, and turns into a lovely mass of nommy stewed, spiced meat and veges. (Unless they’re the sort of barbarians which eschew spices, which. No.)

Ok… so, there is one recipe with lamb that I don’t use an oven for, but a large cast iron skillet over flame. Not over electric, over flame, damnit. It also involves sweet onion, garlic, and mushrooms with the lamb, a second skillet with apples, butter, and honey, and a pot with barley, spices, and sour cream.

*grumbles, and shakes their largest spoon in the general direction of your in-laws*