Mark Mardell from BBC has a blog entry about food. Incidentally, he complains about the tasteless foods in EU and praises the meals he has had in Turkey and Italy.
Lucky for him, he doesn't live in the US. I believe the US has the most tasteless foods in the world. The apples may not taste like cardboard but they lack the intensity of flavor you can get elsewhere. Maybe it's the fertilizers used to grow it and the wax on the skin to give it shine and preserve it. Or the chickens don't taste as good as say Armenia even though the commercially available chicken there are produced in large farms using the same techniques. Maybe it's the 15% brine they put in meat in the US that is the difference.
With all the paranoia about the Chinese food I can say that their food tastes far better than what we get in the US. I am not alone in saying that. I admit nostalgically going to American chains while in Beijing when getting tired of local food but after each visit there was a tremendous sense of disappointment. You pay ten times as much money for a far inferior taste and service.
One of the main differences between European ( North Western EU) food and American food is that in Europe you can purchase food imported from other locations. This is mainly from the local corner shop. I think you can still obtain good food both in the US and in the UK. It will cost more but can guarantee high quality. For example good food can be purchased from Wild Oats and teh prices for cheese and other products are sometimes cheaper than the prices for teh same products in UK. In UK you can purchase good food from Waitrose. The difference is huge as after eating Waitrose food for couple of months the food purchased from tesco went right into the garbage.
ReplyDeleteOn my last trip to Armenia I didnt notice much difference in tastes. One of teh disadvantages in Armeian food is that you dont know from where it comes. For example it is risky to eat medium rare steak in Armenia.
I still concider America as the steak country even though I think I make better steaks :)
to add tomatos and other vegitables in armenia are imported. It is very hard to find Araratian field tomatos. The reason is that the markets are taken over by middlemen who prefere to buy and sell wax coated, imported produce. It is easier to preserve them. I heard that these things are imported from Turkey.
ReplyDeleteSo where do the Araratyan Dashti tomatoes go?
ReplyDelete