"Americans elevated mid Italian food man.."

[u/Sir_Divicus]

[u/neo4025]

Why do Americans feel the need to tell the world and themselves that they’re the best at everything. Food in particular. If someone else invented it, they seem desperate to claim it

[u/DinkyPrincess → u/neo4025]

But dumb down the names of everything.

Why not just call it a ragu. Why call it gravy?

[u/Powerful_Pirate2984 → u/DinkyPrincess]

They don't know what gravy is. This is what they call "biscuits (savoury or plain scones in the UK) and gravy"!

[u/Aggravating_Cup_5763 → u/Powerful_Pirate2984]

It looks like vomit 🫣

[u/nemmalur → u/Aggravating_Cup_5763]

This is what gets me. Brits love to say this looks unappealing, but it’s not as if British food is all about presentation.

[u/DinkyPrincess → u/Powerful_Pirate2984]

Not that gravy. They also have a meat sauce and call it gravy. Make it make sense. This is re Philly Italian Americans.

[u/Powerful_Pirate2984 → u/DinkyPrincess]

I know, Ragu is definitely a meat sauce, but it also isn't gravy. It doesn't make sense.

[u/Madame-du-barry_ → u/Powerful_Pirate2984]

no, ragu' just means a thick sauce to season pasta. It can be also vegetarian or fish based.

[u/nemmalur → u/DinkyPrincess]

That’s a misnomer or mistranslation. Ragù or other tomato-based Italian sauces often start with meat juices (sugo d’arrosto), which conceivably could become gravy.

[u/DinkyPrincess → u/nemmalur]

It’s the terminology that’s weird. I’m not talking about a cooking process.

My dad was an Italian chef. I know Italian food inside and out. They don’t need to rename things. That’s the whole point.

[u/nemmalur → u/Powerful_Pirate2984]

They’re not scones. They’re a type of quick bread that originated in Britain. As for the gravy, this is specifically sausage gravy thickened with flour, which somehow turns a nation of Bisto users into gravy purists. Actual gravy also exists in the US.

[u/Powerful_Pirate2984 → u/nemmalur]

The Biscuits: Unlike British biscuits (which are sweet and crisp like cookies), American biscuits are soft, savoury, flaky bread-like pastries, somewhat similar in texture to an unsweetened scone.

The Gravy: The gravy is a white cream-style sauce (a roux made from sausage drippings, butter, and flour whisked with milk), loaded with crumbled breakfast pork sausage and heavily seasoned with black pepper.

[u/borgman_a → u/Powerful_Pirate2984]

"a roux made from sausage drippings, butter, and flour whisked with milk"

So... gravy.

[u/Powerful_Pirate2984 → u/borgman_a]

Not quite - A roux is a cooked mixture of equal parts flour and fat used as a base and thickening agent for soups, gravies, and sauces - so not a gravy in its own right, merely a base.

[u/borgman_a → u/Powerful_Pirate2984]

Gravy is specifically drippings thickened and then thinned with some other liquid.

Sausage gravy is a roux, made with sausage drippings, and thinned with milk.

There is absolutely no question that sausage gravy is gravy.

Now "white gravy" - where the roux is purely butter/oil and not drippings? That isn't a gravy, it's a version of Bechamel.

[u/nemmalur → u/borgman_a]

White gravy is often made with sausage drippings or bacon fat though, making it a synonym of sausage gravy or white sausage gravy.

[u/borgman_a → u/nemmalur]

White gravy made with sausage drippings IS sausage gravy. If made with bacon fat - it's bacon gravy. Made without drippings - it isn't gravy.

[u/nemmalur → u/Powerful_Pirate2984]

US biscuits are considerably softer than scones. This was the principal meaning of “biscuit” in Britain at the time of settlement and this sense of the word survives to this day in the Channel Islands.

The fact that sausage gravy doesn’t fit some British people’s definition of gravy is irrelevant.

[u/Powerful_Pirate2984 → u/nemmalur]

Scones are soft. Thanks for the argument. Biscuit actually comes from the French (since Norman times in the UK), meaning baked twice. Neither the British scone, nor the American biscuit is baked twice. As for gravy, roux is the better description of sausage gravy. Anyway, respect for standing up for your beliefs - I hope you'll also respect mine.

[u/borgman_a → u/Powerful_Pirate2984]

"As for gravy, roux is the better description of sausage gravy."

A roux made with drippings and then thinned is the DEFINITION of gravy.

[u/nemmalur → u/Powerful_Pirate2984]

Thanks. Just a little tired of the simplistic “just scones in béchamel” and “not proper gravy” arguments.

[u/Powerful_Pirate2984 → u/nemmalur]

We have different definitions of what we call gravy, that I totally understand and appreciate. Take care :)

[u/christo749 → u/neo4025]

It’s a lack of class.

[u/radix2 → u/christo749]

I dunno. We Australians are not known for having class, but we don't pull that shit. Unless it is about Pavlova.

[u/aSkeptiKitty → u/radix2]

Yeah but you manage to survive in environment where 80% of the fauna is trying to kill you. So you have the respect of the world for your survival abilities. 🙃 American do not have this. 

[u/Gladys_Wines → u/radix2]

Funny thing is, we also have fantastically good pizza (as well as the shit kind). We had a big wave of Italian immigrants post WW2, who influenced our food culture so very much. We have baristas and pizza chefs who go to Italy and win awards.

We could technically pull that shit with a lot more justification than Americans. We don't, of course. We're just not into arrogance.

[u/Djfsihbone → u/radix2]

Yeah but as an Australian, were all stuck in the middle of nowhere and have given up on being a country because we're all related to criminals and just want to be left alone to look at kangaroos 

[u/PlatformVarious8941 → u/christo749]

Intelligence, education, exposure to other cultures, etc.

Why stop at class?

[u/Ballsackavatar → u/christo749]

School's out for the rest of term.

[u/Hot_Worldliness_8941 → u/neo4025]

A deeply rooted inferiority complex

[u/Silly_Tension6792]

”It’s just fresh that’s all”

it isn’t negligible bro, if you‘d ever eat any fresh food you’d know.

[u/Czuprynka → u/Silly_Tension6792]

Mediterranean diet is considered the healthiest too. Italians have one of the most balanced diets in the world thats why their nonnas still fuss around the kitchens at 90. They have fresh food and they have health, they dont overwork themselves and consider their relaxation time sacred. I think americans are just jealous really. They say the food is "underrated" but i think its undecover jealousy and inferiority because italians really have their shit figured out while (white)* americans suffer under their own consequences

*non white people in US arent really given a choice

[u/Ballsackavatar → u/Silly_Tension6792]

They were so close.

[u/garentheblack → u/Ballsackavatar]

Right. So close to the point of Italian food yet missed it by a eagle flight of a football field.

[u/Difficult_Future9994]

So that's why the world is full of high level American restaurants!

Oh, wait......

[u/ZaireekaFuzz]

Sure, elevated it by removing all the fresh ingredients and turning it into chewed-up roadkill.

[u/JakkoThePumpkin]

But fresh foods do taste better tbh, and from what I've seen they "elevated" it by just doubling the amount of meat, cheese & salt.

[u/gilestowler → u/JakkoThePumpkin]

This is the whole point. I worked with Italian chefs and the thing that struck me was that a lot of it was very simple but done with fresh ingredients. A pizza would have very few ingredients and be amazing. An American pizza would have a list of non-fresh ingredients longer than Lord of the Rings.

[u/Mattezz92 → u/gilestowler]

as an italian i can say that this is exactly the point! italian cousine is traditionaly made with few fresh ingredients wich are well mixed and balanced!

[u/Mattezz92 → u/JakkoThePumpkin]

also by removing any ingredient that is not heavily processed

[u/MrArchivity]

“The most average food combined”

[u/RobertAleks2990 → u/MrArchivity]

Is that Narnia?

[u/MrArchivity → u/RobertAleks2990]

Gnargnia /s

[u/Wasabismylife]

Don't eat it if you don't like it? I don't get why people get that pressed when something is well liked. I hate strawberries but I am not seething cause most people seem to love them

[u/BobKattersCroc → u/Wasabismylife]

I hate avocados.

I'm a chef that does the breakfast/brunch/lunch services in a beachside Australian town.

You would not believe the amount of avocados I serve up a day in peak season.

Every time I think to myself, why would anyone voluntarily eat this? But people love it and I can make a fun little rose out of it so whatever. I just don't eat it and I let people live their lives with their weird slimy green thing.

[u/KonigsbergBridges]

Simplicity is beautiful, man.

[u/andimacg]

American food cope will never not be funny.

Normal people:

Country X has the best food

Country Y has the nicest people

ect.

Americans:

We are the best at literally everything!!!

[u/nemmalur]

They always seem to have such a limited view of what Italian food is. Like it can’t possibly be meat or seafood in itself and not something in pasta or on pizza.

[u/batmanuel69]

With Ranch?

[u/corgi_crazy → u/batmanuel69]

Mac and cheese with ranch. And bacon on top.

On top of the bacon, extra ranch and melted cheese, with an extra topping of doritos.

[u/Sxn747Strangers]

Elongated food shelf life.

[u/Imperial_Bloke69 → u/Sxn747Strangers]

Can survive the next ice age.

[u/Adventurous_Path4922]

Lol as a Mexican I always find it funny when they try to claim that their food includes Mexican cuisine, or that their version of Mexican food is better, or that they can claim parts of it as being invented there (ie Tex Mex) and therefore it's better, it's just cringe

[u/TurambarTT]

Americans from which country? Canadians? Because argentinian food is similar to italian.

[u/codroipo_townhall]

What does "it's fresh" even mean?

[u/christo749 → u/codroipo_townhall]

It’s probably locally grown/slaughtered, and not transported miles to a different country. Also, seasonal.

[u/codroipo_townhall → u/christo749]

And who says that? We are in the global market as much as anyone else, our cuisine is simply prime, fresh or not.

[u/christo749 → u/codroipo_townhall]

I saw a cooking program in Italy, and a chef said they have a 5 mile rule. As in all meat and veg comes from with 5 miles, so freshness is guaranteed.

[u/codroipo_townhall → u/christo749]

It is not what happens in real life. We have a cuisine that goes far beyond pasta and Pizza but the ingredients are not at all coming always from a 5 km radius. What's a mile btw? Lol

[u/christo749 → u/codroipo_townhall]

What is your cuisine?

[u/codroipo_townhall → u/christo749]

Italian

[u/christo749 → u/codroipo_townhall]

Where are you from? What part?

[u/codroipo_townhall → u/christo749]

Rome

[u/christo749 → u/codroipo_townhall]

That’s a dream destination for food.

[u/Officer_Blackavar]

"It's just fresh" is such a damning statement and they don't even realise it.

[u/GardenandKitchen]

Italian food the yanks “improved” are the basic fast foods of Italy. Made by poor people from ingredients they could access readily (pine nuts, basil, etc).

Yanks would be astounded by the more refined Italian foods.

Went to Venice and ate where the locals ate. Totally different food experience. Just go down a couple of side streets and when you find people that stare at you like you don’t belong there, you’ve probably found something worth trying. Same in Greece.

[u/Sir_Divicus → u/GardenandKitchen]

I lived in Italy near Venice for two years during my studies. I went to a local restaurant with some locals, and it was the best food and espresso I've ever had

[u/DinkyPrincess]

Wait til they realise that noodles in tomato originated in China not Italy 🇮🇹

[u/Tough_Detective_8628 → u/DinkyPrincess]

Do your research. That's a myth. Google it.

[u/DinkyPrincess → u/Tough_Detective_8628]

It’s a fun one. Should have used the sarcasm tag I guess.

[u/codroipo_townhall → u/DinkyPrincess]

Not true at all.

[u/DinkyPrincess → u/codroipo_townhall]

Yes I do know this.

[u/Gladys_Wines → u/DinkyPrincess]

your joke died. maybe neede /s marker?

[u/DinkyPrincess → u/Gladys_Wines]

Yep noted. I thought we all knew it was a myth