Americans and Europeans might share Western culture, but when it comes to food, they’re often worlds apart. What seems perfectly normal on an American dinner table can leave Europeans scratching their heads in confusion.
From super-sized portions to unusual flavor combinations, American cuisine has developed some truly unique dishes that simply baffle our friends across the Atlantic.
1. Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwiches
Europeans recoil at this lunchbox staple! The sticky-sweet combo of sugary fruit spread with salty, fatty peanut paste seems like dessert masquerading as a meal to them.
Most European countries view peanut butter as a purely American oddity, preferring their bread with simple chocolate spread instead.
2. Cheese In A Can
Spray cheese horrifies cheese-loving Europeans to their core. The concept of processed cheese product squirted from an aerosol container onto crackers feels like sacrilege to cultures with centuries-old cheese-making traditions.
France alone produces over 1,000 varieties of real cheese.
3. Biscuits And Gravy
“Biscuits” in Europe mean cookies, so imagine their shock when served fluffy bread smothered in thick, peppery meat sauce! This Southern breakfast classic looks like pale bread drowning in grayish goop to the uninitiated European eye.
The heavy, creamy sausage gravy seems excessive for the first meal of the day.
4. Root Beer
Root beer tastes like medicine to most Europeans! The sassafras flavor reminds them of medicinal syrups or toothpaste because the same compounds are used in European pharmaceuticals.
First-time European tasters often spit it out in disgust, wondering why Americans would drink something that tastes like liquid cough drops for pleasure.
5. Corn Dogs
Skewered hot dogs dipped in sweet cornbread batter and deep-fried? Europeans can’t comprehend this state fair favorite. The concept of eating meat on a stick isn’t strange, but the sweet-savory cornmeal coating baffles them.
The sheer size and portability of this hand-held meat missile particularly confuses those used to sit-down meals.
6. Marshmallow Fluff Sandwiches
Fluffernutter sandwiches—white bread smeared with peanut butter and marshmallow cream—make Europeans’ teeth hurt just thinking about them!
This sugar bomb seems more like a practical joke than actual food.
Many Europeans can’t fathom sending children to school with what essentially amounts to candy between bread slices.
7. Sweet Potato Casserole With Marshmallows
Thanksgiving’s marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole looks like a practical joke to Europeans. Vegetables covered in melted candy?
The combination of a nutritious root vegetable with mini marshmallows creates cognitive dissonance for those used to savory side dishes.
Many Europeans wonder if this dish belongs on the dessert table instead.
8. Chicken And Waffles
Fried chicken perched atop breakfast waffles drenched in maple syrup breaks every European food rule in the book! The marriage of crispy, savory fried chicken with sweet breakfast food creates culture shock on a plate.
Europeans struggle with the concept of maple syrup touching meat, let alone the breakfast-dinner mashup happening all at once.
9. Grape Jelly With Meatballs
Cocktail meatballs swimming in grape jelly and chili sauce create genuine confusion at American potlucks. Europeans can’t wrap their heads around using fruit jam as a savory meat sauce base.
This retro party appetizer exemplifies America’s fearless approach to sweet-savory combinations that would make Italian grandmothers weep into their traditional ragu.
10. Ambrosia Salad
Calling this marshmallow-fruit-Cool Whip concoction a “salad” sends Europeans into fits of confusion! This technicolor mixture of canned fruit, coconut, whipped topping, and mini marshmallows bears no resemblance to the leafy green dishes Europeans call salad.
The very concept of marshmallows in a side dish remains thoroughly American.
11. Pumpkin Spice Everything
America’s autumn pumpkin spice obsession mystifies Europeans completely. While pumpkin is primarily a savory vegetable in Europe, Americans transform it into flavoring for coffee, cereal, cookies, and even deodorant!
The spice blend itself isn’t strange, but the fanatical seasonal devotion to putting it in literally everything baffles those across the pond.
12. S’mores
Burnt marshmallows squished with chocolate between graham crackers leaves Europeans questioning American camping traditions. The messy, ultra-sweet combination seems impractical and excessively sugary as a fireside snack.
Europeans can’t understand why Americans would voluntarily get sticky marshmallow all over their fingers when perfectly good packaged biscuits exist.
13. Cinnamon Rolls With Bacon
Sweet cinnamon pastry topped with crispy bacon strips creates genuine European bewilderment. This breakfast mashup epitomizes America’s refusal to separate sweet and savory categories.
Scandinavians find the addition of meat particularly offensive, viewing it as desecration of a beloved pastry tradition.
14. Ranch Dressing On Everything
Americans’ habit of drowning everything from pizza to french fries in ranch dressing horrifies Europeans. This tangy, herb-flecked condiment barely exists outside American borders, yet dominates U.S. food culture.
Europeans struggle to comprehend how one creamy dressing became the universal American flavor enhancer for literally any food item.
15. Frito Pie Served In The Bag
Slicing open a chip bag and pouring chili, cheese, and onions directly inside for eating with a fork seems like culinary anarchy to Europeans. This Texan stadium snack epitomizes American pragmatism—why dirty a dish when the packaging works fine?
The concept of eating directly from torn packaging feels distinctly foreign to European sensibilities.
16. Kool-Aid Pickles
Bright red, sugary-sweet pickles soaked in Kool-Aid make Europeans question American culinary judgment. This Southern gas station delicacy combines vinegary cucumber pickles with fruit-flavored drink powder.
The deliberate combination of sour, sweet, and artificially fruity flavors seems uniquely American in its extremity.
17. Turducken
A chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey sounds like a meat matryoshka doll gone mad to European sensibilities. This Thanksgiving monstrosity represents American excess at its most extreme.
Why enjoy one bird when you can cram three together?
18. Deep-Fried Butter On A Stick
State fair deep-fried butter—literally frozen butter dipped in batter and deep-fried—represents peak American food carnival madness. Europeans cannot comprehend eating a stick of pure fat as a snack. Even when disguised in fried coating.
This heart-stopping treat exemplifies the “if it exists, Americans will deep-fry it” philosophy.