So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Lean'n'mean]

One of the kids toured Germany a few years ago and I begged her to bring me some sausage. Apparently this was impossible for customs reasons, but she did get me some exceptional chocolate.

Indeed, when you compare American chocolate & cheese for example, to that of Europe, one can only summize that American tastes favor the artificial over the natural. The more chemicals & trans fats the better it would seem for the refined N. American palate

 

[LizzieMaine]

True fact: we used to offer real butter on our popcorn, but we had to get rid of it because too many people complained that it didn't taste buttery enough.

 

[Tiki Tom]

One daughter loves real butter. Other daughter loves the fake stuff in movie theaters for that very reason.

Younger daughter went off to college in America. Some months later I asked her what her first impression of life in the States was. I was surprised by her answer: "Cheese is really expensive and it isn't really cheese."

 

[LizzieMaine]

Americans consume most of their cheese melted, on various types of sandwiches -- and traditional cheese doesn't always melt well or evenly. When Velveeta was introduced in the 1920s, its smooth, even melting was considered the most important selling point, and a rash of processed cheese-food products followed in its example. We're now four or five generations removed from that time, depending on how you count, and that's long enough for "melty" cheese to become established as the default.

Me, I like to eat straight, cold cheese with nothing else -- a quarter-pound block of Muenster used to be a favorite lunch -- but I'm now at the age where real cheese causes distressing gastro-intestinal consequences, and I have to avoid large amounts of it. The processed stuff, for whatever reason, does not cause such problems. It sucks to be old.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Lizzie, I am always amazed by the depth and breadth of your knowledge of things both weighty and trivial. Tips hat. Thank you, I will definitely share your history of the Meltiness of American cheese with Thing Two. (Yes, my wife and I have indeed noticed that European cheeses ---though superior in many respects--- often do not melt well. In a worst case, I remember one turning very quickly into a goopy, oily, very liquid puddle of fat. )

 

[LizzieMaine]

I just listen to a lot of old radio commercials. "Serve cheese -- and serve the nation!"

 

[Paradoxical]

Something that ticks me off and that I run into a lot these days when looking at listings on eBay or Etsy:

* Mad men robe
* Mad men fedora
* Hugh Hefner Smoking Jacket
* Peaky blinders cap
[...]

Once in a while the pop culture reference is warranted. I've seen jackets that were meant to be reproductions of one of Hefner's jacket. I don't know how good the reproduction is, or whether it was done with Hefner's blessing while he was still alive, but at least there's a connection. However, I've also seen Hefner's name slapped onto random smoking jackets!

 

[Fading Fast]

Americans consume most of their cheese melted, on various types of sandwiches -- and traditional cheese doesn't always melt well or evenly. When Velveeta was introduced in the 1920s, its smooth, even melting was considered the most important selling point, and a rash of processed cheese-food products followed in its example. We're now four or five generations removed from that time, depending on how you count, and that's long enough for "melty" cheese to become established as the default.

Me, I like to eat straight, cold cheese with nothing else -- a quarter-pound block of Muenster used to be a favorite lunch -- but I'm now at the age where real cheese causes distressing gastro-intestinal consequences, and I have to avoid large amounts of it. The processed stuff, for whatever reason, does not cause such problems. It sucks to be old.

Growing up in the '70s, "regular" cheese was Kraft (or the equivalent) square singles in yellow or white eaten cold from the fridge or melted on white bread (in a toaster oven that, I'd swear, was falling apart when we bought it, but lived on - despite being worked very hard - for three-plus decades). "Fancy" cheese was Swiss or Muenster, etc., that also came in plastic packages (but rectangular and not single wrapped) from the supermarket. These were also consumed cold from the fridge or melted.

The first "European" or truly fancy cheese I had was room-temperature Jarlsberg. I remember being blown away with its robust flavor (which just goes to show how mild American cheese had become). Since then, and with the growing foodification of America, I've tried many different "international" cheeses.

Basically, I divide the cheese world into two - the process, bland stuff I grew up with and still enjoy in its direct way and the richer, stronger tasting "international" (many now made quite impressively in the US on smaller farms) cheeses. I get that one is considered "better" than the other, but for me, they are just two different things, each of which I enjoy in each one's own way.

 

[Nobert]

Strangely,the cheese I miss most was a Colby we used to eat back in the 70s, a bright orange, savory cylinder that came in a clear wax coating. It made great grill-cheese sandwiches, and I don't recall having seen it in the dairy cooler for many a year now.

Although we did have Kraft singles cheese-product in our household, we never ate American cheese proper. My brother, who cooks for a living, insists that it does have practical applications, but I won't even eat it on an Italian sandwich*. For my own purposes, it joins fabric softener, chip-based debit cards and Amazon.com in the category of "things that have no reason to exist."

* A type of sub for which American cheese is one of the standard ingredients.

 

[ChrisB]

True fact: we used to offer real butter on our popcorn, but we had to get rid of it because too many people complained that it didn't taste buttery enough.

Similarly, many people prefer the flavor of imitation maple syrup to the real thing.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

but I'm now at the age where real cheese causes distressing gastro-intestinal consequences, and I have to avoid large amounts of it. The processed stuff, for whatever reason, does not cause such problems. It sucks to be old.

It could be that your intestinal flora has been genetically modified to process additives, flavorings & preservatives rather than nutrients.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Sigh. In a very few years I will be retiring and “repatriating” back to the USA. I am already missing the excellent subsidized wines, cheeses, etc. that I have access to now.

 

[Haversack]

ChiTownScion wrote: "Three trips to Germany (planning our fourth) and there's one thing which we've never experienced: a bad meal."

A rule of thumb I found useful when I lived in Franconia in southern Germany back in the '80s: When driving through small villages and towns, if you see a Gasthaus, (inn), next to a Metzgerei, (butcher), and they have the same family name attached, eat at that Gasthaus. Especially if they have a sign out in front that reads: "Schlachtschüssel heute". That means that a pig has just been slaughtered and they are making and serving all sorts of fresh sausages and meats.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Germany is still a land of Camembert. Camembert is still the big deal, here. For breakfast, evening-dinner, for snacking between, for Tapas, baked with cranberries and so on. Always welcome!

And Edamer, Harzer Roller cheese , Emmentaler, Maasdamer , Brie, blue-mould cheese, cheese with herbals, etc... . All kinds of cheese, you can imagine.

 

[Haversack]

When I was five years old growing up in central California, my experience of cheese was in four types. First, 'Rat Cheese' as my Scots grandmother referred to extremely sharp, almost crumbly, yellow cheddar. Second, Monterey Jack which was sliced for sandwiches or eaten as a hunk with apples. Third, stinky little foil-wrapped triangles of white, plasticky 'cheese' that came as part of fancy gift platters. And fourthly, blue cheese.

Its been years since I've found a cheddar that lives up to my memories of the sharpness of rat cheese. Monterey Jack is still eaten with apples. Those foil-wrapped wedges are one with Ninevah and Tyre, and blue cheese remains my favorite.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Actually visited Camembert last year, in Normandy. We had a blast driving through quaint villages, stopping at cider producers, etc., etc, a magical place with so much history. All the extra cholesterol was balanced out by all the wine we drank.

 

[Haversack]

I have fond memories of the Gebackener Camembert I would sometimes order at one of the Gasthauses that I used to frequent. A small round of Camembert cheese breaded and fried until it is crisp and crunchy on the outside, and runny and mouth-searing hot on the inside. It was served with quarters of toast and Preiselbeern. The later is a sauce made from the tiny European cranberries which is also commonly served there with game.

 

[Zombie_61]

True fact: we used to offer real butter on our popcorn, but we had to get rid of it because too many people complained that it didn't taste buttery enough.

My best friend knows which movie theaters in the Los Angeles area still use real butter on their popcorn, and if he has a choice will give those theaters his business. Sometimes the movie seems irrelevant; he just wants the popcorn.

 

[LizzieMaine]

What a lot of people don't realize, though, is that the butter served in "real butter" theatres is not butter like you'd have in your refrigerator. That kind of butter won't stand up to repeated heat/cool cycles without breaking down. Theatre "real butter" is actually an anhydrous butterfat product -- butter with the water extracted so that it can't separate out when it goes thru reheating cycles. This product is one that was developed for the military in the 1960s, and is now universally used in theatres where "real butter" is on the menu. It doesn't contain any artificial flavorings or stabilizers -- but it's also not actual household butter.

 

[Haversack]

That sounds rather like ghee, the South Asian clarified butter used for cooking and medicine.