Simone Smith visited a gourmet supermarket in Berlin and found an American section among the ethnic foods! Now stop and guess what she found there before you see it. I imagine they stock it with “comfort foods” requested by Americans living in Germany. -via Buzzfeed
Rich
I get all the chocolate, syrupy sugary stuff… but where are the Doritos and soft drinks?
Erock
What’s with all the sweets? Germans must think we are one chocolate loving nation. When I think of American food, I think hotdogs, hamburgers, pizza… basically anything you’d find at a baseball game or a backyard cookout. Chocolate milk doesn’t really come to mind. It’s kind of embarassing to see what Germans consider ethnic American food. But also, American food is Italian, Mexican, Chinese, etc. Every nation under the sun has contributed. The only truly, 100% American foods I can think of off the top of my head is BBQ, hotdogs, and hamburgers. It seems like almost everything else has it roots from some other country.
Humos
@Rich
Doritos and soft drinks are no longer “American Ethnics”, you found them everywhere.
Anyway, there is nothing surprising. In some key areas in France, you found “English ethnic” food section where british immigration is important. You found HP brown sauce, mint sauce, creamed horseradish, Marmite and so on.
Humos
@Erock
Come on, these “ethnic food” sections are not there to represent one nation gastronomy. They are either for the “exotic” feeling or to provide some nostalgia-products for expatriates. In this case, American people in Berlin. Most of the time, in generic supermarket, you only find processed canned or dried product: long shelf life needed because of the low turn over.
If you want BBQ, burgers or hot dogs, they are pretty ubiquitous in Europe. And speaking of Germany, remember, hot dog sausages are not called Frankfurter or Weiner for random reasons…
Neal
Cake mixes? Not what I would be longing-for away from home…. but then neither would I be dying for “fluff”, “Newman’s Own” or Swiss Miss. I’d say these are not American “comfort” items, but what one person at one store thinks America food stuffs represent.
July10th
That’s the ethnic aisle @ KaDeWe, Berlin’s most known warehouse for expensive labels and other stuff. They have one floor with food from all over the world. Many things such as hot dogs, Doritos, Tacos etc. have emerged into the German food culture, too, so you will find them at most supermarkets here.
That’s probably the reason why KaDeWe has only such a limited choice of “American Food”. They mostly sell labels or brands that are exquisite or just plainly expensive – or seen as a classical item from U.S. culture.
Shinafg
Where is the peanut butter and jelly? Also, I have to agree with the blueberry muffin mix. I live abroad and have to have my mom mail boxes of it to me every so often.
K!P
we have pleanty of peanut butter ni the netherlands 
but its called pindakaas 
hpoulter
The larger grocery stores here in Richmond, VA have British food sections. HP Sauce, lots of sweet biscuits, marmalades and jams, teas, Lyle’s Golden Syrup and of all things, Heinz baked beans.
wessubba
They have Head Country BBQ sauce. Now I know I could survive living in Germany.
Jo
She doesn’t even mention the spray cheese in a can that she pans across. Now THAT’s something you don’t see here in the UK!
pmac451
I did a search on their wedsite:
Peanuts not found. Peanut Butter not found.
That’s American.
The Europeans already beat us chocolates, cakes, hotdogs (although they look at you sideways if you stick the sausage into the bread.) Pretty much everything.
But a decent PB&J? Pringles on the side?
pmac451
pindakaas?
Wish I’d known. I bought a kilo of young gouda, a kilo of butter and some bread and it saved my life for 2 months in Skandinavia over winter where a sandwich was more than a night’s stay in a youth hostel.
When I climb mountains here in Colorado, I find simple foods are appetizing: PB&J. Sometimes Mufaletta. But at 14,000 feet (4,267 meters) simple things from youth taste the best.
clinton robert labombard
Wow… and being an American for well over 30 years I’m as turned off by that selection as what I find throughout any American supermarket (minus the vegetable and meat sections, of course). …but that’s old age talking; we old folk are just picky picky picky. XD
swissonian
peanut butter is also found in every second or third supermarket here in germany, things i really miss are dr. pepper and mountain dew altough you can get them at railroad station food stores or gas stations, but they´re quite expensive there.
pmac451
JohnnyBravo: it’s not embarrassing. Most of our culture came from someplace else. Lot’s of times Europe and Asia. So stuff that makes a yank feel comfortable is probably already there and in better quality. Think Cup-o-Noodles is better here in the US than what you can get anywhere in Asia? Or US Ice cream beats Itialian? For that matter Pizza? And lets say you got some frozen sliders from White Castle sent to you over there – do you think you could do better in Hamburg? Or anything in France. One thing I had recently in Steamboat Springs was New Mexican fry bread. You can’t get that in Germany or Minnesota or probably Texas. That was American! Green Bay pan fried perch? Walleye?
If you can figure out to smuggle/import things like that to Germany you’ll be a millionaire from the ex-pats and servicemen over there. The BBQ sauce is a given and the Hershey’s syrup is too.
Don’t be embarrassed by what we Americans think is good. Your palate is trained. Americans are trained. Everyone is trained. Think about what you miss from the states and what you’d put on those shelves. You might just get rich doing it….
Superfly
I love what I consider to be “small american” brand candy. For example: Chick-o-stick, sixlets, idaho spud, cup-o-gold, mary jane, bit-o-honey etc.
I guess bigger companies probably bought most of these little brands out at some point or another, and are taking their cut behind the scenes, but to me they’re still quaint old time Americana. Sad to see “Hershey” as the go-to for the USA section.
Also Kool-aid and Root beer were what my cousins in the UK wanted me to bring them when I visited.
The Kool-aid they liked (but had something similar, i forget what) and the root beer tasted like medicine to them and they found it completely disgusting. LOL
Mr. Bigglesworth
Very cool. I was expecting to see some other snack foods there like Lay’s potato chips and Cheetos.
Lea
That mac and cheese should have been Kraft! Oh…but isn’t that *originally* french? (According to legend…)
Gauldar
Kraft dinner is worth it’s weight in gold in Britain. I can’t fathom why though.
K!P
Mr: biggelsworth. *(yought plane hero?) – Lays/pringles/cheatos are in the normal section, just like coca-cola dr. pepper and such.
Annette
To find Peanutbutter in Germany should not be the problem. Pretty much any decent sized supermarket should have it. Maybe not the disounters like Aldi and Lidl, but anywhere else…
The German word is “Erdnussbutter” (that’s the exact translation btw.)just in case you find yourself stranded in Germany with a craving for pb&j some day.
You’ll also find the big American brands in the regular sections, too. Except for Chocolate. Hersey’s will probably never make it in Germany. (Not sure if they ever tried.) But you can’t beat german and swiss chocolate. That’s in our survival packages from home.
Glen
Here in Alice Springs, Australia you can get American candy, soft drinks and odd things like Pop Tarts. And whilst being an Australian I really like being able to get favorites from my times in the States; Jolly Ranchers, Paydays and Baby Ruths, I just don’t understand anyone wanting U.S. made Coke made from corn syrup when our local product is made with cane sugar. Why can I get these things in the middle of Australia, the joint U.S./Australian base at Pine Gap just outside of town.
Kaz
The American food I found in the “Foods of the World” section are peanut butter (wich I doubt it to be from the USA since the brand is called “Capitán Maní”), BBQ sauce and maple syrup.
As for what they say above, hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza are all European in origin, so I wouldn’t expect them to be on an ethnic section.
c0ldfish
what the heck?
they have Pain Is Good there?
Pain Is Good is a local hot sauce from KC, it’s the bottles with the screaming faces on them, it’s really good hot sauce but i didn’t know it was sold outside of the KC area even…
Erik the Eater
Pain is Good! is available outside of the KC area. They carry it at the Target here in Florida and at the finer food marts in Germany, too.
paetrw
“They have Head Country BBQ sauce. Now I know I could survive living in Germany.”
Word. That’s all I need.
MichaelTheEighth
I’m guessing that’s KaDeWe in Berlin that she’s at. When I lived there a few years ago, it was nice to go there and get a couple American groceries once in a while. They had canned softdrinks in 12oz sizes instead of the usual European .33 liter size. My buddy and I also got to try samples of some super-high-end variety of Jack Daniels whiskey – nothing I’d ever had in America before. The last time I went was around Thanksgiving, and they stocked boxed stuffing and jars of whipped marshmallow.
Saw someone mention peanut butter earlier. That’s a regular grocery store item in Germany nowadays, so you wouldn’t have to go anywhere special for it. There’s a European precedent for PB – it’s an old Dutch food, but it’s savory. Germans typically eat the American-style sweetened PB.
Malcom Reynolds
Really Matt? Mayonnaise isn’t American? Its fattening, is used in other delicious and fattening foods. That seems to be all out American to me.
Comment RSS
| FEATURED ITEMS FROM THE NEATOSHOP | |
 |
Mustache Bottle Opener |
 |
My Cryptozoological Family - Family Car Stickers |
 |
Zombie Hand Bottle Opener |
View more: New Items &
Best Sellers |
|
RSS
halieus
JohhnyBravo
matt
