You can't underestimate America

The fests I've been to have been overpriced but that's mostly because they're food truck pricing. They aren't so much corporate as they're organized by the city, or a non profit, and so on. Like, imagine an organization that promotes Asian cultures having a Asian food fest.

Long ago, my wife was a waitress at a mom and pop restaurant that once participated in the other end of a community event and they sold it about the same as usual, but had a limited menu for things that could be cooked in portably. Great food, but we're talking 16 bucks for fries covered in Okinawan pork belly prepped in advance.

I mean, that seems about normal for beef ribs. One rib is a whole meal, the BBQ place near me calls them "Dino Ribs". The sauce thing is crazy though.

The chocolate one, maybe? I don't remember who owns the factory in Oakdale and I haven't been in a few years anyway. And the state fair is fairly commercialized. The rest of the food festivals are all pretty much just local events with not a corporate sponsor in sight.

I go to Wurstfest almost every year. I couldn't make it this year for personal reasons. I just love the fact that there's a whole festival about sausages. That's it. There's also plenty of beer, dancing, and music but mostly they just want you to put their sausage in your mouth.

Star Tropics is fantastic! I bought it used and it still has the letter in the box.

I tried it, lutefisk does indeed have an American festival.

You're not kidding. This is what I use to plan my summers

And a Day of Celebration recognized by Congress.

Uh... capers?

Probably the deepest cut I've ever seen on The Simpsons.

Toad Bongzales would be a great stage name

You know, for a bunch of made up names some of them sound both funny and kinda believable.

Bonzalez at least looks like an English->Japanese->English transliteration problem.

Bobson Dugnutt has always been my favorite. It sounds like a perfectly legitimate Western name, it just...isn't. The Japanese equivalent would be something like Fujohiko Watashinze.

Mike Truck is my personal favourite.

But what about all american county boy Todd Bonzales? Hes just a teenager in american high school who secretly had the power of Trucks and County Music and Cowboy Hat.

Seems you need more America then...

We won it in the war.

Honestly, NGE's version of the Rapture/Eternity/Fanta wasn't even that bad.

To be fair it was an underground religion in the west for a while too

This thing has been reminding me it exists every few years for the past 2 decades.

It's way better than it used to be - 10 years ago I would have agreed with you wholeheartedly but finally places like Five Guys are making their mark on the big European cities and people have a better understanding of what a hamburger should taste like.

It's still like 75/25 bad to good but it used to be 95/5 or worse.

Texan here. I've had some damn good hamburgers in my life, and I've been to numerous states. But the one of the best burgers I've ever had was in Luleå, Sweden at a place called Bastard Burgers. Specifically, you have to ask for them to add 3 pieces of Västerbottensoft crispy bites to the burger. It brought tears to my eyes just knowing I can't get anything like that in Texas.

I've eaten pizza all across the United States and can confirm that there is absolutely nothing special about New York pizza. If the minerals in the water actually change anything, it's imperceptible when covered with cheese. Most of my visits were with NY natives so I was not eating at tourist traps.

I can say that American food kind of sucks in every Asian country I've been to^1 but I have never been to Europe, though, so I didn't know how the phenomena compare.

^1 Most of my international trips have been for work so I may not have gone to the "good" American restaurants

[Edit] how do I superscript on Lemmy? ^1 is supposed to be a footnote

It’s the ingredients, the beef just tastes different. Even Canadian beef and American beef taste different.

As someone who's spent half his life in the US and the other half in Europe, the best burgers I've had have all been in Europe. It became a fad here starting about 10 years ago and now we have some really top notch places.

It's not a proper American burger without Kraft singles.

It was a tongue in cheek comment haha. Yeah I've had lots of tasty burgers at home, but if I visited the states I would definitely be checking out the best restaurants in whatever place I happened to be visiting. Maybe eventually! :)

That’s awesome, and only a six hour drive! I’m even familiar with that area from previous road trips. I’ll have to put it on the list for next year

Okay I admit it was the same one, but in a different year. It was still awesome.
Also you should still go!

I like Conan Exiles

The cheeseburger was invented in the rival neighbouring city of Cheeseburg.

I regret to inform you