this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2026
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Brother, if Taco Bell got you that excited you should try the real stuff. If you’re at a match in the US where any Latin American country is playing I guarantee there is an abuela in the parking lot/on the sidewalk selling food out of a cooler that will explode your European palate and send you directly to heaven.
He's from Germany.
Anything less bland than an American chain might kill him.
throws Maultaschen and Currywurst at you
Germans like it scharf and they love sarcasm
I hate when people say this, because they clearly don't actually understand the Taco Bell dynamic. They assume it's trying to be something it isn't.
Taco Bell is not Mexican food, and they do not claim to be Mexican Food. Their items are vaguely latin-inspired, and they generally use the same 5 or so ingredients that most Mexican food uses in various shapes and sizes, but nowhere on their marketing or website will you find a claim that they make Mexican food. They don't claim to, and they don't claim to be authentic. Expecting that or even comparing it to that, is disingenuous at best, and actively stupid at worst.
Taco Bell is its own thing. I'm in Arizona, there's Mexican food literally on every corner. Most good, some excellent, very little bad, because it just doesn't aurvive. Yet 9/10 people I see at Taco Bell are some flavor of Hispanic. There's a reason they go there, and it's not because they want Mexican food.
I came here to say this exact same thing! Thank you for saving me the trouble.
Cravings for Mexican food and for taco bell will not satisfy each other because they're not the same thing.
There's a whole spectrum of cravings for Mexican. Sometimes it's Taco Bell, sometimes it's Azteca, sometimes it's that unlicensed al pastor pop-up at the edge of the Winco parking lot at night, and sometimes it's authentic Oaxacan pollo con mole.
Reminds me of this poem I heard
When I first moved to the states
The bottom fell out of my world
Then I discovered taco bell
Not the world falls out of my bottom
The whole point is we have authentic food from most countries available to us in Europe. Immigrants and cultures mixing is not unique to the US. What we don't have is all the big chain fast food that we see on tv, but have never tasted. We get excited because we get to try "authentic american" fast food.
My understanding was that it's difficult to find good, authentic Mexican food outside of North America
Yeah this guy is making the same mistake as the "Americans don't have an accent" people.
Pfft, Americans don’t have accents. I should know, I’ve lived here my whole life! /s
Legit though, if you come over, try and find a decent soul food place too.
The fast food chains are interesting for sure, but soul food is where it's at :)
Also, a handful of the preservatives and some ingredients used in the US fast food supply chain are illegal to manufacture and/or serve in Europe.
Like the beef!
It's so cheap in America because of all the hormones they feed the cows, and that makes it illegal to sell in much of the world.
And that's a valid thing to be excited by. It's the same as wandering the streets of Vietnam or Tripoli late at night to eat the street food. And you should do it because it's not something you can experience back home very easily.
So if you're in the US, try some Burger King and Taco Bell by all means. And if you are really adventurous and daring, eat a gas station hotdog too.
I don't think that's a good comparison at all. From everything I've seen, you can get some outstanding food from a random cart in Vietnam for very cheap (probably like 1/3-1/4 the price a BK meal at this point), and it's going to be 1000x better than anything you could ever find in an American fast food place.
That said, the US also has incredible food, including street food and food carts in many places, that also blows fast food out of the water.
If you come here, and only eat fast food, I honestly feel really bad for you. Especially since it's not even cheap anymore.
The amazing food (and variety of it), is one of the biggest, most visible benefits of the US' multiculturalism. Anyone who has lived in a US city knows exactly what I'm talking about.
Oh, I agree with you. We have a very diverse and tasty cuisine in the US. Filled with foodstuffs that will blow even the most jaded gourmand away.
But if you're a tourist here for the first time in your life, this might well be the only time you get to eat a “real” Big Mac, Whopper, or burrito and potatoes ole. These are things you've read about and seen in movies and probably TV. So there ain't no shame in getting some chicken nuggets and dipping them in ranch dressing and really enjoying the food. And the most important part, where you ate that crappy chicken. It will be a lifetime memory.
If you say so. I disagree completely. I find the idea of visiting a foreign country, only to eat some of the worst food that exists in that country (because why, you saw ads for it? Really?) to be absolutely idiotic.
No but really though, why? These are massive corporations who do not deserve your money. Their product is shit and insanely overpriced. And they're corporations, so their existence is a cancer on society.
Seriously, who is thinking about fucking McDonald's when visiting another country? Disgusting.
Ugh. even within the limited circle of fast-food and fast-casual chicken finger franchises, Cane's is bland nonsense. Fried chicken as interpreted by a Star Trek replicator, and not one from the Enterprise, but the Cerritos.
Well certainly not the Cerritos officers' replicators....
They get multiple slices of pizza! AND PESTO!
Why you bashing my homies on the Cerritos! Rutherford is doing his darn best to ensure they are working as best they can.
You take that back!
The cerritos officers replicators have spicy mayo!
Starfleet wouldn't even curse the lower deckers with cane's chicken.
I swear they are only kept afloat by how quick they sling the chicken out, and their toast. It's like people don't know how to make their own toast...
Their sauce is okay (I prefer Layne's), but that's good because it's fuckin' necessary, since I think somebody saw a recipe for the batter that included a pinch of black pepper and said , "Whoa there motherfucker! We ain't makin' ethnic food here!"
Admittedly, when the Cane's comes out it does always look very sanitary and photo-ready. Like, I don't feel like I'm gonna get Salmonella from eating there, but it's just so joyless.
I've been telling people this for years. The only reason they like Cane's is the sauce. And that is easily replicated at home. It's not a particularly special sauce with weird ingredients, it's a fairly generic burger and fry sauce.
The actual Chicken is bland and boring, it's like they don't realize spices exist at all, even salt. Absolutely anywhere else you could possibly go has better fried chicken.
For a company that has like one or two things on their menu, it’s surprisingly bad
Yeah, I too hate Canes and cannot possibly understand how people think it’s so great.
There are exactly two good things on their menu: the chicken and the Cane's sauce.
And even those aren't good enough for me to go out of my way to get them.
But like, it's not bad by any stretch.
The chicken strips are deep fried Tyson strips
It's not bad, it's just mediocre, the worst thing you can be. If someone had the opinion that it were bad, then that's means it's flavorful enough for someone to form an opinion of it. However, it's just the most basic ass fried chicken you can get. I can almost guarantee you, wherever there's a Cain's, there's a better fried chicken place close enough that you should go there instead.
I'm in France and even at every Latino bands concert there's always some Latinos selling great food at great prices. Even if you go to the embassies there's always locals selling god shit
WTF does god shit smell like? Must be good if they can sell it.
French shit smells like butter and snails, FYI.
It'll right cure yer pancreatitis tell ya hwhat
The best German food is vietnamese
I've never had that Doner flavor
Im assuming dude was just drunk. Everything tastes good when drunk.
A friend from Australia was visiting me in LA and wanted all the California stereotypical food throughout the week. The only thing that surpassed all expectations was an al pastor burrito from a local mom and pop shop.