1. scones
No scones in America come close to the flakey triumphalism of even the most mediocre English scones. Yes, I am saying that I miss english cooking but only because scones are served with incredible preserves and clotted cream.
2. thai food
Yeah, pretty much 80% of thai food in the US is just plain inedible. Another 10% is highly mediocre. That leaves a mere 10% of thai restaurants as barely tolerable to decent.
3. vietnamese spring rolls.
Pretty much every restaurant in Vietnam has the best spring rolls ever. Here they can’t even get the sauce right :(
4. pot stickers
This situation is a trainwreck. I am unaware of any restaurant in the US that has acceptable pot stickers. Trader Joes, unsurprisingly, has pretty incredible frozen spring rolls.
For the record: I really miss the bakeries in Japan. They are cheaper, more delicious and less of a hassle than the average american bakery. In Japan, you get a tray and a pair of tongs and wander among piles of food plucking out whatever you want. Then you take your tray to the front and they charge you half of what would be a reasonable price.
I have an amazing scone recipe. I had scones in England and was not that impressed…Also, I miss having farm fresh yogurt and eggs, and fresh persimmons!
Ok Dustin,
I HATE to do this, but I must share a secret with you.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/85c-irvine
Oh, and I know a pretty solid place for amazing dumplings/pot stickers in oakland Chinatown, all their noodles and starches are homemade there.
one thing that usually works for me is renaming the “americanized” version into something new like (”oogeldy boo” or “schmorgernard”), so i remember that i’m comparing experiences of two fundamentally different foods that are inaccurately called the same thing. what you think is bland and wrong is actually just a new form of fun and tasty!