Personal experience: what products I liked in the USA and what I couldn’t eat

Marina Zinkevich, author of the YouTube channel Zinkevych family, 4 years ago moved with her family from Ukraine to the USA. In the new video blog, she shares her experience and impressions of American products. You will learn about which products the author liked, about which food it’s impossible to get used to in America, and about products that are almost impossible to find in the USA.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

You have all heard and seen in American films that a standard US family's breakfast begins with cereal and milk. There are a great many of these flakes. Indeed, many people love this kind of food, but we have not introduced this tradition to our family: we do not like either milk or these strange drenched pieces of dough. Moreover, it is terribly harmful. Have you ever thought about how much sugar is contained in such a breakfast? At least half the daily allowance is in one small plate of cereal. That's where the fat Americans come from.

But, in addition to such junk food, Americans also eat a lot of tasty and healthy.

Favorite Products in America

Since we started talking about breakfast, I’ll talk about my first favorite breakfast, which you can find in any cafe. Americans really love him too. This is my love: avocado toast. It’s just an avocado slice that lies on some crunchy bread from a toaster, you can spread bread on something or add red fish on top. But now I will only talk about avocados.

I tried avocado for the first time in America; before in Ukraine I had never seen it, even in stores, perhaps I just didn’t pay attention (most likely, there was avocado there, and there definitely is now). In Chicago, avocados cost about a dollar apiece - I know that in Ukraine the price is approximately the same. I will not argue about what the dollar means for us and for you, and in our countries not everyone can afford it. In America, almost every family eats this product; you can find it on the shelves of any stores. And it sells very quickly. Nowadays, avocado is a product that not a single day can go without. We can eat it not only on toast, but put it in a salad or just eat it with a spoon. By the way, this was my child’s first complementary food, the first puree, since avocado does not cause allergies.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

The second product that I tried for the first time in the USA and now also cannot live without is hummus. There are a lot of them in the store, they come in a variety of flavors - with garlic, with red pepper, I even saw with beets. In general, hummus is a product of Jewish cuisine. Here in America it is very popular and you can find it in almost any store. In case you don't know what it is, hummus is chickpea puree with olive oil, lemon juice and spices. My favorite is classic and with bell pepper. It can be spread on bread, used as a sauce, or eaten with spoons. Americans often serve baby carrots, celery, raw broccoli and other vegetables on a plate with a jar of hummus so you can use it as a dip, dip your food in it, and eat it.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

The next product is kombucha. I can’t say that I fell in love with him and I can’t live without him. Sometimes I want to, but this happens very rarely. Although many say that this is the most delicious thing they have ever tasted, and they drink kombucha literally every day. Kombucha is a drink made from kombucha. It is very similar to our kvass. I don’t like kvass, maybe that’s why I didn’t really like it. It comes in different flavors, and store shelves are literally bursting with variety. I have never seen this product in our countries, but I heard that it is starting to appear.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

Another product is yams, or sweet potatoes. And she's really sweet. Somewhat similar to boiled carrots in color and taste. Here they make mashed potatoes, chips and even French fries from it. You can find this dish in almost any restaurant and it is very popular here. For Americans, this is one of the first complementary foods for babies. They say sweet potatoes are much healthier than our white ones. But the taste is not for everyone. I don’t like the mashed potatoes from these potatoes at all, neither do the chips, but baked or in a stew it’s very tasty.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

A very popular breakfast among Americans is the bagel. A bagel is a round bun with a hole inside that is cut in half. Somewhat similar to our bagel, but larger in size. The inside is most often spread with cream cheese, jam, and peanut butter. A bagel and coffee is one of the classic on-the-go breakfasts for New Yorkers. There are even huge breakfast trucks where you can find different types of bagels with different fillings.

On the subject: Personal experience: 10 things that I did not do in Ukraine, but I do in America

The following products are peanut butter and cream cheese. I am sure that you know these products, have heard about them, and perhaps you also use them. I started using them more actively in the USA. Of course, I ate peanut butter before, we brought it from Europe, and over time the butter began to appear in Ukrainian stores. Peanut butter can be classic - creamy, with pieces of nuts - crunchy, and in different flavors. It is worth paying attention to the fact that there is nothing else in the composition except nuts and salt. As for cream cheese, there is also a lot of it and with different flavors. I love the regular, classic one, and we also make cheesecake out of it. When we lived in Ukraine, we made all cheesecake recipes with cottage cheese, although the recipe called for cream cheese, but in Ukraine it was very expensive. In America it is much cheaper and very popular. It is spread on bread and added to toast.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

Quinoa is a grain grain that does not contain gluten. I think you've heard that many Americans are obsessed with gluten and really love products that say sugar free, gluten free. Perhaps this is why quinoa has become so popular here. You can find it in any restaurant as a side dish. In essence, this is ordinary porridge, but it is really very tasty and crumbly. We love her very much. Although I didn’t eat much porridge in Ukraine, here we use it quite often.

Two more products are chia and hemp seeds. These products come from the time of my veganism, it was at that time that I tried them. But Americans (not just vegans) know what it is and eat it. In restaurants you can find, for example, salads sprinkled with these seeds. They love these products here. Although I no longer adhere to my vegan diet, these foods remain on the list of what I eat.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

I already learned about the existence of vegetable milk in the United States, having seen on the shelves beautiful packages of milk with painted almond nuts. I thought it was nut-flavored milk. But then I found out that this is vegetable milk, which is made from these nuts themselves. To be honest, I was shocked by the fact that this is generally done. Vegetable milk is a huge choice: there is almond milk, there is soy, coconut, oat. I think in your countries this milk is also in a large selection. It costs more, but it also benefits more.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

Also in America we began to eat many different dried fruits. One of them is dried mango. Of course, there are dates, dried apricots, raisins, and all those products that we ate in Ukraine, but I don’t remember mangoes. Perhaps it was, but it was expensive. Raw mango did not suit me very well, although it is sold here on a par with avocado and Americans love it very much. I like it much better in its dried form - and I always buy it here.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

These were delicious and favorite foods. But I want to tell you about those products in the USA that you cannot get used to here.

The tastiest foods in the USA

The first is chocolate. American-made chocolate is completely tasteless. No matter what I've tried, I can't get used to it. Of course, this does not mean that we don’t eat chocolate here, but imports are very developed in the USA, and we eat European chocolates (most often German).

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

I also tried many different American mayonnaises - it’s disgusting to me and that’s it, I can’t eat it. For now we live in a state where there are Russian stores. We try to eat less mayonnaise, but if we really want it, we go to a Russian store and buy Ukrainian mayonnaise.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

Last on the list is bread. Whatever one may say, the bread here is disgusting and nothing can be done about it. Again, we have the opportunity to buy our bread, which is what we do. Also, many stores have bakeries that bake their own bread - it is also quite tasty, but costs 2-3-4 times more.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

Products that are not in the US at all

These include cottage cheese. There is cottage cheese here, but it is completely different. If you write the word “cottage cheese” in the translator, cottage cheese will be translated for you. When you come to the store, you will see a huge amount of this cottage cheese, but in fact it will not be cottage cheese, but small white grains floating in some kind of liquid. I remember in Ukraine there was such a cheese, it was called granular. Here it is called cottage cheese. Of course, you won’t make cheesecakes from it, and it tastes completely different. If you want real cottage cheese, again, a Russian store can save you.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

It's the same story with dried fish, dried shrimp and similar products. You can buy them in our or Chinese stores (in the latter you need to read the ingredients so that they are not too spicy). Another product is smoked braided cheese. We have it in our stores, but it’s not smoked. It's not available in American stores at all.

It's the same story with chocolate-covered curds, we all loved them as children. I can only find such a product here in a Ukrainian store. When we get there, I can take several of these curds and eat them right in the car - this is a pleasant memory from childhood.

On the subject: What products are definitely worth trying in the US

Until recently, there were absolutely no “Kinder surprises” throughout the United States. They were prohibited here, even for import across the border, but literally six months or a year ago they were allowed. Now they are in all stores. I don’t know how American children used to live without these chocolate eggs with toys.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

There is one product that you won't find anywhere in the US. I was shocked, but it's a fact - Lay's chips with crab. Everyone knows the super famous Lay's chips, there are a lot of them in the USA, they come in completely different flavors - even with the taste of fried cucumbers or cayenne pepper, with the taste of pizza or with vinegar.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Zinkevych Family

There are not only Lay's, but also other chips with crabs. For some reason, we did not find this either in Polish, or in Russian, or in Ukrainian stores.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Personal experience: 10 things that I did not do in Ukraine, but I do in America

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95% US Baby Food Contains Toxic Substances: How to Protect Your Baby

'I dreamed of Belarus': an immigrant quit a prestigious job in the USA to brew cocoa at home

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