h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Pemmican keeps better in the saddlebags.

but the immigrants all came from places with a strong cheese history...

I'm amazed this thread hasn't yet descended into cheese puns.

I guess it's because it's difficult thinking up American-themed cheese puns. I just tried and could only come up with chevre-lait.

I apologize ahead of time for making this negative comment but I feel it is only in answer to a negative trend seeping into h2g2 lately and I feel someone needs to address it. Maybe Icy North is just being funny but there have been other similar comments so I just have to say something somewhere and this is, I guess, where it will be done.

I have tried to overlook the snips and slightly but not entirely subtle snide remarks about and, actually, to Americans but it just isn't stopping. It's been going on for a week or two and I frankly thought it was just the non-Americans' version of Christmas grouchiness. But I think it is more than that since it seems to be continuing beyond Christmas. Usually I just let these kinds of things go but it is hard to do on this site since so many of the main contributors are Americans.

I am quite sure that the reason no other Americans have said anything is because most of us are too polite. I am usually polite also but this behavior is just not logical. I am just baffled.

Have you been on h2g2 long? because what Icy is doing isn't anti-American at all it's a long long h2g2 tradition of not taking things seriously past around post... well, 2, actually.

Usually it would be cheese puns - in keeping with the thread title he's gone one better and made an american cheese pun.

I can't think of any right now but my is working on it.

Let me just share http://cheeseorfont.com/ with you

Oh no you don't! I think you caught me out with that one once before here. It took me half an hour to escape! I'm not looking this time.

Well, maybe just a peep...

Deb

I just clicked on a link on the FP entitled "End of the world. What happened where you are?" and it brought me here. I tried it twice and still got the same result.

Haven't read the backlog, but I did note that our American guests on Christmas Eve didn't share the same reverence and excitement and sense of ceremony and celebration when faced with a raclette evening. They enjoyed the meal, but ate very little of the cheese, which is fine, and can be done.

I asked one if she was perhaps lactose intolerant because I was making sandwiches for them the next day. She answered no, but that she had eaten less cheese because "it makes you gassy".

She does have a point......

Thanks Clare,

It's not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last that my innocent postings have been taken out of the context in which they were intended. In all seriousness, I'm shocked that I could have overlooked such an obvious thing as the well-documented American insensitivity to cheese puns. I feel suitably castigated and can only apologise to all my American friends for being so crass.

Icy

Doh, how clueless of me. I assumed the premise was correct but only because I wasn't thinking. Americans do love good cheese and have plenty to choose from, even from horrible stores like Safeway. But here are a few links for pictures and info on American cheeses and American displays of American and International cheeses.

http://www.gourmet-food.com/gourmet-cheese/american-gourmet-cheese-10155.aspx

https://www.cheesesociety.org/competition/2012-winners/

http://www.google.com/search?q=american+cheese+winners&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=d&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=NDfcUNrTDIWm8gS_9ICgCQ&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAA&biw=997&bih=639

and there are great cheese aisles at Costco, Whole Foods and Trader Joes with many many cheeses from all over the world offered

http://www.google.com/search?q=cheese+aisle+in+whole+foods&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=d&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=cDfcUP-KCIeo9gTBsoGgDQ&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAA&biw=997&bih=639

And don't be silly, Icy, I was not commenting on cheesy puns but on cheesy innuendos about how Americans may be uncivilized. It really doesn't matter to me, though. I haven't been here for very long and was only commenting on the ill turn of atmosphere that I have noticed lately.

Good grief, did I do that too?

sorry http://www.cheesesociety.org/competition/2012-winners/ no esse on the http

I'm not sure what clare means. Most of the contributors to this thread have been Americans and nothing disparaging has been said at all about Americans or their cheese by non-Americans. The only disparaging remark at all came from Mr X. Paulh .

I have learnt a lot about what cheese is available in America, as I didn't have much idea before. It seems they don't make the most of their huge cattle population. And it's sad that small private cheeseries and butteries and breweries are suppressed. But is that really true? Only yesterday my eldest son was saying that he has discovered lots of small names with really good springing up all over the US of late. (He is usually on the East Coast, or in New England, but was last in San Francisco, so he gets to see quite a bit)

Whoops - posted before para 1 was finished. Just wanted to say that paulh and clare had made quite neutral comments.

PS: If you look for cheese Aisle spelt with an A you get more pictures.

>>there are great cheese aisles at Costco, Whole Foods and Trader Joes with many many cheeses from all over the world offered

OK, but the fact that they have so many imported cheeses tends to confirm the notion that there are relatively few home-grown products doesn't it. On a typical UK cheese counter, you will find no US cheese at all...maybe that will change in the near future, if the US production of award-winning 'gourmet cheese' continues?

We need gourmet .

Back in the days before the internet, our friends at Carnegie Mellon University were using the DARPAnet, and discovered interactivity.

So what did they do with this wonder? They played 'Star Trek' with s on the other side of the country.

And they bulk-ordered . Their fridges were full of the stuff.

The world owes the existence of the internet to -loving US s.

Many people in America and elsewhere have had to heed their doctors' warnings about excessive intake of cholesterol and saturated fats. Most cheese has plenty of both. The only nonfat versions of cheese in my local supermarkets are cheddar cheese and American cheese. This is more limiting than the actual variety of cheeses.

Eating out is another matter, though. If you're going to eat at an Italian restaurant, you'll likely find mozzarella on pizza, parmesan and/or romano on pasta, and an assortment of cheesecakes on the dessert menu. If you eat a Greek salad, there will be feta there. Eat at a sandwich shop, and you'll see American cheese, swiss cheese, and cheddar cheese among the different sandwich options. There are many Americans who appreciate good food in restaurants. My favorite restaurant features French onion soup, which has a nice cheese topping, likely gruyere or swiss.

We can get American cheese here, it comes in a spray can. 'nuff said.

Swiss cheese - although I can only think of Gruyère at the mo, I'm sur there are more, and I'm sure they are not all identical. Ditto French, German, Italian and British cheeses.

I've not tried American cheddar but I know folks from the UK who have and they likened the taste to soap. Bland was the word most commonly used, which the cheddar I grew up with certainly wasn't.

Low fat cheese? there is no point. The whole point of cheese is the fat. If you don't want to get too fat, or have too high cholesterol: eat less of it. But for bob's sakes, get the good quality stuff.

Although quality cheeses can appear to have a fearfully high fat content, you only need a small amount because the taste is so intense. The French are passionate about their fromage, but you'll see plenty of elegant, skinny French ladies enjoying their food...in moderation.

I could be wrong about this, but it occured to me that the Non-Americans here might not have realized exactly what I meant when I said American Cheese is nasty. I didn't mean that all cheese made in America was nasty, I meant that the specific variety, "American Cheese," which can be bought in stores here under that label, was nasty.

Here are some helpful links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cheese

http://www.dairyfoods.com/ext/resources/Food-Photos/Cheese_Images/Kraft-American-Singles-x-600.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Wrapped_American_cheese_slices.jpg

http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/kraft-singles-cheese-646.jpg


Hope I cleared that up.