What foods are better in Europe?

What foods are better in Europe than they are in America? by Rich Howard https://www.quora.com/What-foods-are-better-in-Europe-than-they-are-in-America/answer/Rich-Howard?share=04b7538d&srid=3um4T

I live in San Francisco (from London) AND I'm a pescetarian so my views are a little biased here, but here goes -

Bread. San Francisco raves on about their sourdough and I like it, but apart from that everything else available is not that great - it lacks flavour and texture. And you get bored of Sourdough and bagels pretty quickly. Give me a hearty, solid loaf of wholemeal or some Irish soda bread.. or some German schwarzbrot… or a beautifully toasted crumpet… or a decent french baguette.

Fresh pasta - The range at say Trader Joe's is just not great. Go to a supermarket in the UK, you'll get 10 different varieties. Even more when you get to mainland Europe.

Fresh fish - My local supermarket is Trader Joe's and pretty much the only fresh fish available is salmon. And it's expensive. I eat frozen fish but it's not great. UK and rest of Europe have a much better array of fresh fish available, plus we can go to the fish mongers for something more exotic.

Ready meals - The UK is really great at doing ready meals - e.g. Marks and Spencer. Nothing like that here really. All the 'ready meals' are frozen.

Chocolate - I just stick to European store bought chocolate. American store bought chocolate is evil. San Francisco does have some great artisanal chocolate (shout out to Christopher Elbow in Hayes Valley).

Cheese - Expensive here. I eat it but it's all imported from Europe. The only American cheese I buy regularly is pepperjack and some artisinal goat cheese.

Coffee - Blue Bottle, Sightglass, Ritual are all really good but just not as good as European coffee. And I always end up having to order it extra hot because it's served lukewarm otherwise.

Tea - I bring boxes of it over from England.

Vegetarian products - Tofurky really is not great. UK does a far better job at vegetarian convenience foods. (Quorn, Linda McCartney, Tivall, supermarket own brand).

Fish and chips. You just don't get good fish and chips here. The chips are terrible. The fish is terrible. Just the whole experience is not good. Having said that, I've had it in New England and it's much better.

Supermarket hummus - revolting. I found an Israeli guy who makes it fresh. Cost double the price and worth every penny.

Cheap fruit and vegetables - if you saw the price of fruit and veg in London markets you would be envious. It's amazing how much fruit and veg you can get in a bowl for £1. It's all way too expensive here.

On the flipside, when I leave San Francisco, I get cravings for

Burritos - really they are bomb

Kale salads

Bi-rite ice cream

Lunchtime salad buffets