I thought I'd share further eludication on the topic of the sweetness of American food from the lady who instigated the whole thread, Chiara Martinotti of Cascina Gilli. My few comments after her para.
...To be honest it took me a few days to realize how sweet the food was there in US. At the beginning I simply felt I was really enjoying eating out, then I realized that the big cheese plate was loaded with frosted peanuts, the apparently healthy salad had caramelised strawberries on top, while the steamed salmon was topped with cherries. No wonder eating was becoming such a fun experience (yeah...I have a sweet tooth). The point is: this kind of food is anesthetizing your palate, it makes you lose in complexity and shades. They are pushing you towards an immediate, short and childish taste. Adult tastes are savour, saltiness, acidity, adult tastes often require time as well. I think quite a few Italian wines also require an "adult palate" to be fully appreciated.
OK, first off, Chiara -- you ordered a salad with what on top? Salmon with what on top? No wonder you have this viewpoint!
Granted, too many salads and salad dressings here are loaded up with sugar in addition to gloppy with greasiness thanks to excessive amounts of what purports to be cheese. But you can always bypass (key word!) that my requesting oil and vinegar, or lemon.
As to the fish, what can I say? It sounds like the wrong thing to dump on salmon. I don't care if it was farm-raised.
I'd have to say that the excessive sweetness in a lot of American food is, in part, a matter of habit as well as the desire of the restaurateurs and food-product manages to make the customer back for more. It's the path of least resistance for everyone.
Looking at this issue diachronically -- look it up! Google makes it easy to expand your vocabulary! -- I can remember back to about 60 years ago. As a little kid, I of course went crazy for anything sweet. We had things like "tonic" (soda in American) and ice cream as treats fairly seldom. Sure, we binged candy and Halloween and baked goods at Christmas. But holidays were a completely separate category regarding food, which was a major part of why we eagerly awaited them. Now that holiday/ordinary day dichotomy is blurred to the point of insignificance. We have the national obesity epidemic to prove it.
What has this to do with wine? Nothing and everything. Even among those who drink wine frequently, there is a common theme of "I don't like sweet wines." Yet ask them what they prefer, and it's something high in sugar and well as alcohol -- California Zinfandel or Cab, Amarone, some jammy monster from Australia. Chiara commented on this, and Jeff and I, observing this preference at tastings for civilians, laugh about it all the time. We laugh but we're crying on the inside.
Well, look, I have no intention of making a lot of profound observations on the topic, nor do I wish to devote my days to researching it. It's an interesting point, which I hadn't thought much about before Chiara brought it up. And it does shed some light, if obliquely, on the ingrained American preference for sweet drinks of all sorts, wine often included. That's all.
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