On: America does not have a good food culture

[orange_joe]

I really don't accept this as a generalized concept, denying the experiences of the roughly 1/3 of Americans who live in big cities in the US to then base your perspectives of the food culture of other nations on their big cities (Author was quick to note his experience in Paris) seems obviously biased. Further, I've not found a grocery store chain in Europe that is of comparable quality to Whole Foods (Don't pretend a store with 500+ locations is some impossible food-y standard).

[athrun → orange_joe]

> a grocery store chain

Here's your problem right there. There's not a real need for this, when you can just go to your local market.

Whole Foods works in the US because in most places this is the only option to obtain (quality) fresh produce. Not so in France.

It's a fundamentally different approach.

[jowea → orange_joe]

Fair enough but you'd still need to compare to the actual experiences of the average American in a big city, not a wealthy person who can order takeout of a different cuisine each day.