Taste is one thing separating the French from the Americans: the French like food more bland /natural; less sweet, less spicy and less salty than Americans.  In the USA we want food to have a 'clean' texture and smell, but we don't mind if it smells plasticky, such as chemical-fake vanilla or artificial raspberry smurf.  Only children like those flavors on their candy in France. The French are far more tolerant of 'barnyard pungency' in their food. . . especially where cheese and meats are concerned.  Americans are far more tolerant of 'artificial zestiness' in their edibles.  To illustrate the difference in this perception, let's compare three foods from either side that 90% of the other nationality just can't stand. . .

1/ Jell-o

2/ rootbeer

3/ cinnamon toast crunch cereal

4/ strawberry quik milk mix

5/ cottage cheese

 

 

1/Andouillette sausage and other ways of eating tripe

2/smelly cheeses:  vieux boulogne, pont l'eveque, munster, livarot, etc *

3/ Horsemeat steaks

4/"variety meats", i.e. braised lamb kidneys, beef tongue, or calf sweetbreads

5/snails

*{http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/nov/26/research.highereducation}

 

            What strikes me in these two lists is that the French are more likely to dislike processed, artificial foods that have a spicy taste or, in the case of cottage cheese or rootbeer, taste different from expectations.  Cottage cheese to the French eye looks like 'fromage blanc', and so it should be sweet and silky, not salty and chunky. There is just about universal dislike for cottage cheese served with fruit, since the French don't like any salty-sugary combination, such as chocolate covered pretzels. When I bake cottage cheese in lasagna, the French like it fine.

            Rootbeer resembles cola but to French tastes it smells like cough syrup, with a spicy, herbal or medicinal aroma.

            Cinnamon is ubiquitous in the USA, but I never realized until I went to France and started missing it.  I even brought back packs of 'big red' cinnamon gum.  The French don't use cinnamon to season food, and it's considered more of a potpourri ingredient, useful for home freshener spray or Christmas candles. It's used a bit in Alsace-Lorraine, in cookies or apple pies, but the rest of France is pretty much a cinnamon-free zone. I'll never forget how horrified my husband was when he ordered an espresso coffee in a fancy Rochester,NY restaurant and it arrived sprinkled with cinnamon.  "It's ruined!" he wailed, and insisted the waitress bring him a new, virgin coffee.

             Jell-o, like a lot of American foods, is just too sickly sweet for French tastes, and while they are used to eating gelatin in savory aspic, the idea of sweet gelatin seems to them inappropriate. The French prefer desserts that while rich, are just slightly sweet;  bordering on the acidic and fruity rather than sugary-filling.

            The American gross-me-out factor has more to do with smells and a food's place of origin, within an animal's body or within our category of edible-non-edible.  Is it a magnificent creature that we consider a pet, like a horse?  Does it crawl on its own trail of slime, like a snaiL?  Does it come from a baby cow's skull (sweetbreads) or does it smell just like baby poop (cheese, tripe)?  I have met French people who liked Jell-O and rootbeer, and lots of Americans slurp down snails and enjoy smelly cheese (I myself love Roquefort and Epoisses, but I just can't stand camembert, livarot or Maroilles because of their odor!)  But overall, we just don't see tongue to tongue on these foods.

*For some cool facts about stinky cheese check out :http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/nov/26/research.highereducation