Hello everyone! My name is Andrew, I'm a 20's-something game developer from the United States and I am currently in Berlin for work. I head back home on Wednesday, but since I've been here I've noticed something about the culture around food here that is so marginally different from that in the US that I felt like sharing.

The United States has a strange relationship with food

I will never not appreciate how convenient food is in the US. From roadside restaurants and fast food to 24/hr grocery stores and popular fast-at-home food options; the United States food culture is all about filling you up fast and getting you on your way at any time during the day. I have learned it is both the greatest and WORST thing in the world.

Let me explain:

I was once told that Americans have a weird relationship with food; we don't treat it the way we should. We eat food NOT as an activity, but as an idle behavior.

•Watching TV - Eat

•Playing games - Eat

•Driving - Eat

•Working - Eat

•Doing literally nothing - Eat

We eat and snack at nearly every time in the day. It's not SECTIONED OFF at all. Eating food isn't respected enough to have its own place in our daily schedule; it is thrown into the mix with 500 other things. Food is only there so that we can either continue to live or to busy ourselves with something to do.

But here in Berlin it is totally different. Restuarants don't even OPEN until like Noon at the EARLIEST. The restaurants near me open at frickin' 4:00 PM for crying out loud. Resturants that aren't even strictly dinner type restaurants still open at a later time in the day. There are no fast food places nearby. I've yet to see a SINGLE ONE this entire time. I know there is a McDonalds a few kilometers away from me, but in a dense city, a few kilometers might as well be 15 miles.

All restaurants here either have you go in and sit down or take it with you. ALSO restaurants don't have parking either. You either walk/bike there or use public transportation (which also involves walking). It's an active process to go out and get food, not an idle one.

The grocery stores are the same exact way. I've been to three just to look around. Two of them are out on the streets with no parking (just like restaurants) and the final one was on the top story of a 3 story tall mall. There wasn't even a snack isle, there was a snack corner with hardly anything. The frozen foods section COMBINED was smaller than one frozen isle at Walmart. However, their freshly baked bread, produce, and home cooking ingredients areas literally made up the rest of the grocery store. In the US that would be unheard of.

It's so strange when you take this and compare it to how we acquire food in America

We have fast food EVERYWHERE, and driving is so normal in the US that a short drive to McDonald's is always worth it. On top of that, most places are so far apart here you HAVE to drive. Everyone has a car, so public transportation is nonexistent.

Furthermore, sit-down restaurants are not only less common, but WIDELY more expensive. Here in Berlin all restuarant have pretty competitive prices. I got a large pizza yesterday for like $8.50 and it was baked in a stone oven and the ingredients were either fresh or hand crafted right there. In the US that is unheard of, but $5 quickly made pizzas are on every block.

Grocery stores are different too. The layouts and options at stores in the US, even at stores considered "healthy" or "natural", are laughable compared to the stores I have seen here. Freshly baked breads, freshly cut meats, fresh produce, and home cooking ingredients usually reside in the same corner of the store. EVERYWHERE ELSE is frozen foods, snacks, or other unhealthy options. Endcaps and other displays in the walking lanes of grocery stores are commonly unhealthy and fast-food-type meals you likely would use a microwave for.

Closing off

We have such an awkward relationship with food in the US it is no wonder everyone struggles with weight. It's not just WHAT you are eating, but the entire process of it.

•WHAT you are eating

•HOW you are eating

•WHEN you are eating

•ACQUIRING food for eating.

It's all so different that it's insane to even compare them. I'm excited to return to my fridge of frozen meals and my fast food restaurants, but now that I truly see how other people treat food, I want to jump on that and try some of that behavior for myself.

Thanks for reading!

TL;DR

The US treats food as an idle behavior rather than an activity. It blends together with other things we do during the day, and even WHEN we eat, our selections of food are almost always of unhealthy variety.