Yep. I'm from Europe and of course this is kind of not understanding American culture enough to not compare different qualities of mac&cheese. That reminds me, we came back home from the US and had mac&cheese in a restaurant in Germany. They served us Kraft with fried onions and parmesan flakes on top. At that moment I understood Germans will never understand American cuisine...
You should never ever in a million years find restaurants serving Kraft mac and cheese in America. That's wrong. It's a cheap food you fix up at home when you're feeling too lazy to cook for real. Most of us like it because we grew up eating it. Real Mac and cheese is so much better.
Growing up I always saw kids in American shows/movies enj it so I assumed it was delicious. I was 10 when the finally began selling it here, my parents were also curious so they bought enough for 5 people. IT TASTES LIKE VOMIT. My parents never bought it again. 12 years later my sister bought it again because she didn't remember the taste and I gave a try again because I thought maybe just maybe I would like it better since my tastes hace changed, AND IT STILL TASTES LIKE VOMIT. so we ended up making our own with real cheese and pasta and it was actually cheaper than the boxed crap
I had the exact same experience when they first started selling pop tarts here. I guess american nostalgia food only tastes good when you actually grow up with it. Even grilled cheese tasted only ok to me
Epicurious put out a fun video last week having a few chefs compare boxed mac and cheese products. You might find it interesting https://youtu.be/uambW2W6zmQ
I prefer Velveeta shells and cheese to all the other boxed Mac and cheese dinners. That said, if I have someone to act as a dishwasher, I will make a banging baked Mac and cheese that blows any box out of the water. I don't mind the cooking, or prep. Cleanup is always a chore.
Well I mean it's hard to compare. Homemade is clearly on another level. The boxed stuff is a very quick meal to put together out of the box. Homemade takes a while to do properly. I almost see them as like different foods.