Unrelated to travel, but a thought just occured to me. In England, Australia and New Zealand there is a subtle common theme to eating habits, namely that, so far, each English-speaking country has a favourite flavourless fruit. Vegetables must be included but not if they're staples, so potatoes, for all their tuberous might and gustatory indifference cannot be counted, and anyway, everyone eats them like mad the world over.

In Aus and NZ, I have just noticed, they are obsessed with the avocado, although for the life of me I can't imagine why. If it cures at least five major diseases then fair play, stick it in everything and munch your way to flavourless victory, however I suspect its healing powers are somewhat less than that.
I just had some of that supermarket sushi, handed to me by the Irish girl I was sharing a room with as she left for an early morning flight (and yes, I am allowed to eat sushi at 03:30 in the morning. I am ill. I have a note). This sushi contained a miniscule sliver of avocado - and, it almost goes without saying, a virtually negative value for fish - which is hardly enough to cure even one small spot even if it were the miracle food we've all been waiting for.

It also routinely finds its way into burgers, abetted by humans, who in the Southern hemispher so far seem unable to control themselves, and whack a thick slab of the flavourless green goo in between burger and bun without so much as casually vomiting. Very strange.

In England we have our own beloved and completely flavourless favourite, the cucumber, a food with less point than a sphere and as much flavour as a glass of water, which it basically is, plus some vibrantly snot-hued rind.
In cucumber sandwiches (kill me now) with tuna and salmon (kill the cook) and in any kind of salad (I'm gonna kill you if you try and feed me that) it is the most futile of fruits, and it's one of those bloody stupid annoying ones that people will claim to be a vegetable on account of it not tasting sweet.

It tastes of purified condensed fuck-all, why would you expect sweetness from it of all things?

The crucial thing that links these is that they are completely superfluous to the actual food, being slopped in or added for `garnish` or whatever, unlike, say, rice which is the most important and often only food in huge parts of the world.

So, the question is, does the United States have a favourite flavourless fruit or veg, one that sneaks into every kind of cuisine and dish?
How about Canada? Any other little ex-colonial outposts of anglophones?

I'd just like to know.