American Food

Published on September 15, 2004 By Ravenblack In Misc

Is it just me or do Americans like Grill a lot? There seems to be grill restuarants around every corner in the town centre of Silver Spring and around Washington DC. Of course, there are other stuff like italian and mexican, but there's like grill in every menu or so.

A little too greasy to my liking. I stuck to eating salads and sandwiches most of the time.

May I ask if Americans eat grill regularly or some other stuff? What's the regular staple food that you eat, may I ask the Americans on this site?

I tried the Crab cakes that Maryland is famous for and found them to be quite interesting. Tasty, kinda sweet.

And just for fun, my collegue and I tried the chinese food here and found them to be very salty. Woh, did you soak that mien fen in salt water??, dude! And they call it Singaporean Chow Mien Fen but it's nothing like what we do have around here. Talk about misleading. lol . It was also expensive, I mean it was costing about ten times what it is here - I gather asian food is considered somewhat exotic in the US. But it's not even like that in Europe or Australia.

McDonalds had bigger portions - I mean in the US, it's a ten piece McNuggets meal for adults, over here in Singapore, it's only a six-piece McNuggets meal for adults - we have nine-piece option but that's not part of the value meal.

Food portions are large around here, I usually can't finish the food I ordered.

Comments (Page 1)

Dusk411

on Sep 15, 2004

Food portions didn't start getting bigger until nearly 5 years or so, or I should say with the start of McDonald's "Super Size" meals and it went from there. I tend to think that we like to get our money's worth.

As for grilling, it's hamburgers and steaks. That's what I like, but only at home. I feel like dinners at chain restraunts aren't really worth the value.

Ravenblack

on Sep 15, 2004

Thanks for the response. Chain resturants are like that wherever one is, I guess.

historyishere

on Sep 15, 2004

Well, there is also grilled chicken too... but you can grill/bbq just about anything if you know how....

I also imagine that yes, North America's take on Asian food would be saltier than the original dishes are. We are a salt-obsessed culture.

Ravenblack

on Sep 16, 2004

I think I now understand why extra salt was offered at Burger King down here back some years ago when they first started. I always used to wonder who would need extra salt for already salted fries. I guess the chains here were following what is back home.

Texas Wahine

on Sep 16, 2004

I grill either a veggie burger or a steak at least once a week.

The portion thing explains why we Americans are so fat, huh?

It was fun reading your impression of American food, Raven. Glad you're back. I've missed you.

Ravenblack

on Sep 16, 2004

Thanks Texas, glad to be back.

historyishere

on Sep 16, 2004

The portion thing explains why we Americans are so fat, huh?

That and the water weigh gain from all the salt

KarmaGirl

on Sep 16, 2004

I don't really care for most restaurant food. If I get "fast food" it's usually a veggie sub from subway (which is also much cheaper than the meat filled ones).

Salt isn't entirely bad for you (well, maybe if you salt your salt). American soil almost completely lacks iodine (as do a lot of countries due to small farm areas and over use), so our food doesn't contain it. So, that is how we ended up with iodized salt. Why is that important? Lack of iodine is one of the leading causes of thyroid disease.

I've always assumed that American "Chinese" food (and other ethnic food) is probably an American interpretation of the real thing. Most restaurant food is over sized, over salted, and way too greasy.

Shovelheat

on Sep 16, 2004

To grill a ribeye and drink cold beer on a summer day! A slice of paradise...

xtine

on Sep 16, 2004

Our old grill finally broke and we had to go out and get a new one right away. We went a week without it and I was pretty hungry by the time the hubby brought the new one home. We even grill in the winter-time, in sub-freezing weather and however many inches of snow happens to lay on the ground.

To grill a ribeye and drink cold beer on a summer day!

Yummmm! (The steak, not the beer.)

ShoZan

on Sep 16, 2004

I don't eat out alot.
I love steaks, pork chops, chicken, and seafood.
Steaks because I am was born, raised, and lived in Oklahoma for 17 years.
Pork Chops and Chicken because my mom is Puerto Rican and that's part of staple diet of Puerto Ricans that and fish, plus rice, also don't forget beans.
Seafood because if I didn't get it from my Mom, I got it from my Dad who is from Connecticut.

Yes I would have to say Americans do grill alot, but grilling is healthier than frying and baking, just look at the difference between grilled chicken and baked chicken.
As for McDonald's, which I prefer Burger King or Taco Bell, the Super Sizing took place like people have said so I just get the supposed Medium Meal or something to that effect, because Large and King or Super Size are just too freakin' huge.

Now what gets me is that all over the country outside of the southwest I see alot of Texas Themed Grills / Steakhouses and that is just annoying to me, because most them just DON'T know how to cook up a good Mesquite or Hickory or Texas Steak like I could get in the Southwest, but from what I see, rich caucasian people love it, when I try to eat and just offended by the it. It's the same thing for other styles as well, it is hard to get a GOOD Fish and Chips, or some GOOD Hibachi here, but there is Sushi, though the Japanese Steakhouse we do have is more American than Japanese but still good. Best Mexican food in town is Mi Pueblo or wherever there are good Hispanic cooks in the Kitchen cooking up the Hispanic food.

As for the salt thing, I never use salt on anything, because the food already has salt, even no salt added food has salt, I don't know why people use large amounts of salt, guess they want to die from a corroded artery or something like that.

As for alcohol, I do not drink beer anymore, if I drink I drink only liquor, the reason being I just can't stand the taste of beer, even imported ones, I would rather be sipping on some Bacardi Rum, Chivas Regal Scotch, Irish Whiskey, Bourbon, or some good wine than drink beer, though I would like to try whatever the Vikings used to drink that was made out of honey sounds like something good.

I think I covered everything I wanted to cover, hope this helped at least to give you my viewpoint on the subject if nothing else.

Go ahead and ask questions if you want.

andr3ww

on Sep 16, 2004

My lord I LOVE to grill. Granted that I'm living with college students atm, but we have 4 grills between my house and a friends. We religiously grill. Theres nothing like the smell of charred flesh. In fact, last night at about midnight my roommate awoken with an urge to grill chicken. And grill chicken he did.

Tangled Wishes

on Sep 16, 2004

I like grilled food a lot, too, as an American, but I don't know if it necessarily makes it an American thing for me. I like grilled vegetables like a freaking vegetarian weirdo, even though I'm not vegetarian.

I guess grilling is ALSO an American pastime, you know?

Ravenblack

on Sep 16, 2004

Thanks for the replies, everyone, it does give me a better picture of American food and eating preferences.

(I'll try your recommendation of mexican food cooked by HIspanics next time I'm in the US, ShoZan)

In Singapore, what we usually have for a meal is white rice with vegetable and meat or fish items. Meats and fish are usually fried or steamed. Vegetables are usually lightly fried. And some of you have said, food one gets in resturants and food courts are usually more greasy. Still people here eat out a lot because food is cheap and there is an abundance of food stalls and food markets all over this island. The other common type of meal eaten here is noddles or rice noodles in fish based soup or in soya sauce and light sasame oil. And there's option of what you want with that, chicken or fishballs or beef or pork. We have lots of spicy foods here, and because of our racial and cultural diversity, we get indonesian, indian, thai, japanese, and many western cuisines.

Texas Wahine

on Sep 16, 2004

One of the many unusual (to me anyways) things they eat here is Loco Moco . . . two huge scoops of white rice, a layer of ground beef and gravy and two fried eggs on top. My husband ate this one time for lunch and had PT (running) after lunch . . . he will never eat it again!

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