Cultural eating habits - tell us about yours
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This thread has been pretty interesting; have to say though its making me feel a bit sorry for the Americans
bread that's extra sweet? That would drive me nuts. I've been told America has a lot more sugar in most of their cereals, but didn't realise it extended to things like bread. I have enough trouble with sugar here; it must be an extra challenge for you guys over there!
I remember the popcorn at the cinema here used to be really nice, salty and savory. (Australia.) A few years ago though it tasted like it had been mixed up with powdered sugar! Tasted all sweet, it was not what I was expecting and was just nasty. I had hoped it was just a one off accident, but a few months later tried again; nope, still sweet. Recently my friend bought some so I tried it; not as sweet as previous occasions but still, you can taste it in there. Makes me sad that they've ruined something good just to make it more addictive & sell more product. :frown: PLUS ITS ALWAYS STALE NOW! :explode:
I feel the same about sweet popcorn because I grew up with salty, no other flavors or butter added, popcorn. When I tried it, it just felt odd! Here, unless something is a dessert it's not supposed to have any sugar in it. It's very easy to avoid sugar where I live because you know exactly what has it. The hardest thing was to make my bread portions smaller. We eat a lot of bread, and a 100 g (3.5 oz) pita is what our small pita looks like. Fresh, hot, still air puffed made in front you of pita.0 -
I'm an ABC (American Born Chinese) who grew up in the West Coast but my parents are Chinese born in Vietnam
Breakfast weekday: When I was younger it was a glass of milk or maybe a bowl of cereal. Now that I'm older, it's usually a bottle of tea, some fresh fruit with maybe some pocky or pretz sticks. My parents eat oatmeal or some sort of bread/peanut butter for breakfast
Breakfast weekend: I never wake up early enough for breakfast on weekend, but when I was younger and I watched cartoons in morning, it was (frozen pizza, scrambled egg with soysauce over rice, vienna sausages with rice)
Lunch: It varies. But it usually includes rice.
- Tofu
- Steamed vegetables
- Fried egg with soy sauce
- Some sort of stewed meat
-Stirfry
- Sandwiches were also really big when I was in school out of convenience.
Dinner weekday: RICE. We usually have some sort of soup, be it tofu seafood soup, beet soup, vegetable soup.
- Steamed fish
- Stir fry
Dinner weekend: During the weekends, my mom has more time to prepare food so we usually eat Vietnamese food during the weekends
- Homemade Pho
- Bun Bo Hue
- Spring Rolls
- Hot Pot
- Bun.. a lot of meals with Bun (noodles) in it.
- A lot of fish sauce.
- And once in a while we have Spaghetti or Japanese Curry or Dubokki just because. Haha.0 -
You're missing the casserolesThis thread is fascinating, and now I'm hungry!!
Midwest US here...
Weekday Breakfast: Oatmeal or cereal
Weekend breakfast: Pancakes, french toast, eggs, bacon, sausage
Weekday lunch: Soup, sandwich, frozen meal, fast food burger and fries
Weekend lunch: Leftovers or sandwiches/burgers
Weekday Dinner: Chicken or fish with a carb and a veggie (steamed)
Weekend dinner: Same as weekday, but in larger portions and with beer!
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Pig Pickins sounds amazing!
I have very fond memories of Pig Pickins. 0 -
I'm from Missouri so not Southern or Northern...but I can definitely relate to the attitude about food! Very similar here.
And ketchup is a big thing in my circle of family/friends as well. They put it on meat, eggs, slather it on burgers and even some sandwiches. I am not a huge ketchup fan but I do actually love it in my brown bean "soup" and on green beans.
I got used to ketchup on eggs while in the Navy (powdered scrambled eggs are disgusting- anything to hide the taste) but can NOT get over ketchup on steak. Whenever I'm at a nice steak house and I see someone dipping their $30 steak in ketchup, I'm softly screaming "Noooooooooo!" in anguish inside my head.0 -
USA. In the words of the great Louis C.K.
"I don’t stop eating when I’m full. The meal isn’t over when I’m full. It’s over when I hate myself."0 -
I grew up in Maryland - in the DC/NoVA Metro Area and meals were pretty simple:
Weekday Breakfast: Cold Cereal with Milk
Weekday Lunch: Sandwich (generally PB&J on white bread), a cookie, and milk from a carton
Weekday Dinner: Whatever Mom could throw together in less than 30 mins - usually fish sticks w/fries, Hamburger Helper, the list goes on and on of horrible foods
Weekend Breakfast: Sat more Cold Cereal with Milk or toast instead if we wanted to make it ourselves
Weekend Lunch: Grab & Go, more sandwiches and snacks
Weekend Dinners: Tuna Noodle Casserole, Roasted Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, etc.
Holidays were when Mom actually cooked a decent meal - dessert & soda's only came during those holidays; instead Lipton Tea Mix, Milk and Kool-Aid were staples in our house for drinking.
Now as an adult I live in Southeastern NC and while the culture is vastly different in terms of food I've brought a lot of my childhood foods with me my kids get either Cold Cereal w/Milk, A frozen Aunt Jemima Breakfast, Pop Tarts or Toast w/Peanut Butter on it, while I east Oatmeal during the week and scrambled egg whites w/wheat toast on the weekends. The kids will sometimes request pancakes, waffles, or eggs for weekend breakfast and I'll oblige.
Weekday Lunches consist of a sandwich for the kids w/a snack (usually cookies, chips, popcorn or pretzels) and a fruit w/a Juice Box; my lunch varies day to day but is usually a sandwich, salad, fruit, pita chips w/hummus, and more fruit w/Water
Weekend Lunch is usually for them leftover Pizza from Friday night, or something out of can, or even a Kid Cuisine Meal - while I'll have a 1/2 Ham & Cheese Sandwich with Salad and Fruit or Pita Chips/Hummus and Fruit.
Weekday Dinners are no different than our weekend dinners - just that I go for the simpler versions during the week, usually a protein, a starch, a veggie/fruit (depending on the protein) and a bread. Sometimes I'll even make breakfast foods for dinner (waffles, pancakes, eggs, bacon, etc.)
A hodge podge of foods honestly0 -
I'm Canadian (Prairies), with Swedish background, and I think I ate pretty typically for a Canadian kid from a relatively small city. Cereal, toast, and fruit for breakfast. Sandwiches and raw vegetables with something sweet for lunch. Meat, vegetables or salad, and rice or potatoes or pasta for dinner. Milk and orange juice and water. Dessert once a week or so. Lots of dairy generally, cheese and yogurt and sour cream and butter. Today I eat much less meat, starch, and full-fat dairy than I did as a kid and more vegetables, but my parents were always pretty good about feeding me balanced meals with enough energy to keep me going. My mother has always prided herself on being a good cook and making healthy and good-tasting food and I think she did a good job of it as best she knew how in the 80s and 90s (although she did use stuff like canned soup and bottled sauce which neither of us would ever use now, but tastes have changed and cream of mushroom casseroles are no longer in fashion.)0
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Not sure if I missed it, but I figured I'd throw in some Salvadorean culture
Breakfast: Eggs, refried beans, fried plantain, crema, hard cheese and fresh corn tortillas.... COFFEE (all day everyday)!!!
Lunch: Usually soup (fish soup, beef bone soup) and corn tortillas
Dinner: Heavy stuff-- Pupusas, tamales, rice and beans, always crema and hard cheese
And some lovely sweet breads to dip in coffee are always a must!
This isn't an everyday thing for us since we live in Canada, but I can say this would be a traditional day of nomminess if I am visiting my mom's place!
I grew up in Texas and one thing I miss the most is frito pie :brokenheart:0 -
Meat and Potatos
This except I am a new englander so throw in some chowda as well
It still fits - chowda is just (sea) meat and potatoes drowned in cream.
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Not sure if I missed it, but I figured I'd throw in some Salvadorean culture
Breakfast: Eggs, refried beans, fried plantain, crema, hard cheese and fresh corn tortillas.... COFFEE (all day everyday)!!!
Lunch: Usually soup (fish soup, beef bone soup) and corn tortillas
Dinner: Heavy stuff-- Pupusas, tamales, rice and beans, always crema and hard cheese
And some lovely sweet breads to dip in coffee are always a must!
This isn't an everyday thing for us since we live in Canada, but I can say this would be a traditional day of nomminess if I am visiting my mom's place!
I grew up in Texas and one thing I miss the most is frito pie :brokenheart:
Frito pie! That is a very BIG thing in my area (Joplin, Missouri) as is "spaghetti red" (spaghetti with a certain type of chili on top which is somewhat watery with very finely ground meat).0 -
Sweet tea... fried foods.... lots of carbs with every meal.0
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Love this thread!
I'm from France - Paris suburbs.
Breakfast was typically croissants, cereal, or toast with jam (although my brother got a nutella sandwich every morning for years). Sometimes eggs.
No morning snack, although a lot of people I worked with would have coffee and a croissant mid morning.
Lunch - if in a rush, a baguette sandwich, otherwise it's pretty much a real meal - meat, veggies, some carbs etc. And cheese and dessert of course. I don't know anyone who's ever packed their lunch. A lot of workplaces have cafeterias and otherwise smaller companies give people meal coupon so they eat for free at local restaurants.
Goûter at 4pm - usually 'biscuits' (cookies), or puddings/yogurt or more croissants (most adults don't eat that meal as far as I know).
Apéritif - around 7pm, when you have guests - cocktails and nuts, pretzels, goldfish and other salty snacks
Dinner at 8pm - same as lunch
But I haven't lived there for 12 years so who knows what they're doing now. The food itself was not that different, except I ate a lot of croissants, we don't have those birthday cakes like here (typically they are fancier cakes with no icing), sandwiches typically come on a baguette (so more like subs I guess), portions are smaller. They also have a HUGE selection of yogurts and refrigerated puddings compared to the US. Seriously, it's insane. And I miss that the most. And cheese always comes before dessert... we always had a plate dedicated to cheese in the fridge.0 -
That's one of my favorite Louis C.K. quotes! But you know he's Mexican, right? :laugh:USA. In the words of the great Louis C.K.
"I don’t stop eating when I’m full. The meal isn’t over when I’m full. It’s over when I hate myself."0 -
Perfect! (I lived a bit further north than you though) We never had anything but sugar cereal for breakfast; pop tarts were expensive and Toaster Strudel didn't exist yet. Very occasionally on weekends, a "treat" like waffles, pancakes, french toast or eggs and bacon.I'm American and in my 30's. When I was growing up in the Midwest basically everyone I knew ate like this, except for a handful of people I knew who ate "weird healthy food" and that really just meant a lot more variety in their salads and huge glasses of whole milk for children & preteens at dinnertime.
Breakfast:
Pop Tarts, Toaster Strudel (frozen pastry with a packet of frosting to squeeze on top after toasting), or sugary breakfast cereal with milk.
For "health nuts", a less sugary cereal (Cheerio's or Kix for example) with skim or lowfat milk.
Lunch:
School lunch like turkey & noodles, canned peas, a huge yeast roll, and strawberry gelatin with bits of canned pineapple inside, and a carton of chocolate 2% milk.
OR
Wonder (white) bread with bologna, cheese & mustard, small bag of Doritos, and a Kudos bar (glorified chocolate bar) and a juice box
Dinner:
Hamburger Helper, salad of iceberg lettuce with chopped tomato and ranch dressing, slice of cake (from a mix) for dessert
OR
3-4 slices of pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut
OR
chili on top of spaghetti, frozen peas, big slice of garlic bread and a Dr. Pepper
Pretty horrendous.
Don't forget those nasty fried "burritos" they put in school lunches! (and Kudos were not invented yet when I was a kid-- my sack lunch was a baloney and "cheese" on white bread with Miracle Whip, maybe an apple or fruit rollup, and Kool-Aid in my thermos) That's pretty spot-on though.
My dad was an a-hole and made my mom fry chicken almost every night though (pork chops or ham patties and *very* occasionally meat spaghetti otherwise), usually corn or green beans from a can, mashed potatoes and if we had dessert, probably jello or pudding.0 -
You mean Spätzle?! Spoetzl is the family name of the brewers of Shiner Bock!:laugh:Texas
Beef, beef, and more beef, with a side of pork, preferably brisket with a side of sausage.
Tex-Mex foods like tacos, enchiladas, and always served with refried beans.
Chips and salsa all day long.
I could go on and on about desserts like banana pudding, peach cobbler, and fried ice cream.
My particular area of Texas has a lot of German food, too, so I am frequently eating schitzel and spoetzl (sp?).
Don't forget about queso (melted cheese and chilis to dip your chips in along with the salsa). And breakfast tacos (for the uninitiated, usually scrambled eggs with some combination of the following: chorizo, bacon, breakfast sausage, potato, cheese and always with salsa). I could probably go for many weeks with every single meal containing at least one tortilla! :laugh:
Oh, and don't forget pecan pie!0 -
Perfect! (I lived a bit further north than you though) We never had anything but sugar cereal for breakfast; pop tarts were expensive and Toaster Strudel didn't exist yet. Very occasionally on weekends, a "treat" like waffles, pancakes, french toast or eggs and bacon.I'm American and in my 30's. When I was growing up in the Midwest basically everyone I knew ate like this, except for a handful of people I knew who ate "weird healthy food" and that really just meant a lot more variety in their salads and huge glasses of whole milk for children & preteens at dinnertime.
Breakfast:
Pop Tarts, Toaster Strudel (frozen pastry with a packet of frosting to squeeze on top after toasting), or sugary breakfast cereal with milk.
For "health nuts", a less sugary cereal (Cheerio's or Kix for example) with skim or lowfat milk.
Lunch:
School lunch like turkey & noodles, canned peas, a huge yeast roll, and strawberry gelatin with bits of canned pineapple inside, and a carton of chocolate 2% milk.
OR
Wonder (white) bread with bologna, cheese & mustard, small bag of Doritos, and a Kudos bar (glorified chocolate bar) and a juice box
Dinner:
Hamburger Helper, salad of iceberg lettuce with chopped tomato and ranch dressing, slice of cake (from a mix) for dessert
OR
3-4 slices of pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut
OR
chili on top of spaghetti, frozen peas, big slice of garlic bread and a Dr. Pepper
Pretty horrendous.
Don't forget those nasty fried "burritos" they put in school lunches! (and Kudos were not invented yet when I was a kid-- my sack lunch was a baloney and "cheese" on white bread with Miracle Whip, maybe an apple or fruit rollup, and Kool-Aid in my thermos) That's pretty spot-on though.
My dad was an a-hole and made my mom fry chicken almost every night though (pork chops or ham patties and *very* occasionally meat spaghetti otherwise), usually corn or green beans from a can, mashed potatoes and if we had dessert, probably jello or pudding.
lol...I'm glad you could relate (and a bit sorry for you too hehe). But we're the same age (within a year) so I think Kudos and Toaster Strudel did exist ;-)
Lunch...I almost forgot about thermoses. Filled with Kool-Aid, Hawaiian Punch, or super salty Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup of course...in your plastic or metal character themed lunchbox! hehe
I remember being jealous of a friend of mine because her packed lunches always included a can of regular Coke (I was drinking diet by age 6), kiwifruit (EXOTIC to my 1980s child self) and string cheese. I thought string cheese was the best thing EVER!0 -
Northern English ex mining town.
Breakfast - porridge/toast/plain cereal, unless its a weekend when we have a full English- sausage, egg, bacon, black pudding, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, fried bread/bread, hash browns, toast.
Dinner - Traditionally would be a full cooked meal with meat, veg, Yorkshire puddings, potatoes or pie. Or fish on Friday cause ages ago loads of fish was going to waste so the government banned meat on Fridays. So now some people get fish and chips on Friday as a tradition. But I just have a salad or a sandwich.
Tea (we call dinner tea up North & lunch, dinner) - Stew (made in a big pan eaten over a few days- with; pancakes/Yorkshire pudding/dumplings/tea cakes (bread cakes) for variation), the stew might be cooked into a pie for dinner the next day, roast dinner or sandwiches & crisps if dinner was eaten late.
COLLOSSAL PORTIONS that haven't changed since they had to keep Granddad lively chipping away at the coal face with an axe.
I live with my parents so I don't get to choose what is cooked. Its normally either the above or spaghetti bolognaise, pizza, chicken curry, chicken fajitas all made with sauces out of packets or jars, its so tragic. They think they're being so adventurous too.
My Grandad wouldn't tolerate salads/jacket potatoes he said its a poor mans meal and wouldn't let me order it in cafes lest I bring shame upon the family, and he regarded pizza as 'foreign crap' and refused to try it.0 -
Chiming in from New Jersey, USA!
**Disclaimer - I was not born here! My husband was, and he was dumbfounded when I didn't know what it was.**
Taylor Ham, or Pork Roll, if you will. (But really - Taylor Ham.) It's really super spiced pork roll, and it's the most amazing thing ever made for breakfast. Even better than bacon, IMO. EVERYWHERE serves it. But of course, it's super unhealthy, haha. You fry it up and toss it in a breakfast sandwich or just eat it plain, but it's sooo good. (If you get super lucky and find it outside NJ, near the bacon, try it. You won't regret it as a treat.)0 -
I was imagining a mini-me before those things came out; I had already moved to Texas by the time those came out and mostly got free school lunch at that point, and we never could've afforded them anyway! Things were better when my kid sisters were coming up, and yes, then there was absolutely Toaster Strudel! What kind of lunchbox did you have? Mine was metal and it was Strawberry Shortcake.lol...I'm glad you could relate (and a bit sorry for you too hehe). But we're the same age (within a year) so I think Kudos and Toaster Strudel did exist ;-)
Lunch...I almost forgot about thermoses. Filled with Kool-Aid, Hawaiian Punch, or super salty Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup of course...in your plastic or metal character themed lunchbox! hehe
I remember being jealous of a friend of mine because her packed lunches always included a can of regular Coke (I was drinking diet by age 6), kiwifruit (EXOTIC to my 1980s child self) and string cheese. I thought string cheese was the best thing EVER!
It's interesting that you mention being exposed to "exotic" foods and having that be a positive experience. I felt the same way when I encountered bagels. Most kids are not that way at all when exposed to new foods. I'm not sure whether it's a good thing or a bad thing in my case. Maybe if I wasn't so fascinated with novelty in food I wouldn't be here... :laugh:0 -
Really?! Because I always assumed the tradition of fish on Fridays was a throwback to the days when religion ruled people's daily lives right down to what they could eat when. I never thought the government had anything to do with it. That's fascinating!Or fish on Friday cause ages ago loads of fish was going to waste so the government banned meat on Fridays.0 -
This thread reminds me of something that totally cracks me up when my mom comes to visit... we use our knives to push food on the fork. So you have the two French women using a knife and a fork, and the American just using his fork... something that I'll never understand because it's just so annoying to put mushy foods on your fork that way!0
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Yeah, in Tudor times when the Catholic church was abolished in favour of Christianity, eating fish was seen as a Catholic trait- a political move. So people stopped buying it. When the next king came in he'd seen the damage it had done to the fish market and made it a law that people couldn't eat meat on Fridays.
So now we have fish and chip Fridays!!!0 -
I'm not sure what else is different - I did go on an overseas tour of UK last year, cooked breakfast was included every day, and there were people from USA who thought cooked tomatoes were really strange. Not sure if this was just those individuals or cooked tomatoes are not done there at all.
on the pacific coast of america at least, I can say with certainty that cooked tomatoes are done here in many forms.. but what do you mean precisely when you say cooked tomatoes were considered an oddity? it might be the way it was cooked or served. as a rule, americans don't eat tomatoes just on their own. (some people do I'm sure) but it's not something you'd find in a restaurant for the most part. we toast /cook tomatoes on pizza, sandwiches, eggs, sauces, et cetera. in the south they fry green tomatoes.
I don't think America has much of a food culture left. it is a vast melting pot. in our family, we eat when we're hungry and the cuisines we grab from are multinational. our favorites are home made curries and south american styled dishes.
doh, I missed the part about it being a breakfast thing. yeah, some people dice them up into eggs but in any other form tomatoes aren't considered a breakfast food as a general rule.
I am only going by the comments of a few Americans in our tour group - but they considered cooked tomatoes a weird thing, even weirder having them for breakfast.
They said tomatoes where they come from are a cold salad/sandwich item or chopped and cooked in things like spaghetti bog but not just halved and cooked on a grill as was offered on the breakfast menu in UK (and also common as part of a cooked breakfast in Australia)0 -
Interesting topic! I enjoy reading about other cultures
I grew up in Poland and always consider our way of eating as heavy and unhealthy.. but after years of living abroad and learning more about nutrition Im slowly coming back to old habits from home. I seriously believe that our diet is balanced and well planned.
Breakfast would be a mixture of fibre and protein.. like
-bread [ polish bread is amazing!] with cold cuts or cheese
- eggs [ boiled/ fried ] with bread and butter
-cottage cheese [ something between quark and cottage cheese really ] on a wholemeal roll with some salt and tomato
-scrambled eggs with tomatoes and spring onion
Apart from tea or coffee we drink milk or cocoa in the morning
We eat second breakfast which normally would be piece of fruit, KISIEL - more liquidy type of fruit jelly, fruit juice or a light sandwich /yogurt... just something that would give u a bit of sugar ..
Lunch is the main meal ...around 3-5pm [ depending on how u work ]
In most homes it HAS to be soup followed by main..
Which again apparently is healthy for u, as u r filled up with soup and eat less afterwards..
so:
-soup [ beetroot soup, chicken broth, tomato soup[ with rice or pasta in it], gherkin soup and so on.. low calories but very filling ]
main:
-potatoes [ boiled ..in my region we dont add milk or butter to mash.. but we sprinkle it with fresh dill ] .
Something i havent noticed in any of the countries i lived in .. instead of potatoes we eat a lot of groats , barley, buckwheat.. etc
- meat [ usually is fried but a lot of people boil it or bake it in foil] or goulash/stew
-fish on fridays
-and what ppl from abroad always find weird COLD SALAD or PICKLES.. like gherkins,, pickled beetroot, carrot and raisins salad.. cabbage .. or tomato with yogurts and onions.. cooked veg are mainly in sauces
Some people have a snack before supper .. which again would be a fruit or a small sandwich but most of us skip it and have cup of tea instead.. surprisingly we drink a lot of tea.. black with lemon .. or herbal/fruity ones.
Supper would be something like breakfast .. but we will have more proteins than carbs in the evenings [ like hot sausage , ham, cold chicken meat, boiled eggs or diary plus little bit of bread ] and again milk, cocoa, tea..
I have noticed that Polish diet consist of 5 a day [ recommended amount of fruit/veg a day ] and healthy dose of proteins.
Also there are some foods that i always recommend for those on diet.. as they are very low calorie like all the polish pickles and salads in jars.. our cottage cheese and other diary products.. and bread.. with hardly or none additions..
We do eat sweets of course but on daily basis we opt for fruity ones.. like KISIEL or KOMPOT .
Oats/porridge [ with salt] or semolina [with fruit syrup ] is something we give to our kids .. or eat it in winter time [ as winters are crazy cold over there we need more energy to stay warm].
This doesnt apply to party food.. or holidays feasts.. when we eat up all the fat and sugar we have saved during the year lol
As i was growing up , eating out wasnt very popular, it only happened on special occasions.. but this has changed now.. people like to try different cuisines and eat out way more than 10 years ago..
I wish someone from Sothern Asia , north Africa or Japan added his 5 cents to the topic 0 -
I was imagining a mini-me before those things came out; I had already moved to Texas by the time those came out and mostly got free school lunch at that point, and we never could've afforded them anyway! Things were better when my kid sisters were coming up, and yes, then there was absolutely Toaster Strudel! What kind of lunchbox did you have? Mine was metal and it was Strawberry Shortcake.lol...I'm glad you could relate (and a bit sorry for you too hehe). But we're the same age (within a year) so I think Kudos and Toaster Strudel did exist ;-)
Lunch...I almost forgot about thermoses. Filled with Kool-Aid, Hawaiian Punch, or super salty Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup of course...in your plastic or metal character themed lunchbox! hehe
I remember being jealous of a friend of mine because her packed lunches always included a can of regular Coke (I was drinking diet by age 6), kiwifruit (EXOTIC to my 1980s child self) and string cheese. I thought string cheese was the best thing EVER!
It's interesting that you mention being exposed to "exotic" foods and having that be a positive experience. I felt the same way when I encountered bagels. Most kids are not that way at all when exposed to new foods. I'm not sure whether it's a good thing or a bad thing in my case. Maybe if I wasn't so fascinated with novelty in food I wouldn't be here... :laugh:
I had a metal Holly Hobbie that was a hand-me-down from my cousin! And later, several others...plasticky ones...I don't remember them all! I was an only child and a little spoiled. Don't hate haha0 -
I spent a month in the Czech republic and Germany a couple years ago. I really loved the brown bread they served for breakfast. Brown bread and mild cheese was an excellent breakfast. I ended up being pretty much vegetarian when I was there. the other omnipresent thing was red peppers onions and zucchini sauted. the weird thing that hotels put out for breakfast that I didn't understand was a dessert. like cheese cake or cake. Not sure if they just were putting something out for the americans, i/e they'd heard we love sweets for every meal or if that's a normal thing in that part of the world. it was puzzling. one hotel had crepes with jam. that was lovely.
the brown bread was not less sweet than the kind of bread I normally eat but it was really lovely and not like anything in the states.0 -
I grew up in the rural Western U.S. -- Wyoming to be exact. Almost everyone hunted and fished.
Our typical dinners consisted of Elk, Deer (venison), Antelope (pronghorn) and fresh-caught trout (summer) or walleye (winter ice-fishing). Sometimes we'd have moose meat as well. Also pheasant and grouse.
Depending on the cut (and how "gamey" it was -- my dad wouldn't pass up a trophy buck or bull for a scrawny "good eater") we'd have the meat fried with mashed potatoes and homemade cream gravy with vegetable and some bread.
We would have beef, pork or chicken, but not as much as wild meat. A portion of any game meat would be ground, so we would frequently have elk chili, or antelope spaghetti or venison tacos.
Many people also had gardens in the summer. My mom still gardens and preserves/cans/freezes enough homegrown vegetables to last for most of the winter.
Otherwise, we ate a fairly American diet of cold cereal with milk for breakfast, or eggs, bacon, toast, hashbrowns on the weekends. Sandwiches and soup for lunch. Dessert once in a while but not every night. "Pop" was a treat, and it was a fun time to drive to the Dairy Land or A & W for a "coke." It was a really big treat to get to go to one of the "drive ins" (that had carhops)0 -
And brace yourself! We make tea by heating the kettle, putting the bag in the cold mug, letting the steam escape (I've never seen any other Americans cover the cup) and pouring the water into the cold cup. The tea steeps out into the bottom 1/4 of the cup, so we have to stir it.
At home, I have a "proper" tea pot and taught my husband how to make a decent cup of tea. I pour water into the cup and tea pot (to warm them), pour out the water, make the tea in the pot, cover the pot, and pour the tea over the milk in the cup. It's a bit more work, but my DH agrees that it makes a better cuppa tea.
We do that too! Probably nowadays most Brits use teabags, and either put them in a teapot or straight into the cup. I've never seen anyone cover the cup though. In my house we use tealeaves though, in a teapot. But I don't tend to warm the pot or the cup I have to say. The trick is you have to use the water just as it comes up to a boil, don't let it stop boiling.0 -
First thing I noticed, when I came to the U.S. is, that people often have only one hand on the table (of course, the one you hold your food with), the other hand is sitting on the lap. In Germany that is considered a bad manner. Also most people here in the U.S. eat while they watch TV, mostly in the living room, not the dining room. They hold the plate in their hands. Most restaurants have TV's hanging on a wall. I have never seen that in Germany, unless of course it is an American Restaurant. But with all the stuff swapping over the ocean, most likely it will be like that in the future, which is sad. Another thing, Americans love their ice in the soda. Something I never get used too.
In UK too - hands should be on the table. But not elbows! You mustn't lean on the table on your elbows - you can put your forearms on but not elbows! Brits are getting more into the TV dinner thing - we have trays with cushions on the back which we use on our laps. It's something that gets debated from time to time, the decline of the family meal, and the importance of the family sitting together round the table. Mercifully I've never yet seen a TV in a restaurant! You see them in pubs where there's no food but not where there's food, thankfully!0
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