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Whenever I go on holiday I want to eat good food. If that means finding a good Indonesian restaurant in Amsterdam, wonderful Italian in New York, a fine curry in the UK or great couscous in Paris, so be it. But I'll always seek out great local cuisine too, if it's available. I'm usually most interested in finding out where the locals eat.
Mind you, last time I arrived in NYC (from Belgium) to visit my brother, he couldn't understand why I refused to go to le Pain Quotidien (a Belgian chain) for breakfast. I had to insist on going somewhere for a proper American breakfast instead. When in Rome...!! |
my two cents on the reason: part of the reason that many people travel to Europe is to enjoy the great cuisine and good wine (as well as see sights etc.). However, based on European friends traveling to the US, sampling the american cuisine doesn't usually rank as one of the reasons they come to the US (the exception being places like NY, San Francisco and New Orleans which have a famous food culture). I don't think any European travels to florida for the great food. While many Americans travel to France, partly for the great food.
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the soccer question is an interesting one though. May have something to do with the crowd on the forum (I am sure the European wife's give their husband an equally hard time for seeing a Manchester United game while in Florida as an American wife would give their husband for trying to find the Yankees game while in Paris.
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When I ate grits, it (they?) looked like this: http://images.jupiterimages.com/comm...5/23031505.jpg
When I ate polenta, it looked like this: http://www.istrianet.org/istria/gast...s/polenta1.jpg |
Part of the reason these two items appear different is that the grits have been cooked once and served. the polenta has been boiled once and then spread out onto the board and cut in the desired shape. The difference most people have noticed is due not to the raw material as much as the method of preparation. The difference between the raw materials is slight.kernels for grits have the step of soaking in alkali before being dried and ground..
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Yes, Kerouac, it would be wise before posting to those two vastly different pictures to have actually read what was said here before. Both polenta and grits are first cooked with water -- the end results are identical. But then either can be cooled and baked or fried and many other things added.
Posting those two pictures to show how different they are is like posting a picture of a steak next to a dish of beef stew. They are the same basic ingredient, but after different preparations they neither look nor taste the same. By the way, if you ever ate grits baked with lots of cheese and onions, I bet you'd like those too -- at least if you liked your pictured version of polenta. |
A poster made the good point that in Europe many so-called American restaurants are not actually owned or operated by Americans. So the American food they offer is merely their interpretation of American food, sometimes based on pretty skimpy first-hand experience.
Near Brussels, there is a place supposedly specializing in American style bbq ribs. We went twice (the first on our own, the second with some Belgians who wanted our opinion). In both cases, the ribs were served with a sauce like nothing we'd ever tried anywhere in the U.S. The owner kept pressing us to tell him how much these were "just like" American bbq ribs and got really hostile when we said that wasn't the case in our experience. I would never try to find PA Dutch food in Europe, even in Germany, it just wouldn't come off right. Nor would I expect to find Pacific NW cuisine in Europe--although if I could find somebody serving fresh Dungeness crab, I'd beat down their door in a minute! The double standard, IMHO, is picking gourmet delights made with quality ingredients as the typical European food and then selecting cheap, fast food like "a greasy hamburger" as the example of "real" American food. Properly made regional American dishes, prepared with the best American ingredients, can hold their own with any other world cuisine. In the Pacific NW, for example, we have world-class seafood, very good wines, very good beer, terrific produce (esp. berries, but much more as well), excellent cheese and dairy (esp. goat cheese from small farms) all on our doorstep. German and Austrian food is similarly under-rated with little credit given for regional specialties. There is so much more to both country's cuisines than sausages and wienerschnitzel! |
The one and only time I had grits -- I will say it again -- it was a soupy mess like creamed corn on the side of the plate.
Saying that anything made out of corn meal is the same is rather simplistic. |
"Saying that anything made out of corn meal is the same is rather simplistic." Saying that would be more than simplistic, it would be downright idiotic. But I don't see anyone here saying anything like that. Are you able to read? The basic polenta IS just like the basic grits, but further preparation makes them as different (or as alike if you choose to do it that way) as night and day. |
I LIKED GRITS!
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JH wonders,
>I can't figure out how people can get so into eating! < It's an art form that involves all of the senses and is, therefore, superior to painting, sculpture, music, dance, theater, architecture, etc. Just like any other form of art, it requires a bit of study to appreciate. Tere notes, >...to say that the hotels breakfasts in Europe are just a " stale croissant, watery orange juice, and coffee " means ignorance or not a very travelled person!!< Or someone who has been unlucky. :) W asks, >What is an American breakfast?< Depends on where you are: Could be: a breakfast Burrito oatmeal, eggs, toast, hash browns bacon and eggs, toast, hash browns pancakes or French toast, Spam and eggs Cold cereal with milk etc, etc Here in the South: One or all of ham or bacon or sausage, or steak with grits, biscuits, gravy >Why don't the Americans eat cooked tomatoes? Y'all ain't heard of fried green tomatoes? >Grits are not food, ... Sorry to hear that you have never had proper grits. You want fresh, stone ground grits. See http://www.fallsmill.com/store.html >Do Americans have sausages? Other than frankfurters, something I haven't seen. Of course we do. Hot dogs are merely one variety. We have smoked sausage, kielbasa, bratwurst, knockwurst, scrapple and country sausage at the local supermarket. (This doesn't mean that it is particularly good. :) ) >Biscuits? Cookies? An American biscuit is a "quick bread". Grits are NOT at all like polenta. Polenta is corn meal, grits are made from corn that has been treated with caustic. Wikipedia is wrong. Kerouac is right. >The difference between the raw materials is slight.... And the difference between Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir is slight, since they are both made from red grapes. Will you dam*yankees stop blathering about grits. :) (The word is pronounced Greeeee yits) ((I)) |
Ira, are you implying that NeoPatrick is a transplanted Yankee? Well, they allow that in Florida.
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I know this thread's wandered a bit into food comparisons, but we were off visiting Guanajuato and I've just seen it. It's an interesting question and I hope you don't mind me returning to the original point.
It does seem the question isn't so much about the people asking for recommendations as the motivations of the ones replying. Might I suggest that this may not be as much a double standard as that you're seeing responses from two different groups of people? - One group being Europhiles who just know they've found the perfect part of the world and feel they want to help a neophyte countryman manuever it to maximum benefit. Perhaps I might feel some Europhiles can be a little full of themselves and not have all the answers they think they do about the world (frankly, it's Asia that's captured by heart lately), I suspect they feel they know that good American style food is usually badly interpreted in Europe. - And the other a group of Americans, many of whom don't travel to Europe regulary or at all, but who want to make a visitor as comfortable as possible? Especially if the Americans, like myself, see all of the "ethnic" food as being part of the American cuisine tapestry anyway? Now, we're not really foodies... no way I could compare to the knowledge people here have on the subject. We like a good meal, but don't dig and research to find "the very best". When traveling, we eat really well from time to time and the rest we play by ear. Usually local, rarely seek out "American" food (and almost never successfully), but mostly we eat what we want, when we want. We do often like to try 3rd party places - Thai in the Connemara, French in Phnom Penh, etc. It's fun to try the variations, modified for local tastes. We've noticed that "Chinese" food varies greatly between US, Australia and Europe for instance. As to the motivation of the original requestors - I figure the only real missed opportunity is that someone felt obligated during holiday to do the "right thing", rather than what would give them the greatest enjoyment. At times, I've had a lot more fun with a group of friends in that 3am White Castle stop (which is never complete without that straggly drunk guy in the corner, shoot sometimes I *am* the straggly drunk guy in the corner), than I have in the newest French place with all the perfect food, service and atmosphere. |
Has to be said that American bacon isn't good. Have only ever seen overcooked "streaky" bacon.
Bacon in the US appears to simply bacon without the specification of where it comes from on the pig, or how it is cured. This guy has it right. http://www.britishbacon.com/britishbacon.htm Canadian bacon isn't bad but doesn't have the fat which holds the flavour |
That's really good looking ham!
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That looks really good, for sure, but I also love good, crispy American bacon.
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Nice post Clifton!
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Whoa. Amazing. Waring you ARE aware that the picture of great British bacon you just posted specifies that it comes from AMERICAN pork loins, right?
Not that there's anything wrong with that. |
I really don't want to eat at a Spanish restaurant anywhere..except Spain. I don't even ask for paella outside Valencia LOL
I prefer to taste local cooking when travelling, it's part of the fun :) |
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