Had friends visit us from Germany this summer (their first trip to the US) His quote the night before he left for home was "The Pope is German but God must be an American"!

Homemade salad dressings? People do this? Impressive.

ncgrrl; do people in the US really only have salad dressings from a bottle? Can't believe that! Most stuff from a bottle tastes terrible; it could never be better than good olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

But I do love traveling in the USA;
Very friendly people, good service, great shops, wonderful restaurants. And the current exchange rate makes it even better.

Frtzrl, I think ranch dressing must be an American thing. It really really isn't the rage here in the UK, even if you can buy it. I think your homemade dressing sounds FAR superior

Kate
London

I agree with Kate, ranch dressing is to me a purely American thing. But Fritzrl, I guess your UK visitors might be more interested to try typical American things rather than stuff they can get at home, won't they ?

ncggrl: it really is just about as easy to mix together oil & vinegar as it is to open a bottle. You can make it more fancy if you wish, but my current favourite is just walnut oil & sherry vinegar (4:1).

Re the original questions : sorry, guys, but about America... nothing. Apart from some nice and funny people, of course !

Our tourist dollars

starrsville, I'm sure the Europeans who actually work in the tourist industry like your tourist dollars, just as much as they like my tourist pounds.

I almost never use salad drressing from a bottle. I almost always make a simple dressing from olive oil and vinegar or olive oil and lemon juice, with various herbs and salt and pepper added. Once in a great while I buy a dressing that seems to have unusual (unusual to me, i.e. not Mediterranean) flavors, like sesame and orange, and if I like it somewhat, then I might think about including some of those flaros in future homemade dressings.

P.S. I'm American.

We recently had guests from Munich. The things they liked about our small town in Michigan: 1)the houses are set in relatively spacious yards and are not usually hemmed in with walls; 2)our industrial park contains modern factories set in large plots of green grass; 3)Lake Michigan -- which is so big you really can't see across it and it has waves but isn't salty!

I thought some of their "likes" were more about urban vs. (relatively) rural areas, rather than about America vs. Germany, but nevertheless their opinions were interesting to me.

And the thing I donæt appreciate WHILE I'm in America but hits me the same second I land in Europe...THERE IS NO CIGARETTE SMOKE!!!! hate it and had to endure it for my entire life....I'm Croatian and it's unavoidable here.

Cheers for the poster who said it's as easy to mix your own dressing as to open a bottle. It's just oil and vinegar and salt & pepper, people! (Plus, in my case, a crushed clove of garlic -- OK, maybe not to everyone's taste). It takes about a minute to make -- maybe less.

Just to bring the dressing portion of this discussion full-circle: I posted the question earlier about whether US visitors from the UK are mad about Ranch dressing.

Expediency ruled. Our new friends from the UK joined us at the dinner table last evening. Salad was served to them with a home-made oil-balsamic-dijon mustard-garlic dressing. All to great acclaim. John (orginally from northern England) remarked it was the same dressing he himself often makes, and very much to his taste.

I did mention this particular Fodor's thread to them during conversation, which sparked some interesting on-the-spot input about what UK visitors like about the States. We, of course, shared with them what we'd particularly liked about London and Londoners.

A successful event for all, even without Ranch dressing.

Fritzrl

>I'll go buy the buttermilk, which I regard as icky stuff I wouldn't have around otherwise.<

In addition to buttermilk biscuits; buttermilk pancakes and waffles, creme fraiche, chicken marinated in buttermilk and then fried, buttermilk pie (yum).

((I))

They like that it is 4000 miles away.

Larry J

My French host family's daughter was obsessed with Miracle Whip. She got fat eating so much of it while in Minnesota and got in trouble with her mom.

Hey, Ira -- buttermilk pie sounds too yummy. Is that a recipe you'd be willing to share?

That is so funny! My DH would drench everything on his plate in Ranch. I attribute this to the fact that his mother was an indifferent cook at best, and some meals at his house were/are truly horrible. They all grabbed whatever salad dressing was available and loaded up. One day I guess he just happened to get the Ranch. :)

Ranch is actually very easy to make, and you DON'T have to use buttermilk. You buy the paper envelopes of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix and combine one packet with 8 oz. each of mayo and milk. Shake, chill, and voila. If you want low-fat ranch you can use light mayo and skim milk. We've found that the best combination is regular (read, full fat) mayo and either 2% or 1% milk. Delicious!

Hi HD,

There is a good recipe at
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1937,...234195,00.html

Folks around here would reduce the flour by 2 tsp and add one more egg yolk.

Some of them don't add any flour, just 2 more egg yolks.

Of course, no one admits to using a store bought pie crust. :)

Enjoy.

((I))

Oh. Do you mean you can make a pie crust at home? Whatever will they think of next!

Thanks, Ira. I've got company coming in a couple of weeks and I may try this out on them.

Many things but the ones that come to mind:

- People are very friendly and approachable, you can have conversations with total strangers.
- Positive attitudes - where I live we have the reputation of being 'moaning minnies', complaining about everything. Its meant to be lighthearted but it does get you down.
- Conveniences - 24 hour stores, Tivo, things like that. I like being able to get anything at any time.
- Variety - so many completely different cities, landscapes, so much to do and see in one country.
- Everything is cheap (it seems to us). Gas is really cheap, even now, eating out is cheap, clothing is ridiculously cheap. I can get designer tops in Macys in NYC for the same price as a low quality no-name top from a random shop here.
- Many types of places to eat out, and mostly very reasonable prices.
- Free refills in restaurants.