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  1. - Top - End - #61
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Sans beans it's just spaghetti sauce.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rynjin View Post
    Sans beans it's just spaghetti sauce.
    You mean bolognese sauce and it's not even close. Especially because traditional authentic chili (if we're talking old school) didn't have tomatoes in the recipe. Beans for sure though aren't authentic. First recipe for chili we have in print is from 1850 where it called for beef, suet (beef fat from around the kidney) and chili peppers. Those ingredients would then be boiled down until they were a solid mass. The mass would be dried and preserved for mass transport on the wide open ranges were they'd be added to water. Beans in recipes don't show up until the mid-20th century. So about a hundred years after. At least in writing and they were probably added as a means to keep the cost down and the food poundage up. Beans were, and still are, a rather cheap staple food and easy to store after all and as the dish moved from the ranches were getting meat was easy (because you're a rancher and all there are are cows), meat wasn't cheap for average non-herder Americans. The addition of beans thus allowed a hearty and filling dish while also being cheap. Or cheaper.

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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Talking to a few UK friends, they've had peanut butter, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, english muffins, fried chicken(it's actually fairly common there), hot dogs, burgers, french fries, chili(especially chili con carne), american style pizza, and turkey. So none of those would likely be exciting. Still, I will ponder some of the other ideas(though barbeque isn't much of a thing up here in western Washington, and I've never actually seen anywhere selling okra).
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Which is partly why I'm waving the flag for truly regional dishes and home-made food. Showing a Brit the likes of generic fried chicken, a pizza etc is frankly a waste of time - I have to point out, we're not still stuck in the dark ages of food [also known as WWII] where we're all eating bland stodge and have never seen a steak, pineapple or blueberry.

    And I'm of the firm opinion that for many cuisines, the best - and most authentic - can only be found in a private home, not a restaurant.
    Last edited by Mr Blobby; 2017-04-02 at 05:44 AM.
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  5. - Top - End - #65
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
    Also, all this talk about southern food and nobody's yet mentioned chicken-fried steak or chicken-fried chicken? Blasphemers!
    To be fair, those ideas are not unheard of in the UK. There are like a dozen different types of fried chicken shops in my hometown. I'm sure there are more varieties and better quality available in the US, but I don't think they would generate the kind of surprise the OP is looking for.

    Edit: ah, I didn't see we'd gone onto a new page. Oh well.
    Last edited by Ninja_Prawn; 2017-04-02 at 06:06 AM.
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    You got me wondering. Here we go to Italian, Greek, French, Mexican , Chinese, etc. restaurants. In Europe, are there American restaurants , al la Rick's Café Américain where people go to "pick up some American"?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scarlet Knight View Post
    You got me wondering. Here we go to Italian, Greek, French, Mexican , Chinese, etc. restaurants. In Europe, are there American restaurants , al la Rick's Café Américain where people go to "pick up some American"?
    ...not really. We certainly don't use the word 'American' in relation to food in the way that you would with 'Italian' or 'Chinese'. There are lots of American chains - there's a Ben & Jerry's not far from where I live, and there's a McDonald's in town - but you'd tend to use the name of the chain if you were going there, rather than saying "wanna pick up some American?" If you asked someone out and didn't specify a national cuisine, 'American' would probably be the assumed implication; there aren't really 'British' restaurants either*.

    In London, of course, you can find anything. There are places like this or this, for example. In the right company, you could use "wanna pick up some American" ironically to talk about those sorts of places.

    *Kind of. I mean, obviously there are amazing, Michelin-starred British chefs. There are plenty of fish & chips take-aways and oyster bars. The food they serve in gastropubs and carveries is British. But you wouldn't identify any of them with word 'British'; you'd define them specifically by the kind of food they serve.
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ninja_Prawn View Post
    To be fair, those ideas are not unheard of in the UK. There are like a dozen different types of fried chicken shops in my hometown. I'm sure there are more varieties and better quality available in the US, but I don't think they would generate the kind of surprise the OP is looking for.

    Edit: ah, I didn't see we'd gone onto a new page. Oh well.
    Fried chicken shops, or chicken-fry shops? Because they are very, very different, and I've never heard of a place that only does chicken-fried dishes, unlike fried chicken places. Don't get me wrong here, fried chicken is absolutely delightful (the big chains do alright, but nothing compares to a good small restaurant, or even better, some ok ne who knows how to homemake it well), but chicken-fried steak is a whole 'nother ballgame. It's closer to wienerschnitzel.
    Last edited by Peelee; 2017-04-02 at 07:36 AM.
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
    Fried chicken shops, or chicken-fry shops?
    I've never been in any of them, but I assume there are both? There's certainly enough of them to cover several different food styles.
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ninja_Prawn View Post
    I've never been in any of them, but I assume there are both? There's certainly enough of them to cover several different food styles.
    I'd be amazed if they did. It'd be like them also doing wings - they could, but it'd just be wrong. You don't get wings from a fried chicken joint, you get them from a wing joint.

    Chicken-fried steak/chicken is a very different creation, I tells ya. Even the cooking method is different. Fried chicken is deep-fried in oil, chicken-fried meats are pan-fried in lard.
    Last edited by Peelee; 2017-04-02 at 08:13 AM.
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    We have american themed restaurants here (there is one in my town and another on the road to the next town)...they are both pseudo 50's themed, and the main draw is the variety of burgers and milkshakes, but otherwise offer the standard sort of stuff (fries, cokes, hotdogs and rock n' roll on loop). I don't think many of them are chain restaraunts, from the ones i've seen they're mostly local/family type passions rum by folks who really like "happy days" and "grease". Although frankie and bennies' is a chain, it is a kind of "interwar-post ww2 new york italian american" theme so quite restricted in cultural/regional flavour. There are some more i think are american chain restaraunts, but they are generic enough i wouldn't describe them as american themed.

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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Togath View Post
    Talking to a few UK friends, they've had peanut butter, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, english muffins, fried chicken(it's actually fairly common there), hot dogs, burgers, french fries, chili(especially chili con carne), american style pizza, and turkey. So none of those would likely be exciting. Still, I will ponder some of the other ideas(though barbeque isn't much of a thing up here in western Washington, and I've never actually seen anywhere selling okra).
    None of the things I've bolded are things that they would have had made properly unless they were very fortunate to have someone that they personally knew who made it for them.

    American style pizza is going to pale in comparison with an actually good pizza.

    Quote Originally Posted by Sajiri View Post
    We have it here too but its really just not the same that you get from a can. I mean maybe it's totally different there, but my husband here is always complaining that any he finds here just can not compare to what he had in the US
    Much like baked beans, Australians and Britishers have no idea how to make them properly because it's so alien to them.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rynjin View Post
    Sans beans it's just spaghetti sauce.
    Not really. If you're doing it right you spice it completely differently.

    Also you can include corn and nopalitos cactus in it, and that's just not something even a madman would do to spaghetti.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Blobby View Post
    And I'm of the firm opinion that for many cuisines, the best - and most authentic - can only be found in a private home, not a restaurant.
    Indeed, but for some specialty items, your only real recourse is to find a good, non-chain joint.

    If someone thinks that they're getting a real, good pizza experience from a chain restaurant, you can know that their opinion has managed the rare feat of being objectively wrong.
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  13. - Top - End - #73
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Coidzor View Post
    If someone thinks that they're getting a real, good pizza experience from a chain restaurant, you can know that their opinion has managed the rare feat of being objectively wrong.
    Define "chain". Your large chains like Pizza Hut I can agree, but there's some good small chains that serve real good pizza. Soulshine (about 4 or 5 stores around Jackson, MS) served me some of the best pizza I've ever had.

  14. - Top - End - #74
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Coidzor View Post
    None of the things I've bolded are things that they would have had made properly unless they were very fortunate to have someone that they personally knew who made it for them.
    Peanut butter, really? I've noticed no perceptible difference between US peanut butter and Australian peanut butter. (Can't comment on most of the others, as they are meat-based and I don't eat meat.)

    Not really. If you're doing it right you spice it completely differently.

    Also you can include corn and nopalitos cactus in it, and that's just not something even a madman would do to spaghetti.
    While I agree with the general point (spices/flavoring are quite different), I do sometimes put corn in my tomato-based vegetarian spaghetti sauces (mostly during summer, when corn is cheap, plentiful and delicious). I have never tried adding cactus, though.

    I would second the recommendation for Mexican food - it was a revelation to me when I moved to the US, as in my part of Australia Mexican food was not common and not particularly good. South/east Asian food can also be much better in the US than in much of Europe, depending on where you are.

    The other major cuisine that I'd never encountered in Australia and fell in love with upon moving to the US was Ethiopian food, but I suspect that's also fairly specific to particular regions/cities in the US.
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Peanut butter is crushed peanuts... I don't really see how it could vary that much.
    Sometimes it's sweetened... which, again, doesn't seem like it would vary much.

    As for the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I confirmed that all of my UK friends have indeed had them. Or at least they've had peanut butter, butter, and jam, between two slices of white bread.

    As for fried chicken... I get the impression it's just as common there as in the united states? Stuff like KFC and the british chain "Nando's".

    Chili, at least home made chili, is something my boyfriend has been exposed to at least.

    As for hot dogs and burgers... it's meat in a patty or tube shape that's cooked and served with bread. It's about as region specific as a pot roast.
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Togath View Post
    As for hot dogs and burgers... it's meat in a patty or tube shape that's cooked and served with bread. It's about as region specific as a pot roast.
    Just going to steal this from the sandwich thread...
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    The only kind I tend to eat is hot dog(any kind) + bread(roll, bun, sliced, french, tortilla, etc) + ketchup.
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Togath View Post
    Peanut butter is crushed peanuts... I don't really see how it could vary that much.
    Sometimes it's sweetened... which, again, doesn't seem like it would vary much.
    You'd be surprised. Some cheapskate manufacturers add extra vegetable oil. Sometimes, as you've noted, they add sweetener (which makes the whole concoction vile beyond belief, in my opinion). Most, but not all, recipes add salt. The variations can be quite noticeable.

    (Edit: I'm slightly surprised to learn there isn't a "peanut butter with added chili" on the market. I'd try it. Just throwing that out there, in case anyone reads it.)

    Quote Originally Posted by Togath View Post
    As for fried chicken... I get the impression it's just as common there as in the united states? Stuff like KFC and the british chain "Nando's".
    Point of order: Nando's is a South African chain, although (according to Wikipedia, at least) they currently have more branches in the UK than any other country. However, their signature chicken is "flame-grilled", not fried.

    Quote Originally Posted by Togath View Post
    Chili, at least home made chili, is something my boyfriend has been exposed to at least.
    Yeah, chili is ridiculously easy to make at home. At least in some form, following any one of about 4,027,911 recipes you can find online from any country of your choice. If you know a restaurant that makes a particularly good/distinctive version, then sure, it might be worth taking him - but just standard homemade or cafe/deli chili? Not gonna impress.
    Last edited by veti; 2017-04-02 at 08:34 PM.
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Point of order:
    Quote Originally Posted by Rynjin View Post
    Meat only chili is only good for topping hot dogs, IMO.

    I think we can both agree that people who put multiple different types of beans in their chili are wrong though.
    Quote Originally Posted by Razade View Post
    Anyone putting any beans in chili are wrong, it ceases to be chili. The number of beans in the chili is irrelevant. Blasphemy is blasphemy. I don't honestly care what people do with their food.
    You're both wrong, it's kidney beans and black beans, and I'll fight you for suggesting otherwise.

    --
    Regional complaints about food prep aside, buckwheat pancakes, biscuits and gravy (or chipped-beef gravy), gumbo (or any cajun/creole food), and real pizza. I'm not sure about Americanized "Chinese" food (general tso's chicken and the like), but that might be different enough also.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Amidus Drexel View Post
    Point of order:




    You're both wrong, it's kidney beans and black beans, and I'll fight you for suggesting otherwise.

    --
    Regional complaints about food prep aside, buckwheat pancakes, biscuits and gravy (or chipped-beef gravy), gumbo (or any cajun/creole food), and real pizza. I'm not sure about Americanized "Chinese" food (general tso's chicken and the like), but that might be different enough also.
    You'll lose. The space all those beans take up in your chili is replaced with meat in mine. More protein, more muscle.
    Last edited by Razade; 2017-04-02 at 08:51 PM.

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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ninja_Prawn View Post
    Nah, crumpets are different. They've got, like, holes in them. I've never actually eaten a crumpet, but I assume they're a bit... springy? And cakey? English muffins are more like really dense bread.
    What sort of English Muffin DOESN'T have holes in it? The American ones, I mean. I know how confusing that is, but I'm getting confused as to what bread product is which.

    Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
    Also, all this talk about southern food and nobody's yet mentioned chicken-fried steak or chicken-fried chicken? Blasphemers!
    As an American, I have to admit...I have no idea what those two items are. Yeah, I'm not from the south.

    My Canadian husband tried deep fried oreos with me once. We both hated them, but hey, they're pretty Amercian! Same goes for deep fried twinkies.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Honest Tiefling View Post
    What sort of English Muffin DOESN'T have holes in it? The American ones, I mean. I know how confusing that is, but I'm getting confused as to what bread product is which.
    A muffin has 'holes' in the sense of 'air mixes into the dough while cooking'. A crumpet has holes in the sense of 'looks like someone stuck a... whole bunch of sticks into the thing while it was cooking':

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    The crumpet is actually a fried product, not baked - it's more closely related to the pancake than any kind of bread. Those holes are created by bubbles, during the frying process.
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    I'm kind of curious how well available real maple syrup is across the water. not maple flavored syrup, but real maple syrup.
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    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Honest Tiefling View Post
    As an American, I have to admit...I have no idea what those two items are. Yeah, I'm not from the south.
    It's also known as country-fried steak, IIRC. Basically pan-fried in that particular way.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Blobby View Post
    ...This is why I suggested Mexican food - we don't see that so much here in the UK. Particular proper Mexican....
    Quote Originally Posted by Sajiri View Post
    ....Depending on where you are (I was in San Diego) real mexican food was pretty different. We have mexican food/restaurants here but it's just something entirely different.
    )...
    Quote Originally Posted by Ifni View Post
    .....I would second the recommendation for Mexican food - it was a revelation to me when I moved to the US, as in my part of Australia Mexican food was not common and not particularly good. South/east Asian food can also be much better in the US than in much of Europe, depending on where you are.

    The other major cuisine that I'd never encountered in Australia and fell in love with upon moving to the US was Ethiopian food, but I suspect that's also fairly specific to particular regions/cities in the US.

    Different cities have different "American cuisines", and also different "ethnic cuisines", and quality. Having grown up in the "San Francisco bay area" (mostly Oakland where I was born), I foolishly expected "Mexican" food, in the Washington D.C. area to be similarly "can't go wrong", as in California. I won't make that mistake again! East Coast "Mexican" food was awful! If Seattle has good Mexican restaurants that may be a good bet.

    When I briefly visited Seattle in the late 1990's I noticed that they were many Greek restaurant's, which we didn't have many of in Oakland, but I saw no Ethiopian or "Soul Food/Louisiana kitchen" (SE USA style food) restaurants, which we had/have plenty of in Oakland. In the bay area (especially Berkeley and San Francisco) there is what is called "California cuisine" which is "French inspired" but using local ingredients, and there is "California Fusion", which is again local ingredients but with Asian (especially but not exclusively Japanese) and French influences.

    Sadly I've never been to Britain (visiting has long been an ambition of mine), but I have gone to a "British" restaurant (seemed to be similar food to "German" restaurants), and to a "British Deli" (the "Cornish pasties" were yummy), but judging from them, and what I've eaten when visiting Ottawa - Canada, and Washington - D.C. (assuming PNW food is like Californian), I would go in this order:

    1. Mexican

    2. Soul/Louisiana/Southern

    3. Ethiopian/Eritrean

    4. "Californian" (Chez Panisse etc.)

    5. "Fusion"
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  26. - Top - End - #86
    Bugbear in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2014

    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    It's always hard to see past your own regionalism and figure out which "normal" foods might be interesting to someone from out of the area, but I definitely second the people who said seafood. Yes, England is an island and thus there is plenty of nearby sea available to develop seafood traditions from, but Washington is on a completely different ocean with different types of fish and ways of preparing them (presumably - I have not been to England).

    I think of plank-cooked salmon as being a PNW thing, particularly. We also used to tend to get whole crab when it was in season. (I haven't eaten meat in about a decade, so I'm blanking on other seafood.)

    Also (and not in the same meal), tater tots. I have no idea if those have made their way around the world (probably they have, since they are an efficient use of potato scraps), but my understanding is that they started in the PNW, so we might as well claim them. Best served after having several of our local craft beers.

    It's the wrong season for it right now, but in the fall pumpkin things might also be something not as common overseas. I am also not sure if watermelons are as common other places (I know they are common but more expensive in Japan).

    Most of my family's foreign visitors tend to be from Japan, so we tend to take them out for steak just because it is so much cheaper to get good steak here. They also tend to be surprised by how "wild" our wilderness is (a few years ago, we had to explain to a couple of them why they couldn't just show up and wander up to the summit of Mt. Hood without any special gear or training), but that's not a food thing. I would imagine that Britain is very different from Japan, so I'm not sure how much that helps. (I also used to like to drive foreign visitors past the strip mall gun store that would have a person standing outside on the sidewalk waving a big sign that said "GUN SALE" to attract business, because I figured that would be a thing they would not have seen before. I'm still kind of sad that that place closed down.)

    You might also just pull up a list of local restaurants and ask your visitor what sounds like something they aren't used to. Most towns have some sort of restaurant guide available through the local chamber of commerce or tourism promotion agency.

  27. - Top - End - #87
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Kobold

    Join Date
    May 2009

    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Keltest View Post
    I'm kind of curious how well available real maple syrup is across the water. not maple flavored syrup, but real maple syrup.
    It's available, in the sense that you'd have no trouble finding it. Affording it, however - that's a whole 'nother thing.

    Quote Originally Posted by Algeh View Post
    Most of my family's foreign visitors tend to be from Japan, so we tend to take them out for steak just because it is so much cheaper to get good steak here. They also tend to be surprised by how "wild" our wilderness is (a few years ago, we had to explain to a couple of them why they couldn't just show up and wander up to the summit of Mt. Hood without any special gear or training), but that's not a food thing. I would imagine that Britain is very different from Japan, so I'm not sure how much that helps. (I also used to like to drive foreign visitors past the strip mall gun store that would have a person standing outside on the sidewalk waving a big sign that said "GUN SALE" to attract business, because I figured that would be a thing they would not have seen before. I'm still kind of sad that that place closed down.)
    You'd be surprised, how much the UK and Japan have in common. They're both island nations, off the coast of a major continent with which they have a long and chequered history. They're both very densely populated (which goes to your "wilderness" point). They both have a traditional culture that places high value on courtesy, self-control, and hiding one's true feelings (which I think is closely related to the population density). They both have a strong central government and a constitutional monarchy.

    I think there's a reason why one of Britain's finest living novelists is Japanese. The Remains of the Day is set in England, An Artist of the Floating World in Japan, but they're essentially the same human story told from different viewpoints.
    "None of us likes to be hated, none of us likes to be shunned. A natural result of these conditions is, that we consciously or unconsciously pay more attention to tuning our opinions to our neighbor’s pitch and preserving his approval than we do to examining the opinions searchingly and seeing to it that they are right and sound." - Mark Twain

  28. - Top - End - #88
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    BlackDragon

    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Manchester, UK
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    You know, I've just had a thought. Why don't you just take him to restaurants that *you* enjoy, regardless of whether they're serving stuff you'd class as "authentically American" or not? It's vanishingly unlikely that said restaurants will serve exactly the same sort of stuff he'd be eating at home, and you know the stuff is good!

  29. - Top - End - #89
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    PirateGirl

    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    England
    Gender
    Female

    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    American here with a British hubby, who is now herself living in the UK.

    Absolutely going to say yes to Mexican food. It is VERY different over here, in the cases it actually exists; I'm not sure they've quite figured out what to do with it yet. Tex-mex, too. The entire flavour palette is something that the UK doesn't really have.

    Whoever recommended pulled pork is onto something good, too.

    Also seconding pancakes with genuine maple syrup. Both of those things do exist over here, but are generally pretty rare and/or expensive. (And the maple syrup is usually not of a very high grade even when it does exist--although maybe that's just where I live.) What a British person would typically call "pancakes" is something much closer to what we would call "crepes" in the US.

    Also what, thirding? the Chicago-style pizza. My own guy was very impressed by that.

    And for a suggestion of my own: Chicken alfredo. Alfredo sauce simply does not seem to exist in the UK. You can get carbonara sauce, or generic cheese sauce, but that's really not the same.

    And a snack food he found surprisingly enjoyable: jalapeno poppers.

    Something else he really enjoyed were s'mores. Graham crackers are pretty hard to come by in the UK, and you can heat the marshmallows over the stove (or the microwave if you really want) if you don't have access to the great outdoors.

    For another dessert-y thing, ice cream exists over here but is fairly rarely served with toppings. Going to a dedicated ice cream parlor with tons of choices might be a fun experience. (Ice cream is also generally richer in the US, as far as my personal experience goes. I've been advised that parlors do exist in some of the larger cities now, though--but depending on where in the UK he lives, it might be worth an ask.)

    And various kinds of sweet pies also were popular with my hubby. He'd never had Key Lime Pie or Peanut Butter Silk or French Silk or Coconut Cream or Pumpkin or Butterscotch or...

    Other things that are Very Different: As someone else mentioned, Indian food. I know, I know--it's absolutely ubiquitous in the UK, but it really tastes pretty different than what you'd get in America. I feel like there often tends to be more milk/yog(h)urt involved and also more grease. It's honestly about as different as Thai curry is from Indian curry is from Japanese curry.

    Another thing that is Very Different on this side of the pond is Chinese food. It's incredibly fatty, and I can't say a whole lot more about how it's different because mostly I find it inedible. Hubby was shocked and delighted at how "good" American Chinese was, and we went to no less than five different restaurants during his first visit to the US so he could taste it all.

    Are you close enough to Canada to get poutine? That's probably worth it.

    And as for drinks, may I suggest iced tea?
    And if it's the right time of year: Eggnog.
    Me: "Are you like, trying to destroy the world or something?"
    DMPC: "...I'm eleven."
    Me: *suspicious* "Is that a 'yes'?!"
    ―my current PTU campaign

  30. - Top - End - #90
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2014

    Default Re: American food to feed to a British friend?

    Poutine is able to be found in the States (especially Seattle). It's made a lot of inroads, especially where cities are on or near the border. It's also not at all hard to make if you can find the ingredients. Cheese curds are pretty easy to find if you have anything like a Whole Foods. Or a Sprouts or any "fresh food market" or the like. The rest is just french fries and you can find the gravy recipe and make it yourself. All pretty simple.

    But Togath is in Seattle last I knew. They shouldn't have a problem finding a place that sells poutine. If anything, they'll be drowned with choices.

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