# American food in an ethnic restaurant **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2019, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639 "2019-09-22T03:35:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/1 "2019-09-22T03:35:40Z")
I was at a Mexican restaurant this afternoon and noticed there was an “American food” section for hamburgers and chicken tenders. So who out there is eating those foods at a Mexican restaurant, or any other “ethnic” restaurant? And how good (or bad) was the food? ---
**Author:** ![mjmlabs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mjmlabs/32/69_2.png) [@mjmlabs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmlabs)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/2 "2019-09-22T03:50:56Z")
Hamburgers and chicken tenders? Boy, those sound like “food for kids who don’t want to try Mexican food.” But I’m just speculating. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/3 "2019-09-22T04:06:16Z")
Our kids ate a wide range of (healthy!) foods at home, but when taken out into public between the ages of four and twelve… _nothing_ but chicken tenders. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/4 "2019-09-22T04:21:20Z")
I love Mexican food now, but I hated it as a kid thanks to an incident of projectile vomiting at a Mexican restaurant. Yeah I would say that stuff is there mostly for the kids. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/5 "2019-09-22T04:36:09Z")
I agree, it’s likely primarily there for kids, and probably for the occasional super-fussy adult patron who got dragged to an ethnic restaurant by their family or friends. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/6 "2019-09-22T04:44:20Z")
I see the same thing on menus in seafood restaurants; there’s almost always a section for “land lubbers”. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/7 "2019-09-22T06:57:31Z")
> [@mjmlabs](#): > > Hamburgers and chicken tenders? Boy, those sound like “food for kids and who don’t want to try Mexican food.” But I’m just speculating. older people too …at our Chinese buffet they have a spot for pizza fried chicken french fries and small steaks mashed taters ect cause a family would be there with grandpa/ma muttering abut "chink food " funny thing a server that worked told me about is there was an old lady liked orange chicken …but she only ate it in a tv dinner so it was basically orange sauce over tenders … so shed get a plate of tenders and they would put the orange sauce over them for her and she’d eat 3 or 4 plates of them … she tried normal orange chicken but it was too hard for her to eat … ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/8 "2019-09-22T07:49:40Z")
As the father of one of the most stubbornly finicky eaters in the entire universe, outside his mom (well it seems like it anyway when dinner time comes around) I can confirm that the american food and the chocolate and vanilla pudding on the cold section of the chinese buffet are for kids. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/9 "2019-09-22T10:02:24Z")
We have the same thing here at a lot of Indian restaurants, which have an English section. My local has steak, roast chicken, omelettes and scampi, all served with fries. However, there’s also a “Kiddies corner” section of the menu (fish sticks, chicken nuggets) so it must be intended for adults. Thier thinking is probably that it’s better to offer these options so that large groups will more likely turn up even if there’s just one or two people who are leery of “foreign” food. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/10 "2019-09-22T11:10:45Z")
If it weren’t for Mexican restaurants in San Diego putting burgers and fries on the menu, we’d never have discovered the culinary masterpiece that is carne asada fries. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/13 "2019-09-22T12:13:01Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I agree, it’s likely primarily there for kids, and probably for the occasional super-fussy adult patron who got dragged to an ethnic restaurant by their family or friends. [raises hand]. If I have to go to a Chinese or seafood restaurant I’ll be kicking and screaming the whole way there. If I absolutely have to go, I’m either going to look for something like a ‘regular’ burger or some other non Chinese/seafood item or I’m not going to eat (not to worry, you can assume I ate something beforehand). Nobody goes to Red Lobster FOR the burgers, they have them there so that one person that doesn’t eat seafood [raises hand] doesn’t convince the entire group of 10 people to go somewhere else on their way to prom or out for a birthday. Keeping a little bit of ground beef in the fridge and some fries in the freezer is a small price to pay to make sure a group that might spend a few hundred dollars still comes to your restaurant instead of going to Chilis. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/14 "2019-09-22T15:59:15Z")
I used to have a Duncan Hines road guide to national restaurants from 1953. In those days, 80% of the typical American family WERE “little kids” as far as their dinner was concerned. All the great Chinese restaurants of NY and SF, and the great Mexican restaurants of the SW, were reviewed, and each review basically said “Don’t worry! You can still get a nice big steak at this place!” I was also shocked by how ubiquitous fried chicken was. In 1953, you could get a plate of fried chicken anywhere from Bangor to Baja. Almost every restaurant in the guide featured it. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/15 "2019-09-22T16:11:11Z")
Obligatory Onion article > **[Area Grandmother Tries Indian Food](https://www.theonion.com/area-grandmother-tries-indian-food-1819569894)** > > BLOOMINGTON, MN—Characterizing the experience as "different," local grandmother Eileen Rutherford, 78, ate Indian food for the first time Saturday. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/16 "2019-09-22T22:32:31Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I was also shocked by how ubiquitous fried chicken was. In 1953, you could get a plate of fried chicken anywhere from Bangor to Baja. Almost every restaurant in the guide featured it. I was surprised to find out how before “factory farming” chickens were almost completely raised free range and were correspondingly very expensive. Chicken was a very special treat. Maybe that was when it was beginning to be less expensive, so restaurants wanted to show how hifalutin’ they were by having chicken on the menu. One of my favorite Mexican restaurants has a poblano chili burger which is AWESOME. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/17 "2019-09-22T23:13:43Z")
In Russia, no matter how exotically a restaurant is advertised (“Sushi” is an especially popular variant), it will always have a ponderously eclectic menu, like Babu’s place on _ **Seinfeld** _. They don’t seem to understand what “specialization” is all about. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2019, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/18 "2019-09-23T00:22:29Z")
Oh, me as a kid, certainly. I was willing to try Chi-chi’s fried ice cream, but anything that my mother didn’t regularly serve me wasn’t something I was willing to try. My 19-month old daughter now eats things that I didn’t eat until I was 30, and living in Mexico the first time (at 28) is what really opened my mind to food. Yeah, 28. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2019, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/19 "2019-09-23T00:27:09Z")
My freshman year in college (1996), I had a teacher who bribed us with food to get good evaluations. We had our “final exam” at an Italian restaurant. One of my classmates decided that he’d be adventurous, and try something exotic he’d never had before. It was spaghetti. He had lived his entire life on nothing but pizza, burgers, and cheesesteaks. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2019, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/20 "2019-09-23T00:37:40Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > I was surprised to find out how before “factory farming” chickens were almost completely raised free range and were correspondingly very expensive. Chicken was a very special treat. Maybe that was when it was beginning to be less expensive, so restaurants wanted to show how hifalutin’ they were by having chicken on the menu. Yeah. “A chicken in every pot” (attributed to Henry IV of France and President Herbert Hoover BOTH) was supposed to be a big deal. The common man would have the luxuries of the wealthy. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2019, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/21 "2019-09-23T00:44:31Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > Obligatory Onion article > > [Area Grandmother Tries Indian Food](https://local.theonion.com/area-grandmother-tries-indian-food-1819569894) When my daughter was four or five, I brought her along with me to a big lunch with a former co-worker and his new boss at an Indian restaurant. The food was delicious, but Leeza wouldn’t touch even the mildly-spiced chicken dish. Instead, she spent almost of all her time playing under the table. After we left the place, I took her to McDonald’s for a Filet-O-Fish, some McNuggets, and an order of fries. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2019, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639/22 "2019-09-23T00:53:40Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Yeah. “A chicken in every pot” (attributed to Henry IV of France and President Herbert Hoover BOTH) was supposed to be a big deal. The common man would have the luxuries of the wealthy. I’ve read that the chicken of today tastes little like the bird my parents ate. (For that matter, so does the turkey.) It boggles the mind! :eek: I seem to recall reading that the “Harvey sandwich” touted in the Judy Garland movie _ **The Harvey Girls** _ was made with chicken, which was an expensive ingredient back in the day. I’ve also read that things like tuna and chicken salad sandwiches became popular in the early 20th century partly from a desire to stretch leftovers. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-food-in-an-ethnic-restaurant/840639.md?page=2)