Aussie Dopers - Been to Outback Steakhouse?

[alphaboi867]

@adam yax

…Also, I haven’t seen musk scented deodorant in about 15-20 years. I guess the marketers in North America figured that people didn’t want to cover there own offensive scent with the offesive scent of an ox.

Really ? I see it all the time in supermarkets. My father uses it.

[threnodyangelfire]

@whole bean

Americo-Australianian relations are at an all-time low. As I’m sure you remember, in the late 1980s the US experienced a short-lived infatuation with Australian culture. For some bizarre reason, the Aussies thought this would be a permanent thing. Of course, it wasn’t.

Well I don’t know about that. I travelled through the US last year, and even when alone, just ordering a drink at the bar or something like that my accent garnered a lot of attention. And you guys are so cool too! I hope I show overseas tourists the same amount of respect and hospitality I observed through my American Travels.

[Khampelf]

@nevermore

as a former Outback employee, let me clear something up:

Outback was never meant to be anything other than a farce.

It states clear as day in the employee handbook that the concept for the restaurant was based on the movie “Crocodile Dundee”.

I had a feeling it was all Paul Hogan’s fault.

Wow. This is my first thread that went to two pages.

[Khampelf]

@Sublight

Funny, the two Outbacks in Japan I’ve been to (Grandberry Mall in Machida and Shinagawa InterCity) were both very good. Neither of them seemed to play up any Australia-ness (the choices of beer were Japanese and American), instead looking like more low-key versions of TGI Friday’s (similar menus, but very quiet and none of the nostalgia or flair crap). The only part of the Shinagawa restaurant that even hinted at Australia was that the TV over the bar was showing rugby.

The one I was in, on Bell Rd in Glendale, was choc-a-Bloc with stuffed Emu, Koalas climbing up the support beams, boomerangs on the walls, Boomerang shaped Foster’s Lager ads, Travel Posters, and a Kangaroo or two, for some reason.

[athelas]

@Omniscient

I can’t imagine it being much different than American themed restaurants you’ll come across in various countries in western Europe. They are typically littered with photos of mobsters, cowboys and baseball players. The names are generic archetypes and the menu is only as American as it can be and still be accessible to the local population.

Could you name a few? That sounds like something I’d like to experience sometime.

[Siam_Sam]

@alphaboi867

I’m surprised that none of the Aussies that posted here have mentioned meat pies. When I was in Australia they were everywhere.

Those are good. Not hard to find in Bangkok. Pattaya, too, I’m told. A lot of enterprising Aussies over here.

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

@athelas

Could you name a few? That sounds like something I’d like to experience sometime.

The Indidana Tex-Mex restaurant just outside Gare du Nord in Paris certainly needs to be … experienced :dubious:

[Hampshire]

@The Sonoran Lizard King

I had a feeling it was all Paul Hogan’s fault.

Wow. This is my first thread that went to two pages.

Or that Yahoo Serious guy.

[Giles]

@Hampshire

Or that Yahoo Serious guy.

While he’s not completely unknown, I don’t think Yahoo had as big an impact in the us as Paul did. On the other hand, I much prefer Yahoo’s sense of humour.

Meat pies are not completely unknown in the US, though they aren’t as good as Australian ones (of course!), and they are called “pot pies”. I’ve seen pasties in shops specialising in English food, where they are called Cornish pasties. If you have a recipe, they should both be pretty easy to make from the raw ingredients here, but I’ve never tried.

[whole_bean]

@threnodyangelfire

Well I don’t know about that. I travelled through the US last year, and even when alone, just ordering a drink at the bar or something like that my accent garnered a lot of attention. And you guys are so cool too! I hope I show overseas tourists the same amount of respect and hospitality I observed through my American Travels.

the Down Under fad fizzled and the diplomatic climate turned absolutely frosty.

@Hampshire

Or that Yahoo Serious guy.

I know those words, but that [post] makes no sense.

(yahoo) seriously, do we not export the Simpsons?

[Hampshire]

@whole bean

“Or that Yahoo Serious guy.”

I know those words, but that [post] makes no sense.
[/SIZE]

I was being facetious. I just remember they released one of his movies in the US (Young Einstein) and it pretty much crashed and burned upon arrival.

[whole_bean]

@Hampshire

I was being facetious. I just remember they released one of his movies in the US (Young Einstein) and it pretty much crashed and burned upon arrival.

and I was paraphrasing a Simpson episode where Lisa saw a marquee with the name Yahoo Serious on it and said “I know those words, but . . . .”

[Giles]

@Hampshire

I was being facetious. I just remember they released one of his movies in the US (Young Einstein) and it pretty much crashed and burned upon arrival.

I can understand that: its sense of humour is very quirky, and not for everyone. Part of the reason why I like it are:
(1) A lot of it was shot in Newcastle, including the bits in the insane asylum, shot at Fort Scratchley. (In addition, part was shot at the University of Sydney, very close to where I worked for a while). Yahoo Serious originally came from Newcastle.
(2) I used to know one of the actors in the movie, Su Cruickshank, who was Albert Einstein’s mother.

[Ferd_Burfel]

@Chronos

I think it’s because lamb’s brains (or any other brain-food) is completely foreign to most modern Americans, so we can easily write it off as “alien”. But burgers are familiar, so putting unusual (to us) things on one is a more accessible weirdness.

And for the record, not all American beef is grain-fed. Come to Montana sometime… Yum!

Fried brain sandwiches appear to have originated near St. Louis. And, for the record, I’ve never eaten one.

[Ichbin_Dubist]

Well, now that our culinary-minded Antipodean cousins are paying attention, what do you think of the menu of this New York City establishment, Tuck Shop? It’s close to a bar I often find myself at, and I was thinking about checking it out. I’ve never been to Australia myself, but I am willing to travel as far south as First Street.

[ralph124c]

@Ichbin Dubist

Well, now that our culinary-minded Antipodean cousins are paying attention, what do you think of the menu of this New York City establishment, Tuck Shop? It’s close to a bar I often find myself at, and I was thinking about checking it out. I’ve never been to Australia myself, but I am willing to travel as far south as First Street.

Now, that’s a great word! Sort of thing you’d find in a mid-Victorian geograpgy book!

[mhendo]

@Ichbin Dubist

Well, now that our culinary-minded Antipodean cousins are paying attention, what do you think of the menu of this New York City establishment, Tuck Shop? It’s close to a bar I often find myself at, and I was thinking about checking it out. I’ve never been to Australia myself, but I am willing to travel as far south as First Street.

Tuck shop is an Australian term for a sort of small store where you buy lunch items and other snacks, and the term is most often used to refer to locations at schools or at work. So, the place where you can buy candy and pies and sandwiches at school or at a factory is generally referred to as the tuck shop, or canteen.

Food is often colloquially called “tucker” in Australia, as in “That’s good tucker.”

I never knew about the New York Tuck Shop; i’m off to NYC in the middle of May for a week, and i’m definitely going to head down there and get me some sticky date pudding. Yum!

[Giles]

@Ichbin Dubist

Well, now that our culinary-minded Antipodean cousins are paying attention, what do you think of the menu of this New York City establishment, Tuck Shop?

That menu does look pretty authentic to me, though the prices are steeper than you’d typically pay in Australia.

[Rodgers01]

@threnodyangelfire

Well I don’t know about that. I travelled through the US last year, and even when alone, just ordering a drink at the bar or something like that my accent garnered a lot of attention. And you guys are so cool too! I hope I show overseas tourists the same amount of respect and hospitality I observed through my American Travels.

You were whooshed. The bit you’re responding to is a quote from the Simpsons episode where they go to Austr(^al)ia and Bart gets booted. Don’t worry, we’re still on friendly terms.

[Ichbin_Dubist]

@Giles

That menu does look pretty authentic to me, though the prices are steeper than you’d typically pay in Australia.

And yet for New York City it seems pretty reasonable. The words “that seems like a good deal” rarely come to one’s lips in NYC unless the item in question is on a piece of cardboard on the sidewalk, or you are about to steal it.