The technical term is “crinkle cut fries”. I just got the package out of the fridge to make sure.
I thought for a moment you meant “Curly fries”. http://www.foodpaparazzi.com/wp-content/uploads/arbys-curly-fries-ad.jpg
Have you ever taken an Italian to Olive Garden, Mexican to Taco Bell, Chinese to Asian buffet, etc.?
When mrAru and I were visiting Kerman [small town on the outskirts of Fresno CA] we hit the taco bell for a fast lunch, and it was filled with the local mexican workers. Most of them were getting the [IIRC] 10 taco box which probably came with a drink.
I liked getting the guacamole in the next sized up side container instead of the tiny dab size … probably related to the relative cheapness of avocados in california =)
On the other hand, when I was in Germany, my host wanted to tale me to a place featuring american food … so I told him that I would rather cook at home for him for a lot less that it would have cost him to take us out. Then we got into comparing my good stogy german cooking [iowa amish and german nanny … though I did introduce him to huevos rancheros and bread and indian puddings =)] with the good stogy bavarian cooking he grew up with. I make better sauerbraten than his mom =)
Yeah it’s boiled bacon and cabbage here rather than corned beef and cabbage. The menu in most “Irish” pub/restaurants in the US has various delicacies that are either fairly uncommon here in Ireland or made up completely.
Not in the cornish manner, the salt granules used with the spices to preserve the beef were called corns because they resembled grains of corn [generic term for gran, not referring to maise, american or indian corn]
Salting beef and other meats was one of the most common european methods of preserving. A good period recipe is lords salt the original is located at cariadocs miscellaney and also at Stefans florelegium but there you have to use the search function for lords salt.
Actually, american cooking was very bland and ‘whitebread’ for a very long time. It really wasnt until the 70s that people started exploring ethnic food outside of very large metropolitan areas unless the family itself was a recent import into the country. Those of us who fit the description WASP [white anglosaxon protestant] who came over around revolutionary war era tended to season with salt and pepper, and it was really frisky if you used parsley and chive … the only people who were different were in the border areas where the spanish or french would sort of seep into the foods, or blacks who brought facets of their own cooking with them. I can remember seeing a recipe for chili where the whole spiciness in the pot was a tiny teaspoon of red pepper … with the dire warning that it was spicy. I think if you fed them a jalapeno popper their heads would explode.
Places like NY, Boston, Miami and LA were different because there were always immigrants showing up and starting up places to eat, but in some place like lower Illinoise or upper Kansas there wasnt much influx of immigrants to do the foodie melting pot.
People like my grandparents were decidedly odd … the only reason [other than an apartment and an office in manhattan] that we knew what one type of chinese cooking was the fact that my grandmother had a pair of chinese roomies when she went to college that were sent over at very great expense by their parents for education [and as it was the late 19teens to get them out of the political turmoil going on. Don’t know why they didnt send them to Britain but I got to meet some seriously neat little old ladies before they died] and my grandparents had actually done the around the world traveling several times and brought back a taste for strange foods.
I remember aruvqan, even when I was growing up, people would regularly boil their veggies and then expect the kids to eat them. Just boil! No flavoring or anything. I firmly believe this is what made a whole bunch of people anti-veggies; if I had to eat such slop, I’d hate them too.
I’ll add to what seems to be a recurring anecdone: A friend and colleague of mine from Xi’an (born 1960, moved to the USA in 1992) loves, loves, loves the Chineese Buffets.
Absolutely nothing to do with the precise question joe posed, but intriguing nonetheless: In this area, we have a fairly large Hispanic immigrant community, mostly but not exclusively Mexican in ancestry – big enough that a supermarket and an AM radio station catering predominantly to them are successful.
And large numbers of them frequent our local Chinese take-out. Not for Chinese food, nor even for Mexican food prepared by them. For buffalo wings.
When I was in a Wall Street firm my boss refused to join us when Olive Garden opened. He advised us that he had seen the IPO and learned the food was “inauthentic”, that they had recipes selected via taste test panels and tuned to the different markets, with Chicago having different sausage than New Orleans to match the local Italian restaurants. We said “Sounds perfect! You sold us on it” He stayed back in disgust and we a great time without him, and went back the next week, and didn’t feel the obligation to invite him. Moron. You can’t judge a restaurant by its IPO.
Our German visitors weren’t interested at all in the German restaurant. They wanted to go to the craft brew pub and laugh at the risque names of the beers.
A friend of mine from law school (who is Costa Rican) and I were working late on a project and we went to Chipotle for some dinner. She said, in her option, it wasn’t too different from the kind of food popular in Costa Rica, in fast food format of course. Some stewed meat, black beans, salsa and rice.
The only thing different is that she would squeeze lime all over everything… turns out that is awesome and now I’m always asking for limes at Chipotle!
For whatever reason, the KOREANS have mastered fried chicken. And by extension, spicy wings (though I wouldn’t, precisely, call them “buffalo wings”.) I had the opportunity to try some recently, and wow. Surprising. And bizarre, since the restaurant that did them also sells sushi. @_@
Edit: Oh, and my wife, who is Taiwanese born, regards American Chinese with amusement when it’s some random made up dish, and great dismay when it’s named after something that -is- actual chinese food.
I had the opposite experience once. I used to work for a big multinational company that was based in Paris. One year they had a big meeting at the home office where each different division around the world sent staffers to learn about the company’s next big global initiative. So there were people there from the U.S., Canada, North Africa, and China.
The organizers thought it would be fun to take us out to dinner at restaurants that served our home cuisines. So one night we all went to an American restaurant, and another night we all went to a Chinese restaurant, and then a Moroccan restaurant.
The “American” restaurant was horrible. They served things like fried chicken and hamburgers but the seasonings and preparation were all wrong. The Chinese and North African attendees felt the same way about their restaurants. Here we were spending five days in Paris and we were eating CRAP!
Finally on the last day we were on our own. By that time we’d made friends with some of the workers in the Paris office. “Take us out for FRENCH food!” we begged. They shrugged and took us to a little bistro near the office where we had one of the most amazing dinners I’ve ever had.
Travel to any inner-city Black neighborhood and you will invariably find a Chinese restaurant that does a side-line in chicken wings. And the folks in those neighborhoods love 'em.
I went on a business trip to Taipei earlier this year. What I found in the local restaurant scene seemed to back this up. There were a lot of good restaurants, but the “Italian” and “French” restaurants seemed to be identical and just Western. Even the Italian place in the Shangri-La (Marco Polo IIRC) which was very tasty didn’t seem Italian to me.
Have taken my Chinese-Thai wife to quite a few Chinese and Thai places stateside. She tends to like the Chinese places better and is more picky about the Thai places.
She and every other Thai student at the U of Hawaii back when were going there all agreed every Thai restaurant in Hawaii was crap, but some were less crap than others. Hands-down the worst was this place called something like Kaeo’s. It was the worst and the most expensive, probably because the owner had lots of Hollywood stars as regular. Their photos were all up on the walls. The last time we visited Hawaii, we noticed a new branch in Waikiki, so he must be doing well.
The Thai restaurant she’s liked the best so far in the US was a small place in Lubbock, Texas that was set up in a former 7-Eleven convnience store.
Amen to this. I’m not a big fan of chicken wings (I find they get too messy, between eating them by hand and the bones), but the best chicken wings in town are at the Korean place (which, yes, also serves sushi). Then again, though, I’d say that the Korean place is probably the best restaurant in town overall, so it might not be the fairest comparison.
Backup question on Indian food: I went out to dinner at a place in Ankara, and the dish I was most in the mood for wasn’t spicy at all (I think it was lamb rogan josh). I asked the owner if he’d spice it up on request, he said sure, and I told him to try to kill me.
I got the simultaneous sweats and chills and the following endorphin rush was divine. An Indian acquaintance of mine took a bite and identified the spices putting me through this exquisite culinary inferno, but he didn’t react anywhere near as much.
So what level was I at, do you foodies think? I hope it was somewhere above 3.
It’s impossible to tell. I find that even if I beg and plead and say “Thai/Indian spicy” or “pretend I’m not white” or whatever, the heat range is all over the map. Individual batches of peppers vary wildly in terms of spice level. Plus one’s spicy tolerance seems to be variable, too, based on how tortured your taste buds are.
What some people don’t understand is that it’s not a macho thing. People who like spicy foods build up tolerances, sometimes quite significant, so that perception of spice levels is very personal. (Much like salt sensitivity is to others.) One of my favorite dishes, Thai holy basil chicken, I love amped up to maximal heat levels, because it’s a simple dish that works on the interplay of heat, basil, and fish sauce. When I’ve been eating a lot of the dish regularly, I need enormous amounts of heat to balance the flavors properly (to me). I’ve had Thai wait staff look at me quizzically and tell me that the spice level is even hot for Thais. For all I know, they may very well be humoring me. But it’s not a matter of trying to prove anything, or saying “look I’m a cool farang who can handle his heat.” It’s just that once you get used to it, you really need more to give you that hit you desire.
my brother and I grew up loving veggies - asparagus and artichokes are our favorites, we both like brussels sprouts and lima beans … real spinach [not the canned green goop]
Back in the day grocery stores were very limited - meats tended to be beef, chicken, pork [pork chops, cured picnic ham and bacon] lamb was a spring thing, turkey for thanksgiving, hot dogs, various sausages [breakfast and lunchmeat types, mainly beef summer sausage] and bologna. Veggies tended to be carrots, celery, potato, onion, iceberg lettuce, green peas, green beans, corn on the cob in season. Frozen and canned had a bit more available. Fruits tended to be strawberries, apples, pears, plums, oranges and lemons in season. My dad sent back artichokes and citrus fruits from business trips after he got out of the military, and when he was in he sent stuff back from overseas. We knew several local farmers who grew asparagus, and brussels, and limas, and mom had her own garden and grew spinach, and leaf lettuce, and other heirloom veggies.