12. Food and gastronomy - P

USA

There are two ways to explain the words “American food”. The first one is the food of native Americans (Indians. The second one is the food of many ethnic groups, who came as immigrants (America is a multicultural society). They all brought their own food, it’s true that it changed a bit from the original version thanks to the lack of ingredients. Americans adopted many kinds of ethnic meals but they use American ingredients.

Cereals for adults are unsweetened, for children over sweetened (sickly), they are eaten with milk in a bowl. Oatmeal is boiled in milk, it’s eaten hot with a bit of honey or fruit on it. Granola is dried oatmeal mixed with chunks of chocolate, raisins and nuts. At weekends they eat later and usually outside. American brunch is a combination of breakfast and lunch. They have three kinds of meat (fried bacon, sausages and lean ham) and three kinds of eggs (boiled, fried and scrambled with a bit of milk). Hash browns are grated potatoes which are fried until they are brown, they are crispy and with salt and pepper. Toast is made of 2 kinds of bread-wheat bread (white) and rye bread (dark). American pancakes are quite small, thick, stacked on the plate (they don’t roll them), eaten with butter and maple syrup. They have a glass of juice, a cup of tea or coffee. At the restaurant they pay just for the first cup and each refill is free.

Brown bagging is called the lunch brought from home. They put it into brown paper bags or they carry lunch boxes. It usually includes a sandwich and chips. PBJ sandwich is the most typical one. It’s a peanut butter and jelly or jam. Jelly is fruit cream, jam contains chunks of real fruit. Tuna fish sandwich is made of canned tuna fish mixed with mayonnaise and small pieces of pickles. Bologna sandwich contains smoked sausage inside. Chips were developed in the USA, The first were salted, later new flavours were added (barbecue flavour, salt and vinegar, sour-cream and onion, mustard, ketchup, cheese, etc.) Soda drinks are soft drinks (carbonated, non-alcoholic) and they include carbon dioxide and a lot of sugar and caffeine that’s why children become hyperactive after drinking them.

Fast food-hamburgers, it’s a ground meat in the bun with spices and vegetables. Mexican restaurants serve tortillas and chilli, Tortillas are Mexican pancakes, they dip them into salsa, chilli consists of ground meat, red kidney beans and salsa (sauce made of chilli peppers, tomatoes and spices). They give chilli on the tortilla and wrap it up. Margharita is a kind of tequila cocktail. Japanese restaurants specialize in sushi, which is a raw fish rolled into a circle and filled with rice or vegetables. It must be eaten fresh. Chinese restaurants offer meat, vegetables, pasta, rice, fried noodles with very spicy sauces. Asian restaurants are visited by many people, especially Thai restaurants are said to be delicious. They use chopsticks instead of the cutlery. The fortune cookie is brought together with the bill (it’s in the shape of an envelope), you break the middle and there is a piece of paper where you can read about your fortune. Convenience food is very popular, they it at home. It’s a ready-made food-they buy it in the supermarket, keep it in the fridge or freezer, put it in the microwave and heat it up. They call it a TV dinner because you can use the commercial breaks on TV to prepare this meal. (Sandwich=2 pieces of toast with filling, hamburger=2 pieces of bun, ground meat and spicy)