cblaisd

I love those!

alanw

No, you don't. Trust me. Imagine someone dried out onions, ground them into a paste, then mixed them with water and binders and squizzed the resulting goo through a die that yielded perfectly uniform rings. Bread and deep fry. It's got the texture of a loogie at a county fair and tastes like chemicals.

cblaisd

Alan, you will think less of me know that that is exactly what I do like.

Kroger used to sell them frozen.

For someone whose reason for eating onion rings is for the mildly onion-y flavored crust, these are perfect. When I get onion rings that have actual onions in them that are more than ~ 3/16" wide I pull the onions out and eat the crust.

I have not been accused of having really highbrow taste.

DJSAM

In Sydney, there's a great little place in Neutral Bay (on Military Road) called 'South'. The chef is an American and they serve a mix of the southern US, 'rustic' type food; Busciuts and gray, jambalaya, crab cakes, pull apart pork roast, greens, etc. It's a small place, but always busy and not just with ex pats.
Although I visit the Mid West a couple of times each year, to me, this style of cuisine is what I consider American, not the chic, modern dining you would find say in San Fran. While these places are cutting edge, each country has chefs who are pushing the envelope (London is now considered the pinnacle of dining in Europe, but we wouldn't say that English cuisine is one we would go out for). To me, it's the traditional foods that remind me of places I have visited.
On another note, while in Dubai recently, I was amazed by the amount of US owned, fast food outlets. I saw Chilli's, Subway, KFC, McD, Hardy's to name a few. Is nowhere safe from these guys!!

Hisgirl

Oh my goodness I can't believe I'm the first to list this...

When my UK friends come over this is what I feed them and they will practically moan with with ecstasy while eating.....and beg me for recipes or air mail packages...

Barbecued baby back ribs, fried green tomatoes, buttermilk biscuits with cream gravy, fried chicken dredged in buttermilk and tobasco sauce, sweet potato soufflet with brown sugar pecan topping, fried okra, black-eyed peas, cracklin' cornbread, peach sweet tea and banana puddin'.

I believe in other parts it's called Soul Food. Down here in the deep south it's called supper.

KarenH

Enormous portion sizes are requisite.

Cloudship

I live in the US, so this is based purely upon discussions with my brother and his SO from England and their friends, but it is not so much that they do not serve food that we have in America, as that it is not called "American". When you think of going out in the US, you think of fast food, or southern, or pizza, or TGI Fridays, or whatever. The same there. There is no "American" food - they still go out for burgers, or pizza, or whatever. Yeah they kind of think of it as American, but don't really call it that - they call it by a more specific name.

For instance, if you say "Indian", you think, curries, maybe samosas, and that is mostly it. Chinese think stir fry type items. Mexican is usually tortilas around something (even if that is not really Mexican). There is no "American" item. It's too diverse to be an style on it's own.

braslvr

All those things plus a few more are what I would call American food as well. Things that you pretty much can.not.find outside of the US. I would include all BBQ meats cooked in smokers, and especially American breakfast sausage (links or patties).

cornfedcowboy

Interestingly enough, I was once told that Chili is really the only true American dish. I kind of think it is true.

user1

What other nation in its right mind would have come up with things like deep-fried dill pickles or fried coke?

Back to the title subject for a moment, I've stopped counting friends visiting the US who find American food remarkably salty. Would the posters here agree with that?

mlshanks

Of course, then there are the the foreign interpretations of traditional "American" food...

....I still remember seeing a menu posted outside what I was told was "pretty good" restaurant in Oxford which advertised "Authentic Southern Fried Chicken"... Smothered with MUSHROOM GRAVY.

Now there actually *are* a few places in the South that will actually serve gravy WITH fried chicken (not smothering, but on the side), most notably Maryland and to a lesser extent Virginia. But it's CREAM gravy, a pan gravy, or a "Country" gravy (cream with flavored w/ pork products like sausage, ham, or bacon). Certainly not mushroom gravy, since mushrooms are *not* a significant part of traditional Sothern cooking. And certainly no self-respecting Southerner would smother fried chicken before it got to the table...as it would defeat the purpose of frying the chicken crisp!

And don't get me started on the offenses against nature that are "chili" served in foreign lands... (I once got served a bowl of chili with green peas in it in London! ...and another with artichokes in France!)

jpatokal

American food is huge in Singapore, although oddly, the epitome of cool here seems to be New York City. In general, "Western" food with no further qualifiers translates into anything grilled and served with french fries, while "American" is a loosely defined subset of that revolving on a steak-burger-hot dog-pizza-pasta axis. Note that Italian, French, etc are not considered "Western". Some semi-random examples:

* New York, New York, probably the most authentic of the lot, with Philly cheesesteaks, all-day breakfast, pancakes and lots of stuff that is very American but isn't necessary instantly associated with the country
* NYDC, eclectic menu with pizza, pasta, brownies, cheese cake etc
* Manhattan Fish Market, mostly fish and chips (yeah, not too American...)
* Empire State, burgers and buffalo wings and whatnot
* Billy Bombers, retro 50s diner style

...and lots more... (308, to be precise!)

YXU Dude

i recalled seeing TGI fridays, red lobster, trader vic's, wolfgang puck, tony romas and a hawaiian-styled burger chain.
i dined there at the old spaghetti factory and a buffet place called sizzler and another place that may have been called harvester. denny's was everywhere. also some delicatessens and bakerys that were oriented more toward american items, an increasing number of good brewpubs with accompanying fare familiar to americans, and the occasional jazz cafe.
there were quite a few other one-off places that were fairly american and at least a couple in tokyo that were canadian (thanksgiving turkey dinner served in october).
then there was the odd random and totally isolated little place in the hinterlands that one would occasionally come across - one i recall was a roadside shack where the father and son served dodger dogs and anchor steam beer while wearing dodger jackets and caps.

http://bento.com/tf-rest.html#cuisine2

KNRG

Lived in Paris for 30 days and the oddest bit was the "American" section of the supermarket the way our supermarkets have Mexican or Chinese food.

It was a single endcap on an aisle at most, sometimes just a shelf, but it always had peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, and then the makings nachos and tacos in many varieties.

I went to "English Pub" called The Frog which is apparently a chain. It had beer it brewed itself like many places here in the states - according to locals the only good beer to be found in Paris. Though it was themed as "English" the locals all concured it was more American in its offerings - we ordered nachos (with the proper bright orange nacho cheese) and a proper cheeseburger. It did have some English food offerings, so to the French the two are somewhat interchangeable.

"Americano" sandwiches from various vendors usually had beef or were more complex in having many meat/cheese/veg choices as opposed to other mentioned regions. It was almost as if it was a way of identifying the chef's special, as they often had a lot more complexity then the other regionally labeled sandwiches.

Btw, the French rather like McD's and eat it about as much as any American.

braslvr

I can see that. Most food I've had outside of the US other than Japanese or Indian, I've had to or wanted to get out the salt shaker. Korea being the best example. If what they say about salt and hypertension is true, Koreans should have the lowest blood pressure in the world.