If your normal diet consists of healthy food like many Japanese diets do, eating authentic American food is NOT a good idea, especially southern food. I say this from experience.
healthy food like many Japanese diets do
Wanna explain what that is? Because obesity is on the rise here and people day-to-day are just eating konbini (convenience store) pre-packaged stuff laden with fried food and instant noodles.
Meals that aren’t stuffed with butter and sugar. Even the stuff at 7-eleven or Lawson is far healthier than a lot of American food.
There’s still a fair bit of sugar in everything. I think trans-fats are also still in use here unless that changed recently.
I want to see Buc-ee’s and the fast food chain Cookout go international. That’s authentic American food, and it’s pretty damn tasty.
I couldn’t imagine a Buc-ee’s in Europe.
In Texas there are signs for “Next Buc-ee’s 108 miles”. Do that in parts of Europe and you have to cross multiple international borders…and none of them will know wtf a mile is.
The heart wants what it wants. We cannot decide for it.
Even better, they should still be directing to the ones in Texas.
Next Buc-ee’s in 4,181 nautical miles.
there’s one in Jersey that’s 580 miles away
There is? I just searched Google maps…I live in MA and it showed a response on Cape but it was actually a “Bucky’s”. It showed one in New Jersey but that was a podunk little place named Delta Gas.
Northernest ones I saw were in Kentucky. There were closer ones to Europe…probably Florence SC, Pelham NC, or Daytona FL.
I mean there’s a sign in NJ saying the nearest one is 500 miles away
An hour driving is not “next”. Yes, i’m europe.
Try two hours. Your doing a bit mile every 40s.
As an ignorant American, does Europe even have billboards like America does?
For context…Buc-ee’s takes pride in their exceptionally clean restrooms. Also idk if gross rest stop/truck stop restrooms are as much of a trope over there.
does Europe even have billboards like America does?
At least not here (Switzerland).
Also idk if gross rest stop/truck stop restrooms are as much of a trope over there.
More in public restrooms. Bigger train stations have “Mr. Clean” since a few years now, clean and nice for 1.50 CHF. Not like the same service would make train billets much more expensive but anyway.
But rest stops, we have as much as villages; all few km the next one.
No, they do KFC
Fanciest KFC I’ve ever been to was in Kampala, Uganda
Ah i see you stayed in hotel kampala as well.
God I wish
I used to work down the street from another building that had a small cafeteria, but on Fridays the chef would set up a big grill outside and cook up sausages, hot dogs, burgers, chicken, and grilled veggies. It was just like going to a backyard BBQ. Those were some good Friday lunches when we made it over there.
Well, there is this guy
I was dragged to a country western bar in Japan so, it’s not impossible?
In Tokyo? Country House? If so, I’ve been, heh.
There was (maybe still is?) a lesbian country and western bar in West Hollywood, CA.
Went in by mistake once.
Columbus, OH had a gay western bar one that turned into the goth club by the time I first went there.
I’d love to go to a bar like that in Japan purely to judge the authenticity.
I went to one in a small town in Japan years ago. It was actually really adorable, the owner LOVED that I was from California
I feel like it might be confusing when I tell them I’m from Ohio 🤣
I always wonder how culturally authentic these gimmicky restaurants are. Like realistically hardly anybody in America grills food in the backyard. I do it maybe 3x/year and only in the summer. I’ve seen my dad multiple times grill with snow on the ground, but he was an outlier.
I guess it’s not the backyard, but grilling at tailgating is super common.
Yeah I’m not saying grilling doesn’t happen a lot, just that you’re unusual if you grill something more often than you for example buy a hamburger. McDonalds alone sells over 2 billion a year, and that’s just them. In terms of commonness, if anything truly defines an authentic American meal it’s probably a burger, fries and a drink from a fast food chain - and they’re all over most of the world already.
We do it all the time in the balkans, weather permitting. There’s probably plenty of other regions where it’s common. I don’t know where people get the idea that bbq in the backyard is somehow an American invention.
I live in Canada and I bbq’ed dinner a couple days ago. We didn’t eat outside, of course, since it’s -10, but grilling is still a go-to method of cooking.
I think it depends on the region of America. I grill a lot in the back yard and so do a lot of friends and family.
Exactly, it’s regional cooking not “American” cooking. A Texas bbq is different from a Chicago or Oakland bbq, and some people insist theirs is the only “real” kind.
BBQ varies by region, but burgers are burgers for the most part. The only real difference is usually what type of ground beef they decide to use, and if they press the meat down or not.
Aside from that, I don’t think a burger in TX is gonna be much different than a burger in NYC or a burger in CA
Like realistically hardly anybody in America grills food in the backyard.
🤨
American living in Japan here and I grill weekly on my Weber over charcoal. When I lived in Texas, we grilled whenever we could, basically. In the midwest, my grandparents had a Jenair for when the weather was bad and grilled at least once a week. They were rich, though, so there’s that.
Like realistically hardly anybody in America grills food in the backyard.
Not so sure about that, grilling is a regular and widespread thing where I live in the US.
I like the idea, but why the fuck is Hank cooking on a charcoal bbq? Does he want to taste the heat and not the meat?!?
He’s even smiling. My guy sells propane.
If I didn’t want to taste the meat I’d just cook the meat on a pan
This is from Season 3 Episode 19 where Peggy makes a video for the Dallas Cowboys by cobbling together old home movies to show them the personality of the people of Arlen. Presumably, this footage is from before Hank’s hatred for charcoal began—I’m going to take a wild guess and say he became more evangelical about propane when he became a lead.
In the early seasons he grilled on charcoal. Also they sell propane grills that use charcoal, this isn’t actually a conflict, it was more an affectation.
Why would someone want a propane grill that uses charcoal?
Charcoal flavor with propane convenience. I’ve definitely seen gas grills with some sort of insert where you can put charcoal or mesquite.
Doesn’t yakitori exist already?
Yeah but it counts only if you’re an American
Have the full experience with Accent and flags. It might sell.
I think the full experience would be children running around with the dirtiest faces you’ve ever seen.
Your uncle getting in trouble with the park ranger for feeding the seagulls again.
One of your cousins brought their new girlfriend to the event and are for some reason fighting in the parking lot
Your aunt brought her Rottweiler who barks and snaps at all the families passing by
I grew up in Florida
And people say there’s no such thing as American culture…
I grew up in Texas. Needs more dominos and spades, and pawpaw needs to pray over the food.
I ain’t religious but I ain’t telling pawpaw not to pray over the food.
I tell you hwut.
TBH I’d much rather have Thai food lol.
Goddammit now I want Thai food for breakfast…
yo im down for some pad thai right now
My favorite rotates. Currently panang curry.
Gra pow moo krop here
damm that shit good.
Yes but it’s actually a Mexican guy dressed in a pilgrim costume.
lol with Free Bird playing in the background. Reminds me of when Khan became a redneck on King of the Hill.
No sir, the proper song is Sweet Home Alabama. It’s our real anthem.
Tennessee has entered the chat.
As long as Tennessee brings whiskey, I’m listening!
Tennessee can keep their Whiskey. Kentucky has got us covered.
But is anyone bringing real whisky? The good stuff I mean.
Louisiana: [bursts through the door Kramer-style holding several handles of rum and bourbon]
South Korea has American restaurants
Lots of the places where be traveled have American restaurants. They are a fascinating look into what people think is American. I love it
I’m pretty sure it’s like this for every cousine.
The bottom line is that restaurants have to have a theme, right, how else would anyone even talk about it? And the theme is usually some region of the world with varying specificity, my favorite is “fusion,” where the restaurant has two, or even three themes. When you go to a place with any theme, it’s always a charicature. In the case of restaurants, I’ve found that the food rarely represents the daily cuisine of the regular people of whatever place or tradition, it’s rather the cuisine of a restauranteur trying to run a business.
It’s a few choice special dinner dishes, like Sunday or holiday meals, and a few chubby-kid approved favorites, and it seems just as often it’s stereoptyical dishes that may not even be from the place/culture, such as General Tso’s Chicken, that came from one Hunanese resteraunt in New York in 1972, and is now in the menu if every Chinese restaurant in America. And American restaurants abroad serve franks and hamburgers, despite the origins of both being in Frankfurt and Hamburg, Germany. In sum, there are no rules and everything is made up. You can get New Haven style pizza in Rome.
They have authentic American food all over the world.
It’s called McDonalds and its authenticity highly processed and commercialised. Even prepared by children to give it that true American experience.
MERKA BAAAHD
I literally emigrated because it’s so bad and I don’t talk like this. If you want to talk shit on America I’m right there with you, but if you’re going to pretend our food sucks you’re not invited to the cookup.
Where do you live now and how did you manage to escape? Asking for a friend.
If you’ve got a college degree you can pretty easily teach English in Japan for peanuts (though still more than the minimum wage offered in 20 US states).
How does one teach English in English? Sorry if it’s a dumb question.
You mean how do you teach a language to foreign speakers if you don’t speak their language? It’s an interesting question with varied answers in terms of effectiveness, but for practical purposes in this discussion, the cheapo language schools in Japan really want their teachers to not use any Japanese in the classroom. They have you teach out of a series of textbooks and mostly don’t care about the outcomes for the students. In fact, the worse students do, the longer they stay applied to the courses that schools offer-- a relatively cynical view on things, but there’s a reason Japan ranks pretty low in English ability among Asian countries, despite being a wealthy nation. Like I mentioned above, there’s a reason you’re working for peanuts (and why the major language school companies don’t tend to want actual licensed teachers).
If you’re serious about wanting out, I’ll put links here to the major companies, but just keep in mind that they’ll pretty much provide you with a method of existing in Japan without being able to put away much savings, and like many large conglomerates they don’t really care about you if any problems come up-- there’s always the next weeb ready to take your place.
Ideally the best you can do is the JET Program, but that’s a long application process (about 6 months IIRC), and you’ll need to be under 40 (and from one of the listed native English speaking countries).
The rest I don’t have much direct experience with but the salaries are all less and they all sort of suck equally (Interac may be slightly better):
https://interacnetwork.com/
https://www.gabateachinginjapan.com/
https://recruiting.altmoot.com/
https://nova-holdings.jp/teachinjapan/
https://www.peppy-kids.com/And there’s one that takes applicants to teach in universities, though you might need some credentials in ESL/EFL, but I haven’t checked very closely
https://www.westgatejapan.com/
If you have any questions let me know. I’ve been in Japan awhile, though I eventually managed to get a teaching license and masters, so I’ve been out of the ALT (assistant language teacher) game for over 10 years now.
Honestly just born a dual citizen, hardest part has been keeping my US job and calling in to west coast businesses in my evenings.
As for the destination, just the UK. Been here three years now, and still just barely getting used to it. I didn’t fit in in America either so I might as well not fit in somewhere better.
America is a big place. There’s some good food, but a lot of the food people eat does suck. The entire midwest or god forbid you live in one of those highway stops where your only options are fast food chains or a fast-casual chain.
McDonalds, Starbucks, and Dominoes exist because people buy that shit.
You know you can cook for your self, right? And cook outs and potlucks still exist.
So do independent restaurants. Even small towns and rural areas have them. They exist because people go there.
You clearly haven’t experienced the average person who thinks ketchup is a bit much and black pepper is too spicy
There is plenty of American born and bred food without reducing us to hur dur McDonalds
Listen to this stupid clown talk.
not for this guy. You want authentic American food? Leave your house at 8pm…AM!!!, Google “restaurant”, find a small diner.
Go in, order breakfast, two eggs, sausage patties, a southern biscuit, gravy, and get a pancake while you’re there.
You’ll leave feeling like someone hugged you and everything will be ok, and all you wanted to do was eat breakfast.
Are you crying?
Hug it out, man. Come here. It’s ok.
breakfast at 8pm?!
Ya, next question
Don’t mock one of my favorite meals. Breakfast for dinner is amazing, and I will die on that hill.
“sure thing, 'sug!”
…you asking for her number too, right?
