| rdfs:comment | - America -- AKA The United States -- has often been described as a "melting pot". This is very, very true. International influences are all over our art, our population, our languages, and most tellingly, our cuisine. Depending on where you live, you can find all kinds of cuisine in the good old U.S. of A. Before we begin, here are three warnings we have for the tourists and those planning to move here: 1. There is so much sugar in the recipes of many, if not most, dishes here in the States that foreigners not accustomed to it are said to find our food disconcertingly sweet.
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| abstract | - America -- AKA The United States -- has often been described as a "melting pot". This is very, very true. International influences are all over our art, our population, our languages, and most tellingly, our cuisine. Depending on where you live, you can find all kinds of cuisine in the good old U.S. of A. Your area may not have all of these cuisines, or it may have all of them. Obviously, if you live in Nowhere, Indiana, you can't expect to drive on down to the four-star French restaurant for a bite to eat; and if you live in New York City, you're probably within walking distance of about 20 world-class bistros. Location, location, location. This note is meant as a broad overview of the dining options one can find in the United States. Before we begin, here are three warnings we have for the tourists and those planning to move here: 1. There is so much sugar in the recipes of many, if not most, dishes here in the States that foreigners not accustomed to it are said to find our food disconcertingly sweet. 2. Our food tends to be in very large portions as well, relative to those of most other countries, particularly in Southern states. So be careful how much you order, it might be more than you expect. Drinks are also much larger, in part because cold drinks contain a lot of ice. (However, don't hesitate to ask for no ice if you prefer it. Restaurants will always comply.) 3. Although this might conceivably vary by region a little, in America we put cheese on everything. On virtually every soup, on virtually every salad, on most kinds of sandwiches... it would be much easier to list the foods our restaurants won't automatically put cheese on, although it's harder to think of them. Those of us who don't like cheese have quite a hard time getting what we want at restaurants, even when the server understands the order. Cheese is status quo for every little thing except for, say for instance, ice cream. If you don't like cheese or don't like it on certain dishes then when in doubt always specify, no matter what the food is, that you want it with no cheese. Finally, when considering American "ethnic" restaurants, it is advisable to imagine that there is a silent "-American" on the end of any ethnic identification, meaning "Italian" food would be more accurately described as "Italian-American" food. As a rule, all of these types of restaurants get their menus from localized versions of whatever was popular when the primary segment of the immigrant group in question moved to America, and bears little to no resemblance to current national cuisines. Logically enough, the more recent the migration, the closer together "-American" and the original cuisines will be. Vietnamese-American restaurants serve food that is generally quite similar authentic Vietnamese cuisine (the largest wave of Vietnamese immigration coming during/after, well you know), while Chinese-American cuisine, coming from a far more well-established community (fifth-generation Chinese are not uncommon in California) bears almost no resemblance.
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