A belated Happy Australia Day! to everyone.

A somewhat random question. I was just reading an article about how the Italian city of Lucca has just passed a law that any new restaurants within the city limits must serve only Italian food. One of the people behind the law, when answering a question about whether it was racist, said something like, "This is just as much against McDonald's as it is against kebab houses."

Which got me thinking about McDonald's, and how, when I was in Italy a few years ago, it seemed like there were a lot more of them, and in much more upscale neighborhoods, than I'm used to seeing in the US. I was complaining then that America seems to only export the crap parts of our culture -- that there's plenty of really great American food, but it seemed like the only kind available in Italy was McDonald's. So, my question for unAmericans is, what do you think of when you think of "American food"?

McDonalds. KFC. Burger King. Pizza. Junk food, basically.

That's the first thing, by a long way, simply because it's the US that has done that whole fast food franchise thing and exported it to the entire planet. It is all-pervasive.

I know that's not what all US cuisine is, but in much the same way that I'd associate curry with India or pasta with Italy I'd associate deep fried processed junk food in a prefabricated container with America.

If I was supposed to think of something nicer, but also typically American, I guess Tex-Mex would come to mind, and salad bars, and gourmet icecream bars with a zillion different flavours.

(Keep in mind that my nation is infamous for having crap food, and boiling everything to death. Which isn't fair these days, I think, if it ever was, but that's our reputation.)

What'd occur to me would be burgers, hot dogs, pizza, fried chicken, barbeque-- not necessarily from a fast food place.

(Keep in mind that my nation is infamous for having crap food, and boiling everything to death. Which isn't fair these days, I think, if it ever was, but that's our reputation.)

My family went on vacation to London about ten years ago, and my mother still complains that English people put peas in everything. (She, for some reason, really hates peas, and got increasingly aggravated when every dish brought to her -- including, she insists, oatmeal -- had peas in it.)

My impression of English food up until then was mostly gleaned from children's books, so it was mostly various sorts of candy and desserts. I saw treacle pudding on a restaurant menu and just had to try it because I'd seen it in so many books, and have a very sort of "Huh. That's it?" reaction. And I never did find any Turkish Delight.

You think of salad bars as American? Interesting. I'd never considered that.

I think that what I think of as American food is really New England food -- clam chowder, corn chowder, lobster, cornbread, maple sugar candy, Indian pudding, pumpkin pie, turkey, and stuff like that. (And then once I'm thinking in that direction anyway, I start thinking of Toll House pie, which I think is also just a New England thing -- Toll House cookie dough put into a pie crust and baked, and then topped with chocolate syrup if you really want the sugar rush.) Once I think about it, I remember barbecue and Tex-Mex and stuff from other regions, but that's not my first thought when I think of "American" food.

Cornbread isn't, strictly speaking, just New England. Hordes of people from South of the Mason-Dixon will be most upset with you about that one.

Very true, sumi.

My family went on vacation to London about ten years ago, and my mother still complains that English people put peas in everything. (She, for some reason, really hates peas, and got increasingly aggravated when every dish brought to her -- including, she insists, oatmeal -- had peas in it.)

???

...ooookaay.

You think of salad bars as American?

afaik, they are an American phenomenon. A very nice one.

The American food cliché is, I would agree, fast and/or junk food, including the food that it's absorbed from other cultures (pizza, the hamburger and frankfurter) and made its own.

Here, also, if you want a good burger, spare ribs or, in particular, a good steak, you can visit an upmarket American diner, steakhouse or Tex-Mex place. So it's not all negative, but you definitely get what you pay for.

Hil, I don't know where you went to eat when you were in the UK, but I have never, ever had peas in anything I've eaten there unless specifically ordered.