non-Americans: Is restaurant food marketed as "Italian" or "Chinese" or "(put your ethnicity here") food ...

Question

anything like your food? What's different? Also, do they sell food marketed as "American" in your country (other than McDs) or are we like the English and no one really wants our food?

Someone asked if Americans have their own food other than fastfood???? Of course! Chicken fried steak, chili for starters

Answer 1

Well i am american, but my parents are immigrants and i've visited their country for a total time put together of about 2 years (mauritius). Its indian food mostly, a bit of african in it and some chinesse....but still follows traditional indian tastes and what not.

Its sorta hard since india / bangladesh / pakistan....all the same culture basically, but still pretty big, so the food has variations from place to place.

I've noticed in america the foods are less spicy (not hot spicy). For instance my mom made some rice and my friend was over so he ate it. He got indegestion from it. So i think they tame it down some in terms of flavoring since most people here in america are not used to it.

I've also went to indian restaurants here and my friends love to food, but i feel its too salty.

In mauritius, they have all major food chains you find in america there now. There are some noticable differences. McDonalds over there sells no pork. Muslim populace is only about 20%, but its enough for them to not sell any pork since some people get pissy if the hamburgers are cooked on the same skillet that the bacon is put on. Also all the meat is hallal (muslim version of kosher).... The hindus who are the majority of the populace don't mind.

Pizza hut, here you noitce there are normally deals with pepporoni pizza. Its normally teh same price as a cheese pizza. The deals there are a bit different. I wanted pizza hut one night, and so my uncle went and got 2 pizza's. First off the portions are different, more of a european sized portion. What you'd pay here for a medium pizza....over there it came out to be a kids size. Also, the deal was smoked chicken (i normally get mushrooms). First time they went to the pizza hut, they decided to eat ethnic and thought thats what american's would get on a pizza.

Wouldn't say it was marketed as "american", but that was the jist people got. But yeah, there is no American restaurant, just fast food. Which i guess you can say is our cultural meal.

Noticed this also went with cigs. I smoke camels and can taste a difference in malboro's. THey had malboro's there and they were very differnet in taste than the malboro's here.

I used to also import cigs from europe when it was legal and the european blend was diffferent than the american (i'm told healthier too.....if you can say that about cigs).

Answer 2

I'm American, born and raised in Massachusetts. Ever since I left home I've lived in cities--Augusta, Maine; NYC, and Los Angeles (which I don't want to, but need to for the work), and have tried different kinds of restaurants, mostly Oriental. My favorite foods--even though it's not what you asked--are Vietnamese and Italian. From observation and overheard remarks I'd say that most ethnic restaurants--especially in the cities, where you get a more diverse population and a better class of chefs--are close to the original, especially in the family-owned restaurants. But there are always variations on the same dish. (Here in L.A. some of the Vietnamese restaurants are owned by Koreans. And a lot of Chinese restaurants in predominantly Latino neighborhoods serve food that appeals to those people--a lot of fried rice dishes, for example.) Someone will invariably say, "My mom made these a little differently. These are good, but hers were better."
My wife is from Taiwan; I went there once--in 1981 to get married--and ate only at the local restaurants. I don't remember any McDonald's and suchlike there at the time. But she has been back several times since then and said that now there are such places; but the prices are more expensive than the equavalent meal here. Except Starbucks, they're cheaper!

Answer 3

I am living in Canada right now, but am from China, and have spent time in America too. The food marketed here in North America as "Chinese" certainly is different from what I eat at home. So many take-out restaraunts filled with greasy fattening food, o.o, it isn't normally like this in China. As well, I look through so many restaurants and all I see are the same dishes repeating, over and over again! It's like they have ran out of ideas, when there is so much more!

Answer 4

japanese food is how it is pretty much over here, except the terriyaki chicken. Some places do good on the terriyaki however many have thick and gooey sauce, which it shouldn't be like that. But overall there's not much you can alter with raw slices of fish

Korean food is awesome here. I have yet to see americanized korean food. At the Korean BBQ buffets, some of them have fried chicken and spegetti but i think that's just to open up more options for Americans that don't want to try spicy fermented cabbage, and fresh baby octopus.

Answer 5

Italian food in Italy is a lot more simple than the Italian food served in North America. Real Italian food uses few ingredients, but all the ingredients are in season and high quality. North American "Italian" restaurants usually have these huge menus that have no regard for what is in season. This means many ingredients are not fresh. In Italy, items are marked on the menu if they contain frozen ingredients.

I lived in Turin for two years and traveled around Italy. I saw one Italian fast-food chain that emulated McDonalds, but no restaurants marketing "American" cuisine.

Answer 6

For those who don't know there is the Latin American tortilla and it is "bread" and the Spanish one the is egg.
And real Latin food is usually a lot more flavorful and spicy than Americans try to recreate it especially Taco Bell. Latinos who really know sometimes call it a scam by "the man" against minorities.

Answer 7

I have seen restaurants here in Atlanta that advertise that they sell American food. Anyway, I have seen "American" restaurants overseas. I don;t know what they serve though.

Answer 8

I was in Spain at a continental type restaurant (variety of foods) and I ordered a tortilla and it was an omelette

Answer 9

i'm chinese :)
take out is kind of like real chinese food, except with gross MSG and soy sauce everywhere. it's hard to explain, but real chinese food is usually less greasy, more spicy, and less soy sauce-y.

Answer 10

I'm in Canada...it's all the same. We really aren't all that different. It's more different I think over sea's than attatched together.