The more people I meet here the more convinced I become that people think American's eat hamburgers everyday. Is the hamburger our national food? Like how pizza and pasta are Italy's? The most popular and common American restaurant abroad, if you can call it that, is McDonalds and Slovakia is no exception. It is not just a fast food joint either. People have birthday parties there, the whole 9. Sure they have one or two KFCs and Subways but not like McDonalds. The slogan plastered all over every McDonalds restaurant is "Great Taste of America." Hmmm I don't know about that one. What do you think? Is McDonalds really a great taste of America?
The other day we had some friends over and I asked them what is your favorite American food and we can eat that for dinner. "Hamburgers!" she yelled. She had no idea how to make them either. She wasn't sure what meat was used to make them. I taught her how I make them and now she makes them at home too. I guess I was just surprised that someone would not know how to make hamburgers, but it makes sense. I mean I do not have a clue how to make they're traditional potato dumplings that are on the menu on all Slovakian restaurants so why would a non-American know how to make a traditional American BBQ food? Now I need to get her to give me a Slovakian cooking lesson!:)
Yes Brianna, hamburgers ( or burgers) are American food. I spent a summer in the Houston and New York and I saw families eating hamburger with french fries in the family dinner. But it is message that goes out of US. Yes, BBQ is pretty fine too. But worldwide is US know as country of burgers and coca-cola. For most of the people.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a business opportunity! Be a street vendor that slangs burgers. Your burger stand name would be "Bsweezy's Burgers Please Thee!".
ReplyDelete-chuck
The fact that McDonalds is this beacon of American culture & cuisine goes hand in hand with the uber- Capitalist & hyper- Conglomerate image that a lot of Europeans have of the states in general. McDonalds is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine too- but given your account of it being a lot more than just a fast food chain I’d be interested to delve deeper into why there exists this fascination with the chain abroad! Great post!
ReplyDelete~ Ashanti