[jisaacstone]

"food, which they praise for its quality and variety (and portion size) in a tone of near-disbelief"

huh, really? Whenever I get back from traveling I feel the opposite.

Sure in places like NY you can get any kind of food. But in my mono-cultural hometown there is little besides hamburgers or pizza.

[simonsarris]

Yes, but visitors that buy guidebooks do not go to your mono-cultural hometown. They go to New York!

Even in my (relatively) small-medium town in New Hampshire[1] there's an amazing variety of high quality restaurants. A lot of people abroad in their own similiar-sized towns don't get to ever try authentic Mexican, or Cajun, or American comfort, or sushi, or Greek, etc, all of which are available here.

For most tourists, especially tourists from small towns going to NYC or Boston or SF, America is a cultural delight of food.

[1] http://www.yelp.com/c/nashua-nh/restaurants

[StavrosK]

An aside: As a Greek, I tend to stay away from "Greek" restaurants abroad, because it's almost never Greek food. For example, people here generally eat lamb only once or twice a year, and I didn't know what hummus is until I had it in London (in one such "Greek" restaurant, no less).

I think it's more about the stereotype that is expected of the restaurant rather than actually being authentic. For example, Greek gyros is almost always pork, never lamb. If you get lamb gyros, it's middle-eastern.

[potatolicious]

No cuisine survives importation to another country, really, but authenticity can be overrated.

I remember growing in Taiwan and having "pizza" there - it doesn't really resemble the pizza you might find in Italy, nor the Americanized version. For one thing, pizza was high-class, eaten at a sit-down place with cloth napkins, forks, and knives... and toppings featured things like lobster and crab.

The reverse is true too - there is no such thing as "chicken balls", that crazy east-coast invention that claims to be Chinese, nor General Tso's chicken either. In fact, mostly everything you find in an American Chinese restaurant would never be found at the dinner table in China. But if you think that's crazy, wait till you try Chinese-Indian food. Hoo boy.

But that's the great thing about the new global society - we can remix, borrow, replace to our heart's content. I had Peking duck tacos a couple of weeks ago, it was delicious. And there's this food truck near here that has an amazing (Korean-style) roast pork Chinese bao that's garnished with Japanese pickled radishes with some Mexican flavor thrown in to boot. Sublime.

Food is, in the future, extremely unlikely to stick to its geographic and ethnic roots, and what an amazing change that is.

[cbr]

> pizza was high-class, eaten at a sit-down place with cloth napkins, forks, and knives

There are many nice restaurants in Italy that are just like this.

[jeltz]

Lamb gyros is usually called döner kebab (the turkish name for gyros) in Europe, while pork gyros usually is called gyros.

[tripzilch]

You should be thankful. Some people never discover the wonders of delicious, delicious hummus.

[batista]

>For example, people here generally eat lamb only once or twice a year

Well, as a Greek, I beg to differ. We eat lamb more than "once a year" (you probably refer to easter, but forget the mighty paidakia). Plus, this cow meat we mostly eat now is a recent development.

The traditional meat until 4-5 decades ago was lamb and goat (mostly because Greek domestic cows where too skinny and the grass unfit to support them. Post 1981 they were replaced with foreign cow breeds plus tons of imports).

As for hummus: "Greek" restaurants abroad are often mixed Greek/Middle-Eastern, and some are run by Lebanese and use the "Greek" just to attract some additional customers.

A funny aside: the traditional american "diner" (the chrome plated, hamburger joint etc) was more often than not, a Greek business. Greeks pwned the diner business in the US in the '40 to '80s. If you check a series like "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives", a disproportionate percentage of iconic food joints are still in Greek hands, including the majority of NY hot dog stands. I have travelled extensively in the US (only missed Vermont), and I chanced upon several, such as:

• Lou Mitchels, the Chicago diner at the start point of Route 66. • Nick's, in Albq., NM at the crossing of Route 66 (old route) and Route 66 (later bypass) (!), • Leopold's, considered the best ice cream in Savannah, GA (and featured in top-10 US lists)• Ariston, on Route 66, IL, suggested by every guide, • Mike's Chilly Parlor, in Seattle, etc. nom nom nom nom...

[StavrosK]

Hmm, true, I forgot about paidakia... The rest of your comment is spot on, I think, thanks.

[jtchang]

Exactly. I like to think about all the cuisines I've had here in the bay area this week. Must be like 3 or 4 different cuisines from all countries. And they were all good.

[potatolicious]

Not only large cities - but rural areas too. The reputation for shitty food really happens in the vast stretches of suburbia that straddle the awkward territory between city and country.

The US has, overall, amazing food. In large cities there is not only immense diversity (after all, the US is more diverse than most Western nations), but also a culture of experimentation at all price ranges. It's possible to eat amazingly in most major cities for anywhere between $5 and $500.

In the country and small towns there is a tremendous variation across the nation. The food of the Northwest vs. the food of the Southwest vs. the food of the South vs. the Northeast.

It's only when you get into strip-mall-landia where things start appearing incredibly boring and monocultural, and just plain not good.

[tjic]

> It's only when you get into strip-mall-landia where things start appearing incredibly boring and monocultural

A famous economist / foodie has written an entire book about how you've got it EXACTLY backwards:

http://www.amazon.com/An-Economist-Gets-Lunch-Everyday/dp/05...

The best food, he asserts, is in strip malls. You just have to know a few tricks to find it.

Great book. Go read it.

[tptacek]

No, Cowen says the best ethnic food is in strip malls, and they're in strip malls ringing large cities. It by no means follows that the best food overall resides in strip malls. The comparison is to other ethnic restaurants, particularly Asian, and not to restaurants in general.

And of course, Cowen includes a section on exactly how hard it is, and how creative he had to be, to get decent Chinese food in rural Virginia.

It is obviously not true that the best food overall can be found in exurban and rural strip malls.

[batista]

I've eaten in 48 states, including tons of malls. If that is what the book is saying, it is bullshit. Not to mention that in most malls you only find the same generic franchised BS.

[adrianhoward]

It also depends on what food you're used to. I'm from the UK and did the whole cross-country US road trip thang when I was in my twenties. I remember it was the little odd differences in supermarkets and restaurants that freaked me out.

For example - at the time (early nineties) almost no Indian food anywhere. In the UK even small villages often have an Indian take out. On the flip side - in the US you have texmex everywhere. It's still fairly rare over here (and of a.... erm.... different level of quality :-)

Bread was another one. At even small rural shops you had soughdough, rye, bagels, etc. In the UK you get white bread and brown bread ;-)

And the portion sizes... wow... so different. I remember going out with a family chatting away snacking away and suddenly realising that I was now "full" on the "free stuff you eat before your meal"...

[tjic]

> In the UK even small villages often have an Indian take out.

Amazing how a minor thing like running India as a colony for 400+ years can have that effect!

Similarly, I imagine that Tex-Mex is a bit more common here than in Wales...

[adrianhoward]

Amazing how a minor thing like running India as a colony for 400+ years can have that effect!

Indeed :-)

(Really it was about 200 years-ish of "running" India. It's usually dated from 1757 and the East India Company's victory at the Battle of Plassey.)

[wazoox]

> And the portion sizes... wow...

Yes, Umberto Eco wrote an interesting article on the cultural significance of "more" to Americans. This is quite obvious in restaurant portion sizes among other.

[bdunn]

I love Eco's fiction but am now just getting into reading his essays. Which is the one you're referencing?

[wazoox]

I'll have to dig the book out to find. It must me in one of the article compilations such as "How to travel with a salmon" or "Travels in Hyperreality".

[dsrguru]

In addition to the wide variety of foreign cuisine available in many parts of the U.S., there are many different "native" cuisines in different regions of the country. I'm inevitably going to leave out a lot, especially from the places I haven't been to, but here are some exampes. New York has got its pizza (both the Neapolitan and Sicilian styles, neither of which is very similar to the pizza found in Naples or Siciliy), bagels, half sour pickles, and certain cold cuts. Chicago has Italian beef and deep dish pizza. Wisconsin has its cheeses and bratwurst ("brats"). Philadelphia has cheese steak and hot pretzels like no others. Lousisiana has the Creole and Cajun cuisines. There's Tex-Mex and other southwestern cuisine. Lots of places along the east coast have their own very distinct variety of clam chowder, etc. I never realized how much I would miss food from various American cuisines until I lived in China for five months.

[rsl7]

And "Chinese".