[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".