A place that almost exclusively sells Cornish pasties just opened across the street.
OH MY GOD THEY ARE AWESOME.
20 Weird Things About America
That Americans Don't Realize are Weird
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#81 
by NineOneFour » Apr 17, 2014 5:12 am
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#82 by johnbrandt » Apr 17, 2014 5:57 am
NineOneFour wrote:
I have found that there are distinctions in class-levels, as regards things like Restaurant tipping practices. No tips at all for the cheapest places like "fast food," medium tipping for average-priced places, and some of the upper crust places put the EXPECTED tip on your bill FOR you, and you MUST pay it.
That last part got on my goat.
In take away places no, we didn't see any tipping. In some smaller eateries we saw tip jars on the counter...I actually felt better about leaving some money in those places.
But "proper" restaurants? Yes...some added the tip whether you wanted to or not...which in my mind just shows the system is a scam. If it is supposedly a "reward" for good service, then how does it encourage servers to do better if they know that, whatever they do, they're going to get "rewarded"...?
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#83 by NineOneFour » Apr 17, 2014 6:36 am
johnbrandt wrote:NineOneFour wrote:
I have found that there are distinctions in class-levels, as regards things like Restaurant tipping practices. No tips at all for the cheapest places like "fast food," medium tipping for average-priced places, and some of the upper crust places put the EXPECTED tip on your bill FOR you, and you MUST pay it.
That last part got on my goat.
In take away places no, we didn't see any tipping. In some smaller eateries we saw tip jars on the counter...I actually felt better about leaving some money in those places.
But "proper" restaurants? Yes...some added the tip whether you wanted to or not...which in my mind just shows the system is a scam. If it is supposedly a "reward" for good service, then how does it encourage servers to do better if they know that, whatever they do, they're going to get "rewarded"...?
I frankly think the tipping system is hideous and should be wiped off the face of the earth.
Restaurant servers are customer service employees like anyone else, not customers' personal serfs.
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#84 by Agrippina » Apr 17, 2014 12:25 pm
Wait staff should be paid proper wages. I agree. Tipping is insulting, and their performance should be judged by the people who return and ask for a particular waiter.
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#85 by Alan B » Apr 17, 2014 1:30 pm
Especially when they 'hover', expecting 'something'...
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#86 by Goldenmane » Apr 17, 2014 2:48 pm
laklak wrote:Food furriners jes don't unnerstan.
Biscuits and gravy.
Stewed okra and tomatoes
Pickled eggs
Corn dogs
Dang I'm gettin hungry now.
The fuck is that muck?
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#87 by The_Piper » Apr 17, 2014 2:52 pm
The only thing I ever tried on that list is the stewed okra. 
(I'd have tried corn dogs but I'm allergic to them (eggs))
(I'd have tried corn dogs but I'm allergic to them (eggs))
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#88 by The_Piper » Apr 17, 2014 2:57 pm
Scarlett wrote:The_Piper wrote:The proper way to use cutlery -
fork- use it to spear or twirl food.
knife- use it to cut food.
Spoon - use it to scoop up food.
It's pretty straightforward. I remember eating over a friends house a lot where he tried to get me to do it "right"
But, making it more difficult, is doing it wrong.
But.. The benefit of keeping your knife in your hand during eating means your knife has a second use, that is to help load/push the food onto the fork. Otherwise you can be chasing non-spearable or twirlable food around your plate
Our supermarket has recently set up an American food section. It pretty much has enormous bags of marshmallows, peanut butter and jam in the one jar
Lucky Charms. Pretty much a bowl of sweets you're supposed to give your kid for breakfast.
I can do that with the fork and knife too. I can do anything I want with them cause I have no rules or traditions with cutlery. Sometimes I use a spoon handle as a butter knife, if I don't feel like getting up again.
That picture is blatantly false. Those in the bowl are only the marshmallows in Lucky Charms and goddammit, there are never enough!
I don't eat them anymore but that shit's fucking gourmet.
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#89 by LucidFlight » Apr 17, 2014 3:00 pm
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#90 by Horwood Beer-Master » Apr 17, 2014 3:14 pm
NineOneFour wrote:A place that almost exclusively sells Cornish pasties just opened across the street.
OH MY GOD THEY ARE AWESOME.
Are they actually Cornish pasties though? Under European law they could only be sold as Cornish pasties if they were actually made in Cornwall (just as champagne can only come from the Champagne region of France).
I suspect such a law does not apply in the US though.
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#91 by I'm With Stupid » Apr 17, 2014 3:19 pm
johnbrandt wrote:NineOneFour wrote:
I have found that there are distinctions in class-levels, as regards things like Restaurant tipping practices. No tips at all for the cheapest places like "fast food," medium tipping for average-priced places, and some of the upper crust places put the EXPECTED tip on your bill FOR you, and you MUST pay it.
That last part got on my goat.
In take away places no, we didn't see any tipping. In some smaller eateries we saw tip jars on the counter...I actually felt better about leaving some money in those places.
But "proper" restaurants? Yes...some added the tip whether you wanted to or not...which in my mind just shows the system is a scam. If it is supposedly a "reward" for good service, then how does it encourage servers to do better if they know that, whatever they do, they're going to get "rewarded"...?
It's worse than that. It actually makes service worse. One common practice I've heard about is that waiters actually ask to handle more tables so that they don't have to share their tips. So the restaurant has fewer waiters running more tables, the service suffers as a result, but because a tip is expected, the waiter's still make more money out of it.
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#92 by I'm With Stupid » Apr 17, 2014 3:22 pm
Horwood Beer-Master wrote:NineOneFour wrote:A place that almost exclusively sells Cornish pasties just opened across the street.
OH MY GOD THEY ARE AWESOME.
Are they actually Cornish pasties though? Under European law they could only be sold as Cornish pasties if they were actually made in Cornwall (just as champagne can only come from the Champagne region of France).
Haha, as if anyone follows that law. I've had two cornish pasties in the last week and I'm nowhere near Cornwall.
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#93 by SafeAsMilk » Apr 17, 2014 3:22 pm
LucidFlight wrote:
I am reminded of those awful food photos from the 60s and 70s.
http://www.badanduglyofretrofood.com/
I LOVE those photos, I used to collect books of them.
Biscuits and gravy is the best. Any time I go anywhere near the south, it's required. Folks up here just look at you funny when you ask for white gravy.
Pickled eggs sounds like a bad idea
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#94 by johnbrandt » Apr 17, 2014 4:08 pm
I used to wonder what the hell a "corn dog" was...imagining some sort of hot dog filled with...corn? I don't know. 
Then found out I'd been eating them for decades every year at the local town show because we call them "Dagwood Dogs"...
I don't think the dough on ours is as thick as the ones on the American version though.
Then found out I'd been eating them for decades every year at the local town show because we call them "Dagwood Dogs"...
I don't think the dough on ours is as thick as the ones on the American version though.
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#95 by Agrippina » Apr 17, 2014 4:52 pm
Those "biscuits" remind me of Yorkshire pudding, and gravy. I don't like the look of that gravy though, it's got lumps. Gravy shouldn't be lumpy.
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#96 by SafeAsMilk » Apr 17, 2014 4:56 pm
Agrippina wrote:Those "biscuits" remind me of Yorkshire pudding, and gravy. I don't like the look of that gravy though, it's got lumps. Gravy shouldn't be lumpy.
The lumps is sausage.
But since you mentioned it, and while we're on about weird American things:
"They call it the American dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it." -- George Carlin
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#97 by Agrippina » Apr 17, 2014 4:57 pm
If it's lumpy, it's sauce. If it's gravy, it's smooth. Despite what rockers from the past have to say. 
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#98 by SafeAsMilk » Apr 17, 2014 4:59 pm
Hm, hadn't thought about that before. Though technically that would mean gravy would never be gravy unless you were just drinking it straight, since putting it on anything would make it lumpy 
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#99 by Agrippina » Apr 17, 2014 5:00 pm
SafeAsMilk wrote:Hm, hadn't thought about that before. Though technically that would mean gravy would never be gravy unless you were just drinking it straight, since putting it on anything would make it lumpy
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Re: 20 Weird Things About America
#100 by Thomas Eshuis » Apr 17, 2014 5:31 pm
What exactly do they mean by everything being portion sized?
And what do they mean, no-one uses PIN, it's used all the time over here.
With regards to the bread being sweet, has the author ever been to France?
And what do they mean, no-one uses PIN, it's used all the time over here.
With regards to the bread being sweet, has the author ever been to France?
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