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Ask a foreigner

I can't remember if we talked about this already ... Probably. But what's your "national dish?" How do you serve/eat it? And is it really as good as everyone says it is?

We don't really have such a thing here in the giant USA, but if we did, it would probably be the cheeseburger. Hot off the charcoal grill, it really is wonderful. The crap from McDonald's, not so much.
 
I can't remember if we talked about this already ... Probably. But what's your "national dish?" How do you serve/eat it? And is it really as good as everyone says it is?

We don't really have such a thing here in the giant USA, but if we did, it would probably be the cheeseburger. Hot off the charcoal grill, it really is wonderful. The crap from McDonald's, not so much.
In the UK some people might say the national dish is the 'classic' Roast dinner. Pork, chicken, beef or lamb with an assortment of vegetables, Yorkshire puddings with gravy. I wonder what others would say?? Maybe even fish and chips! Haha!

And your right, a proper burger comes from the charcoal grill. Not McDonald's shit! And I've always thought burger king did better burgers than McDonald's.
 
I wouldn't dare try to name one particular food or food group here. There'd be fierce rejections and wild assertions made for sure.

But I know some people swear by out fish, our seafood and beef. So in short I don't know what it is.
 
Scotland: haggis neeps n tatties.

I'm vegetarian but don't really understand the aversion to haggis it's just ground up meat with oatmeal herbs and spices. N I don't really get why the non Scots are grossed out. Even though I don't personally eat meat.

Neeps are mashed turnips and tatties means potato n in this context mashed tatties.

Short of that we munch on shortbread and fish and chips and roast dinners like our downstairs cousins (England)
 
I've always heard its ground organ meat stuffed into a sheep's stomach....🤢
No?
Hahah yeh back in the 1800s, haha

Now its still ground meat with oatmeal herbs and spices but its not in a sheeps stomach so I don't get difference between that and other ground meat?
But hey I'm vegetarian my whole life, so who knows
 
Hahah yeh back in the 1800s, haha
LMAO... I blame the Scottish sense of humor!!! 🤣 Round here? That’s how they (various semi annual festivals & faires & restaurants) “STILL” make haggis and snicker at people eating it. There seems to be a BIT of a competition in composing it in as vile a manner as possible. Brains & lungs & the not-nice part of tripe (honeycomb tripe can be lovely, done right), and tongue casing (with the taste buds prominent instead of that whole nasty sheath tossed to the dogs or in the bin) and glands/ovaries/testicles left whole... all shoved in with gloopy rolled oats cooked gritty pink with liver, and not a spec of salt or spice or herb in sight. shudder. Eeeeeeeeew. Noooooooo.

* Stil = I very much doubt anyone ever went to so much trouble to imitate a clogged sink drain, much less fed it to people, unless they were quartering English soldiers.

If you want the good stuff? You don’t order haggis. You order steel cut oat & spiced meat sausage, or steel cut oat & savory herb sausage. Which is how my gran made haggis.
 
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LMAO... I blame the Scottish sense of humor!!! 🤣 Round here? That’s how they (various semi annual festivals & faires & restaurants) “STILL” make haggis and snicker at people eating it. There seems to be a BIT of a competition in composing it in as vile a manner as possible. Brains & lungs & the not-nice part of tripe (honeycomb tripe can be lovely, done right), and tongue casing (with the taste buds prominent instead of that whole nasty sheath tossed to the dogs or in the bin) and glands/ovaries/testicles left whole... all shoved in with gloopy rolled oats cooked gritty pink with liver, and not a spec of salt or spice or herb in sight. shudder
Fair point, us f*cking with the rest of the world may play a part.. 😂
 
If I check my heartwarming cynicism at the door, neatly sidestep the -extremely regional- American Contributions to Cuisine & Fine Cuisine, look determinedly elsewhere from “Chinese” this & “Irish” that & other totally American inventions/fusions, and duck under the archeologist shouting and waving their arms about potatoes/tomatoes/& corn (oh my!)?

A uniquely American NATIONAL dish?

BBQ.

Hands down.

Tons and tons of regional differences... marinated, dry spice rubbed, wet rubbed, honey mopped, slow smoked, pit smoked, seared for seconds in the flames of hell, spicy, sweet, saucy, dry, char marked and juicy, burnt to a crisp or bloody as hell, hands or knife and fork or skewered on stick, et cetera... but nowhere else in the world does our BBQ like we do, if they do it at all. Wherever one is standing stateside. Ribs, burgers, chicken, steak, steak, steak, beans, chilis, corn, veg, brats & hotdogs... Lots of places around the world cook food over a fire & grill food & smoke food, and damn good food, but almost no one else BBQs.

I always know I’m Stateside when I’m surrounded by thousands upon thousands of identical mediocre franchises that serve exactly the same, mass produced, safe-to-eat, cheap-food. McDonalds, BurgerKing, TacoBell, Starbucks, Arby’s, KFC, Churches, Popeyes, Ivars, KrispyKreme, A&W, etc. See the same sign 3 times whilst driving 10 minutes in town? Or on a freeway exit sign? Yep. Must be in ‘Merica. Home of the minimum wage mass produced franchise food. And free-refill gallon jug o’soda! And public restrooms everywhere. (And in the fast food places, they’re kept clean!)

I do love BurgerKing. Or used to, before food allergies. The 99cent whopper kept me alive for an alarming amount of time. And the “French chicken sandwich” any time I was eating on more than loose change.
 
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This question is for actual ‘foreigners’ or immigrants- or people of dual (or more) heritage.
( I know this is a bit of a weird question but it seemed a good place to ask it )

I’ve noticed one of my parents is speaking in the accent of country of origin more in very old age. Its made me wonder - is that likely to happen to me too? Is it common that accents of childhood re-emerge in final years?

Is it something others have noticed with immigrant parents ?
 
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