In America, you have restaurants with different food from around the world. But what is American food like outside of the United States?
Here, people share their experiences with “international” American food.
I’m in Melbourne and we’ve been having a lot of US restaurants pop up – basically divided into burgers or bbq or a combo of both. Deep fried anything and grilled anything with a good serve of carbs and liquid sugar/beer.
Nightospheric
American here, but in-laws in India who we visit every year. They have all of the usual American chains, but one thing has always perplexed me, which is the street stalls and mall kiosks selling “steamed American corn”. Basically it is sweet corn, served plain in a cup or with various spices including chili, chat masala, mint pudina, black pepper, punjabi tadka, etc. My father in law thinks this is what all Americans eat as snack food and keeps offering to buy it for me when we go out on an excursion.
lindabhat
I visited the UK a few years back with a British friend, and they dragged me to an American restaurant. It was themed like those 50s diners, and the only things on the menu were burgers, fries, fried chicken, hot dogs, pizza, and pulled pork…
That said it was pretty darn good food.
riffler24
American living in Japan. My family and I frequently go to a restaurant called “Cowboy Kazuko” or “Cowboy Family” (story continued on the next page…).
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It’s a steak house with a salad bar. There are a great many Japanese steak houses and some of them can be very high-end. Depending upon where you go, it can be really expensive – especially if they serve Japanese beef.
Restaurants like Cowboy Kazuko are “family restaurants” and are much lower priced, family friendly restaurants. These kinds of places do a lot of hamburger steaks, chicken, etc. They usually feature beef from the US or Australia. Generally the food is pretty good (quality and taste) although the portions sizes are not what you might get at home. Overall though, I usually enjoy them.
Sean_Ornery
Went to an American diner when visiting Germany. The one thing that stood out was banana juice.
G01denW01f11
In China we have the big American chains like Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, etc… and these are seen as “American restaurants”. There are also lots of independent American restaurants run by locals. They tend to have burgers and fries, terrible steak (usually with black pepper sauce), weak coffee, and lots of not-quite-Chinese but definitely not American dishes like curry beef, and Black Pepper Spaghetti.
Oh, and California Beef Noodle King USA.
In general, the American food here in China is gross, as compared with food in America, which is awesome (or, at least gross and awesome).
ongbeinanren
I love explaining this. So I am American but raised in an immigrant family. Asia loves to remake European food, but you can tell that it’s still Asian. The only people who really understand this are the people who have tried it and other Asians. So like pizza and spaghetti is similar but it tastes really different in Korea. Its fluffier?
A lot of Asian bakeries like to do French pastries but the way its made is different too. I recommend you going to your local Korea/Japan/Chinatown and look for a bakery chain. It will have a name like Paris Baguette, Cafe Bene google Asian bakery chain near you. One iconic item is the Japanese cheesecake. Even the white bread is different but you can still sense that it is asian. Like how America does Tex-Mex and Chinese food Korea does that too. Chinese takeout is waaaaaaaaay better in Korea but totally different in America. I think the funniest remake is Italian.
RidingTheBeester
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I’m American, but could not resist going to a chain called American Style in Iceland. I told one of the employees that no burger chain in the US would use fresh cucumber instead of pickles.
Not a bad burger actually, had that fake ’50’s theme as I remember.
HappyHound
England here; burgers, fries, fried chicken, fries topped with things also a biggie. Oh, milkshakes. Burger and shake bars are generally heavy on the American memorabilia.
campfiresare4humans
From the UK. We have some here. It is as if the owners had never been to America, but overheard someone describing an American diner. Everything they serve, is slightly off, like different than it would be in any American place I have been in. Like, you know the way the Chinese food we eat is Americanized or Westernized or whatever.
Lovehat
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AFC – American Fried Chicken (KFC knock off In Sweden).
Jauxerous
In Australia, I’ve seen a few American BBQ-style places. The one I used to live next to (before the owner skipped town) was pretty representative, albeit maybe a little confused. It was, however, thoroughly inauthentic for charging for extra sauce, no free refills, and $10 a pint of Coors. Absolutely criminal.
katerific
American food appears to be wings and insane amounts of pork ribs. All barbecued, of course.
thedomha
Kiwi here (Wellington, NZ), there’s a few steak houses around that probably have that Americana vibe (one’s called “Lone Star” for instance). There’s also a pretty popular cafe that touts itself as New Orleans inspired.
Probably a few other places that I don’t know about, Wellington is loaded with eateries of all kinds.
Its_all_pretty_neat
I’m from Texas but living in Sweden. We have a place called Texas Longhorn here that serves ribs, steak, coleslaw, etc., lots of southern cooking. There is also a smaller side-chain called Texas Hamburger Company that has some quesadillas, margaritas and fantastic burgers! Their chipotle dip sauce is incredible.
Another place is called Austin Food Works that serves kind of Tex-Mex fusion I guess, and many of their dishes are inspired by Southern cuisine but made “more presentable” (what do you expect from downtown Stockholm). Different from home but great food. Sadly I have yet to find any decent Mexican food.
Theral
In Korea, if you go to a burger joint and order a burger with fries, depending on the place, you’ll get a burger and 4-5 steak fries. If you’re extra lucky, the burger won’t fall apart as soon as you touch it. I’ve also gotten a burger from one of the convenience stores with strawberry jam in it. It was not pleasant.
Last year, Chicago pizza exploded in Korea (Korea has a new American food obsession 2-3 times a year, this year’s being Subway) and my city suddenly had 5 Chicago pizza restaurants open up in the span of about 2 weeks. They were okay, though I’ve never had authentic Chicago pizza. One of my mates told me that they, like most Asian pizzas, pale in comparison to the real deal.
yognautilus
Lots of metros have ‘American food’ but Bangalore is the Mecca of American food in India.
There are a lot of all day American ‘cafes’ that serve wings, burgers with chips, pasta, pizzas, french fries and other finger food, crap coffee and excellent milkshakes. There is rarely beef and pancakes and waffles are a good hit. It has grown into a sort of Sunday brunch thing after getting drunk the previous day due to the general grease and finger food nature. Since there is a lot of competition in Bangalore the food tends to be good (also apparently authentic). For most of the nation though American food is McDonald, Domino’s and pizza hut. It is also not preferred as it is seen as something very unhealthy.
crk0806
Here in Moscow we have restaurant network called Beverly Hills. It serves burgers and stakes mainly, also every single one has classic jukebox.
isador1911
Spotted the “Chuck Norris Grill” in Reykjavik the other day. Still regretting not trying it.
jones1040
Jollibee. It’s the Philippines’ answer to McDonalds. And funny thing is that in our country, Jollibee beats McDonalds. Almost everything that McDonalds have, Jollibee has adjusted to Filipino taste. The burger patty is too salty, the pie pocket has a peach and mango filling and will burn the fingerprint off of your fingers if you’re not careful, the sodas have too much ice that it’s watered down, the fries are perfection though. And they have sweet spaghetti with hotdog and lots of pepper.
fryingsquirrels