Foods and drinks

AMERICAN

FOODS AND DRINKS

Contents:

1. What is "American" food?

2. National American foods

3. Donuts

4. Fast Food

5. North of the Mississippi: the Upper Midwest

6. Seafood

Traditional American food / USA food is ‘comfort food’: heartwarming, filling and satisfying. Here are some typical foods and dishes fi'om around the United

Kingdom. Traditional American food / USA food but also English'modem' cuisine is becoming popular these days. Whilemost American people eat a lot of pasta, pizza anddishes influenced by Indian and Chinese cultures - likecurries and stir fries - some of the old favorites are still on the menu, even if they’renot eaten every day.The Sunday roast - and all the trimmingsOnce, most families in the USA would sit downtogether for a big ro£Bt lunch every Sunday. Thisdoesn’t happen so much now but the Sunday (or other day of the week) roast is still a very

popular meal. Beef, chicken, lamb, pork or,especially at Christmas, turkey is roasted in theoven. It’s served with a selection of vegetables likeroast potatoes, carrots, cabbage, roasted onions, Brussels sprouts, peas, as well as tiny saves

wrapped in bacon called ‘pigs in blankets’ and gravy made fi'om the meat juices (‘the trimmings’). Roast beef is traditionally accompanied with a

peppery horseradish sauce, English mustard and Yorkshire pudding (a batter of eggs, flour and milk which rises up in the oven). Roast pork is often served with an apple sauce, while roast lamb tastes delicious with a mint sauce or redcurrant jelly.

The next day, people fry up the leftover vegetables to make ‘bubble and squeak’ and eat it with slices of the cold meat.

Fish ‘n’ chips

Brits have been eating fish and chips since the 19th century. This is street food, bes^ eaten with the fingers, which used to be served wrapped in a piece of white paper and newspaper. These days the local chip shop or ‘chippie’ is likely to hand it over in a polystyrene dish and with a little wooden fork. The fish, usually cod, haddock or plaice, is dipped in batter and deep-fiied; the chips are cut thicker than French flies ( like American ‘home fnes’) and deep flied twice: once to cook the potato; second to crisp up the outside. Eat sprinkled liberally with salt and malt vinegar, and as an accompaniment perhaps a pickled egg or onion, a giant pickled cucumber called a ‘wally’ or some curry sauce.

Puddings...

Most of the traditional desserts, puddings, ‘sweets’ or ‘afters’, as they’re called in the USA , are not for those on a diet. In apple crumble, apples are covered with a crumbly flour, sugar and butter mixture and served with custard made from eggs, milk and vanilla. Bread and butter pudding is made from sliced bread interlaced with dried fruit and baked in custard. Spotted dick is a steamed suet pudding with dried finit and served with custard. Trifle is a cold pudding made from layers of sherry- soaked sponge cake, finit, custard and cream.

There are so many different pies from around the USA : cottage pie (minced beef with a mashed potato topping), shepherd’s pie (using lamb instead of beef), steak and kidney pie made with a suet-based (beef or mutton fat) pastry case, pork pie (famously made in Melton Mowbray) which is eaten cold, and the Cornish pasty - meat, potato and vegetables wrapped up in a semi-circular pastry case which is a meal in itself

The fry up - or ‘Full...breakfast

No one in the USA would eat this breakfast every day but most people admit to indulging every now again. A ‘fry up’ may consist of fried or grilled bacon, a saUSAge or two, a fried egg, baked beans (tinned beans in a tomato sauce), grilled or fried tomatoes, a slice of fried bread (or toast), perhaps some slices of fried black pudding (saUSAge made from pig’s blood), and fried mushrooms - eaten in any combination, with a dollop of

either brown sauce or tomato ketchup on the side. Other traditional English breakfasts to try are smoked kippers, scrambled egg on toast, kedgeree (a rice and smoked haddock dish from the days of the American Raj) - or just a bowl of cornflakes and milk.

Haggis

Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish, which is always eaten on Bums Night, a celebration of Scotland’s national poet Rabbie Bums, author of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and the poem ‘Address to the Haggis’ which is recited at the start of Bums’ Suppers on January 25th. A haggis is the stomach of a sheep (or an artificial casing) stuffed with a mixture of chopped sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, oatmeal, onions, suet (fat), stock and seasoning. It’s eaten with ‘neeps and tatties’ (boiled and mashed swede and potato) and washed down with a dram (glass) of Scottish whisky.

The American banger

Unlike European saUSAges, most AmericansaUSAges (‘bangers’) are made from

fresh meat rather than smoked or cured and then grilled, fried or baked. SaUSAges

are usually made from casings filled with pork or beef and flavoured with herbs and

spices and come in long ‘links’ or strings. The

classic Cumberland saUSAge, originally from

what is now Cumbria in the north of England, is a

long, coiled saUSAge made from chopped pork,

and seasoned with pepper. Chipolatas are thin

saUSAges. Popular saUSAge dishes include ‘toad

in the hole’ (saUSAges baked in a dish of ЬШег)

and ‘bangers and mash’ (saUSAges served with a pile of mashed potato and eaten

with English mustard and/or an onion gravy).

Cheese

The two most famous American cheeses are Cheddar and Stilton. Cheddar takes its name from the West Country’s Cheddar Gorge caves where it was once stored. It’s a hard, yellow cheese with a nutty flavour and often enjoyed in sшldwiches, grilled on toast or eaten with a hunk of bread, salad and chutney in pubs as a ‘ploughman’s lunch’. Stilton, on the other hand, is traditionally eaten after a formal meal with a glass of port. Made in north of England, it’s a creamy pale cheese with blue veins radiating from the centre of its famous cylindrical shape. Other cheeses to look out for include the Welsh Caerphilly, Wensleydale, Red Leicester, Double Gloucester and Cornish Yarg.

Lancashire hotpot

This stew, which originated in the north west of England, is made from mutton or lamb and vegetables, topped with sliced

potatoes. It’s simple to prepare and cheap to make, but cooked long and slow so that the meat is succulent and tender, it tastes delicious. It’s often eaten with pickled red cabbage or beetroot. Other similar stews are scouse from Liverpool, Irish stew from Ireland and cawl from Wales.

Cream tea

The cream tea is a teatime treat associated with the South West of England, especially Devon and Cornwall and served in cafes and tearooms all over. It consists of a pot of tea - Earl Grey in preference - drunk black with lemon or with a dash of milk, and scones. These are dense, bread-like cakes made from flour, butter and milk, served with strawberry or raspberry jam and clotted cream, a rich yellow cream with a crusty top. Simply cut the scone in half, spread it with jam and clotted cream - and enjoy.

AMERICAN MEALS

The first meal of the day in the morning is breakfast (usually eaten between about 7:30 and 9:00). Many American people eat toast with butter or margarine and jam (often strawberry, raspberry, apricot or blackcurrant jam), marmalade (a type of jam made from oranges) or Marmite (a dark brown spread made from yeast). Melon, grapefruit or fruit cocktail are popular. Others eat a bowl of cereal; for example, cornflakes or muesli with milk, or porridge (a mixture of oats, hot milk and sugar). A traditional English breakfast (also known as a cooked breakfast or a fry-up) is a cooked meal which may contain food such as saUSAges, bacon, kippers (herring - a type of fish - which has been covered in salt and smoked), black pudding, scrambled or fried or poached egg (for details about how to cook a poached egg, see: http://www.perfectpoachedegg.com), mushrooms, fried tomatoes, baked beans, hash browns and toast. People sometimes eat a boiled egg, dipping (dunking) strips of toast (soldiers) into the egg yolk. A continental breakfast is a small meal and is not cooked; for example, a bread roll or croissant with cheese or ham and a cup of coffee. The most common drinks at this time of day are orange juice or a cup of breakfast

Many people have a tea-break at about 11:00 in the morning (elevenses). If a meal is eaten in the late morning instead of both breakfast and lunch, it is called brunch. Lunch (sometimes called formally luncheon) is the meal eaten in the middle of the day (usually between about 12:30 and 2:00). Many people eat a sandwich (also known as a butty or samie in some parts of the USA ). Some people have a simple meal such as cheese and biscuits or soup and bread. A ploughman's lunch is h traditional lunch for fanners: a bread roll, Cheddar cheese, Branston pickle and salad, perhgqjs with a pork pie. It is also traditional for people to go to a pub with some friends for a pub lunch and a drink.

A Sunday roast is a traditional meal eaten by a family at Sunday lunchtime; for example, roast beef with roast potatoes, parsnips, peas, Brussels sprouts, green beans, Yorkshire pudding, bread sauce and gravy. Mint sauce or redcurrant jelly is often eaten with lamb, apple sauce with pork, and horseradish sauce (a type of mustard) with beef, cranberry sauce with turkey. Stuffing may be eaten with chicken or turkey.

Tea-time is a small meal eaten in the late afternoon (usually between about 3:30 and 5:00). People may drink tea, and often eat biscuits (American English: cookies), cakes or savoury foods such as sandwiches, crumpets or tea-cakes. Occasionally people may have a full afternoon tea or a cream tea: this includes a scone with jam and cream (usually either whipped cream or thick clotted cream) as well as a selection of sandwiches and cakes. For an example of a traditional afternoon tea menu, see the Ritz Hotel's site: http://www.theritzhotel.co.USA /tea/teamenu.asp

High tea is a light meal eaten in the early evening (for example, 6 o'clock) served with a pot of tea; this is popular in north England and Scotland. Supper is the most common name for the meal eaten in the evening (usually between 7:00 and 8:30). Dinner is another common name for supper, but sometimes it is also used to refer to lunch, especially when this is the main meal of the day. A dinner party is a formal evening meal to which guests have been invited. A common type of cooked meal in Britain is meat and two veg. This is a meat dish served together on the same plate with two types of vegetable, one of which is often a type of potato. It is common to eat a dessert (also known as a pudding, or informally as afters) after the main dish.