Culture Shock Stories

[kherbert05]

When we moved to San Angelo, seeing police cars on a near daily basis with children in the back - children small enough for car seats in the back of police car.

Turned out they had a program were police officers took their cars home. 2 thoughts making the fact a police officer lived in the area visible would reduce crime, and in an emergency they could go directly from home to the emergency without having to stop at the police station.

[Elfmama]

I might be off base I think a lot of people in the U.S., if you were to mention "chili sauce" to them, would have no idea what you are talking about.  You would get responses like, "You mean Tabasco sauce?"  "Picante sauce?"  "Salsa?"

Other USAians--I'm I right or crazy?

That would be my questions also.  I've never seen it, but since I wasn't looking for it that might not be relevant.  Heinz uses that "America's Favorite" slogan on ALL their stuff; doesn't mean that the sauce/condiment/pickles are commonly found.  I might be able to find it in the grocery store, but it certainly doesn't have the ubiquity of ketchup or mustard.  I don't think I've ever seen it in a restaurant.

[jenny_islander]

To the person who talked about Tabasco on pizza: YIKES.  The thought makes my eyes water.

Visitors from abroad may be surprised by the enormous portion sizes at American chain restaurants.  However, they all offer to-go boxes and nearly all hotels have a fridge.  You can buy plastic forks in any grocery store or ask for one at a fast food joint.  So you can stretch an enormous restaurant meal over another two or three meals and there is an expectation in the parts of the U.S. that I have visited that this will be done.

[marcel]

This looks to me (Australia) like sweet chili sauce. I would expect chili sauce to be a lot denser and more of a dark red. Sweet chili would be used to dunk nuggets or wedges in my experience.

And on the pizza issue I have never seen or heard of tuna on pizza. Seafood pizza would generally have calamari, prawns and scallops.

We also have the sweet chili sauce here (Netherland) The thing is that  it is hard to distinguish between a hot chili sauce, and a sweet chili sauce, since they look practically the same.

[Kaora]

I might be off base I think a lot of people in the U.S., if you were to mention "chili sauce" to them, would have no idea what you are talking about.  You would get responses like, "You mean Tabasco sauce?"  "Picante sauce?"  "Salsa?"

Other USAians--I'm I right or crazy?

Currently catching up, however, now I really want some shrimp in nice, cold, thick chili sauce. Yeah, I know what the stuff is, and I love it. 

[Micah]

Sweet chilli sauce is beautiful with a lot of things. Potato wedges are one. Potato wedges and sour cream, mmmm mmmm.

Do you have Worcestershire sauce in America? I use it ALLL the time, in stews, sauces, soups. Great stuff.

And what is cheesesteak?

[Danika]

Ereine, I've been to Finland and Scandanavia, but I don't remember witnessing this. I've heard that people in Sweden, anyway, eat pizza with a fork and knife. Is that right? In the US, we eat it with our hands:

[jmarvellous]

Count me as an American who likes sweet or spicy chili sauce (but only tolerates ketchup). I put Sriracha on almost any savory dish.

Worcestershire sauce is common here; I avoid anything that contains it, though, as I'm a vegetarian and it's got anchovies.

I know plenty of people who eat pizza with a fork and knife, too. They're just more focused on neatness than some of us (me).

[Diane AKA Traska]

Sweet chilli sauce is beautiful with a lot of things. Potato wedges are one. Potato wedges and sour cream, mmmm mmmm.

Do you have Worcestershire sauce in America? I use it ALLL the time, in stews, sauces, soups. Great stuff.

And what is cheesesteak?

A cheesesteak is a regional dish here in the Philadelphia area... you start with beef sliced incredibly thin... about the thickness of a paper match.  You chop it up into smallish pieces, fry it up (preferably with onions), then add provolone, repeat, provolone cheese (some people will tell you that Cheeze Whiz is used.  These people are tourists).  Place the fried steak and melted cheese (and the onions... you ordered it with, right?) onto a long Italian roll.  Bizarrely, some people have decided that green peppers are necessary on a cheesesteak.  These people likely could not find Philadelpbhia on a map if it were a map of the Camden area.  A cheesesteak is greasy and not at all good for you, but it is very tasty.

What a cheesesteak should look like (about halfway down)
http://www.real-philly-cheese-steak.com/johns.html

What a cheesesteak should NOT look like
http://www.npr.org/news/national/election2000/conventions/postcards.cheesesteak.html

[Kaora]

Sweet chilli sauce is beautiful with a lot of things. Potato wedges are one. Potato wedges and sour cream, mmmm mmmm.

Do you have Worcestershire sauce in America? I use it ALLL the time, in stews, sauces, soups. Great stuff.

Yes, yes we do have it!  It's used all the time here for cooking! 

[Larrabee]

Ereine, I've been to Finland and Scandanavia, but I don't remember witnessing this. I've heard that people in Sweden, anyway, eat pizza with a fork and knife. Is that right? In the US, we eat it with our hands:

In the UK, sometimes pizza is eaten with hands and sometimes with a knife and fork.  In a more casual setting like a Pizza Hut or a family friendly casual restaurant hands are fine.  In a nicer pizzeria or Italian restaurant you would cut it up and eat it like a piece of meat.  The way to tell how you're supposed to handle it is how the pizza is served, if its cut into slices when its brought to you then its fine to pick it up, if it isn't then you should eat it with a knife and fork.

[PaintingPastelPrincess]

Ereine, I've been to Finland and Scandanavia, but I don't remember witnessing this. I've heard that people in Sweden, anyway, eat pizza with a fork and knife. Is that right? In the US, we eat it with our hands:

In the UK, sometimes pizza is eaten with hands and sometimes with a knife and fork.  In a more casual setting like a Pizza Hut or a family friendly casual restaurant hands are fine.  In a nicer pizzeria or Italian restaurant you would cut it up and eat it like a piece of meat.  The way to tell how you're supposed to handle it is how the pizza is served, if its cut into slices when its brought to you then its fine to pick it up, if it isn't then you should eat it with a knife and fork.

Do you have to cut the servings for yourself if it's not cut then? That's odd to me because I've always seen it pre-cut even at nicer Italian places.  People typically do eat it with a knife & fork at the higher quality places, especially those which serve many more things than just pizza.

[Larrabee]

Ereine, I've been to Finland and Scandanavia, but I don't remember witnessing this. I've heard that people in Sweden, anyway, eat pizza with a fork and knife. Is that right? In the US, we eat it with our hands:

In the UK, sometimes pizza is eaten with hands and sometimes with a knife and fork.  In a more casual setting like a Pizza Hut or a family friendly casual restaurant hands are fine.  In a nicer pizzeria or Italian restaurant you would cut it up and eat it like a piece of meat.  The way to tell how you're supposed to handle it is how the pizza is served, if its cut into slices when its brought to you then its fine to pick it up, if it isn't then you should eat it with a knife and fork.

Do you have to cut the servings for yourself if it's not cut then? That's odd to me because I've always seen it pre-cut even at nicer Italian places.  People typically do eat it with a knife & fork at the higher quality places, especially those which serve many more things than just pizza.

Yes, at the nicer places you just get served the whole pizza and you cut it yourself.  At the places where you'd eat pizza with a knife and fork does it come cut into the same triangular slices as casual places or a different way?

[Micah]

Sweet chilli sauce is beautiful with a lot of things. Potato wedges are one. Potato wedges and sour cream, mmmm mmmm.


And what is cheesesteak?

A cheesesteak is a regional dish here in the Philadelphia area... you start with beef sliced incredibly thin... about the thickness of a paper match.  You chop it up into smallish pieces, fry it up (preferably with onions), then add provolone, repeat, provolone cheese (some people will tell you that Cheeze Whiz is used.  These people are tourists).  Place the fried steak and melted cheese (and the onions... you ordered it with, right?) onto a long Italian roll.  Bizarrely, some people have decided that green peppers are necessary on a cheesesteak.  These people likely could not find Philadelpbhia on a map if it were a map of the Camden area.  A cheesesteak is greasy and not at all good for you, but it is very tasty.

What a cheesesteak should look like (about halfway down)
http://www.real-philly-cheese-steak.com/johns.html

What a cheesesteak should NOT look like
http://www.npr.org/news/national/election2000/conventions/postcards.cheesesteak.html

Ahhhh, thank you! I've read a lot of mentions of cheesesteak in books and online and always wondered what it was. Was never so curious enough to google it though  . I always had visions of a full slab of steak, with normal cheese, like cheddar being involved somewhere. The actual thing looks and sounds yummy!

[Ereine]

Ereine, I've been to Finland and Scandanavia, but I don't remember witnessing this. I've heard that people in Sweden, anyway, eat pizza with a fork and knife. Is that right?

I eat pizza with a fork and knife (and our pizzas are almost always pre-cut), though sometimes I might not. I think that it's common, some people use forks and some their hands, maybe forks are more common. That's only for the kebab-pizzeria pizzas though and maybe only for take away, at least in my experience if you go to a real restaurant it would seem as strange to eat with your hands as it would be to eat a steak with hands. I might be mistaken though, I only eat pizza maybe twice a year and don't go to restaurants much.