posted
Yeah, steak for breakfast is definitely a southwestern thing. Here in the upper Midwest, breakfast meat is almost entirely pig-based.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I don't know... some of the Asian restaurants I inspect have some pretty sketchy looking nasty things that they are selling as food. I'd take kidneys over balut if I was starving to death any day!
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As a Texan, I'd say I've certainly seen it served. I've never known anyone that did it as a normal thing though- typically just if there's leftovers from steak the night before or a really special occasion. Bacon and sausage are definitely the norm.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Breakfast restaurants often sell steak and eggs as an option. I also think I have seen some sort of beef brisket omelet. But, yeah for home cooked it would be a leftover not a planned thing. We also love our kolaches in Houston- so that is like hot dogs.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: *raises hand*
But in Australia it's,
"Beef! It could be served at any meal today!"
We think of steak for breakfast as American.
Huh. I distinctly remember being in the Philippines (oh great this version of firefox at school doesn't have spell check) and all the Australian dive instructors talked about steak for breakfast. I also remember watching a movie about an Australian family living in the frontier. There was a scene at a bed and breakfast where the hostess was serving all the men breakfast steak and fried eggs. I guess I got the impression they did that everywhere in Australia.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I asked other people what they thought of as American food. Turkey, cookies, pancake stacks, ketchup, Fried chicken and Boston Beans were all considered to be typical American foods. Moonshine was also mentioned frequently
When I mentioned y'all felt that the BBQ was American, I only received puzzled looks. Nope, definitely Australian. I did get asked if you knew BBQ was eaten outside? Now that had never occurred to me, I just assumed everyone ate BBQ outside.
We often hear the phrase 'as American as Apple Pie' so that surely would be on the list too.
Posts: 26 | Registered: Feb 2009
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quote:Originally posted by Drifter: I asked other people what they thought of as American food. Turkey, cookies, pancake stacks, ketchup, Fried chicken and Boston Beans were all considered to be typical American foods. Moonshine was also mentioned frequently
When I mentioned y'all felt that the BBQ was American, I only received puzzled looks. Nope, definitely Australian. I did get asked if you knew BBQ was eaten outside? Now that had never occurred to me, I just assumed everyone ate BBQ outside.
We often hear the phrase 'as American as Apple Pie' so that surely would be on the list too.
It may be hard to say that the act of cooking something over an open fire is limited to any specific country or ethnicity. The term barbecue though is carribean in origin and was brought up into the southern U.S. by way of migrating natives.
Barbecue in the U.S. is usually referencing meat (almost exclusivly pork, though southwest states will cook beef) slow-cooked (indirectly) over a wood fueled flame. Anything over direct heat or charcoal (even gas.... yuk) is just grilling. That being said barbecue is most definately a U.S. thing. Particularly southern U.S.
Posts: 467 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Bacon was invented by French pirates in the Caribbean. So, since Canadian Bacon is just ham, and since no one else is claiming it, I hereby claim Bacon as an American food.
And with Bacon--we win.
Posts: 1941 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I find it funny that you associate BBQ with pork. Though I have known people to occasionally cook a pork loin as BBQ, and there are, of course, spare ribs, the vast VAST majority of the BBQ that I've come in contact with has been beef. Of course, I do live in Texas, so we are southwest.
I've also never heard your distinction between BBQ and "Grilling" before. People around here usually differentiate the two based on what type of think you are using to cook it. If you're using a gas grill, then it's grilling - but on a real pit, it's always BBQ!
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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hmmm ive definately had people give me crap for saying "come over for a barbecue" and they find me with a grill. I didn't originally associate bbq with pork but when i look back on it whith the exception of beef brisket i can't really think of much other than pork that i've barbecued or that i've seen barbecued. I just went and looked through some dictionaries and etemologies and encyclopeidas to see if i could find a more definitive history for barbecue.
Pretty much every place suggests that what we would call barbeque is from the southern U.S.
Posts: 467 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: ]Huh. I distinctly remember being in the Philippines (oh great this version of firefox at school doesn't have spell check) and all the Australian dive instructors talked about steak for breakfast. I also remember watching a movie about an Australian family living in the frontier. There was a scene at a bed and breakfast where the hostess was serving all the men breakfast steak and fried eggs. I guess I got the impression they did that everywhere in Australia. [/QB]
Actually, that is triggering memories - I think it's a generational thing. It may have been more common a while ago. A cafe near me used to have an 'ANZAC special' that was steak and eggs, and a lot of the older generation seemed to order it.
Something else American - doughnuts! And bagels.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Yeah, but the more specific use of barbecue is so much more useful. I mean, criminy, the way some of you define barbecue... early humans did nothing but barbecue.
The style of cooking that was created (or at least perfected and popularized) by the Southern US has the same name as what Aussies and others call cooking outside over a flame. Since the latter definition of barbecue could easily be called by other words (like... grilling. Or cooking over a fire) and the other really just has the one name, doesn't it make more sense to accept that barbecue is... well... barbecue?
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:I've also never heard your distinction between BBQ and "Grilling" before.
That's a western thing. East of the Mississippi, "barbecue" is a verb that's very distinct from "grill." And "barbecue" as a noun is almost never grilled.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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A barbecue here implies more than just cooking over a flame - it's usually grilled meat (steak, sausages, lamb chops) with a salad and bread. Eating outside and drinking beer is also implied.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Oh man, I wish there was a Goodwood or an Outback out here now. Some Alice Springs Chicken would really do me right.
One of these days we need a forum get together, have it at a camp site with fire pits, and we will do nothing but grill and BBQ. Even the vegetarians can eat vegetable kebabs.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Things that didn't exist in Switzerland when I lived there...except at the American Store in Geneva: Root Beer Tortillas Flavored Jello (and for some bizarre reason, members of the church loved it when missionaries made it) Brown Sugar as we know it in the US- Chocolate chip cookies were not the same without it. Macaroni and Cheese Reeces Peanut Butter Cups
pretty much, I could find anything else I wanted.
Posts: 862 | Registered: Oct 2003
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When I was in Thailand there was a place just up Thapae Road from my soi that was called America Restaurant. They served burritos, nachos, spaghetti, and chocolate cake.
In England I ate at a pub that served hamburgers. It was kind of odd--they devoted the better part of a page of their menu to the types of burgers that they sold, but it read something like this:
The Ketchup Burger - A Hamburger With Ketchup On It The Mustard Burger - A Hamburger with Mustard On It The Pickle Burger - A Hamburger with Pickles On It
and so on and so forth, until you got to:
The American Burger - A Hamburger With Sliced Tomato And Raw Onions
Is the practice of eating raw onions on burgers and sandwiches widely seen as a uniquely American thing, or was the author of that menu just odd?
Posts: 1087 | Registered: Jul 1999
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quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: I also remember watching a movie about an Australian family living in the frontier. There was a scene at a bed and breakfast where the hostess was serving all the men breakfast steak and fried eggs. I guess I got the impression they did that everywhere in Australia.
I'm just finishing A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute, which is set (partially) in Queensland around 1950. In it, a young English woman is staying at a small B&B where breakfast is an 8 oz steak with two fried eggs. When she requests just a single fried egg with no steak the proprietress sends her the standard breakfast anyway, because that's all they serve.
FWIW, the book was later made into an Australian miniseries (circa 1982), which may be the movie you're referencing.
Posts: 2926 | Registered: Sep 2005
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The American Burger - A Hamburger With Sliced Tomato And Raw Onions
Is the practice of eating raw onions on burgers and sandwiches widely seen as a uniquely American thing, or was the author of that menu just odd?
hmmm i dunno, i put raw onions on everything. I love onions. I would kinda doubt it being unique to americans though.
Posts: 467 | Registered: Nov 2005
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No restaurant should be considered Australian if it doesn't serve meat pie.
As far as steak for breakfast in the southwest US, it's a throwback to a couple of generations ago when ranching families ate what they produced. My uncles and aunts talk about being served steak for breakfast most days and crying because they couldn't afford bacon and sausage like the kids at school.
So, it is Texan, to an extent, but more of a novelty enjoyed by people who didn't come from a ranching family. Steak for breakfast makes me think of goat ropers, wannabe cowboys who've never touched a cow in their lives. Not that there's anything wrong with eating it, but there's a whole culture in Texas of trying really, really hard to get back to roots that were never all that great in the first place. [edit: Or, rather, that they don't fully understand because of the level of privilege they enjoy in this generation.]
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I'd like to throw in Buttermilk Biscuits into the mix. Especially when served with white gravy for breakfast.
Posts: 681 | Registered: Feb 2004
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If you haven't had Steak for breakfast in the US, you've been patronizing the wrong truck stops.
And lets face the elephant in the room. Real American ethnic food is anything so overproduced that they list more chemical compounds on the box than the names of plants or animals.
IE: Mono-sodium Glutamate mmm that's good cooking.
Posts: 1941 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Jake: ... better part of a page of their menu to the types of burgers that they sold, but it read something like this:
The Ketchup Burger - A Hamburger With Ketchup On It The Mustard Burger - A Hamburger with Mustard On It The Pickle Burger - A Hamburger with Pickles On It
posted
Yeah, it was odd. I asked the waitress if I could get an American burger with cheese, ketchup, pickle, mustard, and lettuce on it. She kind of boggled, and after a moment said "well...it'll cost you!"
It was the worst burger I've ever eaten.
Posts: 1087 | Registered: Jul 1999
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