7 Ways British and American Restaurants Are Very Different
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 มี.ค. 2022
- Few things highlight the cultural differences between Britain and America more than food, with restaurants being the central hub for many of these differences. Here are seven of them.
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Only the knife is cutlery. The fork is stablery and the spoon is scooplery. 🙄
@@terrymurphy2032 😂
@@terrymurphy2032 Only if it's a filet knife...
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
This might be the greatest comment in the history of TH-cam
They don’t have sporks one the UK. They’re an ingenious American invention.
I feel it's important to remember that many of the "foreign" foods we like here in the U.S. have been modified by the immigrant communities who introduced them here. So instead of thinking of it as "fake Chinese food," think of it as "Chinese-American cuisine." It is its own thing. Unless you are talking about Taco Bell, lol.
Taco Bell is authentic Mexican food.
Taco Bell is authentic stoner cuisine.
I've also noticed a lot of immigrant foods in the US end becoming "fast food," probably for competition reasons.
Pizza... Chinese food... The end state is basically just McDonaldization for all cuisine in the US. Not denying that there aren't authentic restaurants, but the fast food version tends to dominate.
Same thing with our Cuban food in Florida. It isn't different because non-Cubans changed it, but from the tweeking by the Cuban immigrants as they were influenced by the Sicilians and others generally.
It's exactly the same in the UK with Indian food. "British Indian food" is a big deal now even in other countries. Chicken Tika Masala which I have seen being served in many countries, including the USA, is a dish invented in the UK and unlike any authentic Indian food.
The portion sizes in America start to make sense once you realize that to the restaurant owner, the food itself is often the lowest cost of operations. So when business pressures forced them over the years to increase prices, increasing portion sizes left the customer still feeling like they were getting value. This slowly over time escalated to the seemingly insane levels you see today.
It's also to some extent a matter of diversity. You don't know who's coming in the door, but be it a tiny Asian woman or a towering Samoan man it'd be pretty bad service to let a customer leave hungry. So set the portions for the largest probable appetite and let everyone else leave with leftovers.
There's also reasonable evidence to suggest that the American food culture quirk of takeout boxes being rather expected came in some part from the Great Depression.
It probably started with family homes and got adopted by actual restaurants; produce technically more than what is needed, because you don't know whether or not these people get to eat more than once a day. Make sure no one goes hungry.
I've heard portion sizes are largest in the Midwest (think Wisconsin supperclubs), and smallest on the West Coast (think Beverly Hills).
There’s a southern style restaurant in my NYC neighborhood that has enormous portions. I end up with two meals out of the leftovers. It’s ridiculous. But to be honest the fried chicken tastes better the next day.
@@woodcider I think of the old sitcom Cheers when Norm talks about going to the "Hungry Heifer".
All valid points, Lawrence. I'm an American who lived in China for 11 years. I used to deplore the Americanized versions of foods I order at Chinese restaurants in the US ... until I found out that at Domino's Pizza in China, they use toppings such as corn, pea pods and shrimp. Ah, well, you have to play to locals right? There was one pizza at Domino's the Chinese call "American" pizza -- it's pepperoni.
I went to a Shakey's in Japan, "World's Greatest Pizza" TM. Toppings included corn, pea pods and squid. The first time I went to an Indian restaurant was in London. After 30 months I made it back to the states (1977, I was 20). I spent a week's pay at Taco Bell because I missed "Mexican Food". I was a very naive soldier then.
Is there a rule in the UK (like there is in the US) that the waiter/waitress must wait until your mouth is full before asking you a question?
Ah yes, our most sacred of American laws, next to asking how it is when you're about to take your first bite.
That way, the only way you can reply is to say “Mmmmmm.”
In my experience this is very true !
There is...and it's bloody annoying
@LOL CATZ - That made me laugh... 🤣
I remember a long time ago when I was working in McDonald's, an American visitor came up to the counter and asked for "silverware". I, being teenager unwise to the linguistic differences, had no idea what she was on about until she elaborated by asking for a knife and fork, to which I replied "oh, yeah, it's plastic though" as I handed them over.
LOL
Sometimes we call that plasticware
To American ears, "cutlery" sounds like crude eating utensils that would have been used in the Middle Ages, or even in ancient times.
@@cahinton. I've heard it called cutlery in the U.S. in the midwest by my grandparents and their friends. And my family aren't recently arrived or purebred by any means. I wonder if it was regional.
@@michritch3493 I'm a Midwesterner (Minnesotan), and I've never heard silverware referred to as "cutlery". Then again, the Midwest is huge and has a population of 70 million, so who knows.
I love Indian food, and speaking to Indian people I've found out that the "English version" of a dish named Phaal was actually invented in Britain as it doesn't exist in India. Same thing for the Chicken Tikka Masala, which is basically the English national dish...
Chicken Tikka Masala is a British dish, not English, as it was made in Scotland
Ah, like chow mei.
Asma Khan says basically all British ‘Indian’ food was invented by one generation of Bangladeshi immigrants in the 70s who opened restaurants bc they couldn’t get jobs from racist companies and didn’t want to claim benefits. They adapted classic flavours to the British taste, i.e. put loads of cream in it and made it milder, and the result was that, despite problems with people abusing them and leaving without paying etc. in the early years, they changed the palate of a nation and made the “curry house” a staple of British cuisine
Egad, our local has Chicken Tikka Masala - in San Diego, CA!
@@mrkillman555 Unbelievable! Scottish food that tastes good.
I learned about one of the differences between USA and Britain back in the eighties. I was eating at a small restaurant in Kensington and talking to someone at an a joining table. One of the staff passed me to go to the rear of the restaurant. When they returned as they passes my table 2 ice cubes were dropped into my previously tepid soda. Apparently the staffer heard my American accent and knew that all Americans like ice cold drinks.
Ha! But the lukewarm beverage is one of my favorite things about visiting England! Maybe not actual favorite things. But not an ice-cold beverage fan.
Nice what they were trying to do, but much better to ask. I don't want ice in my drink at British temperatures.
😄👍🏼
Ugh, I'd smack 'em. I hate having to remember to tell people, "No ice." Especially when I order liquor. Why would they automatically assume I want ice in my drink? You can't reverse that decision.
I'm American, but tell them "no ice". This doesn't seem to confuse anyone. They follow direction and when they give me a refill, they remember I'm the no-ice guy.
Down here in rural Arkansas, for a too short time we had a local pub run by a transplant from Manchester. He served authentic fish and chips with mushy peas. He also did a heck of a Sunday roast with Yorkshire pudding. The restaurant usually ran out of that dish within an hour of opening on Sunday afternoon. What I truly have to thank him for though was introducing me to Coronation Chicken and a couple of awesome curries.
Coronation Chicken was an eye-opener for me (tho I had it in Scotland). It’s one chicken salad-like dish I can tolerate (I hate mayo). Now I make it all the time at home.
@@SuperiorHound Sounds good I love chicken salad :)
Sounds like a fine establishment
I do miss a proper full English breakfast. They’re just not the same in the US, that’s the first thing I fell in love with in England. The English blokes I worked with came to say, every AM, “you know we don’t eat those every day, right?” I MUST!!!
My maternal grandmother, 1st generation American from German immigrants, married a 1st generation American of English immigrants (shortly after WW I). She learned to "cook English" for her husband. The family favorite was always Yorkshire Pudding. During a business trip to the north of England, I found myself in the City of York, in a pub established in the 1700s. And their Yorkshire pudding tasted EXACTLY like my gandma's! Yum!
I once ordered a "burger and salad" at an Irish pub and was served coleslaw and a big meatball. I'm still not sure what happened. 😄
I've heard horrifying tales of Irish pizza with potatoes and corn on! @_@
As an American living in Russia we were surprised by pizza having mayonnaise and corn on it.
@@katrinawright2139 eww!!!
They put wieners on my pizza in Mexico.
@@MerelyGifted Be glad they aren't Japanese...they have the really weird topping choices. Some of which are decently tasting, but very strange to consider.
There's a nearby place that has a saurkraut pizza though...it was originally a joke item that turned out to, actually, be rather good.
Potato and corn aren't that unusual if you consider other groupings of food that are basically baked on a pizza crust.
The one word that kept tripping me up in the UK was Spud's meaning potatoes. My autistic sentence processing times were much longer in answering and it was noticeable to my hosts. I remember eating at a place and the waitress kept calling me Love! She wasn't being fresh or forward. And she asked,... "So what will WE be having today Love?" Being autistic it took time for my slow autistic brain to translate her question into USA English so I ended up with Fish and Chips what I wanted and Shepherds Pie. I've never ever had a real UK Shepherds Pie and did not think I'd like it. I gave it a try and loved it. My big fat stupid brother wanted a taste. I brought him his own. They must have known we were Americans. The portion sizes were nice. At the ENd of the meal she asked. "So was everything satisfactory?" I said everything was "Lovely Thank You!" she beamed. The tea was great too. The UK has the best tea in my experience.
Another food that the US help elevate is the BURRITO. Easily a top food item, it was originally developed in northern Mexico and SW United States, but really didn’t take off until it was popularized in Southern California. Basically, authentic Mexican restaurants are not likely to carry ‘Burritos’ but they can make then for you off menu. Like Cheeseburgers, I attribute Burritos as essentially being American.
You're very right. I think burritos, in their big form that we normally think of, were invented in San Francisco by a grocery store called El Foro.
There are quite a few "Mexican" foods that I can think of that were invented in Northern Mexico/Texas/California and eventually eaten in all of those places. Flour tortillas, fajitas, "queso", chili con carne, and chile relleno come to mind
Fish tacos from Baja/Southern California.
When I visited Denmark, there were "Chicago style" pizza places all over. When they heard our accent they asked if we were from Chicago. We were sent by a Chicago company so we said yes. They were so happy to have "Chicagoans" that they asked if they could take our picture and hang it on the wall as an endorsement from real Chicagoans.
Reminds me of having my picture taken in Edinburgh by a Japanese family (I was in the kilt). I didn't have the heart to tell them I live in Oregon...
@@mescko You fraud. LOL.
Southside girl here -- so, how was the pizza?
@@mescko Do you play bagpipes that shoot flames too?
@@kevinbeck5419 Flames?? Where does that come from? My Father played the pipes, I don't really have any interest in playing, though I *love* the sound.
About the popularity of "Chinese food" outside of China---in Perú, it's so popular and common, that they have a short word in Peruvian Spanish for "Chinese food". It's "chifa". Some Chinese restaurants in Perú don't even bother putting a name for their restaurant on their signs. Instead, they just have a sign that just says "CHIFA", and that's enough of a selling point to get plenty of customers. Oh, also, the Chinese word for "fried rice" (Chaofan), was adopted into Peruvian Spanish as "Chaufa".
Silverware had become a catch-all word in the past 20-30 years. Before there was a distinction. Silverware was just that: solid or much more likely plated silver trays and utensils. This was typically used only for special occasions such as Sunday dinner or Thanksgiving. The more common words used while I was growing up was "flatware" or utensils denoting something more likely to be stain-less steel.
yeah, in the US, "silverware" is pretty much just a common phrase for utensils. If you were at an informal outdoor event where the forks and spoons were plastic, people might even still refer it to like that, like, "where would I find the silverware?" Most "silverware" you'll find at any but the very most expensive restaurants in the US will be stainless steel.
@@roentgen571 When I first left home, it seemed as if people didn't understand what my Pop referred to as the 'eating utensils'. Where is my knife? But, 'flatware' seemed to be the word on the box in the kitchen arts section of the big box store, and plastic ware or picnic ware might be more accurate when picking up utensils for a picnic or dining at McDonalds, however, pretty much at home, we refer to individual implement i.e. "Please set the table with the soup and dessert spoons, and skip the salad forks. But, don't forget the steak knives (or the lobster forks)."
I (American) was born in the 60s and we called it silverware my entire life, and it was stainless steel. My mom had a set of real silver utensels that we rarely used, and I called it "real silver" to distinguish it. I've only seen "flatware" in books and I never knew exactly what it meant.
While asking for the check may be more common in the US, asking for "the bill" would be considered normal as well, and would certainly not cause any confusion.
I disagree. I learned "bill" somehow growing up, though I am not sure if I got it from British novels or if it was in use in the parts of the South where I lived. When I moved to the NYC area, I found that the combination of me saying "bill" and the ambient noise level in restaurants meant that the waiters didn't understand me. I had to learn to say "check", and eventually to learn the check hand motion (making a checkmark on your palm with the index finger of the other hand). The hand motion was understandable across a noisy room, as long as you could catch your waiter's eye.
I regularly ask for the "bill" when dining out, because to me, receiving a check would imply that they're paying me. I've never experienced any trouble with them understanding me.
I would also add that most Americans use cutlery interchangeably with silverware, or sometimes it comes to cutlery = basic utensils & silverware = fancy utensils.
@LOL CATZ Oh, yeah, it does look more like a scribble, you're right. Thanks.
I always ask, "Can we close out now?" a phrase I learned from my waiter son, and it's always understood.
@LOL CATZ- Of course, when in the UK you would spell it correctly... 'cheque' LOL !
Only joshing... 😎😃
I've heard several Brits talk about the size of appetizers in the US. Unless the menu says 'small plate', appetizers are meant to be shared among several people at a table hence the portion size. Some people get appetizers as their main meal, but not in addition to an entree. Agreed that our overall portion sizes at restaurants is ridiculously large.
Agreed, I can't imagine eating an appetizer all by myself, we get 1 for a family of 4, they are big enough usually for 4 and definitely large enough for 2. Nobody gets one for themselves.
Yep. I'm living abroad and here appetizers are for 1 person. But they're priced higher than a shared app. in the US. It drives me crazy. 4 shrimp with sauce for $12? Why would I ever pay for that? I'm used to getting 20-30 shrimp for $10.
I tend to be the kind of person who eats two large meals a day, and if I know one of them is going to be a restaurant meal, I tend to spread them out as far as possible. Generally, if I eat a meal, I'll be functionally incapable of eating more than just a few nibbles of something for at least 4 hours, and my meals are usually spaced out to more like 6-8 hours. This particular habit has been pretty much stable since I left puberty, though on rare occasions I don't feel hungry enough to have more than one meal in the day, and usually not too many days later I'll have an unusually large appetite. I'll be the first to admit I'm no model of health, but I'm not that bad either.
I'd be curious to know how the main course became the entree, when entree means entrance, as in something at the beginning.
Yup. I get some strange looks from waitstaff when I tell them I only want half of what the portion is.
I live in Zhengzhou, Henan province. It's central China. In L.A., my hometown, there are many types of Chinese styles of food represented (China has eight main types of cuisine). Henan style food is not common in the US - I never had it there. Noodles are very popular here. Also, the food is far spicier (though not usually curry based). If you get Kung Pao chicken, it will come with lots of sichuan peppercorns, which I never had in an American Chinese restaurant. Other differences: if you order a shrimp stir fry you will get the heads on here. They taste good. Hot pot is hugely popular and is not in America. I don't think of Chinese American food as fake, but it is definitely modified and mainly from Hong Kong and Guangdong province (Cantonese).
Traveling in France, Italy, the UK and Ireland it was exactly what you said. The waiter almost never offered to refill water and definitely did not ask how our meal was. Fortunately everything was nearly perfect every time. Except one meal in a small Scottish pub. I asked them not to give me the Yorkshire pudding as I have celiac. And low and behold, out comes my beef with a big one sitting on it. I told the waitress I couldn’t just pick it off because of cross contamination. It was incredibly embarrassing. It took them another 20 minutes to bring out a new meal in which time my husband had been served his meal. The manager came and told us our entire meal was comped. I told him he we would pay for my husband’s but he insisted we pay nothing. He was embarrassed. I was embarrassed. It was awkward AF.
I love traveling to the UK and Ireland though. Even though the countries are much smaller with less people, they have a much higher density of people who have my disease than the United States. Therefore the waitstaff are very educated in it, gluten-free food is much easier to find, including on the go snacks or a small lunch. ❤️
Actually no there isn't a higher concentration of people with the disease, there are 1% of people in the world who are gluten intolerant so there are around 7 million people with the disease and a load of annoying people who want to eat gluten free food.
So no it's not the concentration of people, it's the fact the chef's and waitstaff have to learn the 14 most common alligens, as per HACCP, something Americas don't learn.
In Italy and France, it's normal to order a bottle of water with your meal, for the table, like wine.
I found traveling in the UK and Ireland the service was very good, and the food was excellent. And no, we didn't just go to touristy expensive places, we went to a lot of small, local pubs and restaurants. The waiters and waitresses were fun and joked around, and the service was quick and very tasty. Even when I'd do something like duck out of the hotel and go into a local pub and buy a few beers to go at night, it was just like, "here ya go, mate!" and I was in and out in 5 minutes, even as a foreigner with a debit card from an American bank.
@@roentgen571 Such fun. Haven't been there in a long time, don't know If I'll get back or not.
@@Meira750 Which unlike in most of the US, you pay for. Americans like our water on tap, unlimited, and free. You can even go into any Starbucks and ask for a free cup of water.
Clean plates for 2nd helpings are required by many health departments. The fear is that something that came in contact with your mouth might have fallen on to your plate and then fall onto the buffet.
it doesnt even have to fall in, contact is as easy as touching your tongs to the plate when you're grabbing another slice of turkey.
I think this is excellent from the hygiene perspective. I always get a clean plate if visiting a buffet for round two!
Clean plates are probably not required in the UK since any fast food restaurant buffet is likely to be a health hazard anyway.
I didn't know that.
Never heard of this, lol the buffets I’ve been to I always kept my same plate, wth not?
As an American, we also say To Go because the food is either "For here or To go"
I worked a summer in England on a student work-exchange program back in 1985. An American friend and I went to a pizza chain there and ordered a pizza, naming the toppings we wanted. When we said "hamburger," the waitress got a horrified look on her face and said, "You want hamburgers on your pizza?" We'd been living there long enough to know that what we Yanks call "hamburger," the Brits call "minced beef." We laughed and clarified what we meant. And that is why, 37 years later, I cannot donate blood. I may be carrying mad cow disease. True story.
You can donate now! The American Red Cross removed your donation restriction in October 2022.
@@loveistheonlyword Thanks for letting me know! But now, at age 60, I feel like I need all my blood. 🙂
We say "hamburger meat" for minced beef. "Hamburger" is usually a whole patty.
One thing that can be confusing in UK/Europe is not knowing if the restaurant or pub is one the wait staff seat you at, or if you find a table yourself and they find you. Sometimes you're standing awkwardly in a doorway looking for a sign posted somewhere, or seeing if a staff member is going to help. In the US, there's usually a sign indicating if you need to wait to be seated, or where to order, and then you seat yourself.
Obviously those restaurants are places for people "in the know". /s
Very true.
I'm living in the Netherlands and the pattern seems to be: if there's no sign go ahead and seat yourself. They'll put out a sign if they want you to wait to be seated by staff.
Fancier restaurants will usually want to seat you themselves.
I love how Britain expects you to be telepathic 😂
Restaurants/pubs where you order at the counter often have a large menu on the wall behind the counter that you can see when you walk in.
We visited Canada in 86, and my dad ordered a burger and fries at a diner. The waitress asked if he wanted gravy on his fries, and he asked, “who puts gravy on there fries?” To which the waitress answered, “Um, everybody.”
I’m Canadian and I never saw anyone do this until I was in high school (early 1970’s) in a small city then suddenly it was ubiquitous, so maybe now almost everybody (not I or anyone I know) does this. Poutine would be the exception and its widespread popularity is relatively recent. Since one puts gravy on potatoes when boiled or mashed, it’s not that unusual but personally I’m not a fan and will stay with vinegar. However, that’s another difference you might notice, many Canadians prefer white distilled vinegar to malt or cider on their fries/chips. I work in the US and do find I’m often swapping terms like those in today’s episode as well as things like washroom/restroom/bathroom; napkins/serviettes etc. plus conversions F/C, imperial/metric, and spellings for messages to the UK, Canada or colleagues.
Ha ha, around here we like salt and vinegar on our fries, especially fresh-cut fries. Ketchup is popular too, but vinegar is a must for many! I think it's a regional thing :D
Haha that would be putein :D
@@daffers2345 I've gotta have my ranch dressing with them lol.
We were somewhere in between Wawa and Thunder Bay.
On the subject of buffets, in many states it's the actual law that you have to take a clean plate. And restaurateurs will enforce this in case a health department worker is secretly dining while you're taking your dirty plate back for seconds. I've even seen people argue and be thrown out over a matter of a plate.
I always thought dinner was the main meal of the day with breakfast and the other meal was either lunch at noon or supper in the evening.
I don't know why but I always go back with the same plate. My family doesn't, it's just me. No one in my family, other customers, or any staff members have ever told me to do otherwise. I kind of viewed it the way Laurence did - that I was generating fewer dishes to clean.
@@wandasway6882 Yup. I was brought up on the same terminology. It's now rather old school, however, and younger generations would be baffled the word supper.
Requiring patrons to use a clean plate for each trip to the buffet is a food safety issue. In fact, it is a requirement under the Food and Drug Administration's Food Code. As you eat, the tableware you are using becomes contaminated with saliva, which is transferred to your plate. Clean plates prevent contamination of the buffet foods. The serving utensils only touch clean plates and no one brings bones or half eaten food near the fresh stuff.
@@kaldo_kaldo now you know not to do that.
I wanted ice cream one afternoon in the UK, but the place I was at only offered milk shakes, so I settled for that. The drink had no ice cream at all, and was otherwise cloyingly sweet. I had never heard of a milkshake without ice cream as the main ingredient, let alone absent altogether.
In Australia a milk shake is milk + flavouring, vs a thick shake which has ice cream. Assume it's similar in the UK
Who could've guessed that a milkshake would be made with milk?
Most milkshakes in the UK are made with icecream, but some cheap milkshakes (instant milkshakes) are just a flavouring syrup or powder mixed with milk.
@@treehousekohtao A proper Milkshake is mix Ice Cream with Milk in a blender with occasional other add-ins depending on flavor.
A Vanilla Milkshake is just Vanilla Ice Cream and Milk, but a Strawberry Milkshake is Strawberry Ice Cream, Milk, and Fresh/Frozen Strawberries.
@@treehousekohtao In America it is made from ice-cream and some milk. It has a very thick texture. Only difference between Milk Shake and Malted Milk in USA is that one has Malt in it. Both are made of ice-cream.
Years ago while vacationing in the Sierra Nebada Mountains northeast of Sacramento, CA we stumbled across a restaurant whose menu featured pasties. They were delicious but alien to anything I'd had before.
In the 19th century the region had been aswarm with miners from Cornwall who had brought the dish with them and it was so popular that it was still around 100+ years later.
My dad was working as a consultant for an engineering firm in Oslo, Norway, and, after he and my mother had been there a few months, we went to visit. It was just after the first phase of the large shopping mall called Akerbrigge had opened, and one of its 'crown jewels' was the first Mexican restaurant in Norway. Being a Colorado native, I just had to try it, and it was one of the weirdest experiences I've ever had. Imagine a plate of food in front of you that *looks* like Mexican food, but tastes like air. Seriously, it was as if they'd pointed some magic vacuum ray at the ingredients and removed all flavor. We had a similar encounter with Chinese food in Bergen.
One of Dad's favorite stories from his time there was when he went into a "real Americansk pizza" parlor (run by Turks who'd never set foot in the US 🤣) near his apartment in Homenkollen. It was a Saturday afternoon and the only other patrons were a table of teenaged kids. When his pizza appeared, it didn't have any detectable sauce on it, so he asked the waiter if he could have some extra on the side. This was apparently an unusual request, because the teens at the next table were beginning to stare and whisper. The waiter brought him as small bowl with red sauce in it, and told him to use it sparingly as it was "very spicy". My father being a cautious fellow, took a small amount and dabbed it on his pizza. Nothing. Then he tried a little more. Still nothing. Then he just dumped the whole thing on, to the astonishment of the waiter and the horrified admiration of the teens who thought he was the craziest bad ass ever for slathering his pizza in the "very spicy" sauce. Which turned out to be straight tomato sauce from a can.
Spicy food in the U.K. Is way spicier than in the U.S.
@@FredBTs You've obviously never had ghost pepper salsa. Seriously, only the U.K. has blander food than Scandinavia, except for the Indian restaurants. There, at least, you can find some heat.😀
@@larkmacgregor3143 true I’ve never had ghost pepper salsa (why would I want to?) but then neither have the vast majority of Americans. The further north in Europe you go the blander the food. Pickled herring is about as spicy as it gets in Sweden. Traditional British foods lack spice but the Brits I know eat Indian/Bangladeshi food as much as the average Californian eats Mexican. The “Indian” food is much much hotter than Mexican. Here, in Southern California, Indian restaurants will ask Brits if they want their food ‘American hot” (mild) or “British hot” (hot). That Chicken Tikka Masala is now the most popular meal in the UK shows how tastes have changed.
@@FredBTsthat sounds delicious!
😂😂😂😂😂
Several years ago, I dated a girl who did a semester in London. I visited and when we went out to a semi-nice place to eat, she told me in hushed tones, "don't ask for a to-go box. They don't do that here." I'll never forget that last quarter of margherita pizza, just sitting there.
Nah, most places will pack up stuff to go if you ask. Sorry about your pizza 😢
It's normal (but not super common as most people would finish the food) to take leftovers home in the UK particularly Pizzas has been for years.
Savages
@@alycinannette8388 Innit?
Screw national customs, that pizza won't eat itself
Indian for breakfast is nothing to be ashamed of. Chicken tikka masala is even tastier after a night in the fridge.
So is pizza.
@@tootz1950 You are correct sir.
Yorkshire pudding. My maternal grandfather was English, my American grandmother was a wonderful cook who learned to cook British. Her roast lamb was tender, delicious, and crispy. Her roast beef was the best, but her Yorkshire pudding was a revelation. Crispy on the edge tender in the middle with beefy flavors from the fond, and drizzled with "candy juice", AKA blood from the roast. Never had its equal here of course, but even in Britain, where there must have been many excellent examples, I couldn't find them.
Delicious. Cant beat a home made sunday roast
Haven't been to the UK in ten years, boy do I miss the food (tho' I still never miss a meal 😁). But a mate of mine just sent me some Ribena and Twiglets, so that's perked me up a little.
Juice NOT blood!...lol!
@@cynthiamckenzie1034 my mom called it juice, my aunt, the problematic one, called it blood. I bow to your knowledge.
One time in Italy I very briefly overheard this woman speaking in what I thought was a British accent and I asked her confidently what part of the UK she was from and she said “I’m from Australia darling” and the accent came through perfectly clear at that point. I was like just kill me now 💀
Americans just randomly strike up conversations with strangers? What?
@@AverageAlien yes, they do. But it can be a regional thing. I moved to the south recently and strangers talk to me constantly. People are pretty warm and inviting down here. I've lived other places where it isn't as much that way. But Lawrence talks often about how Americans are a warm and polite people, and I think that's true. I lived in Eastern Europe and people were quite cold and short with each other. Just different.
@@AverageAlienYes, all the time.
Regarding the attention that the wait staff pays to the customer. It's NOT all about the tips. The restaurant trains the staff to pay this type of attention. In other words, it's required by the employer in order for them to keep their job. This is the same in many types of stores as well. If you walk into Dollar General and are greeted by the cashier as entering, this is not because they are friendly, it is because the employer made it a requirement of the job.
One thing I love about the UK, the lack of in your face, irritating customer service. If I want help, I'll ask for it.
It is also about high turnover rates. The more thorough you are with each patron the faster they will finish and your next patron will be sitting down. Fast/friendly service is good word of mouth advertising. More money for the restaurant.
You're right that it's usually a job requirement for the staff to be attentive to their customers.
A friend briefly had a side job rating certain chain restaurants or stores that paid for a rating service to ensure the quality of its franchisees. The corporate offices would prepare a long list of things to note down during the meal service, such as being greeted by the host, how long he waited to be seated at a table, if the waiter described the specials of the day, accuracy of the order, how they handled order mistakes, attentiveness of the wait staff, portion sizes, cleanliness of the dining area and restroom, etc. Those lists were quite long, and it required a bit of work to collect and remember all that data (pre-smartphone days) without messing up or being caught taking notes, as either meant the gig was up. I accompanied him on a couple of meals when his wife was unavailable, or was tired eating at a particular restaurant chain. To me, it was too much work to get a free meal, and even more paperwork for him to submit for the refund. The worse visit I had was to a Navy Exchange store that sold grill equipment; we spent over an hour there, and I didn't even get a free meal for all that effort!
yes, that is why we hate it in the UK. It is fake and we would rather the server/assistant be grumpy than fake nice. Anyway, we are used to grumpy unhelpful service. If a waiter comes over more than a strict number of times they will absolutely piss off everyone at the table. We don't want to be interrupted every few seconds thanks. It is annoying when you want to leave and they won't bring the bill but normally standing up and putting your jacket on works a treat!
Just depends on the restaurant and and particular server in a restaurant. It can go to both extremes of too much attention to more commonly these days too little.
I worked in an bar that was right next to an Indian restaurant. I got to know the staff pretty well over the years. One day I asked if they would make me a dish they would've made before they move to America. There was a good heat level but what blew me away was the depth in flavors that the American version just didn't have.
There was a moment sometime in the mid-1980s, as I recall, that people suddenly got very concerned about contamination at buffets. All the restaurants at once seemed to agree you should use a clean plate each time you visit the buffet. Before that, nobody did it. After that, everyone required it.
It's been awhile since I was in the U.S., but my impression is that hot dogs are quite rare in American restaurants, and are most commonly served at hot dog stands, sports venues, and the like. Certainly, there are places that specialize in hot dogs and serve them, but I don't think the average restaurant or even fast food joint in the U.S. would serve hot dogs. Perhaps it's a regional thing. I'm most familiar with the west coastal states.
Gas stations. In 99% of the USA that's not called New York, people buy hot dogs at gas stations. Or petrol stations, I guess you may call them.
This is true, occasionally they can also be bar food but even that isn't all that common.
@@vtvincent4893 here in California I’ve never seen hotdogs on a restaurant menu.
7:45 Laurence, you really need to head north on a Friday afternoon into Wisconsin. Find a church, or catholic school, or fire department, or VFW (whatever!) serving up a Friday fish fry. You won't have trouble finding one... they all advertise them on their outdoor signage!
You'll get the large deep-fried pieces of cod, as well as the chips / steak fries (big french fries with skin on) on the side. Many are all-you-can-eat. You won't be disappointed!
Edit: You'll also get tartar sauce, lemon wedges, potato salad, coleslaw, rye bread...
Especially now during lent. McDonalds fish sandwich deal is on now too on Fridays.
In Arkansas, the preferred fish is catfish with fries, maybe another veggie, slice of onion and pickled green tomatoes
Ah... fried Wisconsin walleye...the king of freshwater fish. My wife, who never had walleye in her life because she lived in California most of her life, fell in love with it the first time she tried it, and brags it up to all of her friends and family back in the CA.
@LOL CATZ I understand that. But a Friday Fish Fry in Wisconsin is something different. Extremely popular, and every Friday of the week. Even my local gas station does a fish fry. Just somethin you have to experience.
@LOL CATZ Rivals some of the "better" restaurants that have a fish fry on their Friday menus. No lie... gas station in a town of 610, and what they serve up for Friday takeout is better (and cheaper!) than what I've gotten in a lot of restaurants.
Leftovers are wonderful! There's nothing wrong with having Indian food for breakfast or pizza, or ravioli, or burritos, or any of the other foods that actually taste better the next day. It's certainly healthier than most breakfast cereals!
Look up Linda Lavin singing "Cold Pizza For Breakfast!"
Since 1 order of rice is just right for 2 orders of curry, I will get 2 types of curry, 1 order of rice, and 1 order of naan when I get Indian takeout. (Sometimes I add an order of samosas to that.) Yes, it will cost close to $40 after tax, but I get 4 meals out of it or more. Lunch, dinner, breakfast, and lunch. There might be a little left to be a side dish at dinner.
I was confused in Canada when I started going to restaurants as I speak French as well as English and Entree means enter, which means the food you get when you enter the restaurant, or the starter. So when I saw on the menu the Entrees and they were full meals, I would wonder how big the main course would be if the entrees were that huge.
I don't speak French, to speak of, anyway, but I still know that entree is a starter, and as American as I am, the use of the word for the main course still sounds bizarre. Always has, because even when the only French I knew was "oui" it was clear that 'entree' meant 'enter'.
I live in Canada, in the province of Quebec. Here an “entrée” is the first dish, indeed it means entry, also called starter or appetizer in English. Then you get the main course/main dish, called “plat principal” in French, with a side dish “plat d'accompagnement” and “dessert” is obviously dessert (pudding is just a type of dessert for us too.) I cannot believe anyone would think that an entrée or appetizer is the main dish! 😮 I guess it's because here all menus must be mainly written in French, though they are often bilingual, and English menus are available. So, there is no way in Quebec anyone would ask for an entrée and get a main dish 😅 It's really interesting to find out that in other Canadian provinces and in the USA this happens… lost in translation!
@@andreabarrios5249 The culinary meaning of entrée has changed over time. In the late 17th century the first course was a soup, then came the entrée. This was a meat dish with a sauce. After that came the roast. I reckon that Canadians and North Americans have developed the idea that the entrée is the second course and kept into modern times. Just a theory.
As an American that visited your beautiful home country, you did really well covering the obvious differences. Although I wish I had found your channel before my visit, instead of after. One of the other big differences I noticed. In England there are hardly any public trash bins. In the states, they are literally on every block/street. ( & still we have people throwing their rubbish on the ground).
They moved a lot of the public bins following a couple of IRA bombs being put in bins in Warrington in '93. They killed two young boys and injured a lot of people, Since then there aren't many, if any, public bins in lots of places although you are starting to see a few more.
@@Ted_1 thank you, that explains it very well.
Why, as an American, are you saying BINS and RUBBISH? Its cans and garbage.
Ethnic foods like Chinese and Mexican vary greatly depending upon what part of the United States you’re in. I grew up and now again live in the Chicago area and I can’t even touch Chinese food here anymore after living five years in San Francisco. Likewise my grandparents retired to New Mexico and Mexican food there is vastly different than the Mexican food up here in the Chicago area.
I grew up in Chicago. And the Mexican food in Chicago :( ...well let's just say I didn't taste really good Mexican food until after moving to Texas. On the other hand--nobody can do an Italian Roast Beef sub/with au jus----like Chicago.
@@margietucker1719 but one of the things with the differences between Mexican food down along the border and up here in Chicago is that the Mexican population in the two places is from different parts of Mexico. A lot of the Mexican restaurants up here are run by people that are from all over Mexico but not from border areas. That’s why you see far less prevalence of things like rice in a burrito I had never even seen that until I moved to California and thought it was so odd. I came to find out a lot of the Mexican food that you’re going to find in places like Texas is actually Tex-Mex not Mexican from Mexico. If you’re talking about the truly neighborhood Chicago Mexican restaurants those are gonna vary depending upon what part of Mexico the owner came from. Chicago has the second highest Mexican population of any city in the United States so I think you’re making your observation based on a false assumption. Don’t get me wrong I love Tex-Mex food but I don’t confuse it with Mexican food. By the way the food down in New Mexico is distinctly a New Mexican twist on Mexican food.
@Margie Tusker nah, we get people from all over Mexico and the Latin world. It’s true that we love some Tex-mex but we have authentic Mexican in every single city. And we dont confuse the two either. Now no offense, I’m sure yall got some good Mexican food in parts of the city but out of all the city’s in this country, if it’s state doesn’t boarder Mexico then I already know its not gonna be as good. Don’t even get me started about having to pay for chips and salsa in parts of this country.
@@treefeathers yeah I clarified that in my later post. New Mexican food is distinctly its own thing and I love it. Haven’t been there in quite a while and I do miss the food. My grandparents lived in Santa Fe right on the river and the food around there was amazing.
Detroit has a very large Hispanic population, and many great Mexican and Latin restaurants. The best are in Southwest Detroit - Mexicantown - and the surburban ones are hit or miss...mostly miss.
Of course I had great Mexican food when I lived in Suthun Coliforniyah, but my BF was V impressed when we took him to Armando's in Mexicantown. He told our waitress their food was better than anything he'd ever had in the LA area, and he'd lived there his whole life.
My cousin and I visited our grandmother in the early 70s when she briefly had a winter place in Arizona. My cousin was 13 and I was in kindergarten. We spent an afternoon in Nogales, Mexico. We went to lunch at a cool-looking restaurant I found, and they both panicked because the menu was Spanish. I told them to just hand me their menus, relax, and not to worry because I'd do all the ordering, as I looked over my own menu with a tiny yet critical eye.
Our waiter was tall and absolutely gorgeous, with longish wavy hair; my cousin blushed whenever he was around. I was just a wee thing, so I shamelessly flirted little girl-fashion. I easily ordered for all of us in Spanish as his smile grew ever wider. I'd honed an intimate knowledge of Mexican fare and related terminology by visiting Armando's since it had opened when I was 2 1/2!
Our waiter was delighted, and doubtless told everyone to check out la gringa muchacha who'd ordered for her party, since our water glasses were constantly refilled by smiling folk, and anything we needed was immediately brought w/o our asking. Even the other customers smiled at us.
I didn't bother to consult them at all, but much to their surprise, everything I ordered was perfect for them. I told them what was in each dish and how it was made, and they and our waiter were again amazed. Grandma was very picky, and my cousin was skittish then, but they were so happy. All the dishes looked beautiful, which also eased their trepidation.
I told my cousin this story shortly after my mother died, but she only remembered visiting Nogales, not the restaurant. She thought it was hilarious, the day saved by that hyperactive kindergartner who frequently embarrassed and exasperated her.
I can't remember our lovely waiter's face, but I can still conjure the taste of the tostadas I'd ordered whenever I wish, almost five decades later. They were that good.
the real fun is the word "dinner". Growing up in IL, we at "dinner" at noon and supper in the evening. We even had supper clubs open on weekends. Of course, much of America and Britain have lunch at noon and dinner as the evening meal. When I was working in London I never heard anyone use the word supper at all.
Same for me growing up in Virginia but those rules applied only on Sundays at Grandma's. Otherwise, it was same old same old.
I've lived all over the country. The dinner/supper thing, was more so in the south than anywhere else. Sometimes I'd hear it in country areas up the east coast.
For me, the noon meal was “lunch” and the evening meal either “dinner” or “supper” with the latter probably slightly more common. The exception was Sunday Dinner at Grandma’s house, which was at noon or early afternoon. This was convenient as it gave the adults plenty of time to play cards afterward, while the kids went downstairs for video games instead.
I grew up in IL, too. The middle of the day meal was always called lunch. The evening meal was called dinner. I guess it depends where in Illinois, and what your parents were taught.
I recently learned where this comes from: etymologically, lunch is the mid day meal, supper is the evening meal, and "dinner" refers to the main meal of the day. Depending on where you are, when it is (ie sunday), and to some extent, what you do, the main meal of the day may be either one. I grew up with lunch and dinner 6 days a week, but Sunday dinner is generally around 2 pm and takes the place of both meals.
I'm a Brit and my wife a Czech and we've been living in Canada for 22 years and we still get confused by the different terminology and portion size. However, much to our surprise we discovered that, in Canada at least, it was quite acceptable to order one meal and ask for an additional plate so we could share. I'm sure that some people think we are just cheap but we genuinely struggle with the huge meals and despair at the cold glutinous and unappetizing mess we have to eventually throw out when we accept the offer of a box. Back in the UK or the Czech Republic we would never dream of sharing a single serving but here in Canada it's quite acceptable and we retain our waist lines (somewhat).
The plate sharing thing is pretty common in the US too but a few restaurants will say its "against their policy" just to try to get you to spend more money. Pretty rare though
Here in the Pacific northwest of the US my mother insists on doing that with my dad at several restaurants. They each get half and mom still demands a box at the end.
And ordering an appetizer/starter is optional. Some people even order them as their main course. Me included. Like an order of calamari, for example. ( I personally prefer to use main course over entree)
@@dylandalrymple I have encountered a small fee for splitting one item onto two places, $5-10. But 90% of the time they offer it for free. We do it all the time and only rarely is it an issue.
@@dylandalrymple wow, I have never once encountered a problem with requesting another plate and sharing a meal. It is very common and well accepted anywhere I have lived in the US (California, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah, and Louisiana) or visited.
I'm from the PNW and have only ever gotten the occasional blink at asking for a 2nd plate. I can't remember the last time I was able to even come close to finishing a dinner portion of chicken teriyaki. It's perfect for two.
Interesting thing too about Tipping. My Sister was a Waitress in Germany (married to a guy who was stationed in Spang) and when back in the states was a Waitress here as well. She made about twice as much in the US (for a same price menu and similar table quantity per hour in shift ) due to tips and the lowered salary than she did in Germany from the more beneficial salary but worse tips.
The Waiters work harder but make a good deal more, the people eating get a much better service and experience and the owner saves money which gets passed down to the food prices increasing occupancy and interest. The cost savings in the bill are then nullified by the tip. Full circle in an adjustment alteration of the whole experience that makes it generally better for everyone.
She averaged about $32-35 an hour in the US on tips + her salary.
US servers are like commission based retailers. The customer gets great service, the restaurant benefits from generous product sales and the servers directly benefit from their talents and efforts.
Living in Switzerland now, it’s really difficult to get attentive or friendly service. It’s no fun trying to flag down a server for a glass of wine to finish your meal with.
Back in the mid-80's I bussed tables in a small restaurant and waited tables on the slowest night because the regular waitresses wouldn't come in for a night when they couldn't make at least $100 in tips.
It's probably more than double that now because tipping was 10-15% then not 15-20%.
In my experience, Indian food in the US is typically served with varying heat levels, as in I'm typically asked "how spicy" I want it. I'll either say "extra hot" if I just want it mild that day, or "extra super nuclear hot" if I actually want it hot. After a few times eating at that restaurant, and saying "it's really good, but very mild today" they'll take me seriously and light it up, then I get the entire staff coming out to watch me take the first few bites.
I've had Indian waiters say "I don't know how you're eating that and smiling, I can't eat it that hot" before.
I'd like to know where that is. No restaurants around here make food spicy enough.
There are a couple of mexican restaurants that have habanero sauces that can bring up the heat level, but it's not the same.
When I wanted my food to be spicy at a great Chinese place we loved, I'd ask that it be "almost painful." They always laughed - sometimes we'd even hear the chef laughing when he got the order. One day he came out to look and laugh at the "almost painful" girl as we were paying the bill. I hugged him. :)
I have problems with food being too hot and too salty in a lot of US restaurants. It's actually worse in some non-ethnic restaurants when a hot-food fad comes in. They'll spring it on you without warning. I have better luck with ethnic restaurants - they're perfectly happy to make it very mild if they can and if that particular dish can't be made that way, they'll tell you.
@@rdwright6708 Too salty can definitely be an issue sometimes. But I can't say that I've ever had an issue at any restaurant with something being too spicy. It's always the opposite, something will be advertised as spicy and be disappointingly mild.
Sometimes a restaurant will surprise with a truly, authentically hot, Indian meal, but usually it is very tuned down for the typical American diner. Best surprise of that sort was a tiny restaurant in Eugene, Oregon that offered Indian and Greek. When I saw Vindaloo on the menu I had to order it, and it was genuinely nuclear. Kitchen staff kept peeking out at me as I sat with sweat pouring down by reddened face and this massive smile. That was some truly wonderful vindaloo.
My wife and I have been to England twice. My favorite food has to be the Sunday Roast at a pub. We had gone to DOver to sightsee and visit the Dover Castle. I believe we ate Sunday Dinner at a pub in Dover (but we may have eaten it when we got back to London) but in any case it was fabulous. eating at the pub is such a wonderful experience.
Bill Simonis, We like the experience of eating at the pub too. Neither of us is a beer drinker but my husband loved shepherd's pie, I like the atmosphere inside the pub. We loved the full English breakfast every morning while staying in Manchester, Preston, and London for 2 weeks. English people are so polite and nice, but I am sorry to point out that the same can't say about the French, sorry.
@@SH-pm3dm we visited Paris as well and had a different experience. for the most part, the average Parisian was nice. It was the shop owners who were the rude ones. Though that may have been due to the languague barrier.
@@billsimonis Rude is the national characteristic of the French,especially to the English/English speakers.I live next door and have visited six times.
New Yorkers can also be somewhat brusque to strangers, similar to Parisians. I had an amazing experience in a small French village while staying in a converted barn (an investment property owned by a British couple still living in Blighty) many years back. Everyone we met was amazingly friendly and gracious, including local bar and restaurant owners. So don't take Paris as the basis for which all French people are measured.
@@billsimonis Shopkeepers will be rude if you are rude first. And that starts if you don't say "Bonjour" when you come in the door! It is very awkward for Americans (like myself) who want to browse without talking to anyone in a language we're not quite comfortable with. But if you look on French language videos, you will see comments from many French people about how rude it is to omit this. It seems like such a small thing to us, but is clearly a big deal.
After a lifetime of being taught how rude it was to flag down the waitstaff I almost had a heart attack the first time I ate at a restaurant in England and discovered I had to do that constantly
It's not rude to flag down the waitstaff in the US, although you are best to do it with a very clear attitude of knowing they are busy and making time for you.
Lousy wait staff there!
If this is rude in the US, it's news to me.
/Former US waitress
As an example of food differences that I found fascinating. I am from Calgary, Alberta. While Chinese laborers were in Calgary for the construction of the Eau Clair Chinese - Canadian friendship Centre, they tasted Canadian Chinese takeout. They loved the Ginger Beef. A year later a Chinese chef came to Calgary to try the Ginger Beef and took the recipe home for his Chinese Clientele. An example of a food dish of the Chinese tradition, created by a Chinese family living in Calgary that ran a restaurant that was taken back to China and introduced. I guess it is popular there too.
The clean plate at a buffet is required by health departments in many states.
I always here about portion sizes being so much larger in the US vs England. I have to say, my experience isn't quite so cut and dry. Ordering fish and chips in the Uk, for instance, always brought a massive piece of fish and a huge mound of chips. I was never able to finish all they brought me.
I noticed that watching their TV shows.
When you order 'fish and chips' in the UK, it's assumed to be for more than one person!
I went on a trip to the UK a couple years back (right before Covid was a big thing), and I never really noticed a difference in portion sizes...really, the restaurant experience in both places seemed pretty much the same to me. I was ready for the pizza to be weird, but really it was basically how I'd expect it from a place around here (California). Of course, since I'm not from NY, Chicago, or Detroit, I probably wouldn't have a very strong opinion on that... lol. I HAVE noticed the fish and chips thing, with the fries and the smaller chunks of fish. My favorite place to get it is an English-style pub in Monterey, CA, however, which sounds like it must be more authentic since it serves huge slabs of fish and big fries/chips. And of course the fish is about as fresh as it can be, given the location. It was probably still swimming out in the bay about the time you thought, "I'm kinda hungry...let's go to that pub we went to last time we were here..." lol I've never had an English breakfast here in the US, but after having them daily on my trip, I would gladly eat them every day here, too. The strangest things I ate in the UK that aren't really a thing in the US are blood pudding (really not a big thing for me either way...just had an unusual metallic flavor, but it was mild and not objectionable) and haggis up in Scotland. I know, I know, everyone instantly recoils at the word, even including Brits (except for Scots who will apparently fight you about it--and be careful, they keep knives in their socks). But I can describe it in terms that Americans can understand: meatloaf. I swear to God, the flavor is pretty much like meatloaf. The texture is a little finer (the meat is ground finer, more like a paste or pate than the ground beef in a meatloaf), but the flavor itself is straight up meatloaf. I don't think I'd order it again if I was at a restaurant and had a choice, but if I was at a dinner party or something and that's what was being served, I wouldn't bat an eye and would be just fine having it again.
@@golden.lights.twinkle2329 No it isn't.
Indeed! Huge! Greasy.
Sometime in the mid-60s my family went on a trip and we were somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico (home was in California), when we stopped at diner in a remote town. I ordered "fish and chips". The waiter looked at me peculiarly, but accepted this. What I got was a serving of breaded fish and some potato chips! I looked at this in amazement, while my father smiled at me and said 'That's what you ordered, right?' It seems that the term "fish and chips", meaning deep-fried fish and french fries, hadn't yet become commonplace. And some places just didn't know what it was.
It's interesting to watch this as a Canadian, because I've seen/heard more or less all of this happening at some point and a lot of the terms are interchangable. Silverware/cutlery, take away/takeout, appetizer/starter - they're all synonyms. The one interesting difference is that we don't use "check" . If someone says that, it's "cheque", but we use bill/cheque interchangably too.
In the western US (as far as my experience has been) meals are typically labled Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner/Supper (they're interchangeable). Occasionally one might have Brunch or sometimes if one is having a late lunch/ early dinner and it's likely they won't have another meal that day, it might jokingly be called "Linner". "Tea time" in America is "Tee time", referring to golf not an afternoon respite. Having tea or coffee as a social interaction is approximately the social equivalent of "having drinks" but in the afternoon.
Lawrence, I love your videos. Sending love to you and your wife from Oregon.
midwest is pretty much the same, except its usually happy hour instead of tee time
My grandma would sometimes call lunch, dinner and the last meal of the day was usually called supper, to be clear, I live in the southern US and pretty much all my family is from the south. It wasn't uncommon for my mom to say we were going to Sunday Supper at her parents' house..which was right next door and so we walked. My mom never moved very far from her parents at any point in time that I could remember..the furthest we lived from them at one point was...maybe 16ish minutes drive away.
The term "dinner" usually referred to the main meal of the day. If that meal was served at midday (as was the case in the hot and humid South) then the much lighter evening meal was called supper.
@@baraxor Can confirm..the southern summers where I live are hot, humid, and muggy as all get out..ESPECIALLY after a rain. Though my grandma's idea of a 'light supper' was steaks and baked potatoes or fried chicken if it wasn't steak.
Having drinks is often pre-prandial drinks in the pub in my village in the UK.
When I moved to London at age 20 for a summer, I was profoundly confused when the server at a burger joint asked me if I wanted "salad" with that, and I was like, "uh, no thank you," after which I was extremely confused as to why there was no lettuce on my burger!
Your answer was still correct though 😂
Did they still include tomato, onion and pickle?
So as a restaurant server in America. The standard at our restaurant and indeed a few others I have worked at is to greet your table within 30 seconds of them sitting down, if their drink is reaching the halfway point we bring you a fresh one, 2 mins after delivering the food to the table or 2 bites of the food we come check to make sure its tasting ok and nothing is burnt, or wrong with the food. Then about halfway through the meal we come ask again if everything is ok and if anything else is needed and suggest a few desserts to keep in mind before finishing the meal. Once we see napkins on the table or a lack of people eating we will approach the table again and ask if anything is needing to be boxed up to take home, and if so we box it up for them tableside. Then desserts, if they order any we bring it to the table and wait until about halfway through the dessert to check on the guests again before dropping off the bill.
I’m a Brit and have lived in US for over 30 years…I so agree with everything you said..hilarious and so well done!
I do miss British foods, no decent fish and chips, curries and great puddings!, but that’s just my opinion.
Love your humor, you make me homesick 🤣🤣🤣
But great burgers, fries, pizza, Mexican food (some places) and Asian food (some places)
As someone born in England but raised in the US, I fondly remember one time visiting my dad's parents near Brighton when we went into a little restaurant with pizzas themed to American baseball teams... we all laughed over the Pittsburgh Pirates pizza, not only had they misspelled Pittsburgh on the menu, the toppings were very much not things you would get around the 'burgh at the time. Returning to the 'burgh after, we shared a laugh with the waiter where we stopped on the way home from the airport.
I'm always amused in these videos to see which words I use at random belong to which side of the pond... having been raised by a Londoner and a Wisconsinite.
Yeah... American sports are not well known over here. They were probably just latching onto something that had been in the news in the past month or two. "Cincinnati shithawks hitting a 12 to 2 on the back front" was a staple for a while.
Greetings from Manchester! (The Pittsburgh one, LOL!)
There are a number of hilarious "authentic" American diners in Britain, and one of them is on the A303, called "Route 303." The food is excellent and comes in Ameican style portions, but they have ridiculous forced American names attached to dishes very few Americans have ever heard of. "Boston Bread & Butter Pudding" and "Washington Sticky Toffee Pudding" are the two that spring most readily to mind. Highly recommended place, for both the food and the laughs.
@@affalaffaa Likewise, your sports aren’t well know in America, but since America is the 4th largest country in the world, and they play American sports the Olympics, I would say more people watch American sports. There was an article just l2 weeks ago with a pic of Harry and his cousin, Eugenia Brooksbank at the World Series football game.
@@GS-fd4go
Basketball, volleyball and windsurfing the three American sports included in the Olympics.
So yeah I mean try again
When I went to London 20+ years ago, I was surprised by the tiny glass of Diet Coke I was served - with one ice cube and NO FREE REFILL!!! Also, at at sandwich shop I ordered a turkey sandwich and was asked if I wanted salad. I replied that I did not, so I was served turkey on white bread - that's it. Being embarrassed, I just ate my dry turkey & bread and left.
@Nicky L In America "salad" is a separate dish of mixed vegetables. You often get the same vegetables in a sandwich, but they are never called salad.
Many years ago, upon arriving in Texas from the Midwest, I pulled into a burger joint and ordered a dressed cheeseburger. The guy at the window said he didn't know what that meant. I said, you know, lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. He said, oh, we put that on ALL of our burgers. It was my first lesson in ordering a burger in Texas.
lol
"Sandwich" means different things depending which side of the pond you are. In the UK it is two slices of buttered bread with something in-between, so a Reuben would be sandwich but a Big Mac is burger in a bun. In the US any type of bread can be used, so a Big Mac is a sandwich, likewise a foot-long sub.
Best thing to do is point to the picture of what you want to order, safe and easy.
Our fascination with iced drinks is profound. I remember having to adjust to non iced drinks in London and Europe.
We are so in love with ice that we have various types. I have two sizes of ice trays in my fridge and would kill to have an ice maker with pebble ice.
I usually don't have ice at home. I don't have room in freezer. Also ice makers break a lot.
Having recently returned to the U.S. from a two-week driving trip through the south of Britain -- Bath, Truro, Brighton and Isle of Wight were our anchor cities -- two things stood out from a payment perspective. First, pretty much no one in Britain pays cash for meals (fast food spots are perhaps the exception), whereas cash is still a fairly common payment method here in the States. Second, every restaurant in Britain uses wireless, hand-held credit card machines to allow you to pay your server directly at the table. While these devices are starting to make their way into some U.S. establishments, it's far more common for the server to take your credit card to a central cash register for processing, returning with your card and a slip for you to sign. There are also still plenty of diner-type places where the server hands you the bill (err, check), and you walk up to the register at the front of the restaurant to make your payment.
We were in East Anglia and stopped at a little restaurant for lunch. I asked for Iced Tea. The kid who was the waiter looked at me like my head turned green. My husband told me to make it like I would at home. So I asked for hot tea and a glass of ice. I don't do sweetened Iced tea. There were no seconds for the tea or the drinks for the kids either. My oldest son was stationed at Lakenheath, so unfortunately the family wanted to eat on base for all meals. For the 17 days we were there I only got to eat at 5 English places to eat. (mostly fish and chips) I would have dearly loved to have had an "English Tea" with the little sandwiches, delicate pastries, and condiments.
If you come to Canada and order Iced Tea, it will be sweetened. All Iced Tea here is "sweet".
@@donsmith2833 I will remember that. I loved going to Canada. We went twice. My mom loved going to Butchart Gardens. We also had dear friends that lived in Edmonton. This was all before I was allowed to drink tea.
@@donsmith2833 Yummy! Raspberry iced tea is my favorite ♥
Poor you.
Reminds me of Stratford-on-Avon...where after a break, we searched out and found the greatest oldest pub in town for lunch...passing on the way the line-up to Burger King.
@@rpm1796 to my disappointment my boys decided they wanted McDonald's before we got on the London Eye. There were plenty of British food places around that I would have loved to have eaten at.
You use a clean plate every time to prevent contaminating the new food with your germy old plate. Also the restaurant uses plate-count to determine the number of servings served.
As to the plate count, most buffet restaurants I've been to use the plate count to figure out costs etc, as well as being more sanitary.
@mark totton It’s because you go back up to the buffet and fill your plate using the same utensils everyone else uses on their plates. If people didn’t use clean ones, it would be a germy, cross contaminating nightmare.
@mark totton You stick your fork in your mouth, then put it on the plate to get another bite. Repeat. You take your germy plate up to the buffet, and the serving utensils you use scrape against your germy plate. You put the serving utensil back, either near or nearby the food, and the next person who picks it up also picks up your germs.
you forgot one huge difference: Beer in the UK is cheaper than soda. I was baffled to see beer at a lunch cafe for 2.50 pound while the sodas were 3. In the US, soda is usually $2 and beer is about $6.
No-one in the UK will understand what a 'soda' is, it's called pop or fizzy drink.
Not all places. A beer is about £4 -£6 these days whilst a coke or Fanta whatever, is around £1.50-3 depending which bar you go,
@@golden.lights.twinkle2329 We know what soda is, we just never use the word, unless we're pretending to be American
This!! I was just in Glasgow and was expecting to drop a lot of money on food and drink. I WAY overbudgeted how much I needed.
@@golden.lights.twinkle2329 I think most people in the UK are familiar enough with the word "soda" thanks to American cinema and TV, even if we don't use it ourselves.
Back about 50 years ago I travelled to the UK with my mom. We had several odd experiences with restaurants there. One of the first was ordering coffee...the waitress asked if we wanted it white or black. When she explained that the difference was whether you wanted cream or not, of course we both took cream with our coffee...I had just started drinking it. When the coffee came it was apparent that rather than asking if we took cream with our coffee, she should have asked if we took coffee with our cream. We wound up asking for cream to be brought separately.
There were several other odd customs that we ran into...notably a la carte menus, which you only rarely saw in the US back then. The one that stuck with me though was going to a seafood place in Dover to get Dover Sole. There was a cat sitting in the window of the restaurant, which of course would have had the patrons running for the exits in the States, due to the health code concerns. Later, in Edinburgh, we ate in a restaurant. Across the dining room from us there was an elderly lady who was obviously a regular patron, and she had an enormous fat bulldog with her. It sat at her feet, but occasionally it lumbered to its feet, and (not restrained by a leash) it made the rounds of the dining room, gobbling snacks that people handed to it or food folks had dropped. I still remember that.
If I saw a cat in a restaurant that would greatly increase my odds of eating there. Not only do I like cats but to me the odds of rats or mice living there would be drastically reduced. (I hope) We've had cats for decades in our house and other than the odd case of rabies there has been no detrimental effects. (grin)
Yeah, in other countries they don't have as extreme health department rules. Kids won't get in trouble for selling lemonade.
Hmm, I don't think people would have a problem with the owner of a restaurant having a cat. I wouldn't think anything of it.
I believe "doggy bag" was originally a euphemism. You could pretend you didn't need to take the food home for yourself, but just for the dog. That way you wouldn't appear to be needy.
Chinese food in the U.S. tends to be different in places with large Chinese populations. There are lots of Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area whose menus aren't full of deep-fried, battered dishes with sweet sauce. Also, the restaurants often represent a regional or specialized cuisine, such as Sichuan, Hunan, Cantonese, Hong Kong, or dim sum. Typical dishes are beef with broccoli, hot and sour soup, and shrimp chow fun. The same is true of Mexican restaurants-they tend to be more regional and varied in places with large Mexican populations.
Hot dogs may be one of the national dishes of the U.S., but for some reason there are no national hot dog chains, and the big hamburger chains (like McDonald's) don't serve them.
"Flatware" is another name for cutlery in the U.S. In Britain, would the name mean stuff that you use to furnish an apartment?
No. In Britain It's called flat-packed for the furniture. Never heard of flatware
A lot of Chinese restaurants in the US have hidden menus that cater to people of their culture. The foods on the hidden menu are closer to what you would find in China.
@@shadowkissed2370 Yes, and those are often posted on the wall entirely in Chinese.
@@dilligaf73 I think that was a bit of a WHOOSH moment... You took him much too literally, I'm pretty sure he knows it's flat-pack... (they have IKEA in the US) LOL ! He was making a joke about American's will say apartment and in the UK we call it a flat. 😃👌👍
@@stewedfishproductions7959 it is 5.30am here not slept for 30 hours. Yes probably a whoosh moment 😆🙄.
As an American, I love Yorkshire pudding so much I learned how to make it myself.
now that's dedication
@@strider_hiryu850 hardly
Hello Lost in the Pond! I miss a restaurant (Oddly enough here in Kentucky where I live) called "The Pub" that served Fish and Chips precisely in the description that you have stated. The Chips were wide and a bit oily, and yes, the Haddock was one large slab.
Good, although I look forward to the real thing one day. Thanks for the clip!
I recently found that in the UK, some of the more casual restaurants or tea shops won’t bring you the bill. I’m not referring to the common everywhere cafe style of ordering AND paying at the counter - I mean when you order at your table from a server but the bill never comes. You have to go to the counter and, somehow, they know exactly what you ordered or they will ask. In the US, you really only find “pay at the cashier” at old fashioned diners (or those trying to be “old fashioned” like Cracker Barrel). But even in those cases, the server will still bring the bill and tell you to pay at the counter.
We fell in love with the English Breakfast on our visit. We try to replicate it at home but it's not the same. Oh, and the ploughman's for lunch. Our hosts thought we were nuts, "Have something better!" followed by a head shake. When they visited us, they were kind of disgusted at the amount of food on the plate. One of my friends told the waitress that she just could not eat all of it and wanted to send her plate back. The teenaged waitress looked at me for help, then ran away.
Try a lincolnshire sausage 😊
They had NO concept of taking it home? Leftovers are one of the great joys of life!
My father had the same kind of issue about the "Have something better" when he ended up in Israel for a business trip and they didn't understand why he wanted to order the lamb...
Some Americans also have a great deal of dismay at the idea of wasting food, which is also part of the reason why will take food back home with us.
@@HolyKhaaaaan Putting to much on the plate is wasting food
The first day I met my future wife, she had prepared dinner for me, consisting of roast beast and home-baked bread. However, the bread had failed to rise in the bread-maker machine, and just went flat and rather gummy. I saved the day by telling her that was absolutely the best Yorkshire Pudding I had ever eaten (with the roast beef gravy on it). And it was! Three weeks later we were married and she threw away the Yorkshire Pudding machine.
What a wonderful story!
@@namelessone3339 That wasn't really the best part. That same day I prayed for her, and God restored use of her left side, and hearing in her right ear.
Wow, three weeks from meeting to married ! Well done.
Perfectly possible here in New Zealand, to marry as swiftly, but you couldn't count on it at the moment. You need to apply for a marriage certificate, and they SAY it takes 3 working days to process, but everything is out of joint since covid.
@@notmyworld44 amen!
LOL
Never been to the UK, but I find the accent so soothing, I could listen to it all day.
Living in New England, although we don't usually serve the mushy peas, (maybe in Boston) we have thick sliced fries/chips and a large piece of fish. (It helps to be near the ocean) We are lucky to have restaurants/pubs run by ex-pats from the UK and Ireland. 💕
Same in NYC. Sunnyside, Queens has a large Irish population and you can find an authentic fish & chips and a full English breakfast.
@@woodcider 💕
love hearing midwest comments in your videos! 62 yrs between Indiana and Iowa. I feel like we are like another country from the rest of the US sometimes.
True
you are :)
Mmm sometimes...lol
I would say there's Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Boston, New York, DC, and Miami, and then there's everyone else.
Massachusetts has propper fish and chips. The fish is typically haddock rather cod but, from what I've heard about British fish and chips, that's the biggest difference. It's a very common summer time dish in New England in general, not just Massachusetts. It's best from small food stands closer to the coast line. If you ever come out here, I'd love to see a video of you comparing New England to England; that'd be really fun!
No... cod is the only real fish in fish and chips. Period. And I'd be surprised if the chips are close to being authentic--and they'll probably offer you tartare sauce over malt vinegar. Any curry sauce offered in New England? Didn't think so!
@@britking To be fair curry sauce (and mushy peas) are regional things. You won't get them in all chippys. And most offer options for fish not just cod.
Haddock is available in most british chip shops. When I was a girl, we had a flat connected with my dads job, above a parade of shops. One was a chippy, and on Friday nights we could resist the scent no longer and partook. Bedsides cod and haddock, we could get huss, which is shark, roast chicken quarter, saveloy sausages, battered pork sausages and lots of other stuff.
@@britking In RI and Southern Massachusetts (along the coast) restaurants that sell fries, malt vinegar is often considered a condiment, to the point where there's a bottle on every table, next to the salt and pepper. And many of the restaurants do use cod. When I was a kid, Fish and Chips were very much a take out meal each Friday during Lent.
@@britking I lived in England for three years. Most cchippies I went to had options for cod or haddock
For me the greatest confusion between British English and American English is the word "pudding". In America, pudding is a gelatinous desert that comes in three flavors: chocolate, vanilla and tapioca. But it Britain pudding refers to a whole handful of things. There's the "pudding course" which we would call desert. Then there's suet based, steamed deserts called "puddings", things like figgy pudding and plum pudding. Then there's the sausages "White Pudding" and "Black Pudding". And finally there's the bread side dish, Yorkshire pudding, which people in the Eastern United States would call a "popover". So I find it baffling that pudding could be all those things!
The most notable difference for me was when ordering water. In the US when we order water its usually tap water in a giant cup packed full of ice. When i was in the UK i had to specify flat or sparkling water and then it came to the table in a bottle along with a tiny glass and no ice.
The bottled water is usually refrigerated (and sometimes the glasses as well - depends on how fancy the restaurant is), but they will give you ice if you request it. Not a full glass full of it, though! Some of the US chain restaurants (Pizza Hut etc) do that, but it's not common in the UK.
Everywhere will serve you tap water if you ask for it, though. You just have to specify that that's what you want.
@@zoec8796 oh yea i know. I've been to the UK several times at this point. Not complaining or anything. Just one of the differences i noticed. Thats part of the fun of traveling abroad is getting to learn all the little differences in day to day life you otherwise wouldn't know about.
You can ask for tap water in restaurants the UK - in fact, they're legally obliged to provide it for free.
But if you just order "water" it will normally be overpriced bottled spring water, especially in upmarket restaurants.
Last time I was in London I had the Dover Sole at Wiltons. I asked the waiter to fillet it at the table which he was happy to oblige. Oh the lemony buttery goodness. A lifelong desire fulfilled. One thing I noticed, at least among Londoners is they tend to dine later than Americans.
It seems to be common across Europe.
That's true in most of Europe. Want to talk late dinning go to Spain. It really doesn't even start until 9pm
Wiltons is poncey nonsense and a true experience of this country
@@MerelyGifted Really? I´ve found Bulgaria to be different. There, they dine at about 3pm.. (Sorry - you may be American. That´s three in the afternoon.) In Bulgaria, and also in parts of Serbia, you start dinner about 25 minutes after finishing lunch.
I was recently in a busy nightclub in Glasgow Scotland (first time ever visiting from the US) and my god the point about service is spot on. I stood at the bar for probably 20 minutes before some guy came up to me and told me that I had to yell at the bartender to get served.
In the US, if a bartender sees you standing there with cash or a card in your hand, you’ll just be served within a few minutes when they can get to you.
You yell at this bar tender you most certainly won't get served. Any decent bar tender will notice each and every customer and serve them in turn.
In 1975, we were in Rhode Island at a restaurant. I ordered a chocolate milkshake. I received a glass of milk that had chocolate mixed into it. I told the waitress that the ice cream had been left out. She said, "If you wanted ice cream in your milkshake, you should have ordered a cabinet." That's the only time I've ever heard that!
Yeah, most milkshakes in the U.S. in chain restaurants are no longer made with real ice cream. I have digestive issues with milk but have no problem with milkshakes. When I found out this is why, I was shocked.
I lived in Massachusetts for a couple of years, and a similar thing happened to my wife. She went to an ice cream place and ordered a milkshake; they brought her milk which had been shaken with chocolate. She asked where the ice cream was, and got a similar response: "If you wanted a frap you should have ordered a frap." However, this was a local place, not a chain; the people at Friendly's were perfectly aware that to most people in the United States a "shake" has ice cream in it (they also used the to me odd term "frap", but they weren't as militant about it).
Most people in the U.S. understand that 'check' and 'bill' are synonymous. I use either and to date, no one has misunderstood or been puzzled.
I am not sure if it is still the case but, when I was growing up in Scotland (50 years ago), most people used "check" rather than "bill" in restaurants, so that isn't just a U.S. thing.
Being an American living in Scotland now, a few things I've noticed.
Eggrolls are not a thing in Chinese restaurants here, at all. They do spring rolls, but eggrolls are very different. The default free side they give you is also prawn crackers, where US ones give you those fried wonton dough strips with duck sauce.
Also fortune cookies...very few here Chinese restaurants give you them. (I know it's really more a US thing than a Chinese thing, but it's ingrained in US Chinese food)
I've been told some of the variances between UKified and USified Chinese food is somewhat influenced by the local culture and palates, but also due to where the bulk of the original immigrants to each country came from, different regions of china themselves had different food traditions and that influenced the dishes they first brought into their new countries, that style became the default accepted style in those areas and as more people came over they would offer it in the style the locals were expecting.
Also I've noticed....the UK just doesn't understand what a buffalo wing is. It's a very specific flavor...or flavour...and it's not simply "hot". It's to the point I never get anything claiming to be buffalo anymore, and I just make it with some franks hot sauce myself.
Get yourself one of the new Ninja Foodi or air fryer appliances. Man, they make wings like nobody's business! Then you've got authentic wings. And you can customize the sauces, since mostly you're tossing the air-fried wings in the sauce, after the fact. I use the Frank's XXL Hot (man, I put that shit on everything!) and a tablespoon of melted butter mixed in, to help it coat, and dig in!
I also find British Chinese has fewer vegetables. If I want a bunch of veg, I have to order them separate. I do miss good old chicken and broccoli. I love all the duck options in the UK though. We go through gallons of Red Hot wing sauce at home.
Fortune cookies were invented in San Francisco, California. And Buffalo wings are said to have originated in Buffalo, New York.
@@bartcaudell35 oh yes I am very much a member of the cult of the air fryer. I've also recently got a smoker and have been smoking my wings before frying them a bit....next level
I haven't lived in the UK, but I did live in Japan for 7 years after being born and raised in the US (and now living back in the US). Most of the terminology in Japan's a mix of US and UK terms for the places that serve in English.* For actual Japanese dining terms, they have a couple of loan words that are derived from US English (like takeout instead of takeaway) and most of their dictionaries will refer to their words with the US equivalent.
*Related to that, places like Hard Rock Cafe are really good in Japan and completely serve you in English. Same with a lot of the restaurants at tourist attractions. People like to clown on weird pizza toppings in Japan, but I found out that a lot of those are actually based on toppings that they apparently took note of from UK pizzerias? Like tuna + mayo or potato + corn + mayo. I had plenty of good American style pizza in Japan, along with some really good Italian style pizza as well.
As an Australian I understand many of the American names/title's but I feel more familiar with the British sayings, Im kinda shocked yanks don't eat sausage rolls or meat pies like us Aussie and Poms do.
And those Yankee chips - fries? Or whatever they call them.
Chips are fried potatoes - chunky preferably, wrapped in newspaper and doused in salt - chicken salt if your a true blue Aussie 😎
Crisps - are fried crunchy chips in foil/plastic packet that are a snack for school kids or stoners 😂
French fries are those thin disgusting MacDonald chips.
We have pot pies. Swanson Chicken is my favorite. Look in the freezer section in the grocery store. They can be baked or microwaved. We also have something called Hot Pockets.
Sausage rolls? What, like the sausage wrapped up in bread of some sort? We have that, if so. One, what is commonly called a "corn dog", which is a hot dog dipped in cornmeal batter and fried, with a stick to hold it. Yummy stuff. Also, "pigs in a blanket", which is sausage, in that case breakfast-style, wrapped in pancakes. Then there are hot dogs, bratwurst, and the like. As for "chips", that's what you call "crisps". Either name works, really. We call the long potato pieces, fried and salted, fries. Not all are anything like the McD stuff (which used to actually be decent, and are no longer). Many places do cut those thick. You can make them at home, too, with a little deep fryer. Aren't language differences fun?Oh, almost forgot, we do eat meat pies, though not usually in restaurants. Most folks buy them frozen, and they're usually called a "pot pie" - no idea why. They're made in homes as well, of course. Pie crust, filled with meat and veggies, all in a good gravy, yummy stuff!
We have corn dogs, sometimes we call them Dagwood dogs, sausage rolls are sausage mince wrapped in puff pastry and baked, another variant of the sausage roll is a spinach and feta cheese roll, I think the difference in American pot pies and Aussie/British meat pies is pot pies have more gravy and are eaten with a spoon I think, meat pies are eaten kinda like a burger and our varieties are usually
Plain beef
Beef, cheese and bacon
Beef and mushroom
Curry beef
Beef tomato and onion
Chicken and leek
Satay chicken
But there are so many variants depending on culinary experience, high end restaurants make duck and other exotic styles, but the average bakery/pie shop normally sells those classic flavours and most petrol stations/gas stations sell sausage rolls and meat pies in the warming ovens - almost every Aussie tradie starts his day with an energy drink and pie with tomato sauce 😋.
Cheers from Australia 🇦🇺😘
In the US chips are called fries or french fries. Chips in the US means what the British call crisps. In the US, the chunky fries are often called 'steak fries'. If you ask for vinegar for your fries, expect to get some funny looks. Some places do have it, but many don't. In the US don't ask for tomato sauce, ask for ketchup.
Pies. Rare in alien cuisine, seemingly the last vestige of ye olde englande foode.
Saw a great episode of Rate My Takeaway on TH-cam last month where he went for American pizza and it was very authentic! I think the biggest misconception about the portion size is that Europeans think a meal should be app, meal, dessert whereas we usually share an app or a dessert and only choose 2 of the 3. Honestly, I just eat the salad and take the meal home most of the time.
This is the trick if you go somewhere that has an endless salad bar with your meal.
Fill up to the tip top on salad and take the entire meal home in a doggy bag.
Or a "to go box". Same thing really, even though some food literally belongs in a bag and some belongs in that styrofoam box-like container.
It's very common in the UK for people to just have two courses, and skip the appetiser or dessert.
Rate my takeaway is a great channel
It's not standard procedure to have three courses in the UK.
Yeh I learned pretty quickly when I went to work in NY for a few months that you don't order a starter and then a main. Most of the time I couldn't even finish just a main on it's own. Oh and breakfasts, I could never finish, but place across from my hotel did strawberry pancakes with cream that were just to die for, which is apt because I think I would have died by now if I had been able to get them back home, soooo addictive. 😋
I remember being in the UK and trying a local Pizza place. The place was full and when the pizza was brought out we used our hands to eat it. A family at a nearby table turned and introduced themselves, saying they were American too. We said, our accents do give us away. One of the other people said, no, you're eating the pizza with your hands. After a quick look around we noticed that only our two tables were eating the pizza by hand, everyone else used a knife and fork. So yes, using a knife in fork in the UK to eat a pizza, by hand in the USA.
That was about 30 years ago, but I wonder if it is still true.
It’s still true!
You went to a restaurant. Not the local pizza place. Oh Americans.
WTF are you on about? Fuckin nobody uses a knife and fork to eat pizza 😂. Don't know what group of weirdos you stumbled across
My first trip abroad was to Brazil, and they used toothpicks there. That was forty years ago.
To be fair, 'check' is definitely more popular, but few servers would be confused if you asked for the 'bill' at the end of your meal.
You mentioned fish and chips which I love dearly. I grew up in Rhode Island in the 1950s. We had a small restaurant which served fish and chips and wrapped them in newspaper. I cannot get such good fish and chips anywhere in the US today, which can compare with what I grew up with, and certainly not wrapped in newspaper. Watching your channel brings back memories of my early life in New England, an area which, I think, bore a closer relationship with Britain than it does today. I thank you for such wonderful videos.
Was it Stadium fish and chips in Cranston?
@@joedeware955 it was Hazel's in West Warwick, a hole in the wall. A mom and pop takeout restaurant.
Ice cubes, water (standard in the US, but always had to ask in the UK and then the whole “with or without gas” exchange) and root beer. My brother tried ordering it at a McDonalds in England and they had no idea what he was talking about.
I remember my confusion when I was at the Natural Museum in London staring at the selections on the beverage vending machine. This or that, still or sparkling. I decided on Ribena, both ways, (Still love Ribena --either way.)
Yeah, very hard to get hold of root beer or birch beer in the UK, which is a damn' shame. I've managed it, but it's an effort. Actually got a few friends and colleagues hooked on it.
I’ve been in different countries, Britain excluded, the only main difference I saw was in Italy where dining out is considered a 2 hour event. I ended up annoying a waitress because I kept asking for water. But most wait staff in Europe love American customers because we either don’t know that the tip is already included in the bill, or we feel guilty if we don’t tip on top of it.
In the UK, you can ask for a jug of tap water and glasses and it's free (tap water must be provided free by law here).
Another fun thing living here in the states here is learning how various regions handle words like lunch, dinner, and supper. Growing up on the west coast, it was a bit of a culture shock to visit my midwest family and learn that while they use the same terminology, they are used a little differently! What 'dinner' meant to me meant something else to them.
We're glad that you're here, Lawrence.
I worked in an upscale housewares store based in the Chicago area for 22 years. Silverware is made out of silver (or is silver plated). Flatware is what most people have in their homes and most restaurants have as eating utensils. If someone referred to cutlery, I’d automatically think knives. Interesting. I’ve never had an issue with any of these terms in the UK, but I never had to ask for these items at restaurants there either.
People in other English-speaking countries tend to be aware of the various foreign terminology. However, in America, you generally get a blank look (or worse) if you use the "wrong" word.
@@davidbroadfoot1864 ya ... I'm American and I can tell you that blank looks are a problem here.
I'll get blank looks at a high percentage of drive-throughs just ordering the food that they make. A simple request for "no pickles" or "grilled onions" can completely destroy the delicate little minds of these poor souls and leave them standing there speechless while staring at you with vacant eyes and an open mouth.
I'm not really sure of the problem but I suspect that their mothers had an iodine deficiency and so I have sent a petition to congress to make a law requiring iodized salt be used in all restaurants and on all margaritas.
In my upbringing, we used the terms as you've described (silverware had to be made with silver). however my wife's family used silverware as a generic term which could even be disposable plastic flatware. After 35 years of marriage I still give her a hard time about it, sometimes going and getting our formal silverware when she asks for silverware and the flatware is much more accessible.
I dare you to ask for flatware in the UK.
@@dacash8195 😆😆 Love it!
*As a Brit living in the US... I love the fact when you ask for a refill of your soda its free as opposed to the UK where its not. Sometimes you don't even have to ask. They just bring you another glass and sit it beside your other half empty one. When we visited the UK a couple of years ago with my daughters I had to remind them to sip their cokes rather than gulp them down. Why they asked? I told them in the UK we would have to pay for each refill which they were very surprised. When the drinks arrived they were shocked at the size of them. They were half the sizes we were used to like back in the US. I often use boxes to take home food, especially ribs....for the dog. The waitress can be a bit annoying when they come up to you 3 or 4 times in 20 mins to ask if everything is ok. But I guess its better than not at all. I dont mind paying a tip - especially if its good service I'll often pay 20% or more. My wife and I eat out a lot, 3 or 4 times a week because its so cheap. We often go to one place that has a great salad bar - over 40 salad items and a dozen salad sauces and just eat that!*
soda in a restaurant. I can´t wrap my head around that.
The Toby carvery pubs in the U'K' now do free refills.
@@malcolmchapman3213 Really? I'll have to pay a visit next time I come to the UK. I miss a good carvery. Thats one thing Americans dont have. The Brits know how to do a good carvery....that and curry.
Just remember this. The free refills you get in America could literally be paying for the waitstaff a proper wage and that 20% tip you are paying could literally go to those cokes.
Or you know just abuse the system take as many cokes as possible and don't tip because you know tipping is not an obligation it's a choice.
In the US, 2/3 of your 'drink' is usually ice. Three sips and it's gone, it's best to always request 'no ice' so you get a full glass.
Love your videos and your sense of humor!
Another interesting and humorous video! Thank you!
I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and growing up - we always had Sunday Roast. Sometimes it was roast beef, sometimes chicken, and sometimes pork roast. It was always served with mashed potatoes and 2 veggies.
I don't think this was uncommon.
my biggest observation of the difference between US and UK restaurants was that in the UK, when the waiter asked if I had room for dessert, I did. the second biggest observation was when you said "I have a food allergy" in the UK, you immediately got someone knowledgeable to give a consultation on what foods were safe to eat. beyond that it was the specifics of what was served. on which topic, I have a list of things to eat and drink on my next visit, plague and war willing, in September.
I did a summer internship in London but my university required all students going abroad to take a class(not a normal one this was like one day a week with no assignments or tests) and the class just explained cultural differences you may experience. So I felt very comfortable knowing restaurant differences. They are different but can not say one is better than the other.
My wife almost lost her mind when in the UK, people left infants in their strollers outside while they were dining inside.
It’s interesting how in Canada we have an amalgam of Brit and Yank restaurant terminology. Entree vs starter, supper vs dinner, jam vs spread, bill vs check etc etc