AMERICAS FOODS TO BE TRIED UPON ON IMMEDIATE ARRIVAL BY RUBYREDD

xpost Yes, it was kind of gross. Except for the part where food tasted so awesome that I gained a ton of weight, but honestly then I wound up looking REALLY gross, so overall, I'd say "gross" is accurate.

Burgers I can't resist are from Culver's. Their frozen custard also A+++++

oh shit I should get lunch

i used to love sonic when i first got here but now i cant work out why. nothing is appealing except pineapple sundaes

healthy eats specifically for here, ruby? there are lots of course but they're way less exciting to talk about. of course you can go to the organic grocery store and get good wheat bread and fixings but that's BORING

re. sno balls: BAD to eat but FUN to play with
re. dr pepper: YUM! tastes like lipstick
re. almond roca: it's made in tacoma, our sleepy neighbor to the south; you can go to the factory outlet!
re. grits: i will cook them when you come here

i have never ate a sno ball.

grits: MUST TRY. awesome: shrimp and grits. also awesome: cheese grits. so awesome that someone graffitied the wall outside my house.

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/3388/2402071821vx6.jpg

(sadly the wall's down now, rip cheeze gritz)

yes, cheese grits are very awesome; i will cook grits for all this itrers.

Grits are indeed similar to polenta, but it's a different part of the kernel. A common way to have grits is to cook them twice: Once for regular cooking, then after they have cooled overnight, fry them up in patties. Serve with traditional USA breakfast foods.

I suppose you don't have to let the cool overnight, but it helps them stay together.

Oh, a totally USA thing to have is chicken & waffles, and there are plenty of places to get 'em around here (e.g., in Oaktown):

House Of Chicken N Waffles
444 Embarcadero W
Oakland, CA 94607
Phone: (510) 836-4446

The way Curtis describes grits has me thinking of polenta, I guess it's the same family of flavour what with being corn and all.

-- Trayce, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 2:31 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Link

grits are like the southern u.s. version of polenta and are sooo goood

spicy cheese and sausage grits mMMMMMM

speaking of southern food: biscuits in gravy

mexican food also otm

All this grits talk has me thinking about the empty industrial-sized tub of grits my wife brought into our marriage full and how perhaps it should be full again or at least approximated by another full tub.

It's actually Canada that's got the really good sweets: Coffee Crisp, Smarties, Kinder Eggs... mmmm.

smarties:
http://www.shopatmoxie.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/smarties350.jpg
or smarties:
http://candyaddict.com/blog/uploads/smartiesuk.jpg

??

damn. smarties no2:

http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/1123/smartiesukle2.jpg

they sell kinder products here!

I would eat all this giant Smarties.

It's so clear that I have got to get back to Canada, wow.

http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/1123/smartiesukle2.jpg
These smarties!

Re: Kinder products - they're German but apparently rarely seen in the USofA; Americans online seem (rightly) to think Kinder Eggs a source of joy and amazement.. didn't know if they'd made it to NZ.

Hey Im eating a fun size banana laffy taffy right now. Here are the jokes on the wrapper:

From Whitney P in Champaign, IL
17: WHAT IS AN OWL'S FAVORITE SUBJECT?
17: OWLGEBRA

From Connie G in Kent, WA
18: IN WHAT MONTH DO PEOPLE TALK THE LEAST?
18: FEBRUARY-BECAUSE IT'S THE SHORTEST MONTH OF THE YEAR!

?!

banana laffy taffy is the best of all laffy taffys, btw.

Also lol Cool Whip, I know the guy who invented it.

-- HI DERE, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 12:28 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Link

RR, cool whip isnt the same as the cans. its totally next level. id be surprised if there was any dairy involved at all.

-- sunny successor, Tuesday, M

HI DERE - details plz

SUNNY - cool whip is a fucking blight on this planet. its literally whipped corn syrup & water & it is horrible. eat it next to actual whipped cream & you will never want it again.

i have and youre right but ill still eat it

No time for Cool Whip. All the time in the world for Reddi-Whip. People in my family have been known to go to the fridge, get the can of Whip, squirt a bunch into open palm, snarf up. Also watching what happens when you stick a big white ZAP of Whip on black poodle's nose: first the contortions to remove it, then aggressive demands for MOAR.

yeah see reddi-whip is incredible. i have no idea why anyone would buy cool whip & never miss an opportunity to berate anyone who does. no offense to HDs buddy who i am super envious of & is obviously a genius if hes managed to pawn that crap off on the populace like he has.

also apparently the guy I thought invented Cool Whip... didn't???

-- HI DERE, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 1:54 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Link

ok day ruined`

RR, see ref to biscuits -n- gravy upthread. A USA-style biscuit is like nothing you have thought of as a biscuit up to now.

Other corn-based products to seek out: spoonbread and indian pudding

Also, when I was in NZ, for breakfast I got eggs & chips, which = brilliant but not found here. But here = grits and hashbrowns and great pork sausages and biscuits & gravy. NZ (and AU) sausages were more cereal-filler than is normal over here. Another more southernly thing to try: red-eye gravy, which is made with the drippings from a country ham and black coffee.

we have kinder surprise, and we have smarties - but we also have pebbles which are like smarties but nicer.

yes jaq, the american version of 'biscuit' is radically different from the new zealish version!

Transhemispheric Translation Guide (Fill in the Blanks)

AUS/NZ/UK Biscuit = US/CA Cookie
US/CA Biscuit = AUS/NZ/UK ???? (Very salty scone??)

Also for me:

AUS/NZ/UK Icing Sugar = US/CA ??? (Confectioners Sugar? Powdered Sugar?)

Also RR Cream in a can = Reddi-Whip

sunny, you are such a rotter, i <3<3 you.

also, even though ruby is in nz, and i haven't met her in person, i feel sad that she is moving so far away, this is dumb but true.

even though she is going to nth cali which is nowhere near me and likely a place i will never visit again, im excited -- also dumb but true.

i did the exact same thing as you and ruby, married an american and moved to the u.s., we are like a bunch of nylons wearing, lucky strike puffing war brides.

awww ladies! <3 <3 <3 <3

estela, what is a 'rotter'?

sunny, what sort of fruits/veges should i try that aren't available here?

also, sunny: i really want to travel pretty extensively round the US so maybe we will come visit arkansas(?) sometime.

rot·ter (rtr)
n. Chiefly British Slang
A scoundrel.

it is my idea of a compliment.

we dont have fruits and vegetables in arkansas so i am clueless. come visit memorial day weekend for RIVERFEST. had you been there this year you would have seen zztop AND huey lewis + the news. You must feel dreadful now.

estela, did anyone end up guessing where your husband is from on that guess where estelas husband is from thread? i think i guessed georgia.

The only fruits I can think of you might not be able to get outside the US are US persimmons (not the same as the japanese variety) and some of the variant berries (i.e. marionberries), but these are also difficult to get anywhere outside of the areas they grow. Maybe ground cherries and prickly pear fruit?

DO NOT CONSUME:
American Bread (full of sugar)
American Orange Juice (full of sugar and orange colouring)
American Margarine/Butter (I don't want to know what that's full of)
The McGriddle (I was young, drunk and naive)

DO CONSUME:
Onion Bagels (A+++)
Pizza (dis is da REAL PIZZA, A++++++)
Super Big Gulps (TWO litres of fountain soft drink at a low low price)

DO VISIT:
Panera Bread (I miss the portobelly mushroom and cheese sammich with chippies and free refills)
Cheesecake Factory (what do you mean we gonna have cheesecake for dinner...whoa, wait a second)
Hooters (obvious)

DO HUNT AND KILL:
That dude at the train station that said "is that a New Zealand accent?"

"is that a New Zealand accent?" is American for "I think you're Australian but I thought I heard that you maybe used a certain short vowel sound plus being able to recognize the difference between the two would be so cool, oh, fuck it, I'll take the risk."

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The problem is that the South Australian accent is not too far off the New Zealand accent but like fuck an American would ever know the existence of a South Australian accent. Or the existence of South Australia.

dude i didnt know about the existence of a sth australian accent!

sunny, grady was right on that thread, the answer was los angeles, i meant to say so after the poll ended but i forgot.