American things

In "The Looming Tower," there's a section on Sayid Qutb that also quotes Qutb's own descriptions of his time in the United States. One of the observations he made was that Americans would eat pretty much any combination of flavors without regard for taste. I don't remember what it was specifically, but e describes actually inventing a fake Egyptian food combination and convincing an American student to try it, which she does and claims to like it.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, April 8, 2022 7:11 AM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

this just sounds like ... being polite? is being polite an american thing?

Well, according to Israelis it is IME. Not sure how similar Egyptians are in that regard. But I once got a good inadvertent laugh from hosts because they made me coffee that was all fucked up (they made it "mud" style with the grounds in the cup, but the grounds failed to sink) and I didn't immediately tell them and pretended it was ok.

this just sounds like ... being polite? is being polite an american thing?

IME you do get some endearingly earnest Americans who call everyone 'sir' and say 'excuse me' a lot.

(xxp)

ovens where the top heating element doesn’t come on unless you’re “broiling”? this is seemingly normal??

Do you mean the grill?

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/345769/why-do-we-say-under-the-grill-not-above-or-on-the-grill

lol yes although i refrained from using that word because of the potential for confusion

i just wonder how anything ever gets nicely browned on the top in america if the top heating element doesn’t come on.

You take a spatula and flip it over.

lol

I've seen in various recipes to bake something for a while and then turn on the broiler for the last x minutes or something.

My current oven doesn't have a bottom heating element, only a top one. But curiously, there is also a setting for "broil". We weren't thinking about it too much when we picked it out because it was an emergency purchase. I've never quite figured out what's going on.

I've seen in various recipes to bake something for a while and then turn on the broiler for the last x minutes or something.

yeah I do this all the time. you can also brown tops by drizzling olive oil on them or what have you

Making the top part of something hot is only going to burn the roof of your mouth off more.

As an American, this is why I usually cover hot food with either ice cream or ketchup.

"Sports bars" that actually don't care about sport, the term 'sports bar' now just means "we have hamburgers, hot dogs, Miller Lite, Bud lite, and there will be a few people in MAGA hats here"

case in point the one sports bar near me that has 30+ televisions, all randomly set to the same two or three sporting events that nobody is watching, and when you ask to change one of them, it is apparently a ritual on par with summoning the skullthrone of Satan, and you will get a look and the tv will eventually get changed 35 minutes later

the broiler performs a different function than the bottom heating elements. The bottom elements and the oven cavity (insulation, vents, fans, airflow) are designed to achieve a uniform cavity temperature for slowly cooking or baking. It might be easier or faster to achieve this with top and bottom heating elements, but then you lose the extra function of broiling, and Burger King thinks broiling is important.

also, most american oven vessels are lidless. The most common one with a lid is labeled "Dutch", so that we can blame them for the extra washing. We could design a bottomless and therefore symmetric vessel, but then we'd create new problems due to the gravity over here. It's better to just put the heating elements on the bottom.

I wonder how you keep a quiche crust from becoming charcoal while waiting for the custard to set with top heating elements. Do you cut a foil ring to protect the crust? Do you wear one around your neck to keep it handy?

simple - we don't eat quiche

I'm sorry, I meant egg pie. We eat egg pie here.

the top element ime of modern ovens actually comprises two elements, only one of which switches on for normal baking. grill/broil switches them both on for maximum charrage.

"Broiling"

i mean

if you’re going to broil might as well go straight to a full-on broast

the best broilers produce a uniformly high temperature over almost the entire oven cavity ceiling. 2 elements will likely undersample this desired temperature profile, and I reject the "modern" 2 element idea as an improvement and label it a scam.

the oven is the anus of cooking

what is a fever if not your anus oven attempting to cook off an infection's source?

This conversation is strange to me because my oven doesn't have a top heating element. It has a bottom heating element (that heats the oven for baking and roasting).

The broiler is a drawer beneath the heating element. So when I want to get the top of something all crispalicious, that's where I put it.

Is it a gas oven? I had a gas oven like that in my first apartment. It lacked a pilot light. I managed to avoid blowing myself up, although I did have at least one close call.

Gas oven, yes. Electric ovens are generally pretty bad because of the time they take to heat up and cool down - wasting ridic amounts of heat and energy in the process.

Also, where I live, pretty much every bar is a sports bar. If you go to a bar there are televisions, tuned to sporting events. Sometimes there is one tuned to news, but without sound or captions you have no idea what they're talking about.

It's just visual chewing gum and it's stupid, but it's what people seem to expect these days.

I play a lot of music in bars, and I have just come to accept that when people applaud, it's more likely that they're applauding a sporting accomplishment that took place on a television slightly above my head, rather than the music. I am at peace with this.

Jesus, yes. Some of them have so many screens, you cannot escape seeing them, no matter where you sit or which direction you face. I find it as oppressive and overwhelming as a casino.

abruptly end your song whenever the home team scores.

abruptly end your song and say "that should do it for us tonight" whenever the away team scores

“This conversation is strange to me because my oven doesn't have a top heating element”

it’s strange to me that you lack it, this is my point. re separate “broiler” drawer underneath the main cavity of the oven that uses that bottom heating element as.. the top! (ta da! broiling!) i mean.. talk about an inefficient use of space. that’s where i keep my baking tins etc

imo it is most efficient to use the available oven space for heating shit up, i.e. doing oven things. we store our baking tins in the kitchen cabinet where all such things are stored. But Americans also do laundry in the laundry room.

the Flavor Pro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52eQJ5QpfEg

innoculate your turkeys against blandness

inject Pfizer'S THICK SAUCE

Cause all I ever have
Redemption song

case in point the one sports bar near me that has 30+ televisions, all randomly set to the same two or three sporting events that nobody is watching, and when you ask to change one of them, it is apparently a ritual on par with summoning the skullthrone of Satan, and you will get a look and the tv will eventually get changed 35 minutes later

I carry around a a TV-B-Gone for this very reason. I don't get a chance to use it much around here, but whenever I'm in NYC or some of the sports bar zones of LA I try to shut off as many TVs as possible.

Actually that Flavor Pro video brought one up. 'Tailgating' is a party in North America, as opposed to driving dangerously?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailgating
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailgate_party

it's both, tbh

Three fourths

The Firth of Quarter

they say "dove" for the past tense of "dive" & "shined" for the past tense of "shine"

Asking about the resort's tipping policy

not using electric kettles

i use one every day

At restaurants, disappearing with your credit card instead of bringing a handheld terminal directly to you.

“Is there a Starbucks nearby?”
“Sorry, no.”
[extremely disappointed sound]