American things

does anyone outside of America say "have a blessed day" because that is super common.

OMG no!

I've only ever heard that from older Black ladies, although I could imagine evangelicals using it.

people say it all the time. like at the checkout counter. it’s creepy as fuck.

I've gotten the blessing when getting off an elevator, no other conversation involved, just a shot in the back from a stranger causing me to turn and say "uh, thanks?"

P sure the correct response is “hallelujah!!!!”

p sure it’s “achoo!”

"free refills"

The correct response is "Inshallah".

Add shrimp to any entrée - $4.95

Half Sandwich and [other lunch item]

Shoehorning every military acronym into a ridiculous word. Brought on by

https://www.navy.mil/DesktopModules/ArticleCS/Print.aspx?PortalId=1&ModuleId=523&Article=2250056

hang on snoopie, snoopie hang on

white claw
la croix

Mormons

"We proudly serve Pepsi products."

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.

the most american photo doesn’t exi- pic.twitter.com/LO5fHpKHKQ

— Adam (@adamgreattweet) April 7, 2022

actually inventing a fake Egyptian food combination and convincing an American student to try it, which she does and claims to like it.

It was probably good

In about 1979, a family in our town had a foreign exchange student from rural Argentina. His name was Paco.

Someone decided that it would be an amusing prank to tell Paco that Americans like ketchup on their pancakes, and that this was the normal American thing to do. So, for like seven months, everybody pretended to love ketchup on pancakes. (This was the suburbs before cable TV; we were bored and needed to make our own fun.)

It was a simpler time, and a less connected time. Nowadays a prank like that couldn't work, because internet. But I am curious whether there was ever a group of people in Argentina who believed that ketchup on pancakes was the style in America.

Slightly apropos: in about 1965, my American stepmother was studying in what was then West Germany. There was a German woman in her dorm who had previously regarded herself as an expert on American culture... before the arrival of an actual American (my stepmother). So this German woman felt offended and displaced, but she was sometimes confidently wrong.

Anyway, the story goes that my stepmother once made popcorn. The jealous German woman reportedly said, "Ach, I know what that is. You put milk on it and eat it for breakfast."

So. Not sure what it all means but people and habits remain a fascinating mystery

Those both sound hella gross.

We had a German exchange student who ate ham sandwiches with ketchup for breakfast every morning. I was never sure whether that was something he did back home or something he adopted here because he thought it was "American."

Germans are more than capable of doing that sort of stuff on their own. I mean Currywurst ffs.

In about 1979, a family in our town had a foreign exchange student from rural Argentina. His name was Paco.

Someone decided that it would be an amusing prank to tell Paco that Americans like ketchup on their pancakes, and that this was the normal American thing to do. So, for like seven months, everybody pretended to love ketchup on pancakes. (This was the suburbs before cable TV; we were bored and needed to make our own fun.)

It was a simpler time, and a less connected time. Nowadays a prank like that couldn't work, because internet. But I am curious whether there was ever a group of people in Argentina who believed that ketchup on pancakes was the style in America.

― So's your imam (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, April 8, 2022 1:57 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I lol'd hard at this -- "Haha, jokes on you, we don't eat ketchup on pancakes (except for the past seven months straight)"

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.