Americans and Food

This is it, Thanksgiving is over! Even though we obviously don't have this celebration in France, we all have heard and know more or less about it. I try here to explain to my fellow people that it's kind of like a Christmas before Christmas, without the gifts; that it’s one of the most important Holiday in the country, and also THE day when it’s wise to avoid traveling - as it is followed by a 4 day week end, when most families get together, which generates a huge mess in airports and on the roads. This year might have been even more of a mess because of a storm that covered pretty much half of the country. As far as I’m concerned, I was comfy in Baton Rouge, without family, but with three or four different invitations at friends’ parents. I could have litteraly gone from home to home until I found the best food. I contented myself with this dinner: Deviled eggs, ham, turkey, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, and sweet potatoes casserole:

I also explain them that originally Thanksgiving was a harvest celebration, then a Christian celebration during which North Americans would thank god for the good things received during the year. Now it’s a day off for everybody, the fourth Thursday of November, followed by Black Friday = The biggest and craziest sales day in the year. So if we recap… On Thursday we fill up our stomachs while being thankful for the simple things of life we already have, and on Friday we jostle one another to buy a new TV at unbeatable price. I love the irony here. In order to not sound like I’m a malicious gossip, I’m pointing out that a lot of Americans themselves are conscious of this little paradox… (See below)

Thanksgiving: the famous Turkey Day, or, the only day in the year when Americans eat better than the French. Aside from the turkey, there is usually cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, corn bread, apple pies, pecan pies. Those are among the classics. I also really liked caramelized brussel sprouts with bacon, and roasted garlic butternut squash with sage brown butter. Yummy. (I made the second myself, so proud, first time I had a butternut squash in my hands! I don't remember seeing that type of squash back in France.)

The first time I had fried turkey… this is also not bad at all!

Telling you about this great meal makes me want to talk about all the habits American people have in terms of food. It’s another world, you already knew that, but you might not know everything.

Dinner is ready!

First of all, it is common here to eat everywhere but on a dining table. Standing up, in the car, on the go, in front of the computer, on the couch. Meals at the table are often for dinner time only. And even then, the way of doing is very different: At home, dishes are not served in the middle of the table, but placed on the kitchen counter top, and people come and fill up their plate on their own. I remember my first impression: Ah that’s cool, there will be less to clear from the dinning table! But after a while it started making me almost sad. It’s not uncommon to see each and everyone get up from their seat with their plate as soon as it’s empty, not even waiting for everybody to be done. The whole affair is finished off in 10 minutes, clearly, it’s less convivial.

In France, every single meal is considered a mini social gathering. We never eat alone if there’s somebody else to eat with, neither at home, nor at work. This doesn’t exist for every day meals in the US, it’s appreciated, but not inevitable. At the office, even though we have a kitchen and a table for 6 or 8, a lot of my colleagues eat alone in front of their computer, without being called asocials. 

Always snacking!

In France having a meal is not only for the purpose of feeding oneself. We take our time, there’s a way to go from beginning to end: Starter, pause, discuss stuff, argue sometimes, main dish, pause again, cheese plate, pause, and the finale is dessert. In short, an every day meal has more importance than for an American. It seems like it is all botched here! It’s all done too fast. It must be said that a meal in America is made up of one single dish most of the time. The concept of first course – main course – desert does not really exist. For that matter the French word “entrée” is used as an equivalent of "main course", while it literally means "first course" in French! It misses the point completely! And the word “appetizer” is used for a dish served before the main dish, technically to open the appetite. Kind of like our French first course, except that considering the quantities of food served in the US, you’re not even hungry anymore after eating an “appetizer”, it totally defies its purpose! But that’s OK! You can just take your main dish in a “to go” box, leave your table in no time, and have a meal ready for tomorrow! After all it’s all about effectiveness here.

The action of eating does not evoke the same things for an American. I feel like French people have more respect for the food they eat. On a side note, you can clearly see that when you look at the differences of regulation in terms of what kind of chemical and other crap is allowed in food in the US compared to France! As a result, it’s like it doesn’t bother the American to eat anywhere at any time, or to eat in between meal times. No big deal. For French people it wouldn’t be very acceptable to do more than one thing while eating. Here it's totally tolerable: you eat and work, eat and walk, and even eat and drive… Yep!... And you mostly eat all sort of crap as you do all this, of course.

I’ve also noticed that American parents give food to their kids at every turn: when their kids are impatients, restless, tired, when they’re whining, or when they behave. “Here, since you behaved so well you can have an ice cream”. Because of that, food is perceived as a reward, a distraction, or something useful to calm down a kid that one wouldn’t succeed in making shut up. I’ve also seen children and teens randomly looking for food in the fridge at all hours of the day, without any parent saying anything about it. In short, everybody eat when they’re hungry, that’s it. I’ve never heard the English equivalent of our “Mange pas maintenant, ça va te gâcher l’appétit!” (“Don’t eat now, it’s gonna spoil your appetite!”) Never. So there you go, as much as it was annoying, years back, to have my mom limiting us to one slice of baguette with nutella or three cookies, and not four for the very regulated after school snack time… it is now quite pleasurable to be three sizes smaller than the local average, without even trying. 

Gastronomy is for snobby people

Despite these sad facts, it is possible to find good food and eat well in America. Pretty much only if you are lucky enough to be part of the middle and upper class anyway. Otherwise, really, it’s hard to have access to quality food, or it’s just not in everybody’s habits. I’ve read that Americans eat like children, in an impulsive way, always snacking, that their meal portions are too big. Generally speaking I can confirm that. I rarely see people here stopping to eat saying “I’m not hungry anymore”, but rather “I’m so full”. And their taste is often limited to what’s greasy or sweet. In France kids eat the same thing than the adults. You’re not asked what you like or don’t like. Here there’s always a kid menu, even at home sometimes, to avoid conflict and make it easier, and it’s usually not the most complex and refined… If you don’t like broccolis, that’s fine, we’ll give you Mac and Chesse instead. Be it at home or at school, how to savor and appreciate food (all food) is not part of the curriculum for the young little Americans, unfortunately.