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I've got one that is sort of related to thread = Thai restaurants and chopsticks. Unlike much of Asia, Thailand does not have a chopstick culture. If you go into a local restaurant and order a dish they will give you a fork and spoon. If you buy instant noodles at the convenience store it'll come with a little folded plastic fork, not disposable chopsticks like in many other Asian countries. There is an exception with soups, for whatever reason places that serve soup will have a container on each table that has forks/spoons/chopsticks and you will see some locals using chopsticks in one hand and spoon in the other. They will also have chopsticks at restaurants that specialize in something with Chinese roots like hot pot or Hainanese chicken rice.
It's kind of funny that so many Thai restaurants in USA will offer chopsticks, they are trying to fulfill the customer expectation of being more authentically Asian but are actually serving food in a manner different than in Thailand.
I hope I haven’t posted this before in this thread. I don’t think I have.
I think the ethnic cuisine most often messed up is American home cooking. What American style restaurants do to food is often criminal. Instead of fresh veggies, you might well eat canned, especially in soup. Order tomato soup and you might get something along the order of tomato sauce. Order clam chowder, and you might get a white concoction thickened up with flour and only trace amounts of clam flavor—or clams.
You cannot buy a handmade pie any more. Perhaps some Amish restaurants still make them. But most pie is badly made, oversweetened, and placed in machine made crusts that have the consistency of cardboard.
Order chicken noodle soup and you might get a bowl of noodles in over salted broth that originated in bouillon cubes.
Biscuits. These should be the pride of a breakfast cafe, right? Sometimes you might get lucky. But often what you get has been made with low grade flour or biscuit mix. All one tastes in these things is starch.
Sometimes you encounter a gem of a restaurant that cooks fresh food, and prides itself on its American cuisine. But in my experience, this is rare.
I’ve eaten good American cooking. It did not hapoen often, but occasionally I did when I was growing up. It is as good as any other cuisine. But you would not know it from mostly lackluster restaurants purveying it now.
Funny, as my husband of Italian descent hates al dente pasta even though he knows that is how they cook it there these days. His mother did not cook it al dente and he likes it as she cooked it.
In Italy he asks them to cook it longer. Usually they do, but sometimes they make comments such as saying, oh yes, that is how some of the OLD people like it.
When I went to Milan a few years ago, I asked the waiter about the concept of al dente pasta. He said they don’t cook it like that, that it’s an American thing. I’m fine with it either way.
I also asked about the US Italian restaurant abomination of al dente rice in risotto. He agreed, saying no one cooks risotto that way in Italy. Myself, I’ve never understood the idea of crunchy rice in this dish. It’s just plain stupid.
I hope I haven’t posted this before in this thread. I don’t think I have.
I think the ethnic cuisine most often messed up is American home cooking. What American style restaurants do to food is often criminal. Instead of fresh veggies, you might well eat canned, especially in soup. Order tomato soup and you might get something along the order of tomato sauce. Order clam chowder, and you might get a white concoction thickened up with flour and only trace amounts of clam flavor—or clams.
You cannot buy a handmade pie any more. Perhaps some Amish restaurants still make them. But most pie is badly made, oversweetened, and placed in machine made crusts that have the consistency of cardboard.
Order chicken noodle soup and you might get a bowl of noodles in over salted broth that originated in bouillon cubes.
Biscuits. These should be the pride of a breakfast cafe, right? Sometimes you might get lucky. But often what you get has been made with low grade flour or biscuit mix. All one tastes in these things is starch.
Sometimes you encounter a gem of a restaurant that cooks fresh food, and prides itself on its American cuisine. But in my experience, this is rare.
I’ve eaten good American cooking. It did not hapoen often, but occasionally I did when I was growing up. It is as good as any other cuisine. But you would not know it from mostly lackluster restaurants purveying it now.
I do have a place in my area that makes homemade pie crust. They do a booming business with their pies at all holidays.
Stuffed cabbage. Getting the filling to taste really good is not easy and polish restaurants I've been to miss the mark. Additionally, the tomato sauce is never right. I like stuffed cabbage but I stick to my own, tedious as it is.
I see this is an old thread revisited so don't know if I have answered or not, but I can't think of too many things I have gotten from restaurants that has been screwed up, not on a regular basis. Of course I would never even think of ordering a cabbage roll for instance. I guess the only thing that comes to mind for me might be spaghetti sauce cause it is always a bit too sweet for me. I prefer lots of garlic and spices and no or very little sugar.
Stuffed cabbage. Getting the filling to taste really good is not easy and polish restaurants I've been to miss the mark. Additionally, the tomato sauce is never right. I like stuffed cabbage but I stick to my own, tedious as it is.
I agree! My Mom made excellant Polish food, nothing in restaurants, have come close.
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