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(NC)—Ontario Pork's web site " www.porkpeople.com " tells you everything you ever wanted to know about pork, and it's about to get bigger and better.
"This popular and much visited site has been given a new look, with more advice and...
Easy Christmas Cookie Recipes - One Recipe with Many Variations There are so many Christmas cookie recipes around but often so little time to bake during the busy holiday season. The solution? A great ta
much easier for us. As much as we want to make healthy food choices for ourselves and our families, busy lives sometimes makes it difficult. With a few easy dinner recipes in your recipe box it's a cinch. This...
Eating Can Be an Adventure - Keep It Interesting, Simple, Healthy, and FunI have been preparing my own meals for many years. Like most people, I suppose, I would fix only familiar dishes. That has changed. For health benefits, I began eating more fruits and vegetables. Trying unfamiliar vegetables and fruits made eating...
Greek Food A meal in Greece is highlighted with a selection of hot and cold plates known as mezedes. Soups are few but they are meals by themselves. - The main course is a boiled or grilled meat/fish. There are also many delectable meat stews to choose...
Italian Osso Bucco-RecipeEntrée Osso Bucco 3 ½ to 4 lbs veal shanks ( I serve one shank per person. If thecost is high you can cook down the meat and separate it from thebone.) ¼ Cup all-purpose flour 2 Tbs olive oil 2 oz diced salt pork ¼...
Fast Food Takes Its Place
What if someone asked you to name the great cuisines of the world? What would you say? French food, of course, is famous. Italians are world-renowned. Greek food has its own following. What about America?
Well, what comes to mind when you hear the words "American cuisine"? Personally, I think of the 1950's drive-up restaurants, with milkshakes and old-fashioned hamburgers and Coney Islands dripping in mustard. That's probably not the typical definition for the word "cuisine", but it definitely defines American food.
But wait a second. What does the word "cuisine" mean, exactly? The textbook definition is "A characteristic manner or style of preparing food." According to that, there's nothing more American than a hamburger, large fries, and a chocolate milkshake. That meal, served in its own greasy white paper bag, might just be the epitome of everything that is American.
American fast food chains have spread all over the world. They are a symbol of western life in far-off lands, a landmark, loved or hated, by tourists and natives alike. Even the French, who carefully monitor each word that enters their language, have allowed in "hamburger" and "hotdog" to refer to these distinctly American treasures. What exactly is so appealing about this distinctly American tradition of hot, greasy, tasty food on the run?
For one thing, fast food has a constancy about it. Every time you order a cheeseburger from a particular restaurant chain, you know what that cheeseburger is going to taste like. If someone mentions fast food french fries, you can immediately imagine the taste in your mouth and the striped paper pouch in
which they arrive, complete with a layer of salt collected at the bottom and that one short, squat little fry, overdone and sharp at the edges. In a constantly changing society, it seems, Americans and others all over the world derive a real comfort from knowing exactly what they are getting. It's the same thing they've been getting since childhood.
Secondly, the massive appeal of fast food comes from the fact that it is, indeed, fast. Where else but America could such a thing have developed? We're a busy people, with multiple jobs and deadlines and kids and responsibilities, and knowing that we can pick up pre-cooked, steamy hot food in a bag and bring it home to satisfy hunger with minimum fuss is definitely appealing. You technically don't even need to dirty your silverware.
It may be unhealthy, and it may be expensive, and it may be contributing to the decline of Americans sitting down to dinner together every night. But let's face it- like the gas-gobbling SUVs we love to drive, Americans have a dichotomy of love and hate with most of the things they've created. And fast food, in all of its greasy glory, is here to stay.
Besides, sometimes it's a wonderful thing to be able to overcome your guilt, forget about your arteries for just a minute, and buy yourself a burger. And maybe even super-size it. After all, it's the American way.
About the Author
Kirsten Hawkins is a food and nutrition expert specializing the Mexican, Chinese, and Italian food. Visit http://www.food-and-nutrition.com/ for more information on cooking delicious and healthy meals.
