The Last Thing You Put In Your Mouth....

It's just the only time I've seen the term "swiss cheese" is in restaurants and Sturgis' posts.

I thought American Diners were fairly well known. They have one in Pulp Fiction.

Re Swiss cheese, yeah we all do call it that. It’s like a generic term for cheese with holes. Like you may say cheddar in conversation, but I guess you might not specify unless needed if it’s sharp, smoked or has some other quality.

When I think of a diner, it’s nothing like the one in Pulp Fiction. Are you talking about the place where Mrs Wallace and Vincent danced, or where Vincent and Jules were at the end of the movie? Hmm, I guess thinking about it, I Might call the 2nd one a diner, under the right circumstances, but it’s not really the first thing that comes to mind. I’d just call it a restaurant. The first place in PF is definitely a theme restaurant.

The foods that come to mind to me when hearing “diner” are number one, a plate of meat loaf, mashed potatoes and brown gravy and some other non fussy vegetable like carrots or green beans. . Next that comes to mind are pies. Diners are the type of place you and your friends go to for a slice of pie and a cup of coffee. I also think of soup and bread, liver and onions, bacon and eggs or ham and eggs with toast, roast beef and chicken salad sandwiches with french fries, chocolate or rice pudding, a chefs or Cobb salad, grilled cheese sandwiches, stuffed cabbage and other foods that make you feel comfort. Only after all those images and more to I think of any kind of hamburger, and I definitely don’t think of hot dogs. A hot dog on a bun at a diner would be something found on the children’s menu as it’s something cheap you might put in front of a fussy eater and it really doesn’t matter if he eats it or not.

Diners in general are smallish, and unless they’re on a highway or some they mostly serve the locals and are low key and someplace you can stop in anytime day or night and get whatever you want. The cook may have a daily special of some “exotic” like “the taco plate” or “buffalo wings” but those are for the more edgy people who just aren’t happy with some fried shrimp with tartar sauce, fries and cole slaw.

Now all That is American food.

most "diners" retain a kind of retro look to a train coach car.Most are stainless clad with a kitchen "shed" on the backs and in New Jersey, ALL have a basement bakry where some of the best goddam pies and other pastry are wooped up "MErkin STyle. (Whih is to say we copy every cuisine in the world and doctor it up to fit our high calorie National Comestibles Requirements.).
Cream Puffs, based on a French product have been changed to create a many flavored vanilla based "Pudding" filling in a ppuff pastry shell, (Brits have their own name for puff pastry).
Diners are known for "mom food", "comfort food", or "Road food".

They tried dinrs in Taiwan but, because its so damn hot inside everybody loved the little street cycle carts and food vans like they have in AUstin and Nawlins.

You wouldn't find liver and onions in an American themed diner over here.

The only Meatloaf we know about is this guy.



Diner isn't a term we would use on its own anyway, all diners are American diners over here.

Pies are more likely to be savoury as well.

Went to PB this morning for my coffee and pastry, while my wife went to church for her Thursday social.

I don't know what PB is, (other than peanut butter.)

You might want to tell Chai about Cheshire Cheese in the UK.

Well, sorry you don't know about what Americans really eat. I was just letting you know there is so much more than burgers and hot dogs.

Just as you'd let me know the English did eat just F&C all the time, and I'd be happy to learn about it.

Diners aren't American themed restaurants. I'm sure the reverse is true, but putting some neon signs on the wall, or red vinyl booths and or a jukebox doesn't make it "american"

So more than our habit of making a pub UK because there's a dart board on the wall, and the waitresses wear short tartan skirts, and they serve Scotch eggs.

You've said a few times I don't know about that.....that's why I'm letting you know about that, and hope you share what your foods really are.

BTW, I was just talking to my husband and a friend of his. I asked "What's the first thing you think of as far as food when I say diner?"

Fried chicken
Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy
Cherry coke
Hash browns
Biscuits and sausage gravy.

Actually, the US diet combines all the cultures and countries of the world. We just don't accept everything like eating dogs. Countries that eat dog
China. Dog meat has long history in Chinese cuisine and the practice of cooking with it continues today in many regions. ...
Nigeria. Dog meat is a common dish in this West African nation. ...
Arctic and Antarctic. ...
Vietnam. ...
Switzerland. ...
Indonesia. ...
South Korea.
Sep 5, 2014
Countries that eat dog | Fox News Most of us who heard of the Donner Party knows they ate humans. There is little doubt that Donner Party members who resorted to eating human flesh exemplified "survival cannibalism."Nov 27, 2012
What the Donner Party Ate in Final Days - Seeker

I don't know what Salisbury steak is. They've never heard of it Salisbury.

I don't know what your problem is, foreign restaurants have always been a bit different from what you would find back home. In The Secret Agent Conrad writes about the peculiarities of the London Italian Restaurant.

It's just the way things are. I don't care about "British pubs" in America.

And Life on Mars and the Office show Americanisation of everything is just part and parcel of life over there.

You remember how you said the phrase clotted cream made you feel sick. Well now I know how you feel.

Now here's a memory from my childhood farmer.

The OB Diner, in all it's 1960's glory.



The airstream design is evident in the original part of the building, on the left. This picture must have been shortly after the fancy addition was put on. It's funny, as a kid I always felt like there were appropriate foods to eat according to what section you sat in.
If you were in the original part, you'd have a Taylor ham sandwich, and one of those little pedestal dessert glasses with strawberry jello. It had to be red at least. If you were in the "new section, you had to class it up a bit. Maybe a plate of diner spaghetti (omg...diner spaghetti ) and some lemon meringue pie.
My friend Craig fondly talks of going there as a little boy with his parents, and getting the salisbury steak, feeling all grown up.

All the booth, in both the old and new, had rockolas. You never wanted to get stuck at the counter. No rockolas there.
I remember once you were able to drive, therefore obviously able to drink, you and your friends would show up there around 1am for greasy food, and had to stay until the songs you picked out at your booth were played.

Good times.

I don't have any problem. I'm just trying to open the experience past "I don't know about that" "I don't care about that", "the only meat loaf we know is the singer"

That's why I'm talking about that, that's why I care about that, and I like learning beyond the only thing I know is....

We're just having fun. It would be more fun if you'd talk about your typical foods.

Now you know things that are served in an American Diner.

What's served in British pubs?


Oh. BTW, it's American biscuits, the ones that are a bread product, not the sweet thinkgs we call cookies. So it's bread and gravy.

Yeah, cookies and sausage would be gross.

Although, the other day I made my husband some oatmeal with butter, cream, vanilla, cinnamon and maple syrup, and then crumbled an apple and caramel cookie into it. Made a good dessert.

(PB is probably Panera Bread, a popular bakery-café chain...)

Curry? Kebabs and curry? Lots and lots of curry?

The only curry we know about is.....oh never mind.

Depends on the pub. Some are quite fancy. Some gastropubs do truffle infused olive oil marinading salmon etc etc.

Others just do sandwiches.

Some just do a carvery, then there's all sorts in between, vegetarian/vegan, meat pies, pizzas, pastas, burgers chips all sorts.

Thanks.

Chicken Tikka Masala is a British invention like Chop Suey is American. Food from the Indian subcontinent is very big. Some pubs do a curry night.

I remember David Hasselhof asking about toad in the hole and bubble and squeak, things like that.

When a friend came over from Arizona I cooked her corned beef hash, and she liked that. As they were still in season I used Jersey royals that made all the difference.

I also took her to a Mexican restaurant, which was as good as the ones back home fortunately. I never meant to take her there, but a series of sick chefs and closed kitchens made it the only option.

fast food and diners have on thing in common, you look UP to read the menus.

Most Iroh pubs had no decent food that I recall. A sandwich was to pieces of bread and a piece of some kind of local baloney mat in the center. Gqaack. A sandwich in USA i a "Cretion", its usually a local thing celebrating omthing the citizens of that area brag about.
Theres a BILLION different kinds of pulled pork or barbecue sammiches in every place in the UNION.

Hoagie, PoBoy, Sep, Talin Sammich, Hero, etc etc are all basically take-offs on a single theme

1. You take a crispy skinnd roll (At least 12 inches long)

2. Slice it lengthwise but do NOT separate it

3. Take some kinda meats or seafood, fry it, bake it, steam it, kill it nicely and stuff it in the rolls

4. Make up something that, without th roll , would sound like garbage. Stuff that in there

5 Cover with some kinda creepy savory, sweet, thick sauce.

6Do other vile things to it like adding slices of avo-fuckin-cado and peaches

ENJOY.

The only thing that i sacrosanct is the MAINE LOBSTAH ROLL.

It i a thick crispy skin roll, sliced up the middle to make like a bigass BOAT ROLL

Fill the hole with as much lobster mat and mayonnaise as you can fit.

NOTHIN, goddam NOTHIN, can beat it. It simple, itsa work of art. It the best thing anywhere

There's lots of sandwich places too. Some use rolls, others slices of bread.

Btw, I've never been to Ireland so I've no idea what their sandwiches are like.