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Eating in America - Referat
Eating habits in America / American Food
Most times when people hear the term American Food they think of fast food: hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries and so on. It’s fast and easy to prepare, it’s unhealthy and often called junk or trash food.
Everyone knows the major famous brands like e. g. Coca Cola, Mc Donalds, Hägen Dasz Ice Cream, Pepsi, Burger King and many more. Within the last ten years it has also become common to buy products related to America in our supermarkets. Among these products are instant hamburgers, American pizza, various dips and sauces and also American sweets like Marshmallows.
Against all these prejudices America offers a far more exciting variety of eating culture.
History
All different groups of immigrants that arrived in America also brought their varieties of food. For example there are Spanish, French and English influences from settlers and the former slaves brought in African cooking.
The history of American food begins shortly after Christopher Columbus set his foot on the island. They found strange new things like tomatoes, potatoes, chillies, corn, beans and many other vegetables.
What is now known as Mexican food is a conglomerate of Spanish and Native American dishes. It consists of old Native recipes and new Spanish ways of preparing and cooking.
In the 17th century English settlers established the first tobacco and cotton plantations. They were mostly located in the South and to run these plantations they imported the first black slaves. The English brought their typically food with them and they started to mix it with local ingredients, e.g. turkey, maple syrup, clams and lobster.
Other important influences came in the late 19th century form Italy and Asia.
Another well-known fact is that they also created new dishes. For instance: Chop Suey was actually created in San Francisco, where a guest wanted to eat something at a late hour and received a stew out of kitchen scraps.
Like a dry sponge America’s culture has sucked up all different kinds of cuisines, spices and tasts and created it’s own blend.
Fast Food
Without a doubt fast food is a big part of the American eating culture and it’s impossible to talk about American food without mentioning it.
Between the fast food culture we know here in Austria and in America are some slight differences.
One point is that here in Austria mostly young people regularly eat in fast food restaurants and in the US you find whole families, including members of all generations.
But it’s not true that fast food is the most frequently food eaten. Most Americans only consume it when travelling or when time is short. Usually families have regular local food.
Another point is that young people in the United States do not have the opportunity to go to bars or pubs because the legal drinking age in most states is 21, so they like to meet eachother in fast food restaurants, milk bars or pizza places.
Famous and classical American food
Cornflakes
It was a great success, when the brothers Kellog invented the Cornflakes. One night the idea came over John Harvey in his dreams. He hurried in the kitchen, boiled some wheat, rolled it out into stripes and baked it in the oven. John Harvey and Will Keith Kellog produced the flaked breakfast cereal first in 1906.
Nowadays Kellog’s Cornflakes are a worldwide known classic breakfast.
Hamburger
No one really knows where the first hamburger was made.
The first possibility is that it came to America from Hamburg in Germany, like the frankfurter came from Frankfurt. But also Hamburg in the state of New York and several other American Cities claim to be the birthplace of the hamburger.
McDonalds – The all American Restaurant
When brothers Dick and Mac McDonald opened a drive-in restaurant in California, they named it after themselves. Today exist more than 12,000 restaurants in over 56 countries and more than 22 million people eat at a McDonald's every day.
Because of McDonalds people around the world think, that American food is all about Hamburgers, French fries and milkshakes.
McDonald's became successful thanks to Ray A. Kroc, a salesman of food mixers.
Kroc sold his mixers to the McDonald brothers, took an interest in their business,
and began to franchise restaurants in their name.
The McDonalds way of running a restaurant allows customers to get their food fast and to ensure that all meals served at every McDonald's are the same. In fact, you can eat the same meal at every McDonald's in the United States and here in Austria.
Coca Cola
The Coca-Cola company started 110 years ago as a small, insignificant one man business. Since then, it has grown into one of the largest companies in the world. The first chairman of the company was Dr. John Pemberton and the current chairman is Roberto Goizueta. The demand for this product has made this company into a 50 billion dollar business.
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