OK, I promise, just a few more posts and we’ll be back to our regularly-scheduled blogging about the fabulous expat life in Zurich. But I still have a little bit of my trip to the southern US to make fun of share with you.
As usual on my trips to the US, Mexican food was high on my list of must-eats (95% of American expats will probably tell you the same thing). Zurich has several Mexican restaurants, each one more disappointing than the last. The Swiss seem to think the addition of tomatoes qualifies a food as ‘spicy’; these are not the kind of people one should buy Mexican food from. Anyway, I digress. The veggie quesadilla in the picture wasn’t the most authentic, but it was pretty damn good. But it did remind me of a trend I noticed in the US this time around: the adding of pure high-calorie no-nutritional-value-whatsoever fat to pretty much every dish (even when the food already contains plenty of fat). Everywhere you look there are giant scoops of sour cream, butter, and creamy dressings waiting to fatten up your meal. Have to get those calories in somehow!
You might not be able to read it, but one of the food offerings on this banner is ‘possum.’ No, I didn’t try it.
Remember how I told you they like to deep fry everything in the south? This is a veggie plate I had at a nice restaurant in Chattanooga. Those brown things are deep-fried mashed potatoes.
Please, enjoy American food responsibly.
Juls, this is probably bad, but a part of me is half-wishing you’d just give up the whole Swiss thing and devote yourself full time to this kind of stuff. But, hey, as evidenced by the last photo in this post, we all know what happens when you overindulge on too much of a good thing.
But, but… deep fried mashed potatoes? Ah for the love!
BTW, this weekend one of my tourist guests left behind a copy of Oprah magazine and I saw an ad for a drink called Diet Coke Plus. OMG. No calories. No nothing really. Yet, they added VITAMINS and MINERALS. Stop the insanity!
Shelley, I saw ads for that vitamin diet coke crap everywhere! God forbid you just eat a freakin’ carrot. American food technology terrifies me.
My problem is that I truly love the sour cream! I can do without salad dressing!
If you are in Houston ever, check out Taste of Texas. They have some seriously large pieces of beef there! I opt for the 6 ounce filet, while my husband goes for 12 ounces– that’s pure meat! Yikes!
That last picture reminds me of my recent drive back to Chicago from my parents’ house in Ontario. My sister and I stopped at one of those gas station/mini-mart things in Wisconsin, and I’m not joking…the average weight of the seven or eight people in there had to be 400 lbs.; and that’s including my rather-svelte-by-comparison 215 lbs. in the mix. Something HAS to be done about this problem.
When I lived in North Carolina a local BBQ place served something called “Brunswick Stew” that allegedly had squirrel in it. Turns out that was a myth (at least I think it was), but the fact that we took it seriously says something. I’m just not sure what.
TBF – With all due respect to my lovely bride, you have to be careful about generalizing things like that from Wisconsin…my in-laws’ lovely home state plays a significant role in raising national obesity and alcohol/fried cheese curd consumption averages.
Deep-fried mashed potatoes??? Take me home, country road. Thanks for hilarious posting.
I am proud to say that, as far as I’m aware, the deep fried mash potato trend never made it’s way up to my home state of Virginia.
And regarding the last picture, there are plenty of Germans doing their best to catch up to Americans!
@kirk: Where was this? I lived in NC for some time and Brunswick stew is really good!
LOL! I am very curious to see how everything will seem different (or more obvious) when we make a return trip to Texas to see our families.
Aaah, Mexican food! Hubby’s in CA right now for business and I think the first thing he did once he arrived was go get a big fat burrito!
I’m concerned about America’s obesity problem just as much as the next non-American person….but deep fried mashed potatoes. That sounds heavenly. Sounds better than deep fried Snickers bars.
I don’t know which I want more – Mexican food or to not have an ass like that!
That’s really scary. Deep fried everything.
In Germany adding corn niblets to any dish automatically makes it “Mexican”. Even more scary.
Christina – the corn niblet thing cracks me up. I love it.
Gawd. The last picture – no wonder.