SC - US bars UK

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Ras rote:
>My question is why in the world
>would anyone want to go to a US type bar when traveling in a foreign country
>let alone England.

Well, two reasons i can think of.

ONE: a person is homesick for America, and although i've never been 
afflicted by this when living in foreign lands, i guess some folks 
get this.

TWO: the foreign nationals may find American food and ambience, uh, 
how can i put this... exotic. I mean, look at it through the eyes of 
someone NOT American. Their usual food, drink, and atmosphere, as 
exotic and tasty as they may seem to US, is just normal to them. So 
for a little excitement, they may want to experience the foreign 
atmosphere of the USA while still in their home country.

Just as Thai, Chinese, Mexican, etc. are exotic and foreign to us in 
America, American (however it is interpreted by the foreign nationals 
or the ex-pat who's operating the place) is unusual to them. And, 
hoo-boy, can that be an interpretation, like the spaghetti i had in 
an American style restaurant in Japan - pure "Chef Boy-ar-dee". I did 
NOT pick the place, but my friends were, well, homesick for American 
food. I'd rather have been slurping a bowl of soba or sashimi, but 
well, i was with my friends.

When i live in Indonesia, Kentucky Fried Chicken had just opened. The 
place was JAMMED and the usual fare was VERY EXPENSIVE by Indonesian 
standards - i think they charged the usual US prices which are 
moderate in the US (ignoring the fact that the food is swill). But 7 
dollars in Indonesia when i lived there was how much you could pay a 
live in maid for a month (not counting the food you fed her)!!! And 
locally cooked chickens, marinated in coconut milk and spices, 
purchased at a rickety roadside stall was FAR more delicious. But it 
was, uh, déclassé, common.

Oh, yeah, right, that's a THIRD reason: depending on what country 
you're in, going to a US style bar or restaurant is expensive and 
therefore a STATUS thing to do, just as going to an overpriced French 
restaurant with lousy food was when i was a kid in the American 
Midwest.

FOURTH: uh, maybe, hard as this may be to swallow, some people 
actually *like* the taste of American beer (shudder) and American 
food, or whatever passes for it in a foreign land.

And FINALLY: Americans often think local food is weird or unsafe to 
eat, and an American eatery is familiar territory and give them the 
illusion the food is safe.

Anahita
who will shortly be going to a foreign country and has no intention 
of staying in American style hostelries or eating American or 
European style food in Morocco, dammit!