SC - US bars UK
lilinah at earthlink.net
lilinah at earthlink.net
Tue Dec 5 20:25:15 PST 2000
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!
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