Shuddering thinking about a mug of dishwater. And you’re right. Yorkshire Tea ! Yum!!
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Glad you provided that pic or I wouldn’t have know what Poke was. I know it as Chirasi Don.
Edit: Chirasi and Poke are apparently different. So I go back to not knowing what Poke is.
It’s true. By American she doesn’t mean USian, she means American: North, Central and South. So many great foods are from the New World. Thanksgiving meals are reflective of this: Turkey, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, wild rice, cranberries and pumpkin pie.
Vanilla and chocolate are American. Before 1500 the old world knew of honey and date sugar but refined sugar was expensive and rare. Cane sugar production exploded with the discovery of the new world. Obviously corn syrup is American. Beet sugar was discovered in Europe but American definitely played a big role in the development of many sweets as we know them.
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Yep - obviously we are going way back to Christopher Columbus and the Elizabethan Court. They say Queen Elizabwth lost all her teeth because she was so fond of marzipan and all things sugary. And of course she was rich enough to eat her fill.
Hahaha I can see this is going to be a hot potato subject but it’s sooo true!!!
They originated and were first cultivated by mesoamericans in, according to the internet, what is now Mexico and Guatemala.
Just like coffee beans started in… Ethiopia(?), but are now cultivated wherever the environment can support them.
(Also, most spices do not come from the Americas. Except allspice. Because it tasted like all the other spices mixed together. 
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Check it out. Someone is growing coffee in, of all places, coastal California.
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I am Asian, although not born in America, I host in America. And while we have difficulties sometimes with both Asian and American guests - the most difficult (and silly) Americans tend to be overly concerned about the amount of paper towels and toilet paper there is. We do not believe in excessive waste, for both lifestyle and practicality purposes (we only have room for 1 waste bin outside and guests accumulate garbage like crazy). But we aren’t talking about a remote house. The nearest TWO drug stores are about a 5 minute drive down the hill in which one can stock up on items if say… you have run through all the toilet paper on the roll for all three bathrooms PLUS the extra two full rolls we provide to you AFTER ONE NIGHT (I even offer to reimburse them for their “extra”-ness). I would say, the audacity that these Americans have to demand an entire pantry full of paper products (when there are also plenty of hand towels available as well), disgusts me. And to make a huge fuss about it is even more absurd. Just pick up more toilet paper and paper towels on your way there, send me the receipt, and move on with your life. Can you imagine how they must deal with REAL problems?
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I am so happy you mentioned “poke”! It looks delicious. We have access to lots of fresh tuna in St Lucia, and we have a vision of building a small restaurant to serve our guests, and I’m on the lookout for food that showcases the local ingredients.
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sigh_ I can’t imagine this being something to fuss about. I don’t have a standalone space, so haven’t run into this.
It is surreal. But has happened twice with the same demographic of a middle aged American lady who is such an egregious sport about having to purchase her own $10 worth of additional paper products once she has totally used up every single piece of paper in the house. We were basically accused of ruining her vacation.
**Added note: She insisted on throwing a “dance party” which is already red flag because we specifically monitor the noise level for our neighbors. She asks us if we have a stereo system, to which I respond no, but you can play music through the television. She says this is not sufficient, that she’s upset that we do not have a stereo system (a feature we never said we had), and that we should compensate her for this feature we never, ever had. I don’t want to call this side “Ugly American,” as we have had, for the most part, wonderful experiences with guests, but I can easily see how this reputation can be gathered from these bad, bad eggs.
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hhaha yes that show! americans are always complaining the aparrtments are so small liek what do you expect!
Many of my European guests have preferred to avoid the electric dryer. I provide a folding clothes-drying rack in each room. Saves a little on my electric bill also.
It’s very true. Americans complain a lot. But can you blame us? We came from a land of everything. We are less travelled than the rest of the first world , we are always afraid of silly things like world around us. Also we are richer than any other country in a world. We have this expression in my mother language that translates like this: the person who pays orders music . We “order music” everywhere we go.
I just had a bus ride for 9 hours in Morroco, bus where there was one American family actually from Miami. I was so ashamed of their behavior that when someone asked me where I am from I said from Ukraine .
Both mother and father complained about everything the whole time. It was nite time and driver has a little radio on to not fell asleep. But the family was tired and they kept on yelling at the driver to turn the radio down. Driver explained to them in very bad English that it’s very common for overnight drivers to have radio on . Nothing helped. Until I told them that I would rather have to listen to radio all night long than be crashed with sleeping driver .
And it was like this the whole night. Then when we finally arrived and we’re waiting for our rides. We talked and they were perfectly sweet people who really were good mannered and pleasure to talk too.
Americans are not very good at dealing with discomfort at all. New generation are somehow tuned differently or may be until they get older
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Interesting and very astute, as usual.
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I prefer that people not dry clothes in the guest room as it has wood floors. However, the point I was trying to make is that Americans aren’t the only culture that isn’t good at, “When in Rome, do as the Romans”.
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People who have traveled widely are not difficult to please. If you have never traveled in Italy, you would be put out by how tiny showers are…I am 5’2" and have that reaction so what does a 6’ American think?..but if you have traveled and stayed in hotels, you would know that the size is standard.
I would point out in my space notes that European bathrooms are smaller than the norm in the US and if this is important to them, stay at the Savoy.
Dont reject Americans per se but reject or have a conversation with the ones who enthusiastically state this is their first trip overseas…add photos so they know just what they are getting.
I feel your pain.
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French cuisine was brought to France from Italy by one the Medici women…well documented.
And I would think that the British “cuisine” changed rapidly in America as suddenly the immigrants had acces to meat…not common for the poor of Britain or Europe at the time.
And debunked…
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Where the heck do you live Jaquo? I live in Nashville Tn. Although the south is known for fried chicken and pork barbque, we do eat other things. I have 3 independant produce places within a mile of my house which sell the best of the seasons fruits and vegatables, both organic or not. Within 2 miles there are about 4 farmers markets on different days of the week attended by both organic and not farmers. I can buy organic, local eggs, beet, chicken pork and goat meat at any number of places.
Dining out has too many farm to table choices to count…one or two of which grow their own produce. And even before the food revolution, there was nothing better than mustard, turnip or collard greens, poke salut, squash, okra snap beans, purple hull peas, …I could go on and on. There is plenty of great food in America.
Perhaps the caveat is that you need to be in a city or a town near a city to have the best at your fingertips but that is not just an American story. And having to go to a specialty store for the best is not just American according to my European friends who tell me that cheap prepared foods in the supermarket there are pure toxic s**t too.
Europe has done a much better job in preserving their small farmers, so food in the boondocks is better than here in some or possibly all states, but quite honestly, there is nothing much better than hickory smoke bbque on a corn cake now and again and not much less healthy than a couple croissants which are half butter. 
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