This is not a scoop: America likes to eat fatty, salty, sweet. Nate has worked in an Italian restaurant for ten years in Washington and he sees what the customers are asking for. “Everything is kind of breaded. People want that extra crunch, whether it’s spicier or a whole lot bigger. This has always been the case for the dishesobserves the American. People personalize them. You will see pizzas with chicken mozzarella or pizzas with fries on top. Some even take a pizza topped with spaghetti! Sounds crazy to me!”
Pizza is what Joe eats at the counter. “But if you ask me what I like to eat all the time, it’s fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy”, he enthuses. Chicken, a must in all its forms for Americans: “They love chicken. Fried, baked, smoked, grilled, any kind.”
“When you go to a baseball game, it’s hot dogs and hamburgers. We eat a lot of beef in this country too.”
Joe’s cousin, on the other hand, is more of a seafood product: “On the east coast, we do crab. You steam it whole, break it up and eat it.”
Junk food or not, why such large portions in America? “I think we have been programmed to eat more, to eat a lot. I couldn’t really tell you why we eat everything in large quantitiesexplains Joe. When I saw my plate arrive in a restaurant in Paris, I said to myself: it’s not much! But, once the plate was finished, and accompanied by a glass of wine, I was fine.” And no need, that day, for a doggy bag.