外国人最想和你聊的文化话题：美国人吃什么?

　Get known American food and American culture　了解美国食物及文化
     1　美式食物以及移民和区域文化
     What is "American food"? At first you might think the answer is easy as pie. To many people, American food means hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken and pizza. Actually, except for Thanksgiving turkey, it's hard to find a typically "American" food. The United States is a land of immigrants. So Americans eat food from many different countries. When people move to America, they bring their cooking styles with them. That's why you can find almost every kind of ethnic food in America. In some cases, Americans have adopted foods from other countries as favorites. Americans love Italian pizza, Mexican tacos and Chinese egg rolls. But the American version doesn't taste quite like the original!
     As with any large country, the U.S.A has several distinct regions. Each region boasts its own special style of food. Visit the South and enjoy country-style cooking. Journey through Louisiana for some spicy Cajun cuisine. Take a trip to New England and sample savory seafood dishes. Travel through the Midwest, "the breadbasket of the nation," for delicious baked goods. Cruise over to the Southwest and try some tasty Tex-Mex treats. Finish your food tour in the Pacific Northwest with some gourmet coffee.
     Americans living at a fast pace often just "grab a quick bite". Fast food restaurants offer people on the run everything from fried chicken to fried rice. Microwave dinners and instant foods make cooking at home a snap. Of course, one of the most common quick American meals is sandwich. If it can fit between two slices of bread, Americans probably make a sandwich out of it. Peanut butter and jelly is an all-time American favorite.
     2　美国食物的表达方式
     （1）Cocktail　鸡尾酒
     It is quite usual to drink cocktails before lunch and dinner in America and somewhat less usual, except in California, to drink wine with a meal. You can either have a cocktail in the bar, if there is one, while you wait for a table or for friends, or you can have one served before your dinner comes. At some restaurants the waiter/waitress will come to your table as soon as you sit down to ask if you want a cocktail, and you can then drink this while deciding what to order to eat. At others, there may be a separate cocktail waiter or waitress.
     （2）Salad　沙拉
     It is usual to have a salad with your meal, and a separate plate is provided for this purpose. The normal practice in America is to eat the salad before the main course. A wonderful American invention is the salad bar. In restaurants that have these salad bars the waiter does not bring your salad. You go to the salad bar and help yourself, usually to as much as you want. This is normally done after you have ordered your meal; you eat the salad while the main course is being cooked.
     （3）Choosing from the Menu　选菜
     American menus can look rather confusing at first sight, for they may use some terms which are unfamiliar to most visitors. Here are some points which may be useful.
     Fried mushrooms, fried onion rings (洋葱圈) and fried zucchini (小胡瓜) are sometimes served as starters (第一道菜).
     Very often vegetables do not come automatically with the meal, and you have to pay extra for them.
     "Scrod" (小鳕鱼), and "red snapper" (啮龟) are all name of fish."Seafood" means lobster (龙虾), shellfish and fish, including, funnily enough, freshwater fish! Prawns (对虾) are known as "shrimp".
     American beef is usually good and often wonderful.
     美国人吃午餐和吃晚餐之前通常要喝点鸡尾酒，但在加利福尼亚州，人们大都喝葡萄酒。吃主食之前，一般都要吃一盘沙拉。炸磨菇和炸洋葱圈可作为开胃食品，牛排、猪排和鸡（腿）为主食，龙虾、贝壳类动物以及各种鱼类甚至包括淡水鱼被统称为海鲜。炸土豆条是深受人们喜爱而且几乎是必不可少的食物。