American journal: What’s good today or America on your plate
Food and the United States. Just this combination alone will certainly evoke various associations in our esteemed readership. They will probably be dominated by hamburgers, fries, pizza and similar fast-food items. It is and is not true.
Like other stereotypes, this one applies only to a certain extent. First of all, the fondness for fast casual meal during the day is due to a slightly different work culture. I deliberately write "fast meal" and not "fast food". The latter is usually associated with really unhealthy, deep-fried fast food, which is not so often a common lunch choice for many Americans. Sure, to each his own, but especially in the city centers, you can see that more and more people are gravitating towards lighter versions of the burger culture.
As in the UK, the main meal of the day in the US is not lunch. It is "dinner", in Czech conditions actually the evening meal. A meal after work, where you have a break and get together with friends or family. A moment of peace that you want to enjoy. Lunch, on the other hand, is just a brief break during the work day. Unlike in the Czech Republic, where we have a proper business lunch consisting of soup and maybe a filling portion of "goulash with six dumplings", in America you're more likely to just inhale a sandwich and run back to work. Then in the evening you can make up for it and have a nice meal. Simply work first, play later.
In any case, food is also influenced by social and cultural specifics. The melting pot of America successfully mixes different cuisines, especially Latin American ones, albeit simplified into a form served in food stalls or branches of various chains. Burritos, for example, are a particularly popular choice for a quick lunch or snack on the run. Thanks to the influence of foreign cuisines, you'll also soon discover that America eats a surprising amount of vegetables. Although the tomato-iceberg lettuce pairing is mostly repeated, with the occasional bit of cucumber or corn, we could still take a cue from the greater proportion of vegetables in the Czech diet. What we do not need to take example from is the ubiquity of sugar. When you find out that corn syrup is also in ham, you gradually become quite paranoid and scrutinize the labels of everything you buy.
If the American style of eating with a quick snack at noon doesn't win you over, or your Slavic stomach craves something more substantial around noon, you can always cook something at home and take it to work with you. Although increasingly popular, "brown-bagging" is not quite widespread. But you can always find a microwave somewhere to heat up your food. There can be a problem at the very beginning, however, when it comes to cooking. What used to mess with your head when you were calculating distances or estimating tomorrow's weather will definitely trip you up even more when you're cooking. That is, if, like me, you're used to the metric system, and can't, get used to the Anglo-American imperial system of measurement. Fluid ounces, quarts, and cups can boggle the mind, and so there is often no choice but to resort to good old-fashioned guess by eye-balling it or the "proportionately, proportionately" system from the famous Czech fairy tale. Eventually, you do get used to all the strange measurements and weights, but more on the too little-too much level, and cooking will always be a bit of an adrenaline rush. But what the heck, if all else fails there's always a stand on the corner where you can gobble down a quarter pounder with cheese in a hurry.
Martin Jirušek
Department of International Relations and European Studies, FSS MUNI
Currently a Fulbright Scholar at George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
