A lot of countries have their own style of food, what do you think the US’s style is?
很多国家都有自己独特的美食，你觉得美国的特色美食是啥？
The US is interesting, because we don’t have a very long history, and we are a country founded by immigrants. We have the food from all of the different places that all of those people come from, and we kind of mix it all together.
美国（的情况）很特殊，因为我们的历史不长，而且我们是移民建立的国家。所以我们吃的是移民们从世界各个地方带来、并且融合在一起的食物。
First of all, sandwiches are a huge thing here. We love sandwiches, so Subway is a hugely popular restaurant. And peanut butter and honey or jam sandwiches are a common breakfast food. In short, if there is bread with stuff in between it, we love it.
首先，三明治是美国人钟爱的一大美食。我们超爱吃三明治，所以赛百味在这儿很火。花生酱或者果酱三明治是一种很常见的早餐。总的来说，只要在面包之间夹东西的组合，我们都爱吃。
In order to enjoy sandwiches, you need to make your mouth open wide and take a huge bite, which is probably against Chinese table manners? So I’ve seen a lot of my Chinese friends take everything apart and eat all of the parts individually when they are new to the US. And I think it’s always funny to watch them eating sandwiches. It’s probably similar to when you guys watch us trying to use chopsticks.
吃三明治得张大嘴狠狠咬一口才爽，貌似这和中国的餐桌礼仪有点冲突？所以我的很多中国朋友刚到美国的时候会把三明治拆开，一点一点吃。我觉得看他们吃三明治很好玩，估计跟你们看我们（笨拙地）用筷子一样。
Other food we are huge on is MEAT. Americans love meat, such as hamburgers, steaks, brats, and hotdogs. But we don’t do it in a very special way, like Chinese dishes where you spend a lot of time cutting and preparing the meat. We usually just get a big chunk of meat, and we throw it on a fire and cook it with seasonings, and it’s delicious.
我们还很爱吃肉。美国人是肉食动物，比如汉堡包、牛排、香肠还有热狗。但是我们并不会像中餐那样花时间精心做肉来吃。通常我们只会弄一大快肉，扔在火上，放点调味料在上面烤会儿，就觉得很好吃了。
Here is one funny example of our differences in cooking meat. So, when the weather is nice, we like to cook out with a group of our close friends, where we bring the raw food and we grill it, over an open fire. Usually one of my American friends and my wife are primarily in charge of cooking, because they both enjoy it, so they take turns.
中餐和美餐烹制肉的方法不同，我正好亲历过，有图有真相。每当天气很好的时候，我们会和一群朋友出去野餐，各自带上食材，到公园里烧烤、野餐。一般都是我老婆和一个美国的朋友来负责做，因为他们都喜欢干这事，所以他们轮流负责。
When my friend is in charge, he just throws chunks of meat with a bunch of seasonings on the grill. The whole time we just leave the meat cooking there. My friend only goes over to flip them to the other side once. It takes about half hour to cook thoroughly, and afterward we get to have fun cutting and chewing big, delicious chunks of seasoned meat.
当我朋友负责的时候，画风是这样的：他就把几大块肉加了点调料，直接扔炉子上。然后我们就让肉自己在那烤，也不用人看着，烤到一半的时候我朋友去翻一次面。大概花半小时就能完全烤熟，然后就是欢乐地切肉、吃肉啦，大口吃肉的感觉真好哇。
When my wife is in charge, she'll chop all the stuff in to small pieces and marinates the meat overnight. In total, she probably spends half a day preparing the food before we even get to cooking it. She puts all sorts of sauce on it during the cooking and flips them every now and then. They taste so good.
我老婆负责的时候，画风骤变，她把所有东西都切成很小的一块，用调料腌了一晚上。我掐指一算，甚至在我们开始烤之前，她就已经花了半天的时间来准备。而且烤的过程中她还放了各种各样的调味料，每隔一会儿就会去翻一下刷个油。不过讲真，我老婆的手艺真的好棒！
We also like pastas and pizza that we get from our Italian ancestors. Pizza is a common fast-food and if you are fancy, you can learn how to make it yourself. I have a friend who is very good at making pizza. There are a couple of major steps in making the perfect pizza.
美国人也很爱意大利祖先传给我们的意面和披萨。披萨是一种很常见的快餐，如果你动手能力强，还可以学学怎么DIY，我就有一个朋友很会披萨。做一个完美的披萨大概需要以下几个步骤：
First, you have to make the dough using bread flour.
首先，用面包粉（和酵母）揉一个面团。
After it rises, you need to roll it out flat, like a big plate.
面团发好后，擀成一个像盘子那样的圆形面饼。
Then you bake the dough lightly before putting on any toppings.
在放馅料之前，先稍微烤一下面饼。
Finally, you put pizza sauce, cheese, vegetables & meat on top, and throw it back in the oven until the cheese melts.
最后把披萨酱、芝士、蔬菜和肉放到面饼上，扔回烤箱烤到芝士融化。
My friend spent a really long time refining his pizza-making skills. Now he is really good at it.
我朋友花了很长时间磨练他的披萨技能，现在他的手艺已经堪比大厨了。
Speaking of pizza, I have heard that Pizza Hut is a fancy restaurant in China. One of my Chinese friend’s husband proposed to her there! So I googled Chinese Pizza Hut, and it does look really fancy; way fancier than what we have. Pizza Hut is just a fast food chain here. There was one time my wife wanted to find a Pizza Hut to see what the US version was like, and we could not even find one with seating; they were all take-out only. We live in the 5th largest city in the US!
说到披萨，我听说必胜客在中国是一家高档餐厅？我有个中国朋友的老公据说就是在那里跟她求婚的。所以我google了一下中国的必胜客，看起来确实挺高级的，至少比我们这的高级多了。必胜客在这里只是个快餐连锁。有一次我老婆想去必胜客看看美国版的是啥样，居然连一家有座位的都没找到，全是只能打包带走的。亏我们住的地方还号称是全美第五大城市……
She says the food at US Pizza Hut is not as good as the Chinese ones. She says KFC and McDonald's are also better in China. That could be true, it seems like there are a lot of differences in these chains between our countries. I’ll need to try in person though before I form a final opinion.
而且我老婆说美国必胜客的东西没有中国的好吃，她还说肯德基和麦当劳也是中国的更好吃。这很有可能，貌似这些连锁店在我们两个国家之间确实有很大差别。我得哪天亲自去试试，再发表个人意见。
Salads are also very common here, especially for people who care about their body shape. We put raw vegetables in them, with salad dressing like ranch, Italian, or vinaigrette. The idea behind using raw veggies is that you can keep all of the nutrients in them if you don’t cook them, because cooking will break down proteins and just ruin the cellular stuff. It tastes crisp and delicious. But if I am completely honest with you, sometimes you may feel like a rabbit when you eat salad.
在美国，沙拉也很流行，尤其是对于那些在乎自己身材的人。沙拉里都是生的蔬菜，混合着沙拉酱，常见的比如 ranch, Italian, vinaigrette 这三种。蒸煮时的高温会破坏细胞结构、使蛋白质变性，因此生吃蔬菜能够最大限度地保留食材的营养。虽然沙拉很清爽可口，但老实说，有时候吃着吃着就觉得自己像只兔子……
The funny thing is that after talking so much about what Americans usually eat, I mostly eat Chinese food now because of marriage. So, my personal style of food is like:
搞笑的是作为一个美国人，我在这说了一堆美国人都吃啥，但其实我吃得最多的是吃中餐，哈哈哈~ 因为老婆是中国人，所以我平常吃的食物是这样的：
Bagels with cream cheese or peanut butter and coffee for breakfast.
早餐：贝果夹奶油芝士或者花生酱 + 咖啡。
A Chinese lunch box prepared by my wife for lunch. Today I’m having tomato and egg noodles.
午饭是我老婆准备的一盒中国菜，比如今天我吃的番茄煎蛋面。
Then, more Chinese food for dinner. Depending on my wife’s mood, she makes all sorts of different food. You can check out the photos of food we’ve taken in the past.
晚饭也是各种中餐，看我老婆心情，她会做各种不同的菜，上面奏是我们之前做过的菜的照片。
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