Foods Experiences in Minnesota

1. Introduction
I stayed Minnesota about for a month. And I searched about American foods there. I chose this theme because I was interested in American foods and sweets. Moreover, I like to eat and cook very much. I make dinner at least twice a week. So I was glad to experience it every day while I stayed there. Before I stay America, I heard from many people American foods are high in calories and big. I was looking forward to eating them but, I worried about whether it suits my taste or not. I noticed many things while stayed there. So I will tell you about my foods experiences in Minnesota.

2. Dinners in America
I realized great differences from Japanese foods. First of all, some Americans pray for God before they eat dinner, because of religion. And Americans usually eat meat dishes (chickens, steaks, meat loafs, beef stroganoffs, spareribs and so on). My host mother was a good cook. So her dinner was always good. I sometimes made dinner with her. She taught me how to make American dishes. Meat loaf was the best thing I ever learned in America. I had never eaten it before I came there. Meat dishes, potatoes and salads were main dinner of my host family. And I noticed that Americans don’t spend much time in cooking. I will tell you how to make common dinner. For example, they wrapped potatoes in aluminum and put in an oven. They baked potatoes and seasoned meat. The dinner was complete.

Typical foods in America are meat dishes, pizza, potatoes, tacos, hamburgers, corns, hot dogs, bread and spaghetti with meat sauce. Americans like to eat potatoes better than rice. And potato chips are not only snack but also real meal. Americans often use butter when they make dinner and eat something. My host mother used it at least once two days. When we ate crabs, she recommended me to spread butter on the crabs. It was delicious. I was surprised at the way to eat.

She asked me about my favorite foods. My favorite foods are sea foods. So I talked her about it. Sea foods are a little more expensive than Japan in Minnesota, because there is no sea. I ate sea foods about twice while I stayed there. All the members of my host family like to eat sushi. Sushi is one of the popular Japanese foods in America as well as in Japan. There are Japanese restaurants in Minnesota. I saw five or six times Japanese restaurants in Minnesota. My host families sometimes go there. Of course, Japanese foods are expensive in America. She said Americans expect that typical Japanese people all like to eat rice and fish. I really thought it is true.

On the other hand, Americans like to eat pizza. In Japan, people don’t eat pizza as often as in America. Some Japanese don’t like to eat cheese. But almost Americans love it and sure enough, American pizza is big and thick. If we ordered pizza, we could choose of the size, dough and topping. If we couldn’t eat it all, we would take out it. My favorite pizza is Pepperoni. It is a kind of pizza whose topping is pineapples. I ate it for the first time in the US. I liked it so much. It was good and I was surprised at the taste. Pepperoni is common pizza in America. Sadly, I couldn’t go to American fair but to my surprise, some street vendor’s stall sells fried pickles, fried chocolates and even fried cheese in a fair.

3. Sweets in America
I also ate American sweets too. Unexpected I realized that Americans don’t eat between meals much. And I noticed many points about sweets. First of all, some sweets are good but it is too sweet for Japanese. I have a sweet tooth, but there are so sweet sweets in America even I couldn’t eat. One day, my host mother gave donuts for me. It was covered with sugar and inside was fresh cream and chocolate souses. I couldn’t eat all, because it was too sweet for me. So I told to her about it. She could understand my opinion, the reason that she has a friend who isn’t American. When her friend made sweets while she refers to American recipe book, she cut down half of the sugar. It was suitable for her. I noticed the sense of sweet vary according to nations.

Next, there are large amount sweets in America. It was the most surprising thing for me. In Japan, we can’t see much, size of cakes and ice creams. There are vivid color cakes in America. I found blue, yellow, red and green cakes in there. It was so colorful and unique.

Then, I ate ice creams about four times in American ice creams shops. And ice creams and even cones were homemade of the shops. Of course, sizes of the ice creams were big. Moreover, there were many kinds of taste and I ate unique ice cream which taste was pistachio. In America, most of the shops were built by the roadside as own shops. In Japan, there are ice creams shops too, but most of the shops were part of shopping moll.

4. Conclusion
I was so glad to realize great different points through food life in the US, because if I had not stayed there I wouldn’t have known this information. Needless to say, American foods are high in carries, large amount food. Moreover, most of the Americans eat much food at night, so obesity rate rising in America. Lack of exercise because of car society is another occasion for the obesity. American cultures cause this problem, but some Americans make effort to raise the conscious about not to grow stout. In Japan, Western way of thinking is spreading including foods now. Japanese foods are low in calories, but we have to be careful of foods like American.

[996 words]