"I could really go for some authentic American food"

This is an outstanding idea.
- I went to a bar like this in Brooklyn. It was decorated like the outside of a trailer park, complete with little trailers that were dining booths. There were strings of lights for ambient lighting and the tables had camping lamps.
  The rest of the furniture was lawn chairs and folding tables, and they served hot dogs and hamburgers and potato salad, standard picnic fare.
  
  that actually sounds really good, and I don't even like that typical assortment of food. Just put me in the right environment and I'll eat thousands of pounds of it
  
  Honestly that sounds pretty fun.
  
  There's a place similar in Providence, RI. Ogie's Trailer Park.
- Honestly, that sounds like some refreshing fun. Have the cook with a big grill out front, and putting in the order is just chatting with them.
  "Hey, bud, you want a burger, hot dog, steak, or some of this brisket I been smoking since this morning? Want something to drink? There's beer and soda in the cooler, or we got tap water. The little cooler has juice for the little'uns."
  And then have a cashier keep track of what they had, conveyor-belt sushi style. The cook chats with whoever is standing around drinking a beer with them (and is drinking beers or soda or whatever all shift), and everything gets served on paper plates. And the tables are all those wooden picnic tables with cheap plastic tablecloths.
  And those who are eating there are encouraged to stand around and chat with other people as well (if they want). Just make the whole thing like a backyard barbecue with your neighbor Hank.
  And hire nothing but retired men and women working part time as the cooks. Nothing but grill daddies and mommies, working just for some extra cash and the fun of barbecuing. I would take that job when I retired in an instant.
  Edit: better yet, make it habachi-style, where there's a grill daddy/mommy for every group or two, set up like a park barbecue. I love this and want to go to one or work at one now.
  
  Shut up and take my investment money.
  (Please note I have no investment money.)
  
  My new retirement plan is to open that joint here in the States.
  
  I would take that job when I retired in an instant
  You won't have to get a job when you retire if you have this kind of good ideas
  
  I don't know of any restaurant here that does that, but sometimes bars and such throw parties for their regulars, and they're kinda like that. A few grill, there's drinks, people talk and hang out, etc.
- Or better yet, please ship authentic texmex anywhere outside of the us thanks. I am dying.
  
  That's really the only thing keeping me in the south.
- I would do this, just give me a pack of smokes and drinks and ill cook ya whatever you want (and im not even american!)
- Unless it would be inside the restaurant.
- Yeah, I would totally do this if it paid well. I love grilling

I like the idea, but why the fuck is Hank cooking on a charcoal bbq? Does he want to taste the heat and not the meat?!?
- This is from Season 3 Episode 19 where Peggy makes a video for the Dallas Cowboys by cobbling together old home movies to show them the personality of the people of Arlen. Presumably, this footage is from before Hank’s hatred for charcoal began—I’m going to take a wild guess and say he became more evangelical about propane when he became a lead.
  https://kingofthehill.fandom.com/wiki/Hank%27s_Cowboy_Movie
  
  In the early seasons he grilled on charcoal. Also they sell propane grills that use charcoal, this isn't actually a conflict, it was more an affectation.
- He's even smiling. My guy sells propane.
- If I didn't want to taste the meat I'd just cook the meat on a pan

Yes but it's actually a Mexican guy dressed in a pilgrim costume.
- lol with Free Bird playing in the background. Reminds me of when Khan became a redneck on King of the Hill.
  
  No sir, the proper song is Sweet Home Alabama. It's our real anthem.

Have the full experience with Accent and flags. It might sell.
- I tell you hwut.
- I think the full experience would be children running around with the dirtiest faces you’ve ever seen.
  Your uncle getting in trouble with the park ranger for feeding the seagulls again.
  One of your cousins brought their new girlfriend to the event and are for some reason fighting in the parking lot
  Your aunt brought her Rottweiler who barks and snaps at all the families passing by
  I grew up in Florida
  
  I grew up in Texas. Needs more dominos and spades, and pawpaw needs to pray over the food.
  I ain't religious but I ain't telling pawpaw not to pray over the food.
  
  And people say there's no such thing as American culture...

I went to a western restaurant in Japan that was “stereotypical USA” themed and there was mainly kitschy shit all over the place like advertising memorabilia (stuff m&m character statues) and of course american flag themed stuff (but iirc no actual flag)
It was a long time ago but I remember the menu was like burgers, hotdogs, mac and cheese, etc and the food was super mid. Main thing I do remember was the mac and cheese was 100% kraft dinner which was so disappointing. the burger was also weak which is inexcusable because japan has serious burger game
- Honestly, that kinda sounds like the average American diner experience. Not bad, not good, just okay. Granted, a small hole-in-the-wall or independent diner that's been around forever will almost certainly be better; but when it comes to your average American diner (like IHOP, Denny's, etc) that sounds about right.
  
  Bruh I love IHOP more than one should. I love getting pancakes at midnight.
- If it was a chain and had free refills at a drink bar, it might have been Johnathon's https://www.skylark.co.jp/en/jonathan/menu/index.html
  There are a bunch of other one-off places as well.
  
  No it was a small hole in the wall place in (I think) kyoto that had a single employee and like 4 tables. The walls were literally covered in Americana shit but heavy on the advertising slant (which is pretty definitive of american culture tbh)
  It did have drink bar though, though not nearly as much selection what you’d see at a family diner type place or karaoke
- Burgers come from Hamburg, Germany, hot dogs come from Frankfurt, Germany, macaroni and cheese come from Rome, Italy.
  
  yeah no shit, america is a melting pot and it’s food culture is an amalgamation of foods from other cultures
  And frankly some aspects of most of those are spurious. The origin of the hamburger is debatable mainly because before america it was (probably) just a mince patty served with sauce, much closer to what japan serves as hambagu/ハンバーグ. It likely wasn’t until it came through shipping ports to america that it was served on bread, ground instead of minced (though this was likely a function of the era), and eventually over time evolved to the modern version of what we consider a “hamburger”
  Mac and cheese actually goes back to medieval england and was closer to a lasagna. The extruded version is also probably england, or possibly france. Unless you’re simply attributing dried pasta, which is probably an italian invention, but may be arabic
  Frankfurter is german but the modern hotdog is american and debatably the idea of serving it in a bun is an american invention, which again goes back to the hamburger and the insanity of prior to america people struggle to combine meat and bread
  In closing I bet you’re fun at parties. Also while america sucks at so many things we definitely make the best burgers in the world, hands down

I was dragged to a country western bar in Japan so, it’s not impossible?
- I’d love to go to a bar like that in Japan purely to judge the authenticity.
  
  I went to one in a small town in Japan years ago. It was actually really adorable, the owner LOVED that I was from California
- There was (maybe still is?) a lesbian country and western bar in West Hollywood, CA.
  Went in by mistake once.
  
  Columbus, OH had a gay western bar one that turned into the goth club by the time I first went there.
- In Tokyo? Country House? If so, I've been, heh.

Doesn't yakitori exist already?
- Yeah but it counts only if you're an American

One of the subtler jokes in Arrested Development is Little Briton having an "American-style" restaurant where the whole plate is covered in fries.

I like this a lot better than the standard American [insert meme here] where everybody has like 5 guns. Such a tired trope.
- Indeed, it has been done many times, but there's no sign of it stopping anytime soon. like their school shootings
  
  Completely stopping school shootings, probably not, but it seems likely that some may be getting redirected to the C-suite.
- Why not both?
  An American BBQ without at least three deaths is deemed a dull affair
- I've got dozens of guns and a heck of a BBQ setup.
  We can do both.

Well, there is this guy

TBH I'd much rather have Thai food lol.
- yo im down for some pad thai right now
  
  My favorite rotates. Currently panang curry.
- Goddammit now I want Thai food for breakfast...

I want to see Buc-ee's and the fast food chain Cookout go international. That's authentic American food, and it's pretty damn tasty.
- I couldn't imagine a Buc-ee's in Europe.
  In Texas there are signs for "Next Buc-ee's 108 miles". Do that in parts of Europe and you have to cross multiple international borders...and none of them will know wtf a mile is.
  
  The heart wants what it wants. We cannot decide for it.
  
  Even better, they should still be directing to the ones in Texas.
  Next Buc-ee’s in 4,181 nautical miles.
  
  An hour driving is not "next". Yes, i'm europe.

No, they do KFC
- Fanciest KFC I've ever been to was in Kampala, Uganda
  
  Ah i see you stayed in hotel kampala as well.

If your normal diet consists of healthy food like many Japanese diets do, eating authentic American food is NOT a good idea, especially southern food. I say this from experience.
- healthy food like many Japanese diets do
  Wanna explain what that is? Because obesity is on the rise here and people day-to-day are just eating konbini (convenience store) pre-packaged stuff laden with fried food and instant noodles.
  
  Meals that aren’t stuffed with butter and sugar. Even the stuff at 7-eleven or Lawson is far healthier than a lot of American food.

It would surprise me little if there was at least one, given how well KFC does overseas.

I used to work down the street from another building that had a small cafeteria, but on Fridays the chef would set up a big grill outside and cook up sausages, hot dogs, burgers, chicken, and grilled veggies. It was just like going to a backyard BBQ. Those were some good Friday lunches when we made it over there.

There are a couple of "real" BBQ places, but none that I know of that would have sufficient lawn for lawn chairs. There are plenty of grill-your-own places here, most of which are Korean-style BBQ, but some of which let you grill other things. As I think about it, I don't think I've seen the type of lawn chair (like oven "fabric" style) that I was used to here; it's all just plastic molded chairs these days.

God I wish

I always wonder how culturally authentic these gimmicky restaurants are. Like realistically hardly anybody in America grills food in the backyard. I do it maybe 3x/year and only in the summer. I've seen my dad multiple times grill with snow on the ground, but he was an outlier.
- I think it depends on the region of America. I grill a lot in the back yard and so do a lot of friends and family.
  
  Exactly, it's regional cooking not "American" cooking. A Texas bbq is different from a Chicago or Oakland bbq, and some people insist theirs is the only "real" kind.
- Like realistically hardly anybody in America grills food in the backyard.
  Not so sure about that, grilling is a regular and widespread thing where I live in the US.
- I live in Canada and I bbq’ed dinner a couple days ago. We didn’t eat outside, of course, since it’s -10, but grilling is still a go-to method of cooking.
- I guess it's not the backyard, but grilling at tailgating is super common.
  
  Yeah I'm not saying grilling doesn't happen a lot, just that you're unusual if you grill something more often than you for example buy a hamburger. McDonalds alone sells over 2 billion a year, and that's just them. In terms of commonness, if anything truly defines an authentic American meal it's probably a burger, fries and a drink from a fast food chain - and they're all over most of the world already.
- American living in Japan here and I grill weekly on my Weber over charcoal. When I lived in Texas, we grilled whenever we could, basically. In the midwest, my grandparents had a Jenair for when the weather was bad and grilled at least once a week. They were rich, though, so there's that.
- Like realistically hardly anybody in America grills food in the backyard.
  🤨
- We do it all the time in the balkans, weather permitting. There's probably plenty of other regions where it's common. I don't know where people get the idea that bbq in the backyard is somehow an American invention.

South Korea has American restaurants
- Lots of the places where be traveled have American restaurants. They are a fascinating look into what people think is American. I love it
  
  I'm pretty sure it's like this for every cousine.
  The bottom line is that restaurants have to have a theme, right, how else would anyone even talk about it? And the theme is usually some region of the world with varying specificity, my favorite is "fusion," where the restaurant has two, or even three themes. When you go to a place with any theme, it's always a charicature. In the case of restaurants, I've found that the food rarely represents the daily cuisine of the regular people of whatever place or tradition, it's rather the cuisine of a restauranteur trying to run a business.
  It's a few choice special dinner dishes, like Sunday or holiday meals, and a few chubby-kid approved favorites, and it seems just as often it's stereoptyical dishes that may not even be from the place/culture, such as General Tso's Chicken, that came from one Hunanese resteraunt in New York in 1972, and is now in the menu if every Chinese restaurant in America. And American restaurants abroad serve franks and hamburgers, despite the origins of both being in Frankfurt and Hamburg, Germany. In sum, there are no rules and everything is made up. You can get New Haven style pizza in Rome.

They have authentic American food all over the world.
It’s called McDonalds and its authenticity highly processed and commercialised. Even prepared by children to give it that true American experience.
- MERKA BAAAHD
  I literally emigrated because it's so bad and I don't talk like this. If you want to talk shit on America I'm right there with you, but if you're going to pretend our food sucks you're not invited to the cookup.
  
  Where do you live now and how did you manage to escape? Asking for a friend.
  
  America is a big place. There's some good food, but a lot of the food people eat does suck. The entire midwest or god forbid you live in one of those highway stops where your only options are fast food chains or a fast-casual chain.
  McDonalds, Starbucks, and Dominoes exist because people buy that shit.
- Listen to this stupid clown talk.
  not for this guy. You want authentic American food? Leave your house at 8pm......AM!!!, Google "restaurant", find a small diner.
  Go in, order breakfast, two eggs, sausage patties, a southern biscuit, gravy, and get a pancake while you're there.
  You'll leave feeling like someone hugged you and everything will be ok, and all you wanted to do was eat breakfast.
  Are you crying?
  Hug it out, man. Come here. It's ok.
  
  breakfast at 8pm?!
- There is plenty of American born and bred food without reducing us to hur dur McDonalds