@That guy, interestingly enough, we don't have any of those chain places in the UK. TGI fridays yes, subway and starbucks yes, but not olive garden etc. i did go to a rather nice Olive garden in New york with my lady's sister and her husband just before we got married when we went to watch the lion King, and that was lovely.
Usually over here like everywhere else if we're going to eat out we tend to look for decent local places, albeit there are one or two national chains who are good for convenience.
Take last night for example, I had a ridiculously gruelling interview yesterday regarding my disability benefits, so we were all really tired, so we wound up just going to weather spoons.
for those none Brits, Weather spoons is sort of a pub catering franchise and apparently they have over eight thousand in the UK. This means you can go to pubs in vastly different places and get mostly the same thing.
its not exactly fast food of the McDonalds type, since it does involve cooking, but its not really properly restaurant food either, its of what in the UK would be considered generic pub grub, fish and chips, curry, pies, perhaps a steak or two, sausage and mash, big breakfast etc.
My lady, being a fanatic for fish had fish and chips, but for me I fancied something different so had hunters chicken, that is chicken breast smothered in bbq sauce topped with cheese and bacon, which came with chips, mushrooms peas and supposedly grilled tomatoes (though I missed those off because I am not into tomatoes in solid state).
@Nocturnus, I do sympathise, when I was in the states I took my time to try some American things as well, including grits, and my brother in law's fairly awesome french toast and grilled cheese.
its odd, we do toasted sandwiches over here quite a bit (indeed that's our usual breakfast), but the hole grilled cheese thing done in a pan is less common. Over here its more like a panini with cheese and ham etc.
Interestingly enough, a local cafe I'm ratherfond of is a faux american diner, complete with fifties music, soem truly insane milk shakes, pancakes, hot dogs, burgers, etc, they even have imported root beer which isn't a usually available soft drink here.
As to traditional English things, my lady said Yorkshire pudding was a little like biscuits in America (which dsounds doubly odd given that buscuits means cookies over here), accept that yorshire puddings are made of a batter rather than a dough mix.
She's had toad in the hole, that is sausages cooked in yorkshire, but wasn't crazy, on the other hand she really likes faggots.
one thing I did find surprising in the states, and something Niel Gayman mentions in American Gods, is that you don't get cornish pasties over there.
these are similar to a pie, in that they're like a pastry case with stuff in, but tend to have thinner pastry and be more easy to pick up, since they originated in cornwell as a substantial lunch for tin miners.
If cooked well they can have a very nicely done filling, like a slightly pepppered beef stew with potatoes and sweed, though if done badly can basically just have gravy in.
Sadly, there are a lot of so called chain bakeries over here that do what a good friend of mine (himself from Cornwall), used to refer to as cornish facsimiles. Fortunately, we've found a really awesome local butcher (the same one who makes the faggots), who does most amazing cornish pasties, as well as several different types of pie including rabbit pie, and game pie (made with pheasant).
Another thing which I will say about traditional English cooking which my lady mentioned, is that its very common to have of vegitables with roasts over here, indeed my lady was a little surprised the first time my parents cooked her a roast dinner which included, as well as the roast chicken and stuffing, also, two different sorts of potatoes, carrots parsnips, brustle sprouts and cabbage. Indeed, to say I tend to be fairly carnivorous, I do love hot, properly prepared vedgies, though salad is evil! .
Really, why the hell did Prometheus bother stealing fire from the gods and getting his liver eaten by an eagle for people to go and eat salad! .
This evening we're meeting some of my mum's friends to go to a fantasy concert, with music including pirates of the Caribbean, final fantasy, and the hunger games, and before hand my parents are making made lental soup and hot beef sandwiches, actually I'm getting bloody hungry since the beef has been in the slow cooker for the past ten hours, which is likely wy this is such a long post .
With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)