What "American" food did you find yourself craving on return?

Actually, when I get home I crave the great food I was enjoying in Italy! Or Spain.

Jodi,

i got hooked on the fresh squeezed OJ while over there, so every time i go back, im looking for it along with great croissants.

fresh baked bread w/o preservatives are great.

so far i dont crave any food from the USA since im over there to try something different.

your mileage may vary.

happy trails

I am already craving my daily prosciutto,melon, salami picante, blood orange juice, pecorino (and other cheeses)and wonderful crusty rolls.
I really, really miss the blood orange juice when I come home. I just can't easily find that here in California.

After a trip to Germany or Austria......tacos, tacos and more tacos....lots of salsa.

On our later trips, we didn't see it as a problem, but when we first went to England many years ago, I was totally craving broccoli! I'm not sure why this popped up for me. In later trips, I saw many vegetables available in England.

Honingkuchen.....I'm making tacos tonight with lots of hot salsa! Our spicy wings will have to wait until tomorrow night.
We crave seriously spicy/hot food on our return. Having been raised on Mexican and Thai, food is just not spicy enough for me in Europe (in general) and Italy (in particular). We're a habanero kind of family!

Homemade pico de gallo to habanero salsa...it's all good....

When I return home, we immediately stop at our favorite barbeque place to pickup some fresh Q.

I'm into good pulled pork, pan fried hash brown potatoes with onion and really good baked beans.

Barbecue.

Jodi,, nothing , I love the food in europe.. well maybe a glass of cold milk.. thats the only thing I miss when in Europe.. ( yes they have milk but often its UHT milk,,or tastes different then I am used to ) .

Food I miss from the US:

• a stack of sour dough pancackes with maple syrup.
• Italian hoagies
• steamed Maryland blue crab with Old Bay seasoning
• Chinese food adapted to American tastes ("Chinese food" in most of Europe is excedingly bland, particularly in Germany)
• ditto Indian and Thai
• New England clam chowder
• various South Jersey shore junkfoods, like salt water taffies, macaroons, Kohr brothers frozen custard
• Cajun food. Virtually unknown on this side of the Atlantic.

Oh gosh, I guess if I was living in Europe I would be missing most of that too! We saw an Indian place in Florence and if I had been spending more time there I'd be curious to try it as I'd miss Indian as well as Mexican and Thai.
Substitute "cheese steaks" for "hoagies" for me.

I love me some pulled pork, so that would be on the list. And I have to agree on the cold milk. I had a glass first thing this morning and it felt like weeks since I had any.

I miss carbonated diet pepsi with ice while out of the USA.

Yep, cold milk! And cold cereal. I love the breakfast in Europe, especially Germany, but I miss the milk. Got some great milk in Switzerland, though. On our last trip all I could think about was getting great tasting cold water that I could chug down and not have to sip from a purchased bottle. The tap just didn't taste very good so I felt like I couldn't get enough water!

Chicago style deep dish pizza - it's what I always have my first night back from a trip.

Hi,

Any craving upon returning...sometimes American orange juice.

If there is anything pertaining to food that I was aware of missing, thinking that I wish I had some of it with me, it was having some Louisiana hot sauce with the meals in France and Germany. Mostly I don't miss American cuisine food at all over there, not peanut butter, scrambled eggs at breakfast, buffalo wings, americanized Chinese food, salsa, Chicago pizza, Anchor steam beer, etc, etc.

In Berlin-Charlottenburg is a Chinese restaurant which has two menus, written in German, English, and Chinese. One menu features dishes tailored to German tastes (the staff will point that out to you in case you're wondering why the menu has exactly the same dishes, some of them for the same price, but the pages are different in colour.) Those are "eingedeutscht dishes", the others, supposedly more geniune, are aimed at Chinese tastes.

Fresh Ice Tea

Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurants

BBQ

Blue cheese salad dressing and Ranch dressing

Shredded cheddar cheese

Monterey Jack Cheese

Sweet Corn

Sausage on pizza

Breakfast restaurants with pancakes, sausage, biscuits. Places like Bob Evans.

I am fortunate that I live in Frankfurt which has a wide variety of ethnic restaurants, and lots of them, but there are no good American or Tex-Mex style places.

Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

Sweet Tea. Anyone south of the Mason-Dixon line will know what I mean.

and Krispy Kremes.

When returning from a trip, I usually do not crave any American food. Although if I had to pick 1, I guess it would be a juicy steak. Its usually the other way around for me, I crave food from the country I just left :)

Mashed potatoes, gravy and veggies. We do so much eating out, a lot of times the side is fries (we don't do salad, and rarely would you get mixed veggies when doing burger or chicken) or we eat a lot of pasta/pizza...so I'm usually craving a good feed because in generally 20 days of vacay, I may get potatoes once or twice. When in California this year, we went to this diner in San Luis Obispo and I had mashed potatoes and gravy instead of fries (no veggies tho - they had fruit on the side!?)...there were enough potatoes there to feed my husband and I two meals, but they were so good I ate about 80% of them. And we hit Cheesecake Factory in Anaheim (another restaurant nowhere near to Nova Scotia)...and I had chicken and biscuits and gravy...and mixed veggies(!)...comfort food!

When we got home from our first trip to Italy, blood orange juice was missed, but if we don't mind spending $$ we can get it at our local grocery store.

(I have to laugh at the Krispy Kreme one, because we don't have them in our neck of the woods and I only get to enjoy them every few years when we go to London! So they are an extra special treat.)

Edit to add the glass of cold milk. I'm a juice and cold cereal girl in the morning, so lack of cold milk is a biggie...do get in lots of water when in Europe tho. (We don't do wine/alcohol either...so it's water or really expensive soda...lesson learned!)

Nicole.. vacation in Germany/Austria.. you will be eating potatoes alot there.. you must be vacationing in wrong places,,lol

I used to crave my tea but now it is gaining in popularity and I can get nice tea anywhere in Europe.

I don't crave any food from home while over there. Upon return, I have no appetite. Partly because my kitchen skills are non-existent, but mainly because I eat so much while traveling. I want to try it all and I don't believe in following a diet when you are vacationing. So I truly feel full for about ten days.

That said, DH and I often stop at McDonalds for a hamburger on the way home from the airport. We never go to McD's over there and its nice to pick something up rather than worrying about fixing something at home. Its become an end of trip tradition.

Exception - in 2008 DH's company sent him to Chita, Siberia, for six weeks work. I met him in Rome for a week on his way home. He looked at me and the first thing he said after six weeks away was "I need a burger, let's go to McDonalds". True love, eh?

Nothing, because everything pales in comparison to fresh ingredients. I don't consider fast food or processed food to be "food".

Barbecue (what passes for BBQ over there is just wrong), Mexican food, blue cheese dressing, hot black coffee, and Fresca.

I've really lost my taste for Italian food. I used to love it, but now find it just too salty/heavy.

I don’t recall ever craving American food in France or Italy…the food there is just too darn good and varied. In other places, however, the endless of parade of meat gets old. Not so much in Europe, but in Asia, I always miss fresh fruit and vegetables. It’s not as though they are non-existent, but the selection is often limited to what’s grown locally, such as apples and persimmons. If you can find strawberries, you’ll need a credit card. If even available, all other berries will be frozen and expensive. One other thing I miss is oatmeal. I just returned from Asia and have been eating tons of fruit and oatmeal the last two days. One food I always crave while traveling is pizza. Luckily, I’ve always been able to find decent pizza everywhere I’ve traveled. Sometimes, it’s a little weird and different than what I consider to be normal, but because it’s pizza, it's all good. :)

The words "American food" and "craving" could not possibly appear in the same sentence.

Why shouldn't craving and American food be in the same sentence? Some of the worlds' great chefs as well as great food come from America.

Having wonderful, fresh corn on the cob, BBQ, potato salad, beefsteak tomatoes, hushpuppies and sweet tea at a cook-out is not something you will get in Europe. It is very American. What about a clam bake? Good luck finding crab cakes in Europe too. Blackberry cobbler, apple pie, pumpkin pie, peach pie, devils food cake, pineapple upside down cake, biscuits and gravy, maple syrup, and pancakes all do not exist in Europe.

Just because many Americans choose to eat processed foods, doesn't mean that good stuff doesn't exist there to eat.

Roberto: Seriously? You’ve never gone across the bay for some of the best food in the world? Outside of New Orleans, it’s hard to imagine a better food city than San Francisco. Speaking of New Orleans, folks travel there from all corners of the globe to do nothing but enjoy the food (and drink). Maybe you’re talking about American fast food?

You can get good American diner food in Paris, including pancakes with real maple syrup, at "Breakfast in America", owned and run by an American. One on rue des Ecoles in the 5th, and another one in the Marais. In addition to American breakfast food, some of what they have: burgers, chicken wings, BBQ sauce, Ranch dressing, some Mexican, NY Style Cheesecake, milkshakes, Ice cream floats, etc.

I'm with those that don't crave American food when I'm in Europe. I crave European food there and here. Even here in SF and Marin I cannot find real French baguette, or authentic French croissants, pain au chocolat, eclairs, etc. Best OJ I've ever had was fresh squeezed from the produce shop on Ile St. Louis in Paris. They use oranges grown in Spain.

When I used to drink pop (soda) I would definitely crave Dr. Pepper and was ecstatic when I found it a few times in Europe... I have since kicked the habit, but would always stop on my way home from the airport for one.

What do you guys mean by American food?

With the exception of Louisiana food, which is distinctively American (Southern) and also genuinely good, most of what people define as American is some kind of remake of some food coming from somewhere else.

I read people mentioning they miss Chinese, Mexican, deep dish Pizza. Even Hamburger is not American. Americans just put the hamburger inside a bun, but it's a German type of steak. So if you say you miss Mexican food, then you are not missing American food, you are missing Mexican food, which is rare in Europe since there are very few Mexican immigrants in Europe.

Yes in SF we have great food, but most good restaurants in SF are ethnic or what they call "California fusion", which is basically some kind of Asian and European/Mediterranean inspired dish.

Steak is not really distinctively American. You can find steak anywhere. If you really crave that, go to Florence and get a Florentine steak. Those 3 pounds will satisfy the hungriest Texan.

But based on what is mentioned in the post (butter & jelly, turkey, cheeseburger, hot wings, and other junk food) I can hardly find myself craving those, that's why I can't see the word "craving" associated with that type of food. But I guess if one grows up with that stuff, then you'll miss it.

The difference is being an ex-pat craving foods associated with US life that they get once in a blue moon or being a tourist away from US food for a couple of weeks or months. No comparison folks. If you are ever an ex-pat, you'll understand. BTW, Jo there is a not-half-bad Mexican restaurant in Cochem. Worth the trip for an ex-pat..

It is very different to go to Europe for a tour, even it's a long one and I would say six weeks is long, than when you stay as an expat or if you are there for an extended period of time to study. When I got home after six months of studying in Germany, I re-discovered food that I had been missing. We had a huge garden and had fresh tomatoes that was served by mom with basil and red onions. I didn't get that in Germany. In Germany we had a great lettuce salad--and I loved the dressing--but that was it--no onions, no tomatoes, no cucumbers etc. We had Wiener Schnitzel which was really good and it was accompanied by piles of fritz (French Fries), but I never had a good hamburger and Dad grilled one in the backyard when I got back. I grew to really love the brotchen and the pretzel rolls and discovered unsalted butter. But, it was really nice to be able to have cold cereal with cold homogenized milk as opposed to the warm gloppy milk on corn flakes.

I don't think it's necessary to denigrate American Cuisine to enjoy European Cuisine. They have crappy fast food. Has anyone had a cheddar cheese thawed in a microwave lasagna in a UK Pub? :) And try the student food in Strasbourg, it can match the worst you'll find on a college campus here! You can get lots of fresh food in the US…even here in Manhattan we have farmer's markets. So,

So, also, what Tom said is bang on.

Pam

Pat...we did spend a few days in Germany and Austria, but we are not adventurous eaters, and lots of times play it safe with pizza and pasta. I do recall having chicken and roasted potatoes in Salzburg, but in Munich we had...pizza on the run!

"...I crave food from the country I left." So true in Europe, exactly my sentiments.

If it is Austria and Germany, then the craving is Schnitzel and more Schnitzel, especially in Austria, be it in Vienna or Graz or Salzburg, Austrian coffee; any major example of typical German cooking, that "gute alte deutsche bürgerliche Küche" made from pork or veal. If it's France, then it's that particular French coffee, the bread (already alluded to above), and that good French food, which I've never gotten tired of traveling in France.

When I am away, I really don't miss american food. But when I come home, I am happy to have home cooking after eating in restaurants for two or two and half weeks that I am gone. I have never been gone more than three weeks, but it does get tiresome to have restaurant meals constantly. I went to Rome and Istanbul this year ( I did not find most of the food in Istanbul to be memorable) and we drank wine every day. Just a glass or two per dinner meal and I have to say I do miss the wine with my dinner. I don't drink unless I go to dinner with friends but it was nice to have wine with the dinner meals every day! Looking forward to my next trip!

Dare I say it?

Ketchup

Good old American Ketchup with plenty of sugar and salt added.

And most important of all - in endless "free" supply. Not doled out in little packets sold at .50 Euro each.

When I lived in Sweden, the foods I missed were:
Corn on the cob and peaches in the summer
Crab cakes (Chesapeake blue crabs)
Vietnamese food
Extra sharp Vermont cheddar cheese
Tex Mex (they had Old El Paso stuff, but dried chilis and other ingredients were harder to find)

The stuff I used to bring back from the States was:
vanilla extract (Swedish recipes usually use vanilla powder and that is all they have in the grocery store)
Reeses peanut butter cups
some spice blends like hot chili powder, Old Bay, cajun seasoning, etc.

Now that I only visit for vacation, I'm not gone long enough to miss food from home.

Roberto, the tomato is not native to Italy, but to the New World. Nor, in fact, did pasta originate in Italy. So I guess Italian food is really an American/Asian fusion.

Some common themes seem to be the urge for more spice and heat. BBQ, Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, etc. Even when those are available in Europe, they are spiced to suit the locals. We just like a little more heat here. We also like more cold: ice in drinks, iced tea, and cold milk.

Pamela hit the nail on the head describing why some people posting here claim they don't crave much of anything American on returning from Europe: they haven't been gone long enough. Those of us that have spent long periods in Europe are probably far more likely to understand the "craving" for certain foods. My list:

BBQ
Mexican (or Tex-Mex or New Mexican if you wish)
Pancakes with real syrup
Chicago pizza

I also take strong disagreement with Roberto - to claim American food is either processed junk or a rehash of foreign foods is completely incorrect and shows, frankly, a severe misunderstanding of cuisine and culture. A few examples:

As pointed out by someone, many of the foods Europeans eat today are from the New World.

Ethnic foods brought to the Americas are re-invented to suite local tastes and ingredients.

Pizza (as we commonly know it) is distinctly American with Neapolitan origins.

Creole cuisine has French and African origins - it is not indigenous to America as Roberto claims. But like other foreign foods reimagined, it becomes uniquely American.

New Mexican food is NOT an import from south of the border and has a lot of indigenous roots. Most of what we call "Mexican" food is only loosely, if at all, based on typical food south of the border.

BBQ is an entirely American invention with strong regional distinctions ( I get my Carolina BBQ fix everytime I head to the Southeast).

People have mentioned missing iced and/or sweet tea - that is an American invention (we inherited the tea from England who got it from China). In fact, "iced" foods and drinks were more common in North American because we had easy access to ice from northern regions.

The US (and to a slightly lesser extent Canada and a much lesser extent the UK and Australia) is unique in the world in its ethnic diversity. Our culture reflects this influence and therefore our food is reflected in the that diversity. Nowhere else in the world can you find the diversity in cuisine as in the US. That to me is the wonder of our country.

Douglas, I've lived in Paris twice, for a total of 6 yrs, and our vacations are anywhere from 1 to 3 mos long and I've never craved American food. Everyone's different.

I hear you, Susan, but you may be in the minority. It seems the folks I know living abroad nearly always mention something about missing certain American foods. Probably the most cited thing I hear about is regarding the big, American breakfast – pancakes, eggs, bacon, biscuits & gravy, etc. I also agree with others who say traveling on vacation and living abroad are totally different as it relates to this topic. I may miss fruits and veggies while traveling in Korea for a period, but I know I’ll be back home soon. Living there would require me to change my dietary habits completely…that would be hard to do.

We certainly have our shortcomings in the USA (like education), but variety of cuisine isn’t one of them IMHO. As for BBQ, I do have to say that KC is the best. Specifically, Gates or Smoke Stack in Martin City (just south of town in South KC).

I crave a big salad with the kind of veggies I like as well as grilled chicken and Ranch dressing. I am not enamored of the salads in France. Some of the house dressings are OK and some have been entirely inedible to my palate.

Otherwise, while at home, I crave pan au chocolat, thin crust pizza, wonderful baguettes filled with jambon and lovely glaces.

"what people define as American is some kind of remake of some food coming from somewhere else."

Roberto, if you use this line of reasoning, then nothing about European cuisine is European. 99% of the time what is considered a European dish is really just a remake of some food that originated somewhere else.

Honestly, I don't understand this silly American habit of saying that nothing is American but comes from some place else, but everything European must have originated there. It just isn't true.

Now I'm waiting for someone to say that Marco Polo brought spaghetti to Italy from China.

Actually it was the Arabs who did via Sicily, quite a bit earlier than Marco Polo's birth.

Anyhow, it's lunch time in California. I'm going to have a dish of spaghetti. I miss my Arabic food.

Roberto, if you have spaghetti sauce on it, you can thank South Americans for providing the tomatoes. :-)

Europe could use some taco trucks. That's about it.

I've often thought Europe would be a great place for an ex-pat to start a Mexican restaurant. We found one in Paris in the 6th in 2010, and it was pretty good. Don't know if it's still there or not.

Hubby always craved a BIG glass with lots of ice and SWEET tea (he has me make it very strong and sweet- I don't drink it- just him. He also missed lima beans and black eyed peas or field peas with snaps. I would think of things like corn bread and biscuits- they have GREAT bread in Europe- just not those 2 kinds.

And for those of you talking BBQ- NC reigns! We've got Lexington style (pork butts and shoulders smoked over hickory coals, then chopped finely and served with a vinegar based sauce with lots of red pepper flakes),and Western NC style (chopped a bit more coarsely and served with a tomato based sauce). Both are melt in your mouth, to die for and are served with corn bread, white bread, and biscuits.

"I've often thought Europe would be a great place for an ex-pat to start a Mexican restaurant."

You'll find these in Germany in towns that either currently host or formerly hosted a US military presence. But even in these towns, the restaurants couldn't survive if they didn't cater to German taste buds. I'm not particularly keen on spicy food (or Mexican food in general), but even I find the results rather bland.

"Europe could use some taco trucks."

We have a version of this called the "Hähnchenwagen" (the name varies) that comes to our village every week. It sells rotisserie chicken and various deep-fried treats. For some reason, these trucks are often decorated with stereotypical American images (Statue of Liberty, cowboys, etc), even though there's nothing particularly American about either the food or the concept.

PS- I've encountered slow-smoked meats on the menu in various countries in Europe. It's often very similar to American BBQ, but they never name it so and usually the sauces, if any, are different.

That just reminded me that we had BBQ ribs at a place in St. Goar several years ago, so there is something kind of similar to American BBQ there. It wasn’t smoked/slow-roasted, however. It sort of just tasted like boiled or broiled ribs slathered in BBQ sauce. They were okay, but when you’re used to real, KC BBQ, they paled in comparison. The funniest part is that the back of the menu was titled Fleisch Fest, which I loosely translated to Meat Festival. It was simply a menu listing of all of the restaurant’s BBQ offerings, but it was good for a laugh.

In Berlin-Charlottenburg there is a Mexican restaurant, big, often crowded, packed, esp on Friday evenings and week-ends. It's at Savignyplatz close to Kantstrasse.

@ Jodi and others.

I think that alot of people forget is that food is extremely SUBJECTIVE.

what some or a few may think of great food, maybe crap to others.

Ive had people tell me that so and so place has great food, but when i was there, it was just passable.

to each his own, especially when it comes to food.

happy trails.

Paris has food trucks.

http://www.cantinecalifornia.com/

http://www.lecamionquifume.com/

Both owned and operated by Americans.

American "Mexican" food

I didn't really think about the lack of Mexican food in Germany this past September....but I did take a photo of a sign on a restaurant in Bamberg -- a big poster -- Esst Tacos! Tacos, All You Can Eat, 8,80 Jeden Mittwoch ab 18 Uhr (every Wednesday after 6PM). Another poster was for Spare Ribs on Tuesdays, with curly fries....I probably should have checked it out. I just couldn't get into the Rauchbier and Schnitzel. LOL

I agree with Sasha. I miss food from Italy after we are home, didn't crave anything while in Italy. But we have figured out how to make homemade pasta, grilled margarita pizza with buffalo mozzorella cheese.

That being said, I've never craved a hamburger and fries like I did after business trips China.

Plain old black coffee. In a mug.

No real cravings, although like the previous poster noted, I would love to just get a mug of good old "drip" coffee (even though I would agree that coffee is excellent in Europe). I guess I kind of just miss the morning routine a bit.
With so much incredible and never-had-before food on any trip, it's hard to have an "American" food craving.

A big fat hot dog, Chicago-style.

Nothing but I sure did miss the food in Paris when I got home, especially the cafe creme!

@ diana,

what is the "cafe creme"?

happy trails

Love cafe creme!! It's like a cappucino but not foamy... very creamy and delicious.

@ Susan,

Many thanks.

When i go back i will have to add that to my try list.

happy trails.

"...I sure did miss the food in Paris when I got home...." So true, especially that French coffee. When I'm there, say, in a Monoprix looking at the food items and that good French wine, I am certainly not thinking about typical American food items or California wine. The same goes for Germany... at a Rewe, or Penny Markt, or even a Reisebedarf store in a train station. Maybe I haven't been away long enough to develop that yearning for an American menu since my longest trips, ie, absence from American cuisine listed here were twelve consecutive weeks and another trip for nine weeks.

I can't imagine missing food from home on a trip, but as others have noted, as an expat you find quite quickly that there's a LOT of great food you can't get in Europe.

The bigger and trendier cities can be exceptions because they have more international populations. Paris has plenty of expats from all over the world, and they're opening up restaurants. Berlin has a few good pretty authentic Mexican places now (all run by Americans, I think), as does Munich (ditto). In Berlin and Paris you can find house-made dim sum, which so far I haven't found in any other city in Germany or France. When I travel to those cities I rarely eat the native food (which may seem like a crime in Paris in particular) but I'm too busy eating the first good Vietnamese, or Japanese, or whatever I've had in months.

It's shameful a fellow Californian is so dismissive of California cuisine, which has influences from Europe and Asia but is still a homegrown affair. While fancy restaurants in France and even Germany sometimes do modern fusion cuisine that is similar, those restaurants are often super expensive, whereas you can eat good California food at every price point in CA.

I have yet to find a really good burger in Europe. Here they seem to think that "good" equals throwing a ton of toppings on, but the patties are universally frozen and thin and just slapped on the griddle. In Germany half the time the burgers contain pork. It's sad.

A big American style breakfast is the other thing I miss. American-style restaurants in Germany often feature a German's idea of American breakfast, but it's not the same. You're not going to find grits or biscuits and gravy - or really any kind of Southern Cuisine, sadly.

Luckily for most of my cravings, I can satisfy them by making it at home. I've even learned to make American-Chinese food like Kung Pao chicken and the like. The one thing that I miss the most then is probably pastrami. It's just too difficult to make on my own and I've only seen it at one restaurant in Berlin. I was so excited to eat pastrami last time I was in the U.S. Seriously, pastrami. Good lord.

Another thing I missed was scraple (if you grew up in Pennsylvania, you know what this is, and you either love it or you find it repulsive). But I happened upon something very similar that's a regional specialty in Belgian and Dutch Limburg provinces and the adjacent areas of Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany. I don't know what the Germans call it, but it's known simply as "spek" in Dutch, which, confusingly, is the same word they use for bacon. I think they use left-over breadcrumbs instead of cornmeal, but it tastes about the same as scraple and has the same texture. So, this is one of those Philadelphiq specialties that I can get in Europe, but can't get anywhere else throughout the US.

Speaking of which... I would miss a good cheese steak too, but I can replicate a close enough faximile in my kitchen. You can buy the right kind of bread in Germany, which is the secret to why it's so hard to produce a passable cheese steak outside of the greater Philadelphia region.

I also would crave plain old American-style drip black coffee, but I can make it easily enough at home as well.

Sarah, there's a US-style diner in Heidelberg that makes a decent hamburger. Nothing too spectacular, but the patties taste like fresh ground beef to me. The bun is more like a round Brötchen than what you would find in the US, but otherwise, it tastes like a decent sports-bar burger.

PS- No, despite the name, "hamburgers", as we know them, did not originate in Hamburg. The closest relative from northern Germany is a slab of salted and boiled ground meat served with a cream sauce.

And a native Californian too. In Berlin off of Savignyplatz on Kantstrasse are numerous Chinese restaurants, even those offering Shanghai cuisine, and those few restaurants that cater to Chinese tourists when they get off of their tour buses.

Mexican food.

Tom - What's the name of the diner? I've been to Sam Kullman's in Ludwigsburg, which is a chain, for their all you can eat wings special. The wings weren't bad but were served dry, with a selection of dipping sauces, no buffalo sauce either. The two main choices were overly sweet non-spicy BBQ and sour cream (???). The whole menu is an example of Germans trying but not understanding American diner food. But I haven't tried the burgers there, I hear they're decent.

Man, I'd forgotten about cheesesteaks. Used to live around the corner from a shop that had the bread shipped in daily from Philly. They were fantastic.

I’ve had great coffee in France and even better coffee in Italy, but I can honestly say that the best coffee I’ve had anywhere is at Mars Café right here in Des Moines. I can think of several places off the top of my head in Seoul and a couple in Toronto and Seattle that are nearly as good. My point is that there are great, independent coffee shops in cities all over the world that can professionally produce an awesome cup of coffee. Chains, such as Starbuck’s, are fair to passable in a pinch, but one must locate the best independent shops for the best coffee. There are great coffee shops across Europe to be sure, but Europe is hardly the leader in producing the best cup of coffee IMHO. I have to be honest…I have personally found the best coffee right here in the U.S.

Looking for good ole’ American drip coffee? Won’t an Americano do the job well enough, or do you mean drip coffee from your own Chemex or machine (like Braun, Mr. Coffee, Cuisinart, etc.) at home? The trick for drip brewing is finding the right brewing method (suggest Chemex or similar) and the right coffee (suggest Kickapoo). In fact, you can go to the Kickapoo website and order the highest quality coffee you’ll ever drink, a dripper/filters, and traditional diner mugs. If I were living abroad, that would be an awesome gift to receive from home!

Sarah, I can't think of the name of the diner off the top of my head, but it's easy to find. If you drive by the Hauptbahnhof, then take the bridge that crosses the railroad tracks, you'll see it on your left. It's pretty unmistakable. It's a stone's throw away from the back side of what was Patton Barracks. Who knows though, with the bases closed now it may not have remained open. It wasn't the best burger I've ever eaten, but at least they used a ground beef patty instead of the usual frikadel.

Tom, Sarah, the place I think you're talking about is called Mandy's. Never had the burgers there but they do decent American style breakfast from what I recall (although not the southern style). Just Google Mandy's Heidelberg, they've got a website.

Speaking of which, Sarah; if you're craving that kind of stuff, you need to find an American friend to sign you on to the base in Stuttgart. Subway now serves pastrami sandwiches (probably not very good though, it is Subway after all), you can get an American style burger and the breakfasts at the dining facility feature everything from bagels to the southern style stuff you miss like biscuits and gravy, grits, etc.