Agedashi Tofu

Almost everyone has heard about American food.  It's notorious!  It's up there with their coffee - downright awful!  Nothing you eat here seems to have any taste.  And what I can't understand is that their produce is excellent.  I just don't think Americans know what to do with this produce.  Because even though the Americans don't have the variety of meat we lucky Australians have - most noticeably absent being lamb (although there are stores that do have it - from Colorado), and veal, their pork, for instance, is fabulous, as generally is their steak.
 
As I am typing this and thinking about their produce, I must make special mention of their orange cheese - yes, orange cheese!  The Americans appear to be obsessed with it and it seems that every restaurant you go to has food smothered in it.  My husband used to love it until I pointed out that this tasteless orange cheese just had colouring in it, and introduced him to Havarti.  Thank God!

So, with the excellent produce, restaurants, particularly the chain restaurants - and there are a lot of  them in the US, seem intent on smothering or filling everything with cheese and, it seems, sugar.  Yes, the creamed butter they serve is sweet, as is the bread.  Which brings me to the serving sizes - they are BIG!  My Dad would love these chain restaurants (which, to be honest, are quite good if you want an inexpensive meal, good atmosphere, great service and a "to go" container that could feed you for the rest of the week), because when you order a "meal", you also get a salad, a soup, and unlimited soft drink.

How can restaurants afford this you may ask?  Meal, two sides, unlimited soft drink?  Well, it's easy.  Restaurants in the US have very little overheads.  They don't pay their staff, unless you call $2.30 per hour paying their staff; the customer does when they pay their bill and are expected to pay at least 20% tip.

So, on my first trip to Utah, my husband (then boyfriend) took me to his favourite Japanese restaurant.  I ordered an entree (here called "Appetizer") of Agedashi Tofu followed by a Nabeyaki Udon (udon noodle soup with chicken etc).

In Australia, when one orders Agedashi Tofu, one gets a little bowl containing about four dainty squares of tofu in a yummy sauce (not sure what it is exactly, but yummy).  So, imagine my shock and horror when a bowl, akin to the size of a salad bowl, arrived with enough tofu to feed a small army.  And you should have seen the size of these tofu squares!  So, I decided that I would eat a square and take home the rest.  Then arrived my soup - in a bucket!  So, at the end of the night, my husband and I went home armed with a week's worth of Agedashi Tofu and Nabeyaki Udon. No more cooking for me that week and what excellent value!

Having said all of the above, and so I can avoid any hate mail, I will conclude this post by saying that even though most "independent" restaurants here tend to Americanize their food (like onion rings with your chicken teriyaki), there are some good restaurants that serve excellent food.  I had a steak the other night that was fabulous, and the place I sometimes go for breakfast or lunch serves edible portions of tasty food.  But, if there are any chefs from Thailand reading this blog, please hurry over to Salt Lake City and open up a good Thai restaurant!  You are needed!