What it Means to be an American

My class took a field trip to the IMAX theater (it is difficult to find an educational field trip when you are a Farang) and had to pre-order our lunches. There were so many choices and since I don't typically eat any of the choices, I went with my kids most popular choice: American fried rice. I asked my students what American fried rice was and they all looked at each other confused. I told them we don't have American fried rice in America and they thought that was really funny. They attempted to explain but all I really got was that it had egg in it. Since the other choices were beef fried rice and pork fried rice, I figured American fried rice didn't have meat in it. Boy was I wrong. AND I should have known. When the American fried rice came (prepared by the neighboring bowling alley) I was shocked and amused. American means meat, and a lot of it. The beef fried rice and pork fried rice was a reasonable portion; a scoop of rice with a few pieces of meat on top. Now, let me describe the American fried rice. It was a heaping scoop of rice with a fried egg in the shape of a heart on top. On the side there were sausages, hotdogs, and ham. There was also a scoop of potato salad on the side. The American version was three times as much food as the other choices. Upon seeing this I had flash backs of when Andy and I first arrived in Thailand and went to the islands. We kept ordering "American breakfast" and time after time disappointed by the mounds of hot dogs served to us as a breakfast meal. American means meat, and a lot of it.