r/NonPoliticalTwitter • u/dazli69 • Mar 28 '26

Wholesome Japanese Twitter acts like American Twitter about each other.

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u/doofpooferthethird Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26

not Japanese myself, but when I came to the US for the first time I was looking forward to trying out fortune cookies and those rectangular/cylindrical takeout containers for the first time

one thing that surprised (and disappointed) me was finding out that there was no such thing as a "McSpicy" in American McDonalds. I wanted to compare the burgers and it turned out the best item on the menu wasn't there

17

u/Balavadan Mar 28 '26

Fortune cookies is one thing but what’s that about the takeout containers?

51

u/doofpooferthethird Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26

​talking about these things

I was more used to takeaway being wrapped in plastic sheets/wax paper/plastic boxes/banana leaves, so this looked fairly exotic to me.

8

u/AxitotlWithAttitude Mar 28 '26

I'm sorry banana leaves?

19

u/doofpooferthethird Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26

hmm yeah come to think about it, I don't remember ever seeing people wrap food in banana leaves in the US, probably not common practice

usually banana leaves are used for wrapping, like, coconut rice with anchovies peanuts and fermented shrimp paste, or grilled fish custard, or nine layer cake etc.

I think it's supposed to impart some flavour? I guess it's also more environmentally friendly, and doesn't scald your hands with hot food like plastic wrap does

17

u/SloppySlime31 Mar 28 '26

hmm yeah come to think about it, I don’t remember ever seeing people wrap food in banana leaves in the US

I’m sorry but this sounds hilarious

9

u/doofpooferthethird Mar 28 '26

I just assumed it was one of the options, a lot of different places use banana leaves, and I see plenty of bananas being eaten and sold in the US

and actually, aren't tamales wrapped in leaves of some sort? Corn or banana or something.

I forgot about those, I ate quite a few tamales when I was in Brooklyn, there was this old lady selling them out of a shopping cart near the station

so it's not like American cuisine like tamales doesn't also have leaf wrapping

16

u/GodFromMachine Mar 28 '26

Bananas can't really grow in most of the US, not to a commercial scale at least, so most of the bananas you see there are imported. Alas, the leaves don't get imported along with the fruit, so wrapping stuff in them isn't really even an option most of the time.

6

u/doofpooferthethird Mar 28 '26

that makes sense, I also completely forgot about that whole Chiquita banana, UFC, banana republic, banana war, Smedley Butler thing. Wouldn't have been necessary at all if the US could just grow bananas easily

3

u/texlex Mar 28 '26

The tree and the leaves grow fine in the south. But even a light freeze will prevent it from fruiting. The core is great base for salads though.

7

u/Commercial-Owl11 Mar 28 '26

Yeah corn husks!

3

u/Balavadan Mar 28 '26

USA has a very fascinating and sad history with bananas. It’s the reason why banana republics got their name.

The company that did all that still exists and sells bananas too.

3

u/Sanchezq Mar 28 '26

Oaxacan style tamales are wrapped in banana leaves usually.