Posted on 11/02/2006 8:38:56 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- When it comes to eating out in the United States, Texans do it the most, New Yorkers pay the most, and Italian is the country's favorite cuisine, a study showed Wednesday.
Zagat Survey released its "America's Top Restaurants," a guide covering 1,389 eateries in 42 cities, which is based on 21 million meals worth of experience by more than 123,000 people.
It found that during 2006 restaurant openings have been far outpacing closings and that the cost of a meal increased 2.8 percent, less than the 4 percent rise in the country's Consumer Price Index.
"These are happy days for food lovers -- this marks another year where restaurant quality, diversity and value have improved across America," Tim Zagat, chief executive officer of the survey, said in a statement.
The survey showed that 83 percent of people eat out as often or more than they did two years ago and that people in Houston, Texas, eat out the most at 4.2 times a week, followed by the Texas cities Austin and Dallas-Ft. Worth, where residents dine out four times a week.
Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Miami come next, with people eating out 3.8 times a week.
In New York people eat out 3.3 times a week, which the survey said could be due to the high cost of dining there -- the city is the most expensive in the United States with an average meal costing $39.43.
"Sadly its the same old story across the country when it comes to service," the Zagat Survey found. "72 percent of diners say service is the greatest irritant when it comes to eating out."
Nearly a third of diners said Italian food was their favorite, with American food coming in second at 16 percent and French third at 12 percent. But when Japanese, Chinese and Thai were combined they ran a close second with 25 percent.
I'll wager that the person saying it was Italian, and simply getting in a dig on his neighbors.
My favorite was roughly translated as, "you are a whore in the house of ****."
Yep. Skinny as a rail as well. But IMHO, the best blues guitarist going.
I heard on some food show on TV that the French did not have a cuisine until they stole it from the Italians they tweaked it and oo-lala you have French cuisine..... I usually go with the original, Italian.
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LOL. That was one pretty uninformed food tv commentator. Perhaps you'll notice almost no similarity between the 2 cuisines.
More or less true. During the Renaissance, Italian cuisine became very elevated. When an Italian princess was married off to some French royal or another, she brought the notion of haute cuisine with her and the French developed it further. Meanwhile, Italy fell on hard times and the craft of truly elevated cooking faded away. In the mid-19th Century, French food had reached its peak and it spread to Italy, who were perturbed that their invention had been taken by the French. The Italians tried to reinvent their own cuisine. One sign of this is that basically every Italian dish that had the name of a city in it--Bolognese, Milanese, Fiorentino--is the Italians trying to make their dishes sound like French dishes.
As you might imagine, this is all a very sore subject in Italy. It's important to remember as well that we're talking about very high cuisine here, not the pizza, pasta-with-red-sauce, sausage and peppers Italian, which is basically peasant food. Delicious peasant food to be sure, but different from truly high end stuff.
Must be counting pizza as "Italian food"...
The French do good sauces. They have so much wine, you know. I try to stay away from it and I don't eat escargot anymore or crepes so I really eat only omelettes and roasted rosemary chicken.
What am I saying? I'm French!
I have eaten escargot, and enjoyed it. I'm not wild over French food because it's detrimental to my waistline and arteries, but if I were young, I'd do it all overagain. BTW, supoosedly the red wine is why the French don't have as much heart disease as the should considering their diet. The so-called French mystery..........
I know, that and their #Q%#!&&! pastries, and none of the women have cellulite and they smoke like trains!
Maybe their genes have something to do with it..........
Interesting....thank you
I just remember hearing it and thought it was an intersting thought....please see post #46 thank you
Other factors are smaller portion sizes there and the fact that they just tend to walk more.
We dine out alot. And I can honestly say I can't remember the last time I purposely went out for Italian food.
Mexican isn't 2 or 3? This survey is a bunch of crap...
Yes, walking is the norm. Here, even to go to the convenience store a block from my house, we drive..........
Not all Italian foods are fattening. Next time your in a Little Italy, order some soup instead of pasta........
Yeah, but the food always cowers as soon as you try and eat it, and those white flags are distracting... ;-)
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