Doonkin´ Donoots

Foreign policy aside I have found many reasons in Barcelona to explain why most of the world despises Americans. The most prominent would be our cultural import of food. I would generously endorse the idea of standard southern fare (ex. Fried chicken, buttermilk biscuits, collard greens, and sweet tea) being an authentic, and gourmet, American meal. But that is not the culinary face that Barcelona sees. Barcelona´s conception of US food is (in order of decreasing conspicuity): Burger King, Dunkin´ Donuts, McDonald´s, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and KFC. Obviously they are not incorrect in their conception of us as slovenly pigs lacking in any gustatory sensibility. One of my traveling companions broke down on the second day and bought a Dunkin´ Donut. The saving grace of her American ¨postre¨ is that rather than containing chocolate it instead had nutella.
I find it quite ironic that here Starbucks has eschewed the pedantic monikers it assigns to coffee sizes in the States (I believe those being: venti, grande, and something else...) opting rather for authentic regional Catalan. It would be much more exotic if, in Spain, they chose to use: small, medium, and large.

¨Un MEDIUM caffe mocha, por favor.¨

Another aspect related to our poor diet, general corpulence, and the worlds conception of us is that in three short days I´ve learned to assume that every obese person must be an American, Dutch, or German tourist. I still can´t figure out how they fit into the tiny bathrooms and cars.