What do Americans eat in a day?
Most Americans eat a quick breakfast, a sandwich or salad at lunch around noon and their main meal at dinner between 18:00 and 19:00, often with snacks in between.
Typical dishes and their calories
Breakfast
Weekday breakfast is fast: cereal with milk, a bagel with cream cheese, or coffee and a granola bar on the way to work. At weekends people go to a diner for eggs, bacon, hash browns and a stack of pancakes with syrup, and three pancakes alone are about 270 kcal. Brunch, late on Sunday morning, is a meal of its own.
Lunch
Lunch is short and often eaten at a desk. USDA time use data shows a peak between 12:00 and 13:00. A sandwich, a salad, a burrito bowl or leftovers are common, and a deli sandwich like a turkey club or a Reuben is a classic. School cafeterias and food trucks fill the same hour.
Dinner
Dinner is the main meal, and USDA data puts the busiest hour at 18:00 to 19:00, earlier than in most of Europe. A typical plate is meat with two sides: roast chicken, steak or meatloaf with potatoes and vegetables. Pasta, tacos and takeout pizza are weeknight regulars, and mac and cheese, about 600 kcal a plate, is a family favourite.
Starters
In restaurants starters are called appetizers, and they are big enough to share: buffalo wings with blue cheese dip, about 480 kcal for six, nachos, mozzarella sticks or spinach artichoke dip. At home a meal often opens with a simple salad. On game day, wings and dips are the whole meal.
Desserts
Apple pie, about 300 kcal a slice, is the dessert most tied to the country, often with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Thanksgiving brings pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Chocolate chip cookies, brownies and New York cheesecake are everyday sweets, and ice cream is eaten all year round.
Drinks
Coffee is the morning drink, often in a big mug or a takeaway cup that gets refilled. Iced tea, sweetened in the South, and soft drinks come with meals, and a can of cola is about 139 kcal. Restaurants bring iced tap water without being asked. Craft beer is brewed in every state, and the legal drinking age is 21.
Street food
The hot dog came to New York with German immigrants in the 1860s, and one in a bun is about 290 kcal. Chicago tops it with yellow mustard and relish, New York with sauerkraut. Food trucks sell tacos, barbecue and grilled cheese, New York has pizza by the slice and soft pretzels, and every ballpark sells hot dogs.
Normal there, odd elsewhere
Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday of November, is built around a whole roast turkey, and about 46 million are eaten that day. Portions are large, so taking leftovers home in a box is normal. Soft drink refills are often free, a tip of 15 to 20 percent is expected, and sweet and salty share a plate, as in pancakes with bacon or chicken and waffles.