American experience: Chicken-fried steak

I remember back in senior year of high school, every week we had a "going to America"-type meeting led by our advisors to prepare us for going to college in the US. They were pretty useless; every time we would just talk about "culture shock," but nothing could've prepared me for moving to New York. But one week we talked about food--my advisor asked us what a blondie was (two out of 30 people knew), and the most confusing food we talked about was chicken-fried steak. Is it chicken or steak? Apparently it's steak that's fried like chicken.

Last weekend, I went to brunch and saw chicken-fried steak on a menu for the first time ever, and I figured I had to try it. Apparently it's a tenderized steak that resembles a hamburger patty that's breaded and fried.

This is kind of a bad picture, but the chicken-fried steak is under that white bechamel sauce. It's actually not bad at all! It's super crispy, but it's just very strange that it's supposed to be beef; when something is cooked like chicken, it seems to start to taste like chicken, too.

To this day, whenever I talk to my aunties, either of my grandmas, or a family friend, they will always say, "You can't get a lot of Chinese food, can you? Poor baby, how is that American food?" Actually, it's not bad, and I've only had good experiences with American food (omg, the marshmallows in Lucky Charms) and eating it makes me feel like I fit in a little better.