Amsterdam is a wonderful city, I’ve always enjoyed visiting and always been treat well. I’d return without question. The Van Gogh museum is a highlight.
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Most of the beer I’ve drunk in the US is best served very cold for exactly that reason!
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I don’t drink wine.
It’s a waste of an alcohol unit.
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- Waldorf salads.
Made with real Waldorfs?
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Absence of ice is probably a cost/energy thing in the UK.
Energy has always been comparatively expensive in the UK, and similarly the abundance of white goods was slow to catch on when compared to the US. The idea of having ice makers running 24/7 in hotel corridors (I recall seeing in the US back in the 80’s) is a non starter.
Lacking significant natural resources tends to make a nation make do with what they have.
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I meant why do you single those out as radioactive?
It is a fallacy that British ale is not served warm: the ideal temperature is around 10C, though a range from a bit below that up to about 13 is common. Unlike lager which in Britain is generally chilled to near death at about 5C or sometimes lower.
I don’t think of 10C (50F) as being warm - I need to wear a jumper or coat if I go out in such temperatures.
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If I may…
The intent was humourous, surely! We Brits treat them as if they were radioactive.
Cinnamon toast, cinnamon bagels… yum.
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I’m sure half of what’s said is BS, and while 10c would be warm here it’s horses for courses.
Beer in the UK is usually ale which is fermented top down, quickly and in warm temperatures and is best when NOT chilled.
Lager is fermented slowly in cool temperatures from bottom up and is best served chilled.
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Have to say I’ve tried it many times and struggled with a warm beer.
Correct… Each to their own… 
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Thanks, @steviebee, yes. I wasn’t claiming they were radioactive, simply that it seems that the British treat them as if they were and use them in preposterously miserly amounts. To the detriment of many of their dishes.
I singled them out because they are two ingredients where there is a particularly stark difference between how the Brits and Americans regard them. Basil, on the other hand, to pick a third ingredient largely at random seems to be treated equally by both civilisations so I didn’t mention it.
Hope that’s that cleared up!
Mark
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Garlic.
As a cooking ingredient, that is, although I use it a lot in cooking and I’ve never seen a vampire so presumably the Europeans are right about its effect on them, too.
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An American ex-colleague of mine did add a bit salt to his beer.
Is that a known thing?
I have a Spanish beer made from seawater. Not as bad as you might expect.
I will admit that most American beer is best served on chill-deadened taste buds. That is just the style and the way the brewers intended them to be served. I would never drink a Coors Light or a Budweiser at much above freezing.
But I love good German beers (especially from the six original Munich breweries), and good English and Irish beers, and those I drink slightly cool but not cold, which is the way (at least in my experience) they were intended to be served. The flavor profile is different as a result.
So, certainly something I would chalk up to national style and preference more than good or bad. I would urge those who have not enjoyed an ice-cold American beer on a hot summer day to give it a try!
Now the ice thing, I just don’t understand. Ice is a gift from God. 
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The time I came to realise why US beer was so cold was in Arizona… then it made sense. A cold Pabst or Miller Hi-Life went down a treat.
Later, I tasted an (average, mainstream) US beer a bit warmer… that made sense for the cold preference too! 
Don’t think US is only full of Coors & Bud ice cold beers. There are a large number of regional ‘Craft’ beers around, and these are not served at the tasteless super-cold temps of the mass market stuff.
The mass market US & Canadian beers & lagers are typically served around 2-4’C. 2’C is pretty much as low as most peoples mouth & swallowing parts can take in a typical beer ‘quaff’.
In my experience on sessions with craft beer enthusiasts in US, the specialist craft beer bars & even the more common everyday bars, the ‘craft’ beers get served a few degrees warmer, more like 6-10’C, & generally they do take care to get this right.
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