FOOD: If you are on the move, America is the home of fast food. Enjoy a
certain déjà vu as you sink your teeth into a McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC
or Pizza Hut menu or just a faint recognition at Jack in the Box, Wendy’s
or Taco Bell, the Mexican food takeaway. The hamburger is still king of
fast food.
For a healthier kind of fast food, don’t miss America’s legendary
delicatessens (delis) – the best of which serve fantastic gourmet
sandwiches and salads. Chose your sandwich – hoagie or sub (French bread),
club (three slices of toast with fillings sandwiched in between), rye
(black rye bread) or bagel and fill it up with cream cheese and lox (smoked
salmon), chicken, pastrami (smoked beef), tuna or egg.
As befits the American „melting pot“ the range of ethnic cuisine on offer
is vast – both at fast-food take outs and serious restaurants.
Mexican food such as Tex-Mex tacos (fried corn tortillas), enchiladas
(chicken, beef or cheese wrapped in corn tortillas) and burritos (flour
tortillas filled with beans, rice and meat), Chinese, Italian, Thai, Greek,
Jewish, Japanese, Polish and even Russian are some of the cuisines found in
larger towns and cities.
Americans have rewritten a number of classic recipes to suit their history
and tastebuds, including pizza – regarded as an American invention – and
Chinese food, which bears little resemblance to anything west of the
Yangtse River. Still, it’s a veritable buffet of delicious stuff and the
choice is one of the joys of visiting the US.
Restaurant scenes in the more cosmopolitan cities, such as New York, also
go through food fads – so you may arrive and find the only thing to eat,
darling, is sushi, Basque food or stir-fried armadillo. The imagination has
no limit and the incorporation of other cultures is endlessly enthusiastic.Some of the best dining out, though, comes from trying American regional
specialities in their area of origin.
In the south you’ll find fried chicken, catfish and cornbread, and in the
Deep South you’ll find spicy Cajun, soul and Creole food such as gumbo, a
soup of chicken, seafood and vegetables and jambalaya, a spicy rice dish
with shrimp, onion, peppers, sausages and anything else to hand.
Further north there’s clam chowder and lobster in New England, Buffalo
wings (chicken wings in spicy sauce served with blue cheese dressing) in
New York State, pancakes and maple syrup in Vermont, Virginia ham and
Scandinavian fish boils around the Great Lakes.
As you head west, try five-way chilli in Cincinnati, flavoured with
chocolate and cinnamon, steaks and barbecue ribs in Texas and nouvelle
cuisine in California – the list is endless.
Desserts are as big as main courses (entrees) in the US. Top of the poll is
ice cream, a national institution, with a fantastic range of flavours to
choose from in ice-cream parlours, soda fountains, restaurants and
supermarkets.
Ice cream is served on its own or with pies (a la mode) – of which there
are an equally bewildering number of varieties. Nothing is as American as
apple pie, but also try a slice of cherry, chocolate Mississippi mud, pecan
or peach pie.
Ice cream is also served as banana splits or sundaes – with frilly
additions such as cherries, chocolate sauce, sprinkles and hot fudge. The
low-calorie version of ice-cream is frozen yoghurt, sold in chain stores
under names such as TCBY and I Can’t Believe it’s Yoghurt.
Cookies (big biscuits), waffles and syrup and rich frosted (iced) cakes,
such as carrot cake, are other favourite teeth-janglers.
DRINK: If you want to drink alcohol with your meal, or in a bar, then
prepare to be asked to prove your age (the local term is to be ‘carded’).
The minimum drinking age is 21 and you will be asked to show
identification, even if it is blatantly obvious that 21 is a distant memory
for you.
Once you have got past the booze-police you can then sample some of the