chicken, organs, beaks etc, and we tucked right in!
To be honest almost every place where we ate served up food that was at
least edible - the obvious exceptions being the much-maligned prime rib in
California and chilli overload in Louisiana. But we did find that US food had a
general tendency to be blander than British restaurant fare. This was most
noticeable in New York - perhaps because we did not stray far enough from
the tourist route? Certainly we found tastier food in less tourist orientated
places, such as Long Pine, California, or parts of the Florida Keys.
Taste aside we also encountered a very mixed approach to food
presentation - I have already mentioned the multi-plate method favoured by
Waffle House. Smaller, more out of the way eateries seemed to abandon
conventions with greater ease than big fancy city places or maybe they just
did not know the conventions in the first place. Garnishes included whole
apples and whole chilli peppers - who needs sprigs of parsley? And the area
in and around Death Valley seemed to view sweet corn served in a bowl with
its cooking water as a delicacy - we were served it two days running.
However, the best - or worst - example of food presentation was the jacket
potato Emma had in Key Largo. It was served up still wrapped in tin foil, and
with the melted topping smeared on top of the foil. Someone phone Egon
Ronay - this is one for the book!
On the subject of presentation I must briefly mention Starbucks. We
visited a lot of coffee shops in this chain, not by choice but because you walk
through two branches every time you cross the street in most American cities.
In each one we were served our drinks in the take-away cups, rather than in