Food, glorious (?) food… A North American Odyssey – Part 1

• Posted on noflytri
• in Food, USA
• on June 29, 2015
• 3 Comments.

During by journey across the world I have eaten a lot of things I suppose I wouldn’t otherwise have done. I tried sushi for the first time, I’ve eaten a gazillion variations of noodles, I’ve had incredible Bosnian food, I’ve had salad with far more dill than necessary (which is any amount of dill), I’ve eaten plov. And the food journey has continued since I crossed the pacific, with amazing nachos in Mexico, and even chicken in a chocolatey sauce in Puebla outside Mexico City. It’s been wonderful and I’m looking forward to being much more adventurous in my trips to foreign restaurants when I get back to England!

But first…North America…

<cue up guitar riffs> #American woman food, gonna mess your mind…#

And just what do they eat in a country where its using real milk to make cheese is considered unusual enough to justify this fact being plastered across the front of the packet? Where you can buy chicken meat that proudly proclaims it is growth hormone and steroid free, and then in much smaller letters seems to suggest the only reason it is, is to comply with federal regulations….
And place where Cheez Whiz is a thing.
And people like it.

We won’t poison you….Because the government says we can’t. Yet…

Trying to push all this disturbing information to one side I’ve made a concerted effort to try to eat the local specialities of the cities and towns I’ve passed through. So below, here are a selection of local North American specialities that you may or may not have heard off and what I think of them…

Sonoran Hot Dog (Tucson)
I’ve mentioned this in my post on Tucson. It is apparently available in several cities and some people claim it’s actually a Mexcian thing, but Tucson proclaims it as its own and its available from numerous outlets around the city. It is basically a really messy hotdog. The wiener (stop sniggering at the back) is wrapped in bacon and the whole thing is then smothered in chopped tomatoes onions, pinto beans and looks…well lets be honest it doesn’t look particularly appealing… In fact you will find that’s a bit of a running theme here, partly down to the fact that its difficult when a little drunk to take good photos of greasy food with greasy fingers on a phone so outdated I would probably get better pictures by giving some crayons to a 5-year-old, but it’s also down to the fact that presentation wise, most American food sucks. Hell, half the time it looks like someone else has already eaten it…

It actually tastes quite nice – but it digests like it looks…

But putting that to one side….what does it taste like? Well it’s actually not bad. It is of course at heart a hot-dog so if you don’t like them you are unlikely to like this. And I couldn’t actually really taste the bacon. But the beans and tomatoes etc do elevate it above the standard hot-dog.

Expect indigestion…

Louisiana Style Fried Chicken (New Orleans)

Ok so New Orleans is actually far better known for all sorts of other foods, in particular fish and things like gumbo. But when you get a hankering for chicken you get a hankering for chicken. So I examined a number of online reviews and went to what by common consent appeared to be either the best or second best fried chicken restaurant in New Orleans, Willie Mae’s Scotch House. I got the basic chicken and fries meal, which rather ambitiously comes with 3 pieces of chicken and in an effort to feel vaguely more healthy I had sweet potato fries rather than normal french fries. In terms of the effect this had on my health I imagine it had about as much of a positive impact as a guy with a bucket trying to bail out the Titanic, but its the though that counts…

No Colonels in sight…

The chicken was good. It was all brown meat as white meat cost a few dollars more. It was good and moist but I will admit to feeling a little let down on the taste stakes. I like crispy coatings on my fried chicken but on this one it was a bit dry. To be honest I kinda preferred Popeyes…

Still it didn’t stop me eating all of it. Which was one piece of chicken too much but I can’t really hold my own greed against it!

Philly Cheese-steak (Philadelphia)

I will be upfront. The classic Philly Cheese-steak (chopped beef with cheese and onions in a sort of hotdog bun) comes with Cheez Whiz. No. I am not eating that. Luckily some versions come with Provolone cheese which at least looks less yuk even if I still don’t know what it is.

I got mine in Philadelphia, naturally. There are two places in town that claim to be the original, but a bit of googling seemed to suggest that one of them was now run by a narcissist who covered the walls with pictures of himself, and the other by someone with a Fox News fetish, so I found another compilation list of best Philly Cheese-steak places which gave its number one choice to one just next door to my hostel, Sonny’s Famous Steaks. Convenience wins…

I feel queasy…

I’m going to have to be careful how I describe my Philly Cheese-steak experience. Previously when my old travel buddy (actually decrepid would be a better description) Roger asked me on WhatsApp what I thought of it I replied with the following…

“Huge, not particularly fantastic tasting but about half way through I really rather started to enjoy it”

Roger kindly pointed out that out of context this description could be thought to describe something very, very different….

How anyone can want to eat this on a regular basis I don’t know. Whilst as the above description says, I did start to enjoy it, it also was far too much food.

Even more indigestion than the Sonoran Hot Dog…

Poutine

If I was being unkind I would suggest that Poutine, which seems to hold a place in Canadians hearts on a level with hockey and anger over the fate of the Avro Arrow in terms of summing up what it means to be Canadian, is just a fancy name for the cheesy chips and gravy you could get in any self-respecting chip shop in Northern England (far too messy for posh southern chippys)

Oh come on Canada, please don’t cry.  I won’t ever mention it again….

There are some differences of course. Its made with french fries rather than thick cut chips found in England and rather than the crap smattering of grated “yellow” cheese that you tend to get at 2am in some grim place in Doncaster, here it’s made with cheese curds. They have a rubbery texture without too much taste, kinda like mozzarella. The gravy seemed pretty similar though. The whole thing can normally be topped with any number of other additions like bacon or smoked meat or chicken and so on and so on. I got Poutine in several places but for the purpose of this I got it from the apparently undisputed king of Poutine, (although I’m sure someone will dispute it) La Banquise in Montreal. This joint is open 24/7 and was absolutely packed with a visibly crowded kitchen churning out nothing but servings of poutine (they offer 20 odd different variations) Being packed I had to get take out, which again partly explains why it looks horrible in the photo…

My arteries must hate me…

But also bear in mind it looks horrible anyway…

There’s no doubting that it is good. It’s easy to see how this makes great drunk food (as does the cheesy chips and gravy in the UK) but it’s also tasty enough to make awesome comfort food that if I lived in Canada I would probably eat far too often. This is something I will miss when I get back home.

That all said, its possible that Canada is taking it a wee bit too seriously….

Part 2 to come…