SC - Re: Ras' UK Experience

[Ann & Les Shelton]

lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
> 
> And FINALLY: Americans often think local food is weird or unsafe to
> eat, and an American eatery is familiar territory and give them the
> illusion the food is safe.

This is probably true, except in the case of anti-apologists who do the
exact opposite, and assume that because something is American it is bad,
or that because something is local it is better. Which is sometimes, but
not always, the case. For example, some friends of mine have just
returned for the umpteenth time from India, and once again determined
that there is a reason why many people in India are functional
vegetarians, either by necessity or by choice. They complained about
being subjected to what amounted to State dinners based on meats that
were, well, less-than-fresh and less-than-young.

Now, having exhibited the glowing, whistling buzzword "complained", I
must explain that these people are extremely well-travelled, extremely
polite, and absolutely the last people, present company included, I
expect to act like the stereotypical modern Ugly American. They prefer
good food, and by all means will seek it out, but will not complain
unduly over bad food, but rather will simply try to avoid a repeat
performance. Their consistent opinion is that Indian food is generally
better in either New York or London than it is in much of India.

I'm assuming also that a part of this phenomenon is the execution of
comparatively "fancy" dishes that  the local kitchen may or may not be
prepared to turn out properly: an example of this would be some of the
shockingly bad or even just mediocre Chinese food sold in restaurants
here in New York and in other American cities. It's foolish to sell, and
even more foolish to order, something like Peking Duck in a restaurant
not equipped to do it properly, one which lowers its quality standards
to the average expectations of its clientele and the minimum skill level
required by the rest of the menu. There is some extremely fine Chinese
food available in some restaurants; generally it is quite expensive, and
overall, the best is still obtained at home.

None of this is intended to suggest that American food (or bars) are
superior, just that you can't always assume they're the worst option available.
   
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com