SC - US bars UK

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Christina Nevin wrote:
> 
> Because I'm an English-born New Zealander, American food is 'foreign' to me.
> At first I wanted to see if there was more to American cuisine than Cajun
> food (which I love) hotdogs (which I also love) and hamburgers (which I
> don't). Like I said, I got hooked on Buffalo Wings. :-)

I can uncategorically say that there is more to American food than the
above... (it's not yet time to announce the completion of my book on New
York State foods, but rest assured that it would not have been possible
to even attempt the project without there being a huge wealth of
demonstrably and more or less exclusively American cuisine). 
 
> I don't regard fast food chains such as McDonalds, BurgerKing, KFC etc as
> indicative of American cuisine or even as restaurants, no matter what they
> call them. I also don't patronise them myself because life is too short to
> eat substandard fodder and I really just don't like the taste. I also spent
> 2 months in Germany in 1986 eating McDs for lunch almost every day - quite
> enough to put you off the stuff for life.

Fast food _is_ more or less an American invention, at least in its most
common current form, as is its cousin, the Stouffer Recipe Kitchen. Both
concepts are, in my opinion, designed to prevent the production and sale
of absolutely inedible food (with mixed success in some cases),
theoretically producing the same product in Peoria as in New York as in
London as in Tokyo, but unfortunately, as a side effect, more or less
guaranteeing a top standard of mediocrity. However, be all of this as it
may, none of this should be seen as a suggestion that these chains are
selling representative American food.
 
> Aside from which, eating any form of beef product in Europe nowadays is like
> Russian Roulette - the gun may have several thousand empty chambers, but I'm
> not taking the chance.
> 
> If you want fast food in England you go into a sandwich bar (of which they
> even have chains such as the extremely good Pret a Manger), the quality of
> which is usually high. I've only been to San Diego but I've been told you
> don't really get sandwich bars in the US?

Is a sandwich bar like a salad bar for sandwiches? Essentially a cold
buffet of breads and fillings, centering on things like sliced meats and
saladish stuff? As far as I know, we don't have a lot of that in the
States, which is interesting because for a while bars in the U.S. used
to have this; it was known generally as The Free Lunch (a nickel out of
the price of each beer, etc., paid for it). Once upon a time the typical
bar Free Lunch (maybe 120 years ago) would also include a large range of
preserved foods, since there was no refrigeration to speak of, so Free
Lunch food was based largely on things like pickled eggs and pickled
pigs' feet, maybe head cheese, sausages, etc. All the Free Lunch
counters I've seen in my lifetime, though, have been refrigerated "cold
cut" (i.e. sliced meats and cheeses) buffets.

Actually, though, the art of the sandwich is alive and well around the
U.S., with respectable entries coming from some diners, sandwich shops,
and even four-star restaurants. Probably the best sandwiches (apart from
the Pan Bagnat I used to sell at La Colombe d'Or and elsewhere, which is
the best sandwich in history) most often come from various Kosher Jewish
and Italian delicatessens, at least in the larger cities, and then there
are various regional specialty sandwiches like the Beef On Kimmelweck
(warm roast beef, often prime rib, au jus with horseradish on a salted,
caraway-seed roll), a specialty of Buffalo, New York. (No, no plugs for
NY food there...)    
> 
>         [Please, please note that nowhere, at any time in my life, have I
> ever
>         ascribed to the idea that English food is bad. That perception does
>         exist, and in some cases it is not unjustified, but as a cuisine, it
> is
>         glorious, when done properly.]
> 
> Too true! All together now:
> "No such thing as a bad cuisine, just bad cooks!"

Ah, yes! G-d gives us good meate, and the Devil sends cooks!

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com