Over the past few weeks, off the top of my head, I have eaten at Pizza
Hut, Burger King, Wendy’s, McDonalds, Taco Bell (They say that Mexican
food is so good, it makes your mouth water. That's nothing, I've eaten
Scottish cuisine and it makes my left arm ache), Hardees’s, Arby’s, Tim
Hortons (a doughnut fast food place….seriously!), KFC, Subway and
Sonic. It’s amazing that each one can be uniquely different in such a
fierce competitive market. First of all, the price of food is so cheap,
for $1 (62p) I can get a McDouble, that’s a bun, two burgers and a slice
of cheese (I opt out of the pickle and onion, I could make out it’s
from amazement at them having to be losing money and them trying to
recoup some of this back…..but it’s because I don’t like pickle and
onion) and in a drive through, it’s ordered, paid for, received and
eaten in less than a minute! Nowhere else in the world could I do this.
I don’t need to preach of the calorie content as we all know about this
but any hunger pains can be vanquished in record time without having to
leave the car seat, that’s incredible. Though we have the same service
from the same people in the UK, if you order without the standard
set-up, ie pickle and onion, it takes a few minutes for this to be
processed. Cars can be queued for the drive through or a queue inside
could lead back out the door but I know I’ll get a meal (I say meal
lightly) in no time. There was a saying in Victorian London (due to the
lack of working sewage systems) that you were never more than 3 feet
away from a rat, here I feel I’m never more than 3 feet away from a
‘restaurant’.
A good friend, Scott, recently came over to visit and made a good
point, American food has a lot of additives and preservatives, a loaf of
bread can last weeks and taste okay, a British loaf will last only a
few days, he pointed out that all these additions to the food is what
makes Americans taller in general (presumably Lilliputians only eat
organic then). I still struggle to accept that milk bought more than 3
days ago is still ‘fresh’, even then I’ll add it to a cup of tea but I
don’t want cereal (mmm….Lucky Charms) with the milk or even just a glass
of milk. American food is cheap and it’s made to last, in many ways
that’s a good thing but I wonder what an American would make living in
the UK, having to shop once a week rather than once a month (in those
little tiny Tesco Extras rather than a Wal*Mart superstore which has
EVERYTHING under one roof, beef, bullets, baseball bats and a new BBQ
all in one trip).
I do like the American diner experience, small town cafes have such a
personal touch (and usually floor to ceiling in trinkets, posters or
some paraphernalia, there’s always something to look at), waitresses
survive on tips so they friendliness and over the top helpfulness seems a
nice change rather than a grunt and sigh I’d expect in the UK, here in
the States, after ordering a drink, it’s continuous free refills, before
I’m even halfway through a glass of Mountain Dew I’ll have another on
the table, it has a less commercial feel than what I am used to because
of this attitude, I like that.
Food in the UK seems a generational thing, there’s a lady over the road
that’s 70+, she drinks Dr. Pepper (so misunderstood) and eats pizza, my
grandparents would think Dr. Pepper was a new GP and they can’t even
pronounce the word pizza correctly. Seeing older people drinking ‘soda’
seems odd, imagine seeing a Chelsea pensioner drinking 7up! It’s just
not right. It would be interesting to have my grandparents to visit
here, I remember them once cautiously eating BBQ food (they were adamant
it was raw in the middle, no matter how well cooked) whereas here I’ve
grilled out at least every other day, I have even bought a BBQ cookbook
(signed by the auther no less) and it would be easily to fill a shopping
cart/trolley with different marinades and BBQ sauces, though they have
the right temperatures (usually too hot, I sweat more than Michael J.
Fox playing Operation) to cook outside. Brits usually BBQ cheap Tesco
value burgers or Asda own sausages (where there’s most likely more meat
content in a Linda McCartney pea fritter), Americans cook top value
steak, full chicken breasts and juicy chops, it makes a huge difference
to the experience.
I’ve enjoyed trying new foods such as funnel cake, corn dogs, biscuits
and gravy and Hot Pockets but still having the comfort zone of similar
tastes, so much so I’ve put on about 15-20lbs already while being here.
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