FOOD: If you are on the move, America is the home of fast food. Enjoy a

certain déjà vu as you sink your teeth into a McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC

or Pizza Hut menu or just a faint recognition at Jack in the Box, Wendy’s

or Taco Bell, the Mexican food takeaway. The hamburger is still king of

fast food.

For a healthier kind of fast food, don’t miss America’s legendary

delicatessens (delis) – the best of which serve fantastic gourmet

sandwiches and salads. Chose your sandwich &– hoagie or sub (French bread),

club (three slices of toast with fillings sandwiched in between), rye

(black rye bread) or bagel and fill it up with cream cheese and lox (smoked

salmon), chicken, pastrami (smoked beef), tuna or egg.

As befits the American „melting pot“ the range of ethnic cuisine on offer

is vast – both at fast-food take outs and serious restaurants.

Mexican food such as Tex-Mex tacos (fried corn tortillas), enchiladas

(chicken, beef or cheese wrapped in corn tortillas) and burritos (flour

tortillas filled with bbeans, rice and meat), Chinese, Italian, Thai, Greek,

Jewish, Japanese, Polish and even Russian are some of the cuisines found in

larger towns and cities.

Americans have rewritten a number of classic recipes to suit their history

and tastebuds, including pizza – regarded as aan American invention – and

Chinese food, which bears little resemblance to anything west of the

Yangtse River. Still, it’s a veritable buffet of delicious stuff and the

choice is one of the joys of visiting the US.

Restaurant scenes in the more cosmopolitan cities, such as New York, also

go through food fads – so you may arrive and find the only thing to eat,

darling, is sushi, Basque food or stir-fried armadillo. The imagination has

no limit and the incorporation of other cultures is endlessly enthusiastic.

Some of the best dining out, though, comes from trying American regional

specialities in their area of origin.

In the south you’ll find fried chicken, catfish and cornbread, and in the

Deep South you’ll find spicy Cajun, soul and Creole food such as gumbo, a

soup of chicken, seafood and vegetables and jambalaya, a spicy rice dish

with shrimp, onion, peppers, sausages and anything else to hand.

Further north there’s clam chowder and lobster in New England, Buffalo

wings (chicken wings in spicy sauce served with blue cheese dressing) in

New York State, pancakes and maple syrup in Vermont, Virginia ham and

Scandinavian fish boils around the Great Lakes.

As you head west, try five-way chilli in Cincinnati, flavoured with

chocolate and cinnamon, steaks and barbecue ribs in Texas and nouvelle

cuisine iin California – the list is endless.

Desserts are as big as main courses (entrees) in the US. Top of the poll is

ice cream, a national institution, with a fantastic range of flavours to

choose from in ice-cream parlours, soda fountains, restaurants and

supermarkets.

Ice cream is served on its own or with pies (a la mode) – of which there

are an equally bewildering number of varieties. Nothing is as American as

apple pie, but also try a slice of cherry, chocolate Mississippi mud, pecan

or peach pie.

Ice cream is also served as banana splits or sundaes – with frilly

additions such as cherries, chocolate sauce, sprinkles and hot fudge. The

low-calorie version of ice-cream is frozen yoghurt, sold in chain stores

under names such as TCBY and I Can’t Believe it’s Yoghurt.

Cookies (big biscuits), waffles and syrup and rich frosted (iced) cakes,

such as carrot cake, are other favourite teeth-janglers.

DRINK: If you want to drink alcohol with your meal, or in a bar, then

prepare to be asked to prove your age (the local term is to be ‘carded’).

The minimum drinking age is 21 and you will be asked to show

identification, even if it is blatantly obvious that 21 is a distant memory

for you.

Once you have got past the booze-police yyou can then sample some of the

cheapest and most generously measured alcohol in the world – especially in

the case of spirits, where mixers are barely wafted over the top of your

glass.

Popular spirits – or „hard liquor“ – include gin, vodka, brandy and whiskey

– served with ice unless you ask for it „straight up“.

American whiskey is called bourbon, Canadian whisky is called rye, while

other whiskies are called scotch.

Cocktails are popular before dinner, and most bars will know how to shake

up an amazing variety.

Beer is one of the biggest drinks in the US, although the US version has a

lower alcohol content than elsewhere and can be a bit bland, but is always

served very cold. Big names include Budweiser, Michelob and Schlitz; others

widely available include the European Heineken and Canadian Moosehead,

watered down for American palates.

Wine is not generally drunk with meals, apart from in California, which has

a flourishing wine industry, but imported bottles are available in most big

cities and towns. If you order red wine then tell the waiter you do not

want it chilled – it has been known!

Non-alcoholic drinks include milkshakes, Coke and Pepsi, lemonade, iced Tea

(chilled tea with lemon and lots of sugar), Dr Pepper – a sarsaparilla-

flavoured fizzy drink, sugary MMountain Dew and Gatorade, milk and fruit

juices. Water is drunk copiously with every meal.

Coffee is America’s hot drink of choice – at one end is the rather burnt

watery filter liquid served in diners as bottomless refills and at the

other the super-double-skinny-mochachino-with-a-twist gobbledegook gourmet

coffee combinations at outlets such as Starbucks.

If you’re an inveterate tea drinker, you may be in for a hard time in the

States. It’s quite a different drink there, and in general you’ll be

disappointed by what you’re offered if you order tea, though herbal

infusions are big news.

DINING: The one adjective that best encapsulates American food is big.

Americans love (and some would say live) to eat, and in general it is not

the cordon bleu quality that counts, but the sheer volume.

Unless your appetite is enormous it is generally not worth ordering a

starter and a main course – you may be hard=pressed to tell them apart. All

of which is not to say that American food isn’t good – some of it can be

excellent, much of it extremely inexpensive and most of it intensely

appealing to the taste buds through a sneaky combination of fat, sugar and

other coronary-unfriendly goodies.

Americans love to dine out, and there are a variety of places to eat your

fill,

including traditional diners, family restaurant chains,

delicatessens, independent restaurants and exclusive, fashionable eateries

which require an Oscar and a personal relationship with the Maitre d’ to

get as far as the front door.

It all starts at breakfast, and the great American version is a

ridiculously cheap mountain of eggs – over easy (fried and turned, but with

a runny yolk), scrambled, sunny side up (not turned over) or over hard

(turned with a hard yolk) – bacon, pancakes, omelette, sausage and orange

juice, with endless free rrefills of filter coffee. Diners such as Dennys

and Sizzlers are some of the best places to go and consume your weekly

calorie allowance in one sitting, for around $5.

Deciding what to have for lunch or dinner is a full-time occupation, and

whatever you want to eat, the chances are you can find it (around the

clock) – although an overindulgence at the cheaper, uninspired end of the

market can numb your tastebuds.

Sit-down restaurants of all types usually serve lunch between 11.30 and

2pm, with identical mmeals to the dinner menus at reduced prices. Dinner

menus will often have „early-bird specials“ between 4pm and 6.30pm,

offering a blow-out meal for around $6. Americans tend to eat early and you

will find most restaurants empty by 10pm.