On the food trail… ‘the worldwide round up’ pt2

This post, like a lot of others on this blog, is well overdue. Even more than an overcooked piece of meat. You can find part 1 here, as well as dig for the ‘On the food trail’ series of posts that started it all here.

Having rounded up the good and bad of Far Eastern and South East Asian food, it’s now onto the culinary delights of North America. This probably the point at which a few of you might think, ‘what the hell is he on about? North America, culinary delight?.’ And while I would have possibly agreed with you a few years back, my U.S and Canada adventures have convinced me that there are good things to be found foodwise there, just like 10 years in England taught me that English food isn’t limited to Chinese and Indian takeaway or fish and chips.

So without further ado let’s battle it out, this one is a little shorter considering there’s only two countries. As with part 1 there’s plenty of lists, bullet points and easily digestible facts (pardon the pun, no really).

North America

America
The Good:

• The west coast has a strong Asian influence and immigrant population, as a result you can eat some seriously good Asian food there as I discovered by exploring both the Vietnamese and Japanese parts of San Francisco
• Another culinary must when in California is the Mexican food, especially a real burrito as I had the pleasure to discover when my friend Mike took me to the Mission district after a fairly messy night out. England might have kebabs, Japan ramen and Europe pizza, but I think it’s fair to say that the number one drunken food has to be a proper burrito. Even better is the price and quality of it, especially compared to some of the other alternatives in Europe or Asia
• Chowder ain’t bad either, a bit of a touristy obvious one but still worth a sip or two when in San Fran
• Americans know how to do brunch, properly. And in San Fran this can include some seriously tasty culinary mash ups as I witnessed when I ordered a plate that combined black beans, tortilla chips, omelette, salad and various greens
• BBQ meat, which I guess isn’t at all a west coast thing but I didn’t go to the southern states so never quite got round to trying out a proper BBQ. Still you can get some seriously decent BBQ food elsewhere as attested by the pulled pork sandwich I wolfed down in Seattle
• Deep pan pizza, coming from an Italian (well ok half Italian) this might sound weird. But while I do think deep pan pizza is a bit of a culinary atrocity, if done well it can be pretty good if a little filling
• Cheesecake, Americans totally own pretty much everyone else when it comes to cheesecake, and I struggle to think of anywhere else I’ve had a cheesecake that even comes close to what I had either at Cheesecake factory in San Fran or the world famous Junior’s in New York. Cheesecake in America is serious
• Pastrami, or the North American equivalent of Jewish salted and smoked meat. It’d been about 2 years since my last proper bagel on Brick Lane so I couldn’t quite remember what the British version was exactly like, but one thing is for sure the pastrami I had in New York was insanely good. And considering it cost me something like 17$ for a sandwich it better had been. Juicy, tasty and done simply with mustard and bread, a pastrami sandwich is a must. I can’t remember the name of the spot I went to in New York, but it was somewhere near the Lower East side and well worth the time and money
• Soul food, one of the things I was keenest to discover during my U.S. trip, apart from a real BBQ. Essentially the cuisine of African-Americans in the southern states, soul food was possibly the best cooking I had during my time stateside, apart from the burrito in San Fran. Spare ribs, collard greens, sweet potatoes, corn bread and so on, soul food is serious and should definitely not be taken lightly. As with a lot of American cuisine it isn’t the lightest but definitely among the tastiest and most interesting I’ve had. If you’re in New York then Amy Ruth’s in Harlem is worth the detour, a couple of times over
• Pancakes, what else needs to be said really?
• Burgers, well it is America after all, and burgers could well be the one true American food (special mention to the burger joint on Haight with the mushroom and blue cheese sauce)

The Bad:

• The size of the portions
• No I mean seriously who the hell eats that much food?
• There seems to be a fair lack of food that isn’t from abroad or from a non-American origin, which is the problem with a lot of anglo-saxon countries come to think of it
• They add tax on top of the advertised price
• You have to tip, which is only really a problem when service is shit but still after 18 months in Japan the whole tipping thing got a bit weird
• I feel like I should be finding more downsides but I’m struggling, the food really wasn’t that bad as long as you steer from the crap places, which is common sense and applies to any country really

Canada
The Good:

• Burgers, the Canadians can make a mean burger or two as well
• Muffins, seriously some of the best muffins I’ve ever had were in Vancouver coffee shops
• Fish, possibly the one ‘local’ food I had while in Vancouver, and while it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary they do have some nice salmon there, which only needs to be done simply anyway to truly enjoy
• Vietnamese food in Vancouver, had some seriously good stuff there, again as with San Fran, Vancouver has a pretty big immigrant community and in return some real Vietnamese food joints
• Dosa, the south Indian crepe I discovered in Borneo. There is one Indian joint near commercial street that does some really good dosa stuffed with curry
• Bagels, Montreal’s Jewish quarter is known for its bagels and St. Viateur didn’t disappoint despite being hyped by the locals with cheap and ridiculously tasty, freshly baked bagels
• Pastrami, in Montreal it’s all about Schwart’s, a Jewish deli that rivals, if not exceeds, the New York joint I found. Meat, bread and mustard, simple to the point and as tasty as it gets. Who needs fancy crap?
• Poutine, yes chips, gravy and cheese should be wrong but it’s oh so right. Even righter if baked, trust me

The Bad:

• Again as with America there is a lack of local foods, apart from maybe Poutine
• Seriously I struggled to find anything that wasn’t a foreign cuisine or based on a foreign cuisine
• Tax and tipping also come into play
• I’m also struggling to come up with bad points… this is not good

So that’s North America done, last stop on the food train is Europe. And I’ll try and make sure it doesn’t take five months to write up. Promise.