So, after rambling about University beauraucracy, state policies, bank related issues, and traffic horros, it is time to address one of the most important facts of my daily routines: What do I eat?
Of course there are a lot of prejudices about the typical American diet: Too much fat, too much sugar, simply too much, and too much fat! First of all, let me assure you: Every single one of those assumptions is not very far away from what I have experienced so far. In some places, it is outright shocking how big and full the plates can get. Buying arbitrary products in the supermarket can lead to an significant higher intake of all the “not good” stuff, boy, there isn’t much out there that doesn’t any sugar! And even if the famous scottish restaurant has cancelled it’s mega size options: there are still a lot of fast food chains and places which offer similar choices. I mean, two large cheese pizzas for the prize of one? Who needs that? This whole thing is connected to a very simple, yet very common credo: “Getting more for less.”
To be fair, though, I have to admit that most places around here have quite regular sized meals for quite regular prices. The lunch places we frequent offer the usual American diet (burgers, sandwiches, pizza, or pasta), but it is usually not a problem to get a salad or a veggie option. Sure, sodas come always with the free refill option, but no one is forced to indulge themselves in sugared water.
The whole lunch business turns always ugly when there is a buffet offered. This is plainly bad because I do lack significantly self dicipline. Buffet or “all you can eat” is available at an Indian, Mexican, and one of the dining halls. We try to avoid them most of the time….
What is confusing from time to time is the naming scheme: Some things turn out to be quit difficult from what you’d expect. A “crab cake sandwich”, for example, with a is just a crab meat burger. A “cheese steak” turns out to be more or less a Döner Kebap with cheese and without des légumes. The “ravioli parmigiani” I had last weekend did not have any meat in them. And never ever order “fish and chips” around here, they have nothing in common with the real stuff! Pizzas are also very different. There is no tuna or any seafood topping available. On the other hand, you’ll get “white pizza” (Pizza without tomato sauce) or “buffalo chicken” (chicken with tabasco sauce, I think). To spice everything up, the plac emight through in a couple of “garlic butter sauces” so that you can dip your already dripping cheese pizza into a bit more grease. Yummy!
When it comes to dinner, I choose to stick with bread and hummus or cream cheese. I do occasionally cook some pasta, but most of the time I do not bother myself with that. Bread is problem, since the stuff that is labeled as “bread” has nothing in common with the bakery good back home. However, there are possibilities and having a bagel occasionally compensates partly for the lack of a backing culture around here.
Of course, nothing’s as simple as it might seem on first glance. The other side of this extreme overabundance in anything food related has fairly nice: You can get basically anything here. Say, one prefers organic, natural food, one goes to the farmer’s market and the natural foods store. Even the big supermarkets have a nice organic section. Funnily, the markets and stores that are specialized in natural or organic food tend to be cheaper than the orgnic food sections in most supermarkets. So it turns out to be reasonable to drive up to 30min with the car to get to a good store instead of diving into the supermarket around the corner.
Well, this is certainly not an exhustive discussion of the food topic, but I don;t feel like adding anything right now. Hope you’ll enjoyed it, till next time,
Levent