USA Travel Blog 3 - Food and Drink
One of the things about America which is both pleasant and annoying is that they grant cheap access to a LOT of food. Wandering round even the smallest of supermarkets (which, to British eyes, really isn’t that small at all) they have a vast array of, well, just about anything you could imagine. It’s all piled high, it’s all packaged shinily and it all has one purpose - to make you want it. The choice can be horrendous at times. You want bread? Imagine the choice in Subway multiplied by fifteen million times and that’s how hard it is to choose bread. But in America you can eat, and eat well, at all times. And that’s what we did. You don’t, of course, need to know about the bolognese I cooked on the Monday (even though it was spectacular) nor do you need to know about the orange juice I drank each morning. But there were some highlights of the trip which I shall present to you here.
The Philly Cheesesteak sandwich is an institution from Philadelphia which is both obligatory and tasty. Given that New Jersey is but a hop and a skip from that most noble of Pennsylvania cities you can, of course, get a decent Philly Cheesesteak there too. I had mine from a shopping mall and it was, as ever, delightful. It consists of a strip of steak cooked with your choice of onions, mushrooms and peppers, placed on your choice of bread with your choice of cheese. It’s simple but enjoyable. And very messy.
One evening, Judith, Adam, Mother and I left Ryan at home with a babysitter and set off looking forward to an evening of exquisite dining at Raven and The Peach in Fair Haven, NJ, just a short taxi ride from where they live. We weren’t disappointed. I decided, as I often do in good restaurants, to embrace foods from which I would normally shy away. I started with a simple vodka and orange as my pre-dinner drink which I enjoyed whilst perusing the menu.
My appetiser of Tempura Lobster Sushi Rolls was the most adventurous given that I have always believed myself to not like sushi and have always regarded lobster with suspicion. It was, however, delicious. It came with an assortment of stuff on the side - wasabi, pickled ginger etc - and it combined to cause a frenzy of delight on my palate. My entree, however, took this frenzied baton and ran with it. It was one of the day’s specials, milk-fed veal with horseradish potatoes and blue cheese mousse, and it was simply divine. The veal was cooked to perfection and was delightfully tender, the potatoes had just the right amount of horseradish to compliment, rather than overpower, the meat and the blue cheese mousse rounded off the taste expertly. The main course was accompanied by the Cakebread Cellars 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon which was quite simply the best Cab Sav I have ever tasted.
Now, anyone who knows me well will know that I have a VERY sweet tooth. For me, no meal is complete without something sweet to end it and so, along with a glass of very old port, I ordered a Valrhona Chocolate Soufflé with orange sauce and Tahitian vanilla gelato. I can’t say for sure that I could tell the vanilla was from Tahiti but I could very definitely tell that the chocolate wasn’t Hershey’s. A good chocolate soufflé is the perfect way to end a meal, in my opinion, and this was one of the best. It was light as air and risen to perfection and the orange sauce mingled with the chocolate to generate a sensational flavour which was perfectly pitched on the sweetness scale.
On to New York then, where dining takes on an ‘anything goes’ attitude. Sadly this time we didn’t have time to visit Serendipity 3 - still my all-time favourite New York eating experience - but we did have time to visit another favourite, Heartland Brewery where I enjoyed the Hickory Smoked BBQ St. Louis Ribs, the best ribs I’ve ever tasted. The meat was so tender that it literally fell off the bones at the merest provocation and the BBQ sauce surrounding it was almost alive with flavour. Cookie cake rounded off that meal well and it was nicely washed down with a couple of pints of their excellent Cornhusker Lager. For our pre-theatre dinner we visited the Pig and Whistle Irish pub where I enjoyed a delightfully large burger, a pint of Heineken and a divinely mixed Woo Woo…heavy on the alcohol and light on the juice, just as it should be.
The New York highlight for me though was lunch at the French-American bistro La Bonne Soupe which never disappoints. We had to queue on arrival, which is always a good sign unless you’re short on time, and with good reason. Although a reasonable size, with dining on two floors, its reputation for dispensing good, wholesome, no-nonsense food means that it is constantly in demand. The soups, which come with salad, bread, beverage and dessert, are delightful and I imagine the rest of the food is too. Mother chose the classic French Onion soup and I chose a Soup Thailandaise which was somewhat akin to Thai green curry. Both were spectacular as were the Crème Caramel and the mousse au chocolat which Mother and I respectively enjoyed. All in all an excellent ‘last meal’ which ended the holiday on a high culinary note.
