Since several years I have been trying to commit myself to healthy eating. Fruit in the morning, salad for lunch, lots of fish and vegetables. Not to mention the unsalted peanuts I am addicted to. They suffer from the prejudice of too much fat, but I have experienced again and again: They are the best I can ever become weak for because they supply my brain with amino acids and vitamins (and they are of perfect help against depressive thrusts).
It’s not always easy to keep up these eating habits while travelling. Meanwhile I have learned that it is even kind of difficult in the agricultural or rural areas of the U.S. The main reason is that there is no local infrastructure, no grocery store, just the big malls along the Interstates. And the other reason is that there simply are different eating cultures. While it’s not a problem to find sushi bars, thai or veggi restaurants in the bigger cities of the East and West coast, it is hard to find those in the Southern part of the country. So in the meantime apples and these small salted pretzels have become my main course during my driving days accompanied by bottled water and this sort of coffee you can read a book through while drinking.
After several days I considered rethinking my nutrition strategy. It suddenly came to my mind that experiencing a country also means experiencing its food culture. So I looked up the best burger place on the internet and found it. In New Orleans at the Camellia Grill I had a fabulous hamburger with French fries. It might have been unhealthy to eat that but it was a double experience. First of all I really liked it (after all these pretzels). And second it was an opportunity for observation of U.S. history and societal change. There were men dressed in suits with necktie and women in dresses, both about 70 years old, sitting at the lunch counter. There were older and younger people, blacks and whites – and they all were enjoying themselves and the food. I felt like being part of a film location of the fifties. And the prices were alike.
Conclusion: Don’t be ideological about eating habits. You might miss even more than the perfect hamburger.
A good burger or steak once in a while is very satisfying and gives you nutrition too.
And there is a huge difference between a fast food burger and a hand-made burger with a touch of love :)
http://www.roadfood.com/
This is not only a homepage, but also the name of 40 books by Jane and Michael Stern. They have decided to drive through the country (USA) for checking the food that family restaurants offer there. The Sterns want to strengthen local diners. Both eat 12 meals a day!! 4 times breakfast, 4 times lunch and 4 times dinner on 200 days a year. They are intellectuals who enjoyed to meet US rural culture and friendly people. I think, this job bares some risks of occupational diseases.
So if you are searching for a diner that is original and offers with love prepared food, you can find it with the help of the two. They don’t write bad critics, but if you find a diner which is not mentioned, it’s a hint too.
p.s.: I found the review on Camellia Grill
http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=2063
“and this sort of coffee you can read a book through while drinking.”
Several years ago I had the best coffee in my life, sitting at Piazza delle Erbe in Verona. I was there with some friends and we enjoyed it very much.
In the next year we went to Budapest and there we had the worst coffee one can get.
Not to be misunderstood, there is great coffee in Budapest. You can get it at the New York Café or at Café Gerbeaud, but the one in our hotel was lousy. Nevertheless we had a lot of fun at the breakfast table. In the course of this week our new dictum “It`s time for a real coffee”came into beeing.
So I know by experience that giving food or drinkable a try in foreign countries, whether good or bad, it can achieve you a lifetime saw with your friends and therewith the memory of hilarious times.
Reading the text I get really hungry. ;-)
Standing starving in front of an empty fridge (nothing unusual), run out of german bread (the tasteless ‘I pretend to be bread because I look alike’- alternative untouched in the freezer), I realise I’m actually quite jealous (even of the pretzels).
I always have to think about the “unsalted peanutsâ€?. Funny habit of eating. So, it will be no problem to get them during the journey. (I sometimes like fast food. Today I already took a cup of coffee in such a “restaurant”. And I was surprised, that there were so many bodybuilder. In the radio then I heard from the Fitnessmesse in Essen. Oh!)
Did you get a low-fat hamburger with low-fat French fries and a coke “light” or a diet coke ;-)
I remember my confrontation with a different eating culture when I took part in several exchanges with our partner-school in France. We lived in families and learned about “savoir vivre”. Unfortunately I couldn´t find a trace of the so called “belle cuisine” so I spent most of my pocket-money for “pain au chocolat”.
The school meal was also very unusual – and always baguette: for breakfast, lunch and dinner…
But that´s what I always miss, even on vacation, a piece of whole grain bread and a real good cup of coffee.
Also, ich habe das ja auch mal versucht, mich so äußerst gesund zu ernähren. Irgenwann war ich nur noch schlecht gelaunt. Das wollte ich mir und meinem Umfeld nicht mehr zumuten. So gesund kann schließlich kein Essen sein, als dass man alle vergrault. Ich habe mich dann von meinem Vorhaben, wieder in 34 passen zu müssen, verabschiedet und esse seit dem wieder alles, aber in Maßen. Zwei/drei mal moderates Training pro Woche (auch hier ist weniger mehr) und damit fahre ich ganz gut. Beim letzten Check-up hat mein Arzt mir “Traumwerte” attestiert-was will ich mehr.
Oje, ich komme mir schon wie in einem Gesundheits-Blog vor.
MM, genießen Sie hin und wieder Pommes und Burger – ohne schlechtes Gewissen. Ich habe ja eher eine Schwäche für diese Dinge.
I won’t list all my weaknesses in the food department here – it would become the longest posting ever seen in this blog…
I like the fact that you can’t get any food you want wherever you are in the world. What would be the use of travelling if everything tastes the same everywhere?
To someone like me who likes eating far too much, that would be the ultmate horror!
So, go ahead and eat all the Burgers you like – and try the icecream, too, which my too tight pants and I keep in loving memory of our stays in the US… if you overdo it, then you can get this guy to make a movie out of it…
Ähm … kommt da noch was in die Video? Hab ich was verpasst???
Ich dachte, mir würde jetzt ein saftiger Burger vorgeführt :-(
?? Homesickness??
Hat doch jedes Land seine kulinarischen Spezialitäten, darum MM beissen Sie genüsslich in den saftigen Burger :-) än Guete!
Last fall I have been to Brazil for a language course. Changing the view on the equator gave me also a different view on life, habits and costums. I also tried to eat healthy, but gave up after a while. For lunch the whole class went to a bar where you get cheap meals – mostly very monotonous. Every day. I first adapted to the new habit, but then changed my behaviour within these limits. After thinking a little further I crossed these lunch borders and went to the market dealers to get some fresh pineapple and mango. That really made a difference.
And perhaps some traditional Cajun or Creole style gumbo .
A real experience (uh, challenge?) is alligator on a stick…. Pleeeeaaaase, TRY it!
Wherever I travel, I have to taste as much local food as possible. The only thing I had to refrain from where deep fried insects (China) … guess they would’ve been tasty but I just couldn’t eat the tentacles. For the rest I’m extremely curious and was rewarded with a lot of very enjoyable experiences. So MM, go ahead and try whatever you can get hold of and what looks local, natural and prepared with love and pride. Enjoy you meals beyond peanuts and pretzels (just for a while).
Thank God I’m just addicted to buttermilk. ;o)
(Remember how I told my mother how disgusting I find this sour milk when I was younger… It’s not just a saying: We all become detailed copies of our parents. ;o)
Pretzels… No, I don’t say it…
Gumbo is great! And Jambalaya as well… even though both look like they have been eaten before…
The southern cuisine is also called soulfood.
For me soulfood are just things that make me feel good, like dishes from my childhood or even “just” a burger or Currywurst or a piece of chocolate.
Once in a while it can make you smile…
“Thank God I’m just addicted to buttermilk.”
Cate – ein Satz für die Ewigkeit!!! :-D
“even though both look like they have been eaten before…�, that I thought too seeing the pictures, Kata. Enjoy your meal! Alternate I´m sure that you get there good fruits.
“..experiencing a countra also means experiencing its food culture.”
Bei diesem Satz musste ich an mein Studienjahr in Berkeley und Stanford denken. Es dauerte eine Ewigkeit bis ich die Supermärkte und Lebensmittelgeschäfte fand, die Vollkornprodukte und andere gesunde Sachen im Sortiment hatten.
@Fabian:
Meine Mutter würde sich freuen! ;o)
Peanuts are full of monounsaturated fats, vitamin E, niacin, folate, protein, manganese and resveratrol, the phenolic antioxidant.
Peanuts- and the shells? You need a good vacuum cleaner then.
Peanuts remind me of Charlie Brown and Charles M. Schulz and of course Hilmar Kopper and Joe Ackermann, who has good contacts to the HSG.
And the circle closes.
- Homesick- no(?)
Because peanuts are ‘of perfect help against depressive thrusts’.
- Don’t take this serious, friends.
I prefer chocolate instead of peanuts therefore.
Begone, ye evil gods of temptation!
If this were a US-american blog, I could probably sue the owner because there’s no warning about the dangers of gaining weight by reading this blog and unconsciously stuffing oneself with all kinds of unhealthy food meanwhile…
So I’ll put on the warning myself:
WARNING! THIS BLOG CONTAINS UNHEALTHY FOOD AND COULD CAUSE DANGEROUS INCREASE IN WEIGHT!
It is not by reading that you get fat…
Read again… that’s not what I said!
Okay, I read: ‘unconsciously stuffing oneself with all kinds of unhealthy food meanwhile…’
- Hamburger or peanuts?
Eating hamburgers seems rather consciously to me- particularly the big ones. Not so peanuts. :-)
ALL kinds of food, Walter… but it’s true that you can’t really eat Hamburgers unconsciously, although, if you could have seen my Finnish roommate a couple of years ago wolfing down a Burger when she was so drunk she couldn’t even hold her head upright, you would think differently about that…
And I didn’t say it’s always logical what you can sue people for in the US.
For example, there was the case of someone who spilled some really hot McDonald’s coffee on him- or herself and then sued McD because there wasn’t a warning on the cup about the coffee being hot…
If I remember correctly, the person won the lawsuit and that’s why on McDonald’s coffee cups today you find the warning: CAUTION! CONTENTS ARE HOT – or something like that.
Sems like American jurisdiction doesn’t hold the intelligence of its clients in really high esteem… and in a system of judicial precedents that means it’s only getting more and more stupid…
Yes, the meal culture in America is always a challenge.
When I was the first time in the USA had I not so much money, therefore one had each fast food shop visits the one over the way ran, in order to save money.
The years after we went then correctly to meals, were well however very expensive. St. Louis, Nashville and New Orleans was ingenious the Creole kitchen, is only recommended!
The breakfast was for me always with difficulty, there I these eggs and bacon of courts as the first Meal on the day does not like.
The only one was I had then for breakfast taken, was zini minis and orange juice, at Burger King,
reads me of most different humans impress, who in the morning drank their coffee with slippers and bathrobe,…
But after 3 weeks I could eat those also not more!
But like MM, in the morning only fruit and coffee, noon only salad and in the evening only which easy like fish,… Oh my God, which I would not bear. That would be definitely nothing!;-)
Now they do not eat times a good Burger, harm them really. Those are already delicious!
I fly now in April to the west coast and leave me then again of the culinary high points spoil. ;-)
What about a weight measurement before and after the trip to USA?
Hamburger (100gr) : 270 kcal (1130 KJ), protein 15 gr, carbohydrate 24 gr, fat 13 gr (39 kcal)
Peanuts (100 gr): 570 kcal
- I don’t think that MM nourishes itself predominantly of peanuts…
Oh, how joyless this would be!
Take your time and give everything a try. And, especially, have fun!
(Don`t worry Walter, I got your irony)
…I have got your irony ;
(Kommt davon, wenn frau immer zu schnell schreibt!)
@Walter: Who want’s to know that ?! I always wonder when I see people eating salad at Mc Donalds. I don’t go there many often, but when I’m there, I want to eat something foolish, unhealthy. The same thing when people start making their burgers with “Kürbiskernbrötchen” (sorry, but I think that there doesn’t exist an englisch word for Kürbiskernbrötchen)… that’s not part of the game
(Mh, Kürbiskernbrötchenburger, I shall think about it, @Janna. Spring is for me usually the time to make a small diet and sports… The winter was hard, too much antidepressant (= chocolate) and celebrations. Puh…)
Saturday evening after supper- time for church?
PhilipaBoa was there. (look at YouTube)
- Das ist jetzt nicht gepetzt, sondern seit vorgestern öffentlich.
Did you know that peanuts is the type of food which has the highest chance to be aspirated ?
Oder wer hat die Dinger noch nie in die falsche Röhre gekriegt?? :-)
Ich bin eigentlich Vegetarierin und hab gestern Fleisch gegessen, weil ich in Aachen unterwegs war und nicht aufgepasst hab XD… Naja, gestern hab ich auch 20 Euro an nen Fahrkartenautomaten verloren. Vorgestern erlebte ich nen Rettungseinsatz mit mehrfachem Wiederbeleben mit… Eine ältere Frau ist umgekippt… und ihr Mann hat sie erst 10 Minuten später entdekct, ich kam dazu und er hatte grad vorher den Krankenwagen gerufen XD.. Reisen ist echt erlebnisreich… Achso.. und bei Mc… hab ich auch immer Pommes und nen Garchtensalat gegessen.. XD.
Von meinem Wissenschaft und Zukunft-Seminar erzähl ich jetzt erst mal nichts weiter. Die nächsten Wochen werde ich nämlich uach weiterhin unterwegs in Deutschland verbringen… Vll gefällt mir deshalb gerade so gut, dass MM hier so eine berichterstattung führt :D.
You haven’t lived the American way of life if you haven’t tried
- corn dog
- Orios
- root beer (it’s a non alcoholic soda)
and my favourite (or shall I say favorite)
- “I can’t believe it’s not butter”
Having said this, I stick to baked beans
With reading of this text I thought what thematic and mental jump. But it is not in such a way. Food and the eating rituals are important factors in our lives, depending on the culture where we live. The change of location/of the country does a big difference. Not only because food is simply different. Behind it is so much: the variability of geographical cultivation areas, the variability of the history and culture, the social distinctions…
In the time as I lived abroad it was really hard for me to accept the eating habits. Mostly I missed the german bread and a good white coffee. Food was so different, not full-value and healthy enough. I did not got the products from home or I had to looked for a long time.
One day I was invited with the neighbour. It was very unusual: a gigantic serving meat in watery sauce, potatoes and overcooked vegetables. To the dessert there was a lot of sugar by the external form of a biscuits. My eating habits partially stepped in the background, the perception / integration of my new surroundings was more important.
Every Friday 15.00 o’clock I went in the pub. About 17.00 o’clock I had drunk my second or third pint – never conceivable in Germany. With beer, sandwiches and music I took part in the life and felt fine.
Together to drink something and to eat welds together people. It doesn’t matter of which nation the person are, which history they have and how old they are.
My father has paid attention very much to a common food taking. As a young girl it has often irritated me because I have understood this meaning very much later.
Together to eat is a good medium for the exercise of communication.
I still can’t help feeling that nutrition ideologies has replaced religion in our days. And the more I hear about it, the more I read about – I feel much more sure about my conclusions.
One of my favourites quotes is still a line I picked up from Alfred Biolek: “Mabye vegans or vegatarians are living healthier, but do they live happier?”
Whenever I’m in the U.S., I at least once have to have a burger in a real American diner. For me, that’s a vital part of the experience of being in the U.S. which I wouldn’t want to miss. Add a milkshake to the burger and you’ve finally become part of the American way of life.
Have a safe trip, and I enjoy reading about it a lot. :-)