Food!

Welcome, hungry reader. Today, just for a change, I'm going to talk about things that are great here in the US, with a focus on the culinary: yes, it's a foody one.

Now, I'm not a fussy eater, but I know what I like (despite not even being a lawnmower). There are plenty of foods here which simply aren't a patch on their European counterparts, but there's a few things which are excellent, and definitely worth the price of admission. In particular, here in California, anything with a Mexican influence tends to be pretty good, and certainly any Californian worth their salt will argue that the Mexican food here is the best in the world. But let's be honest reader, most of them haven't been to Guildford.

One particular item that I could quite happily live on, and which the Californians are especially good at, is the humble tortilla chip:

These ones come from our grocery delivery, and they're excellent: a bit thicker and just a touch more pliable than you'd expect from a UK-based tortilla chip diet. Here I've got it placed with a local habanero salsa, which gives a clue as to how the US is disposing of its chemical weapons stockpile. This stuff has a kick.

The other thing that's unexpectedly good here in Palo Alto is any kind of Asian food, particularly Chinese. We have a relatively large Asian population here, and with the help of our Chinese neighbour Bing we're exploring all the restaurants. There's many to choose from!

Recently we finally made it to Gott's Roadside, playfully nicknamed Gott's Roadkill by yours truly. Americans do love a diner, and Gott's attempts to be an upscale version of a traditional roadside stop. We passed on the offerings of Squirrel Surprise, Coyote Curry and Rotisserie Raccoon, settling eventually for a regular burger and milkshake. [No, they don't really offer roadkill-themed menu items, that's part of the joke, reader]

One thing that's not super-amazing, but which does seem somewhat ubiquitous, is Pocky:

Now obviously I was introduced to this by Superchunk's 1991 classic 'No Pocky for Kitty', which I'm listening to as I write this, but I'd never actually tried the stuff until last week.

They say never meet your heroes; I can extend that to never trying classic snackfoods that are namechecked in classic album titles, because Pocky is a letdown. And it's not even American: it's actually Japanese, I now find out. So what's it doing in the blog, you ask? Well reader, I had a picture of it, and you all love a picture, so why not?

Of course, as I've mentioned before, Palo Alto's premier eating place is the Palo Alto Creamery. There's not much that I've not already said about this place, except when you meet anyone that's lived here for a while, and talk turns to food, they all say, "Have you been to the Creamery? And have you had breakfast there?". It's definitely worth a visit just to sample their pies.

Helen's also been cooking lots of things with the flesh she carved out of our pumpkin jack o' lantern... all I can say is, I hope she likes pumpkin. The pumpkin is a fixture here from the start of September until Thanksgiving, and "pumpkin spice" is also everywhere. Yes reader, pumpkin spice was not invented by Starbucks at Woodall Services on the M1 (and yes, there is a Starbucks at Woodall Services, I've checked; this blog is nothing if not impeccably researched, reader).

Anyway, Thanksgiving is upon us, and we've put in our order for a quart of delicious stuffing, because we fancy the idea of eating nothing but stuffing in December (and also you couldn't order any less). We'll let you know how it goes, reader!