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The US; a Rant...
May. 6th, 2003 11:43 amThis is going to be a Rant. I warn you now. It will also be something of a travel guide, especially about eating. However, before I start there are a couple of things I'd like to establish.
I recently got back from a week on business in Seattle. This Rant is mostly about the USA where many of you know I lived for a while in 2001. I want to state for the record that I like Seattle. I like it a lot. As Niles Crane once put it, "Seattle; a world class symphony and fine dining." I can't comment on the music but the dining is the best of any US city I have ever visited.
So, this Rant is more about the USA.
I quite like America. I like visiting America, I'd certainly live there again should the chance present itself, which, after this trip, it might well do. While I was out there I was asked this question; "Would you move to the US?" - The answer is complex but sums up as; "Yes, I would. But not permanently."
Let's start with the Food. It is really good, but not uniformly good, nor the best. I challenge anybody to find something good to say about the "Patty Melt" (*) - Seattle does boast fine dining, I strongly recommend the "Puck Cafe" (as in Wolfgang Puck), Mama's Mexican Kitchen in Belltown (M recommends the Strawberry magharita), The Firehouse (ok, its a chain but they make good beer) and The Elysium (great brew house with interesting menu).
So, with all that fine dining what's the problem? Simple. ITS ALL TOO DAMN BIG! We started taking "half" or "starter" portions and they were too much - too much of a good thing stops being all that good. While in California the people tended to be fitness freaks, they were more on the large side in Seattle. I worry about a place where I start to feel "normal" when I could do with losing 5kg's just to get down to Overweight. M realised that she was being checked out more there, by both sexes but that's another interesting thing about Seattle.
There are jokes about English food; you still see them on TV. And, if you order a burger in the UK you deserve everything you get. But, in general, English food, especially breakfast, beats the pants of the USian equivalents.
I've whinged about the Coffee before; even in Seattle it is only medicore. We did think about taking pictures of the Starbucks, but that was before we realised we only had a 64MB Memory Card in the camera.
Moving on; roads. Road design, to be specific. California is bad, probably the worse. Seattle and the environs is a bit like the UK but with all lane discipline and road design taken away. There are a couple of places in the UK where you join from the right - not many, but I suggest avoiding Coventry. Random lane allocation is an artform in the States. Where the 520 merges with the 5 in Seattle, you have about half a mile to cross 6 lanes of traffic if you want to take the exit for the Space Needle. Madness. There's no etiquette that I can find for informing road users of your actions; which means you basically maneuvre into spaces and hope that everybody gets the hell out of the way. I've heard stories about the driving test there but haven't taken it yet. Basic, is the best adjective I've heard.
News coverage; TV news in the US is, unless you have a good cable package, pretty bad. Unless you read a newspaper - or rather several newspapers, you're going to get a weird world view. And, it seems, that unless you are a Usenews poster, you don't get much political discourse in the run of things. Most Americans I've met don't like to discuss things like politics, certainly not if you're going to disagree - even if it's good natured. A lot has been said about the war so its not worth rehashing it. However, you do feel quite astounded sometimes at the things well educated and theorectically well informed people will say.
Sadly, sometimes watching TV you could actually find yourself forgetting that there's a great big planet out there. I know there is, I flew around it once and it took forever...
Seattle is a nice liberal sort of place, somewhere I think I could live - the weather isn't as good as the Bay Area, but there aren't many places on Earth with weather that good. However, it does remind you that there are lots of negative points about the USA.
While there are a huge many exciting things about the US, you are also reminded that its not so very different from the UK, or for that matter most of Western Europe. I remember going to the US with my parents and being astounded, the US was an amazing place, full of exciting things we just couldn't imagine at home. I think that edge is gone now and, left in its place, is an expectation among people that the edge still exists.
In reality it doesn't. A lot of things that were once cool in America are done the same or better elsewhere - what I don't sense is an urgency to keep pushing ahead. Once out of the city centres the sub-urbs haven't changed much in decades - 60's neon signs are still in place, everything looks dated, like an episode of Happy Days gone mad.
The UK has changed a lot in the last 20-30 years - out of town centres are still changing, constantly being revised. I don't get that feeling driving around strip mall]s in the US. We've been playing catch up so long that I have a suspicion that in some areas we've already over taken and haven't noticed.
(*) A deep fried burger covered in lard and grilled afterwards.
I recently got back from a week on business in Seattle. This Rant is mostly about the USA where many of you know I lived for a while in 2001. I want to state for the record that I like Seattle. I like it a lot. As Niles Crane once put it, "Seattle; a world class symphony and fine dining." I can't comment on the music but the dining is the best of any US city I have ever visited.
So, this Rant is more about the USA.
I quite like America. I like visiting America, I'd certainly live there again should the chance present itself, which, after this trip, it might well do. While I was out there I was asked this question; "Would you move to the US?" - The answer is complex but sums up as; "Yes, I would. But not permanently."
Let's start with the Food. It is really good, but not uniformly good, nor the best. I challenge anybody to find something good to say about the "Patty Melt" (*) - Seattle does boast fine dining, I strongly recommend the "Puck Cafe" (as in Wolfgang Puck), Mama's Mexican Kitchen in Belltown (M recommends the Strawberry magharita), The Firehouse (ok, its a chain but they make good beer) and The Elysium (great brew house with interesting menu).
So, with all that fine dining what's the problem? Simple. ITS ALL TOO DAMN BIG! We started taking "half" or "starter" portions and they were too much - too much of a good thing stops being all that good. While in California the people tended to be fitness freaks, they were more on the large side in Seattle. I worry about a place where I start to feel "normal" when I could do with losing 5kg's just to get down to Overweight. M realised that she was being checked out more there, by both sexes but that's another interesting thing about Seattle.
There are jokes about English food; you still see them on TV. And, if you order a burger in the UK you deserve everything you get. But, in general, English food, especially breakfast, beats the pants of the USian equivalents.
I've whinged about the Coffee before; even in Seattle it is only medicore. We did think about taking pictures of the Starbucks, but that was before we realised we only had a 64MB Memory Card in the camera.
Moving on; roads. Road design, to be specific. California is bad, probably the worse. Seattle and the environs is a bit like the UK but with all lane discipline and road design taken away. There are a couple of places in the UK where you join from the right - not many, but I suggest avoiding Coventry. Random lane allocation is an artform in the States. Where the 520 merges with the 5 in Seattle, you have about half a mile to cross 6 lanes of traffic if you want to take the exit for the Space Needle. Madness. There's no etiquette that I can find for informing road users of your actions; which means you basically maneuvre into spaces and hope that everybody gets the hell out of the way. I've heard stories about the driving test there but haven't taken it yet. Basic, is the best adjective I've heard.
News coverage; TV news in the US is, unless you have a good cable package, pretty bad. Unless you read a newspaper - or rather several newspapers, you're going to get a weird world view. And, it seems, that unless you are a Usenews poster, you don't get much political discourse in the run of things. Most Americans I've met don't like to discuss things like politics, certainly not if you're going to disagree - even if it's good natured. A lot has been said about the war so its not worth rehashing it. However, you do feel quite astounded sometimes at the things well educated and theorectically well informed people will say.
Sadly, sometimes watching TV you could actually find yourself forgetting that there's a great big planet out there. I know there is, I flew around it once and it took forever...
Seattle is a nice liberal sort of place, somewhere I think I could live - the weather isn't as good as the Bay Area, but there aren't many places on Earth with weather that good. However, it does remind you that there are lots of negative points about the USA.
While there are a huge many exciting things about the US, you are also reminded that its not so very different from the UK, or for that matter most of Western Europe. I remember going to the US with my parents and being astounded, the US was an amazing place, full of exciting things we just couldn't imagine at home. I think that edge is gone now and, left in its place, is an expectation among people that the edge still exists.
In reality it doesn't. A lot of things that were once cool in America are done the same or better elsewhere - what I don't sense is an urgency to keep pushing ahead. Once out of the city centres the sub-urbs haven't changed much in decades - 60's neon signs are still in place, everything looks dated, like an episode of Happy Days gone mad.
The UK has changed a lot in the last 20-30 years - out of town centres are still changing, constantly being revised. I don't get that feeling driving around strip mall]s in the US. We've been playing catch up so long that I have a suspicion that in some areas we've already over taken and haven't noticed.
(*) A deep fried burger covered in lard and grilled afterwards.
