Observations of a Weary Traveler....

Observations of a Weary Traveler….  

 

So 2 weeks ago I was on my Honeymoon…yes, I am a newlywed…and blissfully happy to be so.  But this post is not about wedded bliss.  Today I’m writing about cultural differences I observed in my travels.

 

Big Sandwiches…what’s the etiquette?  Ok, the first place David and I ate at (outside of Sofitel Room Service) was the Brooklyn Diner.(btw, it's not in Brooklyn.)  The food was excellent – typical Diner Fare – with a sophisticated sort of feel.  I had Chicken Noodle Soup, Dave had a humungo cheeseburger, and we split an order of pigs in a blanket.  About 15 minutes after we ordered our lunch a couple was seated next to us.  The man ordered the same burger as Dave and the women ordered a Ruben.  Now, I premise the remainder of the story by saying she was very well dressed, and that is the only reason I can excuse her for what happens next.  We receive our order and yummmm….the food is wonderful but David’s burger is HUGE!!  In Dallas, it’s the kind of burger you cut in half and eat one half at a time.  Apparently in NYC there are other rules to eating the humungo burger, or a large sandwich of ANY kind.  I say that because shortly after our order arrived so did our neighbors’.  They both picked up a knife and fork and proceeded to eat their humungo sandwiches like a steak dinner.  I was like “Dude, you ordered a hamburger!”  He wasn’t all dressed up like she was so I was confused.  Later that week we had lunch at Virgil’s BBQ.  I was hungry fro BBQ and I was sure I’d regret it but we went in anyway.  Well, we sat down, ordered our lunch (which I’ll talk about later on  in this post) and watched the people.  It was here that I witnessed the knife and fork sandwich eating again.  The woman next to us had ordered the Beef Brisket sandwich.  This was a normal sized brisket sandwich….imagine the one you’d get at any of the generic BBQ places here in Dallas.  It wasn’t overly messy with sauce or anything…wasn’t even that big, but here this woman sits in jeans and a t-shirt, eating a BBQ sandwich with a knife and fork!?!?  I just had to laugh.  Was there some bit of etiquette we were not taught as children?  Is that really the correct way to eat a sandwich?  Then, Thursday night…or was it Wednesday…no, it was Thursday, we were at the Hard Rock NYC in Time Square.  Great Service, Dr Pepper on tap, good food.  Not only did I see one, but there were several guests enjoying their Hard Rock burgers via the knife and fork.  They weren’t sitting together, or really even in close proximity to each other.  The dress and gender of each offender differed.  There were 1-2 well or nicely dressed ladies, but most of them were dressed in what I considered very plain, ordinary street clothes.  I am completely dumbfounded by this…not so much because I noticed it once or twice…but it seemed like everywhere we went this was happening.   I guess things are just different in Texas.

 

The second thing I noticed…NY restaurants should not try to imitate southern food or cultures.  While at Virgil’s we had “Oklahoma State Fair Corny Dogs”.  Let me start by saying WTH!?!  The Texas State Fair Corny Dogs are the best.  Second, these were not corny dogs.  These were hot dogs coated in hushpuppy batter.  What’s the difference?  I’m glad you asked.  Corny dog batter is Cornbread batter, straight up, no lumps, no flair, just simple delicious cornbread batter.  Hushpuppy batter has stuff in it.  In the case of the “Oklahoma” corny dog, there were chunks of green onion and corn in the batter.  Now, don’t get me wrong, they were yummy, but they were not real corny dogs.  The brisket was very good, and Dave said the ribs were good too, but he’s a pork rib kinda guy and these were beef ribs.  The pulled pork was good too.  We were also very excited that they had Dr. Pepper…until we got the bill.  Can you believe we paid $14 for 4 cans of Dr Pepper!?!  That’s right folks, $3.50 per can for Dr Pepper….we learned to ask after that.  *rolling eyes*

 

NYC also has the BEST street food vendors.  Dave and I had lunch Friday at a Halal Food vendor….the most famous of them all our "chef" said as he exchanged good humored insults with his neighbor.  I had a chicken gyro and Dave and a Lamb gyro.  Can I just say YUM!  Freshly grilled chicken/ peppers/ onions with lettuce, tomato, tetzikki (sp) sauce…so good.  We also sat in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and munched down giant soft pretzels as we watched the people go by.  The only thing I wish we had done was had a street vendor hotdog…so good…but we didn’t.  Everything smelled so good as we were walking past.  Several times I was tempted to brush off the restaurants and dive into street food fare.

 

All in all the food was fabulous.  Stay tuned for more stories....I'm hoping to have pictures up this week.

Have a great day!

Comments

[Deb]

Your mother taught you well - street food is some of the best food out there (regardless of what you aunt tells you!!).

[Deb]

Oh yeah, and God gave us hands for a reason and it wasn't to wield a knife and fork at an unsuspecting hamburger!

[christi]

it's like that Seinfeld episode when Elaine's boss eats a Snickers with a knife and fork!! LOL
I think it's just less messy sometimes to eat it with utensils than pick it up. Must be an East Coast thing, Jessi!

[Cyndi Sarmiento-Rios]

I know it seems weird and I don't know where I got this from but I eat my large burgers with a knife and fork also. Actually it may be my dads doing, he used to eat pizza with a knife and fork, and so did I for a while.