USA 29 - Napa: Best Blueberry Pie EVER

Most people go to Napa to drink wine.

I ate pie.

And not just any pie.

I ate the best pie I've ever eaten in my life.

I find myself daydreaming about this pie. Seriously.

I was shown Sweetie Pies on Main Street, Napa, by my dear dear Vegas Partner-in-Crime! She'd invited me to stay, and of course, I accepted! And what a bloody ripper of a time I had.

I bonded with her two young kids (you can see them above with surprise! surprise!...cupcakes - supplied by me) over a packet of Clinkers my sis had sent in her goody bag with HOS (thanks, Sis). They would soon become fellow pie-tasters and critics.

Anyway...I digress. So, Sweetie Pies. Yes.

We had tried to visit there day before, after our Gourmet Wine Train ride through the Napa Valley - where we did more gas-bagging than sight-seeing - but alas, some tv show was filming there...hmmmm...interesting.

I returned the next day alone - poor Partner-In-Crime had to work. I suppose alone was just as well, that way I felt free to let myself go and indulge in one hell of a pie.

Now, when I go to a pie shop, I order pie. Miss Partner-In-Crime divulged that night, that she had never ordered pie in that shop before, she always went for cake! Hmmmmm....fortunately I was able to re-educate her, and she too became a fellow pie-taster and critic. But again, I get ahead of myself.

I rocked in. Looked around. Couldn't get a slice of the big pies, I had to buy a single one-serve pie, which, let's be honest (we're in the USA), was really a three-serve pie. Bugger. One pie all to myself.

But which to choose. I knew blueberries were in season, they were the only fibre I was regularly getting, I happen to LOVE blueberries, but the clincher was the fact that the blueberry pies were the only pies to have the old fashioned lattice pastry top - and you can't go past the old fashioned lattice pastry top. SOLD!

Now I'm embarrassed to say that I don't have a picture of said blueberry pie before I started eating. I was soooooooooooooooooooo entranced with the thing, so utterly utterly absorbed in how truly divine it tasted, so focused on keeping my moaning under control, that I forgot to take a picture! I'M SOOOOOOOOOO SORRY - all you get is that tiny little piece of pie that was left on my plate before I remembered!!!! And believe me, it doesn't do it justice. But I suppose no picture could do this pie justice. It looked pretty messy on the plate come to think of it, sort of "rustic" one might say.

I have always always subscribed to the theory that food is about taste not about looks - I totally disagree with this new movement on "we eat with our eyes first" - what a crock of moose poo (I'm in Alaska at the moment, writing this, hence the moose reference - I saw some today) - we bloody eat with our tastebuds, well I do anyway. This thing looked messy, and I know that ugly food from a specialist place is more than likely the best food - it doesn't have to tart itself up (get it??? "tart itself up"...?).

This pie was one of the closest things to heaven I've ever eaten. Now I know I have said this on many occasions, and believe me I have spent some time thinking about it. Yes, this magnificent blueberry pie beats Bob's Donuts famous jelly donut (post from LA) - that's a big call. It's the right one. Hands down.

The crust on this pie is like no other I've ever eaten...really thin, crispy, yet somehow nice and thick and stodgy, it left me confused on how they bloody did it - I suspect there's lard involved. I said "stodgy", but you know what I mean, that wonderful stodginess of a comfort food, of really homey pastry that fills up your mouth, a little doughy-flavoured - the taste of "comfort". It had all that while still being so light and crispy. It was seriously a miracle of baking.

And the filling. GODDDDDDDDDDDDDD. Big plump blueberries in a sweet, but not to sweet, gooey messy syrup which kept the wonderful integrity of the blueberry flavour and again provided that real "comfort" taste. OH MAN. I need another one. I was thinking that I would actually get on a plane and go back to Napa just for the pie. It was that good. Give me a minute here......

Ok, thanks. Moving on....

After spending 3 hours in the cafe devouring pie and chatting with the lovely lasses, I selected a few other treats to take back "home" for testing. This is what I grabbed...

1. Red Velvet Woopie Pie - a red velvet cakey thing sandwiched with a cream cheese marshmallow icing (pic above on its own, and with kids eating)

2. Cupcakes for kids - butter cake with marshmallow frosting and lots of red and blue stars!

3. Nana Split Pie - Chocolate cookie pie crust filled with caramel, bananas, vanilla and chocolate pastry cream with a raspberry and strawberry whipped cream topping (wow, that's alot of stuff in one pie - I had my doubts)

The kids were beside themselves when I got there with this disgusting orgy of sugar.

We ate our dinner.

We then had dessert.

Well. Here's the verdict...

Woopie Pie - hmmmm...a little disappointing, just tasted like a dry chocolate cake with yum cream cheese icing...none of us really got into it. I have since been told by a guy in Anchorage that the best Woopie Pies are from Maine - I'll see if I can test that out.

Cupcakes - of course the stars were picked off and eaten and most of the frosting licked off, Partner-In-Cream and I couldn't resist sticking our fingers in for a taste, it looked soooooooo good...and yes, the frosting was everything it should be...sweet, light, gooey and like a cloud!

Nana Pie - NOW THIS WAS A REVELATION - it was INCREDIBLE. It looked somewhat boring - see pic above, but once you taste it...oh my goodness...all those flavours just work together, they just mushed up into one big banana/strawberry/chocolate/gooey/creamy globby mouthful. Just like a banana split I suppose. Both Partner-In-Crime and I looked at each other, then dove in for more...I also got a text that night at 10pm in my San Fran Airport hotel from PIC - she was making a night time fridge raid on the Nana Split Pie - I was sooooooooooo jealous!!!

Deep sigh.

So, sportsfans, there you have it. DO NOT GO TO NAPA FOR WINE - GO FOR PIE. That's my motto from now on...I'm thinking of having t-shirts made up!!!

An ENORMOUS thank you to PIC and wonderful wonderful munchkins who made me feel so welcome and so happy in their home and in Napa.

There's a pic there above of PIC and I enjoying our gossip gourmet lunch. I'm not ashamed to say that I couldn't tell you one thing about Napa wines, but I can tell you about pie, cupcakes and wonderful Napa Hospitality.

WONDERFUL.

USA 28 - SFSF Weekend Day 4

(Once again, don't start reading the SFSF stuff here - make sure you start back on HOS Hits San Fran SFSF Day 1 - or it will be way too wacky!)

Day 4 - Sunday

Our final day together dawned.

The day started with a romantic lie in, deteriorated into a disgusting IHop festival, then further disintegrated with a Death-like March of billions of kilometres!

I'm such a drama queen!!!

It was a bloody awesome day - though we really needed that San Francisco Chili in Sourdough bread from Boudin by the end of it all - pic 1 - thought I'd shake things up a little by starting with last first. I'm in that sort of mood (I'm writing this at the Princess Wilderness Lodge up in the Denali National Park in Alaska - I'm running a little behind! But that doesn't matter cause I saw two bears in the wild today, from the train, and I'm still on a high from it - one was a baby bear, then a few minutes later I saw a bigger black bear - there are no words for how cool that was!)

Anyway. Day 4. Yes, of course. Bloody IHop.

For those of you who don't know, IHop stands for International House of Pancakes. I'm not sure where the "international" fits in, although there were crepes on the menu! HOS had been BUSTING to eat there when he was out the first time, and we just didn't make it. So, when we finally decided to haul our butts out of bed, I told him that today was going to be a special day for him...today was IHop breaky day! Oh the joyful smile on his face - those big bluey green eyes dancing with anticipatory delight.

We tracked down our local IHop over at the Marina. The place was packed - it was lunchtime on Sunday. HOS was so antsy, he just couldn't sit still. I was sorta dreading it! Now, down to business...what to have? Well seeing as HOS's favourite at Pancakes on the Rocks is Strawberry Patch, he went for some stack of pancakes with strawberries and this quasi awful watery sweet whit stuff they call chantilly cream...hmmmmmm. I, on the other hand went for a combo - I got 2 Double Blueberry Pancakes with aforementioned revolting sweet white runny stuff, and a plate of scrambled eggs, sausage and hash brown - all for just $8.95!

Now, not to dampen my man's enthusiasm for American fast food (some of which I have enjoyed, in parts), it was all pretty awful. HOS's strawberry pancake saucey stuff looked like it was coloured in with texta it was so artificially red. The pancakes tasted like packet mix, and the cooked breaky was ok. Having said that...seeing the look of excitement, fulfilment and satisfaction on HOS's face melted my heart and along with it, melted all those small little...well...issues. The little kid face of my 50 year old man made the trip unforgettable, and I would do it every day to see that look on his face. Soooooo cute (I think I'm still mushy from seeing the bears!).

So, we paid our "check" and headed off on our last adventure.

And what a bloody big adventure. We set out for the Golden Gate Bridge - our mission...to cross it! We set a cracking pace...powerwalked through the Presidio area which is right on the Bay, walked with all the other locals and tourists alike through some park closer to the bridge, and within an hour we were there at the Bridge - and it was absolutely spectacular. I've wacked up a few pics up there to bore you with. We walked across with the blustery wind in our faces - it's 2.7 miles long, then we turned around at the end and came all the way back, this time with a bit of a tail wind helping us out. It was FABULOUS, EXHILARATING for me, and a little FREAKY for HOS. We watched container ships come in, watched the windsurfers and suicidal kite surfers, there was a bike lane on the other side, and we actually saw the wind slam a woman cyclist into one of the pylons...OUCH.

Feeling oh so virtuous and very proud of ourselves, and not a little buggered, we decided to find some food. Well about 5pm, and another 6km later, we found it!!! We walked all the way back along the Marina, then across over the park to Fisherman's Wharf...by this time I was pooky and very very cranky (we all know what I'm like when I'm tired AND hungry), but we marched on. It was worth it. Wonderful wonderful chili in sourdough bread bowl from the famous San Francisco sourdough bakery, Boudin....it was heavenly. HOS, a card-carrying member of the Chili Police, gave it his seal (and sigh) of approval! Thank goodness. We then splurged on sharing one of their White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut cookies. MMMMMMMMM (Don't miss soup at Boudin, just next to Fisherman's Wharf - on my first day in San Fran I had the clam chowder in the bread bowl...divineeeeeeeeeeee).

Things started to get a little sadder at this time...we knew it was time to get back for HOS to start packing, and for us to say goodbye.

I won't go into the farewell scene - don't want to spoil my bear high I'm on.

All I can say is, thank you, my love. Those four days were some of the best of our travels together, and I will cherish them forever and forever. When I stop to think of certain things (you know what they are) I just burst out laughing!!! I will keep them with me always.

End of mushy stuff.

End of Super Fantastic San Fran Weekend.

USA 27 - SFSF Weekend Day 3

(Don't start reading this post unless you've read the two previous ones, SFSF Weekend Day 1 and 2 - otherwise you'll think I'm a complete nutter)

Day 3 - Saturday

It's day 3 on the big Super Fantastic San Francisco (SFSF) Weekend, and HOS and I have just started warming up.

Today is super tourist day - ending with a naughty twist (I bet that piqued your interest)!

As you can see there are a billion pics above - I just didn't know what to include so I just bunged a whole lot in.

Let's start the day with a visit to the San Fran coastline - in our super dooper cool Mustang we get and off to see what the beach looks like. Hmmmm....you can see it above...sort of like a big beach in winter (although it's not winter). Nothing too earth shattering, but glad we saw it nevertheless.

Nex on the list was Sausilito for breaky, via The Golden Gate Bridge (in our super dooper cool Mustang). HOS (Hung of Spunk) put his foot down and we zoomed over the famous orange bridge, pic above, it sorta seemed a little underwhelming, though HOS made it more exciting with the roar of his Mustang...impressive stuff HOS.

We arrived at the picturesque Sausilito, which is on the other side of the bay from the city of San Francisco, so we got fab views from our cafe table (pic above). It was cool to see the contrast of such a built up city in one direction, then green topped hills with yachts sailing in front in the other direction. That's what I really liked about San Francisco, it had such stark contrasts that worked together and made sense.

Breakfast was average, but the views fantastic.

We had to hurry our little butts though, the car had to be back before we caught our 12.30pm ferry to Alcatraz - never fear, ol' Fangio got us there in plenty of time, in fact with time to spare.

We put that time to good use. A little birdy had told me that there was a fab Farmers' Market at the Ferry Building, just a 10 min walk from where we were taking the ferry. It was Saturday morning and the perfect weather for a little wander...and a little bite! IT WAS FANTASTIC. Do not miss the Ferry Building Farmers' Market - held on Thursday and Saturday - real farmers bringing their wares, and lots of other good things to eat as well. We bought gorgeous red strawberry-smelling strawberries, and divine cherry-coloured cherries to take with us to The Rock. Sort of like a little picnic (and we threw in an Apple Turnover for good measure).

With picnic supplies in hand, off we trotted to visit the most feared prison in the USA. We boarded our ferry (after having the obligatory tacky tourist pic taken, which, btw, they do at every single vaguely touristy attraction), and headed off to this incredibly imposing island. It sits out there in the Bay, all alone, with so much history, so much darkness, and this permanent cloud of eeriness. I remember visiting when I was 14 years old and being quite moved by it - by its sadness and its strength, and of course it's such a curious thing - a place where really really bad men were sent, all locked up together, on one island. It made quite an impression on me.

As a grown up, it made an even stronger impression.

I don't know how to describe the feeling of being there, other than that cloud of eeriness I mentioned. It is truly a very sad place, and yet it's one of the most interesting places I've ever visited. You could imagine the coldness, the hopelessness, the lonliness of being an inmate here - I felt all those things and I was there with HOS and about 5,000 fellow tourists. We all walked around with earphones on, in a subdued sort of fog, listening to the audio tour which was narrated by former guards and inmates, and which was spectacularly interesting. HOS and I were quite pensive when we finished, we walked around a little out on the recreation yard, then headed back to the ferry, mostly in silence, it's that sort of experience.

We became more animated though on the ferry back, digging into our cherries and strawberries and wondering what we would do next...I suggested we head back to the Ferry Building to look at the luscious shops I'd seen a few hours before, that are actually permanent shops inside the building. Boy, I'm glad we did. We discovered the Cowgirl Creamery, where we purchased some Fresh Herb Fromage Blanc, and a chunk of a Wisconsin hard cheese called Roth Kase Private Reserve. We also discovered, coincidentally right next door, Acme Bread, where a sweet baguette and a sourdough baguette (I couldn't make up my mind) was purchased. We then sat out on the wharf eating wonderful cheese and bread, enjoyihng the sunshine and warmth of the blue sky, and of course each other. It was bliss.

But dear readers, fear not, the day is not yet over for these two interpid tourists...after a wonderful coffee at Froghollow Farm, still in the Ferry Building, we started to wander towards the hotel, looking for some transport. And then we saw it. The number one San Francisco tourist attraction (well, that's really Alcatraz, but never let the truth get in the way of a good story). The Cable Car.

Yes, the Cable Car. HOS had been busting to get on one of these, and it just magically appeared before our eyes. Lucky HOS. I'm not sure when I've seen HOS quite this excited...he was more excited about this than the super dooper cool Mustang. Crikey! Up California Street we went...HOS going on about the cable system, the pulleys, the brake, blah blah blah...he really really loved this stuff. He was enchanted by it all. In fact I think I recall him saying it was the best thing about his SFSF weekend (hmmmm...best thing, my love???).

HOS doens't just stop at a cable car ride. When he's into something, he is really into something. After a wander around Nob Hill and the Grace Cathedral, we tracked down the Cable Car Museum. Here, HOS could study to his heart's content. And he did. He was most excited that he'd found where all the cable engines are kept! You can see them above, these drive the four San Fran Cable Cars - he was beside himself!!

But alas, the Museum finally had to close, so with a sad face HOS took my hand and we meandered back to the hotel...meandered up and down the streets (well, hills really) of San Francisco (that was a tv reference in case you missed it).

We headed out for dinner at Rose Pistola in North Beach. I'd eaten there on my first night and had quite an amazing experience - simple spaghetti in their tomato sauce was to die for, followed my a scoop of orange and amaretto sorbet...really really special. Unfortunately the food was rather disappointing on the Saturday night - but I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.

We took the dodgy track through Chinatown home to our hotel...with a dodgy stop-off on the way!!! This little stop-off is in the vault, but I know that HOS is smiling as he reads - it was the perfect way to finish off our last night together in San Francisco!!!

USA 26 - SFSF Weeekend Day 2

Day 2 - Friday

(If you haven't already, start at SFSF Weekend Day 1, otherwise it won't make much sense!)

We woke up Friday morning ready for adventure.

I had a plan. Little Italy for breaky, through Chinatown. Luckily I'd read just the day before that the birth place of Chinese Fortune Cookies was on the way! So we set off.

We headed out on food, straight to Chinatown to hunt down the Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Company, on 56 Ross Alley, which believe me, is in a back alley! You can see them there in pic one working at their pressing machines making fortune cookies - we got to sample one as a sort of breaky aperitif. Mmmmm.

We then kicked on up the hill, all the way through Chinatown, hitting Columbus Ave, turning left and then hitting the suburb of North Beach, commonly known as Little Italy. I took HOS to a cafe I'd seen the day before that was packed full of, what looked like, locals. Into Caffe Grecco we went.

We ordered some Pumpkin Bread and the most gooey mushy looking Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding - they warmed it for us. Pumpkin Bread, average. Chocolate Banana mushy stuff....DIVINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. It was just so good, we both took a first tentative spoonful, then looked at each other and dove right in. It was soft, gooey, sweet, yet bananery heaven. Sigh. Just right for a bloody freezing San Francisco day. Oh, and the coffee was great, I was able to grate fresh nutmeg onto the cappuccino foam...mmmmmmm, so nutty and spicy. What a perfect breakfast.

After that disgustingly good start, we kept walking towards the water to spend the arvo at Alcatraz. Alas, once we reached the ticket office we discovered all tickets for the day were sold out, we would have to wait for tomorrow. You can see HOS up there in the pic just after we bought our tickets for the next day.

So...there we were. What to do? Where to go? HOS looked around. I saw his eyes settle on the big double decker bridge, not the famous orange Golden Gate, the grey white one, much much bigger...The Bay Bridge. I saw his eyes twinkle..."Let's go for a drive".

Within 30 minutes we were driving out of Budget in a brand new white Mustang.

That's it above. A Mustang. American muscle car. With me draped all over it. It was a bloody cool car. We felt bloody cool in it! We looked bloody cool in it!

So, off we went to cross that double bridge, the bridge that held so much fascination for HOS. He was very very excited as we crossed (I'm not sure if it was the bridge or the car to be honest!). We were on our way to Berkeley. I wanted to see the famous Alice Waters restaurant, Chez Panisse. Alice is said to be the founder of the American organic movement and has a very very famous restaurant there in Berkeley. We drove past, went it, there's a cafe upstairs, we had a look, but it was a bit fancier than what we were in the mood for. So we headed downstairs and went in search of other things. We found them. Mmmmmmmm a shop called The Cheese Board - as the name suggests, it's a cheese shop - go figure! But also a wonderful bakery, which happened to sell the most delightful of surprises...the Sticky Bun (pic above), oh myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...a wonderful light sweet roll with a not too sweet but beautifully gooey caramel cooked into and all over it. It was just the right combo with the morning's choc banana bread pudding! Of course we indulged. There was a great deal of moaning, which is sort of uncool when your car is a Mustang.

We headed back to said cool car and headed off on the open road. We took the scenic route through Sonoma, which was absolutely beautiful. We were out in wine country now, and it looked sort of like a cross between the perfect green hills of England, with the burgundy wine area of France, and the Hunter Valley in Oz. Just gorgeous. We drove up to Santa Rosa, then headed to the Coast to follow the road back to San Fran through the Tomales Bay area. We actually stopped at Bodega Bay for dinner at a restaurant called Tides Inn, it sits right on the Bay and the view was fab. The food, though was average, but the great little discovery was that this was the spot where they filmed the Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds. VERY VERY COOL.

It was a spectacular drive back to San Fran, although a little too windy at the end for my liking, but you can see from the sunset pic above, taken above Tomales Bay, that it was indeed the perfect romantic end to yet another perfect SFSF Weekend day!

USA 25 - HOS Hits San Fran - SFSF Weekend Day 1

HOS couldn't help himself - he came back!! For a long weekend. OH YEAH BABY!!!

Now, I'm warning all of you readers, that these next 4 posts could be really really tedious - you see, we had such a bloody great time, and crammed in so much stuff, I am going to indulge my man and I by using this blog as our own personal diary so we never ever forget our Super Fantastic San Fran (SFSF) Weekend!!!

Day 1 - Thursday

HOS (for those who are new to the blog, HOS stands for Hunk of Spunk, which is code word for my hubby) arrives at SF airport. I had arrived two days before, so knew my way around a little.

After a mushy kissy kissy scene at the airport we hopped the BART (the cool train system) into town (btw fab public transport in SF) to drop off his stuff at the hotel on Union Square. We marched down to the F-Line (tram like thingy) stop to grab the F-Line to The Castro (or gay ghetto as it is fondly called). You can see HOS up there on pic 2 in front of our cute little tram like thingy! We wandered up and down The Castro (which is no way ghetto), sort of like a much more gay Paddington, but very cool shops, bars, and um...naughty stores!

We then walked along 19th Street (pic 3) to head to the Mission area to find a special bakery I knew of. We wandered through Dolores Park and into the Mission area, which is a grungy cool suburb of SF, apparently it's where alot of the bike couriers live! It's sort of Newtown before it became cool. Anyway, we were in search of baked goods.

Tartine. Cnr of Guerrero and 18th Street. We found it. Mecca of San Francisco foodies. Run by a couple of bakers (literally, they're married!), there is no sign, just a corner shop with bakery out the back and retail out the front along with an espresso machine (yay). We were both famished and let me tell you now, everything looked absolutley divine. They bake all day to make sure they have fresh product all the time. We started with the most wonderful Croque Monsier - which was their "country" bread sliced, with bechamel sauce, ham, gruyere and asparagus toasted open sandwich...dear lord it was fanatastic. We also had a slice of Cake Aux Olives which was quirky, but I kept going back to the Croque Monsieur. Then it was dessert...mmmmm...we ordered a slice of their signature cake, Lemon Meringue Cake, which you can see in Pic 3, and a Frangipane Tart with blueberries....HOS adored the Tart, and I adored the Lemon Meringue Cake...what a good pair we make!

So, after sating ourselves at Tartine, we wandered (or really hiked, SF is really really hilly), to another cool area called Noe Valley. This is sort of a cross between Paddington and Mosman, but smaller. There's a couple of streets of cute shops and cafes coveing everything from custom made bikes (HOS was in heaven) and wonderful ice-cream (I was in heaven). When we wondered into one ice-creamery, I discovered they had the famous SF ice-cream, Mitchell's, which was actually made just around the corner. In the name of research, sportsfans, I HAD TO TRY IT. And there you have it...pic 4, HOS holding our Mexican Chocolate (dark chocolate and cinnamon) ice cream and Pear Sorbet...ohhhh myyyyyyyy...so so so so good.

By this time we were waddling. So we waddled to the tram station, a different type of tram from the F-Line, and we caught this over to the awfully tacky, touristy, and famous Fisherman's Wharf. Well you have to, don't you. It was HOS's first visit to SF after all. So over we went. Bought taffy at Pier 39, pic above, watched the funny seals, walked up and down the crabby fishy Fisherman's Wharf, then jumped the tram thingy F-Line back to the hotel. Full of food, and all gooey and excited to be with each other. Sigh. So romantic!

You would think after fitting all that into an afternoon, we would have collapsed on the bed and never left the room. BZZZZZZZ WRONG. By about 9pm, we were feeling a little peckish...yes, it was time for more food. I suggested we go to get a "snack" from the cool Mexican place that the lady we met in Tartine recommended. She told us that the Mission area used to be a huge hispanic area, and the mexican food is the best around, and she told us which one she preferred. Of course I had written it down in my little green book, so knew exactly where to tell the taxi driver to go, we were off to Pancho Villa Taqueria!!!

Ladies and gents, there on the last pic, is our evening "snack". HOS left me to order, so up I went. The lady at the cafe had told me about the Carnitas Super Taco (Carnitas is pulled pork), so I ordered one of those, and then to accompany the Super Nachos with Spicey Chicken. DELICIOUSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. You can see it there, fresh and tasty, and after a little visit to the Salsa Bar to mix and match your salsas, it was a very special Mexican Feast - packed full of locals, and sooooooo cheap, I think I paid $20 which included the Tamarind soda and tip! If you can, get yourself out there - it's on Valencia if I remember correctly.

And that's how we ended our first day of HOS's SFSF Weekend. CRIKEY what on earth would tomorrow bring???

USA 24 - Small Town USA

Hello there. Well, before I move on to the glamorous city of San Francisco, I need to include a little bit about small town USA food!

We all know that food is more than what you get in a restaurant or cafe, so what do you find in small town USA cupboards??? Now keep in mind, this is only a very small sample.

I have been lucky enough to spend some time in small town Atlanta and Arkansas with some really wonderful locals who opened their cupboards and fridges and local supermarkets for me - THANK YOU!

This is a small selection of my favourite wacky small town America finds!

1. Biscuits and Sausage - a Southern Favourite - you open the can of biscuits (just like our scones), heat them up, slice off a piece of that sausagey looking stuff and fry it - wack the sausage in the biscuit and...voila...a sausage biscuit - one of the staples in the South.

2. Meal in a packet! Oh yes - see dinner there in a box. That has chicken casseroley stuff in a tin - you pour it into a dish then make up the mashed potato mix and then the scone mixture and pour it on top and bung it in the over...and voila...dinner!

3. A Fruit Loops muesli bar!!! This one just cracked me up - and when I pointed it out to my Arkansas friend, she couldn't believe we don't have them in Oz!!!

4. Fresh Sweet Potato Casserole Mix with Marshmallow Topping - yes, that's right, "Just add: sweet potatoes, milk and butter". Seriously. I burst out laughing in the supermarket when I saw this (although this was after I counted 51 different types of bbq sauce on the shelf). This is just a scream. And the best part is, again, the locals couldn't understand my problem - I suggested that this was more like a dessert, that serving mashed sweet potato with melted marshmallow on top wasn't really a side vege dish in Oz - they were disgusted with me!!

I am keeping my eyes peeled for more wonderful culturally interesting food products...I'll keep you posted!

USA 23 - New Orleans, Home of Gumbo!

You just can't leave New Orleans without eating Gumbo, or even Jambalaya for that matter - both were born and bred here, and both deserve to be experienced.

Luckily, in my New Orleans travels, I took a class at the New Orleans School of Cooking where our fearless Chef took us through both Gumbo and Jambalaya. Even luckier still, I was given a fabulous tip from Luke on Reception who pointed me in the direction of Coop's Place, a local bar and restaurant with FANTASTIC New Orleans home cooking.

Gumbo is a classic creole dish - creole was born from a mixture of French, Spanish, African and native American Indian influences, all blending together in this amazing city of New Orleans.

Gumbo is actually a soup, often served with rice, whereas Jambalaya is a stew with rice cooked in it.

Gumbo gets its name from the African word for okra, kingumbo. Okra is that long hairy vege, that is sort of slimy when you cook it, but it actually is a natural thickener. It's usually a key gumbo ingredient.

Another key ingredient is "file" (pronounced, fee-lay). This stuff is a green mysterious powder - it smells pungently musty and gives the gumbo it's dark green depth. File is simply ground Sassafras leaves, it was used by the South Louisiana Choctaw Indians for medicinal purposes, they brought it to the French Market to sell, and the locals picked it up and started using it as a seasoning and thickener to replace the okra when it was out of season! Cool, hey!

Then you have roux (pronounced roo). Roux is used as a base for a lot of creole and cajun cooking. It's simply the slow burning of flour, and gives flavour as well as thickening properties. There is a whole colour spectrum for your roux - depending on the dish eg. a blond roux (beige) is used for bisques, while a creole roux, for say gumbo, is a peanut butter colour, and cajun food uses a very dark roux. Gee, you guys learn a lot from me!

So, back to the gumbo. The rest of the gumbo is whatever is lying around, or in the early days, whatever you could catch or shoot! The classic dish now of course is the seafood gumbo, but I believe in the early days there was Alligator, Opossum, Snake, and even little bird gumbo - whatever you could get your hands on!! It was all simmered together with a heap of "the holy trinity" - onions, capsicum (bell peppers for the Americans), and celery, as well as their own special creole seasoning mix.

The gumbo we made at the cooking school had chicken and Andouille sausage (a spicy sausage) - the gumbo I ate at Coop's Place had bloody everything in it.

So, let's talk about Coop's.

Coop's Place is on Decatur Street, down near the French Market - it looks a bit dark and divey, but GO IN THERE AND EAT!!! They have two House Specialties - the Seafood Gumbo and the Jambalaya - I ordered a cup of both!

The Seafood Gumbo (dark green soup above) is "A creole stew served with rice. Prepared with dark brown roux, French Market vegetables, file powder, drum (fish) fillet, shrimp, oysters and crabclaws"....MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM....Oh my goodness...it was incredibly dark and mysteriously wonderful! So much flavour, not very hot, just lots and lots of flavour, and the silkiness of the okra was divine. I have just relooked at my notes I keep in my little food diary and it says "AMAZING, zingy, fishy herby - deep, dark and mysterious - chunks of wonderful slimy okra, prawns and crabclaw - layers of gutsy flavour with a bit of residual heat". Well, there you have it!

(On my second Coop's visit, I was lucky enough to chat with Coop himself, the owner of the place, who answered all my questions on the file powder, and even gave me a sample to smell, taste and take home with me - thanks, Coop. It is seriously funky stuff!)

Moving on to the Jambalaya (made famous for me by Newman in Seinfeld). Coop's Jambalaya (above) is "A traditional Creole dish rice dish, simmered with tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, local seasonings, boneless rabbit and smoked pork sausage" - it was bloody great - a bit spicier than the Gumbo, a taste sensation in my mouth to be honest...but I have to say, I just kept going back to the Gumbo.

I returned to Coop's the next evening for a snack - I ordered the Gumbo - that shows you just how much I loved it. The wonderful waitress, who btw, loves all things spangly, wouldn't let me order it. She was adamant that I had the gumbo yesterday, and I must choose something else to try! What a hoot. I capitulated, sportsfans, and so glad I did because she ordered me their Duck Quesadilla with Orange Sauce - and readers, I can't even begin to tell you how good that was, if I do, you'll be here for hours as I put superlative after superlative on this post, and we all know how boring that is for non-foodies!

So, readers. New Orleans. Gumbo. Coop's. Don't forget. And for all those lucky enough to live in Sydney...I bought "The Little Gumbo Book - 27 Carefully Created Recipes that Will Enable Everyone to Enjoy the Special Experiences of Gumbo". OH YEAH BABY!!!!