6 favourite foods I have eaten in the USA

1) Chicken pastry. Oh boy, I first had this a good 20 years ago during my first visit. My cousin was cooking for the Sunday NFL game and everyone in the family were big Dallas Cowboys fans. I didn't get this as we were in North Carolina about 30 miles east of Raleigh airport. But fair enough, no law about supporting an out-of-state team, I reckoned.
I remember my cousin preparing this big whole chicken. I didn't know what chicken pastry was, and I was expecting a crusty chicken pie if anything. An hour later we sat down and he served up. I remember thinking huh? Where's the chicken? No pastry? It's soup. But wait, when I tasted this chicken pastry, with the dumplings and bits of chicken in it, I was hooked, and have been ever since. Luckily it consists of basic and easily obtainable ingredients and I make my version of it about once every two months. Absolutely delicious.

2) Biscuits. Oh yummee! I think the best biscuit I ever had was from the 'Mom and Pop' store at the top of my aunt's street where I was staying. It was early morning and a few of us were heading out to Jordan Lake. We stopped at the store and picked up some breakfast to eat during the drive. I asked for a sausage biscuit without knowing what it was. It was a sausage patty, seasoned, juicy and tender. The biscuit was warm and soft to the touch. I wolfed it down, trying not to look like a pig, but I couldn't help it - this was one of the tastiest breakfasts I'd ever had.

3) Supermarket beef jerky. Oh wow, we went to Walmart. I saw these big bags of jerky for sale at prices which were to me extremely reasonable. This was before jerky really took off in the UK and could only be bought in certain delicatessen type stores at high prices. My aunt said it wasn't proper tough jerky but it was tasty. I bought a big bag of it. It must have weighed half a kilo, bigger than my head. By the next day it was gone, I finished the lot, by myself. I began to make space in my suitcase for bags more of this stuff before realizing that it would be illegal to bring it into the UK what with it being meat. I was gutted. All that jerky and I couldn't take a morsel of it home with me.

4) Po' Boy sandwich. Oh brother, this was eaten in New Orleans. It cost about $4 at the time. I'd never seen a sandwich so big. My partner looked on as my order came to the table. "Is that for one person?" she asked. Oh yeah baby, no one's having a slice of this monster. I had a fried shrimp filling with lettuce, sauce, and bursting with items I couldn't even recognize. It came in two parts, sliced in half with a little plastic sword stabbed into it. The best $4 I ever spent.

5) Corn dog. Yeah I know but remember it was my first time of trying it. I remember thinking I'm not gonna like this, it doesn't look right. But the moment I sank my teeth into the crusty coating and then into the meat I was sold. A cheap eat and just a snack but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It came impaled on a little stick like a lollipop. Terrific little invention.

6) It's gotta be my aunt's pecan pie. She made it the day before I was leaving. Whenever I returned to visit her, I always asked her pretty please to make it again. I  watched her preparing it, looking at all the ingredients she was using and I thought hmm this is going to taste very, very nice. And oh manna! the fragrant aroma of it baking away was enough to drive you potty with desire. It was in the oven about 45 minutes or an hour, I can't remember, but it wasn't a minute too soon when she took it out and plated it up for us. She had even bought some good quality ice cream to go with it. I'm not one for a sweet tooth really but this little number really hit the spot and had my tastebuds exhilarated.


Stag,  when you first heard "biscuit," did you think of what we would call a "cookie?"  On packages of "cookies" from Scotland, the package label reads "biscuit."

I've only had a corn dog once, at a county fair.  The corn meal that they used for the "dip," was far too sweet, and didn't work with a hot dog.  I've never tried another.

Being born and raised in New Orleans I've had occasion to eat a po'boy or 2 (actually more like several thousand lol). You need to try the soft-shelled crab po'boy for a treat to your taste buds bar non!