Georg's travel journal – USA 2007
#4 – survival mode.

fun about food – take one.

Food is an essential part of any healthy diet(!), so of course I had to visit the foodmarkets and Deli's. I wasn't impressed.
A spoiled Norwegian can find good food in this part of the States, but he may have to look really hard for it.

Ron and I had many discussions about food, since I had a hard time finding something that resembled my preferred types of food and with the right qualities, in the States. No risk I'd die of hunger since there was so much food on offer everywhere, but my body – and indeed the whole system – started to protest if I didn't feed it at least some of what it has grown accustomed to over the years, from time to time.

Food cosmetics was a fun issue, since not all Americans seem to know that real, natural, red meat isn't really red. Bread was also discussed a bit since all American bread I could find was white and fine (don't Americans have teeth?).

Some European black bread sort of solved the issue for me. However, I wouldn't mind being able to find something in between the extremely light white bread and the extraordinary heavy black bread, in American food stores. I want some natural fiber, and the taste that goes with it.

They did have whole milk though (with added vitamin D which I could do without). Actually: most food in the stores was “improved” by having something added to it and/or subtracted from it at one level of production or another. This is a trend that's well known in Norway too, so nothing new there. Nothing good about this trend either, in my opinion.

Adding or subtracting anything from basic food at any stage before it is placed on the shelves to be sold, doesn't go well with me. I'm not a health-fanatic or obsessed by “clean food”, but I prefer to get good raw materials for my meals and “fix the mix” myself.

buying non-essentials.

Most people should be able to find what they want in those shops. A long range of shops known as a “strip mall”

For what it's worth: I didn't really find a type of tobacco that was to my liking (I'm a difficult customer), but I managed to keep up the habit of smoking anyway.

Now, I am in the process of quitting – smoking that is. However, I wasn't about to disturb my vacation by being in a state of withdrawal, so that's why I bought that stuff during my stay in the US. Maybe not the smartest move, but anyway.

climate

A few days after my arrival in the States, the temperature went a bit higher than I'm used to and definitely higher than I like. I prefer the low to mid 70s, so when the needle went into the 90s and even touched 100°F a few times, the heat became a bit unpleasant to this Norwegian. Complaints – complaints.

I noticed something else too, about the air. Back in Norway I regularly have to use sunglasses to avoid being blinded by the sun – giving me a headache. However, in the New York area I never really felt the need to wear sunglasses. Seemed like the air were so “thick” that the disturbing parts of the visible light from the sun couldn't really get through. Pollution?

May 22th - 25th.