Before leaving France I decided to eat as much french food as possible. The croissants, pains au chocolat, chocolats tout court, and every typical meals would indeed be missed when I would be in the States.
The USA is not a country famous for its food and, as a lot french people, I was even scared to take weight when living outthere. Guess what? I was all wrong!
The USA has amazing food, just different from the one we are used to eating in France. And as regards the weight, I lost 22 pounds, which is equal to 10kg!
Jeez... I just killed two big stereotyps about the States :)
What you should be eating in the States:
The Hamburgers:
My roommate and I decided to do a "Hamburger-benchmarking". This "Hamburger-benchmarking" lasted six months and was done in the following states: Rhode-Island, Massachusetts, New York, California and Texas.
Here are the results of our intensive researches:
The Top Three:
N°3
Our homemade hamburger, the most juicy.
N°2
The Guacamole hamburger from Newport.
N°1
The Southwest hamburger from the TGI Friday's located in Boston is the winner: the most tasteful, spicy and juicy.
NB: The TGI Friday's located in New York have to be avoided: expensive and not that good... ;)
The Pizzas:
The USA is ranked first in terms of consumption of pizzas, way before Italy (2nd) and France (3rd). So it seemed also important for my roommate and I to do a "Pizza-Benchmarking", haha. Here are the two best pizzerias we recommend:
N°2
The pizzas from RWU's Lower Commons;
NB: You probably will have to become a Hawks -a RWU student- to get that one... ;)
N°1
The Deep Dish Pizza From UNO;
NB: No problem to get that pizza, UNO is located in different states and its owner is the one that created the deep dish pizza.
The "Pâtisseries":
It may be hard to find your Mille-Feuilles, Opéra or even éclair au chocolat in the US but don't worry, substitutes exist! and they are really good... :)
1) :
The Cupcakes: very soft muffins with delicious cream on top of them, they always look, and taste good.
The best cupcakes can be found in Magnolia Bakery, New York:
2):
The Cheesecakes: As the name suggests, the cheesecake is composed of, very light, cheese. All kinds of cheesecakes exist: Reese's Cheesecakes, Lemon Cheesecakes, Snickers Cheesecakes...
The best cheesecakes are found at "The Cheesecake Factory", that makes sense :) :
For the lovers of chocolate, this last cheesecake is the best one: the "Brownie Cheesecake", awesome... :)
3) :
The Muffins:
According to my roommate, the best blueberry muffins are found in Dunkin Donuts.
More important information, the best CHOCOLATE muffins can be found at "Au Bon Pain":
4) :
The Cookies: The best ones are definitely in "Au Levain" in New York!
Look at that... They melt in your hands :)
5) : The Sundaes:
The biggest ones -the sundaes!- are at Junior's, New York.
Please don't make fun of my "lovely" picture... I am on the starting blocks to eat my Cookie sundae...
Consequently, as you can see, you can find very interesting and tasteful food in the States. And don't worry about getting weight, if you adopt the way of life of most American, going to the gym at least once a week -yes I know, at the beginning it was hard for me too...-, you will be even fitter than you were in France!
As the food is a big part of a country's culture, I found important to writte this article about my "eating experience" in the USA.
I hope this article improved the way you consider American food and made you hungry, actually I'm going to eat right now :)
NB: As regards all the pictures of this article, I know it is weird to take pictures of what you're going to eat... But here is the thing: my roommate is passionated about cooking and she is very good at transferring its passion to others...
