All the oily, crunchy joy of eating hard carbs in an American bar without having to shell out £450 to get to Florida
En route to Sophie’s Steakhouse, an American-themed restaurant in Chelsea, I thought about the UK’s rather complex feelings about US food. Our cousins over the pond have always laughed at British “fayre” – they chortle at our spotted dicks, steak-and-kidney puddings and fry-ups – and, more generally, snigger at the drab, mediocre pub grub they have to endure when they’re over here. What they rarely grasp, however, is that we guffaw right back at them, for their wasteful enormo-sandwiches, breakfast potatoes, half-and-half cream and how their national dish now seems to be deep-frozen popcorn shrimp.
Even so, we Brits generally eat rather better in America, because there is a sense of largesse in the States, as well as chipper, tip-based customer service to which we’re utterly unused. It’s no surprise, then, that some of us look to recreate that feeling back home, which explains why brands such as Big Easy Bar BQ & Crabshack and Sophie’s Steakhouse thrive, not to mention the roadside OK Diners where you can get a chilli and cheese hotdog with twister fries and a blue bubblegum-flavoured “Million Dollar” shake.
