America's Got The Crunch Factor

In the first part of an ongoing series, I've decided to catalogue and rate some of the culinary delights that I encounter during my time here in America. The supermarkets here are a veritable carnival of weird and wonderful (but mostly weird) food items that may appear bewildering to the non-native, so in my commitment to public service,  I'm letting my curiosity get the better of me, to make the gastronomic mistakes so that you don't have to. 

Each delicacy will be rated on a 'crunch scale' of 0 - 5. For those of you who have eaten in Connaught Hall, you'll understand the scoring system, but for those who have not had the 'pleasure', a crunch is a measure of amount of stomach ache suffered post-consumption, ranging from 0 (no crunch - a pleasant eating experience) up to 5 crunches (a foul abomination of a meal, equivalent to eating a full Saturday brunch at Connaught).

So without further ado, like the crunching commence!

First up is something of an American instituition, guaranteed to cause bemusement for all other speakers of the English language:

Biscuits and gravy

After encountering these bad boys on a few occasions, I think I've finally worked out what they are. The 'biscuits' are a bit like heavy croissants, with a bun-like crust. They are quite sweet, but seem to be eaten with bloody anything and everything over here. Nothing too offensive.

The gravy is something else all together, and that something is pretty digusting. I should add the disclaimer that this gravy came out of a packet, so I'm not sure how it compares to the 'gold standard' of gravies, but I'm not optimistic based on this experience. The 'gravy' is a strange savoury porridge-type sauce that may or may not have little bits of sausage in it. I can't really describe the taste, other than 'savoury'. Suffice to say, you'd be hard-pushed to get me to try it again.   

And if that decription wasn't appealing enough, here's a picture of the feast (that's a fried egg on the top left): 

Crunch Factor: 3 crunches out of 5 (it would have been more, but the biscuits weren't too bad. On the otherhand, I'm still having nightmarish flashbacks about the gravy)

1 month in Athens

Following all the excitement of being somewhere sort of near a tornado, things have been quite sedate here in Athens. I've been trying to plug away on my journal article, getting distracted by all day Law & Order marathons, and occasionally whizzing around on my bitchin' new set of bad-ass wheels (or 'bike' as all you squares call it). I've also been snapping away, so what better way to celebrate the end of my first month in Athens with a little photo gallery? (I've put more photos up on facebook for those who'd like an extra Athens hit)

One of the benefits of everything being bigger in America is that we can rent somewhere a bit bigger too.... 

Our flat is one half of the top floor, we get the little balcony too

And this is the view from the balcony - just try and pretend that you can't see the car park, that's what we do :-)

This is a view of the Hocking River from the cycle path to and from University, which makes a nice change (although there is a freeway on the other side of those trees!)

So this rather pleasant view is directly outside the Physics and Astronomy building.... ahhhhh, relaxing :-)

This is a random street round the corner from our flat, with what appears to be some precariously hung traffic lights. It appears that they don't believe in mounting them on posts round this neck of the woods.

And speaking of woods... there area lot of nice local walks through the woods in the hills above Athens

....and here is me on the aforementioned hills, feeling (and looking) a bit hot and bothered. Cloud of irritating flies just out of shot.

And you'll be pleased to hear that Athens certainly doesn't shirk its responsibility for hard-hitting local news (although I'm not sure what the answer is to this pressing question)

Dow's Lake at Stroud's Run Park

Another view of Dow's Lake, with a bit of beach action

More Dow's Lake: Spot the difference (hint: there's a person in the foreground)

And some Dow's Lake. How nice :-)

But if you really want to get a flavour for what it's like in America, check out People of Walmart. It pretty much sums up the sort of people you see around and about. Maybe someone should set up the 'People of Asda' as a comparison?