Backroad dining

Mike Leco — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:12:00 GMT

One of the things I enjoy when exploring the less-traveled roads in the USA is eating in the local diners.

We have many fast food restaurants and chain restaurants all over the USA. When traveling, they can be very trusted and convenient places to eat. If you stop at a McDonald's restaurant in Montana, you are assured that you will get the same quality hamburger as you get at a McDonald's in New York City or in Miami Florida. The cleanliness is assured, and the service is uniformly good. These same standards hold true for most fast food restaurants and most chain restaurants. Unfortunately, they offer very little culinary adventure or dining excitement.

I prefer the smaller diners, frequented by the local residents, and offering only "slow food". These little restaurants are usually much more interesting than the fast food or chain restaurants. They offer "home cooking" that a typical family in the USA would prepare at home. The menu might include such favorites as: fried chicken, pot roast, meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, fish sandwiches, chili, and apple pie. Most diners also serve regional favorites such as, chicken fried steak and grits in the South, barbeque beef and burritos in the West, clam chowder and fish cakes in the New England States or steaks and ribs in the Midwest.

It is a bit more risky than eating in a chain restaurants or in a fast food establishment. You never know if the quality of the food will be good or not so good. On the other hand, you might just stumble into a local diner that serves some great "down home cooking" with a local specialty that you have never tasted before.

The atmosphere in these local diners can be quite interesting. I stopped at a diner in small town in southern Utah and had some succulent barbeque ribs. At the next table sat two cowboys dressed in their full working gear. They wore scrufty high-heeled work boots, worn faded jeans held up by wide tooled-leather belts fastened with giant silver and turquoise buckles. They both wore wide-brimmed "ten-gallon" cowboy hats that they did not remove during the entire meal. At their waists, they both sported finely made and decorated leather holsters containing, not trusty colt revolvers, but the latest high-tech cell phones.

The waitresses tend to be matronly local housewives that work part time while the "kids" are in school. They treat each and every customer with the warm familiarity of a close friend. Terms of endearment like darling, honey or sugar are liberally granted to every stranger. Don't be suprised when you are greeted with: "What can I get for you darlin?" or "How about some coffee hun?" or "Try the meatloaf sugah!". Eating in a local diner can be like eating home-cooked food served to you by your own mother.

We call it comfort food. It is not haut cuisine, but it sure brings a lot of comfort.

Life in the USA : diners

Backroad dining