Friday, November 8, 2013

American food #2

My first American food post was all the way back in Washington D.C. (how is that 6 weeks ago?). Thus, I think we are overdue for the second! These items are from various stops on our travels, and all seemed worthy of blog attention, albeit not so much attention that they get their own posts.

First: Enormous pizza.



We had two enormous take-away pizzas on our trip. The first was in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where the eating options were fairly limited and largely low key. We ordered an adapted vegetarian pizza from Little Caesar's, which is a casual chain store I'd compare to Australia's Domino's pizza. Or at least, I compared it to Australia's Domino's pizza before we ate. Afterwards, we both agreed that Little Caesar's was much, much better. Unfortunately, I neglected to photograph that meal.

This pizza was from New Market Pizza in Boston. It was across the road from the Best Western we stayed in, and as we stayed in a less than ideal area, it was one of very few places within walking distance. From the outside, the store did not look inspiring. Inside, the menu was more appealing and they were agreeable to making us a vegetarian pizza that was cheese-free on one half.


The verdict? Not as good as Little Caesar's, but big, and packed with vegetables, and the first pizza I have had with broccoli! We enjoyed eating it in our upgraded room 'suite' too.

Second: Vegan buckwheat soba noodles.


These noodles were bought in a small NYC deli that offered various lunch options. Mr Bite had a tuna roll, and if I'd wanted, I could have had a vegan chickpea 'tuna' roll equivalent. I went for these noodles instead, although in the end wasn't very enamored with them.


There weren't enough vegetables, and the flavours didn't seem quite right for my taste buds, but I was delighted to have so many vegan lunch options at a place we'd just wandered into.

Third: Tofutti's mint chocolate chip 'cuties' ice cream sandwiches.


The vanilla and chocolate flavours of these are available in Australia. I can now saw, however, that the mint chocolate chip version is immeasurably better than either of those varieties. Mr B and I both loved these and had no trouble getting through 8 sandwiches in 4 days!

Fourth: Chocolate snacks.


You have seen some of the chocolate blocks I brought home from our trip, but these items are what I'd call "snacking" chocolate rather than "savour and review each block" chocolate. Above are dairy-free dark chocolate coated sultanas, and below are dairy-free dark chocolate coated graham crackers. Both were excellent.


Chocolove (who made the almond and sea salt bar I raved about here) also provided us with a joint chocolate block, with their 55% cocoa orange peel in dark chocolate bar. By 'joint', I mean a block we both eat. Often our chocolate is not joint, because one of us likes dark dark chocolate with nuts and spices, and the other, well, doesn't. Orange is a common flavour when we do buy a block to share, because it seems to navigate these constraints easily. We both liked this version.


Less sophisticated but surprisingly enjoyable were these Hershey's miniatures that we bought at the airport, when using up American money before flying home. The pack came with four types of squares: plain milk, plain dark (but not dairy-free), milk with rice bubbles, and milk with peanuts. I think I rate Hershey's chocolate above Cadbury's milk chocolate.


Have you tried any of the above? And what are your favourite pizza toppings?

19 comments:

  1. Mr Goodbar's were always my fave as a kid. And the vegan ice cream sandwich choices in America are so good! Tofutti Cuties are yum, but also Rice Dream has a choc covered ice cream cookie sandwich, also in mint chocolate I think, which is pretty much to die for.

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  2. I haven't tried any of those chocolate snacks but I can tell you which ones I would love to try - the chocolate covered graham crackers - that is my sort of chocolate snack. I love broccoli on pizza - I saw this recipe recently and wonder if you could adapt it to be less "cheesy" if you wanted to make a pizza with broccoli yourself http://butyesidoeatpotatoes.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/vegan-broccoli-cheddar-pizza.html

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    1. I could indeed adapt that recipe! I follow Carolyn's blog but evidently didn't at the time she posted that recipe - or perhaps I just missed it as it was during MoFo last year - so thanks for the link. And I think you would enjoy the chocolate graham crackers too. Mr Bite and I shared them and agreed they were like a cross between chocolate digestives (which I think you like) and something else, with the 'something else' making all the difference.

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  3. I'm so glad you found some stereotypical American food while you were here. And yes, we do love our chocolate and pizza!

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    1. I can see why too, when the pizzas are like the ones we tried!

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  4. I had those tofutti mint sandwiches when staying with Gena in DC. I was surprised by how awesome they were; I'd never bothered with tofutti on account of thinking they were, well, bad.

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    1. I thought that too until I took a gamble on the vanilla ones here in Perth about 6 months ago. Now I am a complete convert, although I'm yet to try their plain ice cream (largely because it only comes in plain flavours!).

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  5. I love the look of that pizza so the one at Caesar's must have been amazing. They have been so generous with the toppings which is not something you find at Dominos! I would love to try those ice creams xx

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    1. The toppings really did make the difference. As you say, Dominos has a way to go in that regard!

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  6. I love trying new foods while I am away. The Toffutti Cuties look good.

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  7. WOW!
    You found the best and most interesting food items... YUM :)

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  8. Oh man…Little Ceasar's..brings back so many fond memories! When we first moved to the States, we felt that we were getting more and more acclimated to the western civilization with each bite of the infamous pizza. Now pizza is abundant in Korea so not that big of a deal to kids these days. Tim doesn't like dark chocolate so I don't have to worry about sharing ^_^. He does like the Hershey's though. I've never even seen Tofutti..very interesting!

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    1. Mr B doesn't like super dark chocolate so there are certainly lots of blocks I get all to myself :-) And I can imagine you enjoying adjusting to US life with Little Caesar's! It would be an amazing way to discover pizza.

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  9. I'm surprised you can only get the choc and vanilla cuties. I have been able to get the choc-mint tofutti cuties here for years! Wonder why Perth doesn't have them????

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    1. Oh, Perth. It's like that with so many things! I am often envious when I see what is over East :-)

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    2. lol! well i'm like that with seeing American things hehehe ;-) You'll have to pop over here and pick some up!

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    3. I would do so with pleasure :-)

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