I was in a foreign city, watching TV with some friends I’d made there. We’d gone through the channels and had stopped at one that was showing a movie. After a few minutes, a girl in the group said, “This must be a French film. All they’re doing is talking and eating.”<\/p>\n
She was right. “If it were an American film, they’d be driving all the time,” she added.<\/p>\n
I’m glad she didn’t say “they’d be swearing<\/span> and shooting at people” \u2014 not everything is like it is<\/a> in the movies. But you really can tell what’s important about a culture through its cinema. Hollywood has made so many road movies because most Americans can relate to<\/span> long car trips.<\/p>\n A simple activity like visiting relatives<\/a> can mean a drive of several hours, or for many people even a flight or two. It’s not an easy task when small children are involved. But when I was a small child, I didn’t mind: it was an exotic experience. The landscape<\/span>, weather and foliage<\/span> changed before our eyes as we left the city of Pittsburgh to drive towards the mountains of central Pennsylvania. And that was just the direct route. Those rare occasions when I could talk my parents into taking the longer “scenic<\/span> route” are treasured memories of covered bridges<\/a>, narrow roads, hairpin curves<\/span>, railroad<\/span> lore<\/span> and stops for food in unusual places.<\/p>\n Since then, the expressways<\/span> have been greatly extended<\/span>, and the experience of being “on the road” has largely become standardized and generic<\/span>. Familiar chain restaurants, clustered<\/span> together at highway exits, offer the same pizza, steaks and chicken as in the cities. The food served along the back roads<\/span>, however, is much closer to what people eat in their own homes. Here’s a tip: if you really want to learn about America, find the smallest town that has a family-owned restaurant.<\/p>\n To really learn about America, find a small-town restaurant<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It doesn’t matter what time of day it is: you can always order things that you’d rarely<\/span> find in a city restaurant. For breakfast, have some grits<\/a> or oatmeal<\/span> along with your eggs and bottomless<\/span> cup of coffee. Lunch or dinner might be a hot sandwich of cooked meat and cheese, taking up half your plate, with a pile<\/span> of onion rings<\/span> next to it. In the Northeast, coleslaw<\/a> comes with everything, thanks to all the German immigrants \u2014 and everyone has a different recipe<\/span> for it. Try the creamed corn<\/a> as well, especially toward the end of summer, when the corn<\/span> is fresh.<\/p>\n Truly authentic country restaurants will even offer liver<\/span> and meat loaf<\/span> \u2014 dishes that people make at home in order to save money. A more sophisticated<\/span> alternative would be tuna salad<\/a>, a spread<\/span> that’s found in sandwiches. Baked beans<\/span> are a common side dish<\/span>.<\/p>\n Instead of Coca-Cola or its competitor<\/span> Pepsi, you might have to order a more exotic soft drink<\/span> like RC Cola, Dr Pepper, or Mr. Pibb \u2014 or go with<\/span> lemonade<\/span> (particularly on hot days) or root beer, a traditional nonalcoholic drink made from tree parts.<\/p>\n The best, of course, is saved for last. In the countryside, you’ll find pies<\/span> galore<\/span>, but which ones you’ll find will depend on the season: cherry, blueberry<\/span>, apple and pumpkin<\/span> pie are good bets<\/span>. In a small enough town, you’ll also find Jell-O<\/a> desserts \u2014 bits of fruit floating<\/span> in colored gelatin, topped with whipped cream<\/span>.<\/p>\n In 1916, when the age of road trips was just beginning, American poet Robert Frost wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n “I shall be telling this with a sigh<\/span> In culinary terms<\/span>, it still does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was in a foreign city, watching TV with some friends I’d made there. We’d gone through the channels and had stopped at one that was showing a movie. After a few minutes, a girl in the group said, “This must be a French film. All they’re doing is talking and eating.” She was right. “If it were an American … >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[95,104,105],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1621,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/1621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSomewhere ages and ages hence<\/span>:
\nTwo roads diverged<\/span> in a wood<\/span>, and I \u2014
\nI took the one less traveled by,
\nAnd that has made all the difference.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n