On Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:17:05 -0700, rw
wrote:

Lazarus Cooke wrote:
I'm puzzled by this thread. Coffee in the USA is wretchedly bad - as
bad as, say, democracy in Somalia.

There's a lot of bad coffee in the USA, but in recent years it's been
getting much easier to find an excellent cup of coffee in the big cities
and high-class tourist spots. There's been something of a coffee
renaissance (and I'm not primarily talking about Starbucks, although
they've played a big role in awakening consumer awareness).

Although this could be taken to be one those "my town is better than
yours..." type of post, it isn't intended as such. That said...

New Orleans, AFAIK, is the only large city in the world in which "local"
Starbuck's couldn't make a real go of it (there are Starbuck's in hotels
and "tourist" areas) due to the local preference for local shops and
chains. Of the few pre-Katrina, most or all remain closed outside of
hotels, etc. NO has had coffee shops/local chains (Community, PJ's,
etc.) for years, and prior to the relatively recent "trendy coffee
boom." This has been true of many non-NO chains (when Rite-Aid bought
out a local chain of drugstores, K & B/Katz & Bestoff, many locals
wouldn't shop there, few "chain" restaurants survive on _local_
business, etc.). Yet, New Orleans folks aren't, generally, into
"designer" coffee. I'd say the coffee tastes, in general, are pretty
basic in coffee terms but pretty specific - Luzianne, Community, CDM,
most with but some without chicory are by far and away the brands/types
sold.

It's interesting to me to read Lazarus' post about Torre Annunziata and
compare it to NO (esp. the murder, crime, corruption...) as it (also)
sounds remarkably like NO in terms of locals, blue-collar and white-,
who simply _demand_ what they feel is good food and drink. What most,
locals and non-locals alike, would generally call "good food" is widely
available and at prices on all levels of service most reading ROFF would
call very reasonable. For example, unless one simply orders the most
expensive dishes, from start to finish, on a menu, one would be
hard-pressed to spend over $100USD on _dinner_ for two - excluding wine
or cocktails, but two cocktails and two glasses of wine can often be had
in that same range, even at the traditional upscale places (Commander's,
Galatoire's, August, the recently-thankfully-reopened Dooky Chase, the
unfortunately-postK-sliding Antoine, etc.) locals patronize. And great
food can be had all over the area, even at many local "hangout" bars and
small groceries and even the Vieux Carre, for under $10 a person. In
fact, the most expensive upscale restaurants in NO are "tourist traps"
few locals patronize (anything Emeril, some, but not all, Brennan-family
places, with the somewhat-excepted and accepted Ruth's Chris, which
began in NO).

Even "events" all over the area, like festivals, sports and gun shows,
sporting events, etc. have things well beyond the standard
hot-dog-and-nachos fa crawfish and shrimp etouffee and creole,
jambalaya, gumbo, lump crabmeat and fresh oyster dishes, real snow
cones, red- and lima beans and rice, po boys, great burgers, etc., all
made fresh, from "scratch" with good ingredients. And most local
groceries - single stores to local chains - provide a fair amount of
in-house prep on local cuisine items such as creole creme cheese, local
sausages and meat products, stuffed artichokes, etc.

I've even
bought more than decent coffee in truck stops.

I generally avoid retail-brewed coffee (unless I need a jolt while
traveling), preferring to make my own.

A similar thing has happened with beer and wine. You can find superb
wine and beer grown and made in the US, as good as anything in Europe,
although I'm sure that French wine snobs will disagree.

Have you ever tried - oh, Lordy, this will cause some guff - Texas
wines? Many are remarkably similar to French wines, esp. fine Burgundy
(ala "meritage"), and a great deal of post-1900 French wine has Texas
vinestock to thank for its existence (phylloxera). The soil conditions
and the Texas vinestock produces some fine grapes, which in
knowledgeable hands produces excellent wine at a fantastic price for
those in the US.

Of course, you
can also find plenty of disgusting swill.

One time years ago, while attending a scientific conference in Italy,
the social event was a dinner cruise on Lake Como. My American colleague
and I shared a table with a French couple. Italian wine was served, one
bottle per person, and the French couple refused even to taste it. My
colleague and I gladly drank theirs, getting pretty loaded in the
process. It was very, very good.

Perhaps the worst wine I've even tasted was at a bullfight in Madrid --
one of those stalls where they fill a bottle right from the keg. I do,
however, like Sangre de Toro.

We're even starting to make absinthe again. :-)

And speaking of stirring the ****...

TC,
R