American Food

Apr 20, 2012 | Post by: Phil Lees No Comments

When fried chicken went awry

He still puts on a white linen suit every morning, rides in a chauffeured white Cadillac, visits Kentucky Fried Chicken’s white column headquarters and plugs his “finger lickin’ good” chicken around the country. But Harland D Sanders, everyone’s favourite Kentucky colonel, is disturbed about what has happened to his chicken

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Oct 27, 2011 | Post by: Phil Lees 9 Comments

Did McDonalds cause the decline of violence in America?

Violent crime has been on the decline in the US since 1990, and largely, the reasons for the decline have been inexplicable. Steven Leavitt (of Freakonomics fame) and John J. Donohue III argue that around 50% of the reduction in crime is the result of earlier introduction of legalised abortion

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Jun 27, 2011 | Post by: Phil Lees 1 Comments

Teddy’s Bigger Burger, Hawaii

My favourite trait in Americans is the lack of fear. It spawns an infectious entrepreneurialism. It tempts them to cook a patty of ground chuck to medium-rare over fire rather than safely char it to a risk-free tasteless puck. The above was hands down my favourite hamburger of 2010, from

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Oct 13, 2010 | Post by: Phil Lees 2 Comments

Spam Musubi: Hawaiian sushi innovation

I’m starting to think that I may have gone a bit soft over the past few weeks. I called this non-beer surprisingly refreshing. I enjoyed this slice of spam strapped to brick of rice and served at roughly the temperature generated by salmonella having hot and dirty sex. Frankly, I’m

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Oct 10, 2010 | Post by: Phil Lees No Comments

A fine selection of local grindz

The Hawaiian “plate lunch” is an excuse to anchor any protein to an icecream scoop or two of sticky rice. They seem to be both cheap filler and endlessly variable. I’d imagine that you could quite easily write about nothing but the numerous variations on the polystyrene clamshell filled with

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Oct 10, 2010 | Post by: Phil Lees No Comments

Taro fields near Hanalei, Hawaii

Until now, the only thing that I knew about Hanalei was that it was the birthplace of Puff the Magic Dragon, which is apparently, a lie.

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Oct 08, 2010 | Post by: Phil Lees 1 Comments

The Shrimp Station, Kauai

Some of the best food in America comes in shacks, lean-tos, vans, makeshift structures cobbled together from plywood and tarpaulin and fryer grease. The American food that Americans aspire to eat and inspires the most column inches in this decade seems to sit either at the bottom or at the

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