COMMENT: Not just the asparagus tip of the iceberg

When I first started visiting the United States, almost 35 years ago, one of the things I always looked forward to were the restaurants, writes TravelMole’s Graham McKenzie. The range of mainly red meat dishes be they steak or burger were not to be bettered anywhere else I had been.

The food and the unique way they were often served exceeded my wildest dreams. If you add in to this the breakfasts with strange combinations of bacon and syrup over pancakes plus runny eggs well my heart almost stopped on the spot. Had I continued with that diet I suspect it would have done.

Like most things, however, over the years this food and the diet of America in general has become, well, less exciting.

The food has become globalised and as such all the restaurants you visit have become clones of one another with the only thing to differentiate them being size of the portions and the price you pay.

Witness any commercial on US television and you will see a veritable plethora of competing chains offering to feed you even more for even less money. Visiting the US of A for its food no longer held the excitement of the past.

Whilst Europe was ploughing along with initiatives like slow food that encouraged local and seasonal produce, our American cousins appeared to be piling it on the plate in even larger and blander portions. Not too much seasoning to really upset anybody but also not enough to excite and tickle the palate.

Almost three years ago I visited Michigan and for the first time noticed a major movement in what has been labelled the ‘farm to table’ revolution in food and food supply. Local colleges were turning out chefs that made a virtue of using local ingredients for their menus plus and perhaps more importantly, local business were supporting them in their efforts.

I dismissed this somewhat in the believe that in the lakes region they had the supply at hand and that other parts of the country would not join in this taste for local product. Wrong !!!! What I was witnessing was just the asparagus tip of the iceberg lettuce. It’s happening everywhere.

Sure the major chains are still surviving, sure the average daily meal does not consist of organic carrots and prune juice but…… farmers markets, seasonal products, a desire to reduce food miles and a wish to help local agriculture is all under way and in a supersized portion.

On a recent visit to Florida my expectation was not high as I was invited on a mini food tour. Surely Florida is about Miami and Disney? Not real food.

Imagine my delight at the number of establishments that have bought into this new, or indeed old, way of producing mouth-watering food. You have to dig around a little and research but the evidence is there on your plate.

In Delray Beach, on one gastronomic feast afternoon, we visited four separate purveyors of fresh local food. All the chefs were proud of what they could produce with the majority of the ingredients travelling no more than 25 miles.

Their pride was not misplaced. Food to rival many a European bistro was turned out by every one and they varied from local duck, pork, fish and perhaps the biggest surprise for me, as the chief critic, bread. Hot, crusty, tasty ….everything you could wish for from locally baked bread and served with butter not margarine.

For Delray Beach the food revolution and the concentration on local community has transformed what was once a down at heel seaside town. The place is now alive with tourism and local community activity. It has a growing reputation for the eclectic mix of cuisine on offer and the multiplier effects on the local economy are very high indeed.

Food may not be the number one reason for visiting an area but it is a very good base from which to begin. Florida has a lot to attract the visitor and it would appear this now includes food.

Graham’s trip was organised by www.visitflorida.com