The "comforts" of home abound in unlikely form.

I love the fact that, here in Leicester, I have the chance to continually meet a ton of different people from a whole slew of countries. What this also means is that I spend a lot of time talking about US politics and what people's misconceptions of Americans are (and which ones hold some truth) - and they are always really fun conversations. But it has also made me more aware of the odd bits of American culture that find their way over, either through TV (yay, Grey's Anatomy and Dukes of Hazzard!) or media or what have you, that lend to those impressions.

Along that vein, I've been highly amused by the variety of American references that show up on shop signs in this city, many of them state-specific. More often than not, the form they take seems to oddly miss the mark of what would actually be worthy of transcending continents. Now I don't mean the obvious or inevitable, like McDonalds or Starbucks or KFC (all here). What I mean is, if you had to pick just a handful of uniquely American things (of the edible persuasion, in particular) that were truly awesome enough to deserve being distributed for the greater good, I wouldn't have pegged any of the following as fitting those qualifications...

For example, I wouldn't expect to see a reference to the state of Maryland just out and about in Leicester. But if I did, I would assume that whatever it was that had made it all the way across the pond would be something exceedingly superb that also embodied that for which Maryland is most famous. Perhaps I'm wrong about this, but to me, that would be seafood; more specifically, the fabulous crabcake. If there is one translatable food idea from Maryland that should be well-known enough to make it to Leicester, I would expect it to be crab related. So you can understand why I had a bit of a chuckle when I saw this:
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm sure that there is plenty of delicious fried chicken to be found in Maryland - but when I think fried chicken, I don't generally think of Maryland... it's not even in the South (okay okay, as a Southerner I might be a little biased about proper fried chicken, but I readily admit that)! And it's even funnier, because apparently it is a really popular "late night, after the pub" eatery. Priceless.

But I'm getting ahead of myself - because I did find a little place around the corner from campus that claims to sell "Southern Fried Chicken." Hooray! They're finally on to something. However, in general, if I'm going to associate a chef's name with authentic fried chicken, then I want it to be something like Mama Dip at Mama Dip's or Jestine at Jestine's Kitchen. And even that is rather unnecessary, since "Southern Fried Chicken" stands alone as fairly self-explanatory (and delicious, especially with waffles, but that's another discussion). This sign, however, makes me a little skeptical of the "Southern" quality of the chicken. Does this restaurant name fail to scream "home" and "like grandma used to make" to anybody else?
Now, back to the topic of seafood. There are so many great places in the US to get good, fresh seafood. And come to think of if, considering how much coast they have, there should be plenty in England as well. Personally, the ideal seafood obtainment situation involves being able to buy wild caught shrimp right off the boat (Ooh, how I miss you, Cherry Point, SC) to take home and boil up with a bit of Old Bay... or popping into a great local restaurant in a coastal town for some scrumptious shrimp'n'grits or freshly grilled grouper. So why, in the name of everything that is holy, did the owners of this establishment choose to evoke the image of a land-locked city in the middle of a desert in order to aid in the selling of fish? Somebody's geography teacher has some splainin' to do.
Now, it has nothing to do with food, but after seeing this place, I want to know exactly what American Nail Care for Ladies & Gentlemen entails, and why you cannot normally get it in other countries...I mean, other than the occasional pedicure with my sister, I don't spend much time in nail parlors. Perhaps I should go to an English nail place and then this place and compare? And yet somehow that notion just isn't so appealing... hmmm. Dilemma. Perhaps this goes into the records as one mystery we just don't solve. Kind of like the Great Poo Caper of 2004. We'll never know who was responsible for that one, will we? Oh well.