The Food Capital of Connecticut

If Mecca is to Muslims, this is to Fooderatis. This place. Wow. Wow. Double Wow. A million times wow. Stew Leonards claims itself to be the World’s largest dairy, but it’s more than that. It’s a fresh produce palace.

They make pretty much everything on sight. Departments include fresh coffee beans, bakery, patisserie, place where they make potato chips and rice cakes (not sure the actual name of that department, but they even make sweet potato chips – so thick and delicious that I bought a bag to take with me to New York), tortillary, pizzeria, sushi bar, cheese section, seafood, abattoir/butcher, fresh fruit and veg, juicer, smoothie bar, ice creamery, cellar and I’m sure I’ve missed some others. Each section is massive, and has a bigger range than I’ve ever seen in these departments. The fruit and veg section is probably twice the size of your specialty fruit & vegetable shops in Australia. But the thing is that you can consume all these products while you are doing your shopping. Even your trolley has a coffee cup holder in it for you! Each department offers an array of samples and simply give away all their goods that are deemed inferior (i.e. massive bowl of cookies that had fallen apart when they came out of the oven, for consumers to eat, bbq in the butcher section).

This is pretty much your entrée, because when you come to the end, there is one of the biggest buffets I’ve seen, and all of the fresh produce is utilised in it! Simply amazing – you fill up a bowl and they weigh your meal and charge you based on weight. 2lbs (just under a kilo of food) was about $10. Bargain. I don’t think I can aptly describe this place without taking you there, but it makes going to the market an experience. They even had a petting farm out the front for kids! And also a grill out the front where you could order cheap as cheap meals. That was right next to the smoothie bar too. This place – WOW. I officially name it as the food capital of Connecticut.

Hey Connecticut, Can I buy you a soda?

So it's official. I have a new crush. Her name is Connecticut. She's a lovely wholesome girl, very friendly. Kind of low-key and appreciative of the simple things, but she's just a wholesome American girl.

Yep, it's true. I'm currently staying up in Norwalk, Connecticut (about an hour drive from NYC) and it's beautiful. So much greenery everywhere you look, all the typical American houses (big ones at that too), squirrels to the left, chipmunks to the right... It's so idealic and as corny as this sounds, this is the 'real america' that I was wanting to visit.

Yesterday, just bought the essential things (i.e. a phone - if you want the number, send me a message via facebook) and then went around to Lukas' cousins house, about ten minutes away. This house was MASSIVE. Approximately an acre property, it was just about the most impressive american house I've ever seen. (I can't remember what the actual style is called, but I have a few pictures I snapped on my iphone while I was there).

We went to Lukas' cousins house to watch the soccer (USA vs. England), on a nice big rear projection screen television. They whipped up something quickly to eat with what was left lying around, which reslted in hot dogs, iced tea, mac n cheese, corn on the cob and some crab. Ahhh, can you please pass the cliche sauce with that?

BUT IT WAS DELICIOUS. I didn't think they would actually bust all that stuff out, but it seems that it's just typical to have things like that lying around the house. Amazing.

Everyone I seem to meet is incredibly friendly and warm too. I've met the neighbours (strong NY accents - couldn't wipe the smile off my face), and it is that very close-knit community type feel where all the neighbours know each other (oh that's the Robertsons - they just live across from the Archsons).

Didn't end up going out last night and fell asleep at 7:30. The bad side of this was that I woke up at 3:30 this morning, but at least I'm getting better.

LOVING IT

Three cities in twenty five hours

So I've finally arrived. I'm up in Norwalk, Connecticut at the moment, chilling at my friend Lukas' house, who picked me up from the airport last night. It's about an hour drive from NYC itself, in one of those areas that is just... well it's green. Lots of trees and nature and you're typical american houses. I'll post some photos tomorrow. Quick recap of the trip over and the things I've learnt:

• LAX is one giant clusterf**k. Plane was late getting in so I missed my connecting flight(along with about 40 other people). Took about 45 minutes to clear customs and once I did that, the bags weren't even on the carousel. Once I had collected my bags and then gone and gotten put on a new plane, had to line up for security to get through to the gate, which was about another hour... In short, after arriving at 7am, I didn't get to sit down again until after 9:30.


• Met some total legends on the flight over and whilst waiting in LAX. For once, got sat next to somebody I could hold a conversation with, turned out to be a total legend. Other people whilst waiting in LAX too were good value too, sharing numerous breakfast margaritas with me (which were MASSIVE, and according to channel 4 news, the best in LA)


• Delta is not too bad when it comes to an airline. Sweet choice of films on the flight (I watched fantastic mr fox twice). Seats are ok, but not comfy enough to sleep on.

Today, gonna go grab a sim card so I can have a mobile (aka cell phone) over here. If anyone wants the number, just let me know via facebook or twitter. Gonna go and meet up with Mans tonight in NYC too I think and probably go out with him for a little bit.

In summation

• I arrived
• I'm safe and well
• I got massive margaritas in LAX
• Met some legends on the way

PEACE