Fall, football, halloween

New York is not America.

Or at least that's how it feels, which is lucky, in my opinion, given the political climate evident in the recent elections.

However, I did experience the real America! I went to Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, for a football game. A Navy football game.

It was everything I imagined and more: fried food, the national anthem, chants ("Go Navy, Beat Army" – although they weren’t actually playing the army …), planes flying overhead, the navy school boys in uniforms doing pushups when their team scored (there was a real incentive for their team to win as it meant that the navy school all got a night off), and tailgating (which does not mean follow too closely, but describes how people have bbqs in the carpark of the stadium before the game). My only complaint is that games take four or so hours – I don’t know how anyone can care after that long.



The rest of the trip was great too - we stayed in a historic bed and breakfast where we had high tea, there was the best fudge shop ever, I had American style sushi (ridiculous), and we went on a tour of the state capital with a hilarious feminist guide.




Another totally American experience (even in New York) was Halloween.

My friend Leslie had a super extreme Halloween party.

The menu was as follows:

Mummies in a blanket (which are the spooky cousins to pigs in a blanket)

Baked Jack-o-lantern nacho dip and chips (vegetarian)
Pumpkin and Ghost Sandwiches

Homemade Iced Halloween sugar cookies

Vanilla Halloween cupcakes

Chocolate spider cupcakes

Spider web cotton candy and chocolate eyeballs

Green Ghoul cocktails with worms

Orange and black Happy Halloween cocktails with spiders.

We carved pumpkins which was super fun too and got goody bags to take home.

Then on Sunday night I went out in the Village for the Halloween parade. Basically it’s a participatory event where any who’s dressed up can march – some of the costumes were amazing – but it’s really the general atmosphere that everyone goes for. Everyone dresses up and the streets are madness. Next year I want to go to DC as apparently you can go Trick or Treating on Embassy Row and get candy from all around the world.

Thanks for all the lovely birthday wishes all. I had a great time with a few of my friends here. We had a fall themed dessert party with pecan pie, spiced apples and spiced apple cider and pumpkin muffins.

This blog is all about food, which I guess shows you some of the real America. Although one great paradox to me is how many amazing bakeries there are in NYC but how skinny the people are. They have a self control that I do not.