The second day in the Land of the Brave was spent, where else, SHOPPING! Practising the favourite hobby of all capitalists, we headed off to do some outlet shopping at Woodbury Common – one of the largest outlet shopping in NY state. Definitely larger than Gilroy, which used to be our neighbourhood bay area outlet shopping. Hey, I make like a tourist, I’m allowed to go shopping

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The other thing that is all-American (for me, at least) is diner food. This for me is as ubiquitous as wonton noodles stalls in Hong Kong, mamak in Malaysia and fish & chips in the UK. It just sums up the whole American experience for me – refillable coffee, lemonade & iced tea, steaks, soups, salads…simple, easy food. It does not profess to offer the most delicious food on earth, but for me, this represents good ole Americana food (even though alot of it is probably tex-mex – another American creation ). Two of my favourite diners are iHop & Denny’s . Maybe it’s the nostalgia , but as students we used to hang out in them ALL THE TIME, guzzling coffees whilst revising, hanging out after a night out or just whenever we feel like a big slab of T-bone at 3am. It’s reasonable prices is also friendly on the student purse strings.

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First up, iHop, also known as the International House of Pancakes. The nearest iHop from us whilst we were in uni was about 20 mins drive away, which means we only go there occasionally. I must apologise for the pictures below – after a super duper long day of shopping under the scorching NY sunshine, I was bone-tired and could hardly eat…so they are taken way too close as I really couldn’t be bothered to do my usual scouting for the best position. And how weird that the last time I was at an iHop (8 years ago) , Elvin was probably there as well . We’re just missing our third amigo, and our fourth no-longer-an-amigo .

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Elvin ordered the smoked spicy sausages with hash & fried eggs

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Meanwhile I ordered (naturally) T-bone steak with three eggs & hash potatoes

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They were both served with a short stack of the famed buttermilk pancakes with a dollop of melting whipped butter. Would you expect less?

Can you say YUMMY? I have been dreaming of this meal for years – sad huh? The buttermilk pancakes were drenched with maple syrup, mixed in with the whipped butter. Heavenly. Yeah, yeah…pancakes are for breakfast, but the beauty of iHop is pancakes are for ALL THE TIME! Fab . Bacon did not enjoy the pancakes as much as he was not used to the american-styled thick stacks.

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Now, how does iHop measure up with our next favourite diner, Dennys? Dennys was literally located just across from our campus, making it an easy target for an all-day everyday refuelling stop. We would stay there for hours at end, taking advantage of the refillable coffees to fuel last minute revisions – we were actually chatting rather than doing real studying . I can vividly remember my last meal at Dennys (sounds so morbid, huh), it was a few days before I left California for good….and of course, it was another T-bone steak . Strange how they don’t sell T-bone steaks in the UK? Where does it all go?

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We couldn’t actually find a Denny’s in Whippany, so when we saw this Denny’s attached to our hotel in Niagara Falls, me & bacon jumped on the chance to pay a little nostalgia trip for me and another novelty for bacon.

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We started off with a side Caesar salad. Bacon loves Caesar salad….the side serve looks large enough for two so I dug in as well . Very nice.

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I stuck with what I know (and missed sorely) – whaddaya know, another T bone! This time I opted for coleslaw & rice pilaf. Denny’s win hands-down (compared to iHop), cooked perfectly rare.

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Bacon was more adventurous and went for the prime rib breakfast fajitas. Not too sure if he could have actually manage to finish this for breakfast – portions were definitely dinner-sized! Prime rib strips were tender, scrambled eggs just the perfect amount of fluffiness (seeing that bacon hates scrambled eggs) and veggies just perfectly charred. This is no 5 star dining, but good wholesome food that fill you up and make you fat. . Could do with more salsa though.

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Not many people would recommend diner food if you told them that you’re heading to the Land of the Brave. It doesn’t help that these diner chains are usually out of main city centre drags, so if you only stay within the city, no sub-urb diners for you then . For me (and bacon) , Dennys most definitely win hands down in the battle of the diners. iHop of course does better pancakes, but Dennys’ food is just that little bit better. Ahh…let me just drown in my nostalgia now (with a side of fat & refillable coffee).

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