American Road Trip 1979 on Kodachrome

Archiver said:
Makes me wonder about the quality of food and produce in 1979. Was this in a time before the heavy use of pesticides and antibiotics? Was food more healthy in the late 70's?
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No. You need to go back before the 50s for that.

Food in the 1970s was probably worse, because it contained residues of products that have since been banned, animals were grown with hormones that are now not used (mostly because selective breeding has obviated the need for them) and because domestic surveillance agencies were mostly looking at imported products rather than domestic food.
 
Ah, the Cliff House and the Sutra Baths. Two of my fave hangouts in 1979. Many memorable breakfasts in the former and one only dip in the latter, a fast dive into the cold Pacific sea water froze my 'personals' for the rest of the morning. I recall the Cliff House had a good bar with cocktails half price during happy hour. Many tequila shots did wonderful things to the mind but less so to the liver.

Like Lynn I too stayed at the Olympic in the SF downtown area. A not so charming dump but at ten dollars a night, endurable.

My car - a 1970 two door Ford Maverick - looked like it had lost a battle in some war but other than peeling a tire on the iconic Big Sur road, got me across North America and eventually back to California.

Archiver is curious about food in the USA. In my travels the best tucker was in SF - with the rest of California a close second) - then New Mexico and Texas for Tex-Mex, and New York City for any cuisine you can think of. Everywhere else was hit and miss and gourmet experiences were rare. In California I fueled myself on avocado salads, burritos and seafood with tons of salad. The Italian delis in SF and LA all made humongous sandwiches, usually tuna salad with mayo on rye or sourdough for my breakfast to keep me going to lunch time and then more good food.

Elsewhere in the 'states I ate mostly from the fresh food sections of A&P supermarket which were everywhere. The A&P shelves had what we now know as junk food of every description (which I carefully avoided) but most had a deli section and a bakery for bread, rolls, muffins and that iconic American staple, bagels. I would buy small bits of this and that, mostly vegetarian, and lunch in comfort while driving onward to my eventual destination, the Atlantic provinces of Canada.

Fruit and veg mostly came from Mexico and were dirt cheap, the overall quality far better in the southern states. Then as now most Americans were enthusiastically into fast food and supermarket junk and already the obesity problem was visible even in young people who were well into the fast food culture.

Meat-based protein was a different kettle of, well, fish. American meat was known to be loaded with chemicals, just as locally grown produce was heavily sprayed with lethal insect killers, many brands of which are now prohibited in many western countries. Out of the cities it was mostly beef, pork or chicken, in places closer to the sea fish and other seafood which I considered was safer health wise. I had a bad joke going that I ate so much seafood, when I shaved I cut off more fish scales than beard.

In the '70s good Tex-Mex food was the go in the southwest. The small family-run cafes in country towns and small cities made the best T-M tucker, everything came fresh out of the kitchens, usually run by the mom with dad serving and the young-uns' out of school all lending a hand at cleaning tables, washing dishes and tidying up. They were friendly places and the prices were affordable. Nowadays T-M is in the grip of large corporations and everything is sourced from central warehouses. This to me is sad as good food - at times washed down with one or two tequila margharitas whipped up fresh in small cafe kitchens, kept me happily stoked with good food for the wearying 250-400 miles a day drives I did.

On the road it would be Wendy's (which at least had a salad bar) with the usual chain restaurant menus, not too expensive but heavily into massive plates of carved meat with fresh fries (aka chips) and a few bits of salad, or big hamburgers of questionable quality and the worst hot dogs I've eaten. Usually I avoided the highways in favour of the slower regional roads (excepting the fabled Route 66 which I planned to drive from end to end but sadly missed out on) which took me to interesting places with small town cafes offering good local food. So with a little effort one could eat well while on the road. I'm not so sure about now but let's hope the good food trend has continued.

Interesting how Lynn's fine images are reviving long-faded memories of my two North American sojourns. Sadly, my travel diaries have disappeared, but when I look at these photos I relive all those wonderful experience I had so long ago when the going was good and the planet was a hopeful place. For this many thanks, Lynn!
 
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Wonderful to see @lynnb , thank you so much. FWIW Ocean Beach inc. the rockpool is pretty much the same, perhaps with the exception of warning signs advising people not to leave valuables in the car.
 
DownUnder said:
Ah, the Cliff House and the Sutra Baths. Two of my fave hangouts in 1979. Many memorable breakfasts in the former and one only dip in the latter, a fast dive into the cold Pacific sea water froze my 'personals' for the rest of the morning. I recall the Cliff House had a good bar with cocktails half price during happy hour. Many tequila shots did wonderful things to the mind but less so to the liver.

Like Lynn I too stayed at the Olympic in the SF downtown area. A not so charming dump but at ten dollars a night, endurable.

My car - a 1970 two door Ford Maverick - looked like it had lost a battle in some war but other than peeling a tire on the iconic Big Sur road, got me across North America and eventually back to California.

Archiver is curious about food in the USA. In my travels the best tucker was in SF - with the rest of California a close second) - then New Mexico and Texas for Tex-Mex, and New York City for any cuisine you can think of. Everywhere else was hit and miss and gourmet experiences were rare. In California I fueled myself on avocado salads, burritos and seafood with tons of salad. The Italian delis in SF and LA all made humongous sandwiches, usually tuna salad with mayo on rye or sourdough for my breakfast to keep me going to lunch time and then more good food.

Elsewhere in the 'states I ate mostly from the fresh food sections of A&P supermarket which were everywhere. The A&P shelves had what we now know as junk food of every description (which I carefully avoided) but most had a deli section and a bakery for bread, rolls, muffins and that iconic American staple, bagels. I would buy small bits of this and that, mostly vegetarian, and lunch in comfort while driving onward to my eventual destination, the Atlantic provinces of Canada.

Fruit and veg mostly came from Mexico and were dirt cheap, the overall quality far better in the southern states. Then as now most Americans were enthusiastically into fast food and supermarket junk and already the obesity problem was visible even in young people who were well into the fast food culture.

Meat-based protein was a different kettle of, well, fish. American meat was known to be loaded with chemicals, just as locally grown produce was heavily sprayed with lethal insect killers, many brands of which are now prohibited in many western countries. Out of the cities it was mostly beef, pork or chicken, in places closer to the sea fish and other seafood which I considered was safer health wise. I had a bad joke going that I ate so much seafood, when I shaved I cut off more fish scales than beard.

In the '70s good Tex-Mex food was the go in the southwest. The small family-run cafes in country towns and small cities made the best T-M tucker, everything came fresh out of the kitchens, usually run by the mom with dad serving and the young-uns' out of school all lending a hand at cleaning tables, washing dishes and tidying up. They were friendly places and the prices were affordable. Nowadays T-M is in the grip of large corporations and everything is sourced from central warehouses. This to me is sad as good food - at times washed down with one or two tequila margharitas whipped up fresh in small cafe kitchens, kept me happily stoked with good food for the wearying 250-400 miles a day drives I did.

On the road it would be Wendy's (which at least had a salad bar) with the usual chain restaurant menus, not too expensive but heavily into massive plates of carved meat with fresh fries (aka chips) and a few bits of salad, or big hamburgers of questionable quality and the worst hot dogs I've eaten. Usually I avoided the highways in favour of the slower regional roads (excepting the fabled Route 66 which I planned to drive from end to end but sadly missed out on) which took me to interesting places with small town cafes offering good local food. So with a little effort one could eat well while on the road. I'm not so sure about now but let's hope the good food trend has continued.

Interesting how Lynn's fine images are reviving long-faded memories of my two North American sojourns. Sadly, my travel diaries have disappeared, but when I look at these photos I relive all those wonderful experience I had so long ago when the going was good and the planet was a hopeful place. For this many thanks, Lynn!
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Whoa, big fella! New Mexico cuisine is not Tex-Mex! It has some similarities, but is unique to NM. There is much greater emphasis on the use of red and green chiles (particularly from Hatch, but there are strong local favorites, such as Chimayo), it incorporates a lot of blue corn (from the original Indigenous peoples), and has a strong emphasis on posole and carne adovada, not often found in Tex-Mex. Tex-Mex originates in Texas, and like NM cuisine, shares some roots in Mexican cuisine. Know that we New Mexicans get our hackles up when we're lumped with Texans! They tend to be less than fond of us, as well. A looong story...
 
Retro-Grouch said:
Whoa, big fella! New Mexico cuisine is not Tex-Mex! It has some similarities, but is unique to NM. There is much greater emphasis on the use of red and green chiles (particularly from Hatch, but there are strong local favorites, such as Chimayo), it incorporates a lot of blue corn (from the original Indigenous peoples), and has a strong emphasis on posole and carne adovada, not often found in Tex-Mex. Tex-Mex originates in Texas, and like NM cuisine, shares some roots in Mexican cuisine. Know that we New Mexicans get our hackles up when we're lumped with Texans! They tend to be less than fond of us, as well. A looong story...
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Hot Button Issue! Yes, I have been to Chimayo, to the Sanctuary and to other missions. The land of the Penitenetes (Los Hermanos de la Fraternidad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno). New Mexico, land of the land of warring factions. Been there, done that, and learned to order foods "Christmas Tree" for some extra zip. I know people who go home every year to around Chimayo to get the peppers. In NM they are indisputably the world's best. Do not even disagree in the slightest.

Yes, the food is New Mexican, not Mexican or Texan. Pretty damned good, too. Beautiful country from desert in the south to the mountains in the north. Maybe I will go back with a camera or two. There is plenty to shoot out there.
 
@Retro-Grouch I tried to post this in a message to you but it is too long so the board will have to suffer it along with you:

When I was in the Chimayo area in '09 I had a contact who was local. Indian given shortly after birth to New Mexican Spanish and raised by them. He had solid roots in both cultures and his natural dad took him as a youth to the mystic holy places of powerful stones and so forth. He had a good job in the VA and did well because he could get along with the New Mexicans, Mexicans, Indians and Anglos. He was a fun guy but had that disease which claims so many Indians, the bottle. Great guy with amazing pull. Got us into a few "closed:" churches that are famous. The insides with the agonies of saints in carved, bleeding and tortured figures. Very Latin and alien to my life. It was a trip into another world.

We saw the "holy pit" later revealed to be a hoax filled by the priests at night. Oh, well. All in all a very different place and an interesting one. The babe I was with had lived in Chimayo for two or three years and shot a lot of pics on our trip. I, regrettably, did not. I will not have the opportunity again to get into those "closed" churches.

A little laugh, the babe had connections down in ABQ whom we visited. And we went out for dinner at a joint where the locals eat. Their son wanted get one up on me and see how thick my mud was on hot stuff. He ordered his stuff "Christmas Tree" so I did the same. He figured he had bagged me. LMAO I grew up eating hot foods and liberally use Tabasco and Tabasco Sriracha. When I plowed through the tacos or burritos without breaking a sweat he was at first disappointed and then welcomed me to the club. This has happened before. Folks rarely think a pale Anglo like me eats that stuff.

I know you are eatin' good in NM.
 
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Oop, I stand corrected. New Mex Mex in NM, Tex Mex everywhere.

I agree with everything posted after my long food opus. Everybody who makes the small effort required to suss out local food, eats super good in NM. Those New Mexican chilies were something entirely different and unique. Even Tabasco Sriracha (I have two bottles of the stuff in our pantry, so I know) is pussycat stuff by comparison. Almost as good, and here in Australia it has to do for those of us who've sampled the real thing.

I also have wanted to return, and stay for a long time, since I last saw Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Taos in the mid-'90s. I had previously lived in SF for almost two years in the early 1970s and in fact seriously considered completing my bachelor's degree there (in time I did it in Australia, a story for another time) prior to returning in 1979 and 1982, then again for more brief visits. And each and every time leaving with the sad thought that I wish I had stayed. We all have such regrets in our lives, and this is by far my most profound one.

Looking at my now ancient photographs, and certainly at Lynn's which I reckon are miles above any of mine, bring back many good memories of my times there. NM left a deep mark on my heart. Of all the places I've visited in North America, Santa Fe is one of very few cities I know I could have settled in, and been happy there, but my life took me in other directions, and I've ended up half a planet away in Australia. The memories have endured for many decades.
 
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I’m enjoying your anecdotes and comments here guys, thanks for adding some spice 🤣 to this thread. Sadly I didn’t get to taste much Tex Mex/Chili food on my travels (like boojum, I’ve always liked my chilis hot).. mostly we made our own dinner in campgrounds, with only a few nights out - there was a rowdy dinner in Juarez, but I was too inebriated to remember much later apart from the hangover. I do remember clearly being invited to a BBQ in a campground in St Davids Lakes reserve on the road to Tombstone AZ. It was stinking hot and an offer of a cold beer from a bunch of Americans was most welcome. The offered some dip with the beer and waited to see what happened - it was heavy on the chilies, but not excessively so, so I think I passed the test. Still have the Jalapeno chip dip recipe.
 
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