Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: United States

  • Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (Room 306)

    Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (Room 306)

    A visit to the marvellous National Civil Rights Museum ends, I think quite abruptly, with room 306. On the balcony outside this room, Martin Luther King was assassinated on 4 April 1968.

    One of my political heroes and perhaps the greatest American of the twentieth century, I’ve also been on a tour of his birthplace home in Atlanta.

    King’s room, untouched since he was killed. Today, there is plexiglass allowing visitors to look into the room and this is all integrated into the modern new museum building. It’s quite a sobering way to end a tour of the museum, a reminder of the fight that the civil rights movement has had for so long.

    The bathroom of room 306. The plexiglass that has been used is quite unforgiving when taking photographs and it’s hard not to get reflections.

    The balcony where Martin Luther King was shot.

  • Memphis – Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken

    Memphis – Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken

    Back to January 2018 and there was one restaurant in Memphis that was outstandingly well rated (and it still is) and something of a culinary experience. This was evident when I got there and saw how many people were standing outside waiting to get in, on a mid-week afternoon in January…. Fortunately, it was organised and so I went in and put my name on the list and was told there would be a table available in around thirty minutes. But, sometimes fine food is worth that wait. It’s like waiting in Greggs for eight minutes whilst they put a new batch of chicken bakes in so that I can get a beautiful piping hot one. And, soon enough, after around thirty minutes a staff member came outside and shouted “Julian”, so it was time…..

    The menu, all clearly laid out and I think highly tempting.

    This is Memphis, so of course the service was engaging, efficient and personable. It’s not large inside the restaurant, but it was atmospheric and had a sense of fun to it.

    Can’t beat a bit of hot sauce. Well, you can I suppose, but this was a perfect complement to the meal.

    And the main event, two pieces of chicken breast, a chicken wing, baked beans, slaw and fries. And I got an unlimited Dr. Pepper, so this truly is the land of dreams. And, as for the chicken, it was as near perfection in a fried chicken dish meal as I’m sure it’s possible to achieve. A crisp exterior, with no irritating flabby skin on the chicken, moist and tender chicken which fell apart with a really depth of flavour to the coating. The fries were moreish, fluffy on the interior and firm on the exterior and the slaw was creamy. Fried chicken shouldn’t need to be greasy, something which some KFC outlets haven’t yet worked out, it should be just like this.

    The wait at the beginning also added to the whole experience by increasing the anticipation for the food, with the service always being pro-active. I thought about this meal numerous times in the weeks after, this is a slice of the true America as far as I’m concerned. Impeccable. They have some more outlets in this small chain, I am today promising myself that I’m going to go back and visit another one.

  • Austin – Disabled Veterans Monument

    Located outside the Capitol Building in Austin is this monument to all of Texan veterans who have been disabled during their active service. The monument was erected in 1980 and the text in the centre reads ‘they offered their lives for the nation and received each for his own memory the noblest of shrines not the graves in which their mortal bones are buried but a home in the hearts of men’.

  • Austin – Ten Commandments Monument

    Located at the Capital Building in Austin is this monument of the ten commandments. It was installed here by the Fraternal Order of Eagles of Texas in 1961 and is made of Texan red granite.

    There was a substantial court case in 2005 which was held at the Supreme Court about whether this should be located at a state building. It was decided by a vote of 5-4 that the monument was constitutional in what appears to have been an enormously complex decision.

  • Austin – Tribute to Texas Children Monument

    Quite a simple monument this in terms of its intentions, it’s a tribute to the youth of the state of Texas. It’s located outside the Capital Building in Texas and was designed by Lawrence Ludtke, a sculptor from Houston.

  • Austin – Frost Bank Tower

    This beautiful looking structure is the Frost Bank Tower, the first skyscraper completed in the United States after 9/11. It cost $137 million to construct and has 33 floors, standing at 157 metres high. At the time of its construction it was the tallest building in Austin, although it is now the fourth tallest behind the Austonian, Fairmont Austin, and the 360 Condominiums.

  • Austin – Quiznos

    Austin – Quiznos

    When I visited Denver in Colorado I went in a Quiznos as it was the first one that they had opened. I hadn’t heard of the chain before, so that visit was just experimental, but I was very impressed. At one time there were 5,000 Quiznos locations around the world, but for a series of reasons they ultimately lost out to Subway. There are now around 750 Quiznos around the world and over 40,000 outlets of Subway.

    Unfortunately, I’m of the view that the wrong company has won out here with Subway’s food being bland, predictable and IMO cheap. Quiznos, in my view only, are far superior with the food actually having a depth of taste to it. Norwich has a few Subways, although one has recently closed, all of which I can’t say I’m ever tempted by, but if Norwich had a Quiznos I’d be there….

    Quiznos have the option of 6 inch, 9 inch or 12 inch subs (Subway are 6 or 12 inches) and the 9 inch sub is the one that I think is the ideal snack size. Above is the Classic Italian (Italian sauce, tomatoes, red onions, olives, salami, pepperoni, ham, mozzarella, and lettuce) with a healthy (well, something like that) pack of Cheetos.

    All very lovely and perhaps there will be another expansion of Quiznos in the UK, as the number is now very low (eight at the time of writing).

  • Austin – Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum

    I’ve been slowly making my way around all of the Presidential libraries in the United States and I’m nearly half-way through them. Unfortunately, some of them are more accessible than others in terms of their locations. The library and museum of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, is located at the University of Texas in Austin and so is one of the more accessible.

    I took quite a few photos when I was at the museum, although unfortunately a combination of my limited phone camera of the time and Google’s compression of the photos has meant they’re not particularly clear. Behind this talking animatronic of Johnson, who was President from 1963 until 1969, are numerous caricatures of him.

    A series of photos of former Presidents and their wives.

    A recreation of the Oval Office as it would have looked during Johnson’s time there, with this recreation being a common theme at Presidential museums.

    I liked this quote.

    These photos aren’t very clear, but a few weeks before I visited the museum it had been also been visited by President Barack Obama. It’s not very clear, but the upper photo above is of Barack Obama listening to the exhibit’s phone, which I decided to also use whilst standing in the same location knowing I’d then listened to the same phone as a former President. I’m easily pleased…

    On the subject of recordings, President Johnson secretly recorded many meetings and phone calls, around 800 hours of them. Many of these recordings were available to listen to at the museum, a fascinating record of the times and it gave a real feeling of being there when political events were unfolding.

    As a museum it was cleverly put together and it was accessible in terms of the information provided. I don’t know a great deal about the politics of the United States in the 1960s, but this was an interesting overview of the work undertaken by the President of the time. All rather lovely.

  • Austin – Please Feed Me

    This is a bag given to me by the tourist information office in Austin, and it’s one of the cleverest worded anti-litter campaigns that I’ve seen.

  • Baltimore – Chicken Rico

    I remember this restaurant from when I visited in 2015 as it’s the first time that I’d had Peruvian food. Now, inevitably a chicken burrito and chips isn’t exactly the epitome of Peruvian cuisine, but the chicken itself was rotisserie cooked in a Peruvian style, so it’s the nearest that I’d got to it. There are a few of these around Baltimore, with a Peruvian family having brought the concept to the city.

    As chicken burritos and chips go, this was above average in quality, with the chicken being tender and moist. The portion size was also generous, it certainly erred towards being one of the largest burritos which I’ve had.

    Trying to remember this visit four years on isn’t entirely easy, but I remember it was a clean and fast foody type environment, which was perfectly comfortable. I also remember that the staff were friendly and the prices were also realistic, considerably cheaper than some of the rather more fancy Inner Harbor restaurants.