You have missed one of life's most outstanding experiences, Paul. If I had
known, I would have ordered you some of the aforementioned (with smoked ham,
of course) during our recent excursion through Florida. Europe has its French
haute cuisine; America has its Southern cooking. Even Pacific seafood eaters,
like myself, gourmandize when we visit that part of the country. Don't
believe the stereotypes!

By the way, remember my exposition on the importance of hearty breakfasts in
history.
Good solid morning meals helped you to keep the French and Germans at bay for
some 500 years, while they quickly ran out of steam with their croissants and
coffee. I'm not quite sure what happened at Hastings, but the Normans were
really recently Vikings anyhow and came from the same basic tradition. Stick
to the kippers and kidneys. You can't go wrong. Remember the lyrics from
"Roast Beef of Old England."

Even here we still see vestiges of the British tradition.  We now have the
very popular "Outback Steakhouses", purporting to be Australian but serving
very little mutton and a lot of beef in the finest traditions of old Albion.
Stout stuff!

Bob Hoover