"A dark, meaty snow"

A BBC reporter on the campaign trail in Iowa writes:

I left Ireland promising myself that I would demonstrate self-control in this country which refuses to practise portion control.

I do not want to become the latest in a long line of European settlers who arrive looking like Laurel and leave looking like Hardy.

But of course my first meal was a cheeseburger the size of a dartboard.

When I ordered bacon on it, eight slices arrived. I was learning my first lesson about US cuisine.

Bacon is no longer really a meat; it has become a garnish served alongside or on top of other foods, as though it was a kind of porcine salad vegetable.

Occasionally it even comes ground up and sprinkled over your dinner like a kind of dark, meaty snow.

Yes, sir it certainly is a delightful garnish.