Dining on the Prairie: Then & Now

1849:

"As the merit of fresh meat is not properly appreciated at home, where it is too common...I beg leave to append a recipe for the best mode of preparing coons for the delicate taste of epicures....First catch your coon and kill him, skin him, and take out the entrails; cut off his head, which throw away; then if you have water to spare, wash the carcass clean, but if you have not, omit the washing.  Parboil an hour to take out the strong musk, then roast it before the fire on a stick.  While it is roasting, walk ten miles, fasting, to get an appetite, then tear it to pieces with your fingers, and it will relish admirably with a little salt and pepper, if you happen to have them.  A tin cup of coffee without milk, taken with it, makes, under the circumstances, a feast fit for the gods.  Alonzo Delano, May 11, 1849

Below is the menu from a luxury hotel in St. Joseph MO, where men of means dined before departing on their Western adventures.  The gentle reader is requested to take note the fine selections of meat....

2017:

First, use your iPhone to google "grocery store near me."  Then, purchase whatever you want from the 42,200 items in the average American grocery store -- bearing in mind that the only cooking equipment in your hotel room is a microwave.  Zap your frozen dinner for 4 minutes and let it rest for 1 minute.  Remove film from the carton and proceed to eat.

My dinner at La Quinta Inns & Suites in Kearney, Nebraska tonight