One of my favorite things: Food

I thought I'd take a step back to my trip and share some details about the great food I ate along the way. I was writing these down as I went, so don't think I can remember all of this now, a month later. Nope, I'm not that weird. Though when it comes to food, some details are unforgettable....

Restaurant names, however, as you will see, are not always memorable. (If you happen to know which restaurant I'm referring to—either because you were there or because you just know these things—feel free to share.)

There are some food events I'm not mentioning, mostly because it was food you could get in many other places. I'm trying just to mention the most memorable eating experiences. I've also refrained from listing meals eaten on the go, in hostel kitchens, at friends' places and while camping...because that would cause this post to be much longer and windier than it already is.

ALBERTA

Jasper
• Soft Rock Café: pad Thai (plus a great conversation with a young woman working as a bus driver/tour guide in British Columbia and Alberta...we both needed some company that evening)
• Some pub in a basement, with bicycles hanging from the ceiling and free Internet for customers: fish and chips; Amber Brown ale

Calgary
• Unicorn Pub (free wireless): potato and leek soup; red wine (the bartender looked like a pirate, tall and bald; he asked if the soup was good and said he was thinking of having some)

MONTANA

East Glacier
• Whistlestop Café: baked potato with bacon, cheese and tomato; salad; huckleberry pie (the best huckleberry pie I've ever had...and the only huckleberry pie I've ever had—but what does that matter? it was amazing)

Kalispell
• City Brew (free wireless): lemonade or iced tea (can't remember, honestly, but it was good)

Bozeman
• Co-op (free wireless): smoothie with mango and other fruit (a little too healthy-tasting, if you can believe me saying that...but the atmosphere was great)

MINNESOTA

Minneapolis
• Thai place: red curry with mock duck and coconut milk (Shelly and I were loving it; we could have drank that curry, it was so good)

ILLINOIS

Chicago
• Pizza place: deep-dish pepperoni and sausage (Lisa and I devoured it in moments, and then headed off to find dessert at the Cheesecake Factory)

Champaign
• Café Luna: sandwich with French name and cheese (food names weren't memorable here, as I was occupied getting to know my lunch companions: a fellow blogger and her fiance)
• Mexican place: something wonderful, plus part of a margarita (my family was celebrating my brother's 25th birthday)

OHIO

Toledo
• Thai place: something wonderful, maybe curry (my first meal with Brittany, my pen-pal of 12 years, and her husband, Adam...I was delighted to discover that they like spicy and ethnic foods)
• Mexican place: chicken fajita salad; prairie fire bean dip (great food and great company; Brittany and Adam were quite enjoyable dining companions)

Peninsula
• Winking Lizard Tavern: Hawaiian burger with pineapple and teriyaki sauce (I was referred to this place by the man working at the hostel where I was staying that night...I sat alone in the middle of the room and wrote in my journal while eavesdropping on other patrons)

Akron
• Macaroni Grill: something cheesy with penne (Izzy's treat...I have no idea what we talked about during dinner, but I remember that it was a fun evening...possibly connected with drawing on the table with crayons; in fact, now that I think about it, I was drawing a map of the U.S. to show him where I'd been)

NEW YORK

Niagara Falls
• Indian stand: something with rice and chicken that was mild and filling (I had just seen the falls; it was raining and I sat on the concrete steps of a darkened building to eat, before driving to the Canadian side)

ONTARIO

Toronto
• Solferino: gelato (I think it was passion fruit and mango; I sat there eating it ever-so-slowly...it was cold outside but I didn't care)
• Sushi place next door to Solferino: barbecued eel and avocado sushi (this stuff was amazing; having this after gelato was like being transported straight to heaven...or at least Iona)

QUEBEC

Montreal
• Some restaurant/café (free wireless): potato/cabbage soup; bread; red wine (I came in from the rain to eat, check my e-mail and get dry...I ate slowly and stayed until my laptop battery was dying)

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Summerside
• Greco Pizza: 9-inch sausage pizza (I got it to go and ate in my car by the water, watching the gray sky and wind-whipped waves)

MAINE

Bar Harbor
• Maggie’s: halibut, clam and shrimp au gratin; mashed potatoes; baked squash with onions (Maria and I had a jolly evening here, after taking semi-cold, weak showers near our campground; she amused me with her antics and jokes about asking the waitress for scraps for her dog...it wasn't that sort of place, or the woman wasn't that sort of person, so we just laughed at the thought of her response)
• Jordan's: blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup (it was Maine, so we had to have blueberries...so good; Maria and I went our separate ways after breakfast)

NEW YORK

New York City
• Italian place in Little Italy: vegetable lasagna with spinach noodles (Sara and I ducked in here for lunch after shopping in Chinatown; the waiters were all speaking Italian, and one helped me with my coat on our way out)
• Thai place: beef salad with spices; Thai beer (it was pouring rain and we had been in search of some live music that evening; our first lead didn't pan out, so we opted for a 10 pm dinner before heading to the blues club, where we had the best mile-high mud pie)
• Renaissance Diner: Tex-Mex burger with avocado; cookie shake (yum, yum, but oh was I full...good thing Sara and I went for a long stroll that afternoon, through Central Park and surrounding areas)

VIRGINIA

Fredericksburg
• Another name I can't remember...some downtown café: messy chicken sandwich; corn fries (I had never heard of corn fries, but they were good)

Charlottesville
• Splendora's Gelato Café: gelato of some flavor (Jimmy's first taste of this delection [that should be a word], if I remember correctly)

NORTH CAROLINA

Chapel Hill
• Thai place: red curry with duck; appetizer in rolled tofu; lemongrass and chicken soup (Katie and I got all this to go and returned to her condo to watch Desk Set, eat and drink Gewürztraminer)

ARKANSAS

De Valls Bluff
• Craig’s BBQ: pork dinner with beans; coleslaw; chips (if ever you are in Arkansas, find this place...it was amazing, especially the coleslaw...I could eat some more of that)

TEXAS

Austin
• Whataburger: chocolate malt (my first malt...I approve! it was a hot day and I wanted a little sweet refreshment)

Port Aransas
• Whataburger: fries; iced tea; peppercorn ranch whatachicken sandwich with jalapeños (any fast-food restaurant that gives you the option of adding jalapeños is a great place in my book)

San Antonio
• Central Market: four-flavor fruit pie (the single best storebought pie I've ever eaten...many thanks to Tara)

NEW MEXICO
Great food eaten here, chiefly because Wes knew all the best places to go. I left the state happy and full, and possibly a few pounds heavier.

Santa Fe
• The Oarhouse: cheese dip with chips; margarita
• Tomasita’s: enchilada with green chile; tamales with red chile
• Pranzo Italian Grill: malbec wine; creme brulee (I was recovering from altitude sickness, so I wasn't hungry for dinner, but wine and dessert sounded pretty good...plus I'd never had creme brulee before, and I had to see if Amelie was right)
• Diner: breakfast burrito with green chile (chile goes with everything, especially meat and eggs...I don't think I could ever be vegan)

Jemez Springs
• Los Ojos Bar and Grill: Famous Jemez burger with everything (amazing...gosh, I love meat)
• Some café on the highway: blue corn wild blueberry pancakes (yum—and healthy too)

Taos
• Guadalajara Grill: fish tacos (the best I've ever tasted...mmm, I can still imagine the flavors)
• Taos Café: spinach, feta and tomato omelet; grilled chicken sandwich (the former for breakfast, the latter packed for a later lunch...all very good)

Albuquerque
• El Pinto: pork tacos with green chile and guacamole; world’s best salsa (possibly the most pleasurable meal of my entire trip...I bought two jars of salsa to bring home)

COLORADO

Durango
• Scoot ‘n’ Blues: soup and salad; sunshine beer; Bailey’s (after eating in the restaurant, we went downstairs to the bar and listened to a girl play piano...she sounded a smidge like Norah Jones)

I have a feeling there's a gap here, but I can't remember any out-of-the-ordinary food eaten in Utah or Nevada. It was all hosteling and in-the-car snacking: apples, bread, cheese, vegetables. Oh, I do remember that in Utah I found the first Safeway since Montana, two months before. I bought a box of clementines—on sale. I was happy to reacquaint myself with familiar old Safeway.

CALIFORNIA

Laguna Beach
• Gina’s Pizza: chicken with white sauce, spinach and tomatoes (fabulous...I ate half of it that night and the rest of it the next afternoon while I was stuck in traffic, trying to get out of L.A. toward the mountains)

San Francisco
• Gelato Classico Italian: cherry vanilla gelato, with chunks of cherries (I ate this while walking up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower)
• Italian place on Columbus Avenue: gnocchi with pesto; pinot grigio (the older man and woman working here were charming, though assertive; the woman came out to the sidewalk, where I was reading the menu, to invite me inside...I was hungry and accepted, and the food was great...she even refilled my wine glass—that was the only time that's ever happened to me)
• Taqueria San Jose: BBQ pork burrito; chips; three kinds of salsa (can you say fabuloso? it was amazing...I've spent evenings dreaming of that burrito)
• Nick’s at Fisherman’s Wharf: lobster bisque soup in a bread bowl (warm for my tummy on a chilly December day...eaten on a bench with the birds and other tourists)

OREGON

Portland
• Justa Pasta: chicken lasagna (Victoria took me to this place for dinner, and it was great—tasty and fresh, with a cool atmosphere and decor)
• The Tea Zone: Thai Me Up iced tea with tapioca bubbles (sure it was December and cold, but any time is a good time for bubble tea)

WASHINGTON

Seattle area
• Vietnamese place in Ballard: meatball pho (cheap and filling on a cold, dark evening; Chelsea and I made a great choice)
• Dick’s in Kirkland: burger; fries; strawberry shake (the best cheap burger I've had in recent memory; Leah and her brother steered me in the right direction)

And that's that! All this talk of food has made me hungry. Drat....

Comments

[Leah]

so, was Amelie right? I love creme brulee.

Also, the Dick's we went to was not in Kirkland -- perhaps Lake City? Yes, yes it was! We went after going to Third Place Books. Anyway, you can be forgiven the error; it's easy enough to confuse the areas around here. I adore Dick's drive in and don't get it nearly often enough. I will miss it when I leave.

Sounds like you ate a lot on the trip. Goodness knows I ate a bunch while you were here (fried rice at bookstore, then Dick's, then dinner with parents, and on and on). Food is the great binder of people.

[Wes]

The diner where you had the breakfast burrito was The Pantry (my favorite greasy spoon in Santa Fe). Oh, and it's actually The Ore House (not Oarhouse)...
One of the first things I'll do when I head back to New Mexico this week is go to El Pinto, of course.

[Katie]

Remember how you nearly perished from that thai pepper?

I'd whine about the neglect paid to the camp food, but you already did a whole post on that tin foil banana.

Tin Foil Banana. Maybe that's what Alan and Kyle should name their band. Ha. Help me come up with band names, April. Kyle was just talking about all the ones we came up with camping. The latest is "The Heavenly Hoovers," which, believe it or not, we garnered from yesterday's sermon!

[Katie]

"Heaven . . . or at Least Iona." Sounds like a song title. Hmmm.

[April]

Leah: I think I agree with Amelie. The creme brulee was pretty darn good, especially with red wine.

Wes: Thanks for clearing those up. I'm sure I'll learn all those names in good time.

Katie: You amuse me. And though I didn't "nearly perish," it was pretty flammable. My mouth was on fire.

[apostlejohn]

I've never understood why it is not acceptable to fill out forms that ask for hobbies by writing "Sex and food"