Taneasha's Crazy Cross Country Road Trip Part Two

So where were we?  Oh yes, we left off with my late night arrival in Fredericksburg, VA.  For those of you who missed the first installment of my cross country road trip, moving adventure, you can read it here.  So apparently the tornadoes didn’t get the memo that we were going to stay in Fredericksburg for a couple weeks.  Although they did follow us into Virginia, they continued on up to Massachusetts without us.  I’ve had enough of tornadoes to last me a lifetime.  Now, to be honest, I don’t think I got a fair representation of Fredericksburg.  I can pretty much sum up my experience there as OMG HOT!  I’ve experienced 100° before, but combine it with 90% humidity, and you’re dealing with a whole other monster.  Otto didn’t seem to mind.  He just wanted to take a nap on the grass every time we went outside, and what choice do you have but to stand there and let him? 

Since this is a food blog, though, I’ll try to concentrate on that rather than the extreme heat.

One of our first meals in Fredericksburg was at an expensive German restaurant. 

Now, I’ve never had German food, so this was a first for me.  After hearing the specials, I said, “I’ll take that one.”  It was a something schnitzel.  Basically, thin, breaded pork chops, with mushrooms, bacon, and cheese, in a chive cream sauce. 

Wow!  It really was as good as it sounds.  For one of my sides I chose creamed corn, which was simply amazing.  One day I’ll have to figure out just how it was made.  Unfortunately, I can’t test it out on hubby.  He won’t touch corn with a ten foot pole.  But speaking of hubby, he had a steak and scallops.

Yes, they did use flowers for garnish and yes those mashed potatoes were piped decoratively onto the plate.  I told you it was a fancy place.  Oh, and the potatoes… seriously, why can’t more restaurants make them that good?  Well, leave it to my husband to ask for 57 sauce in a place like that.  The waiter had no idea what he was talking about.  “Catsup, catsup?” he asked.  I still laugh about it now.  He went to ask the chef what sort of sauce he recommended for the steak and returned with a slice of compound butter.  Ha! 

Anyway, you can’t go to a German restaurant and not have bratwurst, right? 

Ok, so I’m not actually a fan of sausage, but hubby said it was fabulous.  I just helped myself to more of the mashed potatoes. 

So, after that came a week of mostly pub fare. 

Yeah, that pretty much means food that’s been battered and fried.  On the plus side, I did get to try fried pickles. 

And this fish sandwich was so good, I even went back for another one.  Seafood is not something most places excel at in Utah.  Not surprising for a landlocked, desert state, I suppose.  

For the weekend, we decided to head down into North Carolina.  Why North Carolina you ask.  I’ll tell you in a minute.  First, came Richmond, where we stopped for some ‘real’ fried chicken. 

Lee’s was supposed to be THE place for fried chicken.  Unfortunately, I got the chicken tenders, which were good, but a bit tough. 

In hind sight, I should have gone with the regular fried chicken.  Hubby said it was the best he’d ever had. 

Ok, so back to North Carolina.  Being that close, we had to take a jaunt down there so that hubby could surprise his father.  No, not see his father.  Meet his father, as in, for the first time.  I’ll give you a minute to take that in. 

*whistling*

Yeah, it was that cool.  There are no words to describe the happiness it brought all around.  After a brief meeting, we asked to have breakfast with them the following morning, and a little bird told me Dad was so excited to see his son, he didn’t sleep a wink that night.  They were the kindest, most welcoming people I’ve ever met, and the experience will stick with me forever. 

Whew.  Let me just wipe the tears away now, and we’ll get back to Fredericksburg. 

So, after weeks of restaurant food, we were just dying for a home cooked meal.  Having kitchen appliances, but no real kitchen basics, we opted for frozen orange chicken from Trader Joe’s.

Spooned over some frozen, cooked in the microwave rice, it wasn’t half bad. 

And I have to say, pulling rice from the freezer and having it ready for the plate in 5 minutes and every bit as good as cooking your own… seriously awesome.  Me thinks I will be doing that more often. 

Finally, our last weekend before leaving Virginia and continuing on toward our final destination, Massachusetts.  That weekend we spent visiting Washington D.C.  We didn’t have nearly enough time over the course of the two days, but after two long days of lots of walking in hot, humid weather, I nearly died. 

Pack everything back into the car, it’s time for the final leg of our trip.  Our first food stop was in Philadelphia.  If you’re going through, you have to get a Philly cheesesteak, right?  And if you’re going to stop, you might as well get the best.  Depending who you ask, that would either be Geno’s Or Pat’s.  Well, we chose Pat’s. 

We parked half illegally, and hubby hurried over to get us one.  Now, to be honest, I wasn’t really that excited for it.  I’m not big on steak, and I’m especially not fond of cheese whiz. 

Oh.  My.  God.  Without a doubt, the most amazing sandwich I’ve ever tasted in my life.  It would even be right up there with the best things I’ve ever eaten.  How could I have been so wrong?  Now I’m trying to come up with some reason we need to go back down there so I can have another. 

After Philly, we continued on to New York City.  Katz’s was a place hubby had always wanted to visit, but never actually thought we would.  Well…

 

I ordered a brisket sandwich, which was good, but didn’t hold a candle to the cheesesteak.

They served us a whole variety of pickles.  Interesting. 

We also ordered a bowl of mazza ball soup because that’s another thing you can’t get in Utah.  Neither of us had ever tried it before.  Boy was it good. 

Lastly, came the main attraction.  Hubby ordered the pastrami sandwich.  I’m not big on pastrami, but it was the best I’ve tasted. 

Hubby says I’m crazy and it was far and away the best sandwich ever made.  We’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one.  But New York isn’t done yet.  No, we didn’t get pizza, but I did track down the Wafels & Dinges Truck.

Well, it was actually a cart, but I was so excited for it that I just jumped out of the car when I saw it.  Middle of New York, no phone, no plan, just waffles on the brain.  We were in major traffic, so hubby couldn't stop or anything.  I just had to track him down after I got what I wanted. 

Unfortunately, I ate the whole thing before pictures ever even crossed my mind, so I just had to take these from their website.  Without question one of the top three in my best thing I ever ate list.  I had ‘De Throwdown’.  It’s a liege waffle with spekuloos and whipped cream on top… something I’d seen on the Food Network.  Spekuloos is a yummy spread made from basically graham crackers.  It has the consistency or icing, sort of, but OMG, sooooo good.  If you’re ever in New York, track down one of the Wafels & Dinges trucks or carts.  I promise it’ll be worth the effort.

 

Finally!!  We have reached our destination!  Man, was that a long journey.  We’re still homeless and eating restaurant food almost exclusively.  Not a lot of great cooking can come from a tiny, unstocked, hotel kitchen.  I’ll show you next week something you can make.  And I have to give a special thanks to Hubby’s friend for feeding us two fabulous home cooked meals since our arrival.      
    
      

Taneasha's Crazy Cross Country Road Trip Part One

Well, perhaps it’s just because I’ve been on the road for almost four weeks now, but I think this road trip has definitely been eventful enough to warrant two posts.  With a two and a half week ‘layover’ in Virginia, it’s basically been two road trips anyway. 

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll give a brief explanation.  On May 20^th, we (hubby, Otto, and I) left Utah with only 9 boxes that we shipped and whatever would fit in the trunk of the car, and began our cross country move to Massachusetts.  The day before we left, we found out that my husband’s ninja like training skills were greatly needed in Virginia, and would we maybe, please just stay there for 18 days.  Yes, I said the day before we left.  Needless to say, we had a last minute change of plans on our itinerary. 

So, onto our journey.  Frozen bottles of water to keep the sandwiches cold… check. 

Back seat turned into one big, cushy dog bed… check

When you’re traveling, don’t think you have to just eat beef jerky and something you pick up from a drive thru window.   Take the time to make some good sandwiches.  I even made two different types.  One was just some sliced ham and salami on some good rolls.  The other was chicken salad.  I had some leftover chicken from a kabob I got at an India restaurant the night before, so that’s what I used.  I just diced it up with some celery and green onion then stirred in some mayo and grated smoked cheddar. 

Somewhere between Evanston, WY and Loveland, CO we stopped to eat our sandwiches.  I realize that’s a really long distance, but let’s just say it wasn’t terribly memorable, so I couldn’t say where exactly we were.  So, pull out your sandwich and your pistachio nuts.  You did pack a little container of pistachios for the sandwiches, right? 

Put them right on top and enjoy. 

Where are they, you ask… They really are on there. 

See, even on the road you can have gourmet, you don’t have to go without. 

Our first stop was Loveland, CO.  We stayed at Embassy Suites that night and just had some of their cheese, crackers, and hummus to satisfy us enough to not starve until bedtime.  We were too tired to do much else. 

After Colorado came Kansas.  This picture pretty much sums up Kansas for me. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful, but it’s just this forever.  It never changes.  You feel like you’re just driving the same stretch of road over and over and over and over and over.  We stayed in Salina, KS that night.  So, I’ll be honest, I was not expecting to find good food in Salina, KS.  Imagine my surprise when I was served one of the best steak dinners I’ve ever had.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures.  Salina was also where our tornado adventures began.  When we read about the tornado that had happened nearby while we slept, we had no idea what we were in for in the coming days. 

Before that, however, came Kansas City.  When in Kansas City, one must eat Barbecue, right? 

If you don’t know where to go, just look for the place with cop cars in front.  They always know who has the best food. 

(Notice the sunshine?  That didn’t last long.)

Never having been to Kansas City, we went in with a plan.  Try some of just about everything on the menu.  Hubby ordered ribs, burnt ends, sausage, potato salad, and baked beans. 

I ordered turkey, pulled pork, ham, and coleslaw. 

The ribs and the pulled pork were… OMG, I’m salivating just thinking about them now.  Seriously amazing.  I have to give a shout out to Arthur Bryant’s.  It’s a have to have if you’re ever in the area.  Personally, if I ever find myself there again, I’ll skip everything else and just have a pile of the pulled pork and some baked beans.  Let me just savor this part for a minute, because, well…

Not long after we left, the sky started to look like that.  We were literally dodging tornadoes, and sometimes outrunning them. 

I admit to having a total meltdown at one point when we were stopped on the side of the freeway for one to cross somewhere in front of us and one started coming in from behind.  Not fun.  Tornadoes are not something we get in Utah, so it was a first for me. 

During one of our jaunts off of the freeway to let some bad weather pass ahead of us, we came across a restaurant advertising foot tall pies.  Even in the middle of tornadoes and storms, you can’t pass that up, can you? 

Hubby had lemon meringue. 

I had chocolate meringue.  Yeah… they’re all meringue pies.  That’s how they make them so tall.

Unfortunately, I have to report that they tasted about as good as they looked.  That is to say, not fabulous.  Perhaps they would have been good if they weren’t served warm.  Warm?  Who serves chocolate cream pie warm?  Ok, so it was more like room temperature because they weren’t refrigerated.  It came as a huge shock to me when I took my first bite, which I’m sure showed on my face.  After a few bites, we paid for our pie and drove as fast as we could the rest of the way to St. Louis. 

Yummies is supposed to be THE place for soul food in St. Louis, and we wanted soul food. 

Unfortunately, they were closed by the time we got there.  They had only been closed a few minutes, and my husband being my husband, he walked up and knocked on the door.  He talked to the owner (I assume) who kindly offered to box us up some of what he had left so we could take it to go.  Thank you, Yummies for a fabulous dinner of turkey, stuffing, beans, mac n’ cheese, and greens.  There I go salivating again. 

We made a quick stop in Indianapolis on our drive from St. Louis to Cincinnati.  I just have to mention it because they actually serve ketchup like this:

Hubby almost made them take it back.  I’m pretty oblivious of sports stuff, but apparently the Colts are a rival to Hubby’s team.  You know how men can be.  Now onto Cincinnati. 

So, in Cincinnati they eat chili.  Chili on hotdogs, chili on French fries, and most notably, chili on spaghetti.  Sounds weird, I know.  I thought so too, but when in Rome…

When in Cincinnati, definitely pay a visit to Camp Washington.  It’s just a little fast food lookin’ joint, but it was awesome. 

On top of that, it was super cheap. 

That’s right.  Hubby and I both ate for seven bucks.  Awesome, huh? 

The next day was our longest drive, Cincinnati, OH to Fredericksburg, VA.  There weren’t really a lot of eventful things that happened, except lots of crazy rain and wind because the storms were still following us.  We got in really late and had to just order off of the late night  menu at a pub.  I was way too tired for pictures at that point, so that brings us to the end of part 1 of my long, crazy, fun, and sometimes scary, road trip.  Stay tuned for part 2 where things really start to get good. 

Gemma Halliday is visiting us on Friday, so be sure to stop by and see what she cooks up for us!