Food Trips

[Cynthetiq]

Recently, we went to Chicago to get some deep dish pizza. Yes, you read that right, we flew from NYC to Chicago just to do a deep dish pizza tour. I'm known for knowing good places to eat, and well I do lots of research (meaning eating) so I can tell you places and foods to eat around the world.

Now, NYC has the best pizza. I don't think I've ever had a bad slice here as opposed to some of the foreign countries where they've tried to make pizza.

We did the as many as would fit in our 4 day visit hitting Lou Malnati's, Giordano's, and Pizzaria Uno. We gave up one pizza meal for a steak house, forgetting to include Gino's East. We had some mighty fine pizza! We decided we like Giordano's crust and balance of the sauce and cheese.

Today, we're jumping in the car, driving down to Philadelphia for the day to have some Philly Cheesesteaks. I like 'em Cheeze Wiz wit and Skogafoss Cheeze Wiz Tomato without. The most important thing is that we like Pat's King of Steaks better than Geno's.

My most crazy eat trip was started at 11pm on a Friday night in Belmont, CA (just south of SF) suggesting that we go have Chorizo and eggs for breakfast in Los Angeles and then drove back home in time for dinner.

I'm willing to travel a couple of hours for some good food, sometimes that's deep in NJ, Queens, or Long Island.

How far will you drive for good food?

[TotalMILF]

uh... wow. You really did that? It must be nice to be so spontaneous

I am blessed with a toddler who is extraordinarily well-behaved in public and restaurant settings (as long as it's not naptime!), so I do get to go out somewhat often. I don't have the time or energy to drive very far, though

[Craven Morehead]

That is awesome. Chicago's a great town for food. I'll travel a couple of hours also. But that's about the extent of it.

[dlish]

cyth.. so i take it we're going for the best pizza in town next week eh??

ive never gone interstate for food..but i am planning on it! i went to melbourne for the grand prix last year and had the absolute best eggs benedict at this little cafe in this little alley that we found by getting lost. so my cousin and i decided that one day spontaneously we are gonna go back to melb for the day.. take an early flight from sydney and fly down to melbourne for an expensive breakfast...

thats planned for next year sometime

[BadNick]

I haven't tasted them all, but the few times I've had Giordano's in Chicago it was awesome.

As far as Philly cheesesteaks, I grew up in Philly and have lived here for over 50 years now and I've had a lot more than my share of cheesesteaks. In any case, IMO neither Pat's or Geno's could possibly be considered to be even in the local top ten. They are at least "edible" and I still stop there occasionally just for the experience if I happen to be driving by. Just for comparison, next time try Tony Luke's little curbside joint on Oregon Ave. right off the I-95 exit, it's actually right under the highway overpass. If you're in the mood for a pork sandwich, also try Tony Luke's pork w/broccoli rabe ...a lot of it is the far superior quality of their bread roll.


PS: on a whim I'll often drive to NYC for food ...hard to beat NYC for great edibles. One minute on the way home, next minute ..."hey, let's go to NYC instead!"

[World's King]

I drive 3 and a half hours to go to my favorite brewpub.

Glenwood Canyon Brewpub


It's not that far but it is pretty far just to get a few beers and some fish and chips. And no I don't drive home after... I stay the night and hit up the Glenwood Hot Springs pool the next day.

[ngdawg]

If I could, I'd drive to Charlotte, NC just to get some brunswick stew at Hickory House on Tryon. I have brought home a gallon of the stuff, much to the amazement of the staff there. and friends there have presented me with containers of it.
There is also a place, Johnny's, in Overland Park, KS that has fantastic pulled pork and a bbq ham sandwich that I just had to buy extra of. That is apparently a chain, but that one place really did those up right.

[snowy]

We live in an amazing town for food. I am so incredibly blessed in that regard. You name the cuisine--we have a restaurant for it, and chances are it's good.

The furthest I go in town for spectacular food is this little Mexican place called Tacos Uruapan out in Southtown. Real, authentic Mexican cuisine. They have the best carnitas I have ever had. They also serve up classics such as posole, and you can get a Coke or Pepsi made with real sugar to drink with your meal.

The furthest I go in state for a good meal is over to Bend, Oregon. They have some really good restaurants too. If you ever get to Bend, check out Parilla Grill on the westside--best wraps ever. The wraps range in style from Asian fusion to Mexican to...well, they have some crazy specials sometimes. My favorite wrap is a Thai peanut wrap with chicken, with one of their margaritas to go with it. Pizza Mondo downtown is a good place for thin crust pizza by the slice, and we always go to breakfast at Jake's, an old truck stop restaurant. The truck stop is long gone, replaced by car lots and a Costco, but the restaurant is still there. They have salad-plate sized cinnamon rolls, but good luck having the appetite to get one after your meal, because their portions are enormous. A half-order of biscuits and gravy will set you back $4.50, but it will fill you up until dinner. It's the kind of place where my friends and I make bets about being able to finish your breakfast. Chances are you won't.

Until recently, I would have headed all the way to Portland to get some good pho, but we had a great pho place open up here in town this last fall. Saving on gas money allows me to buy more pho--it's a good trade-off.

I love food. When I have the money, I'd like to take a foodie's tour of Japan. I'm very interested in the various modes of Japanese cuisine. I may be a white American girl, but my stomach prefers Japanese food to all others, and so does my palate.

[Cynthetiq]

back home already that was tasty!!!!

I even had a treat.. got to see some historical and Civil War memorabilia like General Meade's desk, Rita Hayworth's Rolls Royce and a 1935 Packard that is sitting idle in a garage. Topped off with eating some Cheesesteaks

[xepherys]

Hey Cyn, you like Asian food? I'm the same way (though won't drive QUITE as far) for asian food and eat a lot of it in a lot of places.

If you are ever in the Phoenix area I recommend Yupha's Thai Cuisine on Elliot in Tempe right near I-10. Amazing. If in Detroit, Pi's Thai on Dequindre and 16 Mile Road and for sushi I recommend Noble Fish on 14 Mile Rd in Clawson. Noble Fish actually supplies sushi-grade fish to most of the sushi joints in the Detroit-metro area. But, of course, they save the best for themselves. It's a small asian market with a 5-seat(?) sushi bar in the back. Amazing!

[jorgelito]

I took a bus (the Chinatown bus!) from DC to Philly and ate nothing but cheese steaks for 48 hours. It was awesome. We had the ones from that famous place downtown (of course I forget the name), a few blocks from Independence Hall and an awesome place called City Tavern (supposedly left over from the colonial period. The entire staff is dressed like 18th century folk and the best part is they serve ale from Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Ben Franklin's recipes they got from the National Archives). We pretty much ate cheese steaks everywhere we went (I would always eat at least one sometimes two plus the cheese fries). Needless to say, I couldn't poop for a couple of ays and when I did, it was messy.

I like Asian food too. My buddies and I once flew to Hong Kong just for dim sum and came back later that evening.

[squeeeb]

when i lived in japan, me and a friend drove around for a few hours to find this one really supposedly awesome kick ass ramen shop, and we finally found it, it was sooooo worth it. we would travel hours just to go to a ramen shop if we heard it was good. traveling for a kick ass meal is a great pleasure in life, you get not just the journey, but the destination as well...

[kutulu]

That Chicago trip sounds like fun but isn't Pizzeria Uno a chain?

Originally Posted by xepherys

If you are ever in the Phoenix area I recommend Yupha's Thai Cuisine on Elliot in Tempe right near I-10. Amazing.

I've been there. Pretty good stuff but I'm familiar enough with Thai food to make too much of a judgment.

[The_Jazz]

Originally Posted by kutulu

That Chicago trip sounds like fun but isn't Pizzeria Uno a chain?

He went to the original, which is just down the street from the second one, Pizzeria Due.

Pizza in Chicago is fine and dandy and all that, but the thing that's better here than anywhere else I've been outside a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere in Central Iowa and a few places in Omaha is the steak. Every steak I've had anywhere else (Minneapolis, NYC, Dallas, NO, Miami) has either been improperly cooked (invariably too long on the grill) or was a bad cut of meat. The bad cut I can usually forgive once, but never twice.

About 9 years ago, a friend and I drove from Chicago to Louisville, KY to go to a Waffle House. And I've intentionally detoured through the Atlanta airport to get Chick-Fil-A.

[maleficent]

Originally Posted by dlishsguy

cyth.. so i take it we're going for the best pizza in town next week eh??

that would be patsy's under the brooklyn bridge - or totonnes on Coney Island hands dow best pizza ever..