Ok, so I'm too lazy to set myself up as a contributor...
But I thought it was about time to recap the culinary element of our road trip adventure, before we descend into the culinary oddness that is Walt Disney World (don't get me wrong, there are good eats to be found there, but it's a whole different scene). So, as david recaps the miles, I'm recapping the meals...
Thursday - I'm a bad person, and we didn't actually ever eat. Well, we had cupcakes at the hotel, but that's about it.
Friday - On the suggestion of a very nice man at Taleisin West, we stopped at Blue Adobe, a local "New Mexico" restaurant - the irony being that we were still in Phoenix and would not arrive in New Mexico until later that day. Good food, though. That night we briefly lost our "no food we can get at home" resolve and tried to get ice cream from Dairy Queen, but it was closed (which we realized after driving past the darkened sign several times). We did look around for something else/local, but failed. Cupcakes for dinner again.
Saturday - In Van Horn, Texas, we stopped at Papa's Pantry, which was a very odd, but tasty little restaurant hidden next to a gas station at one of those freeway exits where you would expect to choose between McDonalds and a Hostess pie from the Chevron. Instead, we had chicken enchiladas, beef tacos and other bizarrely Tex-Mex items. Then that night we were in Junction, Texas, (it's a REALLY big state), and after much vague driving around in what was actually a cute town (never did find out if they beat Comfort), ended up at Isaaks for pecan pie and peach cobbler served by Texas high school girls. The cobbler was lousy, but the experience perfect. Also, I had no idea that they grew pecans in Texas, but we had been wondering what they were growing in the Orchards.
Sunday - we went to the Alamo and Johnson Space Center, and somewhere between the two ate at a gas station, well, Buc-ees, which we've posted about previously. It was seriously the strangest thing. They had this huge deli/bakery area, with cookies and pastries and beef jerky by the pound, but you ordered everything from a touch screen kiosk that was very well designed, and then they'd call your number when your order was ready. While I wouldn't recommend ordering panini in Texas to anyone, David really liked his sausage rolls, and the homemade chips were out of this world. Sunday night we made a great effort to find real Texas barbecue in Beaumont, Texas, but it was Sunday, and it was well after 8pm, making that an impossible mission. We ended up eating fast food from a local chain in the slightly creepy Holiday Inn. Beaumost is a very odd town. We probably should have skipped Galveston - we checked out one BBQ place there, but were genuinely concerned to leave the car even long enough to get a take out order, so we skipped it.
Monday - mmmm, the previously discussed plate lunch in Lafayette, where I also discovered that I don't actually like sweet tea, which I had been looking forward to trying. Monday night we were in New Orleans, and of all the Brennan restaurants available, chose Mr. B's Bistro, where we dined like kings. Mint juleps, Pimm's cups, gumbo ya-ya, shrimp and grits, duck risotto... Our one splurge meal of the journey, which ended up being less than $100 - seriously, food is free outside of California.
And today we stopped at two regional chains that had been intriguing us for awhile - Whataburger in Biloxi and Waffle House in Gainsville, FL. Whataburger is a little bit In-n-Out, but with a bigger menu. Seriously the best onion rings I have had in a long time, and the chicken strips come with gravy. What's not to love? And Waffle House had been intriguing me for a while - they're tiny, open 24 hours, and have a really cute sign (which we'll have to get a picture of). They're basically just diners, but I have to say that it was some tasty eats.
That's it so far - and a really long post! The only thing I skipped was the Texas shaped waffle I had in one of the hotels in Texas!
