Food on the road.

We have had some remarkable food on our trip. A bit was remarkably bad. I will never eat a Sonic anything ever again. Coffee is an iffy thing. And what is up with the 25 flavors of coffee creamer in the truck stops? We have managed to avoid most other fast food.

Left to our own devices we fell into a 2 meal a day pattern. Breakfast of cereal or oatmeal or sometimes an egg dish. Once or twice pancakes. Then an early dinner. The standard fare was augmented Progresso soup. That is a Progresso soup with extra veggies and protein added. We love it. We lost weight. In Vermont we were able to shop a farmers market, and to buy fresh made sausage in Quebec. But other than that it has been hard to get our usual farmers market fare. Surprising, as we have traveled on mainly rural roads. Maybe time of year.

In Salt Lake City we found a new Italian restaurant with Derek and Susanna that was recommend by the owner’s daughter who made our breakfast in Baker, NV.  Susanna made breakfast- not to her standards but boy oh boy are her standards high! Patty and Mark introduced us to new friends and we had brunch with the 4 of them featuring homemade bread by Craig, the retired professional baker. 


Heading up over Lake Superior, we splurged on a 4 star meal of figs stuffed with blue cheese in a maple brown butter sauce, and with Betty’s Pie near Duluth (twice) and Sven and Ole’s pizza (because you have to eat in a Norwegian Pizza restaurant, right?) and then with dinner at the Angry Trout where the smoked fish plate – lake trout and herring is just a classic.  We bought the smoked herring they served from the fish house next door.

Along about Appleton people we knew began to feed us regularly. Wonderful meals: home cooked or take out or restaurants. There was incredible Chinese food in Appleton, a fantastic modern Mexican meal with Julia and Dain in Chicago (followed the next morning with Dain’s perfect cappuccinos and cookies by Julia who runs her own baking business), pot roast and roasted veggies in Saratoga Springs, really great wedding fare in Connecticut closely followed with some of the most inventive yet authentic sushi I have had. Right up til then I think we held our own on the weight loss. Then came Cape Cod the Lobster House Resturant, and the start of sea food along the eastern seaboard.

 My niece Devon suggested a great Mexican restaurant in Durham where they sat Renee and me early, then lost us, and had her wait for 20 min saying they didn’t have her reservation. I found her in the lobby. I had lamb made in the style of carnitas. since pork is the meat of my people, I was in lamb, not hog, heaven. They made up for the wait by gifting us with a fantastic dessert – but my memory fails me….something creamy, I think. 

Visiting with cousins-in-law Ed and Renee sealed the deal on the start of weight gain! Homemade chicken pot pie, garlicy asparagus and then eggs and grits for breakfast.  They even made us lunch for the road. 

Hamilton, Alabama is covered in more detail in another post but there is a new donut shop in town missing 1 dozen donuts and their holes. Delicious meals by Rhonda and cooking with kids has never been more fun. She sent us on the way with home canned veggie soup, peach butter and another jar of homemade I fail to remember.

We celebrated our first days in Texas with barbeque and deep fried catfish. Betty made us fresh pear cake. Then at the Cullen Baker Country fair it was strongly suggested we have a fried pie. We did. Progresso soup never tasted like this! Then Galveston and Merri’s deft hand with seafood. First evening we had pan fried red fish, and fresh fruit salad with mint. I mentioned that all the oyster shells on the beach gave me a hankering for oysters and couldn’t we take them out to dinner the next night. Well, Merri likes to make her own oysters and we were treated to tender small fried oysters with homemade cole slaw and peas with butter mint sauce.

Now, post trailer tire blowout and repair, we are on our own for several days. We hope to return to our routine of earlier in the trip. Tonight was lentil soup with roast chicken. But we’re still in Texas and on our way thru New Mexico….I hope there is an Indian Taco in my future.

Written and posted in Semiole Canyon State Park, Texas by LC

PS If I have failed to mention anyone who cooked for us or took us out for a meal in their town, please forgive my poor memory. It is the only thing responsible for the lack of honoring you!