Roadtrip Food

I have so much to post about my absolutely amazing roadtrip with Caton it is mind boggling. I can't even comprehend where to begin. I mean, logic would tell me to go in chronological order, but that seems rather boring.

Anyway..

Food seemed like the second most logical place to begin. Why? Because I love food. Also, I tried an overwhelming amount of new foods on this trip, all of which are delicious, most of which are grossly unhealthy, and some of which I need to seek out recipes for.

Because we were doing a roadtrip through the midwest, it only seems logical to eat foods which are popular in the midwest. (see: fried and greasy or bbq)

Our first stop on the trip was Memphis, Tennessee. Paulette took this leg of the trip with us and we stayed with some amazing and fun people in Teach for America out there. But, before meeting up with Paulette's friends, we stopped for lunch at a typical southern style restaurant, The Blue Plate Cafe. I would highly reccommend this if you are ever traveling through Memphis and looking for some southern food. Don't you love the newspaper menus? Along with having all the tasty meal options, they're also filled with life lessons from regular customers and an assortment of random quotes from famous people.

Here I tried fried green tomatoes for the first time. I've been wanting to try these since reading the book in high school, but had never really gotten around to it. Finally, I did and it was amazing. And I had a few left over for breakfast the next morning. MMmmmm.

Also while we were in Memphis, it was a good city for new foods, we went to dinner at a restuarant called Soulfish. This place basically looks like a hole in the wall, but don't let it fool you. It is fantastic. And you can tell the locals are well aware of this because it was packed. Here we tried fried catfish which I have a new love for as well. It was so light and airy. Absolutely delish! But the portions are huge we shared one platter between the three of us.

In Norman, Oklahoma, home of John Cintenio, the National Weather Center and OU campus I had an opportunity to continue trying new foods! The above picture was taken at an amazing diner called......wait for it.....The Diner where we went for breakfast Sunday morning. While I didn't try anything new here, my eggerrito was absolutely amazing. But I did have an opportunity to try fried okra when we went to Van's for a bbq dinner on Sunday night. I think fried okra may be one of my new favorite things. I don't know how I'm going to go about making it because I don't think I've ever seen okra in New York, but I must try. All the bbq at Van's was delicious and it was probably my favorite restaurant on the entire trip.

Also in Norman, OK I tried peach cobbler. One word. Scrumptious. I could eat this forever. Warmed up with vanilla ice cream. It's to die for. John's friend Becky made a giant pan of this and we were lucky enough to indulge in some when we were there. I seriously think I blacked out, died and went to heaven while eating this stuff.

On our way to Kansas City to visit Megan Shanley, we stopped in Seneca, Kansas to visit our family friend, Darlene Hartway. She made amazing food. I don't even know what it was. I may have blacked out while eating this also due to the deliciousness. But it was a thai salad and a bean salad and chicken and peaches and tomatoes. I don't know what was in any of this food but I basically wanted to gorge myself on all of it all day long.

Then, in Kansas City on Tuesday for lunch Caton and I, once again, had bbq. The above picture was obviously not taken at a restaurant, although it was taken that day. I wish I had taken photos at the restuarant because it was a really amazing mixture between super classy and rustic. I don't even really know how to describe it other than, if you are ever in Kansas City, you definitely must go to Jack's Stacks. Here we tried burnt ends. I had never even heard of these before but basically, if I'm getting this right, they are bbq that has been cooked once and then cooked again on the ends so that they're really crispy on the outside and then cut up into bitesize pieces. These were spectacular. As were the baked beans. And the bbq sauce. It was all great!

Ok. So I believe that concludes my new food tour of the midwest. If you haven't tried them yet, I would definitely reccommend rushing to your nearest Southern state and ordering either, fried green tomatoes, friend catfish, fried okra (really anything fried I suppose), peach cobbler or burnt ends. You won't be dissapointed!