by Eric

Eats on the Cheese Road (continued)

Québec, Ontario, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois on the way to the grand Festival of Cheese in Chicago. Much of the trip was in quest of eating miles and the food was what was there when the driving stopped, although we hoped for the best. The best (aside from the festival itself); we were able to choose — St. Elmo’s in Indianapolis, Aja Steak House in Chicago, and my sister’s home cookin’. The worst — when we just had to eat something: Wendy’s in Logan, Ohio. We just stumbled onto the Palace Grill in Chicago’s North Loop — by far the best value. The yawning middle of quality included novel destinations — Hooters, Harry Caray’s — and restaurants on an agenda in Lancaster (see also Ohio Eats).

Here we continue the trip as we cross the Ohio River bound for Lancaster.

Monday Lunch
Wendy’s
Logan, Ohio
Bob Evans
Lancaster, Ohio

The plan was to drive for a while and then stop for some sort of breakfast. We got through Fairmont and then got on Route 50 bound for Clarksburg and Parkersburg. The road was big and empty and beautiful as it rolled through the short and tall hills of West Virginia. I had always felt West Virginia more rugged than beautiful, but I hadn’t been on this road. What we saw of Clarksburg had no attractive food options, nor did Parkersburg.

Once we crossed into Ohio, more of nothing continued. We drove straight through to Wendy’s in Logan for a pre-lunch; Junior Bacon Cheese Burger, “made fresh for you.” NO, it was not, cold in the middle.

With no other attractive options, we settled for the familiar, Bob Evans in Lancaster for lunch. We were served by the cute and perky Michaela, and learned that she had just turned 18. “I’m an adult now,” she said. “Is she coming on to me?” I dreamed. I had my usual Fried Mush and Sausage Gravy. Eric ordered the Big Breakfast of eggs, home fries, and sausage with an order of Biscuits with Sausage Gravy on the side. Big food. Continue reading →

07.06.07

by Eric

Sunday Supper

Peel â€˜n’ Eat Shrimp
Leftover Potato Salad

While waiting for dinner at Brophy Bros Fish Restaurant in Santa Barbara on Thursday, we had a mess of Peel â€˜n’ Eat Shrimp. Yum. Carol said, “We should have Peel â€˜n’ Eat shrimp for dinner every Sunday night.”

Our Sunday night dinners are usually planned, and then when the time rolls around to cook, one of us says, “who’s cooking?” and the other says “How about (Chinese) (Pizza) (Leftovers).” Our Sundays are rarely structured; we’ve been out or whatever, and we neither are inclined to get it up for a nice meal.

On this particular Sunday, we were just back from a trip to Santa Barbara to attend the beach wedding of Amber — one of Carol’s head teachers — and Will, a fine young Italian. We wrapped extra days around the Friday afternoon wedding to create a nice “foodie getaway.” Continue reading →

07.03.07

by Eric

Pittsburgh Eats 1

We spent five days in the Pittsburgh environs while Carol attended her NAEYC conference June 9 — 13, 2007. Due to the fact that it was the week of the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, we were obliged to stay in the sticks at the Pittsburgh Radisson Green Tree, in the Borough of Green Tree, about four miles from Downtown. This is about the eats.

Our Saturday flight to Pittsburgh left at a civilized hour, elevenish. We were on U.S. Air with a United ticket. The flight was smooth, the crew handsome. We shared an empty middle seat and I had all the legroom I needed.

S M O O T H.

Trouble is, we landed. The baggage claim was a congested, crunched-up mess with five flights on one carosel and the combination of Midwestern-sized people and their like-sized bags.

We called the Pittsburgh Radisson Green Tree for a shuttle pickup,

wait
wait
wait
wait

wait,

At least the waiting was in beautiful weather, 72 degrees and sunny.

Our hotel turned out to be a very large hotel in a suburban setting — or one might say, the middle of nowhere. Walk anywhere? Fagidaboutit. Nearby restaurants? Well, there’s the Olive Garden about a mile away, but the roads are narrow and have no sidewalks or shoulders to walk on. It was nearly 9pm local time and we needed food and drink, not necessarily in that order. Continue reading →

06.27.07

by Eric

Pittsburgh Eats Part 2

We spent five days in the Pittsburgh environs while Carol attended her NAEYC conference June 9 — 13, 2007. Due to the fact that it was the week of the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, we were obliged to stay in the sticks at the Pittsburgh Radisson Green Tree, in Pittsburgh’s Borough of Green Tree, about four miles from Downtown. This is about the eats Tuesday and Wednesday, our last two days.

Tuesday Breakfast
Radisson River Restaurant Buffet
In the Radisson Green Tree, without a car, there are no choices. You do what’s in the hotel, or do without. I didn’t bother with the morning bus into Pittsburgh, nothing much to do there, and I wanted to write My US Open. But I did want breakfast, so I chanced their Breakfast Buffet. I perused the layout and, whoa! The scrambled eggs were fresh and hot, properly cooked, and had some cheese in them. The hash brown potatoes were little wedges fried with onions, hot and brown, the breakfast sausages saw a skillet and were browned, the pineapple and melon were fresh and hand cut and there were grapes, strawberries, blueberries and cottage cheese. Coffee and juice come with the buffet and they even had V8! And there was dry cereal and granola and yogurt and milk and cream for those who are into that. What’s got into them?

Tuesday Lunch
The 1889 Café, Southside Pittsburgh

By noon or so, I was thinking about lunch and thinking about Pittsburgh. Continue reading →

05.18.07

by Eric

Polk Gulch Lunch

Oops, they call themselves Polk Village now*

I bought this scooter three weeks after moving to San Francisco in 1992. I was on the bus to work in traffic on Columbus Avenue. I looked out the window and stopped beside the bus was a small woman in high heels perched on a motorscooter. Dang all, if she can handle it, so can I! I bought this baby the next day, a Yamaha Riva 125 for $1,600 used. It had 80 miles on the odometer — had been used at a driving school. Now it has over 18,000 miles on it — all in the city.

On a recent morning I went to the Kabuki to take some pictures. When I parked my scooter and pushed the kick-stand down, CLANK! the kick stand fell on the pavement. Not a disaster, as it has a wheel stand, but inconvenient. I went straight to Golden Gate Cycles on Pine between Polk and Van Ness. This is a good service shop. The guy said I could pick it up in about an hour. Continue reading →

01.05.07

by Eric

Happy New Year

The Eve and the Day

It all starts on New Year’s Eve and we had reservations for 9:45 at Tablespoon (A New Measure of Bistro), a 47 seat bistro on Polk Street, two blocks from our house. No driving.

Sarah, who was joining us, came over early, and I made an appetizer to start the evening properly.

Broiled Radicchio
From Julia Wiley’s blog 12/05, there’s a comment on a comment dissing radicchio, looks like it might be from Great Britan. It has a great idea for mellowing the bitter radicchio. Continue reading →

09.01.06

by Eric

Ohio Eats II

Part 2 — Columbus and the Reunion

This is the second installment of a three part odyssey surrounding my trip to the Columbus West High School Class of January 1956 reunion. It’s all about the food, what I call Ohio food. It’s different than what you’ve been reading about in this space for two reasons: For one, I’m traveling, and for two, the choices in Ohio are different than those in Northern California, much different.

Since I made the long trip to Ohio for a weekend, I extended the trip on each end for some adventures in Cincinnati, and passed through Carol’s homestead in Lancaster in each direction, as well. This epistle is divided into three parts; The Heartland, Columbus and the Reunion, and finally Lancaster Redux and Cincinnati.

Friday, August 18, 2006 (continued)
LUNCH
Short North in Columbus is a district that seems invented. Dream up a cool name and a logo… put some metal arches with lights across High Street every quarter block or so… restore a couple of buildings converted to condos or apartments… encourage the commercial landlords to lease to “proper tenants” and watch it go. It’s located north of downtown, just north of the convention center, and south of the Ohio State campus. My reason for being in Short North is to have lunch at White Castle. “Four Sliders and a small coffee.”

White_Castle.JPG.jpg

Continue reading →

08.25.06

by Eric

Ohio Eats I

Part 1 — The Heartland

This is the first installment of a three part odyssey surrounding my trip to the Columbus West High School Class of January 1956 Reunion. It’s all about the food, what I call Ohio food. It’s different than what you’ve been reading about in this space for two reasons: For one, I’m traveling, and for two, the choices in Ohio are different than those in Northern California, much different.

Since I made the long trip to Ohio for a weekend, I extended the trip on each end for some adventures in Cincinnati, and passed through Carol’s homestead in Lancaster in each direction, as well. This epistle is divided into three parts; The Heartland, Columbus and the Reunion, and finally Lancaster Redux and Cincinnati.

Wednesday August 16
BREAKFAST
My flight was scheduled at a reasonable time of 7:40 a.m. but current security regulations obliged me to arrive at the airport at 5:45 a.m. Not reasonable, but that’s the flying life nowadays. Curbside check-in was easy so I had plenty of time to get a coffee and an oatmeal raisin cookie at Just Desserts on the concourse. One would expect that a dessert maker would make a scrumptious cookie, but no. The cookie was large and looked right but turned out to be dry as dust. Half was all I could eat, so I saved the rest for later, but ended up tossing it.
Continue reading →

08.15.06

by Eric

West High School

West High.jpg

As toward the West the constant sun proceeds
Day after day across the sky
So will our hearts hold true to you
West High, West High, West High

I’m off to Columbus, Ohio for my High School Reunion, so keep your eyes open for the skinny on Ohio food and good eats.

06.14.06

by Eric

Texas Eats

Or… What’s a San Francisco guy to do when he’s stranded in San Antonio and can’t cook?

The first week of June each year, Carol has a National Association of Educators of Young Children (NAEYC) Professional Development Institute with 4 days of workshops “second tier cities,” last year in Miami Beach, this year in San Antonio. She’s been going for many years and the last two years I’ve gone along for the ride. The characters are wife Carol, Sarah of San Francisco and Fran of San Jose, among others.

San Antonio River Walk

Since I didn’t do cooking and writing for this short week, I did eating and writing. This is a site of experiments and this post is more of a travelogue than a cooking thing; there are lots of pictures. So I’m going to experiment with this link to a slide show, rather than paste the pictures in here. Let me know how you like it.

Continue reading →