A's Favorite Food Memories of 2016

This was an interesting year for me with regards to eating and drinking. M and I did a decent amount of travel this year, and that's reflected in my list. This list, as always, isn't necessarily the best things I ate or drank all year, but it's a list of the most memorable events. It just happens that most of these are the best things I ate :)

1) Chesapeake and Maine - Warm Maryland Crab Dip
This is a dish of pure comfort and decadence. It's cheesy, sweet from the succulent crab meat, and simply amazing as a dish. We went to Chesapeake and Maine twice on our visit down to Rehoboth Beach, and we got this each time. In fact, it was so good that it was the only thing we duplicated.

2) Convivial - Scallop Boudin Blanc
I included this because it was so different from anything I had ever eaten before. It was scallop that was ground up and formed into a sausage of sorts. They topped it with sliced snow peas, sea beans, and roe. We couldn't place all of the flavors on this, but it tasted like a smooth, silky chowder.

3) Craft Beer
One thing that seemed pretty constant with most of our trips this year was amazing craft beer. With trips to Delaware, Portland, and San Diego we hit some of the biggest names in craft brewing, and these also happen to be some of my favorites. The highlights for the year are definitely Dogfish Head, Cascade, Stone, and Ballast Point. I had initially debated between adding in small batch coffee instead, but I opted for craft beer because it's something that M and I can enjoy together.

4) Dominique Ansel Bakery - Cronut
The original Dominique Ansel hype food! We finally took advantage of the pre-order option for cronuts this year and were able to taste one of their monthly flavor offerings. We got the June flavor: Blueberry Elderflower with Lime Sugar. Having had the real thing, I understand the hype. I've tried a couple imitation versions, and they never seemed like anything special, but after eating an actual cronut, I see that the imitators have yet to figure anything out. The combination of light and airy croissant turned into a denser donut is a magical mystery, and the fruit flavors and custard made for an amazing flavor. We're looking forward to getting more of these in the future.

5) Fork and Flask at Nage - Smoked Half Chicken
This is a dish that I know I wouldn't be able to eat every day even though I included it on this list. The reason for that is because it's just too rich and heavy for that to happen. The chicken was good and had a nice smokey flavor to it, but it was the accouterments that really made this dish shine. First and foremost was the black garlic infused mashed potatoes. They had such a rich and umami-filled flavor from the black garlic and butter, and I can still taste it today in my head. The roasted root vegetables offered a subtle sweetness to the combination, and it was also nice to have a bit of vegetable matter on the plate. While I couldn't eat this every day, I would certainly love to try my hand at making that black garlic mash at some point.

6) Mofongo with Pork - Vendy Plaza Harlem (La Marqueta)
I love mofongo, and I've always been intrigued by it since I first read about it over a decade ago. It wasn't until back in 2014 that I finally got to try some, and I instantly fell in love with it. Funny how it took me another year and a half before I got it again, but that wait was totally worth it. I don't remember the name of the stand this came from, but they had a wait because they made all of the mofongo fresh. The additional wait time made this even better because the anticipation built it up in my mind, and it lived up to its billing. The fried pieces of pork had just the right amount of fat on them to keep everything moist and flavorful, and the freshly made mofongo was so rich and hearty. The bowl came with a small cup of garlic water/sauce, and the heavy garlic flavor really tied everything together.

7) Seabra's Marisqueira - Acorda de Marisco (Dry Soup)
This year M and I finally made the trip out to Newark, NJ to get some authentic Portuguese food. For me the highlight of this meal was the Acorda de Marisco which is a soup that is then filled with cubes of bread that soak up the broth and make it a thicker, stewier concoction. I'd never heard of a "dry soup" before, but I could totally go for some right now in this cold winter weather. It has the right amount of saltiness to go with the sweetness of the seafood in the soup, and it's a hearty, comforting dish.

8) Thip Khao - Naem Khao (Crispy Rice Salad)
M and I have had really good luck with Southeast Asian rice salads in our lifetime, and this was no exception. The perfect combination of spice, heat, herbs, and crunch meld to form a near perfect dish. It's clean and light while still bursting with so much flavor. This is definitely something I could eat every day and not get tired of it.

9) Uncle Boons - Banana Blossom Salad
This wasn't my favorite dish of the night for this meal, but it was up there. The reason I chose this dish, though, is because it reminded me so much of a dish M and I had back in Chicago at a different Thai restaurant. It's creamy and fresh tasting, and the fried shallots offer that salty, crunchy goodness that we know and love. This dish brought M and me back to delicious and simpler times in our lives before all of these "adult responsibilities" came into being.

10) Zenebech Injera - Vegetable Combo with Doro Wat
This isn't the first Ethiopian food we've had in our lives, but it was a completely transcendent experience. Zenebech was known as being the bakery that provided injera to almost every other Ehtiopian restaurant in the area. They also had their own restaurant where they served, easily, the best Ethiopian food we'd ever tasted. The injera was light and fluffy, and it didn't leave a sticky residue like all of the versions here in NYC. The stews were so full of flavor and were like nothing we had ever tried before. The doro wat was so rich, and the chicken pulled off the bone so easily.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2016

It's hard to believe that it's already time for another year-end favorite food memories list, but here we are at the end of 2016. In alphabetical order by place name, here are my top 10 favorite food memories from the past year.

1. Garlic roasted brussels sprouts from Ballast Point Tasting Room and Kitchen (San Diego, CA)

After a trip to Mission Beach, we decided to head down to the Ballast Point Tasting Room and Kitchen where we got beer tasting flights and lots of small dishes to share. One of those, crispy brussels sprouts with a poached egg, housemade kimchi, and pancetta, was so good that it inspired me to mix kimchi with some brussels sprouts when we got home. It was nowhere near as good as the one at Ballast Point, but I love it when things on vacations inspire me to try new things at home. I also picked this one for the atmosphere of the tasting room. It was awesome to be able to get flights and try so many different beers in a really relaxed environment with really solid food. There aren't really any places quite like this at home that we know of.

2. Warm Maryland crab dip from Chesapeake and Maine (Rehoboth Beach, DE)

During our summer beach vacation in Delaware, we ate a lot of good food, including a couple of dinners at Chesapeake and Maine, the seafood-focused restaurant from the Dogfish Head folks. Both times we got the warm Maryland crab dip which came with toasted bagel chips. We intended to order different things the second time so we could try more stuff, but I just couldn't not order the dip. There were so much real crab in there and the flavor was so good. I could go for more of that right now as the dip was so comforting.

3. Poultry and potato salad from Hometown Bar-B-Que (Brooklyn, NY)

A had been to Hometown Bar-B-Que in Red Hook before and always talked about how good it was, so we planned to take my dad there for his birthday or Father's Day since he loves BBQ. We didn't make it there until late this year, but it was so worth it. Everything we got there was good - brisket, pulled pork, lamb belly, beans with burnt ends, cole slaw, collard greens - but to me the real standouts were the smoked turkey, the Oaxacan-marinated wood fired chicken, and the backyard potato salad. I could eat that stuff all the time, if not for the long lines there and the fact that it wouldn't be the healthiest diet. The BBQ there is definitely some of the best in NYC, which was proven even more when I ate some pulled pork from another BBQ place later in the week which didn't even come close.

4. Tostada mixta from Mariscos El Pescador (Chula Vista, CA)

We ate a lot of good food in San Diego, but the meal that stands out the most to me is our splurge lunch from a food truck, Mariscos El Pescador, down in Chula Vista. It wasn't a splurge lunch because the items were expensive, but because we ordered a feast that took up almost the entire length of the truck's counter. There were tacos and tostadas and burritos, way more than we should have ordered for a single meal, but everything was delicious, especially the tostada mixta. It was filled with all types of seafood, so fresh, such good quality, perfectly seasoned. Everything was just perfect, and I could eat this every single day if that were an option.

5. Khao man gai from Nong's Khao Man Gai (Portland, OR)

Khao man gai is one of those dishes I order when I want something simple, healthy, and clean but with really good flavor. After going to Nong's Khao Man Gai in Portland, I knew I had to wait a while before ordering this again at home because it was that good there. The chicken was tender and flavorful, the sauce was completely addictive (no wonder they sell it in bottles), and the soup that accompanied it just tied it all together well. This could be a daily lunch if they were in our neighborhood.

6. Pupusas from Salvatoria (Astoria, NY)

This fall, we went out with some friends to Salvatoria, a Salvadoran spot in Astoria, for a giant pupusas dinner. The table split a bunch of them for appetizers, and then A and I ordered another set of pupusas for our main courses. There were pupusas filled with loroco, pork, beans, cheese, jalapeños, and combinations of all of those, and they were so good. I know in theory how to make pupusas but there is no way that they would come out as good as these. They were perfectly griddled and the fillings were delicious. We definitely want to go back there for more pupusas.

7. Octopus salad from Seabra's Marisqueira (Newark, NJ)

We've already written about the salada de polvo, the cold octopus salad, at Seabra's Marisqueira in Newark from our visit earlier this summer. The octopus there was so tender, and the dressing, filled with onions, garlic, parsley, and oil and vinegar was so simple but tasty. Every time I look at pictures of this salad, I want more. It was so delicious that I knew it would make the top 10 list this year as soon as I ate it.

8. Naem khao from Thip Khao (Washington, DC)

One of our most memorable meals this year was at Thip Khao, a Laotian restaurant in Washington, DC, where the hour's wait was most certainly worth it. This rice salad - crispy coconut rice, lime, scallions, sour pork, peanuts, and cilantro - with lettuce to wrap it up was so packed with flavor, especially from all the herbs and seasonings. We had something similar when we went to Khe-Yo, but since this was in salad form and not rice balls, it was even better. So much of what we ate at Thip Khao was awesome, and we wished we lived closer so we could investigate more of the menu. But it would be hard not to order this every time.

9. Banana blossom and chicken salad from Uncle Boons (New York, NY)

From one Southeast Asian salad to another. We finally made it to Uncle Boons this year and one of the things we knew we definitely had to order was this spicy rotisserie chicken and banana blossom salad (yum gai hua pli) with cashews, crispy shallots, and roasted chili dressing. When we lived in Chicago, we used to go to a restaurant with a banana blossom salad on the menu and it was our favorite thing there. It's been tough to find anywhere with it since then, and we weren't sure if we had maybe built that salad up too much in our memories for anyone to meet our expectations. This absolutely did. The chicken was delicious (and it was later too when we ordered it on its own), all the ingredients worked well together, and there was a nice heat to it. So glad we were able to get this.

10. Vegetarian combination and doro wat from Zenebech (Washington, DC)

One of our priorities during our time in DC was to eat Ethiopian food, and in doing so, we were rewarded with what was possibly the best Ethiopian food we've ever eaten at Zenebech. The injera there was fluffy and pillowy, and unlike some others, left no residue on your fingers which was great. We got the vegetarian combination with generous portions of lentils, peas, and other vegetables, along with doro wat (chicken stew). There was just so much flavor to every single part of the dish and  we completely cleaned the plate. Sadly Zenebech closed recently so we'll never be able to have this exact experience again, but hopefully they will open somewhere else as this food was too good to think about not eating again.

I could eat all ten of these over and over again and not get sick of them, which is probably why they all made my favorite food memories list. There were so many more things that missed the cut but with so much good food over the course of the year, that was inevitable. Hoping 2017 brings some great eats as well!

Off to Boston

To get to Portland this summer, first we flew to Boston. It might sound a little weird to fly from New York (technically, New Jersey) to Boston instead of just taking a direct flight to Portland, but the time and price with the layover were a better fit, so we figured we might as well take the detour. The layover wouldn't give us enough time to leave the airport and explore, but neither of us had ever been to Logan Airport before, so we planned to just hang out there and have a nice leisurely meal.

Before our flight to Boston, we grabbed a quick lunch from Currito Cantina, which we remembered we had seen at a rest stop in Maryland earlier in the year. They had a sit-down restaurant but we stuck with the grab and go case and ate by our gate. We only picked up one salad to share because I had eaten a giant breakfast of leftovers from our Sticky's dinner from the night before and wasn't that hungry, and we also had plans to eat when we got to Boston. A chose the ensalada mixta (romaine lettuce, pico de gallo, corn salsa, black beans, applewood smoked bacon, cotija cheese, guacamole, and lime dressing). The salad was good, very light and refreshing, and exactly the type of thing we like to eat on a travel day. The only criticism we had was that it probably would have been better if parts of it hadn't frozen in the to-go case. Aside from that, it was great having a place with fresh vegetables instead of all the fast food and sandwiches.

Since the flight from New York to Boston was really short, JetBlue only did express service instead of their full menu of snacks, which made sense. The choices were water or soda (water for us), and cookies or chips. We both went for cookies, which we didn't remember being on the snack menu during our last flight and came in cute packaging.

Mini chocolate chip cookies like these always remind me of the cookies I used to bring to school when I was younger. I liked these, but I don't know if it was because of the cookies themselves or nostalgia (or both). I got another bag of cookies and also some Cheez-Its on the flight to Portland, but didn't take any pictures of them since I didn't open them until it was already dark outside. A fell asleep and missed snack service on that leg. We love the free snacks on JetBlue and hope they'll never take those away.

Teixeira's Bakery

After our feast at Seabra's Marisquiera we took a walk around the area and also down by the river to try and digest a bit. It was a nice stroll because the weather wasn't too hot, and it wasn't that humid either. After a bit we walked back towards the main street, and M asked if I wanted to try the Portuguese version of the egg tart (蛋撻) that we'd both had while growing up. I'm not a huge huge fan of the Chinese version, but I like it enough that I wanted to see how it compared to the Portuguese version.

The place that we knew was supposed to be known for these pastries was Teixeira's Bakery.

Once inside we were greeted by the sweet, warm smells of the breads and pastries contained in their glass case. We took a quick look around to see if anything else caught our fancy, but in the end we opted for just the one of the pastéis de nata. At $1.35 it wasn't super cheap, but it also wasn't too expensive.

I liked this a lot more than the Chinese counterpart. For starters, the pastry crust is flakier and actually reminiscent of pastry dough as opposed to being doughy and crumbly. The pastry crust on the Portuguese version is also much lighter and airier. Finally, there's a hint of a savory, salty flavor to the crust on the Portuguese version that really brings out the flavor of the custard.

Speaking of the custard, it's much more of an actual custard consistency. The Chinese version is often more gelatin-like and far sweeter. The milder sweetness allowed more of the egg flavor to come out, and when combined with the slightly salty crust formed a perfectly balanced dessert. The charring on top didn't really add any flavor, burnt or caramelized, but it made it look nice.

Overall, I definitely think the Portuguese version (also the original) is better than the Chinese adaptation. While I wouldn't necessarily need to get one the next time we were in Newark, I would certainly consider it.

Seabra's Marisqueira

Ever since we changed the way we approach our WorldEats challenge, we've been mostly visiting places out of "convenience," like happening to be somewhere and realizing it would work for WorldEats, or doing some other challenges like the Women's World Cup challenge (which we still need to finish recapping). While it's been great to try lots of new foods that way, there was something about the intentional trip to somewhere new that we missed. We remedied that this weekend. Instead of falling into the old trap of going someplace easy and convenient, M pulled out her trusty random number generator and let the numbers dictate where we would go. The numbers sent us to Portugal (technically, they sent us to Malawi first, but we are not aware of any Malawian food in NYC), and off we went to the Ironbound District in Newark specifically to explore Portuguese cuisine and culture.

Once the numbers popped up with Portugal, we immediately knew the place we wanted to visit in the Ironbound was Seabra's Marisqueira. We've been hearing about this seafood place for years, and it's actually the place we wanted to visit for the 2014 World Cup challenge until there were torrential downpours the night we planned to go. After looking through a lot of pictures and recommendations, we were relatively sure about what we wanted to order and were really excited for our Sunday supper.

After being seated in the dining room, they brought over a bread basket. The reviews that we read stated that it was a "crusty loafed bread" which made us think of something akin to a French baguette with a hard, crusty exterior. This couldn't be further from the truth as the crust itself was extremely pliable and matched the soft, spongy, and absorbent interior. We only ate a little of the bread before the food arrived, because we knew that it would be wiser to save the bread for soaking up all the delicious sauces of the dishes we ordered.

It was in the 80s and pretty humid outside, so a half-pitcher of sangria ($17.50) sounded perfect. Also, it seemed like every other table had a pitcher or half-pitcher of sangria, so who were we to break the trend? This really was refreshing. It had a nice mild sweetness from the added fruit juices, and just the right amount of hit from the wine. We each had some of the apple that was added in as well, and that was a nice, crisp way to end everything.

The first dish to arrive was the salada de polvo ($14), a cold salad of octopus in vinaigrette sauce. According to this Serious Eats piece, the octopus is flown in from Portugal and then poached. Joining the octopus in the salad were onions, garlic, parsley, and a light dressing of oil and vinegar. This was amazing, definitely in the top 3 for octopus dishes we've had. Every single piece was tender, and although the flavors were a simple combination, the quality and execution was just incredible. It was a great start to the meal. The remaining sauce on the bottom of the plate also made for an excellent dip for the bread.

Next up was berbigão à bolhão pato ($16), cockles in a garlic, wine, and cilantro sauce. This dish as a whole was incredibly tasty. The cockles themselves were soft and easy to pry out of the shell with or without utensils, but it was the sauce that was the star of this show. It was a simple broth/cooking stock consisting of water, garlic, white wine, olive oil, and cilantro, but it soaked into the bread so well, and it was amazingly delicious. They also offer clams cooked in a similar fashion, and while we were there it seemed like every table had at least one of these metal tins full of cockles or clams.

The last dish we got, and it was enormous, was the açorda de marisco ($21), "a traditional Alentejo 'dry soup' consisting of a hearty mix of shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops, and cubed Portuguese bread. Flavored with an olive oil, garlic, and fresh coriander sauce, crowned with a poached egg." This was a rich, decadent, creamy, thick stew once the server finished mixing the raw egg and bread into the rest of the soup. When we first looked at it, it didn't look impossible to finish, but pretty soon after we started spooning it out, we realized that the dish was really, really deep, and because of all the bread, it was really, really filling. The 2 other dishes with the bread probably wouldn't have been enough for our meal, but this dry soup definitely filled us up (and we ended up taking the rest home).

Of all of the seafood, we thought the shrimp was the best part. The mussels and scallops seemed tougher and chewier, but they still had very good flavor. You also couldn't always tell the difference between the scallops and pieces of bread by looking at them, but everything was tasty. The egg was also interesting because, since it was added right at the end and mixed in, the yolk added an extra layer of richness to the soup, while the egg whites added a soft, creamy texture to everything. Overall this was a very rich and garlicky soup/stew chock full of delicious seafood.

We loved our meal at Seabra's and while eating, were already planning out what we might order when we came back as we looked at all the dishes arriving at tables around us. (There were, as mentioned, lots of cockles and plenty of octopus, but we already knew those were winners.) We had a wonderful experience, and we definitely want to return for some more excellent Portuguese seafood.

Seabra's Marisqueira is located 87 Madison Street in the Ironbound District of Newark.

Belgian Beer Cafe

We kicked off our London trip with dinner at the airport. We were flying out of Newark's Terminal B, our first time there, which (like Terminal A) has multiple security checkpoints, limiting the meal options dramatically. There was a food court pre-security, but we wanted to make sure we were through security with plenty of time, so that left us with a choice between a Belgian cafe and an English pub, the latter of which also had a takeaway section with some really badly bruised bananas. Since we were en route to London, we chose the Belgian Beer Cafe. No need for an English pub in New Jersey if we were going to visit real English pubs in London.

We knew we were getting dinner on the flight, but that was a few hours later and we hadn't eaten a ton during the day as we rushed around finishing up work and packing and preparing for the trip. We ordered 2 entrees from the Belgian specialties menu to share, and tried not to pick anything too heavy in case the in-flight dinner was filling. Here's what we got.

Croque monsieur ($14): sandwich with Belgian Chimay beer cheese, smoked ham, grilled sourdough, hint of dijon mustard, served with crispy frites.

The croque monsieur was pretty good, but it wasn't what we expected from a croque monsieur. We were expecting something rich and decadent, and covered in cheese and bechamel, but it was basically a ham and cheese panini. The thing that made this taste a little different from any other ham and cheese sandwich was the inclusion of beer cheese, which we had never had in a croque monsieur before. It was heavier and saltier than other cheeses, but didn't really have a very distinctive flavor. The fries were really good though, nice and crispy. The sandwich was fine, but the fries were better.

Sausage plate ($16): Flemish style pork sausage with onions, dijon, gherkins, potato and bacon salad.

The sausage plate arrived with 2 pork sausages, small containers of ketchup and mustard, a couple of gherkins, some spring greens, and a good sized portion of warm potato salad topped with bacon. The pork sausages tasted like pretty generic pork sausages that we could get anywhere else, not a lot of seasonings that we could discern. The gherkins were sweeter than A was expecting. I didn't notice that but mostly just appreciated the freshness. We both agreed that the best part of the plate was the potato salad topped with bacon. The potato salad had a little bit of a mustard flavor. By itself, the salad was good, but the bacon made it even better, and adding some of the greens made it feel really light despite all the potatoes and bacon. Definitely the best part of dinner.

Overall our meal at the Belgian Beer Cafe was fine. If it were anywhere other than the airport, we probably would say that we wouldn't return because it was nothing special, but if we're in that gate area again with such limited options, we might go back.

Ringing Through Jersey

I drove the first leg of our Savannah road trip from home to Maryland. It was a short leg mostly because we were leaving after work and only wanted to drive for a couple of hours so it wouldn't be a super late night. Despite having a decent-sized Chipotle bowl for dinner, I was feeling in the mood for a snack as I drove down the Jersey Turnpike. Since it was a toll road, there weren't tons of options in each rest stop, but fortunately for me, the one where we decided to stop had a Burger King.

I've always had a bit of a nostalgic soft spot for Burger King, especially for their onion rings, and the craving has only increased ever since I've been unable to find those Trader Joe's frozen onion rings, so I couldn't resist the opportunity to pick up a cup of onion rings to snack on during the drive. (We both had some, but honestly it was mostly me.) The onion rings were exactly what I wanted that night - crispy, full of onion flavor, and not overly greasy. A satisfying snack on the way to Baltimore!

Classic Smash

We've mentioned Smashburger here before, our favorite place to grab a quick bite to eat at Terminal C in Newark Airport (a big reason we like that terminal at the moment). We finally have a branch of Smashburger in Manhattan now, which opened earlier this year, but that wasn't going to stop us from visiting them at the airport to get something to eat to kick off our Chicago trip. (Ridiculous mismanagement of security line lengths almost did, but we would prefer not to relive that frustrating experience here.)

Somehow, despite previous visits to Smashburger, we've never actually tried their "Classic Smash." So we decided to remedy that on this visit and also tacked on an order of smashfries. The smashfries are thinly cut regular fries that are seasoned with rosemary, olive oil, and garlic. They're soft and crisp, and the rosemary adds an extra dimension that most fast food fries don't have. We love the flavor of these skinny fries.

As I mentioned, we both got a Classic Smash, which is their standard burger, containing a beef patty on an egg bun with American cheese, smash sauce, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onion.

The Classic Smash is the burger we've had that's come the closest to tasting like Shake Shack's Shack Burger, one of our favorites. The onion is different (white vs red) and the sauce is a little different, but otherwise they were so similar that even the salting of the beef patty seemed to be around the same amount. The Shack Burger is only a smidgen better in our opinion. When you add in the line factor at Shake Shack and the fact that when we've gone to (the non-airport) Smashburger there hasn't been a line, they're pretty much equal options for us.

We were so happy with our Classic Smash burgers that we couldn't stop raving about them the entire way over to Chicago and stopped by our local Smashburger for more burgers only a couple of weeks later (more on those burgers another time). So happy to find another excellent burger to add to our rotation (that doesn't have an hour long line)!

Off to See Harry and Mickey

Three years ago today, we set off from rainy, gloomy New York City (just like today!), bound for a sunnier, warmer land also known as the "happiest place on Earth." But before we could get there, we had to get out early and make our way over to Newark Airport to catch our (not very comfortable) flight on United.

Our plane

We were in Terminal C at Newark, in the same gate area where we had been just a few months earlier to leave for Geneva to begin our honeymoon. This brought back a lot of happy memories as we indulged in some morning snacks (not really sure you could call everything we got breakfast even though it was 10 am). 

A got some coffee from the Juan Valdez kiosk there, as well as some cinnamon pretzel sticks from Auntie Anne's. The coffee, while better than most generic airport coffee, still wasn't that great. It got the job done, though, with regards to delivering caffeine. The cinnamon pretzel sticks were an indulgence he often likes to have on vacation. They're buttery and sweet with just the right amount of crust to go with a chewy interior.

I've probably mentioned multiple times on this blog that I am not a big breakfast foods person, so I went over to Smashburger. We love Terminal C for having Smashburger, one of the airport's best options overall for a good meal. I wasn't hungry enough for a burger this time, so I decided on chili. I guess 3 years ago I was more confident in my stomach's ability to handle chili with jalapeños at 10:30 in the morning, but I am not sure I would do that again today. I don't remember much about the specific taste of the chili (it's been 3 years!), but I was remember it was hot, warming, spicy, and the same one from the chili dog.

We decided to be healthy for the last part of our "meal" and went to Jamba Juice for our favorite All Fruit smoothie - the pomegranate paradise (blend of pomegranate juice, mango, strawberry, and peach). We love the All Fruit smoothies because they feel so light and healthy (even if they're loaded with sugar) and the pomegranate one just has such an awesome combination of fruits.

Once we filled our bellies with snacks from the various chains in the Terminal C food court area, it was time to board for Orlando! We were really excited because we were heading off for our first time at both the Epcot Food and Wine Festival and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Off to Florida!

Craft Two to Philadelphia

One year ago today, we kicked off a long weekend trip to Philadelphia. We didn't have a lot of set plans for the trip other than to go to a Phillies game as part of our neverending quest to visit all of America's ballparks. It was probably a good thing that we didn't have any reservations or set plans since the weather threw all of our plans out the window and we had to just go with the flow.

We left in the morning from the city, ran a few errands, and found ourselves in central Jersey around lunchtime. Philadelphia isn't that far from NYC, but driving this day was really, really slow. We figured it was best to just stop and grab a quick lunch along our route instead of taking a detour since our baseball tickets were for that night. Qdoba was quick, easy, and pretty healthy, so off to Qdoba we went to start our trip eats!

We both got the Craft 2 combination - a quesadilla and gumbo for A and a naked burrito (basically a burrito bowl) and mango taco salad for me. They tasted pretty much the same way they do at any Qdoba, so there really isn't much to say about this visit. Except that it was nice getting to try out their mango taco salad since I don't think I've ever gotten it on previous trips (and now that all the Manhattan locations are closed, even less likely).

Although not the most exciting eats of our trip, Qdoba was a nice start to our getaway. After leaving, we found ourselves smack in the middle of some of the worst Friday summer afternoon traffic. Including errands (which didn't take long at all) and lunch, it took us over 4.5 hours to get from Manhattan to Center City in Philadelphia. Considering how close the 2 cities are, that's pretty ridiculous. At least we got to have a quiet and relaxing break at Qdoba!

Next Stop Maryland

Four years ago today, we were on a weekend trip in Baltimore, indulging in an epic crab feast (and a baseball game). I was going to reminisce and post about that today, but then thought, why not just write about the whole trip instead of just all that crab?

We left for our weekend trip on Friday evening. On the drive down, we stopped for a quick dinner at the Molly Pitcher rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, which has one of the few remaining Roy Rogers locations in our area. What's the best thing about Roy Rogers? The curly fries! I have no idea why other fast food places won't serve curly fries. They're so much better than regular fries.

A got a roast beef sandwich. He likes roast beef sandwiches, but not many fast food places have those either. (Arby's does, but we don't really have Arby's nearby either.) He added some horseradish and BBQ sauce to his sandwich. A wishes more places served roast beef sandwiches since they're so tasty when slathered with that horseradish sauce.

I got the Gold Rush chicken sandwich, which was basically a crispy chicken sandwich with cheese. It looks bare, but Roy Rogers has a toppings bar where you can add things like onions. Guess I didn't take any pictures of our sandwiches after we put toppings on them.

We didn't stay in Baltimore proper because the hotel rooms were way too expensive (even on Priceline) and all booked up (thanks, Red Sox fans!). So we ended up staying out near BWI. Once we got there, it was time for a second dinner (or a late night snack) near our hotel. There wasn't much there but Chili's, so we went there to meet some friends and watch the Blackhawks game.

We started with some drinks. A got a beer and I got a pomegranate margarita. 

After flipping through the menu, we couldn't resist the Texas cheese fries with chili. Lucky for us (and somewhat surprisingly), the fries actually resembled the droolworthy photo from the menu.

The skillet had cheese fries topped with their "famous" chili, jalapeños, green onions, and applewood smoked bacon, with a side of jalapeño-ranch dressing. From what we remember, these were tasty. Completely unhealthy, but good. I hope we got a half order...

We apparently also ordered the bottomless chips and salsa.

We must have been really hungry after our drive if we got this on top of the cheese fries. Maybe we got them to share with our friends. My web album caption says we got refills so it had to be one of those two reasons. It's been four years, so we have no idea. They were just chips and salsa though. Nothing special.

We were really excited to finally be out of town, even if just for the weekend. After a night's rest, it was off to the crab feast!