Oakland Goodbye

Our last morning in Pittsburgh started out with some free orange juice and mini muffins at the hotel, and then it was time to pack up and hit the road. We had plans to stop for lunch and ice cream before leaving the city, and then to drive the old Lincoln Highway all the way east until we hit Gettysburg. We were deliberately taking the "back roads" instead of the interstate, but we had a whole list of places we wanted to visit on the way, the types of roadside spots you would miss on the toll road. It was our Pennsylvania road trip, so we wanted to see as much of Pennsylvania as possible.

We decided to spend our last moments in Pittsburgh in an area called Oakland, home to a lot of universities in the city. We were mostly heading there because A wanted to take me to an ice cream shop that he liked, and before we left, I looked up places that might be nearby for lunch on Yelp. There was a taco joint with good reviews down the street, so we decided to try that. What we didn't realize was that it was actually a Mexican grocery store with a griddle and taco bar on the street outside, but that was actually better for us since we weren't entirely sure whether we were parked in a legal spot (signs were a bit confusing) and eating outside would mean we could keep watch on our car.

We got three different tacos -- chorizo, chicken, and pork -- which came on doubled corn tortillas with no toppings. The reason for that was because they had an entire bar of toppings and salsas next to it so you could pile on whatever you wanted. For us, that meant some guacamole and salsa verde, and tons of pico de gallo, onions, and cilantro. We love eating tacos with a garden on top of them, and this one had lots of options.

We don't remember a ton of the details about the tacos four years later, stuff like which one we liked best, but we do remember they were really tasty. I wish we had taken notes, because they look really good in the photos and I would love to remember more about the experience.

After the tacos, it was time for ice cream from Dave & Andy's, known as one of the best ice cream shops in Pittsburgh. A had been there once before when he was in college and really enjoyed it. The thing Dave & Andy's is known for, besides good ice cream, is that they put an M&M on the bottom of the cone to prevent the ice cream from dripping out. Smart idea.

We each got a cone. For me, it was a no-brainer to get birthday cake, which made my favorite food memories list back in 2013. They mixed yellow cake and sprinkles into the ice cream and it was delicious. The waffle cone, even though I'm not usually a cone person, was crispy and sturdy, and it was just a great ice cream cone all around. A doesn't remember exactly what he got (maybe something coffee-based), and back then we didn't always take pictures of the menu board, but he does remember he liked it.

Back when A went there the first time with other Pittsburgh folks, they told him that the thing to do there was to try to guess the color of the M&M at the bottom before you got to it. No idea if this is a real tradition or not, but we did it anyway because it was fun. I guessed blue, and it was blue. A guessed orange, and his was orange. We were pretty happy that we both guessed right.

After our tacos and ice cream, we drove over to the Lincoln Highway to start meandering our way across the state. We had a lot of stops planned -- the Flight 93 Memorial first, followed by a really fun and mind-boggling trip to Gravity Hill (completely worth it), and more -- but for now, it was goodbye to Pittsburgh!

PNC Park

One of the things that prompted our PA road trip was the desire to knock another ballpark off our list in our attempt to visit them all. A had been to PNC Park before but I hadn't, so now we could even out our lists again. (The opposite was true when we made our visit to Camden Yards a couple of years before that.) PNC Park was gorgeous on a clear (but chilly) fall night, and I was stunned at how beautiful the city and river views were from our seat. At least you've got an amazing view even if the game isn't going so well.

If you ask anyone about Pittsburgh food, one of the things that comes up often is Primanti Brothers, now a mini-chain, which is known for its sandwiches stuffed with French fries, cole slaw, tomatoes, and meat. I think the only time we had ever passed one together, the lines were really long, so it was nice to find an outpost at the ballpark. Love when there's local food at the ballpark. We got the Pittsburgher (cheesesteak) option. Good, solid sandwich choice, but I'm not sure it really lived up to the insane amounts of hype surrounding it.

Since A had had Primanti Brothers before, he also picked up a single order of wings from Quaker Steak and Lube, another chain that has its origins near Pittsburgh. (There are apparently branches not too far away in NJ now, but not sure if they existed back then.) He had had them before, and these were fine. Not the best wings he'd ever had, but fine.

At some point during the game, we also got some chili cheese fries from one of the stands on the upper level. Don't remember anything about them, like whether they were from a local chain or not, or whether we had marked that down in advance to try, but they were probably good, because it's hard to go wrong with chili cheese fries and we love them.

To end the night, despite the fact that it was in the 40s and my hands were freezing, I went for some Dippin' Dots. It's just so hard to not get these at the ballpark, since I can't really get them anywhere else and I really like them. And they were birthday cake flavor, another thing I really like.

When the game ended, we got to witness a spectacular fireworks show with the backdrop of the city behind it. It may have been cold, but it was a pretty nice baseball experience overall. Pittsburgh folks are pretty lucky when it comes to baseball games that they get to go to games in such a gorgeous setting.

A Visit to the Strip District

We had one full day in Pittsburgh on our road trip. We were planning to spend the second half of that day at a Pirates game, but for the first part, we wanted to get in some sightseeing. It wasn't my first time in Pittsburgh since A had lived there for a few summers with his family, but it was my first time doing any real sightseeing there. Since it was lunchtime, we decided to start out over in the Strip District, which had developed over the years into a historic market district. A had been there several times during the time he lived there, mostly with his mom to go food shopping, but hadn't really spent much time wandering around or eating at the various vendors since they went there specifically to shop at a couple of stores.

A suggested we start out with Wholey's, a grocery store that had been in Pittsburgh for over 100 years. We strolled around the aisles, but couldn't really buy anything because of our schedule. After that, we went to some other shops, like Penzeys Spices and also open air markets. Since it was a Saturday afternoon, the narrow streets were packed with people, very slow-moving, and it took forever trying to get anywhere. As a result, we didn't investigate too many places before deciding to get something to eat for lunch.

We started off with tacos at Edgar's Tacos, which had a sign proclaiming themselves the best tacos in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, four years and probably at least a hundred tacos later, I couldn't even tell you which tacos we got here. Even though the details are a bit fuzzy (I really wish we had taken notes on this trip), I do remember that the portions were generous and that the tacos did taste good. That was a nice start to lunch.

Our next stop was at S&D Polish Deli, where we split the Polish platter. The platter had three pierogi,  haluszki, and stuffed cabbage, and also came with a drink. Don't remember which type of pierogi these were, but they were good, as was the stuffed cabbage in tomato sauce. The haluszki, I think, was the "Pittsburgh style" with cabbage, onions, and butter. All of the food was really good, and we were really happy with our platter. After eating, there was some customer service-type drama relating to getting a bathroom key which had me steaming for a bit until I wrote it all out in my journal to get it out of my head forever, and that must have worked since I don't remember the majority of the details anymore. So our takeaway from here was that the food was good, but maybe not worth dealing with the foot traffic and the potential for a bathroom key drama repeat.

Our last stop was at Peace, Love and Little Donuts, which we went to partially because we wanted a snack and partially because we loved the name. We got the cinnamon sugar (in part, because they were giving out samples before we ordered) and the Samoa donuts. Both were fine, although we think the donuts we have at home in NYC (or when we visit Chicago) are better.

Overall, while it was nice to visit the Strip District, what we ate and experienced wasn't so different from anything we could get at home, including all the crowds. We have since accumulated other bookmarks for places to visit in Pittsburgh, so I'm not sure if we'll do this Strip District visit again, but I'm glad we at least did this together once.

Meat and Potatoes

After driving into Pittsburgh and getting settled at our hotel, it was time for dinner. Before leaving on our road trip, we had made a reservation for Meat and Potatoes, since we liked the menu, it was close to the hotel, and we heard they were a pretty busy place. The restaurant was indeed crowded and bustling when we got there, so we were glad we had gone the advanced reservations route (since we often don't when on vacation).

Meat and Potatoes was a gastropub serving comfort food, with a menu heavily focused on (obviously) meat and potatoes. We started off with some beer, like this Bell's Brown Ale which was sweet and malty. Not a ton of hops, but a great beer to pair with burgers.

To start, we got the fried Brussels, figuring that we needed some vegetables to go along with all the meat and potatoes in the meal. The sprouts were crispy and full of flavor, topped with a little bit of parmesan cheese, and accompanied with some aioli. From what we remember (it's been four years...), these were a good start to the meal.

One of the things we were really looking forward to was the bone marrow, because we really like trying that in various places. This one came with three pieces, some grilled bread, and garnishes of salt, gremolata, pickled onions, and capers. It was really well-executed, nice and creamy with complementary toppings, and we were really glad we ordered it.

We had already gotten a substantial amount of food with the bone marrow (those were not small pieces) and sprouts, but still on the way were our main courses. We had decided to get a burger and a sandwich to split, and each of those came with a generous portion of fries, which we remember as being quite tasty and well-seasoned.

The sandwich we got was the Korean reuben sandwich (which is the only thing we got that isn't still on the restaurant's menu according to the version online). The sandwich had corned beef, Brussel kimchi, "Korean special sauce," and Swiss cheese. We both like reuben sandwiches, and this one had nice griddled bread, good flavors, and a ton of corned beef. It was pretty large with quite a lot of meat piled on there.

For the burger, we split the pub burger with pork belly pastrami, horseradish cheddar, fried egg, and "special sauce" on a housemade bun. The burger was really good (amazing in A's words), and it's the part of the meal A most remembers this many years later, especially that dominant flavor of horseradish cheddar (dominant in a good way). The combination of the bacon (well, pork belly pastrami) with the creamy horseradish cheese and the egg was just perfect. While both the burger and sandwich were good, we clearly liked this one better.

The food at Meat and Potatoes tasted good, but we were so full by the time we rolled out of there. What I actually remember the most about the meal was just how stuffed we were. After digesting for a little bit, we couldn't just sit around in our hotel room feeling as full and heavy as we did, so we ended up going to the gym later that night. It was the only remedy we could think of for how we felt, and I guess it helped a little bit. Good food, but very, very full.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2013

2013 was an interesting year, full of ups and downs. I'm grateful that, even in a tougher year, we can still say that we've had some great adventures. So here are my 10 favorite food memories from the year (in no particular order).

1. Pescado zarandeado from Coni'Seafood (Los Angeles, CA).

While sitting at Coni'Seafood in the Inglewood area of Los Angeles, I posted this photo to Instagram with the caption that this might be one of the best things I've ever eaten. It was one of the obvious choices for this year's favorites list. Pescado zarandeado is a butterflied snook which is grilled perfectly, so fresh and tender and full of amazing flavor. It's topped with raw onions and cucumbers, and also has a side of cooked onions that it frankly doesn't even need. Whatever Sergio (and you have to call in advance to make sure Sergio is there or it's not worth going and getting it) does to this fish is magic. We don't (to my knowledge) have Sinaloan food in the NYC area, but even if we did, I'm not sure it would match the magic of Sergio. I could eat this every week and not get sick of it.

2. Birthday cake ice cream cone from Dave and Andy's (Pittsburgh, PA).

I'm not as much of an ice cream lover as A is, but I do love cookies and cream and birthday cake ice cream. Both made the short list (the cookies and cream was from Brooklyn's Ample Hills during our Game of Cones adventure), but only Dave and Andy's made the top 10. Their birthday cake ice cream mixed in actual yellow cake and sprinkles. I loved it and raved about it for some time after eating it, which for me is rare with ice cream. I also am not a huge cone fan but I loved their crispy but sturdy waffle cone which of course had their traditional m&m on the bottom. And I guessed the color right for my first cone!

3. Bone marrow special from Empellón Cocina (New York, NY).

We had a lot of bone marrow this year (bone marrow with uni from The Marrow, a massive plate of bone marrow at Meat and Potatoes in Pittsburgh, etc) but the one that really made an impression on me was the bone marrow special when we visited Empellón Cocina. We had a lot of good stuff at Empellón (which explains why it was our meal of the year), but the bone marrow was our favorite dish of the night. It was roasted bone marrow with charred spring onions and pickled Fresno chiles with tortillas on the side, so we could make our own bone marrow tacos. I love when I eat things that make me feel in sync with the season, and this was perfect for June.

4. Jerk chicken from Freda's (New York, NY).

We made it through Jamaica in our WorldEats challenge (even if we're still writing about Cuba). But this jerk chicken from Freda's made me want to skip over everything inbetween and just write about Freda's (but I didn't, sadly). I got the jerk chicken with sides of collard greens and curry potatoes with chickpeas. Both sides were delicious but the jerk chicken was one of the best chicken dishes I've ever had, and certainly the best Jamaican food I've ever eaten. It was spicy but it wasn't the type of spicy that was hot without flavor. The spices were so complex and nuanced that I don't even know how to describe the flavors, but it was incredible. Perhaps we need to go again before we write our WorldEats post.

5. Ceviche tostada from La Isla Bonita (Venice, CA).

I wrote our post on La Isla Bonita back in May, but it hasn't been posted yet since we're still back at the beginning of our trip in the recaps. I still dream about this ceviche tostada. It was that good. The tostada was thin and crispy and topped with a layer of ceviche and some fresh avocado slices. The ceviche had mashed up fish and seafood with tomatoes, onions, cilantro and lime. It was a perfect refreshing snack.

6. Pretzel from Miller's Twist (Philadelphia, PA).

I love pretzels. Warm, fresh out of the oven, so buttery, soft and chewy, lightly salted. The pretzel we got from Miller's Twist at the Reading Terminal Market was so good that we immediately wanted to go back to get another one. We also had tasty buttery soft pretzels this fall at Immergut in Intercourse, PA but we only made it there at the end of the day each time, so the pretzels were not as fresh (although still good). For that reason, Miller's Twist makes it to the top 10 but Immergut gets an honorable mention.

7. Vatana bean fried rice from Rangoon (Philadelphia, PA).

I love Burmese food. I wish we had restaurants here like the ones in LA or Rangoon in Philadelphia. We had amazing food at Rangoon and what was really a revelation was this vatana bean fried rice. We had no idea what vatana beans were before that dinner, but they tasted a lot like baby chickpeas. The rice also had this smokiness (in a good way) which made it really unique. I've never had anything like this and want to return to Rangoon sooner rather than later.

8. Fish taco from Ricky's Fish Tacos (Los Angeles, CA).

Ricky's is a legend. We got both shrimp and fish tacos but the fish was really special. Although fried, it was so flaky and juicy. We didn't even add any extra salsas to the tacos, and just ate them with the lettuce and pico de gallo that it came with. Whatever was in the batter was a perfect match for the fish, and the taco was easily the best fish taco I've ever had. We raced back from the desert to get to Ricky's before he closed up for the day and it was so worth it.

9. Lamb burger from Xi'an Famous Foods (New York, NY).

The midtown branch of Xi'an Famous Foods opened this spring with free lamb burgers (which I wrote about here). I've had quite a few since then. They're inexpensive and packed full of spices, especially my beloved cumin, and lots of onions. It may be the best burger I've had all year. 

10. Homecooked favorites.

This is cheating a little bit, since it's not one dish but four. But I wanted to save one spot on this list for home cooking because of how much it was a part of my life this year. I went from trying a new recipe once every other month or so to trying new recipes multiple days a week and loving it. These were four of my favorites.

• Black bean chicken - The first cookbook I spent a lot of time with was Every Grain of Rice, and for the first time, I was making Chinese food that went beyond simple stir-fries and hot plates. I love this black bean chicken recipe with my modifications.
• Kimchi grilled cheese - I love grilled cheese but I don't think I had made a grilled cheese sandwich since I was 10. And certainly not one with kimchi. This rekindled my love for grilled cheese and began a phase of many grilled cheese sandwiches.
• Baked langostino tails with tomatoes and feta - Blogged about here, but it's on this list because it's one of the few things I've made that I really feel like I could have ordered at a restaurant. It felt really authentic.
• Cigrons - I craved these Catalan style chickpeas for over a year after our visit to Pinotxo (still haven't written about Pinotxo but it's on last year's top 10 list) before I started looking all over the internet for tips on making cigrons. This wasn't exactly like Pinotxo but it was close. It was satisfying as a fix for one of my favorite dishes ever.

So that's 2013. I don't know what 2014 will bring, but I hope it's full of great food, good health and happy adventures!