What’s up everybody?
I thought that we would talk about a different type of adventure. One that we all partake in everyday and we don’t even realize it. If you haven’t guessed it from the title of the article or by the pictures, I’m talking about food.
Our food journey starts when we are infants and doesn’t end, not to be morbid or anything, until our end. Let’s be honest, I can’t really remember a lot about food from my childhood and I doubt very many of you do either. Thats okay. I would like to think that it was something like this. Every new flavor that hit our tongue filled us with awe and wonder. Until we got that one thing that scrunched our face with disgust , we opened our mouths and let whatever it was slide out and fall to the floor below.
Unless you are a foodie, which I am not in any sense of the word, I feel that we lose that feeling of wonder as we get older. Every once and a while we still taste something that brings us back to euphoria. I don’t know, maybe I’m way off base here and its just me.
What I do know is that our taste in food is constantly evolving. There are medical papers and studies that explain why that is. I will give you an example of what I mean. Mushrooms, when I was a kid I used to eat mushrooms all the time. Now I can’t eat them, they make me gag. Something about the taste and texture of them. I just can’t handle it, unless they are chopped really fine and the flavor of them is muted. Even then its questionable. I have plenty of other examples like this and some in the reverse were I didn’t eat them as a child but now I do as an adult. Interesting to say the least.
Food has become a big part of our adventuring experience. Some of the best food that I have ever had has been while we were camping. We’ve had everything from hotdogs cooked over an open fire to a rock salt prime rib cooked in a dutch oven, definitely one of my favorites. We’ve gotten so bad with our meals that we have started having theme nights.
If you’re not sure what I mean, let me explain. For example, if our theme was Mexican food then we would have enchiladas for the main dish. Rice, beans, Mexican street corn, chips with salsa and guacamole for side and fried ice cream for dessert. Besides Mexican, some of our go to themes are shrimp boil and the good old American backyard barbecue.
I know what you are thinking, what about us that don’t do the whole camping thing. That is a valid point so heres my answer to it. In my opinion, one of the best things to do while your out traveling is to partake in the local cuisine. I don’t know what it is about Mom n Pop or one offs but they tend to have the best food. Honestly, it should probably be illegal how good they are.
We were checking out Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, when we decide that it was about time to find something to eat. After a period of searching we decide on a small place called Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Company. I have talked about this place before and I think its worth mentioning again. As their name implies they specialize in pizza and grinders. If you are not familiar with a grinder it is another name for a sub, hero or hoagie sandwich. A nice Italian loaf layered in Italian meats and cheeses placed in the oven and toasted to perfection. There is another item on their menu that they are truly known for the pizza pot pie. You might have seen videos of them floating around Facebook or Instagram. The pot pies are made from simple ingredients but are packed with flavor. They were really good. I have attempted to recreate them in mu own kitchen but have failed miserably. One day I will succeed.
Not all of them can be winners though, but thats part of the adventure. We were in Michigan checking out one of their State Parks when we came across a this one. I’m not going to state their name or where we found it. The sad thing was that most of the reviews that we read said that they had good food. In fact the food was fairly good but the service was lacking. I can’t say what was going on, maybe they were just having a off day or they had the b team working that day. We were sat pretty quickly but from there it fell apart. It took our server a long time to come over to us and seemed disinterested on waiting on us. When we finally got our food we were missing some of our sides and other things that we had ordered. When we informed our server they said they would get on it and bring it out. We never saw them after that. Luckily they had already dropped off the check. I was so frustrated with the whole situation that I was ready to just walk out and leave. Cooler heads did prevail and I paid the check and I was even nice enough to leave a tip. I really didn’t want to though. Like I said its all part of the adventure.
No matter who you are or where you come from, food has a way of bringing us together. Going forward I would like to continue to share our food journey with you. I’m not entirely sure what that will look like just yet. I usually do a little blurb about the different places in my regular post. Maybe I can dedicate a whole post to them. Share recipes that I come across that I like. I don’t know, I guess we’ll figure it out along the way.
In the end what I’m trying to say is, if your out traveling and somebody offers you a bug on a stick. Try it, you might just like it.
Safe travels. Thanks for stopping by.
Josh
