Kelsey & Kim

My father grew up in Atlantic City and we often came down to visit at least once a year. I always enjoyed walking on the boardwalk and my father likes going to the casinos. Since we come down often enough we do have a few regular spots that we like to go eat. One that place that we go to at least once when we are down there is a restaurant called Kelsey & Kim.

Kelsey & Kim is a barbecue restaurant in Pleasantville, New Jersey, about 10 miles outside of Atlantic City. It is a small storefront takeout place with only 4 tables for eating inside. It is a mom & pop operation with pop being Kelsey Jackson and mom being his wife Kim. The restaurant is located in a run down section of town but the food was always good. Not great barbecue but certainly very good. After eating the good stuff in the deep south, one can only settle for very good in the northeast.

Kelsey used to cook in the Trump Marina Hotel Casino. He opened the restaurant in Pleasantville 16 years ago. Over the years they have tried to expand with Kelsey usually running the main store in Pleasantville and his wife running the other store in Galloway, the next town over.

Well to our surprise they closed the store in Galloway and opened up a sit-down restaurant in Atlantic City. The restaurant is a lot more upscale and is located in the Inlet section of town and right near the hotel we usually stay at. The building used to be a Chinese take-out restaurant and the owner would often try and give me lessons on speaking Chinese but they have closed after a few years and the building was empty for some time.

This version of Kelsey & Kim's is not like the one in Pleasantville. The decor inside is quite nice and has a more upscale feel to it. And instead of just selling barbecue the menu has been expanded to include many southern dishes and breakfast.

This time we stopped by for breakfast as I was in the mood for some fried chicken and waffles. My father ordered the special which included 2 huge pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 strips of bacon, 2 sausage links, and a side of hash browns. You could get grits instead of hash browns but we are not that southern.

The service was very warm and friendly. Because they cook the food to order I kind of knew that my dish was going to take some time due to the fried chicken. There was a couple that came in a bit after us and ordered some eggs and toast and were served their food before us. We were getting hungry but I figured that they were still working on my dish. I guess the waiter saw that they were served before us an came over to apologize. He said that the fried chicken takes a bit to cook and then gave us 2 glasses of orange juice on the house. A small gesture but a very nice touch.

When the food came out a few minutes later, the plates were huge. My father's pancakes were about 8 inches wide and the plate was overflowing with the sausage and eggs and bacon. The hash browns were served on a separate plate. As for my dish, I got a nice sized waffle with 2 pieces of fried chicken on it, a thigh and a leg. I could have gotten wings or white meat but I prefer the dark meat.

The waffle was light and very crispy and you could tell the fried chicken was fresh. It was burning hot and I had to wait a minute before I could take a bite. But when I did take a bite it was great. The fried chicken had a thin coating on it that was still quite crunchy and the meat was tender and moist. I was forced to help my father eat his dish but we still left about 1/2 a pancake and some hash browns on the table.

Overall it was a very nice meal and very friendly service. And the price wasn't that bad, the total bill came to $16 including tax. I don't think I would give it 3 stars outright but maybe a very high 2 stars.

Jersey Jeers

It is not very often that one finds a meal that you will rave about, but I didn't realize that it is even rarer that you come across a meal that you actually can't stand. Unfortunately this revelation occurred when I went to Barbera Fish Market in Atlantic City. Usually a dish is edible and one would expect that a place that has been open since 1919 can't be all that bad. Wrong.

Barbera is located right across from an Atlantic City landmark, White House Subs. Many a time I have seen the fish market while going to get a sub. I was curious enough to look up reviews on the web and found that they had some decent comments on the place. I decided to forgo White House for once and walked across the street.

The place looked quite interesting and is really more of a fish market that a restaurant. There are no tables inside and just a counter by the window for people to dine-in. There are some nice outdoor tables right next to the building. The place is a family owned business and is now being run by Dominic Alcaro. He was there to take my order of fish and chips and a crab cake sandwich.

While I was waiting for my order, his assistant came out from the back and asked me if I wanted it crispy. I was kind of taken aback by the question as I have never been asked that question about my fish. Thinking it meant a nice crispy coating to the fish, I said crispy would be fine. I got my order a few minutes late and took it back to my room to eat.

When I opened up the container, I found out that crispy meant burnt. The fish and chips consisted of seven small fish squares. Each piece was smaller than a chicken McNugget and had a very thin corn meal coating on them. The fish was dry as toast and had a very strong fishy taste. Even submerging them in tartar sauce could not help and I ended up throwing away most of the fish. The fries were quite mediocre but edible. The best part of the meal was the cole slaw which isn't really saying much.


Since I didn't eat much of the fish and chips I was still hungry enough to eat the crab cake. At least the crab cake wasn't that bad. It was 4 inches wide and had mostly filler with bits of crab. Nothing like the lump crab cakes you get in Baltimore but then again for only $3 I wasn't expecting much. If I had only eaten the sandwich I would have given the place 1 star, but the fish and chips was the worst fish and chips I have ever eaten and rates a zero.


This got me thinking about other "worst" meals and that is when it dawned on me that it is easier for me to remember the "best" meals than the worst. Most meals are at least OK and I would eat there again if I was at least in the area. But in this case, I would make a detour to avoid the place.

I really wanted to like the place as the history of the place is kind of interesting. They are the last fish store in the city and have been around for over 80 years. About 5 years ago, the city wanted to take over the small building to put up some more stores but they fought the city by getting over 2,500 signatures in support of the business and won. Why the city would choose that little area when there are dozens of vacant lots around town that they could have selected didn't make sense.

Maybe I shouldn't be too harsh as the people working there were quite friendly, the decor of the place is something out of the 50's with old pictures and newspaper clippings on the walls as well as fake seafood. There is even a personalized signed picture of Elton John on the wall. It does seem that there are people that do like the place and I also did say that I preferred crispy not knowing it meant well-done fish. Maybe my fish and chips was an aberration but it was definitely the worst I have ever eaten and it is so much easier to cross the street to get a great sandwich.

Trick or Treats... or McRibs

What better way to celebrate Halloween than with something really scary like a McRib sandwich. It is a pretty simple sandwich consisting of ground pork, pickles, onions, a sweet barbecue sauce on a roll. What is disturbing about the sandwich is that the ground pork is shaped to look like a tiny rack of ribs. The patty even has the outline of little bones that would be found in real ribs.

The sandwich is not a regular staple on the McDonald's menu and it has been years since it was available nationally. The sandwich would pop up in some locations around the country for a limited time and that spawned a need(?) for a McRib locator website. There are stories of McRib-heads who would travel hundreds of miles in search out the restaurants that were carrying this sandwich.

The last time I had a McRib had to be over 10 years ago. Still I don't remember it tasting that bad, not great, but not bad. One time in Hong Kong I went to a McDonald's and had their samurai burger. It was a ground pork patty served like a hamburger with a teriyaki sauce. That was yuck-o!

The news was that the McRib was to come out on November 1st, but a few McDonald's were selling them earlier. I decided to pop into a local McDonald's and sure enough they had it. At first I was kind of perplexed as they had a picture of the sandwich, fries, and soda with a price of $3.99. Considering Big Mac combo meals are now in the $6+ range in many stores around the country I didn't think the McRib combo would be that cheap but it was. So I got one and quickly examined it before consuming. It looked just like I remembered it and it tasted the same as I remembered. It wasn't bad, the sauce was sweet but did not cross over the border to too sweet but it was in the neighborhood. But the sandwich is not something that I would travel around the country for. I could easily wait another 10+ years before it comes out again.

My favorite memory about the sandwich actually has nothing to do with eating it, which is probably why it is my favorite. When I was going to college I would work during the summer as a janitor in Manhattan. While emptying wastepaper basket in a Chase bank I would listen to music on WHN over the radio. They had a call-in contest and the question was what was the song that was played in the movie "10" with Bo Derek. For some reason I knew the answer and called the station. I won and what I got was a few posters and a coupon for some McRib sandwiches. It was fun to just win anything in a radio contest but I don't remember if I did use the coupons...

Donut vs. Donut

It started when I was shopping at Stew Leonard's in Norwalk, Connecticut. Stew Leonard's is not your typical dairy/supermarket, besides fresh fruit and vegetables, they also sell their own meat, dairy, and baked goods amongst animated singing robots. Kind of like shopping for groceries at Disneyland's "Its a Small World".

I was walking through their bakery department as they were making apple cider donuts right in front of a crowd. There was a sign above the fry-o-lator that said you couldn't find fresher cider donuts than these. Right then and there I knew they were wrong. I knew of at least one other place that made fantastic apple cider donuts and now I had a strong hankering for some.

I began to make plans to head towards Ipswich, Massachusetts for Russell Orchards. It is a pick your own farm that makes apple cider from the fruit in their orchards and apple cider donuts right in front of you.

Before I was able to go, a friend of mine sent me an e-mail that contained the results of a poll of best apple cider donuts in New England. It was a poll from viewers of New England Cable News (NECN). The poll had Russell Orchards on it but in a distant second place with 28% of the vote. In first place was Parlee Farms in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts with 47%. The rest of the places were in single digits.

Not willing to just settle for the second best donuts I wanted to try Parlee Farms. I found out that they are also a pick your own farm but that their last day of the season was that upcoming Sunday. I quickly made plans to go with a few friends to Tynsboro which is near the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border.


The place was pretty festive when we got there. They were celebrating Halloween and everyone that was working there was in costume. They were giving out free hayrides and for $20 you could get as many pumpkins as you could fit onto a red wagon. Inside the main building they were selling popcorn, baked goods, jams, and of course apple cider donuts. You could see them making the donuts in front of you and unlike Russell Orchards they dunked the donuts in granulated sugar at the end to give it a sweeter taste. The donuts were really mini-donuts, the size of a half-dollar and cost $2 for a bag of 5, but they were going fast.


I bought two bags of donuts, one with the sugar on it and I requested one bag without the extra sugar. The donuts were quite tasty. Nothing like hot fresh donuts to warm one's soul and these were really good. But it wasn't the best apple cider donuts I ever had as there was very little apple cider flavor. They were fine donuts on their own, warm, tender, and sweet but they tasted like a regular donut.


I was glad that I went as I also went on my first hayride, but this was not the shangri la of apple cider donuts. For that I had to go to Russell Orchards and they did not disappoint.

I had accidentally stumbled across Russell Orchards over 15 years ago while driving around Ipswich looking for the best fried clams. Looking back I don't know how I found the place as it is kind of located on the back roads and this was way before I had my trusty GPS. I also used to get lost a lot.

I got to Russell Orchards just as they were starting to make the donuts. They have a secret recipe and use an old donut making machine. They claim to be green in that they re-cycle the used oil to make bio-diesel fuel. Their donuts are much bigger than Parlee Farms, about 4 inches in width and much darker in color. But what really makes the big difference is the more pronounced apple cider flavor. Eating their hot fresh donuts along with a cup of their cold apple cider is pure ambrosia.


Russell Orchards also sells a host of their own baked goods from pies to scones to apple crisp and they also have their own honey and wine. The donuts are 80 cents a piece or $4 for half a dozen. They are open May through the end of November.

Angels and Dumplings

My cousin Erika has co-authored a book about Angel Island named Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America. She was in New York as part of her book tour to promote the book. Tonight she was in Chinatown for a reception and then a talk about her book with her co-author Judy Yung.

Most of the family on the east coast came into town to see her talk. It was also scheduled to start at 7pm. But knowing traffic in New York City, we left home at 4:30pm. Sure enough there was plenty of traffic and then there was the time spent looking for a parking space. What really made things slow was that the Feast of San Gennaro was going on in Little Italy. Many streets were blocked off and the GPS kept directing me to those streets.

But before we went to the reception we made a stop at one of my favorite dives for some dumplings, Prosperity Dumplings. There was an article on the Internet a few years ago listing the top dumpling places in New York and this was number 2 on the list. Being number 2 you are supposed to try harder or you can just have dirt cheap dumplings. And I mean dirt cheap, 5 dumplings for $1.

This place is really small with a counter along the side of the wall to comfortably seat 4 people. Most of the space in the tiny place is taken up by the kitchen and basically all they sell are dumplings. The dumplings can be served boiled or fried. Of course I got the fried dumplings, 15 in fact. The dumplings are plump, hot, and juicy. There is plenty of meat in them and the dough is not too thick like some other dumpling places.

With a price point that low, the place can be packed but since they just serve a few items the line moves quickly. There is a school across the street from the place and when the kids are let out, the place gets packed. And it is quite interesting to see all types of kids go to the restauran t, all races and all sizes. It is quite funny to see a kid that can just barely see over the serving counter step up and slap a dollar on the counter and without saying a word get their box of hot dumplings.


It was a good thing that we got some dumplings before the reception, it was held at a restaurant called the Red Egg. The Red Egg is a high-end Chinese restaurant. Fancy decor and plates and high prices. They served appetizers and while they were quite good, not enough to fill up on by themselves. In contrast, across the street was a dumpy looking cafeteria style Chinese restaurant that was serving 4 dishes plus rice for $4.50 if you eat there. For take-out it was only $4. At the Red Egg you can get a scallion pie for $4.50.

After the reception, everyone went across the street to MoCA, the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. The talk was held in a small auditorium of the museum and it was standing room only. My cousin and Judy spoke for about an hour and it went quite well. Basically the significance of Angel Island is that it was the Ellis Island of the west coast. Thousands of immigrants from all over the world but mostly Asians came through and their experience was a bit different than those that came through Ellis Island.

The talk ended around 9pm and we were all pretty hungry. Unfortunately the cheap Chinese restaurant was closed by then and a quick stop at Prosperity Dumpling found that they were closed too. In retrospect, we should have walked a few blocks over to the Feast of San Gennaro as there would be plenty of great street food there.

Layover

My initial response to buying the Jet Blue "All You Can Jet" ticket was wow, I can fly all over the United States. But after rushing to buy the ticket which sold out in 3 days, I soon found out that they don't really fly all over the place directly. Many flights usually go through their hubs New York City or Long Beach, California. Using New York as my home base was not going to be a problem but my trip from Salt Lake City to Portland, Oregon was going to be.

The quickest way to get to Portland was to take a 90 minute flight to Long Beach for a 3 hour layover before getting back on a plane for a 2 1/2 hour flight. This basically shot the whole day, the one redeeming point was that I did pick up an hour by being in a different time zone. Instead of losing 6 hours to travel, it was only 5.

When I landed in Long Beach, I did leave the airport to walk around to see if there was anything to see or do or eat, but didn't get too far. The airport isn't very large but it was mostly commercial businesses in the area and too far to walk carrying my laptop. I guess I could have been more adventurous and took a cab but there was nothing around that I was interested in to rush around town for. If I have a whole day there, I would have like to have gone to the waterfront area.

One good thing though, the weather in southern California was gorgeous. The sun was high in the sky with very few clouds and it was very warm. It was a beautiful day and so I spent it outside on a picnic table working on my laptop. (So, I'm a geek).


Long Beach airport is very small and it is like a hold over from the past. In order to get on and off an airplane you have to walk across the tarmac.


I landed in Portland after 6pm and took a courtesy shuttle to Rodeway Inn. The reason I selected this motel was not just the price but that it had a shuttle and most importantly was near the Portland light rail system. The motel is owned by the same company but the complex is shared with another motel, Quality Inn. The 2 motels share the same reservation desk and when you check in they ask which motel your reservation is with. I had to ask was there a difference and was one better than the other. They said there was a difference and Quality Inn was better though the 2 motels are kind of connected physically to each other.

Since it was late and all I have to eat all day was the snacks you get on the airplane I was pretty hungry. When I planned the trip I did look for places to eat in the area and one place that seemed quite interesting and had gotten some good reviews was Jim Dandy Drive-In. It was like a 50's style drive-in.


I was kind of expecting more of a diner but their menu consisted of mostly sandwiches. I ended up getting a chili dog with a side order of onion rings. The meal was pretty disappointing. The chili dog was mediocre. The chili had beans which I don't really like on a chili dog as it makes it more messy to it and the hot dog itself was pork and beef and was pretty bland. But all was not lost as the onion rings were very good. There was thick slices of onions and they had a crispy coating on them. Reviews on the web were generally pretty good for the place, but Guy Fieri didn't go here, maybe that should have been a clue.


I was still kind of hungry and decided to walk around the area some to see if there was something else to try. I walked around a mile and saw mostly gas stations, motels, and a few bars. There was a Mexican restaurant that looked interesting but I wasn't hungry for another full meal. I did pass by a nondescript building that was a Chinese restaurant. I am always interested in trying Chinese food in non-traditional places plus I knew I could always get something like an appetizer to snack on instead of a meal.

The place was called Good World. The people there were very nice but the place was empty at 8pm, usually not a good sign. The restaurant had been open for about 1 year and the building used to be a bank. They used the vault for storage. I got an order of potstickers to go and ate them in my motel room. The potstickers was quite tasty, but you really can't mess them up that much. With my snack came the ubiquitous fortune cookie. My fortune was: "An enjoyable vacation is awaiting you near the mountains". Since I just came from the mountains in Utah, maybe the fortune was a little bit too late?

Heading to the Hospital

I remember watching the tv program "The Best of" on the Food Network in which Jill Cordes was doing a segment from a cafeteria. Not just any cafeteria, but one in a hospital. And not any hospital but at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. It sounded different and the reviews on the Internet were pretty positive. This sounded like a non-typical place to go to eat and something that piqued my interest.


The cafeteria is called The Point and is located on the 6th floor and is open to the public. The hospital itself is a fairly new building with nice aesthetic features on the outside as well as the inside. They had a nice lobby that seemed more like a comfortable library than a medical institution.

I was wondering if I was in the right place but when I got off the 6th floor the menu board is right near the elevators. The cafeteria was set-up as most cafeterias where you get your tray and walk along the serving stations. They had your typical burgers, sandwiches, soups and wraps as well as some specials. The special I chose was the Sambuca seared pork tenderloin. The dish consisted of an anise flavored pork tenderloin served with roasted garlic mash potatoes, fresh mixed vegetables, and natural jus. All that for only $7.00.


Once I got my food I went to the table area and this was not your typical cafeteria. They had a large screen tv on the wall, a piano, and some couches to relax in as you listened to the music. The eating area was surrounded by windows and the view was very pretty. The building looked out towards the mountain range on one side and on the other side you had a view of downtown Salt Lake City.


As for the food, it was really, really, good. The pork loin was tender and the sauce added some sweetness to it. The vegetables were fresh, not canned and consisted of steamed broccoli, yellow squash, and carrots. It was fine dining where you had to clear your own table. I would highly recommend this place.
I have to say that I was kind of surprised by the quality of the food as the prices are quite reasonable and restaurants highlighted on "The Best of" are not always that good. I found out the hard way that many places that they showed were big on the story of the place and not so much on the taste of the food. My experience was that it was a 50-50 proposition as to whether a place was good or not.

After lunch I drove downtown to see Mormon's Temple Square. But I soon found out that parking was kind of tough to find in that area. I decided to go to the state capitol instead. The capitol building is quite large and ornate on the inside. I was surprised by the opulence in the place, especially when you consider that the state's legislators only work 45 days a year. The building is on par with the state capitol of Texas in Austin. Now one can understand Texas having a fancy building, but Utah? Where did they get all that money to build something so big and used so little.
I wasn't hungry but I did take a peek at the cafeteria in the capitol. It was more of your typical cafeteria style set-up and food. But I did feel more at home as they had White Castle cheeseburgers in the vending machines.

After walking around the capitol I found out that Temple Square was within walking distance. It was pretty hot outside but I had a good parking spot and decided to walk.

The Temple Square consisted of many building that are part of the Mormon church. Many are opened to the public but not all. Surrounding the area was a gate and there were quite a few beggars just outside the gate. At one point a well-dressed businessman walked past one of the beggars and stopped to talk to her when she asked for money. He said that she knew that he worked there as they have seen each other pass by everyday for the past few weeks. He said that if she really wanted help that she knew where his office was and if she came up to visit him, he will try and help her out. But she refused and so he kept walking.

On the grounds was a museum on the history of the Mormons and how they ended up in Salt Lake City. The history is quite interesting and the exhibits were well done, though they do gloss over a few historical points.

Also near by is the church's genealogy research library. This is also open to the public and they provide lots of resources for you to trace your family's roots. They allow you access to their compilation of historical documents as well as to their database. The place was quite busy and all of it is free.

For dinner I chose to go to Navajo Hogan. It is kind of a hole-in-the-wall place that served what they called Navajo tacos. What it was, is a chili salad in Indian fry bread. I have been hooked on Indian fry bread since the first time I had it in North Dakota. When I got to the place, there was a sign on the door saying that they had stepped out and will be back at 5pm. I had about 20 minutes to kill when I decided to go to a Crown Burger restaurant that I had passed about 5 blocks back.

I was interested to try the place that had invented putting pastrami on hamburgers but I was also still going to get my Indian taco, so I ordered a smaller burger. The burger was
pretty good but just a little bit better than the burger I got from Apollo the day before. The pastrami really didn't add a whole lot to the flavor but what really stood out was that these burgers are char broiled and you really taste the difference. Too bad Burger King's burgers don't taste like this anymore.

I went back to Navajo Hogan and got my Navajo taco. The lady made the fry bread to order and it only took a few seconds in the oil to cook. She then put the chili, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and cheese on the fry bread. Though they call it a taco, it is more like a salad on a thick piece of greasy bread. It was pretty good with the freshly made fry bread and the fresh vegetables, but the chili was pretty pedantic. It is a place that I would go to when I wanted some Indian fry bread, but mostly because it is hard to find fry bread almost anywhere.

I See Dead Animals

Today my mission was to drive in a big counter clockwise loop and visit Wyoming and Idaho. By visiting those two states I will have visited 49 states with Hawaii being the last state left. Originally I was planning on going clockwise with a stop at Eccles Dinosaur park in Ogden, Utah. The park has over 100 life-size replicas of the pre-historic creatures. Like many kids, I was always fascinated by dinosaurs and knew most of the major dinosaurs by species. And I am still waiting to grow up.

But while researching for something interesting to see, do, or eat in Idaho and Wyoming I came across the town of Evanston, Wyoming. This small city of 11,000 had a few museums and even had an exhibit on the small Chinese population they had at the turn of the century. Most of those Chinese were railroad workers but they were forced out by the early 20th century.

From a food standpoint there were 2 Chinese restaurants in town and one of them had some reviews on Yelp that I thought was quite intriguing. The restaurant was Hunan Garden and the reviews were terrible, but mostly it was about the service. The reviewers complained that the owner could not delegate the work and so people were left waiting for service and food despite there being other workers there. Normally I would see this as being a definite red flag to not go there. But no one really commented on the food, the reviewers got tired of waiting and walked out. Still, the restaurant has been around for years so it couldn't really be that bad...or could it?

I decided at the last minute to change my plans and go to Evanston first. This way I could go visit the town early and have enough time to visit the dinosaur park which closed at 7pm on the way back to the hotel.

I didn't realize it but the drive to Evanston was going to take me through the mountains and boy was it cold! Salt Lake City was around 70 degrees in the morning with the temperature to hit the 90's in the afternoon. I dressed according to that forecast and wore shorts and t-shirt. I did not bring my windbreaker. I didn't notice the weather change until I took a brief stop at a scenic turn-off. The view was breath taking but so was the cold weather. The car thermometer registered 50 degrees.


The drive to Evanston was pretty scenic but there were lots of dead animals on the highway. Animals of all kinds and sizes were littering the road from elks to badgers to carcasses unrecognizable.

When I got to Evanston, my first stop was the Uinta County Museum. I was met by a volunteer at the door who asked if I needed any help. I told her that I was interested in the Chinese joss house museum which was next door. Since the museum was locked she walked with me to the one room building and gave me my own personal tour.

Uinta County Museum

A joss house is a religious building, similar to a temple. When the Chinese were living in Evanston they built the structure in their section of Chinatown. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1922 but many artifacts from the joss house were saved and are now on display in this replica built in 1990.


After walking through the joss house, I was given a tour of the Evanston train depot. The depot is no longer used as a train station but it was refurbished and is now a historic landmark that is also used for events. They did a really nice job in fixing the place up. You feel like you are standing back in time. One thing that was kind of funny is that the original train station was segregated by sex. Men were on one side of the building and the women and children were on the other side, the side with the fireplace. But when they refurbished the building they put the men's room on the women's side of the building and the ladies' room on the men's side. So much for historical accuracy.


It was around lunch time and I decided on going to the Hunan Garden. I asked my tour guide and she said that her son went there quite often and liked it. The restaurant has been in town for years and they even donated money for some of the exhibits on Evanston's Chinatown. Not the greatest ringing endorsement but interesting enough to give it a try. But just my luck they were closed as they went on vacation starting today.

There was a steak restaurant that had gotten good reviews but I was kind of set on having Chinese food and eating some vegetables. I find that my diet lacks vegetables when I go on these road trips but I can usually get a couple of servings of veggies in a stir fry dish. Since this Chinese restaurant was closed the only other option was to try the other one in town which was a buffet, the Dragon Wall Buffet. The restaurant was in a small strip mall and there were a few people eating there. The selection was decent and the food was mediocre, but I was able to get my fill of green vegetables from broccoli, string beans, and peppers.

After lunch I headed over to Great Bear Lake in Idaho. The drive took over an hour and a half. The lake is rather huge looking on the map, but I was taken aback by the beauty of the lake when I got there. I found out that there is a lot of limestone in the area and that mineral gives the lake its color. From certain standpoints the water is a deep rich blue and at other sites the water is an aqua green that reminds one of the Carribean.


I drove to the town of Fish Haven and stopped at a little store called Gladys Place. I had noticed lots of signs touting the raspberries from the area. Unfortunately most of the places with these signs were now closed. At Gladys Place they said that the limestone in the area plus the weather was responsible for delicious local raspberries and currants but were now out of season. In fact most of the town's business were closed. And despite the nice weather that day the town was kind of like a ghost town. The lake is a resort area but after Labor Day the tourists all go home. They do come back when it snows to use the snowmobile trails.


The store did have some of the raspberries left in their refrigerator to be used to make milk shakes, so I ordered one. The clerk made it right in front of me. She used local ice cream and then took a few scoops of the raspberries and added them to a metal cup. She then spent about 3 minutes blending the ingredients in a milkshake mixer. I went outside and sat down to enjoy the shake. It was pretty tasty. The ice cream and the raspberries were a perfect combination of sweetness and just a little bit of tartness. It was a totally unexpected treat.


The drive back to Salt Lake City was pretty uneventful. Because I had spent more time than I planned in Evanston and in Fish Haven, it was too late to go see the dinosaurs. Besides I was pretty tired for all of the driving.

I got back to Salt Lake City around 8pm and using my GPS looked to see what the closest restaurant that I had loaded into my favorites. Greek Souvlaki 1 was the closest and was rated well for Greek food. The restaurant is more of a fast food place. It was started in 1972 and they claim that they introduced the gyro to Utah.


I am no stranger to Greek food and do love a good gyro, so I ordered the gyro platter. The platter comes with rice, french fries, and a Greek salad. I was kind of taken aback when they asked me whether I wanted red or white sauce. I figured that the white sauce was tzatziki (cucumber and yogurt) but had never heard of a red sauce. It turns out that the red sauce is their own special recipe which is tomato based. I probably should have ordered selected the red sauce to try it out but I wasn't feeling too adventurous at the time so I got the traditional tzatziki sauce. Being in Salt Lake City, they also gave me fry sauce with the french fries.

Even though it was a lot of food, I could not pass up on getting the spinach pie, spanokopita. I took my bundle of food back to my motel room and brewed up some Luzianne iced tea. It made for a nice dinner but wasn't worth writing to home about. The portions were pretty good and it was nice to eat some more vegetables today from the salad, but it was not better than most places on the east coast.

Evening At The Apollo

No, I wasn't heading up to Harlem, I was jetting my way to Salt Lake City. I took an afternoon flight to the capitol of the Beehive state and arrived at 6pm. The original plan was to stop at the Red Iguana to get some Mexican food. The Red Iguana is a place that many locals rave about on Yelp.com and it has also been mentioned on Roadfood.com as well as being a segment on Drive-ins, Diners, and Dives.

A pattern has started to emerge where many of the places that I was thinking of going to have been shown on Triple D. At this point I would prefer to not go to a place that Guy Fieri has shown but those places do seem to have very favorable write-ups and seem quite interesting to try. On the other hand, one of my favorite shows that was on the Food Network, The Best of... was enjoyable to watch but their restaurant choices did not always lead to good food. That program was more interested in a good story than in good food. That is not to say that they didn't pick some really good places, but my experience was the food was good only about 50% of the time. Not that the other 50% meant the food was bad, but it really wasn't worth making an effort to go to.

Anyhoo, it was getting kind of late by the time I got my rental car and checked into the motel. It was only about 8pm local time but 10pm back home in New York. I decided to just stay close and go to Apollo Burgers which was right next to the motel. I walked over and ordered the Apollo Burger combo.

For those who don't know and I was one of them, Salt Lake City has a unique hamburger tradition. It all started with Crown Burgers which is still around and I still might go to, with a pastrami/burger creation. The hamburger is served with lettuce, tomato, onions, and topped with pastrami. Another custom out here is they serve their french fries with a fry sauce instead of ketchup. The fry sauce is kind of like a spicy Russian dressing.

I took the food back to my room so I could take some photos but they did not come out too clear. Instead of trying to get better pictures I ate the evidence instead. This is sometimes getting to be a problem. If I am too hungry or get excited about the food I will start eating before remembering that I was supposed to take a picture of it.


The Apollo Burger was pretty good. It was a char broiled 1/4 lb. patty with fresh lettuce, onions, and tomatoes on it. The pastrami was a nice touch to it. It wasn't the type of pastrami you would get at a good New York style deli but it added some nice saltiness to the sandwich. Overall it was a good meal and really filled me up. I would get it again but not really go out of my way for it. Definitely better than a McDonald's, Wendy's, or Burger King hamburger but that really isn't saying a whole lot either.