Food of the East

I don't know if anyone will find this remotely interesting, so I won't be offended if you skim, but we were really looking forward to good eats on the East coast. Almost anything is better than TX cuisine, so we were not disappointed in our finds.

1. When in Philly you just can't leave without the classic: Cheesesteak.

We ended up getting cheesesteaks from two locations (one week apart). The first was #6 on the citysearch favorites, but we chose to go there because of its proximity to our touring. The name was Campos. The cheesesteak was top quality. The steak was cooked well. The bread was good. The cheese and onions gave good flavor. The only drawback was it was a little pricey. The second was Dalessandro's. It was #3, but a people's choice winner. So we took the drive (in Friday rush hour!) to the northern location. The best thing was you got a lot. And I mean A LOT of food. It was a huge cheesesteak with tons of meat. The meat seemed a little lower quality, and I thought it wasn't as flavorful as Campos, but it was a better deal overall if you're in the area.

2. Reading, the home of the Monopoly Reading Railroad, is also home to some dang good cubano sandwiches. We had to wait at a semi-ghetto corner store (Santa Barbara's) for 1/2 an hour to get this treat. It was a panini pressed hoagie roll stuffed with a shredded pork, ham, lettuce, cheese, pepperoncinis, and mayo. Delicious.

3. Rita's water ice. Well, in Reading and Philly it's called water ice. In Hershey it was called Italian ice. But I ended up getting a gelati. That was water ice (my flavor choice was tangerine) layered with the most incredible vanilla frozen custard I've ever tasted. YUM! I was almost convinced to buy a franchise and open it up here. YOU HAVE TO TRY IT IF YOU GET A CHANCE!

4. Kitchen Kettle Village in Amish/Mennonite Country was delightful. They had delicious (fresh) kettle cooked potato chips and even more delicious beef jerky. The best store there was the jam pantry. They had tons and tons of jams, and they had open bottles of each for taste testing. Their salsas were some of the best I've ever eaten, way better than anything found here in TX (sorry Pace commercials). And their pickles were down right tantalizing. Its amazing how much better and delectable fresh foods and preserves are. You just can't beat it.

5. Shady Maple Smorgasbord Grill. This place is a gigantic all you can eat buffet. Every night something different is featured on the grill with tons of sides and desserts. Unbeknownst to us beforehand, we unfortunately went on seafood night. It was the most expensive night, and our least desired of all the nights. Neither of us actually enjoy seafood, but we got to try lots of things we'd never have tried otherwise. The only thing we liked in the way of the seafood gill was the Cajun catfish. It was quite mild and the texture wasn't bad. In my opinion, the place was pretty cool but a little over rated, especially if you can't eat $20 worth of food (per person) in one sitting.

6. Probably the best food came from a hole-in-the-wall dumpling shop in NY's Chinatown. It was the cheapest food (3 adults ate for $10 total--including drinks!!!! We were STUFFED!), but dang it was good. We got both fried and water dumplings as well as these amazing stuffed "sesame pancakes". It was a delicious handmade dough cut open and stuffed with vegetables (though you could have gotten beef also). It was gigantic and just $1.50!!

7. If you're a Food Network fan like us, you may watch Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Well, Bryan doesn't watch that show, but he told us of a great doughnut shop near his house. When we entered the Doughnut Plant Matt recognized a picture of the owner on the wall from the doughnut throwdown with Bobby Flay. That was pretty cool. We got a PB&J doughnut (jelly doughnut with PB frosting) as well as the dulce de leche doughnut. My favorite was the dulce de leche.

8. We got our Saturday dinner from a cool Indonesian place near Nathan's apt. in Queens. Their chicken coconut curry was amazing. I also got to try jackfruit in one of the dishes. That was very interesting. It tasted a lot like artichoke hearts but was a little squishier. I'd never been to Queens and it was quite nice. I almost forgot we were in NY because the buildings were so much lower than Manhattan.

9. Lastly, I have to say that I also enjoyed eating at Julie's very much. It's amazing how quickly you can get sick of eating out and you just want a good home cooked, well balanced meal!!!