Chapter 1: Traveling

The first topic I would like to touch on is traveling to a new city.

This is inspired by a comment made on the old blog. I had mentioned that on my upcoming trip out west in a couple of months, my biggest goal so far was to find an In-N-Out burger. Apparently that surprised some people, and didn't surprise others.

I'm happy to report that since I wrote that, I came up with a few more goals. But interestingly enough, most of them involve eating. For instance, I'm pretty sure I will be eating here at least once in Vegas. And chances are in San Francisco, I will visit here at least once.


To me, the most important thing about visiting a new city is finding good food. And I have some personal rules about that which I try to follow.


First rule... I will always attempt to find out what food item the city is most well known for, and I will try to go to a place that is most well known for making that particular item.


Just like if you ever come to Philadelphia, you need to try a cheesesteak. When I go to Boston, I will find a good bowl of clam chowder. When I go to Chicago, I will have some deep dish pizza. When I go to New York, I will get a good bagel or a pastrami sandwich or a piece of cheesecake (NYC has a lot of signature food items). When I go to Baltimore, I will get some crabcakes.


But I won't go just anywhere for these things. You see, when I get clam chowder in Boston, I won't just go to any Tom Dick and Harry joint to get it. I will go to the Warren Tavern or the Union Oyster House. When I get bagels in NYC, I'm going to Bergen's in Brooklyn. When I get cheesecake in NYC, I'm going to Junior's. When I get that pastrami sandwich, I'll go to Katz's or the Carnegie Deli. For pizza in Chicago, I'm looking for a Lou Malnati's or Gino's. You get the point. You have to find a place that is most well known for it and get it there.


This is why I'm going to get me some sourdough bread in San Francisco. Hell, I might kill a couple of birds with one stone and get some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. I hear the chowder in San Fran is as good as Boston's. I'll be the judge of that.


Second rule... if you go to a new city, eating at a place that you could get at home is forbidden. My opinion is that if you go to Vegas, and you hit up an Applebee's, you are an idiot.


Now, the exception to this rule is that if you happen to live in an area where there are no Applebee's for hundred's of miles around, and this would be the first opportunity you had to try an Applebee's in Vegas, then I say go for it. But only go for it once. If you're going back to Applebee's the next day, you're back to being an idiot. This is not to say that Applebee's isn't good. But you don't travel thousands of miles to go to one more than once.

And may I add... if you live in an area where there are no Applebees, then you are in a pretty desolate area. They have an Applebees in Beirut, Lebanon for cryin' out loud.


Third rule... fast food joints in new cities should never be frequented. You really should be trying to find local cuisine in my book. This goes back to eating things that you can get in your home city. Why go thousands of miles to eat at a McDonalds? Of course, there are exceptions to this rule.


One exception is my In-N-Out burger rule. And this goes back to the previous Applebee's example. We don't have any In-N-Out burgers in Philly. They are apparently legendary on the West Coast. So I say that In-N-Out burgers qualify as local cuisine and should be searched out even though it is fast food. Because that is a unique experience to someone like me.


Another exception is a foreign country. Le's say you're halfway around the world in India, and you happen to find a McDonalds. I say it is perfectly acceptable to go into a McDonalds in India to see what it tastes like. From what I hear they are radically different. Just like John Travolta in Pulp Fiction speaking about the Royale With Cheese. This is encouraged, unless you're in Canada. I don't think a McDonalds in Canada is going to be any different than here.

I think three rules is enough for now. And for the record, I do have my reservation for Emeril's in Las Vegas ready to go. There will be an update on that in May, I assure you.