Text 13220, 86 rader
Skriven 2008-09-02 15:38:57 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
  Kommentar till text 13100 av Dave Drum (1:124/311)
Ärende: Off-Ramp Grub
=====================
Hi Dave,

 RH> $$.  But, last year we took a chance on one called "Kay's Kitchen" in
 RH> Ohio (I-79 I think) and it was really good.

 DD> Actually the $$$ to be added to the Food @ Exit signs is not huge.
 DD> Many Mom & Pop places don't think in that direction. And not many Mom
 DD> & Pops are located at off ramps anyway.

This one was not that far off the interstate.  I'm glad they put up the
$$ to be included on the sign board; we were a bit hesitant to try it,
figuring it might be a greasy spoon. It wasn't and we had a good meal.
Came back thru the area a few days later but not at a good time to stop
for a meal--which we would have, had the timing been better.


 DD> This year's picnic travel was a huge disappointment to both Georgia
 DD> and me in the food department. Previous trips we always (well, except
 DD> for a Denny's) had at least pretty good ... and often great food at
 DD> our meal stops.

Can't win them all.  We had some good meals and some mediocre ones.  Had
a disappointing one at Applebee's, partly because of what we ordered.
But, it was enough--and looking at their menu for other choices, to make
us decide we'd skip them for future choices on the trip.

 DD> This year, though, sucked rocks. Including a couple of places
 DD> (Original Buckhorn Restaurant/Truck Stop in PA was memorably bad)
 DD> which I used to patronise regularly and had fond memories of. Also a
 DD> Pennsylvania Dutch joint which was so horrid that I have blotted the
 DD> name of the place from my memory. It appeared to be in an old Dutch
 DD> Pantry location ... with nowhere near the quality of a Dutch Pantry.

Sounds like you hit the low point in road food.


 DD> We had one really good dining experience at a place in Clarion, PA
 DD> which we picked because it was convenient to the motel we stopped at.
 DD> Called "Eat'n Park" it appeared to be  mini-chain (local or area) and
 DD> the food was tasty, as ordered, and portions were largish. We ate a
 DD> late supper there and went back for breakfast - a meal which Buckhorn
 DD> demonstrated is possible to screw up.

Good thing you had one redeeming place.  When we first got to Savannah a
couple of years ago, we ate at a Romano's Macaroni Grill one time while
we were waiting for housing.  It was really bad; our first experience
with it in Tucson years before wasn't that great so we decided we
wouldn't eat there again.  That is, until the newspaper had a flyer from
them, featuring chipponino (not sure if I spelled it right--spicy fish
stew) and several other new dishes.  There was also a coupon for a free
appetiser if you ordered one of the new things.  Steve wanted to try the
fish stew so we decided to give them another try.  We split calamari for
an appetiser--cooked just a few seconds too long--just slightly tough.
It had lots of rings and few tenticles, with marinara sauce and a garlic
aoli dipping sauce on the side.  I liked that better than the marinara.

They are trying to be like Carraba's with bread and dipping oil with
herbs.  The bread had way too much rosemary and was more on the order
of a cibbatta--lots of crust but little of the soft inside. They gave us
a "loaf" but no knife to slice it so we had to tear it apart.  The herbs
had no salt; we added a bit and the taste improved.

Steve had a fair sized skillet of the stew.  The waitress warned him it
would be spicy but that was no problem.  Turned out, not to be too
spicy.  It did have several kinds of shell fish in it--scallops,
mussels, clams, shrimp and regular fish.  I had a plate of linguini with
a lemon/garlic butter sauce with capers.  There was also chicken (white,
nice fork size pieces) and medium sized shrimp in the sauce.  Over all,
quite good, surprisingly.  The garlic and lemon could both be tasted but
neither one overpowered the other.  I took about half of it home because
of having the bread and calamari before it came out. I'd go for that
again.  For dessert, we split a berry tiramisu--needed more berries and
less "pudding".  So, we may go back to Romano's in the future if we
can't find a Carraba's.  I'm glad we took my in laws to Uncle Bubba's
tho, instead of Romano's so they could have local seafood. (G)

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly@earthlink.net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... You learn something useless every day.

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