Mini Blog Series "City Girl Goes East: Road Trip"

DAY 7        Knoxville to Washington D.C.

We coasted into our last La Quinta late in the evening in Tennessee and were eager to find something for dinner. An ominous-looking abandoned wooden hotel straight out of the old west was directly across from the entrance to our modern chain motel. The Old faced The New and each seemed to tip their hats respectfully to the other. It's always interesting to see the different ways a City, big or small, reveals it's character to to its visitors. 

While at first oblivious to our location, we soon learned that we were only about 2 miles up the road from Pigeon Forge, a Smokey Mountains tourist spot known for being nothing less than the starry entrance to the famed Dollywood theme park. Upon discussing dinner recommendations with our concierge who suggested a steak house attached to a Bass Pro shop we decided to take our chances and drive around Pigeon Forge exploring some other local options. In addition to Dollywood, the area is home to other entertainment attractions that include a dinosaur exhibit, a water park, and an upside-down house theme park called Wonderworks. We came across what seemed like a popular spot called the Longhorn Steakhouse. Later we found out that it's a chain restaurant that you don't start seeing until you hit Texas. Ha...well, nonetheless, our server told us they make most everything in house and on their website it reads: "The West of loyalty, hospitality, and of course, real good food." It's nice at least, that it is the restaurant's intention to make Real Food and create a hospitable experience for the diner reminiscent of the American Old West.

Starting off the next morning knowing that this was the last leg of our long journey made it seem...less long. It was that magical moment of the road trip experience where you stare so long at the road it soothes you into a neutral space where you forget about the day-to-day stresses and begin to notice subtle things that might otherwise get lost in the chaos: a beautiful red farmhouse in the middle of an emerald field trimmed with white picket fencing, a picturesque white chapel, and what seemed like an endless corridor of colorful autumn trees. All the time in the car had been relaxing and reconnected us to each other and our changing surroundings.

For the first time in twelve years we pulled into the driveway of my in-law's house in our own car.  We were really here. Ahead of us lies a trip to St. John in the Virgin Islands, Olio Nuovo season, a new food city to explore, and time for us to settle into our new place with a big set of windows to look upon the city lights of a new home.  While this concludes our mini blog series, the adventure is only beginning.

photo courtesy of Mike Miley - Flickr

Mini Blog Series "City Girl Goes East: Road Trip"

DAY 5

Kansas to Memphis

 

DAY 6 

Memphis to Knoxville

We drove from Kansas to Memphis yesterday, passing through Oklahoma, and had dinner at Corky's, a BBQ restaurant our friend Jay from Mississippi recommended.  The next day we woke up early and made our way to Graceland, Elvis' former home, national landmark and final resting place.  After the tour we hopped back in the car and set off to Knoxville, Tennessee to complete the second to last leg of our journey.

Memphis was a joyful experience.  The entire city seemed to vibrate with the Rockabilly spirit of their famous former resident, the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, and it was evident in their food.  Corky's has been around since 1985 and has built a small empire out of their passion for pure smoky, saucy, tender goodness.  Throughout our entire meal the server was so happy she would intermittently sing out loud to herself and with some of the other waitstaff who seemed equally excited to be there serving Corky's famous BBQ love.  I ordered the bbq pulled pork with a side of twice-baked potato salad and coleslaw and Brian ordered the bbq brisket with baked beans and coleslaw.  It was a party on a plate.  Our server so enthusiastically asked if I wanted a banana pudding it didn't occur to me to say "no" despite the fact I had eaten a respectable fraction of a pig and sides to boot.

The next morning we arrived at Graceland for the tour of Elvis' mansion, cars and TWO airplanes.  One of the planes was so big they had to cut off the wings when they rolled it into town.  One thing is for sure, Elvis lived.  After spending about two hours in the guy's space it became clear it wasn't just his music that made him famous or his impeccable fashion choices.  It was his ability to connect with his audience and his magnetic energy that brought millions to their knees.  He broke every record for attendance and record sales because people just wanted to experience Elvis, a man who was true to himself and made his passion for living a lifestyle.  He ate, sang, dressed and loved passionately and anyone who encountered him could experience it then too.  All you have to do is take a look at his kitchen (yes these are pictures of his actual kitchen) and the other rooms built to entertain to know that he wanted to share his joy with everyone and dedicated his life to it.  So with a Rockabilly rhythm in our step and a new-found appreciation for green shag and rhinestones we set off to Knoxville, Tennessee.

We sped along in our car humming to the Killers as the evening moonlight poured over bare fall trees in Nashville.  It's a city that evokes an emotional response with flirty modern high rises amidst wooden watertowers and craftsmen architecture.  There was definitely music in the air.  It reminded me why I love being a city girl and how exciting it is to begin an affair with a new city; to eventually marry its spirit to yours and collect the experience, creating a unique perspective that hopefully in the end helps you to understand the world just a little more.

Mini Blog Series "City Girl Goes East: Road Trip"

DAY 4


Caldwell Kansas

We spent last night and today visiting my aunt, uncle, grandma and cousin in Caldwell Kansas, a small town right over the Oklahoma border. It is a rural farming town with only one stoplight and that honors it's past, while enjoying a peaceful way of life connected to the land.

Before my aunt took me on a tour of the town I chatted with my uncle about some local topics like the recently booming armadillo and fox population that didn't even exist this far north until 10 or so years ago. He attributes their migration to changing climates. I also learned that the primary crop here is wheat and more recently some cotton. He knew precisely what the price of wheat was today and precisely what global factors were affecting it's monetary value on a day to day basis. Try asking a City Girl for that information off-hand.

I got to pull fresh cotton off its stem today and the closest thing I can attribute the texture to is cotton candy. It is very dense and soft and has seeds embedded in it and when you pull it off you're left with a pretty star.
Instead of food pics today I have cooking tools. In order to understand the present here, you must get to know its history. Caldwell is a place about which the stories of Wild West were told.

WAFFLE IRON

MEAT GRINDER

APPLE PEELER

When driving down main street we decided to stop for a cup of coffee in the only place that was open, a vintage knick-knack shop selling everything from milk glass serve ware and old tin lunch boxes to cast iron skillets and bassinetts. If you didn't go all the way in you would've never noticed the back parlor where there was a kitchenette and large table around which sat the proprietor and a couple of farmers who stopped in to commune, drink coffee, and find out the local news. Coffee was .25 cents a cup and it was free refills. She had cookies out and Halloween candy. 
Almost like being in a different time, the three farmers, the proprietor and we sat around discussing the towns upcoming events and the latest gossip. There was a local newspaper whose front page announced the coming of Santa Claus and an elementry school choir event. The inside of the paper has an entire page dedicated to previous blurbs from the towns newspaper from 10 to 100 years ago. Everybody knows everybody in this town and whether it's good or bad news, people care what's happening to you. The role of food here seems to convey the same message: no matter what, you'll know its from somebody who cares about you whether they know you or not.

Mini Blog Series "City Girl Goes East: Road Trip"

DAY 3

Albuquerque to Caldwell Kansas

Texas is an interesting place. 

Af After traveling through the Southwest past tumbleweeds and semis we stopped for lunch in Amarillo, Texas before heading into Oklahoma and Kansas. First we made a quick stop to view an art installation we'd heard about called "Cadillac Ranch" in the middle of a muddy field.   Built by some hippies from San Francisco, it felt like a little slice of home: all upside down, covered in graffiti and windy as hell.

Texans may allow cheeky hippy artwork in their pastures but they take their barbeque very seriously.

After some sleuthing I found a place called Dyer's Bar-B-Que and I ordered the a platter that came with one slice each of beef brisket, ribs, and a slab of pork served with potato salad, cole slaw, fried onion rings, texas toast and an apricot puree to finish it off.  Before our meal arrived they brought out an old Corona bottle with warmed house-made BBQ sauce.  After chatting with a friendly host, she told me that the restaurant had been run by four generations of Dyer's in the last 42 years and that the grandson was the one actually cooking for us today.  Everything was made from scratch.  It may not have been healthy but it was Real Food and it was good.

We enjoyed our meal, cleaned our hands in the Texas-shaped sink basin and headed out to see my family in Caldwell Kansas.  It was a long 12 hours in the car...until tomorrow night gentle readers.

Buona notte.

 

Mini Blog Series "City Girl Goes East: Road Trip"

DAY 2

Las Vegas to Albuquerque

A long morning in Vegas quickly turned into an afternoon searching for a duffel bag to help organize the car, and a tank top for me.  After pawing through a crowded Ross on the strip and bouncing off the elbows of tourists fighting each other for glimpses of an unusually rotund Michael Jackson impersonator, Brian made $100 on penny slots and we decided to say goodbye to Las Vegas.

Nevada has a certain classic American flair that can be seen in the vintage road signs and of course on the menu. We stopped at a road-side diner for lunch in Boulder City and I figured I would start off my road food fest with a classic cheeseburger and fries.

For dinner we stopped in Flagstaff, Arizona at the Cracker Barrel. I had never been.  I couldn't believe the array of vintage candy, random knick-knacks and even audiobooks that you could rent and return at another Cracker Barrel down the road.  The menu was thoroughly classic Southern cooking.

I ordered the chicken fried chicken which is a chicken filet that has been pounded flat like a steak and fried. It came with fried okra, cornbread, biscuits and these dandelion greens flecked with bacon.  The greens were delicious and served with a very interesting condiment that I had not seen before, Tabasco peppers in vinegar.

With full bellies and an itch to get back on the road we headed out toward Albuquerque, New Mexico to rest up for our long 12-hour journey the next day through Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Mini Blog Series: "City Girl Goes East: Road Trip"

DAY 1

San Francisco to Las Vegas.

We arrived in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay around 7:00pm after stopping at the Calico ghost town, reminiscent of times (and meals) gone by.  The town was mostly a tourist trap but gave us some pause before heading into the bright lights of Vegas.  We are eager to get back to our sweet and fuzzy cat Lulu, who made her voyage three weeks ago by plane, but it was still weird to leave our empty apartment and San Francisco knowing that we wouldn't be coming back.  Fortunately, the thought of seeing her pink nose again and the excitement of the adventure ahead gave us the momentum we needed to enjoy ourselves and take in the changing landscape as we drove further and further away from the place we called home for 11 years.

Dinner tonight was a typical Vegas buffet full of many things but mostly king crab legs...and maybe too much shrimp.  I've always liked buffets.  It's a secret pleasure.  Even as a kid for my birthday I would always choose a buffet.  It was the idea that I could have one bite of everything on the menu.  I felt like a royal who has an elaborate (if not bland and mushy) array of possibilities before her. 

It is not unlike the road that lies before us, a future full of potential and a new chapter for us to fill with as many new experiences as we desire....and maybe a little mushy too.

Farewell San Francisco: I leave you my heart.

I hope everyone will forgive the brief hiatus as there have been some changes brewing.

First: I regret to report the loss of my dear sweet nonna, Elsie Maria Cunial Lupo.  Although it was her time, her influence on me remains poignant and the unconditional love she showed her children and her grandchildren will not be forgotten.

Second: I am saying goodbye to San Francisco and moving on to the next City, Washington DC.

San Francisco is a city with which I, and I am sure countless other residents, have a personal relationship.  Every hidden alley, brick, streetcar, food stand, creaky wood floor and sunset at Crissy Field is alive with her spirit and inspires all of us to some degree.  As your Pumas glide along concrete and cobble stone through century-old architecture the whirr of a pasting Muni running on it's electric cables marries a colorful past with a progressive future.  And it haunts you indefinitely.  No one ever forgets the way San Francisco makes them feel.  And if you stay here long enough, you will willingly surrender your heart and leave it here for safekeeping.

Some of us paint or write or sing about it.  Some of us cook.  

San Francisco has a spirit that urges and encourages you to explore who you are, what your limits will be, and what you stand for.  This is all too apparent in the local culinary scene.  

In this city you generally cannot tell what type of food a restaurant serves by it's name.  Instead of "Tomato Basil Cafe" or "Noodles n' Strudels"

you'll find names that reflect the values of the owner or chef.  For instance take, Lafitte, a restaurant named after a pirate. You have to taste Chef Jackson's bacon flight and experience his glowing dining room overlooking the water and watch him try new recipes every night in an open kitchen to find out that the food you're eating is part rock n'roll, part fairytale, and all luscious poetry on a plate.  In San Francisco you go to a restaurant to experience how a chef interprets the world around them and for a couple of hours steep in their perspective.  You can reject it or embrace it but in the end it will always teach you something.  Here people don't want to only feed their stomachs, they want to take a journey whether they're eating out casually, formally, irreverently or preparing something at home.  We have masala chai and dim sum for breakfast, phở for lunch, Napoletana pizza and grilled sardines for dinner and maybe top off the evening with some Fernet and a tobacco souffle.  One thing is for sure, after walking around this city you will be hungry.  

One of my most satisfying pastimes has been to walk to the golden gate bridge and Crissy Field in the evening.  Just when the fog starts to roll in I would head to the nearest boulangerie to pick up a baguette, grab some fresh-caught seafood and white wine at the market and start home to prepare my favorite San Francisco dish, cioppino.  There were few things more comforting than sitting at the dining table in our rounded Victorian windows listening to the foghorns, dipping crusty bread into a warm seafood stew and sipping a crisp white.  Whether you're in San Francisco or somewhere else, cooking and eating can be a manifestation of your values - and whether you know it or not, it probably is.

 

Tomorrow morning I will have one last rendezvous before I make my trek across the great interior. Stay tuned for the mini-blog series "City Girl Goes East: Road Trip."  Feel a part of the adventure as you follow City Girl through cities great and small.  Look for daily updates, cool pics and of course the frothy witticisms that keep you coming back for more!

In the meantime, here is my cioppino recipe, I'll see you on the other side....of the country.

 

CIOPPINO RECIPE 

Ingredients: 

1 4-oz. filet halibut, skin removed 

1 4-oz. filet of salmon, skin removed 

1/4 lb medium shrimp, uncooked/peeled/deveined 

1/2 lb live mussels 

2 12-oz. cans San Marzano tomatoes 

1 8-oz. bottle clam juice 

1-2 cups white wine 

1 cup chopped onion 

1 carrot, chopped 

2 tbsp chopped garlic 

2 tbsp dried fennel 

1 tbsp Italian Seasoning 

salt & pepper to taste 

chopped flat-leaf parsley 

extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:

Cut halibut and salmon into 1-inch pieces and season with salt and pepper.  Coat bottom of saucepan with olive oil and heat over medium flame.  Add halibut, salmon, and shrimp to pan, being careful not to overcrowd pan.  Sear until browned but not cooked through.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Empty tomatoes into a mixing bowl, crush by hand and set aside. 

Drizzle more olive oil in pan and add onion, carrot, garlic, fennel, Italian Seasoning and sauté until onions are translucent.  Turn up heat and add wine.  Reduce to 1/3 cup then add tomatoes and clam juice.  Return halibut, salmon and shrimp to pan and add mussels.  Cover and let simmer until all mussels have opened, discarding any that do not.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with parsley