Arkville Bread & Breakfast in Arkville, NY

Had breakfast at a restaurant called Arkville Bread & Breakfast while traveling through upstate New York. I was staying at a hotel in a neighboring town, and this place was recommended by the people working in the hotel. Arkville Bread & Breakfast was inside of a caboose with an extended building built around the train car.

I had a chorizo omelet, served with home fries and toast. Good breakfast.

There were some neighboring train tracks from a nearby scenic railroad, explaining the caboose theme of the restaurant.

 

UK Food #3: Train Food

Part Three of food from my trip to the United Kingdom. This post starts in London and ends somewhere in Scotland. I took a train to Edinburgh and there was food involved. My journey began at King's Cross Station.

While I was waiting for my train, I ate breakfast at a restaurant called Leon.

I had an egg pot consisting of a poached egg, smoked salmon, and sliced avocado. Small portion, but tasty.

I explored the train station for a while until it was time to board my train. It didn't look like the Hogwarts Express...

The UK has a somewhat complicated but simple train system. There are several different companies running their trains, but yet you buy your tickets from a centralized website. I ended up getting tickets with Virgin Trains. I guess they do more than airlines and spaceships. On board, they had a worker come through with a food trolley. In my head, this only happened on the Hogwarts Express. I'm glad there's reality behind food trolleys on British trains.

They were giving out samples of biscuits in the train station, so I didn't partake in the food trolley. Was basically a chocolate chip cookie.

After a wonderful train journey, I arrived in Edinburgh, explored the city (see the next post on the blog), and then it was time to take the train home. Without realizing it, I had accidently bought first class tickets for this trip. These first class tickets were cheaper than the coach tickets going to Edinburgh. I was good with my accidental upgrade.

My previous long distance train experience was on an Amtrak Acela between New York and Boston. They advertised that entire train as being first class, but that got you pretty much nothing. On Virgin, first class actually means something. There were attendants coming though constantly offering all sorts of foods. This started with a bag of crisps.

Cottage Pie with Root Vegetables came next. This was ground meat (beef or lamb?) topped with mashed potatoes cooked until crispy on top. The root vegetables included potatoes and beets.

Tea and biscuits.

Slice of cake.

The food was unexpected. Compared to the overpriced soggy frozen pizza I had when riding with Amtrak, the food here on this Virgin train was wonderful. I think I'd upgrade to first class again on a train in Britain. Overall, even without the food, I was really impressed with these trains. It was a quick, comfortable trip and the scenery outside the trains windows was beautiful. Whizzing past colorful farmland, cute little villages, and along cliffs on the edge of the North Sea made this my favorite train trip I've ever taken. The United States needs to learn a lot from trains like this...

Amtrak Acela Food

I was in New York and wanted to extend my travels a bit by going to Boston. I wanted to do this in a way I have never done long distance travel before: by train. When booking my train tickets through Amtrak, I saw that the Acela high speed rail was an option. It was expensive compared to the other choices, but I decided to go for it. I wanted to say I've rode the fastest train in the Americas!

I left from Penn Station in New York and traveled to Back Bay Station in Boston. While on the train, I explored a little bit. I made my way to the Cafe Car and bought myself some food. I had low expectations for train food, and my low expectations were met.

The pizza that I ordered was frozen and microwaved. I think it was a Digiorno brand pizza. The crust was a soggy mess, and the tiny size didn't make it worth the price. This is not a pizza I think I'll crave any time soon.

While waiting for my sad little pizza, I was talked to the employee working in the cafe. I was sad to find out that my high speed rail experience wasn't exactly high speed. The train had the capabilities of going 150 mph, but only reaches this speed for about ten minutes on the trip from New York to Boston. Average speed was about 50 mph. Apparently the Acela trains are much more high speed along the route between DC and NY. Regardless, I guess I can say I've been on high speed rail during that ten minutes. I still like the idea of traveling by train, but I don't think I'd spend the extra money for high speed rail again (especially when I found out there's a $30 bus between NY and Boston that makes the trip faster than the train)...

Croissant Gourmet in Winter Park, FL

SunRail has officially started service in Orlando as of this week. In order to try out the new train, I decided to ride to Winter Park to get some lunch. You can read all about my experience riding SunRail on a new blog that I started called FloridaTrainAdventures.com. After I got off the train, I walked over to a French restaurant called Croissant Gourmet.

Croissant Gourmet is a French bakery, serving all sorts of delicious looking croissants, pastries, crepes, and sandwiches.

I ordered a sandwich called the Croque Monsieur topped with an egg. I've heard this sandwich also described as a croque madame if egg is involved, but according to the menu this was a croque monsieur. The sandwich consisted of two slices of bread, ham, melted cheese, and a fried egg over the top. Once the yolk was broken, the runny egg was absorbed into the bread giving the sandwich an extra burst of flavor. A salad was served on the side.

I shared a cinnamon raisin roll for dessert. It had a nice, flaky, almost croissant-like texture that I enjoyed. The roll was topped with powdered sugar and was tasty.

I enjoyed my meal at Croissant Gourmet. The food was good, and although it wasn't the cheapest restaurant around, it was more affordable than a couple other similar French bakeries that I've visited. After my meal, I returned to the train station and rode home...

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Pie Car

I may be a food blogger, but I also have a big interest in the circus. I choose to fill my spare time with teaching myself circus arts. It started out with juggling, then moved on to unicycle, then stilt walking, then balloon art, and so on and so on. You can find circus props hidden throughout the background of several posts on this blog. Much of the travel food blogging that was written about has been done based around trips to circus festivals and conventions. Because of my rather obscure interests, you can bet I was excited when I received an invitation to visit the circus train for a tasting experience on the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Pie Car!

The Pie Car is the official name for where food is prepared and consumed on the circus train.

Once aboard, we got to see the kitchen where all the food is prepared. That's Matt Loory, the Pie Car Manager for Ringling's Blue Unit.

We had a seat in the dining area of the Pie Car and were told all sorts of fascinating facts about eating on a circus train. For example, did you know:

• The Pie Car on the train and the Pie Car Jr. (food truck), which serves meals at the arenas, prepares a combined total of 1,000-1,500 meals each week.
• On selected days, the Pie Car offers special dishes featuring favorite performer recipes representing the cuisines of their native countries.  Approximately 30 countries are represented on the Blue Unit. The Pie Car Manager strives to create dishes that cater to everyone’s tastes.
• Central Florida native Matt Loory is the Pie Car Manager for the Blue Unit. At age 23, he is one of the youngest PCM’s in Ringling Bros. history.
• How did the Pie Car get its name? There are three versions behind it:
• The old chow houses used to serve primarily meat pies due to their heartiness and low cost.
•  Old dining cars on trains used to just serve coffee and pie.
• The name comes from the car's original designation: the "Privileged Individuals and Employee" car... P-I-E Privileged Individuals were those who had paid the show for some sort of concession rights. For example, someone was granted the "popcorn privilege," or the "cotton candy privilege.”

Soon enough, it was time eat. Since the public can't dine on the Pie Car without running away to join the circus, these pictures will be the closest you'll get to sampling circus food. Circus employees are definitely served much better food than what's sold at the concession stands at the circus! The first dish that was sampled was called Huevos Loco-Motion. Eggs, chorizo, peppers, onions, pico di gallo, and cheese all over a tortilla.

Popcorn Shrimp with Chipotle Mayo came next. I really liked the batter on the shrimp. Apparently it is a secret recipe that does include corn starch, brown sugar, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and Old Bay seasoning.

Asian Meatloaf with Wasibi Mashed Potatoes & Chicken Caprese Roulade came next. Wasibi Mashed Potatoes were a very tasty combination that I had never tasted before!

For dessert, we had pineapple upside down cake and yogurt topped with orange slices.

After dessert, my meal on the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Pie Car came to an end. I can now say I've eaten on a circus train! Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Legends will be playing at the Amway Center in Orlando January 9-12, 2014. Be sure to go watch. I'm definitely going to see the show!