Lone Star Barbecue & Mercantile in Santee, SC

Driving back towards Florida along I-95, I stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Lone Star Barbecue & Mercantile in Santee, SC. This place was located in a complex of several old wooden houses right outside of Santee State Park.

Lone Star offered both a menu to order from as well as a buffet. I decided to try their buffet.

My first plate of food samplings included pulled pork, collards, black eyed peas, macaroni & cheese, tomato pie, and corn fritters. Most of the food on the plate was tasty. The pork was nice and tender. The corn fritters were on the dry side. The tomato pie was an interesting food that I had never tried before. It was basically layers of bread and slice tomatoes, baked together in a creamy sauce. It was interesting, but not something I'd go out of my way to order.

Second plate included fried chicken, rice topped with some sort of pork stew, lima beans, cole slaw, and hush puppies. Chicken had good batter. The hush puppies were definitely better than the other corn fritters that I tried on my previous plate.

For dessert, I tried some blueberry cobbler, banana pudding, and chocolate pudding. The blueberry cobbler was definitely the best of the three.

I do enjoy trying these little independent places on my trips. Lone Star Barbecue was only about a mile off I-95 and was a far superior choice to stopping into a Subway in a truck stop for some travel food...

Kings Dominion Food in Doswell, VA

On my way home from a road trip up and down the east coast, I stopped and did a theme park day at Kings Dominion in Doswell, VA. It was a fun day with lots and lots of mediocre roller coasters and a few that I really enjoyed. Kings Dominion definitely wasn't up to Florida theme park standards, but it was still a good day. While there, I did sample some of Kings Dominion's theme park food...

Kings Dominion mostly had fast food chains for their dining offerings. I chose not to visit any of the chains and ate at a restaurant called Border Cafe.

This Mexican themed restaurant worked by everyone filling out papers with what they wanted by checking off boxes. I ordered a burrito with chicken, black beans, spicy cheddar, spicy corn salsa, lettuce, onions, jalapenos, black olives, and sour cream.

The burrito was served with a side of tortilla chips.

I can't say this was very good theme park food. I guess I'm spoiled by the food in the Orlando parks, but this was pretty bad. The tortilla wrapping up the burrito was very stale tasting. Not only that, it was dry and crunchy as opposed to the moist and soft that it should have been. The rice also had a similar problem, being crunchy as opposed to moist. As for the items that I checked off when ordering, salsa was completely missing from the burrito. For the cheese, the burrito was filled with cheese sauce, although I cheddar sauce wasn't checked.

Perhaps I would have been better off going to one of the chains in King's Dominion after my burrito at Border Cafe. Later in the day, it was time for a snack so I got dessert from another one of the park's non-chain restaurants called Jukebox Diner.

This place was themed like a 50's diner and served mostly burgers. I ordered a strawberry milkshake here. I was actually a bit impressed with the milkshakes here. A milkshake like this outside of a lower end theme park wouldn't be that impressive, but I was surprised given the location. They actually made these to order as opposed to using the somewhat pre-made milkshakes that I've seen elsewhere. The shake was filled with lots and lots of strawberries and was topped with a mountain of whipped cream.

Kings Dominion had some good roller coasters and I don't think anyone's going to that park for their food. It's definitely not Epcot...

Sombrero in Midtown Manhattan, NY

Late one evening while wandering around New York, I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Sombrero in Midtown Manhattan.

The meal started with some chips and salsa. Sombrero was a bit stingy with these. The basket of chips was pretty small for two people and there was no offer of refills.

I ordered the Enchilada De Mole. This consisted of braised garlic pork enchiladas topped with mole sauce and toasted sesame seeds. The two enchiladas were pretty tasty. The shredded pork stuffed inside the tortillas was nice and tender and had plenty of flavor. The mole sauce was slightly spicy and the squirted sour cream sauce zig-zagged over the enchiladas made for a nice presentation.

Rice and refried beans accompanied the enchiladas. Both were perfectly acceptable, but nothing to write home about.

I enjoyed my meal at Sombrero. It was sort of overpriced for what Mexican food normally goes for with my enchiladas costing $17. Then again, Sombrero was located only a few blocks away from Times Square so maybe they have the high prices for the tourists (and they apparently got the tourist money from us).

Coney Island Halal Truck in Brooklyn, NY

I was in Coney Island and passed by a Halal Truck parked along Stillwell Avenue under the subway station. We were looking for some food and the scents emanating from the truck smelled so good that this truck was the chosen food source for the night.

I choose the lamb with rice. This consisted of a mound of yellow rice topped with lots and lots of gyro meat. A salad was served on the side. Everything was then topped with white sauce and a little of their hot sauce. I did enjoy this meal (way better than Nathan's less than a block away in my opinion). The meat was flavored very nicely. The rice was cooked well, and the sauces were tasty. It also ended up being a huge portion of food for a very affordable price.

The Tuck Shop in Chelsea, NY

While in NY, I was looking for a late breakfast and ended up at the Chelsea Market. I had been here before and tried The Lobster Place. On this visit, I quickly forgot breakfast foods and decided to try an Australian meat pie from a place called The Tuck Shop.

I guess what I ordered was more Australian fusion. I had the Thai Curry Chicken pie. It was filled with chicken, kafir lime leaves, galangal, coconut milk, thai basil and chilis. The crust was nice and flaky, similar to a typical pot pie. The fillings were creamy and tasty, although the chilis were very intense. I normally have a high tolerance for spicy foods, but I was tearing up every time I bit into a piece of pepper. Interesting how I ordered something denoted as spicy at a Thai restaurant the night before and there was hardly any spice, but this Australian-Thai pie with no warning about the heat was one of the spiciest foods I've eaten in recent memory. I really have no clue if pot pies like this are really a prevalent food in Australia, but I'm assuming this is more Australian than Outback Steakhouse is Australian...

One More Thai in Manhattan, NY

I made my way up to New York. One of my meals in the city was Thai food in the Lower East Side at a restaurant called One More Thai.

I ordered the Drunken Noodles. This consisted of wide noodles mixed with chicken, egg peanuts, peppers, and basil. The noodles were tasty, although the spiciness noted on the menu was hardly present even with all the peppers. I'm not an expert on Thai food, but each time I've had drunken noodles seems to be very different. The only consistency between my experiences with this dish seems to be with the shape of the noodles. Interesting...

Menlo Park Diner in Menlo Park, NJ

During my travels along the east coast (which appear to be an extended adventure on this blog but actually happened during two trips which added up to just over a week), I had dinner one evening in New Jersey at the Menlo Park Diner. Menlo Park's big claim to fame was that they were once home to Thomas Edison's laboratory. I paid the site a visit, but unfortunately they were closed for renovations. That meant food was the big attraction here.

I ordered the spinach and feta omelet. This was served with homefries and toast. There was plenty of feta in here, making the omelet filled with lots of salty, cheesy goodness. The homefries were alright, although a bit bland. The rye toast came pre-buttered. Overall, pretty typical of a diner breakfast.

We dined here with someone named Jeffrey Wiernik. Jeff has ambitions of being a world famous food blogger. People normally aren't featured on this blog, but Mr. Wiernik asked to be published as he begins his food blogging adventure. He ate chocolate chip pancakes at the diner. This is what he thought of them: The pancakes were light & fluffy. There was an even amount of chocolate chips throughout each of the pancakes. Follow Jeff on Twitter at @JeffreyWiernik and read his blog (that has yet to contain any posts about food) for more insightful thoughts potentially about food.

Termini Bros in Philadelphia, PA

While wandering around Philadelphia, I stumbled across the Reading Terminal Market. I had heard of this market in the past, but completely forgot about it until it was in my sights and bells went off in my brain that I should go in.

 

Inside, Reading Terminal Market sort of reminded me of Chelsea Market in New York, only on a larger scale. They sold almost every type of food stuff imaginable in here, ranging from Pennsylvania Dutch made cheese to Middle Eastern foods to Italian pastries.

The whole market was swarming with people, some taking foods to go, although the majority seemed to be eating in the tables set up in the aisles between the various vendors.

I had already ate lunch at Tony Luke's earlier in the day, so I decided I would get some dessert in the market. I came across a place called Termini Bros that caught my attention.

They had giant butterfly cookies in their display case. I have some happy food memories from when I was a little kid associated with these cookies, so I decided that I would get myself one.

The cookie was huge, probably a foot long from wing tip to wing tip. It was made of a flaky dough with a sweet cinnamon filling between the layers. I totally overdid it, but I devoured the entire cookie in one sitting.

We also got a cannoli from Termini Bros. They were filling these behind the counter as ordered, so it definitely made it more interesting than just getting a pre-made dessert from the case. The filling had a very strong ricotta flavor which I enjoyed. To me, this is what cannoli filling should taste like. The person who I split the cannoli with disagreed and prefers the typical Florida Italian restaurant cannonli filling which tastes more like icing.

Tony Luke's in Philadelphia, PA

While in Philadelphia, I decided I had to eat what is perhaps the city's most well known food: The Philadelphia Cheesesteak. I googled cheesesteaks in the city and a restaurant called Tony Luke's came up on the upper portions of the lists of the best cheesesteaks in the city. The restaurant wasn't too far from where I was, so it was the lucky cheesesteak winner.

Tony Luke's was located in an industrial area. You ordered your food at a window and dined in their outdoor seating. There was a very varied crowd here, ranging from very obvious tourists like me, lots of airport workers, and construction workers.

While I was waiting for my sandwich, I headed over to their pepper bar and sampled a couple of these hot pickled peppers.

For my sandwich, I had a Philly Cheesesteak Hoagie. This consisted of steak, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. I wasn't really sure if I'd be able to tell the difference between a cheesesteak in Philadelphia compared to the sandwiches in Florida. Turns out the biggest difference I noticed was in the steak itself. Rather than the really finely sliced beef that I've had elsewhere, the steak from Tony Luke's was a bit thicker. I would estimate the slices were about double the thickness of standard cheesesteak meat. It also had a meatier flavor, so perhaps less seasoning/processing was used to prepare the steak. 

Overall, this was a tasty sandwich. I can also now say that I've eaten a Philly cheesesteak in Philadelphia. That makes me a self-proclaimed expert on this type of sandwich, right?

Tea-Do in Philadelphia, PA

I found myself spending the day exploring Philadelphia. While wandering around the city, I ended up in Chinatown. I honestly had no clue that Philadelphia had a Chinatown before I wandered into the neighborhood, but while there I decided to get something edible. This ended up being boba tea from a place called Tea-Do.

Tea-Do had food on the menu, but I decided to only get a drink here. I had a mango smoothie with boba and mango jelly floating around in the drink. The smoothie was good, cold, and very refreshing. I liked the mango jelly, but the typical tapioca ball boba like this always make me want to brush my teeth badly. It's something about their sticky consistency.

I did enjoy my smoothie from Tea-Do. They had a better selection of drinks available than many other boba tea places I've visited and offering food was nice as well.

Vaccaro's in Baltimore, MD

While in Baltimore, I decided to get some sort of dessert in Little Italy. I came across a bakery called Vaccaro's and decided to give them a try.

They had all sorts of pastries, cookies, cakes, and other desserts in here.

I had a chocolate and vanilla neapolitan. This flaky pastry was filled with alternating layers of vanilla and chocolate pudding.

I wasn't a fan of how it was served in the plastic clam shell container. The chocolate that topped the dessert stuck to the lid and sort of pulled the pastry apart when I went to open the container. This was tasty, although it was definitely more than I could eat in one serving.

I found out later that Vaccaro's was part of a larger chain. I came across a Vaccaro's in a strip mall in the suburbs of Baltimore and was also informed that there are a few of these in New York as well. I guess Vaccaro's wasn't the small, independent pastry shop in Little Italy that it initially appeared to be.