Will Fly for Food Part Deux - Midwest & South Edition

The deep dish pizza from Edwardo's in Chicago.

Last week I thought I would write a little post on all the unique places in cities around the country where I used to like to eat in my prior life as a Flight Attendant.  As I started writing and adding pictures, the post grew longer and longer, and I grew hungrier and hungrier.  I finally decided to divide the posts geographically into three parts, and today would be post number two, focusing on several good food cities I love in the South and Midwest.

The other thing that occurred after my post last week is that my wife read it, got really hungry, and requested that I try and reproduce the famous sandwiches from Primanti's.  Mon Dieu!  It had never even occurred to me to try and make a Primanti's sandwich at home.  How can you improve on perfection?  Would you visit the Louvre and ask your spouse to copy the Mona Lisa?

But seeing as how we won't be making a trip to Pittsburgh in the near future, and that my lovely wife is very sweet, I gave it a try.  How did it go?  Uh, I'd give it about a 7 on a scale of 1-10.  Not too bad - edible - for a first time out.  I think it's worth trying once more with a few tweaks to see if I can get it up to an 8 or 9.

Frequent Traveler Survival Rule #1:
  

     Don't sleep in a restaurant and don't eat in a hotel.

There are some cities that offer great food but when I was flying there food wasn't my first thought.  Chicago is not one of those places.  Anytime I saw a long overnight in "ORD" - the three letter code for Chicago's O'Hare airport - on a trip sheet, my mouth would immediately start salivating, and I would start daydreaming about Chicago's justly famous deep dish pizza.

My apologies, New Yorkers, and I realize I'm about to alienate several of my East Coast pisans, but this Californian will take Chicago's deep dish pizza ANY DAY OF THE WEEK over New York's thin crust pizza.  Sorry.  Maybe it's because my father was from Oak Park (a western suburb of Chicago), and it's in my blood, but I just have to call 'em as I see 'em.  Chicago pizza rules.

Some of my urban overnights in my flying days were spent in less than desirable hotels in less than desirable neighborhoods, or nice hotels in the middle of suburbia.  Not in Chicago.  We stayed in a great, little boutique hotel just north of Division street, right in the middle of the action.  Just a block from the El (Chicago's subway), I could walk out the door and be at Wrigley Field in 10 minutes.

But the real draw for me was Edwardo's "Natural" Pizza, a small, friendly local chain that had a location just at the end of the block from our hotel.  I think they would stay open until 11 p.m., so on a night when I was arriving late I could usually call in my order on the van ride in from the airport (you know you're a flight attendant if you have the take-out numbers of three or more pizza places around the country in your cell phone) and pick it up just before they closed.  When you're flying all day, there's nothing worse than getting in late, tired and hungry, and unable to find anything to eat.  That was never a problem in Chicago.

Each time I ordered another pizza from Edwardo's, I would tell myself that I should just get a small - that would be more than enough - but then I soon convinced myself that I could buy a medium, eat half that night, and save the other half to eat on the plane for lunch the next day.  I always ordered a medium pie and never had anything left over to eat the next day.  I would wind up laying on the bed in my hotel, stuffed and bloated, like my dog after discovering a box of chocolate under the Christmas tree.  But it was worth it.

In Mi Tierra's
Huevos Rancheros
We took some Polaroids
Right at the table

     - Lyle Lovett's San Antonio Girl

Frequent Traveler Survival Rule #2:

ALWAYS eat at a restaurant Lyle Lovett has mentioned in a song.

There was a point in the mid-90's where I had a long overnight at least once a  month in  San Antonio.  We stayed in a nice, modern hotel right along the Riverwalk.  San Antonio was one of those "secret" overnights at US Airways.  I think it only occurred on one trip a day, and even that was on the Boeing 737 -  a plane many flight attendants didn't like to fly (because of the poorly constructed trips, not the aircraft itself).  And as someone from California, San Antonio was one of those cities that flew under the radar.  It was very Texan.  But I loved walking along the Riverwalk, watching the crowds and looking for good food.

The dining room at Mi Tierra's in San Antonio, Texas: open 24 hours a day.

One of the landmark Mexican restaurants in San Antonio is called Mi Tierra's, and Lyle Lovett mentions it one of his songs, San Antonio Girl.  If there's a restaurant in Texas that Lyle mentions in a song, that's good enough for me.  It's actually a few blocks away from the Riverwalk, in the older section of town, but it was always open 24 hours a day and a great option if you arrived late at night still hungry.  You couldn't beat eating their huevos rancheros after a long day of flying - or for breakfast the next morning.

And I'm sorry Pee-Wee, but there really isn't a basement at the Alamo.

There was another "hidden gem" overnight - also serviced by the Boeing 737 - located in the South that was always on my radar when I was looking through the trip sheets:  Charleston, South Carolina.

We didn't stay in the city of Charleston on overnights, but our hotel provided us with a courtesy van to and from the city.  Charleston is one of those beautiful, old towns that just has Southern Charm written all over it.  I loved walking around the old part of town, admiring all the Colonial era buildings.

The side of the renowned Hominy Grill in Charleston, South Carolina.

I just happened upon the Hominy Grill on my first walk around Charleston.  If you want reasonably priced, authentic, Southern "Lowcountry" cooking in a casual setting, then the Hominy Grill is the place.  It wasn't until after I had eaten there several times that I realized it was an obligatory stop for any food or travel TV show that came through Charleston.  Lots of  delicious Southern vegetables.  Don't leave without trying the cornbread.

Frequent Traveler Survival Rule #3:

Unless you grew up in the South, skip the "sweet" tea.

As a Californian, I should stop here for a moment and mention a classic beverage that Southerners have, in my mind, completely screwed up:  Iced Tea.  Simple, refreshing, the perfect beverage companion on a hot, muggy Southern day.  But Southerners have decided to put their own twist on Iced Tea: it's called "sweet" tea.  It's usually so sweet - I believe that the recipe calls for one cup of sugar for every cup of tea - that's to this palate it's completely undrinkable.  So go light on the "sweet" tea if you're a Yankee traveling in the South.

Unfortunately, I never had a long overnight in the food and music capital of the South: New Orleans (I did vacation there with my wife).  We didn't have many long MSY overnights when I was flying, and we stayed in a dumpy hotel out near the airport, anyway,  But I did have numerous New Orleans "turns."

A "turn" in the airline world is when you work a flight into an airport and immediately fly back out again - usually only sitting on the ground for 45 - 60 mins.  There was a place in the New Orleans airport - no, it wasn't Cafe du Monde - that sold beignets.  Each time we did a New Orleans "turn," the crew would recruit a volunteer - usually the junior person on the crew - to run off the plane as soon as a we arrived to buy the whole crew some beignets.  A great little treat for having to work those busy flights filled with cranky conventioneers in and out of the Big Easy.

My wife is from Louisiana, although she's not from the New Orleans area, and if I buy Cafe du Monde beignet mix - they sell it at most Cost Plus World Markets - she's kind enough to make me beignets on Sunday mornings.  It's not Jackson Square, but it's close.

Thank you for joining me again on our food tour across America.  I will try and wrap things up with my favorite foods from my travels out West next week.  In the meantime, if you're future plans once again call for blog reading, we do hope you'll come back and catch our smile.