No, I don't mean anything else, I was indeed stuffed. Yesterday's meals were satisfying, delicious and filling! Oh my!
After a nice breakfast that was provided by the hotel in Nashville (Nothing special, eggs, dried out and over-greasy sausage, diced potatoes with very little seasoning, etc) we headed out.
I must tell you, the scenery was indeed gorgeous, and our surroundings would change so rapidly that I would look up from the map book and instead of farmland in Kentucky with scores of rye growing in the breeze (how they got that rye to grow in the air like that, I'll never know) I'd suddenly see towering pine trees or some other tree that I could not identify. Growing up in Southern California, where very little is native to the area - I used to joke that even our weather was imported - certainly handicapped me in the tree-naming scenario I found myself in during this trip. And as we plunged northward on our trip, I grew ever more fascinated with every bend, every turn, and every hill.
Another thing that fascinated me, aside from the scenery, was the sheer amount of interesting areas to visit. Between Tennessee and Kentucky there are literally scores of underground caves and caverns to visit, we came across at least a dozen. We passed a real roadside attraction called Dinosaur World, a place that claimed to have several life-sized recreation of dinosaurs. And of course, in Indiana every hundred miles or so I'd press my nose against the window of the car to see that most famous series of attractions in that state: A mall. Well at least in Indiana they advertised it as an upcoming attraction on those blue highway signs.
We stopped for lunch in Indiana at a location that had been featured in Food Network's Diner's Drive-ins and Dives called simply The Tamale Place. Folks, let me tell you, the last thing I expected to find in the Heartland of America were traditional Mexican tamales. This is the real deal. By the time we got there at one o'clock, they had very few tamales left from their lunchtime batch, and completely devoid of their sweet tamales which we had so longed for. But, with stomachs growling, we opted for 4 very plump tamales: Chicken Verde, Chicken Rojo, Beef Rojo, and the traditional Pork Rojo. We both agreed that the Chicken Verde, a well cooked shredded chicken in a mild green chile sauce was the best of the three foreign ones we got. The Chicken Rojo (same chicken but in a mild red chile sauce) and the Beef Rojo were not as good. Don't get me wrong they were still very good, but not as good as the Chicken Verde. But the real star of the show was the traditional pork tamale that I grew up on, and my own mother taught my wife how to make. Those were every bit as good as I remember growing up with, and I had to constantly remind myself that I was not in the Southwest somewhere. I was in a very nondescript strip shopping center just outside of Downtown Indianapolis. Go figure.
After that wonderful meal we got back on the road, and headed to our final destination for the next few days: Chicago. After enduring what seemed like endless delays on I-64, and then dealing with rush hour traffic that started at 4 o'clock in Chicago (really, what the hell was that about Chi-town?) we arrived at our hotel in Chicago. The next two days are going to be whirlwinds, so we thought we'd enjoy one real sit down meal. Directly cat-cornered from us is a small family pizza chain that made it out to us in Las Vegas called Rosati's, so I was really looking forward to reminiscing my tastebuds there. But alas, as typical of Chicago-area neighborhoods, this location was only a takeout place. I forget that this happens a lot in this city. So we ended up at Gulliver's which was literally right next door to the hotel. This restaurant did not disappoint. We got the Chicago-style thin crust loaded with sausage and pepperoni, with a tomato sauce you can really taste, and spiced up nicely. The crust was not as cracker-crispy as I would have wanted, but serviceable anyway as a vehicle for the other options. It. Was. Bliss. A perfect way to end our traveling, and begin our stay in Chicago for the wedding on Saturday. I will try and write a bit more over the next few days, but no promises.
If you're interested in any of the locations we visited for meals, we found them featured (as will be the other road location in Cincinnati) on many Food Network shows. But in the interest of saving you time I am including links to all of these places at then end of this blog.
Day 1: The Varsity for awesome hotdogs, burgers, and the best onion rings in the land, and Jack's BBQ - Nashville - home of some of the best barbecue I have yet to taste.
Day 2: The Tamale Place - amazingly, some of the best tamales outside of the Southwest and Mexico, and gulliverspizza.com where we at very typical, and very yummy Chicago-style pizza.
Talk to you all soon!
J.C.
