Sunday, April 24, 2011

Road Food #1: Toronto to Key West via the Sun Coast of Florida

Pigs Feet in a jar in North Carolina gas station: didn't try but others obviously had
Note: why are these so very pink?



Same North Carolina gas station: Deep Fried Peanuts-Salt and Vinegar
Bought these. Lots of cute teeny tiny peanuts.
Verdict? Woody when you eat them shell and all. After awhile you get used to it and they are not bad. You can feel good about the fibre you're getting. Tried to just eat the shell alone. Verdict? Too woody and hard to swallow. Don't try it.

Breakfast at a Pennsylvania Cracker Barrel. Had no idea Cracker Barrels were restaurants. Loved the perfect yolks in the perfect holes. Sausages were fantastic. All are agreed that Pennsylvanians make &/or serve great sausages.


McDonald's in North Carolina has $1 sweet tea. Also called Mickey D's on the sign which was odd to me as well. I remember that my idea of "ice tea" now has to be qualified by sweet or unsweet and I am not guaranteed it will be lemony at all.


Breakfast offering at same McD's: chicken biscuit. I try it. Have no idea what it is.

Here it is: a breaded fried chicken piece on a biscuit.
BTW the chicken is one real piece of boneless chicken too not "pre-formed".

No topping on the biscuit or the chicken. Just chicken & biscuit: simple like the wrapper said.
Verdict? It was okay but hard to believe it was breakfast food.

American Diner on Sun Coast of Florida: navy bean soup and Greek lemon chicken soup. Also available: Manhattan clam chowder.
We stopped here for lunch. The sign said cheap. We got the "California Burger" which was different from the "Deluxe Hamburger" because it had... cheese. The waitress offered that it should be called a "cheeseburger" and certainly not a "California burger". An even better name, she said, was a "Florida burger". Cheese does not equal Florida to me. Something citrus-y perhaps...not cheese-y... but hey, I'm not from there.
The burgers came with soup and fries. A surprising variety of soup to my mind. Navy bean soup was good as was the Greek lemon chicken. Around $5.99 I think.

Verdict? Great price. Good soup. Burger was good, bun was meh, fries nothing special.
Very fast service.


It's been so long since I went on holiday that I forgot about the weird road food aspect of a long road trip. The first gas stop across the border at around 11pm had me looking for a snack and these two bars were chosen. I can't get these in Canada.

Verdict? I liked the Milky Way best. Reminded me of a Malted Milk,
if you know what that is.



Chocolate-dipped Key Lime Pie on a stick.

The sign at the side of the road completely sucked us in. Price? $6.47. Expensive. But have I seen another one of these yet? Nope. And right now, as I write this, I am in Key West, home to all things key lime. In fact, I had promised myself NO KEY LIME until Key West but I don't regret breaking my own rule for this.


It really was a piece of key lime pie, frozen, dipped in chocolate, pushed onto a stick. It does need to be frozen and coated to maintain its structural integrity while on the popsicle stick. The graham cracker crust was a bit much for me though. It certainly doesn't need it except to be a REAL piece of key lime pie on a stick.

Verdict? Pricey but worth it.