Four Foods on Friday: Vacation Edition
Our host Val is vacationing this week in Upstate New York. She left us with some food for thought on the topic of travel in Four Foods on Friday 41.
#1. If you could travel anywhere to have a meal, where would you want to go and what would you want to eat.
Oahu, Hawaii. I want an authentic plate lunch (make mine two scoops macaroni salad, one rice, please), then some Manapua, the shave ice over a scoop of ice cream for dessert (If you think it's the same as "snow cone", you've never had one).
#2. When you go away do you make your own meals or eat out?
Call me my mother's daughter, but I don't think it's much of a vacation when someone is doing housework.
#3. While traveling if you have to stop for a meal do you go in or do you go through the drive thru and eat in the car?
As a rule, I would eat in. You know you have to go to the bathroom and stretch anyway. The exception to this was when we traveled with the cats in 2005 during our move. We couldn't leave them in a hot car, so we drove thru, then put them back in the carrier so we could eat.
#4. Share a recipe or food related trip for people making a long trip by car.
I'm cheap, so my first recommendation is to pack drinks for the road. A 20 oz soda at a gas station is usually $1.39 and not much less for bottled water. Talk about a rip off. A cooler would be ideal, bur freezing or partial freezing the bottles will save some space.
One hard thing to get on the road is good-for-you foods. How about making some trail mix with home made Granola? There is also a recipe for granola bars from my favorite Food TV guru Alton Brown (now that I'm thinking about AB, I'm going to see if any of his books are available for a deal on Amazon books). I've tried the bars and they are excellent. For both, I recommend adding chocolate chips.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm definitely with you about the price of drinks and taking your own. I'll have to try the home made granola.
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I've not tried the granola, but we have made the bars. They were awesome. In the Good Eats episode, they also make nutritionally fortified rice crispy treats and homemade power bars. Alton Brown is my foodie hero.
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Manapua, huh? Never heard of it. Maybe I oughta look up a recipe and give it a go. As far as granola is concerned I'd have those bars gobbled down before we left the door. I have to make myself -not- buy granola bars.
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If you can order "Dim Sum" in a Chinese restaurant, you basically have Manapua. However, I've never had anything on the main land that compairs to the Hawaiian version. Worth the air fair.
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The price of water just kills me. We have started taking our own in the car.
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I'd always drank tap water, but around here there are too many minerals for my taste. I stick with Wal-Mart's cheap 20 oz bottles bought by the case. At work, I watch people get water and soda out of the vending machines every day. It's so dumb not to pack for what you know you need.
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Another place you can find manapua on the mainland is if you go to an Asian grocery store. It can be disguised under its Chinese name "BAO." It'll usually tell you what fillings are inside. If I could find them in my hometown in Ohio, I'll bet you can find them where you live!
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I'll have to find a place in St Louis. We haven't even got a nice grocery store down here, just Wal-Mart and a dirty yucky place that does more check cashing then grocery sales, let along an Asian market.
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I've never thought about making my own granola bars. Interesting.
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One problem with store bought snacks is all those ingredients that sound more at home in a chemistry lab than a kitchen. Homemade solves that problem. I don't always practice what I preach on that, but I try to do a little bit better when I can.
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Hee! You'll have lunch with me when you make it back to Oahu, right? What's your favorite plate lunch? Mine is chicken katsu, follwed closely by kalbi ribs!
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You'll be the first to know as the proud owner of airline tickets to Hawaii.
I love Katsu. My absolute favorite plate lunch was at a little drive-in in Waimanalo called Frankie's. I used to get the Beef Stew. Yum.
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Thanks for the link to the recipe for granola, gonna have to try that, must have missed that episode of his. Soda at gas stations down here is $1.50 so y'all are coming off pretty good in that department.
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I hope you post pictures of your granola on your blog. I've got Alton on the DVR. I'll watch reruns again and again. I love the campy humor and the creative use of hardware.
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Thanks for playing FFOF while I was away!
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Welcome. I hope your trip was fun and relaxing.
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