Carnival of Dining Out - Inaugural Edition

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Carnival of Dining Out. Many blog carnivals take the midway theme, but I suppose this may be more of a "County Fair of Dining Out" as there will likely be more references to cotton candy, corn dogs, and fried Twinkies than ferris wheels and bearded ladies. I hope to have a companion map put together soon of all the places that are included in the Carnival (and will add future submissions in subsequent months). I am working on getting it together and it should be done soon. In the meantime, as they say, on with the show...

I literally had submissions from all over the world. Sometimes I forget that the Internets stretch out far past my own backyard. The first ever submission to the first ever Carnival of Dining Out, as a matter of fact, came from neighbor to the north, Mark Levison, who presents Cafe Chez Victor posted at Notes from a Tool User. Next time you are up in Quebec, check them out!

Keeping the international flavor going, a late submission wins the "distance from home base" award. Gillian Polack, from Melbourne, Australia sent us an update on the Melbourne Chinese Food scene posted at Food History. Gillian's current pick is "Tea and Rice." I am a big believer in eating local and regional cuisine. Based on this post, should I find myself in Melbourne, I would definitely consider hitting a few local Chinese restaurants.

I am smart enough to know that Alaska is not an international destination, but I can't think of a better way to transition back to the states than with this post from Michelle Mitchell: Favorite Places to Eat in Anchorage, Alaska posted at scribbit. Three posts - three places I would like to visit to check out the food scene!

We will make one more stop out west before heading back to the east coast (sorry - nothing this month in flyover country!). I have a friend who lived in Seattle for awhile, and one of the things he tells me is that he could never find a good slice of pizza in Seattle. Not so says Mary Jo! Savor the Taste of Authentic Neapolitan Pizza at Tutta Bella Pizzeria is posted at The Seattle Traveler. As a New Yorker (there is no such thing as a "former" New Yorker), folding Neopolitan pizza is the way to go. Maybe the next time my buddy "wanders" out to Seattle (ahem....baseball trip next year?), he will weigh on the merits Tutta Bella. Poor Seattlites have been without quality pizza for far too long.

The Hungover Gourmet tells us about his birthday jaunt to the famed White House Sub Shop in Atlantic City, NJ at The Hungover Gourmet. This guy knows a thing or two about cheesesteaks, Joan Jett, and chowing down with a good view of the water!

Heading down the eastern seaboard, Mary Jo tells us about some DC dining on Pentagon Row. Lebanese Taverna is the place, and it is posted at Flyaway Cafe. In the nation's capital, this is the place to get your shwarma on.

We also had some welcome posts from folks discussing the topic of dining out, rather than specific restaurants. We'll call this "Dining Out in the News" (you should be hearing my best Ted Baxter voice right now!).

Cub reporter, Praveen, tells us about an ongoing battle between Panera Bread and Qdoba Mexican Cafe. Fortunately, a Judge Says Burrito Is Not A Sandwich and immediately clears things up! Check out the rest of Praveen's blog at My Simple Trading System.

My favorite Boston Gal (who will always be Jane Dough to me!) reports on something that hits a little close to home for me: Eating Out is the Reason Americans Can't Save? Yikes. I know that I spend way too much on dining out, but I also save a goodly part of my pathetic income. Boston Gal's Open Wallet is one of my daily reads.

I am not a big wine guy, and one of those reasons may be that it just seems like the price of wine in restaurants is just too much for me. Will Chen presents Pop that corkage: Giant list of restaurants that allows you to BYO wine posted at Wisebread. Perhaps my wino buddies from ROGUEfood already know about these places, but if there is a way for me to save money on wine (see Boston Gal - I can tie almost anything to saving money!), I could definitely find myself imbibing a touch more often.

Lastly, I leave you with my own submission. I thought for awhile about which of my own posts I should choose and I finally settled on my first foodie post of 2007, which was really just a recap of The Best of 2006. I was fortunate enough to hit a few of this country's corners in my travels in 2006, and I think I compiled a pretty good "Best of..." Besides, this gives me 9 extra pins in the map (when it is completed!).

The Carnival of Dining Out II (Roman numberals are en vogue this week with the Super Bowl looming this Sunday) will be up on Thursday, March 1, 2007. Make sure that you submit your blog article to the next edition before 5 pm on Wednesday, February 28 using our handy dandy carnival submission form. Future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. I hope to see you back here next month. Tell a few of your blogging friends and maybe we can get a few more submissions for the next edition. Thanks!

Technorati tags:
carnival of dining out, blog carnival.

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Carnival of the Recipes

The latest edition of the Carnival of the Recipes is posted over at Booklore. This was my first ever carnival submission, and I plan to enter more during the 2007 calendar year. Go and check things out at the carnival. There are a number of good recipes for the chef in all of us.

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Airport "Roadfood"?

It may be that I have finally reached my travel limits this fall, but I am starting to see an increase in the quality of the stories - even the fluff pieces - in USA Today. This morning, the McPaper had a story on eating locally in airports, a subject near and dear to my heart.

Travel Globally, but Eat Locally, Between Flights

They list the Salt Lick BBQ in the Austin airport as their choice for that airport. I will add that, purely from an eating standpoint, if I were to ever WANT to be stranded in an airport, Austin is the place that I would want to be stranded. Not only do they have the Salt Lick, but they also have Matt's El Rancho, a popular, local Tex-Mex joint; Amy's Ice Creams, which I will soon feature in their own thread; and a location to pick up my beloved Round Rock Donuts.

On top of all the eating, the Austin airport is relatively small, the rental cars are on-site, and it is located in one area of Austin that is not heavily congested right now. That all adds up to make Austin my current favorite airport in the country.

My preference is still not to eat in airports, except under the most unusual circumstances, but if you are trapped or making a connection, some of the places listed in the article may save you from another run of McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts or Chili's Too!

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Where'd Y'Eat?

I started a thread with the same title at my favorite foodie discussion board. It highlights the vast collection of food porn I have collected over the past few weeks. In most cases, I think my photography has gotten exponentially better since I first started taking photos of my food about a year ago.

A friend recently showed me a book that may inspire an idea for myself. Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth is a wonderful "read." Actually, I don't know of anyone who has read it. Most people just look up what the guy ate on their birthday, or holidays and such. I think I can start a blog (keep the giggles to yourself) about the daily food intake for 2007. Of course, my thinking is that I will be appalled at the sheer volume of food that makes it into my trap, and will subsequently eat less. For instance, I would hate to post a week straight (there's that cackling noise again...cut it out!) and have the series contain not a single vegetable. That has been known to happen in my real life, so this may hold me more accountable to what I eat....maybe?

Anyway, I am still just bouncing the idea around. If you have any feedback, or if you found out that someone else is doing this already and has the idea copyrighted and will sue me for 10s of dollars, throw it in the comments section!

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Trip Log, Day 2; St. Louis (continued)

Note: This is one of a series. You can find the complete series index here.

We decided to grab a late afternoon meal (only in Florida would a meal this time of day be considered dinner) before heading out to the ballpark to limit the intake of lips and snouts. Our first choice was Connelly's Goody Goody Diner, but they were closed by the time we arrived. Before we spent our entire time trying to figure out what would be the best substitute, we quickly decided on using some serious "foodie nose" to get the job done. Sometimes, you just have a feel -- with no guide book or anything.

Located right in front of the Bel-Nor City Hall, we found The Breakaway Cafe (8418 Natural Bridge Road). Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this place, but you can trust me, the food was tasty. Breakaway Cafe serves a number of pasta dishes and other varieties of comfort food. This was my first experience trying toasted ravioli, and they did not disappoint. I don't know how much better they could have been at the more well-known Italian institutions on "The Hill," but these served this novice pretty well -- a crusty exterior, and a well-seasoned filling, all dipped in homemade marinara. Appetizers were generally under $6 and entrees could be had in the neighborhood of $10.

For us, one of the most important reasons for choosing The Breakaway Cafe was the proximity to the MetroLink station at University of Missouri-St. Louis. Taking the MetroLink downtown the ballpark was very inexpensive ($1.75/each way), but very crowded. I have taken the subway to Shea and the El to Wrigley, so I know crowds, but this was pretty crowded (the reverse trip was even worse!).

We arrived early at Busch. There were three of us, and we only had two tickets. Needing one, we set out around the stadium trying to find a scalper with singles. Funniest thing, though -- there were hardly any scalpers. I knew that the games were sold out -- St. Louis fans are rabid for baseball, and they finally have a new stadium to enjoy. Still, the freakin' Rockies were in town, not the Cubs. As we dragged past the box office, I stopped to see if they still had an standing room tickets -- they told us THOSE were sold out, too! The clerk told me that they did have some single tickets, but that was all. Single tickets? Why, we NEED a single ticket...what have you got? $34 later, I was on my way into the stadium.

There are a couple of quirky things about this ballpark. For one thing, there doesn't seem to be much of a "front." Supposedly, this is the front of stadium, with the statue of Stan Musial moved, by crane, over from the old ballpark. People have a convenient place to "meet at Stan," but it surely appears that one of the corners would have made a better front of the stadium. The area is still under a lot of reconstruction, so maybe as time passes, and more peripheral businesses develop, it will become more evident that this is, in fact, the front.

In the past, I have had decent $34 seats, and I had some really bad $34 seats (Dodger Stadium comes to mind). These were not good $34 seats. They were located in the outfield, in the second deck, all the way in fair territory in left field. They called it Big Mac Land, named after the juiced (errr...allegedly juiced) slugger, and sponsored by the place that serves crappy hamburgers. My understanding is that if someone hits a home run up there, everyone in those seats gets a crappy hamburger named after said juiced slugger. My guess is that second prize is TWO hamburgers named after said juiced slugger, but that may just be the cynic in me. These seats were a kind of limited view seat -- nothing too pretty for that kind of money. I didn't even take a picture from my seats...they were THAT bad.

My buddies 2/$11 deal ended up netting them standing room access. Anyone with any kind of sports acumen knows, though, so long as the ushers are not overly vigilant, after a few innings, you can scout out where there are available seats, and plant yourself until someone asks you to move. By the fourth inning, we were sitting in seats about 12 rows up off the field right behind the visitor's dugout. My opinion of the stadium changed immediately with the better seats. The key to this place is definitely the view -- and these seats had THE view. The photo is the standard panoramic behind home plate shot, but you can see what we saw -- beyond the left field fence, is a great view of downtown St. Louis. The Arch is visible from almost every seat in the stadium -- a big plus, because the Arch gives you a unique view from almost every different angle.

Overall, though, I didn't find the major's newest stadium all that remarkable. There are a ton of ads EVERYWHERE. Seating sections, as mentioned above, are sponsored, as are the scoreboard, outfield walls, and just about any place else they could plaster a placard. I know that all stadiums have advertising, but some have more obnoxious advertising than others - and this stuff is pretty obnoxious. One of my favorite things about the "old" Busch stadium was the unique way the retired jersey numbers were memorialized. Here, they are just plastered on the outfield wall....boring. I may want to revisit this park in a few years, but for now, this place would probably end up somewhere in the middle of the pack, in terms of favorite stadiums. One serious plus for the stadium is the enthusiasm of the St. Louis fans. They did have this in the old ballpark, too, though...so, it only goes so far. There is a nice Cardinals history done on the outside promenade in brick. If so many of the Cardinals highlights hadn't come against the Mets, I might have enjoyed that a little more.

Cards won big...and we can check this new stadium off the list! Day 2 complete.

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