Rules of the Road

I’ve had the opportunity to travel fairly extensively over the past 25+ years. At one point I was typically out of town 3-4 nights per week, while now it’s usually only a day or two. While travel can be a burden, I’ve always appreciated the opportunity to explore new places and of course, take advantage of new food experiences, including restaurants and local markets.

I am clearly in the minority here, here, however, and this puzzles me.

Most travelers just don’t eat well while traveling. They don’t seem to care, or can’t be bothered. Perhaps it’s a time to plan issue, so I’m hoping that this blog will be of value.

I have a few simple rules that I follow when traveling.

1. No chains. I will not eat at a chain food restaurant.

While some of them serve edible fare (e.g. Chipotle), eating what is typically mediocre, usually unhealthy food when I’m away from home is not enjoyable. While chain food restaurants have extended from fast food places like McDonalds and Pizza Hut into more upscale restaurants like the Bonefish Grill and Cheesecake Factory, you almost always find that once a restaurant becomes a chain, all the uniqueness and excitement is lost in trying to cater to the most common denominator. And of course, being a chef at one of these restaurants is unlikely to be the long-term career path for the most innovative, and highest quality cooks.

2. I try to identify what food is special in that location or nearby (15 minutes maximum driving).

Most towns or areas have something they are known for. Perhaps they’re near the ocean… fish sounds good. Or they have a good-sized concentration of Italians in a local community (e.g. Little Italy in western Cleveland), or a special type of BBQ they are known for (e.g. Carolina vinegar based BBQ). Think you get the picture. Of course some places are more of a challenge, including towns like Raleigh NC and Naperville IL that seem to be the “test kitchen” for new chain formats, but even if those locations you can find great food, and there’s some fun in the finding.

3. I pre-research at least 2 food options per each day in town.

This seems like a great deal of work, but by leveraging the sites recommended on this blog (e.g. chowhound, zagat, roadfood, etc.), and looking for specific town sites or googling “best food in xxx” your analysis should be completed within no more than 15 minutes.

In that time, given the easy availability of information on the internet, you can also typically review the menu, and print out a map with directions. (Note: this typically required a much larger time investment in the old days, it’s almost too easy now!)

My “2 per day” rule is simply to be able to offer up a couple of options to those joining for the meal, in order to address their dining preferences and restrictions.

Of course, over time this planning gets much easier, and I can now draw on my institutional food knowledge bank, subject to the all too more frequent memory meltdowns (luckily, the internet helps with these too!)

As an example, I’m going to Raritan NJ at the beginning of next week. Having grown up in NJ, I know a bit about the state. To be honest, I’m not sure that NJ has a specific food focus… I mean good tomatoes, it’s a “dairy” state, there are ethnic populations around Newark (Spanish, Indian, etc.), you are near the beach depending on how far east you are…

To be honest, in terms of special area foods, I’m not sure there’s a real winner here. But, with a bit of research, I’ve identified a couple of very good alternatives for a Raritan night: Shumi sushi restaurant http://www.shumirestaurant.com/, and a thai restaurant Origin http://www.originthai.com/index-s.htm. Both are well recommended and their menu’s look quite good. I’ll report back what we find.

I hope that these Rules of the Road are of value to you, and enable you to take more advantage of your time traveling.

Look forward to your feedback and ideas, and we’ll share those on this blog!