The Heartland

I'm back in the heartland this week. Well, actually, it's far from the heartland but I'm back in the US this week, so it's as close to the heartland as I'm going to be for a while. I was in Boston Monday, then flew up to Rochester, NY, and am now in the Steel City (Pittsburgh for those not "in the know"). Now I haven't been able to see many sites, but in my little time in each place, I've been able to at least get a decent meal. Some have come from personal recommendations and others have come from a little home-grown research on the good old World Wide Web.

I'm a firm believer in "When in Rome..." so I decided that of all the things I could eat in Boston, what else would be better than some lobster? And how better to eat it than on a roll? I tried one at Neptune in the North End neighborhood of Boston. For those SF readers out there, the area was very similar to North Beach, it's described as "Little Italy." For purists, this might not be the way to go because it's not paper plates and plastic forks, but they did have one served cold with a bit of mayo, I went for hot one with my favorite condiment...butter. Highly recommended if you ever find yourself in Boston. They also had a good selection of oysters too.

Moving on to Rochester, NY, my choices were really limited. However, on a recommendation from someone who travels to what should be re-named Eastman-Kodak, NY a lot, I tried 2 Vine. Let's just say it's not a culinary destination, but it was probably the best of the bunch and seemed popular with the locals.

I've been in Pittsburgh for a bit less than 12 hours now so little to report, but I am hoping to get to Primanti Brothers before I head out of town. The Great Depression Era restaurant serves up what many say is the best sandwich this side of the Monongahela, we'll see.

I'm back in London Thursday and then Rachel leaves on Friday for a wedding in NY, we're trying to squeeze in seeing each every now and again. Luckily, we have a week off to look forward to coming up, but we'll write about that later on...