Seeing as it’s already been a week since the blogoski
Alimentoski made its debut I felt it was time to post my first official blog
entry. Generally I like to do my
traveling in the spring/summer and balance it out with a substantial amount of
hibernating in the fall/winter. I have spent the past few
months visiting a number of cities in the US (primarily on the east coast) in
search of the best eats. To counteract
all of the eating and to give myself some time to digest I have made sure to
mix in a substantial amount of sightseeing of either historically relevant or
uniquely interesting places. I hope to
present both sides of the experience so you not only get a feel for the
culinary scene but the social vibe and history of the cities as well.
I’ll begin with the first voyage I made this year which was
to Buffalo, NY in early June. What precipitated this trip was a special
promotion JetBlue ran over the spring where unique codes were emailed to
customers that were good for $25-$500 off a flight. My code ended up being worth $50 and after
some tinkering around with different cities and dates I was able to book a
round trip ticket to Buffalo
for just $59. While Buffalo
is one of the last places many would think to go for vacation (it claimed the
top spot in a recent list of “America’s Ten Dead Cities”) I feel that all cities have something to offer and welcome
the challenge of having to discover what those offerings are.
Yes, Buffalo
is a shell of its former self but many remnants of its past glory still
remain. It’s one of only two cities (Chicago being the other)
that has works by what many consider the trinity of American architecture
(Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, and H.H. Richardson). Luxurious mansions still exist on
Millionaires’ Row on historic Delaware
Avenue (Buffalo
once boasted the largest population of millionaires per capita). Besides the rich history its most notable
claim to fame in my opinion is its being the birthplace of the almighty Buffalo wing. Coming from a city that doesn’t bring much to
the table in terms of wing offerings I felt this alone would make the trip worthwhile.
I boarded the early morning flight and had some innocent
chit-chat with a middle aged woman named Barbara from the South Shore
before takeoff. Now usually I try to
keep to myself and listen to music or read on flights but apparently I was
feeling extra friendly that morning because we kept chatting after take-off. Slowly I was starting to hate myself for not
being in anti-social-book-reading mode before she sat next to me but eventually
that gave way to my genuinely enjoying getting to know her. She told me a good bit of her life story and having
grown up in Buffalo
provided me with a short list of places to visit and foods to eat. She informed me that her sister would be
picking her up at the airport before heading to a wedding in Pennsylvania and offered to drop me off in downtown
along the way. Not being one to deny
another person’s courtesy I said yes even though I would have been able to pick
up the express bus into town a few moments after landing.
After hanging out in the cold and numerous phone calls her
sister finally arrived to give us a lift.
She informed us that they weren’t ready to go to the wedding and would
have to stop by her place to pick up some goods they would be bringing down
with them. After agreeing that it’d be
fine to stop by we made our way into the suburbs of Buffalo.
Never did I imagine I’d start this trip loading random groceries into
the back of a minivan or taking pictures of antique furniture but sure enough
that’s what happened.
Once the car was loaded up we stopped at a local farmers’
market to buy flowers to bring down to the wedding. There I was able to see my
first architectural landmark in Buffalo, the
Williamsville Water Mills, which dating back to 1811 was the oldest continuously
operating business in Erie County.
After paying for the lovely arrangement we made our way into
the city. The sisters were in the mood
for wings before leaving town but unfortunately the Anchor Bar (birthplace of
the Buffalo
wing) was not open yet. They then
suggested we go to Parkside Candy, an authentic, old-time ice cream parlor that
they frequented as kids. Remembering
that ice cream is indeed the breakfast of champions I excitedly agreed.
The storefront didn’t look all that
impressive but once inside it was as if one had stepped back in time. The shop is a circular room with beautiful
architectural details such as intricate scrollwork on the ceiling and ornate
moldings all along the walls. Old wooden
tables and chairs were scattered throughout the shop while vintage posters and
cute/cheesy sayings on wooden blocks decorated the walls and shelves.
After taking a seat at the booth I settled on
one of their specials which was a whoopie pie sundae. The sundae was served in a fancy metal bowl
on a doily which I thought was a nice touch.
It was so delicious that I couldn't help myself and scarfed it down furiously. The
best part was that it cost just $5! I
immediately thought of how a similar experience in a replicated environment
(Franklin Fountain in Philadelphia)
would cost $10 - to get the authentic experience for half the cost was a steal.
After “breakfast” we had to have dessert so I decided to sample one of the foods Barbara told me I had try during my visit and that is sponge
candy. Sponge candy is chocolate covered honeycomb toffee (think of a Cadbury Crunchie bar but in smaller
pieces). It’s sold in an assortment of
chocolate flavors such as milk, dark, and orange chocolate. I decided to go with the orange chocolate
since it sounded unique and was pleasantly surprised by the combination of flavor. The orange worked really well with the
honeycomb and the texture was distinct from that of a Crunchie bar in that it was a bit
more airy but still retained its
crunchiness.
When we were done I snapped a few more pictures, grabbed a bag of
sponge candy to bring back home and we were on our way to our next stop –
Anchor Bar (which will be the next blog entry).
One cool thing I did find out later on during my trip is that Parkside Candy
made an appearance in the movie The Natural along with many other Buffalo locations (serving as Chicago locations). I recently purchased the movie on Blu-ray and
am looking forward to recognizing all of the Buffalo
landmarks.
