Travels in Chicago –

 Did

 you think I was done highlighting some of the wonderful food mom/dad tried when they were visiting Illinois last November?  Of course not – snorts with piggy laughter.  How could

any visit be complete to the Chicago area without trying some of their famous Chicago deep dish pizza?  And of course, there was only one place they had to go for that –

Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria

First up, Aunt Tina said they had the best calamari.  So everyone ordered the Calamari Fritti which was lightly breaded and fried to perfection.  They serve this delectable appetizer with a side of cocktail sauce.  Of course, Aunt Tina made sure to spritz lemon all over these yum-yum’s before everyone dug into them.

And then everyone dug into some salad.  See even Aunt Tina made daddy eat some vegetables – mom was so proud.  Of course mom told daddy he had to eat the salad because the pizza takes time to cook.  That’s right.  Deep dish pizza takes longer to cook than the regular pizzas you might order from your fast food place.

 Then after a while, mom/dad/Aunt Tina said they heard angels singing and their individual pizzas were delivered.  Instead of getting one huge pizza, they all got individual ones with side salads.  These pizzas had sausage and black olives – and lots of sauce.

What did mom/dad think about this Chicago style deep dish pizza?  Dad is a huge pizza person.  He said that he ‘thinks’ he liked it but he would have to try one again to be sure.  That sounds like dad, huh?  But in the end, he said he would give it about an eight.

Mom said it was okay.  Mom is not a fan of a lot of sauce on her pizzas and of course this one is fully loaded with sauce.  And the crust is thick and a there is a lot of it surrounding the pizza.  Mom said the crust was kind of hard too.  There was lots of flavor but this pizza left mom on the it was okay side.  So for these reasons, mom gave it about a four.

But overall, everyone had a fantastic time at a famous landmark.  Would they go back again – of course they would!  There is more to the menu than just pizza.  And if you know anything about my mom/dad, they are professional eaters – snorts with piggy laughter.

 

Travels in the South

Welcome back friends to another edition of Travels in the South.  We have been talking about our visit with our great friends Bill and Jean from Canadian Cats.  If you have missed the previous editions, please check them out here:  Red Lobster; Fogo de Chao; Stately Oaks; Spa Day. World of Coca-Cola Part I, World of Coca-Cola Part II. World of Coca-Cola Part III

After all of that touring of the World of Coca-Cola, the humans all got hungry and needed a sit down break of nourishment.  They decided to go to a local restaurant that is very popular here in the south.  Mom plugged in the destination in her GPS and they started off down the street.  That’s when something funny happened.  They passed the same church like three times.  Finally Jean and Bill were like, “Have we been here before?”  Of course everyone started laughing when the GPS would go “recalculating”.  That’s my mom – always making her own destination.

After a while and with letting the GPS tell mommy where to go and mommy listening, they finally made it to their destination for lunch – The Varsity.  You are immediately greeted with so many people and the “What’ll You Have? What’ll You Have?” from the cashiers taking orders.

The Varsity has been running for over 88 years and is a local landmark here in the South.  On this day, there was nothing major going on in town.  Days that there are football or basketball games or school functions, imagine this picture three or four times as busy.  Not only can you go in to dine but The Varsity downtown also has the world’s largest drive in with car hops.  What a blast from the past huh?

The Varsity offers a variety of different food – from hot dogs to hamburgers to grilled pimento cheese sandwiches to awesome onion rings to french fries.  In fact, it is a published fact on their website that they go through two miles of hot dogs, a ton of onions, 2500 pounds of potatoes, 5000 fried pies and 300 gallons of chili that are made from scratch daily.

For more information on the Varsity – see here.  I know all of the humans had a blast at the restaurant this date eating to their hearts delight.  And of course every meal is finished with dessert, right?  Everyone had hot peach fried pies topped with turtle ice cream.  I’m licking my lips just thinking about it.  So I gotta end this posting today with “What’ll You Have?  What’ll You Have?”