You may remember from our Road Trip Episode that Micaela and Elle recently traveled across the U.S. for an awesome Blunt Letters friendship adventure! And what does every adventure have? Food!
Here’s a breakdown of the most memorable road meals from Connecticut to California, some good, some fucking disgusting, and some so delicious we’ll think about it for years to come.
I love to eat seasonal foods, and since our trip started in mid-October that meant spiced desserts and hot drinks. We had a strong start to our trip with apple cider donuts, I’d been looking for them for a while in California with no luck! The leaves were red, orange, and glowed along both sides of the black highway as we blew through Connecticut, New York, and finally stopped for the night in Pennsylvania feasting on road snacks and Impossible Whoppers along the route.
Believe it or not, it was not until we got to Nebraska on the 3rd day of our trip that we had a delicious meal again. Although, there were some roadside falafels outside of St. Louis that deserve an honorable mention. In Nebraska, our hotel concierge recommended a sushi place, we were so excited that good sushi was the first suggestion that we hurried into the cold night to find it. When we got there all the waiters were wearing shorts! It was kind of weird since the outside temperature was MAYBE over 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Micaela had an awesome cocktail with peach juice and cucumber vodka, and the Nebraska roll was very tasty. I would definitely eat there again if I found myself in Lincoln.
The next day we drove over to Denver, Colorado. Micaela splurged on a suite with a hot tub in the room, we swung by a dispensary for some pre-rolls, and ate incredible Thai food! Their Pad Thai was delightfully spicy, and the spring rolls were hot, crispy, and filled with silky cabbage. Surprisingly, they had a fermented tea and peanut salad that was perfectly seasoned and so crunchy. We were very grateful to have two back-to-back good food days.
Unfortunately, our food luck ran out in Utah. We drove into some random town with a Mexican restaurant that drew us in with a sign that said they roast their own peppers for a house chili. If they did you wouldn’t know it since everything seemed like some slop that was scooped out of a can or scooped out of a preservative jar. Straight up, look at this photo and tell me what you think that is?
This is what they called “fajitas.”
Thankfully, that wasn’t the last road meal we would ride into California with. The next day, we drove to Winnemucca, NV visited two restaurants, and had the best two meals of the trip. This gem of a town has an incredible Mexican restaurant that is also a sushi restaurant. These folks know what they’re doing. Micaela ordered a fried fish and they brought out a whole fish, tail and all! I ordered agauachiles (shrimp cooked in lime juice with extra spicy salsa) and both were bomb. Micaela also had a lime cherry cocktail that she recreated when we made it to California. It was a great evening, one that elevated our mood after the trash meal from the day before and put our last night on the road back on track.
Some of our meals were so good, they make me think about visiting places like Lincoln, Nebraska to enjoy them again. But California truly has some of the best cuisine and ingredients on Earth, so it may be a while.
xo,
Elle Lectrick
The Blunt Letters Podcast 