I’M IN SAN FRANCISCO. I rounded out a 4-month experiment in
adulthood here last year, and my body and brain have been craving its hills,
vistas, and good eats. You know that gaze people who are really in love give
one another? The one you can’t describe but that you just know is IT when you see someone lay it on their lucky love on the
train?
According to my boyfriend**,
I’ve perfected that gaze…it burns in the direction of San Francisco when I
inevitably gush about it. About once every few days.
And now I’m knee deep in this
reunion and far too infatuated to articulate anything readable about my time in
the Bay just yet, so let’s give it another day.
In the meantime, I’m leaving you
with a post about E.A.T.T.ing in transit yesterday and my quest to EAT ALL THE DUMPLINGS.
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| Batman and dumplings. Swoooooon. |
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E.A.T.T. On the Roads:
3 Meals and a Workout for $26
Or, alternatively: “How To Not Feel Gross When Eating On the Road”
E.A.T.T. On the Roads chronicles my successes and failures at cooking
and eating on a budget around the United States and, provided I stay diligent
about “Lower food budget today, refundanble tickets to Chiang Mai tomorrow!”
this section will feature some global E.A.T.T.ing.
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Humanity rubs itself raw in airports. Especially at LGA, the
evil stepsister of what I consider a much more transit-friendly JFK airport.
Every time I make LGA my hub for some $25 price differential, I usually regret
it.
Meteorologists suddenly spot severe weather conditions.
Everyone is hangry past security, where the only food options are Dunkin Donuts
and plastic-wrapped “Italian” (read: mostly bread) sandwiches. This endemic
hanger drives people to further erode all social appropriateness. They huddle
around the electronics charging hubs refusing to make eye contact. They cut off
unsuspecting travelers in wheelchairs when their zone is called, as if stepping
in the aircraft before everyone else and hiding below an overhead bin wins
them a prize.
I’m so lucky to be able to fly though, and I feel myself
falling into the grass-is-greener trap right now as I end a long and full
day of layovers and time in the air. Flying, specifically flying frequently,
has granted me this opportunity to reclaim San Francisco, E.A.T.T. in the Bay
Area, and run in the Oakland RunningFestival. Cashing in on my miles restricted me airlines-wise, hence the
cavernous NINE hours between my landing in LGA and departure out West.
But despite the average nasty experience at LGA, my
longest-ever layover today ended up being a blast! I’m hammering this post out
en route to California, but my previous LGA-Denver leg found me chatting for 2
hours with a really effusive man who knows way more about food than I do. He’s
a salesman, a successful one apparently, so he’s eaten at some of the nicest
restaurants around the world on his business trips. But even with the disparity
in our budgets, we agreed on some common mistakes we as travelers make when it
comes to long days on the road.
In the self-examining spirit of E.A.T.T., I explore some of these
mistakes below and ways to overcome them for minimal discomfort and maximum
yumminess in transit! Interspersed are some images and anecdotes from my
loooooong day in transit.
Mistake #1: Wasting
vacation money on airport and/or rest stop food.
Solution: Brown bag
it. I’ve challenged myself to stay under $40/day, including lodging, ground transportation, and 3 meals,
during this trip, but am willing to let saved dollars one day “roll over.” I
definitely didn’t want to sabotage the budget before even getting to SF, but
here’s the tricky thing: I am always so
much hungrier in transit. I don’t know what it is…maybe wanting to eat out
of anxiety or boredom, maybe passing one too many fast food stands on the way
to my gate…before you know it, I’m holding a Cinnabon and seriously
contemplating Panda Express. And Panda Express has never not given me
horrifying heartburn.
Yesterday, I cleared a little extra space in my carry-on for
bagels, bananas, peanut butter, and honey. I made three of every runner’s favorite sandwich (sans nutella this time,
ran out of space) over the course of the day. Transit hunger is so real.
I also pack at least 5 bags of my favorite oatmeal: Nature’s
Path Flax Plus. This stuff is so dense, filling, and versatile. I’ve added
chocolate chips, trail mix and chia seeds (above), and savory spices for
another sort of meal. The secret is to ask a coffee counter for a cup of their
hottest water, the kind they use for tea, and make your oatmeal directly in the
cup.
Mistake #2: Wasting
money on bad-tasting and bad-for-you food.
Sometimes you just really don’t have space or time to pack
food. Or you did and ate it all, like I did.
Solution: PLAN AHEAD.
If you’re flying into a new place/region or have a long layover (3+ hours),
consider making good food your intermediate destination. I faced a monster layover
in Queens on account of my forced loyalty to Frontier Airlines, but thanks to
the new Q70 bus route,
I was thick in the middle of NYC subway lines within 15 minutes, and for $2.50!
You don’t have to be an actual Yelp addict like me to take
advantage of its crowdsourced wisdom. Just use the app to find any kind of food
near your “Current Location,” and look for any place that has the single $ and
4+ star rating. The app will
conveniently tell you how close you are to those popular options, and
integrates seamlessly with iOS map applications so your little blue dot (that’s
you) finds its way.
Yesterday, I was on a quest.
This 2-week vacation might as well be called Dumpling Quest, or DQ for
short. I’m determined to try at least 10 of the different types of
dumplings on thislist.
Word, Robyn. I too have eaten SO MANY DUMPLINGS, but have
shown favoritism towards the Chinese variety. The demographics of Queens and
San Francisco yield a ton of interesting cross-sections and sociological
questions, but I won’t bore you with my long rants about displacement,
segregation, and cultural diffusion.
Instead, let’s talk about dumplings, and how I ate 8 divine,
spicy-beef-filled ones at Phayul, the most an-actual-hole-in-the-wall
of all the hole-in-the-walls I’ve eaten at. I had bookmarked Phayul weeks ago
when planning eats for my layover. Tough choice though, since Queens is a
wonderland of ethnic lunch options. I went with Phayul for the cost and
proximity to the bus stop, in case my meal ran long and I needed to book it
back to LGA.
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| Momos are Tibetan/Nepali dumplings with thick rice-based skins and savory, often spicy, filling. The skins are chewier than those on their Chinese counterparts. |
I forgot to take a picture of the entrance to this tiny
place, which was literally a passageway (the width of my hiking pack, thank
goodness) up a dank staircase. Someone else on Yelp documented the interesting
mix of business occupying this unit in Jackson Heights.
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| Had I more time and money, I would've indulged at the Himalayan Salon. What makes a salon Himalayan? Mystery. |
The tables and chairs for patrons compete for space with the
kitchen, where these two adorable cooks were kneading dough, concocting
mind-blowing spice combinations, and tenderizing meat.
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| Don't you just want to hug them both?? |
And since I was trying to stick to my budget, I opted for
just trying the momos (only $5!!)
but immediately regretted that decision when I saw what the couple next to
me—okay, practically pressed against me—ordered.
 |
| So. jealous. |
Jealousy doesn’t leave my system easily, so I’m just going to
have to track down these dishes in the Bay Area and report back on their names
and prep methods before making plans to recreate them for you J. After my delicious stop at Phayul, I wandered
around Jackson Heights and Woodside for a few hours, reveling in the scents and
foreign scripts, and wondering why I felt most at home in the New York City
neighborhoods where spoken English is the exception. Oh, and I picked up some taro buns at an Asian bakery, but I ate those
so fast I didn’t get a picture.
If you don’t have quite enough time to leave and re-enter
security during your layover, google your airport. FlyerTalk and other popular
forums are populated with foodies determined to get in a good meal at the
airport. Some airports are even known for their food. Denver had a Wolfgang
Puck! I’m SO looking forward to getting to the San Francisco airport early and
picking out some locally farmed cheeses at Cowgirl Creamery to take back to
friends as souvenirs. SFO is pretty unbeatable when it comes to non-chain,
destination-worthy options.
Mistake #3: Asking
for adventure before its time.
Don’t order that really exotic thing if you don’t know how
your body will react to it. My stomach can handle most things, except anything described as “creamy.” That
Asian lactose intolerance. I wanted so
badly to get the Tibetan butter tea
yesterday, after reading a lot of Yelp reviews raving about its unique, salty,
but satisfying and filling properties. Fearing gastrointestinal distress on the
flight, I resisted. My stomach has never protested an onslaught of dumplings
though. Healthy prognosis for the remainder of Dumpling Quest.
Solution: Again,
brown bag it. Or go conservative now so you can go big later.
I AM getting butter tea in SF. There are a lot of cheap and
highly rated Nepali options in the East Bay, and doesn’t butter and salt in hot
water just sound like an ideal race recovery drink? Okay, that or beer at one
of the famous Oakland breweries. We’ll see.
Mistake #4: Not doing
something “routine” and re-energizing.
I’m a creature of habit. Hanger + an entire day of
non-routine things=disaster.
Solution: Fit it in.
Feel ready to go once you’ve finally reached your destination.
For some of you, this might mean saving the latest episode
of a TV show for the trip, so you can watch it during a spell of fatigue or
crankiness en route. Others might find it helpful to pre-load some news or
longform articles on their laptops to read in flight. It’s remarkable how alien
a few hours without WiFi can feel in our too-connected world.
For me, I knew I wouldn’t have time before leaving Ohio and
after arriving in California to do my training run. So I called ahead to 3 gyms
in Queens and compared their drop-in rates. Two didn’t offer them for non-local
residents, so Phyzique (much less
exciting than it sounds, standard cardio and weight machines) it was! $12 is a small price to pay
for my sanity and staying on track for my race in Oakland next weekend.
8 miles and lots of sweat later, I was re-energized and
ready to brave LGA security. Getting out some excess energy also allowed me to
sleep on the 4 hour flight to Denver, which ensured adequate energy levels
today and arguably granted me another half-day of San Francisco adventures.
Numbers for the day:
Bus to/from LGA into
Queens: 2 x $2.50
Lunch at Phayul;
$6.00
Gym day pass: $12.00
Taro buns: $1.50
Cup of coffee in
Denver as I hit my EST-time bedtime: $1.50
Total: $26.00
Thanks for reading!
Happy bellies,
-C
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How do you stay sane
and well-fed in transit?
How many types of
dumplings have you tried? What is your favorite kind?
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Thanks for reading!!