Atlanta, Georgia



Welcome to the Peach state!




First stop, The Vortex, near little 5 points.
Definitely decorated uniquely.




PB and J "Elvis" Burger with fried plantains (left).
Bacon, swiss, mushroom burger (right).
We felt the PB should have been warmed up a little
to make it more runny, plantains were awesome and different... 
Favored the mushroom burger.

A cool bar in Little 5-points, great place to people watch!

There are many bars with great beer selections,

some are even harder to find beers from breweries all over the US.

Next breakfast stop was at the Silver Skillet,
just a short (cooooold) walk from our hotel.

Inside the diner... very old-fashioned,
looked like they hadn't modified it since the first opening.
I liked the "home-y" atmosphere.

mmm mmm the ham hocks and grits breakfast, with biscuits and red eye gravy!!

Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles

The fried green tomatos were actually very tasty,
not too greasy, kinda felt like you were eating something
a little bit healthy.

Chicken, waffles, macaroni, corn bread, grits,
collard greens, and black eyed peas... why not?

We walked many miles (about 2 hours across town?)
to Mary Mac's to try their well-known cinnamon rolls.

Yumm! $5, good for the plane ride home too.

Made our way out to the MLK area to Busy Bee Cafe for some real soul food!
(I personally would not go there alone, ha!)

I had the Ox tail, and looooved it,
as well as brocolli cheese casserole and buttered okra.

love, love the sweet tea!
It really does go well with soul food..

We were lucky enough to have Cindy and Ernesto to join on us on many
excursions and also to take us on the 30 minute drive out to
Kennesaw, Georgia to Big Pie in the Sky.

Largest Pizza I've ever seen and attempted to eat.
This pizza was featured on Man V. Food
for the "Carnivore Challenge".



We did a pretty good job. 
I maaaay or may not have eaten the most... ceprese style was my favorite!



Flip Burger Boutique.
Burger with the special "airated" cheese



Yep, this is a beef tar tar burger topped with soft boiled egg.




Shakes:  pistachio + white truffle, krispy kreme, nutella + burnt marshmellow





The houses in Atlanta had so much character.



Chicago, Illinois

Welcome to Chicago! 
Walking on air....103 floors high.
(on the skydeck at Willis Tower)

A view from one side of the tower.
If you stand at a certain side of the tower you can actually see 4 states at once:
Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin!

Chicago Meat Lover's Deep Dish Pizza from Geno's East.

There was writing in EVERY square inch of the restaurant walls.
We left our signature. 
It was funny to see some couples' names 
crossed out and then seeing one of the same names 
written right next to it with a new significant other...

The Bean in Millenium Park. 
It may not be food, but it was pretty awesome.

I thought this guy was selling food or something,
or maybe drinks on a hot day,
but he was actually performing a little puppet show
from the box window.

A group of 106 headless and armless iron sculptures 
at the south end of Grant Park.

Beef dip from Al's Italian Beef. 
We ordered it "Sweet and Spicy, Double Dipped" style which has:
the beef, sweet pepper and hot pepper (giardiniera),
and then it is dipped not once, but twice in the au jus. 
We ate this at least twice on our trip...
I wanted to have it every day.

San Diego: Mr. A's, roof top dinner for our 2 year anniversary

Pork loin wrapped in bacon And bone marrow.
The bone marrow was actually pretty good..

Slider burgers and my favorite Gruyere mac n' cheese

Sliders, mini pickles, and garlic fries

The view...get to watch planes land.

I ordered Paella, my favorite dish at Mr. A's.

New York, New York



Grimaldi's Pizza in Brooklyn. 
One of the rivalry pizza places in New York.
I got to meet the owner, Grimaldi, himself.
The line was fairly long, stretched a while down the side walk,
but worth the wait!



The atmostphere was cool, like you're eating at someone's home,
only bad part was that the tables were really close together
you could barely squeeze in. 



Sausage and Mushroom pizza.  Super good.





French Toast from Noho Star. 




Pizza from Lombardi's on Spring Street. 
One of the best pizzas we've ever had!  It tasted so fresh.




Pizza from Famiglias, a chain around New York.
They had a bunch of pizza by the slice topping choices
for a pretty cheap price. 
This ones my favorite, tomato, basil, mozarella with olive oil.



Greenwich Village.
I consider that one of the coolest areas in Manhattan.





I love the culture, the atmosphere...you will always see someone
sitting on a bench playing jazz music.




Puerto Rican imported coffee beans
from a small store in Greenwhich Village.
On the corner of Bleeker street.   




Went to the Bronx to check out the newly built Yankee Stadium
and came across a family selling mango con chile.




Elvis PB and J sandwich from Peanut Butter Co. near NYU.
They serve their food "lunch box style,"
you get a sandwich with your choice
of carrots, chips, etc. for your side....And a box of milk.
The elvis had bacon and bananas and honey.
We also tried one that had pineapple jam with a spicy peanut butter,
called Thai... something.... it was surprisingly really good.




We made our way over to Brooklyn to Peter Luger's.
Supposedly one of the top steak restaurants in the country.



We ordered a dinner for two:
A huge, 32 oz, T-Bone steak,
a side of their special creamed spinach, and potatoes.




The waiter serves all the dishes for us.
I guess that's old traditional style. 
He even sliced the meat for us so it is cut "correctly." 





Allllllll Done.  The softest, most buttery,
best steak ever, in both of our lives.




One of the areas around Peter Lugar's, Borough Park, 
is one of the largest 
Orthodox Jewish communities outside of Israel.
We walked around for an hour or so just to see the whole community.




Just a billboard in Boro Park.



We had our New York style Cheesecake
from a little gelato place in Little Italy.

Santa Monica CA: Better Life Cuisine

Some of the best RAW VEGAN food I've ever had.
This is the Pizza with: Breadbar, zucchini, "ricotta cheese", tomatoes,
onions, marinara sauce, "mozarella", "parmesan cheese", basil. For $11.50.
The "cheeses" are made from different nuts ground up, coconut, and other raw foods.

This is the "Egg" salad, which doesn't seem to be on the menu anymore.
The egg is actually soft pieces of coconut,
and the yellow is from tumeric and other spices.
This was excellent.  Both filling for two people.

Austin, Texas



Heading to downtown Austin, Texas





The Salt Lick BBQ, in Driftwood 
(about 45 minutes out of Austin)
The bbq combo plate:  Brisket, sausage, ribs, 
with specialhoney bbq sauce, baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw, 
and a roll.  All for Only about $13.



Juan in a Million taco shop, near downtown Austin.





The breakfast taco, this is ONE taco!





The Donut box...





The donut setup...



The huuuuuge donut! the size of a toilet seat...

It was so good and fluffy.  We got half maple half chocolate.