Pre-COVID onboard Kosher meal, Passover:
- Steak and salmon: excellent.
- Couscous and matzah: good.
- Veggies: doable.
Needless to say, the cake went undisturbed.
While I feel bad about wasting food, I’d feel worse about “waisting” it.
Train Dinner
The first time I had dinner on Amtrak, I asked Dan, the car attendant, to bring dinner to my room. I am not normally so precious, but I was traveling alone, feeling a bit like Shreck, and was not yet comfortable with the idea of dining with three strangers (note: I was over it by breakfast.)
I wolfed it, no pun intended. Train travel is hungry work, especially when you go REAL SLOW through the picturesque beach and farm towns filled with tempting diners and taquerias. But, as I have said here before, the food on long-distance Amtrak trains compares favorably to the best airline business- and first-class fare, and even when I wasn’t terribly hungry, I could not resist the temptation at mealtimes.
Note to self: always bring plenty of (healthy, protein-laden) foods on the train to supplement the meals. I did okay this time, but it never hurts to have a little extra boost, even on a trip as short as four hours.
Post Meeting Snack
Finishing up a Thursday night meeting around 8:30, we were both starving and I was way short on calories.
The sidewalks roll up early in our little beach town, so we found ourselves at IHOP. Unperturbed, Aaron ordered two full entrees: T-bone steak and eggs, and tri-tip ends and eggs. And yes, he ate it all.
He probably ate five times the calories I did, but I’m 58 and on maintenance, and Aaron is 21 and bulking up for intramural basketball. He can get away with it: I can’t.
As an aside: there is nothing like father-son bonding over late-nite diner food.
Box Dinner
Was it a box dinner? Yes – we didn’t have a dining car on the Empire Builder out of Portland until we hooked up with the #8 in Spokane at midnight.
Was it awful? NO! It was phenomenal!
Another score for Amtrak: consistently better food onboard than in any business class menu on any airline I have ever flown.
When in Portland, Eat Elk
Three years later, I am still thinking about this elk burger (with avocado instead of cheese) I enjoyed at the taproom of Deschutes Brewery in Portland.
I just checked. The restaurant made it through COVID, is still open, and the elk burger is still on the menu.
I’m thinking “road trip.”
A Bucket and a Pen 