21 Jan 2008 0859H

Best eats on the road in Consultingland, 2007

This last year I spent time on the road in Kansas City, MO; Ann Arbor, MI; Nashville Airport, TN; a few days in Toronto, ON; occasionally in Beachwood, OH; Fishers, IN, and Reston, VA. If you are in these cities, hear me now and believe me later about these eats:

Lidia’s Kansas City, 101 W 22nd St, Kansas City, located in a converted freighthouse by the Crossroads art district, is absolutely fabulous. The daily pasta tasting menu is a steal. Their dessert chef is tops with seasonality. Crazy good entrees. Next door are also Jack Stack which is a high end Kansas City style barbecue restaurant, and there is also City Tavern, which is high end American contemporary fare. I have enjoyed my fair share of both, but, Lidia’s takes the cake, so to speak. Nearby in the nearby Crown Center mall, I found one of the best burgers in the country at A Streetcar Named Desire, good Italian at Milano, and a hidden gem of a Japanese restaurant in Kabuki, on the lower level near the Westin.

Just on the western edge of Ann Arbor, I would recommend Zingerman’s Roadhouse, 2501 Jackson Ave, Ann Arbor, MI, for the sheer seriousness of their food and the light touch they bring to the meal. But then I would also say, if you have a car, get onto the interstate and drive east towards Detroit and in Dearborn, the town where Ford turned America into a superpower, you will find La Shish, multiple locations, which is a fantastic Lebanese restaurant chain, previously written about. A short drive through Dearborn later, you will also find one of the nation’s great ice creameries and bakeries, Shatila, 14300 W Warren Ave, Dearborn, MI.

At Nashville, once you get over the shock and horror of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s garish grey and yellow plexiglas monument off I-65, surrounded by rebel flags, and are back in the relatively sane confines of the airport, stop by the Whitt’s Barbecue, all terminals. Again, skip the plate, get two sandwiches, and get the hot sauce. In fact, I would even recommend you buy a bottle of the sauce to take home. The hot sauce burns bright, not hot.

In Toronto, or rather, the northeast suburb of Markham, I have been given over to only eating Chinese and specifically Cantonese cuisine there. So this year, I would recommend the T&T Supermarket at Steeles & Warden, for hot foods, darn good bakery, and sushi; City Inn, 4390 Steeles Ave E., at the Market Village shopping center, for the dim sum, and Ding Tai Fung, at First Markham Place, but only for the juicy xiaolongbao soup dumplings.

Beachwood, OH. Although it’s the home office, I actually have not had many eats while in Beachwood, consisting mostly of meals from McD’s and Wendy’s. However, up the road from Park East there is a Chinese Thai restaurant of some repute called Ricky Ly’s, 2500 Central Parkway, Beachwood, and it is a far better choice than the neighboring ubiquitous PF Chang’s.

Speaking of ubiquity, Cleveland is home to the last remaining outposts of Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips, which were once ubiquitous throughout the midwest — there was even one at the street corner near our house. I am pleased to say the classic flavor has not gone away, the crinkle cut shapes of the fries are still there, and on the whole, the experience instantly transported me back to the late-1970s, oil crises, stagflation, Iran hostage crisis, Skylab, and all.

In Fishers, I recommend the Indian food of India Sizzling, 11301 Village Square Ln, Fishers, which ironically was founded by an IT consultant. Fantastic flavors in very pleasant, lofty surroundings, and they can very much amp up the heat if you so require, as I did.

In the strange, fortress like atmosphere of Reston Town Center, I report that Obi Sushi, 1771 Library St, Reston, is pretty darn good, and I was regaled, once they discovered my rather limited Japanese, to an oyaji gag by the itamae-tachi there: “His name is Shin (new), but, that was fifty years ago.” Skipping out on Reston to examine the suburbs around, I met up with Frank, the head of the local Moys Association, and his wife, both Chinese American history buffs, for a meal in Herndon, at the picturesque Charcoal Kabab, 394 Elden St, Herndon. Charcoal Kabab is run by proud Afghan exiles who have painted the walls with murals of their former homeland and hung up pictures of the mujihadeen, and here, we had some fine kababs and naan baked in tandoors on site. Great food and an amazing value.

Permanent link to Best eats on the road in Consultingland, 2007

Filed under Food

Be the first to respond to "Best eats on the road in Consultingland, 2007"

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

No responses yet.

And now it's your turn.

Fire your weapon, soldier. Just be careful of friendly fire. NAME & EMAIL required.

You must be logged in to post a comment.