I would never have believed that I would find myself missing work travel, but after almost six months it is starting to kick in. I am lucky that I normally work from home when I’m not traveling, so at least I was fully set up and ready to go when the pandemic started. Plus, both my wife and I have been able to work from home, we are all safe and healthy and we have a newly renovated house with a great backyard to spend time in. So please take my complaining about being tired of being cooped up with a big grain of salt. It’s not that I don’t appreciate everything we have, I’m just human and will always find something to complain about. And I really miss traveling – mostly the vacation style trips, but even the work trips I’m starting to miss. We have even talked about how if my daughter’s school ends up going to full remote learning we may look to rent a place out on the coast for a week or so just for a change of scenery.
One thing that has helped maintain some level of sanity, and let’s face it for me that’s a pretty low baseline, has been what I have officially dubbed my “Food Wall of Fame” that I have created above my desk. What I have done so far is actually just Phase I of the project, but it is great to look up and be able to reminisce about some of our trips, and especially some of the great meals we have had. The current array of places come from various trips to San Diego, Denver, Atlanta, Nashville, Maui and Copenhagen and cover a variety of cuisines. Actually Reffen in Copenhagen, which is about dead centre in the pic, covers just about every type of cuisine all on it’s own. It may just be the most amazing “food village” you could ever encounter, and it alone may warrant a trip to Copenhagen.
The idea for these pics came from our trip to Denver back in 2018, as the restaurants there had some of the most fun signage I had seen in one place, and so I started collecting pictures of places we ate to memorialize them, along with sharing pictures of the actual food to torment friends on Instagram. I am working on curating Phase II of the wall, but may need to travel a bit more to collect some more places of interest. I will share what that final product looks like once I fill up a bit more of the wall.
In any case, here is a quick rundown of what constitutes the “Food Wall of Fame” so far:
Wicked Maine Lobster – in Liberty Village in San Diego – one of the best lobster rolls I have ever had
Blue Sake Sushi – in Denver – their chocolate egg roll dessert was amazing, and the Sushi was fantastic
Vitality Tap – we hit this place 3 times in a week for our morning Acai bowls last time we were in San Diego
Paia Bowls – great Acai bowls in the best possible environment in Paia, Maui – bonus points for eating it during the frequent sun showers
Tacos – I’m actually not sure what restaurant this was for in San Diego, just loved the sign
Reffen – pure food paradise in Copenhagen. I had the best Steak Frites of my life while sitting by the water and arguing with seagulls
Engine Room Pizza – good pizza and absolutely great sign
Gasoline Grill – great burger spot in Copenhagen, and yes they did actually sell a bit of gas as well
Hattie B’s – this is actually their Atlanta location, still the best Nashville Hot Chicken in my books, plus that weekend I was able to see the Jays play the Braves
Dae Gee – Pig Out in Denver, cannot recommend Korean BBQ as Thanksgiving dinner nearly enough
Milk – imagine a donut and an ice cream sandwich had a kid with a wild streak and you get the general idea, stopped here multiple times the few days we were in Copenhagen
Pinewood Social – great place in Nashville, anyone who serves deep fried hash browns as part of brunch is a champ in my books
Carnitas’ Snack Shack – great Mexican food, down by the water in San Diego, amazing food and atmosphere
Okay, so I’m both starving and missing traveling now. Maybe not the best way to start the day, but it’s always good to revisit fond memories.
Feel free to share if you have something similar to the Wall of Fame concept.
The Free Range Viking
The Free Range Viking 