My Culinary Odyssey: Prestonsburg Part 3

    Today, I finish up Prestonsburg with my final stretch of places. If I have missed anything, I will come back to them in a later post.  If you need a recap of how this post is organized, click here for the link to the first part of this series.  Now, let's get through this last section.

• Dairy Queen, current location, DI:  When Dairy Queen moved, they got a much larger location.  The dining area lobby was divided into multiple sections, and the parking lot had many more spaces than the few surrounding the sides of their first place. I've only been to this location once, as the final stop on my short-lived tradition of going to Prestonsburg on the Saturday of Hillbilly Days in Pikeville, back in 2019.  We decided to stop here because I was interested in a special promotion they were having. The place was so busy that they had to bring the order out to the table.  Unfortunately, they got the wrong dish, as they brought out a regular chicken strip basket instead of the chicken and waffles that I ordered. They brought out the missing portions quickly. I still didn't care too much for the mix of savory and sweet, but it was a nice change of pace. At least I was able to get cherry-vanilla flavored Dr Pepper, even if it didn't taste as good as the original one. (I finished the overcast day by checking out some car dealerships, although I wouldn't wind up buying one until that fall.)
• Pizza Hut, previous location, TO/DI:  The first reactions I had to this Pizza Hut was with take out, I think.  (My mom may have brought home some cheesy breadsticks before this.) Since I would be in late working as an election official one year, she brought home a pizza.  However, she asked for it not to be completely baked.  The mess ended up looking horrible one it was finished.  I almost didn't want to eat it.  (My mom thought I would have had a problem eating a reheated pizza. However, it is just about the one type of food I can stand as a leftover.  More on that in a later post.) I would later get to dine in later one. I felt that the restaurant was kind of tight-spaced, but the overall presentation was good. The restaurant would later close at their original location, and open a Pizza Hut Express as part of the new Food City center. I believe that Giovanni's may have moved here. However, I so rarely go this far north on Route 321, so I can't be sure.  The same can be said for the rest of the locations mentioned in this post.
• Arby's, DI:  This was the 2018 stop in my short-lived tradition. I had had a fairly good experience at other Arby's (which I will go over in later posts), so I really wanted to try this new location, near where Pizza Hut was once. I had the chicken sandwich.  I don't like the typical breaded sandwiches so much, but it was descent. Strangely enough, the place was fairly empty at the time. I may have ate lunch a little early compared to my usual times. I would spend the rest of the afternoon shopping in Paintsville. It was the only one of the three trips with good weather. (There is also a second McDonalds in the same area as well.  I haven't been there, but there is a small chance my mom stopped there once.)
• Subway, DEL/DI:  Wait, did I just use "delivery" for the first time? Way back in the mid-90s, when I had my only job for a total of four weeks (I won't mention the details, but it was a totally wrong fit for me.), one of my co-workers suggested getting subs delivered, during my first week. She talked me into getting a meatball sub, but I didn't really like it, probably because it may have had pork in it. Years later, Subway would be one of the monthly stops with my mom. (I don't think I ever told her about the first time before that moment though.) I again had the meatball sub, and I felt about the same way about it, although I had some sort of chips and a drink this time around. It would cause me to create my own version of a meatball sub, though. I used my standard meatball recipe, which I gave an abbreviated version in a blogcast post from two years ago which you can find here. I made the balls slightly larger, as I didn't want too many on the bread.  I usually used just jarred spaghetti sauce, to cut back on time, but I'm sure I used my full sauce recipe at least once. I split a refrigerated French bread loaf into smaller portions before baking to use a rolls. I split the rolls in half and stuffed them with the meatballs and sauce, slapping some mozzarella and maybe a dash of Parm on top. I stopped making them after a while, as making large meatballs was time-consuming, compared to the slightly quicker smaller ones for spaghetti and meatballs.
• Dairy Cheer, DI/maybe TO?:  I don't really remember much about my earliest trips to this Dairy Cheer, but I don know that I had to go there on a couple of occasions. Even the few times I went as an adult aren't that memorable. I believe I had my first ever cheese curds from here in the 90s. I kind of liked them, but my mom didn't like them as well.  I probably had mine with some ketchup at one point of another. (That will be a recurring theme after a bit.)
• Jerry's, DI:  This was probably my favorite of all the Jerry's restaurants that I went to.  It was so much brighter than the others. The stuffed fish was a little off-putting, but it wasn't that bad. I remember having to get a booster seat whenever I went there as a kid.  I would usually get the plain burger from the kids' menu, but I would usually add a club-style cracker from my mom's salad to it. If she didn't have a salad, she would ask for one from the back. It didn't add much flavor, but I loved the added crunch. When I went back to it as an adult, I usually ordered the grilled chicken sandwich. (I was really into chicken sandwiches in the late 90s/early 00s.) I noted that Jerry's had the same fries as Long John Silver's (see next entry). I am not sure if I knew at the time that they were part of the same company. I had already opened my store in Pikeville when I heard the news that Jerry's had closed, well after the fact. Never got a chance to go there again. I heard that an Italian restaurant went in, but I'm not sure what is there now.
• Long John Silver's, DI/TO:  I always considered this to be my "home" LJS, even though it wasn't the one I went to the most often after a few years and others opened.  I pretty much stopped dining in here as a kid, after I got caught seen by a classmate one time and got ribbed for it a little at school. I pretty much just remember here for the take-out, either mom bringing in after work or as a pick after a long day of shopping out of town. It was take out from here where I actually had a bone in a chicken plank that almost turned me off from eating here ever again, but I did get over it. When I finally went back here to dine in the 90s, I couldn't believe how small it was, and not just because I was about a foot taller since I had actually dined in. (I usually just let my mom go in to get the order while I stayed out in the car for most of the time before then.) I had forgotten how it was the only LJS I had been to regularly that only had one seating section in the lobby. All the others had at least two. It felt so weird. It was from here that I tried the chicken wrap with rice. An unusual combination soon discontinued from here before I decided if I wanted to try it again. It was also from here where I may have accidentally been given the then new popcorn shrimp instead of the chicken. I had a slight allergic reaction, but I ate most of them anyway. (For some reason, I was eating in my car and didn't have time to correct the mistake.) After my sore opened, I had to stop going here. The LJS at Martin was easier to stop at on the way home from shopping trips, and the Pikeville one was closer. It still shocked me when I heard that this LJS was closing/closed, about the same time as Jerry's. Really hated that. I think something else moved in, maybe another seafood place, but I have no idea if it is still there.

    And on these sad notes, I'll finish off the trip through Prestonsburg.  Come back next Wednesday for my regular post as I start my odyssey through Pikeville. It will start in a similar way to how this one ended.

My Culinary Odyssey: Prestonsburg, Part 2

    It is a special Saturday edition of my blogcast as I continue my trip thought Prestonsburg.  This time around, I will be starting at the south/east end of town and start working my way north and west. Click here to see the introduction where I explain the organization of the post.

• Hoebert's Pizzeria, previous and current location, TO, ⭐️:  While I may have had a pizza from here, and maybe one side dish, the majority of my orders have been large steak Stromboli sandwiches, and I must say, they are only just okay.  I'm sorry.  I know how popular they are, but I usually just find them about average.  Part of it is due to the meat.  It is just not my favorite cut.  Once, when they may have changed suppliers for a time, even my mom thought the meat wasn't as good as it usually is.  Another thing that could be affecting my judgement is how they have messed up my orders in the past.  They either forget the mushrooms, or they add pickles and/or peppers when I ask for them to be left off. My mom still asks to eat there a few times a year (including later on this month, probably), but at least I usually don't have to stop when it's dark anymore. Navigating that parking lot with all the customers and the gas pumps is not easy. I have created my own clone recipe for this though, but I haven't made it in a few years. I start by frying a different cut of steak, along with some onions and mushrooms to get them brown. While this is going on, I toast the rolls. (I find this easier than toasting the entire sandwich all at once, but it does impact the flavor.) I assemble the sandwich by first spreading mayonnaise on the top roll and adding tomato and garlic lettuce. (According to the advice given to my mom, it should be made by soaking lettuce leaves in water Italian dressing with extra garlic powder in it.  There might be better ways to impart the flavor though.) Next, I put the grilled onions and mushrooms on the bottom roll, with the steak slices on top.  I then cover the steak with heated spaghetti/pizza sauce (to make up for not baking the entire sandwich), and I cover it with mozzarella cheese, with just a sprinkle of parmesan. I put the two roll halves together, and then eat. I've also made hamburgers the same way, with buns and patties as substitutions. I have even done a restaurant hack version, but that is for a later post.
• Giovanni's, DI:   During the late 90s, when I was unemployed and didn't really get out of the house much, I would drive my mother to work about once a month and spend the day just hanging out in town, usually at the library in the mornings and shopping in the afternoon.  We would eat lunch together at various places.  One was Giovanni's when it moved to a spot near where the GM car dealership was.  We split a pizza that day with my choice of beef, onion, and mushroom toppings. I was surprised when the pizza was brought out cut into squares, tavern style I guess.  Never had it this way before.  Personally, I like the crust side, something that is not found with squares. [I've had Giovanni's since then, at another location, and no squares.] That was the only time we ate there. Giovanni's would later move north, but that's for another entry.
• Unknown lunch counter downtown, DI:  Once, when I was very young, I had to wait with my mom to pick up something, possibly shoes from a cobbler shop.  They were located on the bottom floor of a building, possibly below street level.  There was a lunch counter there where we waited.  I think I had some pop.  Only time there.  Don't ask me where the building was or if it is still there.  Can't be sure, but I doubt there is still a lunch counter. [While there are other restaurants downtown, most notably Billy Ray's, I don't remember ever going into any of them, or even trying any of their food if it was brought home. I could be wrong though, but it isn't too likely.]
• Dairy Queen, original location, DI/TO:  I know I stopped in here a few times to eat when I was very young, more so for the treats than meals, but I might be wrong.  I remember stopping at the Piggly Wiggly across the street more than at DQ, but that's beside the point.  The main reason is that I asked for an ice cream cake for my birthday one year. My mom picked it up, but she had to pay a deposit on the freezer bag to bring it home so it wouldn't melt.  I barely ate at it.  Picky eater at the time, really bad. Maybe it was the yellow cake more so than the strawberry ice cream.  Who knows. Anyway, DQ would move to a larger location years later, with more parking.  Other restaurants would come in, including Giovanni's for a time, before moving even further north on Lake Drive.  Currently, it is a Japanese restaurant. 
• Kentucky Fried Chicken/KFC, former/current location, DI/TO:  I'm pretty sure I ate here at the original location a few times as a kid, but those times weren't too memorable. However, they tore down the original building and remodeled it, slightly higher up out of the flood plain.  I hadn't eaten there in some time when my mom brought in a sample of their potato wedges.  I was out of college at the time. Even cold and old, I found them intriguing. I would later try them fresh on a trip to P-burg, along with one of their 'Zinger' chicken sandwiches.  I was hooked with both.  Normally, I would eat grilled or roasted chicken sandwiches, but this combination with two/three fried chicken strips just satisfied me.  The wedges were also a surprise, as I normally hated fries with skin on them. KFC became a regular stop to eat at after that for many years. The last time I ate at this KFC was in 2017. We were starting a tradition of going out of town on the Saturday of Hillbilly Days in Pikeville, when the store was closed. The first rainy year, we ate here.  The 'Zinger' had long be supplanted by the plain chicken breast-and-pickle sandwich now found everywhere, but they still had the wedges.  For a time. Haven't eaten here since, but more one other KFC locations in a later post.
• Super America, later Speedway, TO:  The Super America was right next door to where my mom worked, so she would frequently stop in there for the occasional food item.  Once, in the mid-80s, she picked up a new doughnut shape, an unfilled long john. I found it an interesting diversion from the usual rings. I wanted to try them again, but that is the topic for another post. I would still stop in for a fountain drink on occasion, but usually not for ready-made food items.  Just packaged fare.  This continued when it became Speedway.  However, I haven't stopped in here for a few years, as I haven't a real need lately.
• [Hardee's, TO, ⭐️: For some reason or another, I have never eaten here.  I have mostly just stopped here for my mom to pick up coffee.  And a cinnamon roll with extra icing, when she wants to treat herself. She thinks they both taste a little better here than at the one in Pikeville. I can't stand either.] 

    I'll stop here for today.  Join me for my regular post on Wednesday as I complete my tour of Prestonsburg.

My Culinary Odyssey: Prestonsburg, Part 1

    When I was very young, I seemed to go to Prestonsburg quite frequently. When my mom got a job there, though, the trips were not as common, as she didn't want to go back there is often when she didn't need to. Trips there became even less frequent after I opened my store, Booknotes, in Pikeville.  Still, I manage to eat out in P-burg every now and then.  Today's post is the first for the town, covering the western outskirts of the city along US 23. Check the introduction for this series here for the explanation of how the post is organized.  Let's go!

• McDonald's, original Prestonsburg location, DI:  There is a very strong chance that this was the first ever McDonald's I ever ate at, and that was when I was in high school.  Probably my junior year, less possibly sophomore year. I was in band,  and we stopped here after playing at a tournament game.  My mom was a chaperone.  I just had fries.  (Admittedly, this stop could have been at another McDonald's in the Pikeville area, but it seems unlikely, and my memory suggests sitting in an orientation that most resembles the Prestonsburg locale.) I would stop there again my senior year.  Twice in the same day on a field trip to Morehead.  I stayed in the bus that morning, but I got out that evening when the others had an impromptu dance session. Yes, I did dance.  I would later stop there with my mom on occasion before some shopping trips.  Once, for a birthday trip in 98, I was in the car that morning watching lightning flash across the sky.  I didn't tell her about the storms until we got into Magoffin county after seeing hail covering the road in two separate stretches. I convinced her to continue on to Lexington. The rain held off the rest of the day, and it turned out to be one of the better birthday trips I had.  The restaurant would have some remodeling over the years, but I haven't been in there since.  We haven't stopped there for my mom for quite some time though.
• Little Caesar's, TO:  Back in the early 90s, I was on a kick for trying new foods.  I would go out of my way to try a new food, new recipe, or a new restaurant, at least once per week for a month.  Sometimes, I would manage to do so for each day for an entire week. One of these places was here. My mom picked up a pizza for dinner.  That's basically all I can recall about it.  I don't think I really liked it. (Years later, I would also try the Papa John's, but I barely can recall it either.  I could have sworn I also had Domino's here, but there doesn't seem to be one in Prestonsburg.)
• Reno's Roadhouse, TO/DI:  My mom would frequently have business lunches here, back in the day.  In the late 80s, she may have brought home some petals from their version of a "Blooming Onion," however, hours old fried food doesn't always taste that good. I would end up going here for the strangest of reasons.  I had won a scholarship, and there was a dinner at Reno's for the winners. It was a few days after I graduated high school. Beforehand, we stopped at Walmart where I bought my first ever CD for my new player that I got for graduation. (Paula Abdul remixes. I know.) I didn't like the ambiance of the place.  I don't remember eating anything. I had to go back the following year to see the honors given out to a new group of winners.  This was a few weeks after the end of my first year of college.  Don't remember ordering anything then either. I don't remember exactly when, but Reno's would close.  Ultimately, the building became a pawn shop.  What it was between those two points, check the next entry for a possibility.
• Fazzoli's, TO: When Fazzoli's opened in Prestonsburg, it felt like a kind of big deal. Soon after it opened, mom bought some take out for dinner. At least one of the things was pasta, which could not be reheated adequately. I ended up not liking it that much.  There may have been a pizza as well, but I don't remember much about it either.  I always thought we should have tried the place again, but it never happened before it closed.  Now, I strongly think it took over Reno's old place, but that feels too big for the restaurant.  On the other hand, there is no other building in that area where it could have been, unless it was completely torn down. Honestly, I can't even remember when it was in operation.
• Rax, probably DI:  I barely remember this place. In fact, my mom thought it may have been Arby's instead, but we are fairly sure it was Rax. I remember stopping there once when I was a kid and being the one to open the door, but that was all.  Not sure what I ate there, if anything, since this would have been in the middle of my picky eater stage. I do remember that it wasn't there long.  The place was closed and torn down as part of the expansion of US 23. I believe in was close to where the star pattern is now, between the various ramps.  There would have been just enough room for a restaurant there, maybe, but not enough for parking as well. It was right across the highway from Glenview Plaza. (While there have been various place to eat there, I don't think I tired any of them.)

    I'll stop here for today's post.  Tune in Saturday for a special bonus post as I continue through town, starting at the south/eastern end of Prestonsburg and work my way north.  See you then.

My Culinary Odyssey: Martin

    The next stop in this series is Martin, as it is the next location with multiple spots. (I will be coming back to some places I skipped over later in the series.) While not that big, I do have some notable memories associated with some of these spots. Check back with the introduction here to see how the entries will be organized. Let's start things up.

• Second story pizza parlor, DI:  Many, many years ago when I was a kid, I remember stopping at the Martin Y and walking up an outdoor staircase to a pizza parlor. It had booths and a pinball machine. We had to wait quite a bit for the food to get done. My mother took me outside at one point onto the stairs.  I remember it being night out, but not too cold, so I'm guessing it was early evening in early fall. I don't remember what I ate that night. It was the only time I remember going there, although I think I remember driving around another night to find some other pizza place between Martin and Allen, but it could be this one, or another. The intersection at Martin has been remade a few times since then, so I can't be sure where the pizza place once was.  The only two-story building still standing does not seem to have an outdoor metal staircase.  However, there is a Giovanni's right in the middle of the roads.  Whether or not it is the same pizza place from when I was a kid, I don't know.  I have not eaten from the current place, to the best of my knowledge.
• [Super America, currently Speedway, TO:  Back in the 80s, we would occasionally stop here for me to pick up a fountain drink and/or some pre-packaged food when we weren't going anywhere special. Never for fuel. After some corporate mergers and buy-outs, the name got changed to Speedway. We would still stop there time to time, but almost never for a drink. Haven't stopped there in well over five years.]
• Long John Silver's, TO:  When the LJS was built at Martin, it opened some new opportunities for me. It was in the perfect location to pick up dinner on the way back from long shopping trips to Huntington or Lexington so we wouldn't have to cook dinner. Since it was closer to home, the food wouldn't have to be reheated as much as a dinner from Prestonsburg. We would go in to place the order, and I would wait for the order to be packed while my mom went to the restroom.  It was here where I first tried their "lobster bites" (Actually, it was some other shellfish.).  I felt it was too buttery for me, but I didn't have any allergic reactions. By the 2010s, our eating and shopping habits had changed. We were getting in earlier now, so we had the time to actually cook dinner again some trips. My mom would demand to eat at another place in Prestonsburg on other occasions. (I'll bring that one up in a future post.) As such, we basically stopped going there.  The last time I stopped there was around 2020, after the worst of the pandemic conditions were lifted.  There had been a wreck on the mountain on the way home, so we had to detour a very long way around that night.  Because we were going to be so late, and we had some coupons, we decided to try the Martin LJS. By the time we got to Allen, mom suggested we take the old road to Martin instead of Route 80.  Now, I had driven on Route 80 many times, day and night.  I had rarely driven down the old road, and never at night. I was going super slow to make sure I didn't wreck. By the time we got to Martin, the LJS way shuttering the lobby for the night. We didn't go to the door to make sure, and I don't do drive-throughs, so we were forced to go somewhere else.  I would soon find out that they were closing the LJS, and I had missed my last chance to eat there. The spot is now a Mexican restaurant.  As to where I would wind up eating that night, it wasn't the next entry.
• [McDonald's, TO, ⭐️:  Now, I haven't eaten at many McDonald's.  However, I have driven my mom to this one to stop for coffee and for her to use the restroom some mornings. In fact, we have stopped there just a few months ago. I had only been in here once, on the night mentioned above. When it looked like the LJS had shut down the lobby for the night, we tried here instead.  When my mom looked over the ordering kiosk, she was confused about how to do it.  She also balked at the price of what I would be getting. She refused to order from there, even after I said I would get something cheaper and pay for it myself. Even though it would be way too late to cook something and I didn't have anything at home to fix, we left.  We would stop at a supermarket where I picked up something nowhere near enough for dinner, cheap. While she said she was sad about me not having anywhere near enough to eat that night, (she settled for leftovers, which I can't eat due to my sensitive tongue) she has never apologized for what she did. I won't say any more.]
• Burger Queen, later Dairy Queen, DI/TO:  Burger Queen was probably the first chain restaurant at the Martin Y. Or at least a forerunner of it was.  There were a lot of name changing and rebranding back then.  Anyway, the only and last time I remember eating there was my sophomore year of high school. I was in band, and we stopped here on the way back from performing at a tournament ball game. My mom was a chaperone, so I ate with her.  Just some fires, as I was just coming out of the worst of my picky eater stage.  Soon after that time, Burger Queen got bought out by Dairy Queen and got remodeled by the 90s. We would stop there a few times that decade, mostly on the way back from taking my grandmother from the doctor. I would get a Blizzard, while my mom would get one for my grandmother. Back then, there was still a focus on making your own, which was good for me since I didn't like many of the mix-ins.  Nowadays, it is more on the pre-selected flavor combinations. This would lead me to create my own recipe clone. First, I would take some vanilla ice cream on put it in a metal bowl to thaw a little in the refrigerator for around thirty minutes. (All time are estimated.  Your times may vary.) I would then get it out and add the mix ins. Mine were mashed banana and strawberry jam.  I would then use a hand mixer, with maybe just one beater in, the combine everything.  I would drizzle in some 'Magic Shell" chocolate sauce while mixing, so it would combine without most of it solidifying.  I would then put the bowl back in the freezer for another 30 to 45 minutes.  I would then take it out and mix again for a few minutes. While it wasn't an actual concrete, the generic industry term for said frozen treat, it was quite close.  An emersion blender would have worked better, but I didn't have one back then and they weren't yet that popular. I don't remember where I got this idea. It could have been Food Network, but I don't think our cable provider had it yet. Anyway, it was such a complicated treat, that I ultimately stopped making it, especially after our mixer died and most stores stopped carrying my favorite brand of ice cream.  I haven't had a Blizzard at any Dairy Queen in decades.  We continued to stop at this DQ a few more times for coffee for my mom, but not in many years.

        This ends my trip through Martin.  Next week, I will make my first stop of about three for Prestonsburg. Hope to see you there.

My Culinary Odyssey: Wheelwright

     Today, my culinary odyssey series takes off with my first destination, Wheelwright. I am taking as fairly loose definition of both "Wheelwright" and "eating out."  You'll soon see what I mean. Click the link here to see the introduction of this series and see how I will be organizing it. Time to begin.

• Wheelwright Clubhouse pizzeria, TO:  I remember when I was a young kid about going up to the Wheelwright clubhouse on a Saturday night to get a cheese pizza, then eating it a home with a root beer while watching Matinee at the Bijou on KET.  This was a series recreating an actual movie-going experience from the early twentieth century. It had the cartoon, serial, and feature film just how they would've been shown in the theatre, sometimes including the newsreel and promotional films, too. Once, I stayed in the car so I wouldn't be seen by someone whose birthday party I wasn't allowed to attend wouldn't see me, but they did anyway. We stopped going after a time, and I thought the place had closed down.  Apparently, they had actually moved to a building next to the Wheelwright High School, and I only found out about it recently. I even went off campus a few times to go in there to pick something up for others, but I never actually ate there myself. The clubhouse would lie abandoned for a few years before being torn down, leaving a vacant lot.  A few years ago, a kiddie park and walking tract finally replace it. The second building burned down, but was rebuilt. The pizza place did eventually close, and the place is currently a Mexican restaurant which I don't plan on eating at.
• Bypro Dairy Bar, TO: Some summers, after I had went swimming, we would bet ice cream for a treat.  Sometimes it was a custard from here.  I got tired of them after a while.  The last time I ate one, probably when I was about ten or eleven, I got a little sick soon afterwards.  Never had one there again. However, the place was still open 2003.  After the flood that took out my old home, we got some food there that first night while staying elsewhere. Although it is under new management, the place is still open all these decades later.  It is probably the oldest place still open that will be included in this series.
• [Hall's Community Market, TO]:  For a brief time in the early 80s, this grocery store used to have a Slushpuppy machine. I loved slushies when I was a kid (kinda still do), and I would get one almost every week.  Usually cherry or strawberry I think.  I occasionally tried other flavors, usually when my favorites were out.  I hated the blue raspberry abomination for the first time there.  How anyone would want raspberries to be blue when there is a perfectly good blue berry out there, namely blueberry, is beyond me. Unfortunately, the machine would frequently break down or be out of flavorings. The machine was ultimately taken out, I think. I stopped getting them about the same time I stopped going into local stores for fear of embarrassment in meeting any of my classmates. The market is still open, with new owners. I don't think they have any slushie machines anymore.
• Osborne Elementary School, DI:  This is a stretch, but I ate there, sort of.  When I started kindergarten, I would lunch at the school. By first grade though, my mom found out that I wasn't eating most of the meals most of the time.  I was a very picky eater when I was a kid. I would end up taking my own lunch.  At least some of my friends did too, so I didn't feel too picked on, although a few kids did because of my limited lunch choices. I continued bringing my lunch throughout grade school, although my friends stopped before eighth grade, making me the odd one out. I would occasionally buy concessions at recess, mostly shushes, but they stopped that practice.  Ultimately, they brought in vending machines, which I never used. The school was closed a few years ago due to consolidation. The buildings remain empty to this day. {Note:  I never ate lunch at Wheelwright High, as they looked even less appetizing than those at Osborne. I never had anything from the vending machines or the concessions stands either. I did get some free promotional snacks, as well as buying the occasional sells item. I did have a leftover piece of cake the last week of school from an event I didn't attend, but that was it. The school was closed for consolidation a few years after I graduated and two of the buildings were torn down. That second high school was alter consolidated a number of years ago.}
• Unknown pizza place, TO or DEL (I can't remember which): While staying at another place after the 2003 flood, we got a pizza from somewhere.  I don't know where.  The best candidate was Jan and Ben's, now Fat Daddy's. Nothing else to say about it.
• Second unknown pizza place at Price, TO:  I mentioned this one in last year's comic book series. A restaurant opened up across the road from a friend's house in Price, and they also sold comic books. I bought two comics there, but I can't remember if we actually got food there.  I think they were just using a store-bought kit instead of fresh.  Anyway, we only stopped there the one time. The place didn't last long. The building has been vacant for years, if not decades. My friend would go on to go to two other high schools, (the first one, a private school, shut down after his first two years there) and he would move out of the area.  Haven't seen, and barely heard of him, in a very long time.

    That ends today's post.  Next week, we head to Martin, where we start to see more established fining spots.

My Culinary Odyssey: An Introduction

    As I have frequently mentioned in this blogcast, I can be a very picky eater.  Part of this is due to the fact that my mom is a horrible cook.  She has been known to mess up even the most simple of dishes. I didn't even start to appreciate chocolate cake until I was in college because of her. I am also sort of a super-taster. I can detect sublet flavors in various foods.  Not always, but often enough to be put off from eating certain things.  This also means I sometimes combine some odd pairings of foods, to my enjoyment but not always for others.  This is also why I took up cooking.  When I couldn't find anything I liked to eat, I would create something on my own. Okay, I admit I mostly jazz up pre-packaged items, but I do make a few things from scratch. I also have been known to force myself to try new foods and recipes whenever I can. Back in the 90s, I would try as many new things as I could. Sometimes, it was just one new food per week.  At least once, I had a new food or recipe everyday. This includes eating out. When I was very young, I had a difficult time when eating out. I could only eat a few things at a few places, and I couldn't be forced to try anything else. As a grew older, I would venture beyond those few meals and places and try newer things. Admittedly, I still don't go too far outside the lines, but then I don't have that many opportunities either. One of the things I am most proud of though is my ability to recreate and adapt meals I've had eaten out and duplicate them at home. I know, but it isn't as scary as it looks.

    I had been thinking a lot about all the places where I have eaten out from, and I have decided to write about them in my latest blogcast series. This is going to be a very detailed bunch of posts. I will be grouping these place geographically, like I did for my series on comic books last year. I will dedicate a post to each location that has at least two place where I have eaten out at. Each post will have between six and ten places on it.  For those locations with well more than ten spots, I will have multiple posts until I cover them all, with bonus posts on Saturdays so that I can cover an area faster.  Locations where there was only one place will be grouped together at the end in a final post, or two.  I haven't counted them all out yet. Places that are still open will be in blue, at least as of the start of the year. This status may have temporarily or even permanently changed due to recent flooding, but they were open in January and that is what counts. Places that are closed will stay black. This includes places that I am unsure of their status, either because I was too young to remember much about them or too lazy to look up a place I was at only once and didn't care to check up on it. Places in brackets, [like this,] are 'honorable mentions.' This can mean a couple of things. First, it can mean I only got a fountain drink or something like that there, and not any actual food. It could also mean that other people I was with did order something there, but I didn't. Finally, it can mean that I was planning on eating there, but changed my mind before ordering. The actual entry will explain. Places with a star after them, ⭐, means that I have eaten at that place at least once in the last three years. I chose that timeframe as it felt recent enough to show my current tastes, but far back enough to show how much those tastes have change. Abbreviations after the place show just how and where I ate. DI means I actually ate in the lobby of the place. TO means take-out, and I ate either at home or, the more likely lately, at my store. Finally, DEL stands for delivery, and the food was brought to me. The entry will explain the details. I will try to describe some of the things I ate at each place.   I will also include some further tidbits about why I like each place. However, I won't be going too negative about any location that I think I will be returning to. Places that I know I won't be going back to will be graded harshly if I feel it is necessary.  Future installments will not contain this legend, but I will probably include a link to this post so I won't have to keep explaining things. I hope you are hungry, for there is going to be a lot to digest. 

Confessions of a Lapsed Weekend-Warrior

    As I have mentioned many times before here, the mid 90s were a rough time for me. I wasn't able to finish the education I wanted. I couldn't get a job. I had absolutely no social life. I was miserable. So, I decided to change up my life in any way I could. One of those ways was to take up weightlifting. I wasn't much of a jock or athlete in school, but I always thought I had the potential, if I had just found the right discipline. I was also getting a little hefty. I was over 180 pounds and pushing upwards. I started to look for exercise and health magazines.  I made some mistakes in picking a good one, but I found my way through. I had my mom get me a weight set for my birthday one year, since I was way too intimidated to join a gym.  There weren't too many around at the time, at least for those I knew about. When I had my first workout, I chose weights that were only about half the amount the routine recommended. I did this because I felt that I was too much a beginner to start with twenty pound weights. Also, my mom got me the wrong set.  It didn't have the full complement of weights I wanted.  To this day, I am still not sure she made an honest mistake or if she deliberately bought the cheaper set. Anyway, that night after my first workout, I could barely sleep I was so sore. Yes, I was that out of shape that six-and-ten pound dumbbells were almost too hard for me. I managed to get up to twenty pounds in a few weeks. A year or so later, give or take, I was benching 100 pounds.  Okay, it was two fifty pound dumbbells, but that is still equivalent. Fortunately, I was able to get more weights as my maximums increased.  Since I had nothing else to do, I was able to workout whenever I wanted. I was getting stronger, but I wasn't getting big. I either wasn't eating enough or pushing myself hard enough. (It doesn't really look like it, but I do have a fairly high metabolism.) Then, my mom forced me to open my store. This meant that I had to make changes in my routine. I was getting in too late to exercise after work, and still eat and sleep properly. I was forced to limit my workouts to the weekends, with the occasional light morning routine before work. Unfortunately, I would have to give up those workouts, as it really isn't conducive to exercise in the morning at my current place. (Strangely, my last morning workout was the day before the 2003 flood that forced me to move and destroyed my old weight sets. I stopped lifting for over three months before I could get a new set.  I've since added a few more plates to those.) Then, I was forced to go to work six days a week. This would further limit my workouts to one day a week, not counting holidays and the occasional early quitting time. Still, I managed to work my way up to a 120 pound unilateral dumbbell press, which is almost equivalent to a 250 pound bench press. I was supplementing a little to help out, but I had to stop most of it when my favorite brand stopped making the products and the cost of others were a little too much.  Still, I continued the best I could. A few years ago, things started to change. Maybe I was just getting older. Maybe it was the aftereffects of the pandemic. Whatever, I just couldn't lift as much any more. I was cutting back on the weight because I was so tired some days. I didn't feel safe lifting heavy weights over my head in that condition. I don't think I've lifted 100 pounds in over a year, perhaps. I've even skipped a few sessions already this year due to the weather. (Because of my sensitive skin, I definitely have to wash any day I work out. If it is too cold or for any other reason that the water might go off, I usually don't work out. This is the same reason I didn't have to change clothes for high school PE, and not just because I was uncomfortable undressing in front of the other boys who were way more developed than me at the time, even though I was technically older than most of them. Really, that is the reason.) I have gone back to the lighter ten-and-twenty pound weights I was using when I first started out so far this year. I am aiming for endurance and maintaining what I currently have while keeping my weight around 170, but that isn't helping much. I've noticed some of my pants getting a little tighter and my stomach pooching out beyond my chest more frequently. One of the reasons why I did my "100" rep bodyweight challenges last year was to prove that I still had to ability to do so, even when my regular routines were suffering. I was going to implement so of those routines at work to assist my weekend workouts, but I never seem to be able to find the time.  Ab crunches being the exception. I can still easily pull out 120 of those at a time. I bet I would have great abs if I could ever get my total body fat under 10%. An impossibility, but knowing that it might be possible is enough to keep me going. If I ever had more help, such as a gym, a trainer, workout partners, and enough food to build up muscle, I have a feeling I could actually be a beefy jock.  While that probably will never happen, I just hope to get back into a better routine.  And soon.