10 Year Reunion: Late Night - Del Taco

When I think about the food I ate in St. Louis, the list just wouldn't be complete without Del Taco. And so, after breakfast at Uncle Bill's, lunch at Seamus McDaniel's, dinner at Rigazzi's, awkward but ultimately enjoyable reunion drinks at Blueberry Hill, and a nightcap at Halo Bar, my wife drove me over to Del Taco.

10 Year Reunion: Dinner - Rigazzi's

After an extra large breakfast at Uncle Bill's, and then after lunch a Seamus', I decided that we needed to eat dinner at Rigazzi's. Rigazzi's is a family style Italian restaurant on The Hill. During my early college years, I was on the track team and they had an all you can eat spaghetti special, which was good for carb loading. During my later college years, I went there because they had comically large beers, which was good for carb loading of a different kind. And then, after college, my wife and I would go to dinner and enjoy both the spaghetti and the beers. In fact, our last dinner before leaving St. Louis for Chicago, we ate at Rigazzi's. And so it was only fitting that I chose this for the reunion weekend dinner.

10 Year Reunion: Lunch - Seamus McDaniel's

There are some people who like to go to various fancy or trendy restaurants and collect food memories like merrit badges. I have never been into this, and I particularly was not into this when I lived in St. Louis. Seamus McDaniel's will never be called a fancy or a trendy restaurant. It is a modest pub with modest food, most of which is not even very good. But Seamus McDaniel's in Dog Town was a place that I went to for just about every occasion, and it sums up what food was to me in St. Louis.

10 Year Reunion: Breakfast - Uncle Bill's

This May, it will have been ten years since I have graduated from college. There was a reunion. Although the reunion started on Friday, we weren't able to get there until Saturday. And, since I don't like things like reunions or people, I decided that I would forgo most of the scheduled reunion weekend activities and spend the day eating. For breakfast, we decided that we would start with Uncle Bill's Pancake House.

Stella's Diner

Sunday was warm. Unseasonably warm. Unbelievably warm. We just knew that we had to go out for brunch, and we needed to be eating it outside. And so began the great outdoor brunch hunt of 2011.

Renaldi's on Broadway in Lakeview Chicago

On Fridays, I like to eat pizza. Growing up in New Jersey, public school lunches were always pizza on Fridays. When I was very young, the only option was an Ellios-like piece of cheese pizza. It wasn't until much later in my public school life that pepperoni then became an option. I somehow also recall a sausage option, but I may just be mis-remembering that. Regardless, even though Friday was always pizza, and regardless of how few options for toppings there may have been, I never got tired of it. And I'm still not tired of it. That's how, last Friday, Sarah and I ended up at Renaldi's.

Paradise Empanadas Cafe

After the Cubs game and then drinks around Wrigleyville, Sarah and I started stumbling home. We were starving because, for some reason, we elected not to eat anything that afternoon. So we went to Paradise Empanadas Cafe at Broadway and Belmont in Lakeview. It's a new empanada place near the gym we pay for a membership to. If you're counting: in 2011, I have been to the gym the same number of times at I have eaten empandas.

Osteria al Doge

Our last night in New York coincided with my mother-in-law's birthday. To celebrate, we were going to go to dinner and a show. The show was going to be Jersey Boys. For dinner, we wanted something relatively close to the theater. But it had to be nice, and I wanted to avoid anything too tourist trap-y. I selected Osteria al Doge.

Hot Dog Cart

In the time we were in New York, I think I ate hot dogs on three separate occasions. Once on the ferry between the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. And two other times from hot dog carts. In my mind, there are few things as wonderful.

starbucks breakfast

The skipping of meals that my wife seems to insist on while traveling was beginning to take its toll. By the morning of our last full day in New York, my father-in-law requested that we eat breakfast, a meal that we had been normally skipping. I was happy to hear this.

We tried to go to Foodparc, which was next to our hotel, Hotel Eventi. I had seen it in our comings and goings, and the signs in the windows made it seem like breakfast there would be good. It was one of those fancy new places replete with white formica and a euroslick ambition.

Unfortunately, once we got there, we couldn't figure out how to order. There were signs directing us to use touch screens that weren't actually touch screens. People were standing in lines at counters with no people at them. And people standing behind counters were taking no orders from customers. It was confusing. So we left and went to starbucks the next block over.

Kum Gang San Manhattan

Being that my in-laws had never been able to make it out to the New York or New Jersey area before, my parents wanted to take them out to dinner. This could have been problematic, from a diplomatic perspective. My parents profess to enjoy all cuisines, but they in fact will only eat food if it is Korean. When they go out for sushi, they go to a Korean sushi chef. When they have Chinese food, they go to a Korean-owner Chinese restaurant. And so forth. Although, they do like spaghetti.

The last time the four parents sat down for a meal, it was at a Korean BBQ in Chicago. This time, my mom suggested Korean BBQ. She wanted to go to Zen Zen, a place that my mom swears is in Ridgewood (or Ridgefield?), New Jersey. But, since this was my in-laws' first time in New York, time was at a premium, and I didn't want to have to trek all the way out to New Jersey. The second place she suggested was Kum Gang San. But, for the same reason I didn't want to go to New Jersey, I didn't want to go all the way to Flushing, even though that is one of my favorite Korean restaurants. Fortunately, Kum Gang San has a Manhattan location, which I had no idea. And it happened to be within a few blocks of our hotel.

carnegie deli

On Sunday, I had split off from my wife and her parents so that I could go to church with my dad. He was announcing his retirement from being a pastor. I wasn't planning on being there on the day of this announcement, but after a last minute schedule change, I was able to go.

When I circled back with the group, I had found that, when my wife was the tour guide for the day, she and her parents did not eat breakfast, did not eat lunch, and had only a back of chips to hold them over until dinner. For this to happen in a city with this much culinary possibility, I thought, was a travesty. Thus, after a tour of the NBC Studio and after taking in the view from the Top of the Rockefeller building, I took my wife and in-laws to the Carnegie Deli.  

Angelo's in Little Italy

After church, and after I had dinner at Hanabi Sushi in Stony Point, NY, my parents drove me back into the city to meet back up with my wife and her parents for what would be dinner #2 for me. We met at the hotel and then headed down to Little Italy. I had been trying to figure out where to eat in Little Italy that wasn't a tourist trap. Turns out, that's not really possible, as far as I can tell. I tried to pick the place that was the least tourist trap-y. So we went to Angelo's in Little Italy.

Hanabi Sushi in Stony Point, NY

After church where my dad announced that he would be retiring as the pastor this coming June, we all went out for an early dinner. In true Korean fashion, we were going to be eating dinner immediately after having eaten lunch after church. We let my mom pick where we would eat dinner. And because I think she suspected that she would need to return me to my wife and in-laws after the meal, she picked a place that was as far away as she could think of. We went up to Stony Point, New York. In her defense, she took me to Hanabi Sushi in Stony Point, New York, which is always worth the trip.

john's pizzeria Times Square

 On our first night in New York, my wife wanted me to find a place for dinner for ourselves and her parents in Times Square. This was rather difficult because, when I think of restaurants in Times Square, I think of Bubba Gump, Olive Garden, and TGI Fridays. This was going to be my in-laws' first meal in New York City - ever. So I had to step it up to something better than a chain restaurant. Fortunately, after a little bit of internet research, I was able to find John's Pizzeria. Plus, I had already put brick oven pizza on the list of things we had to do during the trip.

cake boss

The hotel that my sister had chosen for the wedding block was the W in Hoboken. Upon hearing about this, my sisters-in-law thought of one thing - Cake Boss. So, a trip on their behalf became necessary. For the couple of days around my sister's wedding, I had seen long lines to get into the bakery. But I figured that those long lines had to be some sort of fluke. It turns out, I was wrong. In all, I spent just short of four hours waiting for Cake Boss. In contrast, I have spent a total of about 30 minutes watching the show.

Homecoming Lunch

Sarah and I had made relatively last minute plans to return to my parents' house in New Jersey for the New Year. That meant, we were going to eat. A lot.

The morning of our flight back home, I had called my dad to let him know that our flight was going to be delayed. He asked me where I wanted to eat lunch.

Later, I learned from my father, this is a frequent way that Koreans used to greet each other after the Korean War. 'Have you eaten yet?' 'Did you have something good to eat?' Such questions towards travelers or guests were gestures of food generosity, a highly regarded social value in the tumultuous post-war times, my dad told me.

Sometimes, I think my dad just makes things up.