What eateries do you miss from places you used to live, but no longer have easy access to?
I have many, but they are all associated with a certain dish. I'll go in chronological order.
1. The pizza burgers during lunch in the Gavin School system (K-8th grade), go ahead, laugh, but you never had them.
2. Any dish from the "Waltonian", a old supper club on Fox Lake, Illinois, that used to be a hotel and bar during the depression when Al Capone and Bugs Moran operated in the vacation area of the Chain-O-Lakes in Northern Illinois. All chinese food I eat now has to measure up, unfortunately, most places do not.
3. Hackney's (
Chicagoland, closed now) fried onion loaf.
4. A fried rice dish that was enveloped inside a fried scrambled egg, but resembling a burrito more than an omelet, in the snack bar outside my home base barracks when I was stationed in Korea.
5. A Korean fried dumpling called Yakimondu that came from a fry-stand outside Duffy's Club just outside Camp Humphries in Korea.
6. Any push cart Clam stand in Korea that cooked fresh claims served in the shell with a Kimchi type garnish, cooked over a Yeontan charcoal brick, all served up with ice cold OB Beer. Eat and drink for 45-minutes . . . $4.00.
7. Don't laugh, but the hot beef Italian sub served out of Frank's Pizza in Waynesboro, PA. As well as their pizza.
8. The Italian Sub at Decker's Supermarket just outside the main gate at Fort Ritchie, Maryland.
9. No restaurant or eatery, but all that great crab we got to eat when I was stationed on the Maryland Pennsylvania border just outside Washington DC.
10. The garlic mashed potatoes at "Babe Winkleman's" in Memphis, TN . . . don't know if they are still open.
11. Either the Beef or Chicken Chop Suey at the "Stateside Restaurant", on BC Street just outside the back gate of Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa.
12. The fried chicken sandwich with cheese and onion in the US Naval Hospital Canteen, Camp Kuwae, Okinawa.
13. Don't remember the name, but a Kobe Beef place that cooked food just like Beni Hana in Kuwae Chatan Cho, Okinawa.
14. Don't laugh, "Shakey's Pizza", Kuwae Chatan Cho, Okinawa.
15. Almost any family restaurant in the Philippines that serves Pancet, Lumpia, Chicken Adobo, garlic butter shrimp, or roasted pork.
16. Any push cart in the Philippines that serves fresh, hot, right out of the oil fried Spanish peanuts with clumps of garlic.
17. The pizza at Gus's "Chicago Style Pizza" in Fox Lake, Il.
18. The pizza at Olando's Pizza, in Round Lake Beach, Il.
19. The Chicago Dog, hamburger, and cheeseburger (just like 1960-s early 70's McDonald's) at "Scotty's" in Round Lake Beach, IL.
20. I don't remember the name of the place, but a place outside Sigonella Naval Air Base, Sicily, Italy that served the best damn ham and cheese calzone and sicilian lasagna you will ever put in your mouth.
21. A Chinese place in Catania, Sicily . . . where it was weird seeing Chinese folk speak broken Italian and English, but they served food that measured up to the Waltonian (See Number 2).
22. No place in the Middle East . . . ever.
23. Johnny's Chop House in Antioch, Illinois, their glazed Filet Mignon with demi-glaze combined with the best garlic mashed potatoes since Babe Winkleman's
There ya go . . . hope you weren't bored.