Home.

[mrissa]

I am safe and approximately as sound as I was when I left Austin, which is approximately as sound as I was when I left home, mostly, sort of.

Tired. Naturally.

Book-laden. Naturally.

Happy with tribe. Naturally? Possibly naturally, at least.

Con report to follow. Yes, you guessed it: naturally.

The Au Bon Pain in the DFW airport is a great goodness. The best sandwiches I've ever had? Not at all. But quite edible for airport food: quite edible crusty bread with quite edible pesto, quite edible mozzarella, and edible-ish winter supermarket tomatoes. Go Au Bon Pain. Best thing since that one deli in MSP's airport went out. What's your airport food of choice?

Comments

[madmanatw.livejournal.com]

I love Au Bon Pain because I adore their cinnamon scones, and as far as I know the chain doesn't exist out here. So when I see one in an airport I buy a bunch of scones. :)

[ksumnersmith.livejournal.com]

Glad you're home safely. The con hotel looked very empty very quickly. We've relocated now to a much ... er, simpler hotel, and are looking forward to eating fine Denny's cuisine tomorrow.

Sarah says hi.

[tmseay.livejournal.com]

Are you folks still in Austin, then? If you get this soon and care to meet up for lunch tomorrow, drop me a line, eh? I'm just sittin' around until my flight leaves at 5:00 PM.

Marissa -- so good to see you! Sorry I didn't get to say goodbye. And thanks for the DFW restaurant recommendation, as I'll be flying through there tomorrow.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Denny's. Well, golly. That will satisfy your craving for high-quality guacamole etc.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, and hi to Sarah!

Glad you're back safe & sound

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

And happy, and book-laden. :> Yay!

For me, no airport food springs to mind. The edible poker chips here are funny though. Gummy chips.

Wishing you much good sleep. I bet the guys and Ista have been letting you know how you were missed.

-hugs-

- Chica

Re: Glad you're back safe & sound

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Edible. Poker. Chips.

*boggleboggle*

Do the people I live with know about these?

We fetch timprov from the airport tonight, but markgritter and Ista have definitely been glad to see me. No uncertainty there.

Re: Glad you're back safe & sound

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

Um... I don't know whether they know. I found them in the snack & gift shop franchise.

Sorry, I thought I'd be clever and make a special folder for LJ comments. Then I forgot to look in it!

- Chica

DFW

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

The place you really want to eat there -- if you can -- is Blue Mesa in Terminal D. Great steak tacos.

For future reference.

B

Re: DFW

[rosefox]

*takes notes*

I went through DFW last week and... ate... something. McDonald's, I think. Can that be right? I remember looking for something better and not finding it, even though I remembered there being decent Mexican food there; I found it while traveling through there with sinboy on the way back from our honeymoon, but I don't now recall where it was. A second-storey place in the main food court. Might have been Blue Mesa, actually. On the way out we had decent BBQ somewhere in the same terminal. I was probably just in the wrong part of the airport on this trip.

Coming back through ORD, I ended up at Chili's Too, which was every bit as bad as McDonald's for three times the price. Ah well. At least they gave me a pint glass full of frozen virgin margarita, which was mostly ice but had more or less enough lime to make me happy.

Re: DFW

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I didn't have nearly enough time to get over to Terminal D and eat steak tacos, sadly, but I will keep it in mind.

[todfox.livejournal.com]

When I travelled to Burning Man I discovered vegetarian airport food (and veggie food in general) got a hell of a lot more scarce as soon as I left austin until i reached the playa. In airports I usually hit up someplace deli-like too, as sandwiches seem to be the best thing airports usually offer. Unless its breakfast time then I scare up a bagel, maybe with eggs and cream cheese on it.

This is making me hungry.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Au Bon Pain does have vegetarian entrees, although the pickings are slimmer if you want to go vegan.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

Cinnabon. For real food I tend to stick with Round Table Pizza as a known quantity.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Cinnabon is never timed right for me: I always have to have breakfast before I get in the shower and leave for the airport if I'm going to be upright at all.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

ABP kept the photo crew alive through Noreascon 3. It was within easy walking distance, and could be taken out. Sometimes Mark Olson (N3 chair) came by and sent a gofer to *bring* us dinner, even.

And I didn't even get tired of them.

My particular addiction is roast beef with either Boursin or Brie. I don't think they have real Boursin any more, either.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We ate there several times at Noreascon 4 as well. It was a good morning gathering place, for dread morning people like myself.

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

When travelling, Starbucks is my known-quantity comfort food. Maybe this makes me a philistine, but I don't care. I've been living in Seattle long enough that to me, Starbucks equals "local" (Yes, they are a megalith, but they are *our* megalith. Ditto Microsoft, Costco, and Amazon.com).

There are other regional specialties I long for that are truly regional (and I have Brooklyn roots so the list is long), but the real thing is hard to come by when one leaves New York and the pale imitations that pass for them elsewhere just make me sad. But Starbucks is Seattle *and* consistency, which is a comforting combo when I am on the road.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I came upon this in Wizard of the Pigeons: it's an old enough Seattle book that she was explaining what Starbucks was, for the national reader. Heh.

[redbird]

I think my airport food of choice was that one deli in MSP, actually. Hmm. There's an Ivar's branch in Seattle-Tacoma airport, or was: clam chowder. Mostly I get by on Au Bon Pain, or eat beforehand.

[matastas.livejournal.com]

Wolfgang Puck's in O'Hare.

(Hey, I'm not paying for it.)

[ckd]

ABP is pretty functional; better than stock fast food places, and at least around Boston very easy to find. (Not to the level of Dunkin Donuts, though; those can be used as landmarks to give directions to the nearest Starbucks!)

Airport food:
BOS Term A is supposed to have a bunch of good options, but I haven't flown out of the new one yet. (Still.) BOS Term C has a Legal Sea Foods outside security; sure, it's a chain, but it's a reasonable sit-down meal. (There's an ABP next door to it, too.)

I haven't been through CVG (Cincinnati) in a while, so I don't know if there's still a Gold Star Chili there. (I'd prefer Skyline, but will take what I can get.)

I had a really good chicken curry rice bowl in an airport once. Of course, that was at NRT (Tokyo-Narita).

Fast food: PHL has a Chick-Fil-A, and DCA has a Ranch 1. Both are pretty good.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Legal Seafoods has served me well in the past, and a local chain is different from a non-local chain.

The existence of an actual Chick-Fil-A on the road in Austin boggled me.

[ckd]

What really boggled me was visiting the original Dwarf House restaurant, which is the "original Chick-Fil-A".

They serve hamburgers, too.

Yes, even with all the advertisements for "EAT MOR CHIKIN".

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

All...the...advertisements for....

*hides in Minnesota and does not come out for awhile*

[ckd]

Spots like this one. Or these ads.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

Glad you're back; Bittercon here turned out to be awesome thanks to the amazing power of pharmeceuticals.

My favorite airport food is what I bring in my backpack. I am not a snob, but no one sells whole wheat anything.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I usually bring stuff in my backpack, too, but with the flu bug preceding my departure it was hard to get stuff made that would be appropriate. I even traveled with boughten baked goods for breakfast instead of homemade. (But they were from Byerly's, so they still rocked.)

[carbonel]

Wolfgang Puck's Chinois chicken salad (or Chinois slaw at the Denver airport -- same thing minus the chicken for less than half the price). Alas that the Minneapolis airport doesn't have a WP, but O'Hare, Denver, and LAX all do.

Before I was dieting and low-carbing, airports were often an excuse to get a Cinnabon and extra frosting and eat in the flight. Also the barbecue chicken and Thai chicken pizzas at California Pizza Kitchen, especially when the actual restaurant in the Twin Cities hadn't opened yet.

Airport food has improved significantly from the days when the new MacDonald's at the Mpls-St. Paul airport was a major improvement in both price and quality over just about everything else available there.