I remember in a course I took titled: Food, Culture, and Identity, we held a debate on whether or not the USA has an identifiable cuisine. We somewhat concluded that no, there is not one identifiable cuisine. Still, I wrestle with that conclusion.
Upon graduating college, one of my best friends, Julia and I went on a West coast road trip that allowed me to really eat and explore many states I had never been to before. As I prepared to go, I wondered, am I going to discover new aspects of American food? Would I maybe come to more of a definitive answer to whether or not there is an American cuisine?
We started in Denver, CO – we borrowed my brother’s car for the trip who lives in Boulder, CO. We would then drive towards Yellowstone National Park, spending a night in Thermopolis, WY. Following a night in Yellowstone, we drove towards Portland, OR, spending a night in Boise, ID, then a couple of nights in Portland. From there we drove to the Napa Valley, CA, to San Francisco, CA, to Los Angeles, CA, to Santa Fe, NM, and then back to Boulder, CO. The trip took about a month to complete and boy did I eat.
There was very little planning prior to going on the trip. What we wanted was to be spontaneous and live in the moment. Though I had a couple of food destinations I had to hit, such as In-N-Out, for the most part when we were hungry, that was when we would search for something delicious. Whether it be searching the web, Yelp, Instagram, food blogs, recommendations from friends and family, or walking down the street, choosing where to eat on this trip brought Julia and I to some pretty cool, bizarre, unique, amazing spots in each city/town we visited.
Our trip started on May 22nd and ended on June 14th. During those 23 days, a lot of land was covered. One of my biggest regrets of this trip was not tracking how many miles we drove – it was a lot. Alas, we documented lots of other parts of the trip. One of my goals was to track the food we ate, no surprise there.
I am going to break-up my West Coast roadie week by week, trying to reminisce about the trip while also discussing the “American cuisine”, some tips for anyone planning to go on a road trip similar to ours, and some include food pictures of course. For this trip we made a separate Instagram account: julzandevgowest, check it out if you would like.
Upon graduating college, one of my best friends, Julia and I went on a West coast road trip that allowed me to really eat and explore many states I had never been to before. As I prepared to go, I wondered, am I going to discover new aspects of American food? Would I maybe come to more of a definitive answer to whether or not there is an American cuisine?
We started in Denver, CO – we borrowed my brother’s car for the trip who lives in Boulder, CO. We would then drive towards Yellowstone National Park, spending a night in Thermopolis, WY. Following a night in Yellowstone, we drove towards Portland, OR, spending a night in Boise, ID, then a couple of nights in Portland. From there we drove to the Napa Valley, CA, to San Francisco, CA, to Los Angeles, CA, to Santa Fe, NM, and then back to Boulder, CO. The trip took about a month to complete and boy did I eat.
There was very little planning prior to going on the trip. What we wanted was to be spontaneous and live in the moment. Though I had a couple of food destinations I had to hit, such as In-N-Out, for the most part when we were hungry, that was when we would search for something delicious. Whether it be searching the web, Yelp, Instagram, food blogs, recommendations from friends and family, or walking down the street, choosing where to eat on this trip brought Julia and I to some pretty cool, bizarre, unique, amazing spots in each city/town we visited.
Our trip started on May 22nd and ended on June 14th. During those 23 days, a lot of land was covered. One of my biggest regrets of this trip was not tracking how many miles we drove – it was a lot. Alas, we documented lots of other parts of the trip. One of my goals was to track the food we ate, no surprise there.
I am going to break-up my West Coast roadie week by week, trying to reminisce about the trip while also discussing the “American cuisine”, some tips for anyone planning to go on a road trip similar to ours, and some include food pictures of course. For this trip we made a separate Instagram account: julzandevgowest, check it out if you would like.