While reporting stories this year, I went to some weird places, and occasionally also ate food. Here are my most memorable reporting-trip meals.
Cannon Ball, North Dakota
I went to Standing Rock and mostly ate at the communal kitchens, where the meals were uniformly hearty and pure (lots of turkey hash and fried bread). But down the street from the camps there was a casino called Prairie Knights, and at the Prairie Knights casino there was a bar, and at the bar at the Prairie Knights casino there was a double burger called the “Double Diamond.” A very cool name for a double burger, and well-earned.
Berlin, Germany
At an outdoor picnic table of a pub-like establishment on the corner of a city square, I had a schnitzel the size of my head and a dark beer in a thick glass mug. 10/10.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
While connecting through the Minneapolis airport, I had just enough time to run through the Chick-Fil-A for a chicken biscuit breakfast sandwich. Has Chick-Fil-A fully divested from all of its anti-LGBT causes? I am afraid to Google and find information to the contrary that I won’t be comfortable with, because that sandwich was so delicious.
Rosario, Argentina
Hanging at a bar near the Newell’s Old Boys stadium with a diehard fan of La Lepra and his adorable 11-year-old son, we went deep on some kind of party platter involving green olives and diced-up milanesa. Breaded. Meats. Forever.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
I went to Baton Rouge to hang out with a very cool man named Silky Slim. By the time we finished talking, and because of a post-flooding curfew, the only thing open was an outpost of an obscure burger chain. I had a cheeseburger and, after a very long day, it was extremely good. Wow, this is the second burger on this list. I think I need to refine my palate.
Atlanta, Georgia
I went to Atlanta twice this year and can’t recall a distinctive meal. For this I blame my own lack of wherewithal (and the fact that musicians keep strange hours that mess with regular eating schedules) rather than the surely good and true culinary scene of Atlanta. So I’ll just say that I enjoyed the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies from Patchwerk Studios that 21 Savage and his friends graciously shared.
New York, New York
I’d never actually been to city staple Joe’s Shanghai before the young punks of Show Me The Body flexed the juice and got me past the tourists in order to take multiple bamboo steamers of delectable soup dumplings to the face. Folks, I think what I’m trying to say here is, there’s no place like home.