Welcome to another week of life on the road. This week, we’re in Austin, where it’s been surprisingly windy almost every day.
Aaron and I had not done a ton of traveling before we started this journey. We packed up the car in 2013 to move out to Seattle, sight unseen, and we certainly saw a few things along the way (Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug, an arm wrestling match in a hotel bar in Ellensburg, Washington).
Once we were in Seattle, however, we didn’t really leave. For one thing, I was scared of driving back east through the mountains, and for another, we didn’t make much money for the first several years. If we went home for Christmas, that was basically the travel budget for the whole year.
But we did manage to take a few trips over the years. Alaska, via a cruise with Aaron’s dad (for which we only had to foot part of the bill). San Francisco in 2018 to celebrate our 30th birthdays. Portland, for two long weekends about seven years apart. Chicago to see my mom and sisters (and most importantly, to see Hamilton).
Now, traveling long-term is bringing up memories of these trips from the past, often that one of us has forgotten until the other reminds us. And what we’re realizing is that, both then and now, some of our best memories have been centered around food.
So in that regard, and maybe because I’m hungry, I thought I’d share some of the best meals from our travels that we continue to reminisce about, sometimes years later.
San Francisco: The Pop-up Pasta Place
We don’t know what the name of this place was, and we realized halfway through our meal that it was a pop-up, so I know it’s gone now. I’d completely forgotten about this one until Aaron brought it up.
We were on our way to the Exploratorium, an interactive kids’ museum that hosted an adults-only night once per month, and we’d arrived early and hungry. We popped into this little pasta spot with maybe 10 tables total and grabbed a seat.
I don’t remember what I ate; Aaron thinks he had a Lamb Bolgnese. Or Bison Bolegnese. Some kind of less-than-typical meat Bolognese. But we do remember that it was delicious. We went to the Exploratorium full and happy.
San Francisco: Pacific Cafe
This one, I remember. Either someone recommended this restaurant to us (Was it you? Tell me in the comments!) or we’d found it on Yelp. However we heard about it, all we knew going in was that they served seafood and they offered you a free glass of wine while you waited for a table.
But once we got there, we realized a couple of things: they had a no-reservations policy, so the wait could be long; and the “one glass” of free wine was actually them handing you a glass and consistently refilling it until you were taken to your table. There was a fun atmosphere of camaraderie and chattiness among everyone standing outside, as we all got tipsy and bold enough to start talking to each other.
By the time we went inside, there was no need to order any alochol at the table. Which was great, because we could just focus on the food. And the food was incredible. They had a simple menu—it was one of those places that does a few things exceptionally well. Again, I don’t remember my exact meal— grilled fish of some type with veggies on the side—but it was delectable.
I wanted dessert (I always want dessert, sometimes I say I have a separate stomach just for dessert) but I was borderline too full. As I waffled about my decision, the waiter said:
“You should get it. There’s one man who makes all our cheesecake, has ever since we opened, and he’s, you know, getting older. So you should really have the cheesecake while you can.”
What? This charming family restaurant has a Cheesecake Guy and you’re telling me he’s probably gonna die before we come back? Sold. We got the cheesecake to go and went back to our Airbnb to watch a movie.
Portland: a Cena Ristorante
We’ve been here twice, once in February of 2022 and then again in September, during our month-long stay there. It was great both times, but it’s our first visit that we’ll never forget.
Aaron told his therapist that we’d managed to get a dog sitter and would be going to Portland. She told him about this restaurant, and said that sometimes she’d drive all the way to Portland from Seattle just to eat here. And she recommended a specific dish: the Agnolotti.
Described on the menu as “corn and mascarpone raviolini, butter-poached Maine lobster, chives,” this was one of the best meals we’ve ever eaten. Buttery, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth amazing.
When we came back a second time, we pushed ourselves to try other items on the menu. They were good, this is a quality restaurant, but honestly, nothing beats the Agnolotti.
Portland: G-Love
We went here with a friend of mine from high school and her husband, not long before we left Portland. She’d been dying to try it, and thought it would be perfect for me as a “veggie-forward” restaurant.
Here again, the menu wasn’t huge, but everything sounded good and we weren’t sure where to start. So my friend made a brilliant decision to ask the waiter to decide. We told him we’d eat family style, sharing everything; the number of dishes we’d like; and that our preference was vegetarian and pescatarian. Then we sat back and waited to be surprised by whatever came our way.
Everything we ate was great. But even more so, the family-style experience of eating together and sharing stories was so fun. Aaron and I were just coming out of our Darcy isolation (and still very much grieving), and we’d never spent this much time with my friend or her husband. We laughed so much that night, and it was exactly what we needed.
Santa Fe: La Boca
We were only in Santa Fe for a week, and I was sick for the first several days. But I recovered enough that we could still take our two days off at the end of the week to explore. And by the time I was well, Aaron had a list of places he wanted to go, starting with La Boca.
At the time, it seemed too fancy to me. It’s just lunch, I thought, and maybe I should just get some comfort food, like a burger. But he insisted, so we went.
What a great decision. La Boca is a tapas restaurant, so again we picked several items to share. The seared tuna was incredible, and the grilled eggplant with melted Manchego and saffron honey was delicious.
But then there was the flat iron steak: cooked to perfection and served with two sauces, a sea salt caramel sauce and a Cabrales butter sauce (which were both delicious but actually best when mixed together). Even though I’m mostly pescatarian, every once in a while I have a few bites of meat, and I could not resist this steak. We shared it, then ordered a second plate right after (remember, small plates).
San Antonio: Bella on the River
This was years ago, before we moved to Seattle and while I was still working for a small publishing company in Mississippi. My coworkers and I (all three of us, total) were traveling to sell books at a big conference. My boss, the publisher, hired Aaron for the weekend to drive a truck with a small U-Haul full of textbooks from Oxford to San Antonio.
After the first (only?) day of the conference, the publisher went to dinner with some friends or something, but the associate publisher, Aaron, and I went out to dinner together. We walked along the San Antonio River Walk and found Bella on the River. The entrance was next to a tree seemingly growing out of a wall.
The food was amazing, and we had a great time getting to know my coworker. I think it was both Aaron’s and my first experience with work travel and seeing another side of a coworker over a meal. It was also our first experience with a nice meal that was paid for by the company instead of us, an exciting treat.
After the meal, we walked along the River Walk more, and then along a street where people could take carriage rides. Reminded of something a couple of my friends in high school did on a trip to New York City, I waited for the next carriage to approach, and then Aaron and I picked a fake fight with each other as the carriage passed us. People stared and watched as I accused Aaron of cheating on me.
I hope we gave them a good story.
(Truth be told, I honestly can’t remember if we did this, or if we just talked about doing it as the carriage passed. But I like to think that we did it.)
I hope you weren’t looking for detailed meal descriptions, because as it turns out, I did forget a lot about these individual meals. But the food, while always excellent and well above anything we ate in our day-to-day lives, wasn’t the most memorable part (except the Agnolotti, truly). These were memorable because they were exceptional experiences.
Re-connecting with a good friend.
Trying a restaurant on a whim because a therapist said so.
Standing outside in the San Francisco wind drinking free wine with strangers.
Eating handmade cheesecake by a man who just might take the secret recipe to his grave.
Discovering a tree that shouldn't exist, and yet does.
This is what I hope we continue to find, and take from, traveling. The memorable moments in new places with new people where, just for a night, a little magic happens.
What else is going on?
We had delicious tacos at Veracruz, and then walked along the Colorado River. We discovered Zilker Park, a huge park with nearby natural springs, where we sat in the grass and watched all the dogs.
We finally, finally, finally started season 3 of Barry. I know, I know. But we’re getting there.
I finished the third book in the Time Zero series by Carolyn Cohagan, and I was really satisfied with the ending. If you enjoy post-apocalyptic Young Adult fiction, check it out.
We’re staying pretty far north in Austin, but one perk is that we’re close to Walnut Creek Park. It’s not as big as Discovery Park in Seattle, but it’s still pretty damn big, with lots of walking and biking trails. I’ve gone there to walk most mornings before work—I love a good city park.