[Sca-cooks] Re: Pennsic - meals, etc - sorta OT

[Rosine]

> Four of us are driving the 2500 or so miles, sharing one car
> and trailer, so we will not be bringing a kitchen.  I would have
> loved to cook for some of you.  I have been assured
> that we can fare quite well with the food court.

   There's an open fruit/veggie vendor that has recently appeared - it's got
a very nice selection of fruit for morning/afternoon snacking. "Beast and
Brew" (? "Beast and B-something") offers two different meal selections every
lunch and dinner time and runs from about $5 for lunch to $7/8 for dinner -
the meal comes with a choice of iced tea or lemonade and the servings are
*fighter-sized large*. They give you a choice of two out of four (or so)
veggies for your sides. Last year I was working on healing a stomach ulcer
and ate there twice a day (I admit, as good as it was, I got awfully tired
of roast beef with gravy and small white potatoes) and had to ask them to
halve my servings as they were just too large. And don't be scared to try
their fish - it is, for a restaurant, *very very good* (says the non-seafood
eater. If it pleased me, you can bet it would please most diners - though
nowhere near the standards of some of you cooks!)
   The Bread Bowl Inn offers food served in a big fresh loaf of white bread.
The spaghetti was so-so, the beef stew can range from almost-mom-made to
horrid "too much cornstarch" glue - it's hard to judge, but I've only had
the horrid once in four years or so. Late late night seemed to be the "too
much cornstarch" time - probably trying to stretch things until closing
time. You have plenty of time to see what folks ahead of you are walking
away with. When the stew's good - it's good.
   The Italian Ice stand runs $3.50 for a fair-sized serving of
fruit-flavored ices. I strongly recommend at least one -'though they are
addictive.
   My kids say that the Pizza is good at "the pizza place" (I've forgotten
the name of that restaurant) and the breakfasts there are popular. I've just
never eaten much from there.
   As for the Chinese stir fry.... well.... I'm not a fan of veg-all in my
fried rice, but I do think the beef and veggies on a bed of white rice is
tasty.

   There's a lunch-type stand up by the barn. I don't know if it's going to
continue there since the old book bazaar behind it is getting turned into a
food court, but I think there's only one "hamburger place" - the hamburgers
are fighter-portion huge and good (I think about $6) with hand-made patties,
and in terms of fresh salad, this place is your best bet - the Greek place
served teeny tiny salads at a high price, while the hamburger place served a
much larger chef salad whose greens and veggies were always crunchy at about
half the price.

   If you're wondering - working at the Troll Booth, just across the street
from the food court and much closer than my camp, I've ended up eating a lot
of stuff ready-to-buy. But I'm a plain food kind of person, so have to admit
that I've only eaten in the Greek place once or twice (I do admire the work
they put into decoration, entertainment, and "atmosphere"). And I miss the
bakery...

   I thought you'd might like a bit of a head's up on possible price ranges.

Rosine