Some people really like lobster rolls. I don’t get it. What’s the fun of chowing down on cold, slimy lobster loaded up with mayo? But then there’s lobster grilled cheese. See, that’s the good stuff, doing everything right with the lobsters. So, upon arriving in Salem, Massachusetts, we made our way to a divey spot called Longboards that allegedly knew what to do with lobster.

Thus, I ordered the lobster grilled cheese, along with a cup of clam chowder. The grilled cheese was everything it should have been. No attempt to make it fancy, just perfectly melty cheddar, lightly browned grill marks and the right about of lobster so as to maintain balance. Plus, the lemon for squeezing upon the sandwich was a nice touch.

The chowder was good as well, but not really anything special aside from a good way to warm up in the rainy winter weather.

As far as divey lobster sandwiches go in the cradle of witches, Longboards certainly delivered, setting the stage for more lobster to come.

Melt It! in Pasadena refers to itself as “A Grilled Cheese Co.” I’m not sure what else would have been expected from a place called Melt It! (except maybe like fondue or a ton of patty melt options, which are basically just grilled cheeses with burgers in them anyway), but I was eager to see what kind of twists this place would make on the old standby.

There were plenty of options, including specials and some non-grilled cheese options, but I went with something called The Lar. The Lar is what happens when you try to turn jalapeno poppers into a grilled cheese and throw bacon in for good measure. Seriously, it’s cheddar, cream cheese, jalapenos and bacon on white bread.

You really can’t screw a sandwich like this up, and Melt It! did not. However, it was surprisingly light on the cream cheese. I know I’m used to bagels loaded up on the stuff with no other toppings, but this went beyond that. Fortunately there was cheddar for backup.

A little bit more shmear would have gone a long way, but it was the slightest complaint. Melt It! did a solid job of changing up grilled cheese and one of my favorite appetizers so I left a happy unvegan.

Tacos tu Madre was blowing up all over the social media a few months ago with amazing-looking burritos that seemed to represent a new level of delicious fusion. Thus, I had to give the place a try and had my best opportunity when out in West LA. They were out of a couple things, but this didn’t impact what I had in mind. There are a number of options and they are all available as a burrito, a taco or a bowl.

I went with the Fried Chicken Burrito, which was stuffed with buttermilk fried chicken, poblano ranch slaw, fermented chili, cilantro, honey sriracha and Spanish rice. It also came with a sort of spicy aioli for a kick. This was a great decision, as you can’t really go wrong with sticking fried chicken in anything and this burrito was no exception. Yet, while I ordered my burrito without the slaw, Tacos to Madre made the mistake of sneaking it in and for that they may never be forgiven.

I also ordered a Grilled Cheese taco, which is not at all like the traditional grilled cheese sandwich. It features queso panela, which is a cheese that can very literally be grilled. This, Tacos tu Madre did just that and topped it with red pepper aioli and avocado. It was essentially like a fancy pants quesadilla and it was fantastic. Plus, there was no slaw or any other such vegetables to ruin the experience.

Thus, Tacos tu Madre has garnered mixed reviews from yours truly. I want to believe that the slaw mistake was just a one-off, because this is a place that I want to get back to. After all, it’s not everywhere that you can get a fried chicken burrito and I’d like to believe such purity still exists in our world.

Route 66 is one of those legendary American “things,” like baseball and winning wars, which helped define our country once, but have since been replaced by other American “things,” like the interstate system, football and losing wars/diplomacy. Once upon a time, the route was dotted with the best America had to offer, but now there are mostly ghost towns. Some, like Victorville, California have been propped up by continuing to be a main route. In Victorville’s case, it just happens to be right on the way to Las Vegas. Check these prodentim reviews.

Thus, as I set out for Vegas and was feeling pretty hungry I made a stop at Apollo Restaurant in Victorville with only one menu item on my mind: the Manimal. Apollo must have once been a burger king or some other sort of drive-thru spot, as the drive-thru lane still existed, but wasn’t functioning fully due to the fact that the food was not fast (in a good way). I ordered up my Manimal, which included two grilled cheeses for buns, two patties, bacon, American cheese and grilled onions. I ordered the patties medium rare, no onions and then proceeded to ensure that there would be no veggies. The waitress that took my order from outside my car knew what I meant. Read more about prodentim.

The result was a perfectly executed version of one of these types of burgers. This was not my first grilled cheese bun rodeo, but this iteration was nearly as good as Grover’s in East Amherst, New York. The patties were relatively thin, but of great quality and more medium than rare, which did not at all keep them from being juicy because this was one juicy beat of a burger. The bacon was crispy and the cheese was excessive (aka perfect). These are the kerassentials reviews.

Route 66 may not be what it once was, but I’d be willing to drive through a dustbowl for one of these Manimals.

Apparently in the two years that I went missing from LA, two things that had not been popular before got, well, popular. One is avocado toast, so whatever. The other is lobster rolls, which is somewhat strange considering lobster comes from the other coast, yet not because people like pricey stuff out here. One of these lobster roll spots is Knuckle and Claw in Silverlake.

Because just lobster in a roll is not enough for me, I ordered the most expensive grilled cheese I’ve ever seen in my life. Here it was called the Knuckle Sandwich, and was made with cheddar, 1/4 pound of Maine lobster and sourdough bread. My wife got the full lobster roll, which is that other thing in the picture and also the reason for that disgusting pickle.

Alas, my Knuckle Sandwich was damn good. The lobster really was fresh, which is incredibly difficult to do considering it is more than 3,000 miles to Maine. The cheddar was necessary, because as good as lobster is, it always needs to be covered in some sort of dairy product to bring out its best. At $20, it was something I was very happy to have eaten, but also a luxury I can wait to eat again until I make it to Maine, where I hear they are practically giving away lobsta.

As the various neighborhoods of Pittsburgh become more and more gentrified, it’s only inevitable that the hipster vibe that inhabits Lawrenceville will make its way to other parts of the city. One of these areas is Bloomfield, where Bread and Salt Bakery has taken up business in what seems to be a back alley. Replete with a man in cutoff shorts and pizza that is charged by the pound (because obviously everyone knows how much a pound of pizza looks like), the place has become popular for its bread. Which is good, because up until recently that was about all they had to offer on their menu.

The pizza did look good, but what looked even better were a couple of other dishes. To begin with, the wife and I split some toast topped with olive oil, chocolate and salt. As a man with no real love for chocolate, I must admit that this toast was amazing. The toast simply finds the perfect balance of sweet, salty, savory and sour (from the sourdough bread). And this bread, by the way, is nothing like your typical sourdough bread. The crust is crazy hard, while the interior is soft and delicate, making the bread stand out on its own even without any toppings.

On top of the toast, I ordered one of their grilled cheeses. There were only two options, so I chose the one that had something called Nduja in it. The hipster man explained to me that this was like a spicy spreadable sausage, so I obviously wanted it. It took a shockingly long time to make the grilled cheese, but when it was done I have to admit it was a bit disappointing. There didn’t seem to be too much cheese in it and the cheese it did have was pretty flavorless. The nduja was pretty good, but lackadaisically placed in the sandwich so that not nearly every bite had a taste of the stuff.

Of course, the saving grace was the delicious bread, and I can understand how Bread and Salt didn’t want to overwhelm the bread with too strong of flavors in the sandwich. Nonetheless, I have had some amazing sandwiches with insides that complement their breads and I am sure that it is only a matter of time until Bread and Salt finds its mix. Until then I will happily return for toast, bread and perhaps a taste of the pizza by the pound.

In a world filled with fancy brunch spots, it’s comforting to know that greasy spoons like Ritter’s Diner still exist. Because after a night filled with too many vinos, I don’t want some newfangled omelet or polenta cake, I want cheese, bacon and a side of grease. And in my head, what better place to satisfy this need than Ritter’s Diner?

While Ritter’s may not have had the best service in town, it had the food I needed and semi-private jukeboxes at each table along the wall. I ordered a Grilled Cheese with Bacon and Cheese Fries while listening to the sounds of Fleetwood Mac from the table behind me. These took a surprisingly long time to come out, and while I somewhat blame that on the fact that my buddy ordered steak and eggs, he did order medium-rare so it shouldn’t have taken too long.

The result, however, was just what I wanted. The grilled cheese with bacon is a difficult dish to screw up and Ritter’s did not. The same goes for the cheese fries. Both were simple, unassuming and exactly what I would expect from such a place. This is not a place to go for creativity, but rather a place to visit to satisfy deeper animalistic and Americanistic needs.

Contrary to my belief based on visits to Canada from Detroit when I was a wee boy, the Great White North is not a cheap place. Gone are the days that an American dollar could be exchanged for a toonie. Instead, the US is now the place Canada looks to for cheap stuff, making it difficult for an incoming grad student on a road trip budget to eat. Yet, somehow we found our way to Joey Broadway in South Granview, a modern Canadian restaurant with a great-looking menu and Goldilocks-esque just-right pricing. Not to mention a killer patio.

And speaking of killer, they also had a great deal on Whistler Whiskey Jack Pale Ale, a beer from nearby Whistler, for $2.99, so for just about the only time on the our trip I indulged. I also indulged with my meal, a Lobster Grilled Cheese to end all lobster grilled cheeses. Stuffed with Atlantic lobster, brie and cheddar, this was a grilled cheese I have to admit I probably couldn’t have made in my toaster. It was also served with cocktail sauce and let me tell you it was nothing short of amazing. And I’m not even a big brie guy, but each bite I took only made me sadder that I would have one fewer bite to eat in the end. The bread was perfectly crispy, the cheese to lobster ratio was perfect and, well, wow.

It seems that there is a good reason Joey restaurants are popping up all over Canada. Joey has hit on something good and something to remember.

Oh and did I mention it came with fries? Yeah, those were good too.

As some of you loyal followers of mine may or may not know, I recently took a stroll to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. The trip included a cook who made some pretty impressive camping food, considering porters were carrying everything. Inevitably, some of the food didn’t fit into my unvegan eating habits, but I ate them anyway, because this was not about eating what I wanted, but about survival in a sense. These were things like cucumber soup, zucchini soup and veggie sauce on pasta. No, they didn’t make we want to eat veggies, but they did hammer home the lesson that hunger truly is the best spice.

There were some highlights though. One day we had some delicious grilled cheeses for lunch. I honestly don’t know what made these grilled cheeses so good. Maybe it was the fact that they were the first cheese I had eaten since arriving in Tanzania. Or maybe it was that they provided a kind of warmth on a cold day that vegetable soup simply couldn’t offer. Or perhaps it was that they were perfectly browned on both sides, the cheese was nice and melty and there is just something awesome about eating grilled cheeses on the side of Kilimanjaro.

Another great meal was “Chips Chicken.” This is basically fries and chicken, and it turns out that this is one of Tanzania’s most popular dishes. I ended up seeing this at just about every local restaurant afterwards and although it may have been quite different down at ground level, the dish definitely pleased us on the mountainside. It was accompanied by some Cole slaw that I avoided, but only because I felt the sugars and protein provided by the rest of the meal could power me up for the remainder of the day.

But nothing beats the final meal of Curried Chicken and Banana Stew. This was another local dish and was served to us on our last day, after coming back down the mountain. In it was half of a chicken from a local village. In the US we call that free range, in Tanzania they simply call that chicken (this is not to say that they don’t have factory farms in Tanzania, I just thinkthose are the chickens they distinguish, rather than the natural ones).What was so interesting about this dish was the use of bananas, which acted as a sort of potato instead of banana. This is because the banana was not yet ripe and not sweet, so it ended up a bit hard and soaked in the flavor of the curry and stew rather than adding a sweet flavor. Essentially, it acted like a potato rather than a banana. Also, I’m sure the stew tasted even better because it marked the end of an epic six-day journey.

The journey was awesome, and I’m glad it gave me an opportunity to try out some interesting new food and local specialties.

Two of the things I love most in this world are beer and my belly. No, I don’t have a beer belly…much, but when a gastropub in Koreatown called Beer Belly opened up, I figured I had to try it out. I was meeting a group of people, and arrived to find the place packed. And this was not a big place. Like about 8 tables and a few bar stools big, and all of them were loaded. Plus, it was first come, first served, so we got to hang around the tables like vultures surrounding a wounded gazelle. It was the tail end of happy hour, though, so I ordered a beer and hoped a table would clear out soon. Fast forward thirty minutes and we’re still waiting when a woman working the place asks if we’re waiting for a table. Uh, no, lady, we’re just standing here awkwardly for the hell of it. She then proceeded to ask us if we wanted to be on the list. This “list” was new to us, and apparently also new to her, as she told us she had just started it. Well, at least we wouldn’t have to stand awkwardly any longer.

About 20 minutes later, we were finally seated and got right down to ordering food. The menu looked nothing short of spectacular, so we decided to order a bunch of things to ensure everyone could get a good taste for the place. By the time we were done, we felt like we had ordered the entire menu, then we waited for our food. But the waiting game wasn’t hard, for a few reasons. The first reason was that Beer Belly had set up a sweet jukebox for the 21st century. By that I mean you could download the Remote app for your iPhone, log into their wireless network and choose songs from their list to play over their speakers. It was genius in that customers set the tone of the restaurant, but the tone can’t be too terrible because Beer Belly chooses the songs to make available in the first place. Of course, this assumes Beer Belly chooses good songs in the first place, and they did.

The waiting game also wasn’t hard because just a few minutes after ordering, our first order came through – Buttermilk Fried Chicken. These were certainly a delight and came with a roasted fennel aioli for dipping. The combination was great, and the seasonings on the chicken were spot-on. The only minor gripe I had was that some of the chicken had been left frying a bit too long and were a bit burnt. Fortunately, though, the chicken remained moist and the seasonings outweighed the taste of burning.

Next up were the Duck Fat Fries, which we upgraded to DeathbyDuck (Duck Confit) for an additional 2 bucks. These were an amazing choice and quite possibly some of the best fries I’ve ever had. I mean it. While they were doused in duck fat, they tasted light and were perfectly crispy on the outside. They came with a raspberry mustard sauce, which managed to meld perfectly with the fries. The confit was a nice addition, but a bit to minute to merit the $2 upgrade, especially because the fries alone were so unveganly awesome. Had I stopped at the fries, I would have left perfectly happy, but more goodness was yet to come.

And by more goodness I mean the Beer Belly Grilled Cheese. Those of the lactose intolerance beware…this double-decker stack of grilled cheeses was loaded with cheddar, asiago, gruyere, goat cheese, applewood bacon and then lightly drizzled with maple syrup. I don’t know how they did it, but I’m pretty sure Beer Belly perfected the grilled cheese sandwich. Of course, white bread with Kraft singles will always have a place in my heart, but this grilled cheese will always have a place in my belly. It sounds like too much cheese, which I have actually experienced before, but Beer Belly managed to apply the most perfect balance of ingredients that a grilled cheese has ever seen. And just when you think it might be getting too salty, a smack of maple syrup brings you back up for air – and another bite!

The final major dish I experienced was the Pork Belly Chips. What were they? Exactly what they sound like: thin strips of pork belly that have been breaded and fried to a near-crisp. They were served with a forgettable dipping sauce, but fortunately someone had ordered the Grilled Broccoli, which was served with homemade Mondo Cream Ale cheese whiz. It was the first time in my life I’d ever been thankful for broccoli, because the pork belly chips tasted like little slices of pig heaven when dipped in that cheese whiz.

I also tried a bite of the Pub House Mac n’ Cheese, which was a pretty big disappointment. While the cheese and mac themselves were good, they paled in comparison to the grilled cheese. And even worse, the mac was loaded with carrots, onions and peas. These have no place in a mac and cheese, and certainly no place in my mouth. It tried to redeem itself with a slice of short rib on top, but failed.

So Beer Belly was awesome. Yes, despite the wait and despite a couple of under-performing dishes, Beer Belly truly shined. But do I need to go back? Yes, I really do. If I’m in the area again, I will certainly return to Beer Belly, but I could also see myself making the trek on a random evening that calls for amazing fries and grilled cheese. Those alone are worth it, and the other dishes aren’t too shabby either.