Why I Oughta...

On a walk to the train station for my return trip to NRT aboard the Narita Express (a close cousin to the "Tragic Express" - the return trip of the Magic Express from your Disney resort hotel to MCO), I came across this McDonald's advertisement showing off three sandwiches.  The bottom one has a face-like quality with the bacon 'tongue' sticking out and kind of smiling along the curvature of the burger.  But, the middle one.  See that cutaway in the middle.  That's not chicken.

I found myself in Philadelphia recently and unfortunately, I didn't have time for much outside of the scheduled events.  (sounds familiar, right?  Just like my recent trip to Denver where I didn't get to go to the Cherry Cricket !)  And that means my trip didn't include a visit to Pat's and Geno's for the typical tourist showdown.  Let alone Steve's - which I think the eaters have coalesced around as being tops in town, right?   I did, however, have time for a steak at the airport where Geno's has an outpost. I got my 'with wiz' and it wasn't awesome. But, shame on me for thinking it was going to be right?  Kinda like the equivalent of getting pie at the DiFara's in Vegas at the Ceasar's Food Court , right?  You know what you're doing when you enter into an agreement like this.  It always turns out the same.

Central Grocery is a small Italian grocery store in the French Quarter in New Orleans.  I was down there this week for a conference and this was on my 'NOLA Bucket List' as this is the HOME of the original Muffaletta sandwich.  These beauties are stuffed with cheese, salamis and most importantly: olive salad.  I've had plenty of Muffalettas and I don't know if it was because I was eating this one in the store where it all began - but this was the *best* sandwich of it's kind that I've ever had. The store itself isn't much to look at.  It really is a grocery store with canned/jarred products everywhere.  Nat and I had a discussion about this type of place (the sort of local 'food touchstone' that tourists seek out - like Pat's/Gino's in Philadelphia or Uno's in Chicago).  Do you think that they had some great PR person back in the day who got them in travel books (before the web) and then it sort of self-propagated itself?  Or...do you