What’s Missing in the West Coast
The West Coast is famous for many of the rare exhibits of our country. California has the coasts, Oregon and Washington have the lush forests, and even Texas can claim a home in the West with it’s circus of entertainment and adventure. However, I can’t shake the different kind of excitement that is offered by our opposing coastal friends and their culture on the East Coast.
I seem to always have found my home in the Western United States, so my exposure to the East Coast has been limited to visits there. Returning from these visits, I would always feel a loss of the certain charms I saw in the East that were vacant in my own part of the world. Maybe with great effort, we can bring some Eastern delights to our side of town.
One particular delight that the East Coast has mastered would definitely be, pizza. Sure there is the famous California Kitchen with it’s thin crust, that I prefer to call pizza chips. But, what compares to a Chicago Deep Dish? I’m not talking Domino’s either.
You can’t order pizza like this anywhere you go. The East is swarming with the most delicious, melt-in-your-mouth pizza that can only compare to Italy itself. If you can’t fold the pieces in half, feel it dripping down your arm, or stretch the cheese across the table, than you dare not claim any quality close to these superb East Coast pizzerias.
Search all you want to in Utah, California, Washington, or even the laughable pizza of Texas, and it won’t hold the tiniest candle to New York City’s or Chicago’s perfected pizza pies. However, man cannot live on pizza alone, and there are other like enjoyments depriving the westerners. Not surprisingly for me, I’m also referring to food in this case also.
Buffalo Wings got their name for a reason. Don’t think I’m talking about Buffalo, Wyoming either. What the South has done with barbecue sauce, the East has done with a chicken wing. The delightful sensation or gnawing chicken bits off the bone has thrived all over, but not to the level of quality of the original in Buffalo, New York. Just give in and order yourself a whole bucketful, and watch it disappear.
I like hot wings just like the next person, especially smothered in bleu cheese, but my all time passion has got to be sandwiches. This passion was founded during my time in a place called Pittsburgh. This town has concocted the most unusual mouth watering creations ever found on a sub. The cheese steak sandwich taking the cake, with steak, cheese, coleslaw and fries — this is all on the sandwich, mind you — is a shame to miss out on.
And for all you Reuben fans, don’t assume you’ve had the best until you come to Pittsburgh. Even widening the expanse to gyros, pitas, or pierogies, Pittsburgh, or anywhere in the East, holds the rights to these culinary treasures. Take a chance of asking anyone in California to make you one of those. You’d be better not to embarrass them.
Too many of my cravings have been left ungratified because I sadly live on the wrong side of the country. However, while we may not have these certain things for ourselves in the good old West, we do have claim to our own luxuries that have no business on the Eastern seaboard. These favorites of the East Coast must make the east what it is, and therefore they can keep it too themselves. I can always come back for a visit.