​​​Vegetables Are Not A Priority: 

Making the Most of Meals on Road Trips

























By Janet Wolfe
Posted November 4, 2026


        When my sisters and I were kids, my mother’s mealtime mantra was: “Clean your plate.  There are kids starving in China.”  When we hit our twenties, Mom’s motto changed to, “Life is short.  Eat dessert first.”

    Now that I have kids of my own, I do my best to make sure they eat well and eat healthy, but I also let them embrace the more adventurous “eat dessert first” spirit when opportunities present themselves.  Nowhere do we live this more fully than on road trips.

     Exploring new-to-us states means more than just checking out landscapes and cultures and activities we don’t encounter in our home state of Maryland.  It means finding iconic foods and trying regional produce and game.  Chowing down on burgers from national chains that don’t have locations near us.   Finding joy in the moment—and in the unmistakable deliciousness of a peanut butter cream pie from the “world famous” Betty’s Pies in Two Harbors, Minnesota.  Before lunch.

     As such, we’ve made some memorable and wonderful discoveries over the years, including 

  • “Fleishfest”—a feast of fleischkuechle (meat pies), mashed potatoes, and knoephla (potato and dumpling) soup—at Kroll’s Diner in Mandan, North Dakota.  Both kids said they were moving to Germany after that meal.


  • SafeHouse Spy Restaurant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The best thing about this restaurant wasn’t the food itself (I couldn’t even tell you off the top of my head what we ate there) but figuring out where it was and how to get in.  You won’t find the name of the restaurant outside of the building, you need a password to be admitted (or be willing to “prove” your worthiness), and you’ll be doing all of this to the entertainment of others.


  • Kalimotxo (red wine and cola), lamb grinders, and croquetas at Bar Gerinka in Boise, Idaho, home to the largest Basque community outside of the Pyrenees mountains between Spain and France.  We didn’t get to experience a paella street feed at the Basque Market, but we did walk the Basque Block and sink our teeth into some of the traditional tastes and foods of the culture at this tiny but cozy pub and eatery.


     How can you make your meals part of your destination experience?


Do your research

     Sometimes, the “must try” foods are obvious: beignets and po’ boys in New Orleans, deep dish pizza in Chicago, lobster rolls in Maine, clam chowder in Massachusetts.  But sometimes you have to dig a little to find a state’s or region’s specialty or a city’s beloved eatery.  

     Years ago, my go-to website was www.roadfood.com.  It featured non-chain restaurants, highlighted key menu items to try, and was easily searchable by state.  Although the website still does offer good information, the state-by-state breakdown is gone, making it a little harder to find recommendations by location.  I still use the site as a secondary source, but my preferred resources lately have been

  • State- or city-specific internet searches.  Searching “best foods to try in XXX,” “must eat in XXX,” “iconic XXX foods,” and to a lesser extent, “where to eat in XXX” invariably brings up an assortment of articles, blogger recommendations, and travel guides.


  • Food shows.  Whether you catch them on TV as they air or you look up episodes by location online, shows like The Best Thing I Ever Ate; Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives; Man vs. Food; and even Carnival Eats can direct you to unique, local-approved stops and experiences.  We’ve sought out many dishes we’ve seen on these shows, and the food has always lived up to the hype.


  • The Food Network online.  Actually, just one page in particular: “The United Plates of America” (https://www.foodnetwork.com/restaurants/packages/best-food-in-america).  This site does what www.roadfood.com used to do so well: identify iconic dishes in each state and provide the names of a few restaurants or cities who do it best.  I’ve come back to this site again and again and have never been disappointed.


  • State symbols.   Years ago, our kids had a Highlights Which Way USA book club subscription that we drew inspiration from.  Designed for kids age seven and older, the series includes a 32-page “puzzle” book and an illustrated map for two new states every month.  All four of us learned quite a bit about each state—including key state symbols and iconic locations to visit—through these books and maps and planned both food and activity stops based on what we read.  Luckily, you don’t need a subscription to find out that the state beverage for more than 20 states is milk.  You just need the internet.  Knowing what each state takes pride in—whether it’s a state crop, a special state dessert, or a state gem or mineral—is also a good way to research souvenirs.  


  • Vlogger recommendations.  Whenever we are researching a potential city to visit, we always hop on YouTube to see what others have experienced and what they recommend.  This includes food.  Some of our favorite food recommendations have been from YouTubers A + K Adventures, Through My Lens, Wolters World, and Yellow Productions.  The husband and wife team of A + K never fail to cover coffee stores and ice cream shops, so if those are the keys to your heart, be sure to check them out.


  • Live scouting.  Of course, sometimes you just don’t have time to sort through an entire city’s restaurant list, or your particular destination town doesn’t have any of the specific food experiences you seek.  In those cases, simply keeping an eye out for unique places to eat while you’re driving around can turn up some gestational gems.  When we first arrived in Spokane, Washington, we drove by an old-time looking place called Dick’s selling “a bag of burgers.”  Intrigued, my husband looked it up and found another regional burger joint: Zip’s.  When we headed out of Spokane the next day (destination Oregon), we stopped by the Zip’s Drive In in Cheney.  Open since 1953, Zip’s proved to be a great little diner with really tasty burgers.



Be willing to try new things

     I am very guilty of getting into a food rut.  I’m sure there are plenty of tasty dishes at one of our local favorites, The Mount Airy Inn, but whenever we go there, I always get the fish tacos.  Always.

    The same is true for our general dinner-out choices when we’re home.  We tend to frequent the same handful of places because we know it’s good and we like it.

    But part of the fun of traveling is trying new things.  That includes food.  This is kind of funny coming from me because 29 years ago, when my husband and I honeymooned in Cancun, Mexico, we ate only what we knew, which happened to be Hard Rock Cafe and Domino’s pizza.  If we weren’t eating at either of those places, we were dining on food found in the safety of our hotel.


    Fast-forward to 2009, however, and things started to change.  We had the good fortune to get tickets to the Steelers vs. Falcons Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida.  Suddenly interested in eating like a local (our international-cuisine exposure was pretty limited to Chinese, Mexican, and Italian), I found a small cafe that was celebrated, online, for its Cuban sandwiches.  As silly as it sounds, we were nervous at the time walking into an “unknown,” but the food was delicious, the people were friendly, and we learned to think outside of our known favorites.

     That experiment with Cuban food served us well in 2024, when we spent time in Burbank, California (home of the game shows of my childhood!).  We stuffed ourselves silly at Porto’s Bakery and Cafe with traditional Cuban dishes, including Ropa Vieja (stewed beef), steak torta, potato balls, meat pies, and the mango mousse bomb, and we loved it all.


Allow yourself a splurge now and then

     Trying new things isn’t always cheap.  In St. Louis, we tried the world-famous Hot Brown sandwich at the unsavory price of $25.  Each.  Was it worth it?  You bet.  Did we spend that much money on dinner every night?  No way.  We tried to balance the bigger splurges with more budget-friendly meals.  Although you won’t find us eating at Chick-Fil-A on the road (even though we love it), you will catch us eating pizza at CostCo or Sam’s Club, when possible.  You just can’t beat a $10 pizza that fills everyone up without putting a big dent in the budget.


Don’t limit yourself to restaurants

    Think beyond traditional chain and sit-down restaurants in your pursuit of finding local flavors and foods.  

    We tracked down Tanka Bars—high-protein bars made out of bison and cranberries, based on a traditional Native American Lakota recipe—in a gas station/convenience store called Common Cents in Rapid City, South Dakota, in 2021.

    In 2025, we stopped in a Super One Foods market in Superior, Wisconsin, for the Wisconsin-made, available-in-Wisconsin-only Spotted Cow beer that a friend recommended to my husband.  While we were there, we found (and later devoured) a ring of Kringle, Wisconsin’s official state pastry.  

    During our 2026 summer road trip, we bought fresh Flathead cherries and huckleberries from a small stand in Polson, Montana.  

    Exciting, delicious, and native treats can be anywhere.  You just have to be willing to look for them.


Remember: this is a vacation

     In other words, if you’re like us and you find that you’re not eating vegetables at every meal because you’re too busy eating carbs and sweets, it’s okay.  Forgive yourself.  Remember: vacations are short-lived.  Memories last a lifetime.  And your doctor doesn’t need to know.

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