#AshLaurenUSA Trip: Nashville

Like in Denver and Minneapolis I spent my time in Nashville exploring the city, eating at lots fantastic food places and drinking coffee.
Not only exploring Nashville, this time we also hired a car exploring the beautiful Tennessee country side to see the Jack Daniels Distillery.

Where to start?
I might as well start with where we stayed at, the Marriott at Vanderbilt University. Overlooking the Vanderbilt stadium, home of the Vanderbilt Commodore, the University football team. Would you believe that the stadium has the capacity to hold around 39,000 spectators for a University team!

Not only overlooking the stadium we also had the Centennial Park across the road.

Sites:
- Centennial Park:
On our first day we had a nice stroll around the park. It has a full scale replicate of The Parthenon, which was interesting and also a little weird. But not having been to Athens, yet, it was great to be able to see this building and imagine how the original would have looked back in its day.

-  Tennessee State Museum:
This might be hard for most people who know me to find, but I did spend around 3 hours in the museum. Why? For one, it was the coldest day we had in our whole trip and was hard to be outside for too long, and, secondly, it really gave me a good insight into the early years of Tennessee and USA.

- Jack Daniels and Loveless Cafe road trip:
What an exciting road trip to the Jack Daniels Distillery and then onto the Loveless Cafe, for a hearty classic Southern style American food.

Firstly driving on the wrong side of the road. That in itself was one of the highlights of the trip. We rented a real fancy American car, the Lincoln MKZ. What a way to cruise the American country side.

Side note: don't forget to take a car charger with you in unexplored places, otherwise, like us, once you reach your destination you might run out of power on your mobile. Lucky for us we found a Walmart where we could purchase a mobile car charger to help us get back on track.


Jack Daniels Distellary is situated in a town called Lynchburg, about an hour and a half drive from Nashville. The tasting tour of the Distillary was very interesting and we purchased a Single Barrel bottle which we were able to put a special engraving on the side. I should point out that the county which the distillery is located in is still a dry county, so we just purchased the actual bottle and the whiskey in the bottle, was free. Lynchburg also had that old style feel to it and was just interesting walking around the little town itself.

The second part of our road trip was having dinner at the Loveless Cafe.

What was not to like at the Loveless Cafe, fried chicken.

Along with biscuits (which are like our scons in Australia, but they serve them in Southern America with the main meal), Southern Fired Catfish (yummy), Pork BBQ with sides of Mac N Cheese, Fried green tomatoes and slow cooked green beans. Real Southern American comfort food at its yummiest.

Lets say, nothing was left on the plates.

- Nashville itself:
Just walking around and exploring the city was interesting.
Here are just some pictures I took while walking around the city:

Food:
Along with eating at the Loveless cafe, here are just a few of the other places we dined at, you can of course see all of them via using our hashtag, #AshBurgerz, via Instagram, Twitter or Facebook:
- Firefly Grille:
Firefly Grille menu changes each season. I had a really nice steak with feta, fresh tomatoes pasta dish.

- Pancake Pantry:

We couldn't go to America with out eating pancakes. This place is famous for them and the queue was around a 30 minute wait when we went. The wait at peak times can be over an hour! All I can say is that they didn't let us down, they were scrumptious and well worth the wait.

- Hog Heaven BBQ:

 - Fox's Donut Den:

Donuts donuts donuts!!! The owner let me go into the kitchen and see them make their donuts and pick some fresh donuts. They were so delicious that I ate them so fast and forgot to take a picture of the donuts!

Coffee:
I found some good coffee places while in Nashville. Like:
- Crema:

- Hot & Cold:

- Fido:

- Cafe Coco:

- Dose:

In the end Nashville had a lot to offer and I ended not ticking of everything on my to-do list. Which just means I well have to return another day to finish the list off, hopefully Nashville will have me back another time.

Don't forget you can see all of the places we dined at and had coffee on our food hashtag, #AshBurgerz, via Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
You can also see all the pictures/tweets/facebook comments from our trip on our trip hashtag, #AshLaurenUSA and you can catch Laurens thoughts on her blog, here.

#AshLaurenUSA: Minneapolis

We only had two nights in Minneapolis, which doesn't help when visiting a new city for the first time. I found this city to be layers, the first time you see it doesn't look like much, but once you get to the layers underneath the surface you start seeing another city. Due to the snow and how cold it gets during winter, the city has this skyway network that connects each building and creates a comfortable area for you to walk around the city while being inside.

My first day here, I didn't realise this and while I was walking around the city, on the normal streets, it seemd like I was walking around a ghost town and was wondering where all the shops and people were. Of course most of the shops are in the skyway system, which I learnt later.

Also, some of the outer city areas/suburbs, like where the Bryant Lake Bowl resturant is located, seem like some nice areas to visit.




Food:
With limited time picking where we wanted to eat, this was going to be tough and in the end we ate at some nice places.

- Bryant Lake Bowl:

This was a great place to eat and also had that American style ten pin bowling at the back. Like the one you would see on the 'Ed' TV show where you had to write your scores on paper, no computer screen - which added a little extra fun to playing.

We had a great Pad Thai along with a Green Curry.

- Crave:
While walking around 'The Mall of America', we ended up having happy hour here at Crave. Where we had some sushi and a mini pizza, along with Edamane glazed in a nice soy sauce.

- Food Trucks:
While on my walking adventures I stumbled across ten food trucks in a row - it blow my mind. Later learning they hibernate during the Winter and have just starting coming out now that it is Spring. I went the vegaterian option, the food truck was called The Moralomnivore, where I had some fantastic wild rice sliders, with sides of mushroom fries. I can still taste those fries, yummy!

Of course you can check out all the food places we visited on our hashtag #AshBurgerz on instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

- Coffee:
Downtown Minneoplis lacked coffee options most being chain stores, it wasn't till the second day I discovered Angel Food, that was just around the corner where I was staying. They also had some yummy donuts.

I also discovered the nice walk/bike trails along the Mississipi River in Minneoplisi.

From the first day I really thought that Minneapolis was going to be me in the hotel room during the couple of days stay but once I discovered the skyway system I enjoyed my time.

Dont forget you can follow our hashtags #AshLaurenUSA and #AshBurgerz and you can read Lauren's blog, here.

#AshLaurenUSA: First leg Denver

I would never have imagined that I would have had the chance to travel to Denver, Colorado. For an Australian looking at travelling to America (it's a long way to travel, with LA being a 14 hour flight and not into skiing like myslef) you tend to look at Hawaii, New York, California before you would think Colorado. But Denver, you certainly did surprise me with your food, scenery, coffee, sports and people.

Food:

Well, you can see most of my food experiences, via the hashtag #AshBurgerz on Facebook, twitter and Instagram, so I will not bore you too much here and just cover the highlights.

Using my expert knowledge of American eateries (that is watching Man VS Food) I found, well Lauren actually found this great web site which had all the TV shows on the one site, www.tvfoodmaps.com. This was a great way for me to create a list of where to start for my #Ashburgerz adventure, but it wasn't till i started adventuring the city and chatting to the locals that i started finding the hidden gems:

- Tamayo: This is not your traditional Mexican, it is modern Mexican at its finest. I am not going to lie, I had the most amazing Mexican I have ever eaten here. It took me back to my childhood days of eating when the stomach says "full" but the brain says "keep eating, don't stop". This meant grabbing Lauren's half eaten meal, and finishing that off too! Amazing!!!

-

Voodoo Doughnuts: Now I think I first saw this place on a Man VS Food episode, but at the time of the show, they were only in Portland. I always wanted to go to this place and when I googled the words "doughnuts" along with "Denver", guess what appeared on my screen? Well yes Voodoo, now located across a few places in USA. As soon as I discovered this I was pretty much straight out the hotel door and following the sweet sweet smell of delicious donuts.


The day before Lauren told me directly "No donuts for me!", knowing I had the green light from Lauren, Voodoo here we come.

The journey to Voodoo was an experiences in itself, walking most of the way, I later discovered I ventured outside the safe zone and into areas where tourists were best not to go. I enjoyed my walk, it was very interesting.

I had two donuts for the day, later when catching up with Lauren, I soon discovered that Voodoo Doughnuts was an exception to the "No donut policy" and so we had more donuts that night.

- Cherry Cricket: Another highlight, so far, for my culinary taste bud tour was this place. Seeing it on Man VS Food and hearing the locals talking on how its traditional American burgers, meant I had to go.

Just have to say, along with the bison burgers at Ted's Montana Grill, had to be one of the best burgers I have had, which went down well with a beer. You could literally make up whatever burger you wanted, which is danger for a person, like myself, who is indecisive. I narrowed it down, then asked the waiter what was the most popular burger ordered, to my surprise it was what I narrowed it down too! So I had a burger with cream cheese and jalapenos, I then added onion rings and some sauce to it.

Like I said, I could go on and on with all the food I have already eaten in the 6 days of being here but to keep this blog at a reasonable size, just go and check out my hashtag which I update (to the annoyance of Lauren) as soon https://www.tedsmontanagrill.com my food is out, #AshBurgerz. Lauren has also been posting too, here.

Scenery:

You cannot beat having the Rockies in your backyard. We took a day trip to the mountains and to see where the famous Buffalo Bill was buried. I will not go on for too long here, let's just say I loved the scenery from the mountains ranges and we had fun at the Buffalo Bill museum where we took some serious pictures (see below).

Coffee:

To my surprise, Denver has some good coffee places.
The best coffee places I went to being Little Owl, Pablo's and Marley Coffee.

While in Denver, we were able to experience and fall in love with ice hockey (well me anyway) and eat a hotdog at the baseball.

My best experience was meeting the locals and chatting to them, like Reaebedbenyah or "Ray" for short. I hope they didn't mind an annoying tourist from down under asking questions like "What's your story?", "Where to get the best coffee?", "What's a good place to visit?" I thank you Denver and the people of Denver for making my experience here one I'll remember for a long time to come.

Well, that's our Denver part. Thank you Denver.

- Also, don't forget to follow our hashtags for the trip #AshLaurenUSA and #AshBurgerz -

Tomorrow we will be on our way to the USofA

Tomorrow morning Lauren and myself will be on a plane heading to LA, where we will have to wait for about five hours before heading to Denver, our first stop.

Thanks to Liam, I have my food hashtag ready and waiting to go #AshBurgerz. This hashtag on instagram already has a picture on it and sorry to dissapoint it is not me or Lauren on a park bench drunk.

We are still trying to work on our trip's hashtag, so if anyone has any great ideas please let us know.

Not sure if I will be doing blogs (maybe some Melbourne Heart one's) while I am travelling but will for sure be instragaming my food and the places I will be seeing. I am excited about the trip, looking forward to the sites and of course the food. The only negative about the trip is that I will be missing the last two matches of Melbourne Heart and Harry Kewell's last game ever!

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The USA trip is getting closer - and I'm thinking about food!

Yes, our USA trip is nearly here. Of course Lauren will be hard at work and I will be hard at, well, um, increasing my belt size! I have compiled a dream list of food place's I would like to see and shows that they have appeared on. The hardest thing is cutting the list down or increasing our days in USA. Here is the list so far: 

Denver: 

• Buckhorn Exchange: http://www.buckhorn.com I think this is on ‘Man VS Food’. Its Denver’s original steakhouse. (Price: $$$$) 
• Mizuna: http://mizunadenver.com/ This place looks fancy from the web site. On ‘No Reservation’. (Price: $$$$) 
• Cherry Cricket: http://cherrycricket.com/ On ‘Man VS Food’ and ‘Best thing I ever Ate’. Burgers, Salads, Burritos this place looks like lots of interesting things (Price: $) 
• Bang!: http://bangdenver.com/ On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. Southern flavour (Price $$) 
• Biker Jim’s:  On ‘Best thing I ever Ate’ and ‘Unique Eats’. Gourmet hot dogs (Price: $) 
• Biker Jims also on ‘No reservation’
• Jack-N-Grill: http://www.jackngrill.com on ‘Man VS Food’ Mexican (Price: $). Thinking this is the Mexican place we should try. 
• Sam's No 3: http://samsno3.com On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’ Another interesting Mexican place. Apparently good breakfast (Price: $) 
• Steubens: http://www.steubens.com  On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. Looks interesting (Price: $) 
• The Bagel Deli: http://www.bageldeli.com/ On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. Looks like that classic Jewish style diner bagels and sandwiches place (Price: $) 
• Tocabe: http://tocabe.com On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. An American Indian Eatery (Price: $) 
• Wynkoop Brewing Company: http://www.wynkoop.com/ On ‘Drinking made easy’ and ‘Rachel Ray $40 a day’ American pub, maybe a have a drink here (Price: $$) 

Minnesota: 

• 5-8 Club http://www.5-8club.com/ On 'Man VS Food' and 'Food Wars'. American hamburgers (Price $) 
• Al's Breakfast On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. American breakfast, looks like a diner style eatery (price: $) 
• Brasa Premium Rotisserie http://www.brasa.us/ on 'Man VS Food'. This looks different, American home style food (Price: $)      
• Bryant Lake Bowl http://www.bryantlakebowl.com/  On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. This place has a bowling club and live entertainment. along with food - something different (Price: $) 
• Burger Jones http://www.burgerjones.com   On 'Outrageous Food'. Yes I know another burger place, who would have guessed, the pictures on the web site look great. (Price: $$) 
• Donatelli's http://www.donatellis.com On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. Pizza     
• Famous Daves  http://www.famousdaves.com     On 'Food Paradise'. BBQ ribs anyone!!!!!!  
• Gasthof zur Gemutlichkeit and Mario's Keller Bar http://www.gasthofzg.com  On 'Man VS Food'. German food (Price: $$) 
• kramarczuk's http://kramarczuks.com/restaurant On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’ and 'Food Paradise'. A culinary adventure awaits you at Kramarczuk’s. With a wide-variety of freshly prepared East European specialties, including a selection of the most popular Kramarczuk sausages, our menu is certain to surprise and delight anyone. (Price: $) 
• Lola http://www.pizzerialola.com On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. PIZZA!!!! (Price: $$) 
• Matt's Bar http://www.mattsbar.com  On 'Man VS Food' and 'Food Wars'. Home of the Original “Jucy Lucy” (Price: $) 
• Psycho Suzie's Motor Lounge http://www.psychosuzis.com  On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. More pizza anyone!
• Smack Shack http://smack-shack.com On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. Lobster Sandwiches (Price: $) 
• The Blue Door Pub http://www.thebluedoorpubmn.com On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’ and 'Bizarre Foods America'. Burgers, burgers, burgers
• The Nook http://www.crnook.com/  On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’ and 'Food paradise'. More burgers 
• Victors 1959 cafe http://victors1959cafe.com On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. Cuban Caribbean (Price: $) 

Nashville: 

• Arnold's Country Kitchen On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. Californian Traditional American (Price: $) 
• Athens Family restaurant http://www.athensfamilyrestaurant.com/ On ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. American Greek (Price: $$) 
• Hog Heaven http://www.hogheavenbbq.com/ On 'Best Things I ever ate'. "World Famous for our "Kickin' Chicken" white bbq sauce, Hog Heaven has been serving Nashville the best hickory smoked barbecue for over 25 years" (Quote from the web site) (Price: $) 
• Loveless café http://www.lovelesscafe.com/ On 'Americas Best', 'Food Paradise' and 'Throwdon with Bobby Flay'. Southern American comfort food (Price: $) 
• pancake pantry http://www.thepancakepantry.com/ On 'Man VS Food' and 'Food Paradise'. Pancakes anyone? (Price: $)
  - Lucky for us, our friend lives in Nashville, so hopefully some secret places to eat at.

St. Petersburg 

• Columbia restaurant  http://www.columbiarestaurant.com/  on 'Drinking made easy' 
  - Not much In St Petersburg, but lucky for us, we are not there for too long.

Still working on the LA food part....... more to come.

Maybe I might write and takes photo's (well photos, most likely lots of Instagram for sure) of my food journey.