Next up in the Fly&Dine Interview hot seat is Kendra (left, with husband Josh above), the woman behind BoardingArea blog Points & Pixie Dust. Kendra loves tracking down the best deals around and traveling in luxury (without a luxurious budget) and she was gracious enough to share her tips for eating on the go. Stick around after the interview for your chance to win a $50 gift card thanks to the folks at The Counter Burger, with locations all over the world including two airports: SAN and MIA. All you have to do is answer this week’s giveaway question in the comments for your chance to win. Time for some pixie dust…
As somebody who loves to travel in style with a small budget, how do you plan your meals while you’re traveling?
I have been known to plan trips around meals! One of my favorite things to do is to walk (instead of taking a cab, bus, or the metro) to a highly-recommended local spot. I love taking the time to see different areas on foot, and really getting a feel for the new city I’m in. I find that if a restaurant is a neighborhood hangout, prices are often more reasonable, plus the food and the ambiance are both deliciously memorable. In this way, meals can become one of the day’s highlights, so really they become more than just a meal – they become an experience. For me, that is the essence of traveling in style.
Do you ever eat at the terminal or on the plane? Or are you somebody that brings their own snacks with you?
Hmm. I am actually kind of a picky eater: I would rather not eat than eat disappointing food. So I have definitely felt stranded and optionless in airports. If I’m traveling with my kids, I’m definitely better prepared and will pack snacks: sliced fresh fruit in Ziploc bags, trail mix, a really nice cheese with some crackers. If I’m just flying solo, I sometimes take a chance on board a flight and order the cheese plate (I know, I’m really living life on the edge). Otherwise I’ll stick to sparkling water and salty snacks – which is a silly combination, but like I said, I’m picky and that’s what I like.
What’s the best meal you’ve ever had while traveling?
I’m not sure if I’ve ever had a bad meal in New Orleans. When I’m there, I basically just wend my way from one incredible meal to the next. It’s hard to go wrong when you’re cooking with that much butter and wine.
Any food horror stories from the road?
When I was in Malaysia, I bought a steamed pork bun from a street vendor. It was filled with crunchy bits of bone. Horrible.
What’s your best tip for eating well while traveling on a budget?
Go for quality over quantity. Do your homework on Chowhound (and of course on Fly&Dine!)
Thanks so much, Kendra. I think we’re all going to stay away from boney pork buns in Malaysia from now on.
Let’s move on to the giveaway. The Counter Burger has been one of my favorite spots for customizable burgers since they opened and now they’ve moved FAR beyond their LA roots to include locations around the globe. If you haven’t tried it yet, you’re missing out for sure. If you can’t get to one of their regular locations, I highly recommend stopping in the next time you’re flying through San Diego or Miami.
I’ve got a $50 gift card to give away this week and all you have to do is answer this simple question in the comments:
“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever eaten from a street vendor?”
If you’re a Twitter user, make sure to tweet about the contest by cutting and pasting this snippet: “I just entered @FlyDine’s contest for $50 to @CounterBurger. You can enter, too, by clicking here: bit.ly/1iPSnlx“
Find past Fly&Dine interviews here:
One entry per person. No purchase necessary. In fact, there’s nothing to purchase. By entering, you agree that you’re cool with the fact that Fly&Dine makes all the decisions and those decisions are final, even if you don’t like them. Contest closes at 11:59pm Pacific on Sunday 5/11/2014. Winner will be contacted via email. Please provide a valid email address when leaving your comment. If we don’t receive a response from you after one week of being notified, a new winner will be chosen at random.
Really big soft pretzel in berlin…
A stale “pretzel.”
I just had Maine lobster rolls from a food truck and the were awful, awful good.
Had Octopus balls that is not cook inside taste terrible.
Bad roasted chestnuts from a street vendor in Seoul. Must have had a bad batch, because some of the chestnuts were old and moldy on the inside. Gross.
In Thailand, I once bought what I thought was sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf, but it turned out to be raw meat in a banana leaf!
It was a moldy, hard pretzel…what was I thinking!
The worst thing I’ve ever eaten from a street vendor was a tamale near the bus terminal in Puebla, Mexico. It was way overpriced and a quarter of it was a giant chicken bone!
Roasted chestnuts at Christmastime in NYC. They were moldy AND burned!
Worse thing I ever had from a street vendor was Bubble Tea in Oahu. I had never tried it before, but it was watery, chewy and tasted gross!
I tried mango and hot sauce, which is apparently quite a popular combination.. but, no, it just didn’t work for me at all!
A bacon wrapped hot dog at a UCLA game at the Rose Bowl. It tasted delicious but wrecked me for days after!
a stale cold corn dog — how hard is it to cook a CD?
A really yummy pita sandwich that made me sick for days. 🙁 PS__Kendra is the best. I love her blog….and she’s cute in photos, but even cuter (quite lovely) in person!
I had a tacos from a street vendor in Tijuana Mex. I’ve never been the same …
A cold hard knish!
Lukewarm tea
Pre-made crepe in Paris….I should have waited for a fresh one!
once had a chicken kebab from the NYC street vendors, which was spiced way too hot!
A pretzel from a street vendor in DC
burrito that had “expired”
pretzel
My wife and I had just moved to North Carolina and went to the Autumn Leaves festival in Mt. Airy (the real town after which the fictitious town of Mayberry was modeled). One vendor was selling chicken sandwiches (a piece of chicken in a hamburger bun). When we bit into our sandwiches, we found it unbelievable that the chicken pieces in the bun still had the bone in!
An awful slimy hot dog outside of union station in DC. No amount of mustard would mask that terrible hot dog.
A snake on a skewer in Beijing.
A cold hotdog outside a baseball game. I was too cheap to buy one inside but definitely should have waited.
rancid hot dog in manhattan, gross!
A burned crepe in Paris.
Bad street quesadilla in TJ. Sick for days.
Hhhhmmmm. Probably street tacos of questionable quality. Fingers crossed for good stuff on my next trip!
A bad pretzel in Munich Germany! 🙂
tarantulas at a bus rest stop in Cambodia!
Crepes made out of a package mix in Berlin
The worst thing I had from a street vendor was some grilled mystery meat on-a-stick.
A cold, soggy sandwich.
Bad street noodles in Taiwan
Some “chicken”
In Turkey I got a Turkish version of a bagel…well it was between a bagel and a pretzel. It was actually REALLY delicious but I was already kinda full from having just eaten but the stress of traveling with family was getting to me…..I realized stress eating was a bad idea when I was on the ferry any my stomach was not happy….oh did I forget to mention the bagel/pretzel was being sold at the ferry docks?
Any chestnuts. It took me a while to realize I wasn’t getting bad ones — I just can’t stand them!
Congratulations, Jennifer! You’re this week’s winner!
Hot dog
Crispy, fried cockroach from a bicycle-borne street vendor in Peking – late 70s
“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever eaten from a street vendor?”
A Falafel made with rancid oil while dining with the WanderingAramean & Frequent Miler.
I think the worst thing I ever ate from a street vendor was some french fries from a place in NYC. They were super hyped up, but not all that good, and they oil was a bit different tasting for me. I shared a small (or medium?) with someone, and threw out probably 2/3 of it.
A kebab from a small farmer’s market in a suburb of Santiago, Chile. Tasted ok, but gave me severe food poisoning. Oops.
A meat pie filled with chicken (supposedly) in Sydney.
Really salty spicy rice cake in Korea.
pineapple. Got sick from it later in the evening :/
It’s a street food favorite in Taiwan… congealed pigs blood on a stick, covered in cilantro and peanuts :/
I’ve had intestines and tripe and such in singapore. delicious but my friend did not feel well. lol
Spoiled fruit in Mexico.
Not an entry, just a comment:
I’m with your thoughts on this: I’d rather do entirely without than eat ‘bad’ food on an airplane. Airlines and their caterers go to extreme lengths to produce Buy-Aboard fare, usually sandwiches that are safe and shelf-stable. In the process of maintaining food safety, they seem to destroy any pleasure associated with a cold sandwich. IMO, a simple cold sandwich can be a truly wonderful meal. However, it requires FRESH bread and quality ingredients – and that’s where they fail. The breads a safe and stable and Truly Horrible.
My solution, depending upon the nature, length and origin of my flight, is simply to take my own. When that is not an option, I tough it out with bottled water and grumble about having to pay for simple drinking water on an airplane. (Airplane ‘potable’ water is not; they know it and we know it, yet they demand additional cash for water that is safe. This is and will remain my major gripe with all airlines.)
Soapy water instead of coffee.
a whole coconut with the worst tasting coconut milk ever, and after holding it for about a minute i found out why, it was overrun with ANTS, they were crawling all over my hands/arms. haha
Mystery meat that was supposed to be an Italian steak.
super spicy noodles from a street in Shanghai… too hot to eat!
“lamb” kebab in Beijing