Food

We have experienced a huge change in food since we've moved. When we lived in KC, we ate out a lot. For two people, it was easier and sometimes cheaper to go out. I didn't have a lot of kitchen space, so we didn't keep a lot of staples in the house. So to make something even simple like tacos, it was cheaper to hit Taco Bell.

That isn't the case here. We have lots of space and have stocked up on staples when they've been on sale. I've also stocked the freezer with things from the garden and Amish market. The food here is about 25% cheaper. It makes sense to eat at home more and we do. We don't have a lot of options in places to eat. In our town, we have a pizza place and diner. In the next town, there are chain restaurants, Bob Evans, some diners, pizza places and a steak house.

Because of the lack of options, Kent doesn't go out for lunch. He takes his lunch, which makes cooking even more valuable. I try to have plenty for leftovers.

We have to drive an hour for restaurants we are used to.

But there's something more to it than that. I know, this is going to make me sound like a foodie snob. Maybe I am, but this is really about the difference between here and KC. I could make a similar comparison to the area I grew up in Kansas.

The palates and expectations of people here are different. That's not an insult, but an observation.

We've had a lot of people recommend places to us, which we've been thankful for. But we've often wondered why. This is my theory. People have different tastes here. They are recommending the best that they've had or know to be around here.

There are three BBQ places within 30-40 minutes of here. Ok, maybe it's a little unfair. We are from KC where BBQ is a love language. Two haven't been bad, but one has made us sick every time. None of them are even close to KC BBQ.

The places all seem to have the same level of cleanliness too. They just aren't. Many people had recommended the Japanese steakhouse where we ate yesterday. The food was good for this area. The portions were huge. It was a bit over salted for my taste and they don't know how to make a veggie roll. But that's all ok, nothing that would keep us from going back.

It was pricey for this area. We definitely understood why it is a special occasion place. However, it was filthy. It was almost like they never cleaned after the Saturday night crowd. The ladies restroom has three stalls and none of them worked. There were paper towels clogging the sink. When I told the hostess, who acted very hungover, she was disinterested and told me to look in the men's room for a working toilet. No thanks!

I'm not saying this would be acceptable to the people around here. But when we spend $60 on a lunch, we certainly expect to have working restrooms. But unfortunately, this level of filth exists more often than we would expect.

Again, I'm not trying to be judgmental. It makes me a little sad that there isn't more attention to detail by owners and managers. We've easily walked into at least a dozen places that far surpassed the filthiness of LCs BBQ in KC. That place gets shut down for health code violations at least twice a year.

I won't at all say it's all been bad. We've found several good places to eat. We love the Skyline Chili chain and a local burger joint. We've explored and tried lots of different things. We've even gone to places, like Holtmans Donuts, that our more local friends haven't tried or even heard of.

Like is said, I could say many of the same things about the area we grew up. They make Mexican food really well and that's it.

We've experienced something else similar to home. When I would make gourmet salads for my husband's family, they never got eaten. By gourmet, I mean caprese salad, fruit filling salad, red velvet cheesecake and others. Not super fancy but certainly different for them.

In the few times I've cooked for small group and an event, I've had similar experiences. Anything out of the norm, wasn't eaten. I made a tomato, bacon and pasta soup for an event. It's something we eat all the time. I brought home nearly an entire crockpot of it and I know it was mistaken for a very bad chili. No biggie, we ate it. But it's still been an interesting experience. It's made me feel a little weird and like even my food doesn't fit in.

Crazy. It's amazing to me how so much is different and there can be such a difference in food over 600 miles. As always, it continues to be a learning experience for us. Even if we don't feel like it, we are slowly fitting in to the norm around here. Some of these things used to bother us and now we are a lot more tolerant.