Finding ‘Good Eats’ on the Road: 7 Top Guides for Travel Nurses
By Melissa Wirkus, contributor
The famous quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Life is a journey, not a destination,” is so applicable to the travel nursing lifestyle. Any travel nurse who has taken a road trip to get to his or her next assignment would probably agree that getting there is half the fun.
Of course, this kind of travel can also work up an appetite, and it doesn’t take long to tire of the fare from fast food franchises and gas station mini marts. So what’s a traveler to do?
Read on to take a tour of America's best road trip bites and eateries. From comprehensive online guides that point out all of the great places to try along your route, to specialty resources on food trucks and pet-friendly restaurants, TravelNursing.com is pleased to offer this list of our top choices to help you find your way--and satisfy a traveler’s taste buds.
Our top seven guides to finding “good eats” on the road:
1. Roadfood: Website and Books
Perhaps the most comprehensive and well-managed database of road trip restaurants, Roadfood.com is a foodie's paradise. Featuring a regional, coast-to-coast guide of restaurants, eating tours and even recipes, the site offers something for everyone. A new "Roadfood of the Day" is featured daily, and there are several books that accompany the site. Written by Jane and Michael Stern, Roadfood and Roadfood Sandwiches feature hundreds of roadside restaurant reviews, great pictures and fun stories.
2. Eat St. and the Food Truck Craze
What were formerly known as "roach coaches" and rarely seen outside of construction sites are now among the trendiest things to happen to food since late night dining. Enter the food truck. The Cooking Channel has dedicated an entire show, “Eat St.,” to the best street food in North America. Tune in to find great food trucks throughout your road trip route. And we're not just talking hot dogs here--think gourmet culinary treats and adventurous eats such as alligator tacos, buttermilk fried chicken and homemade pierogies (Polish dumplings).
3. Barbecue Road Trip
Making a pit stop can take on a whole new meaning when you make it a point to pull up at some of the BBQ joints operated by the nation's top "pitmasters." In his book, Barbecue Road Trip: Recipes, Restaurants, & Pitmasters from America's Great Barbecue Regions, Michael Karl Witzel takes readers on a journey to America's best barbecue restaurants, including some of the more famous ones in Texas, Kansas City and Memphis. The book features a comprehensive listing of long-standing, popular “’cues” broken out by state and style of barbecue.
4. Healthy Road Trip Restaurants
Road trip food isn't exactly synonymous with healthy cuisine, but the folks at Gourmet and BlogHer have tried to change that with their listing of the Top 10 Healthy Road Trip Restaurants. Featuring the best in vegetarian, vegan, natural foods and other healthy eats, this mini-guide is a great start for a traveler looking to eat healthy on the way to the next assignment. Highlights include a farm-to-table style restaurant in Washington, D.C., natural and local sushi in Connecticut, and a charming cafe in Northern California where the chef prepares almost everything by hand.
5. The Zagat Legacy
A trusted culinary resource since it first debuted in 1979, the Zagat franchise now features a website and hundreds of guidebooks that provide hungry diners with "trusted and accurate restaurant ratings and curated restaurant reviews for thousands of top restaurants worldwide." You can search reviews by cuisine and popular cities worldwide, and all of the information is based on surveys and real feedback completed by thousands of people. The website also features a "Deals and Events" section where you can get online coupons offering 30 percent off at some of the world's best-known eateries.
6. Diners, Drive-ins & Dives
Both a popular FoodNetwork TV show and successful book series, “Diners, Drive-ins & Dives,” hosted by quirky chef Guy Fieri, is considered a top resource in road trip dining. There are several books in the series, which are great to have on hand before embarking on your next road trip. Fieri gives a colorful approach to his reviews (both in the books and on TV), and the guides include chef interviews, restaurant listings by region and recipes so you can attempt to recreate your favorites at home. Be sure to check out the fan site, Flavor Town USA, which is dedicated to the series.
7. Pet Friendly Restaurants, Activities and More
Bringing your pet along to your next travel nursing assignment? Click on over to GoPetFriendly.com, where you can input your starting and ending points in their road trip planner, and get a listing of pet-friendly restaurants, campgrounds and activities along your designated route. Finding restaurants that you can enjoy with your beloved Fido will make getting to your next assignment that much more fun!
(Do you have your own favorite guides to food on the road? We’d love to hear about them. Please share on TravelNursing.com’s Facebook page.)
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