Salt Lake City

I'm back in the US for a few weeks. This time, instead of flying straight home to visit Texas, I flew into Salt Lake City, Utah by way of Tokyo and DFW on one extremely long day of traveling. I'll be meeting my parents here in a few days to join them on an adventure in some of the area's famous national parks.

My old college roommate, Dominik, has lived in Salt Lake City for a few years. He's a doctor finishing up his residency at the University of Utah Hospital, and he's letting me stay at his place for a few days while I get over my jetlag and wait for my parents to arrive.

Dominik picked me up at the airport around 10pm and drove me back to his apartment. Salt Lake City is actually a relatively small city, so it only took about 15 minutes to get across town.

The first night I was so tired that I took a shower and just passed out. Dominik had to work the next day, but he told me how to use the public transportation in the city and how to get downtown.

I was up early the next morning feeling actually pretty good considering the long, rough journey from Bangkok. I stepped outside in the fresh mountain morning air and walked to the nearby streetcar station to buy an all-day pass. The ticket is good for the streetcar, city bus lines, and the TRAX train, which is the main 3-line train system in Salt Lake City.

S-Line Streetcar

The streetcar runs every 15 minutes from Sugar House (the neighborhood where Dominik lives) to Central Pointe Station, where you can catch the TRAX which runs downtown, to Temple Square, and to the University of Utah.

Salt Lake City TRAX train

I was out and about by 8am, but most of the major sights and attractions that I wanted to see wouldn't open until 10. I had time for a leisurely breakfast, so I made my way to Penny Ann's Cafe, a local institution, to try one of their most iconic dishes, "Chicken IN Waffles".

The idea is really innovative, and I've never heard of anything like it. The cafe chops up big pieces of crispy battered and deep-fried chicken tenders and mixes the large chunks of chicken into a traditional Belgian-style waffle batter which is then cooked in a waffle iron until perfectly golden brown and crispy on the outside.

Every bite of the waffle had a bit of chicken inside it, which combined the flavors even better than traditional chicken and waffles.

The waffle is served with a topping of powdered sugar and a big scoop of soft, creamy butter. Maple and boysenberry syrup is served on the side for extra sweetness. Personally, I think that maple goes best with chicken and waffles, especially when paired with a mug of hot, fresh, bottomless coffee.

Downtown Salt Lake City is really nice! It's very pedestrian-friendly and the outdoorsy and sporty folks of the Mountain West region tend to be fonder of walking and biking around the city than in hot, congested cities like Dallas.

I spend the day running around downtown visiting as many of the city's most famous sights as I could. I'll write about them in a separate post soon!

For lunch I tried another of the city's famous foods: a pastrami burger at Crown Burgers, which has been serving delicious burgers topped with fresh homemade pastrami since 1978.

All of my Utah food adventures will be documented on my other blog, theworldofstreetfood.com as well, so stay tuned for more.