Caesar Salad at the Airport

Although I am sure some of my readers realized I was way for the past three weeks, some do not.  We left southwestern Ontario (Canada) on May 8 for our vacation home.  Then we flew out of Fort Lauderdale on May 12 to spend a wonderful side trip to Aruba.  We returned to our vacation home on May 19 where we stayed until May 29.  It was a wonderful, food filled vacation of which I will share some of our foodie finds and favourite restaurants in the next couple of weeks.!

We always fly out of Detroit Metro Airport usually on Spirit but occasionally on Delta.  Now Spirit is a low budget air service that provides a seat and washroom.  You can't even get a glass for water without paying for it!  Once clearing security you can buy food and non-alcoholic drinks that can be brought on board if desired.

Airport food is expensive compared to other restaurants but you are paying for the convenience of getting food before boarding.  We have arrived several times where the airport restaurants a closed so which is really a pain if your flight is delayed.  Spirit does sell non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks as well as limited number of snacks but they only accept credit cards or debit card, no cash.

We get there early enough to get through security so we have a bit of down time in one of the restaurants.  Once cleared security, we head to one of the bars where we can order fairly decent, all be it pricey food.  We stopped at the Redwing Bar for lunch.  I seriously do not like much in my tummy when flying.  Quite frankly, my choice would be no food at all before flying by my husband insists I eat a little.  Don't worry about me going without food for part of the day as I do make up for it once we are safely at our destination.

I ordered the chicken Caesar salad and ate just enough to appease my husband .  This is just a lovely salad that can easily be made at home.  Chicken strips are one of my favourite quick meal starts.  Look for chicken on sale then skin and debone.  Pan fry or barbecue the chicken and cut into strips.  Package in meal sized servings then freeze until you want to use it.  Use the chicken strips for Caesar salad or wraps. 

Nachos at Sam Adam's in Atlantic City International Airport

When flying from Detroit to Tampa and visa versa we have always been able to get a direct flight.  I'm not sure why but we could not get a direct flight from Tampa to Detroit for our return trip.  It was supposed to have been a direct flight but was changed to a brief stop in Atlantic City with no de-planning.  We had been keeping a close eye on how the storms were tracking throughout the week, the worst in Joplin, Missouri.  We knew our travel day was full of storms.  When we arrived in Atlantic City rather than picking up passengers and traveling on, we were asked to deplane.  My husband and I immediately looked for a restaurant and it's a good thing we did as the delay ended up being three and a half hours long.  Seating in the restaurant was quite limited with a line forming rather quickly waiting for a table.

The Atlantic City International Airport is rather small in comparison to Tampa and Detroit.  There was a Samuel Adams Brew and Pub near our gate on the second floor terminal.  This is a small pub and grill specializing in casual dining and craft beer.  We decided that would be a good spot to spend a bit of our delay time.  We would have liked to have taken a cab to see the Boardwalk but thought it best to stay at the airport.

As airport pubs go, the prices at Samuel Adams were not bad.  The atmosphere was very much like a British pub, warm and cosy with lots of dark wood.  Bar, table and booth We ordered beer battered onion rings ($5.60) as an appetizer.  My husband had New England clam chowder ($3.50)  and build a better burger ($8.90).  I had the fireside nachos ($8.75).

Nachos are a popular pub and grill food.  The fireside nachos consisted of crisp tortilla chips topped with chili, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and onions.  Jalapeno peppers and sour cream were served on the side by request.  The nachos were good but I do have a couple of complaints.  The biggest complaint is the cheese was a cheese sauce not actual sredded cheese and more than likely it was a cheese product similar to Cheez Whiz.  As a result the flavour was somewhat lacking and the tortilla shells softened where the cheese sauce hit.  These would have been much better using real shredded cheddar cheese.  The jalapeno peppers and sour cream came in small, disposable plastic containers that negated any savings to the restaurant by using the cheese sauce.  Other than that, the nachos were average pub grub food.