Welcome to the thrilling conclusion of Road Trip Week! We’ve covered thousands of miles, visited some unusual places, looked at some even more unusual places to stay, and I have to say, it’s all made me pretty hungry.
The roadside diner is a staple of American travel. Even in a time where fast food chains and fast-casual restaurant groups have grown and grown, there are still places where you can get breakfast, lunch or dinner out of a converted railroad car, or pose next to a statue of a giant pig before ordering some barbecue.
But some restaurants make the food itself a kind of roadside attraction, often by creating meals that are too big to be believed, and often too big to be consumed. At least in one siting.
At Round Rock Donuts in Texas I once had what was called a Texas-sized donut. It was bigger than my hat, and had enough calories to last me an entire, sugar-fueled day.
In Kennesaw, Georgia, there’s a place called Big Pie In The Sky, and their biggest pie is 30 inches across. 11 pounds of pizza in all.
And those are just single foods. A lot of establishments, like the Shelby’s Kitchen and Deli in Florida, put out a whole larger-than-life spread. They offer a free meal to anyone who can finish their Terminator Breakfast – that’s four fried eggs, a pound and a half of bacon, a pound and a half of home fries, six sausages and two slices of toast, all on top of a 24 inch pancake.
Of course, if you could finish all that, would you really need more food?
Let’s conclude Road Trip week with a trip to the town of Union, Connecticut, not far from the border with Massachusetts. That’s home to the Traveler Restaurant, which not only feeds its guests, it gives them books to take home with every meal.
And honestly, if you have to wait for the kitchen to prepare your food, browsing bookshelves is a pretty great way to do it.
The 18 Most Insane Food Challenges Ever (Buzzfeed)
Traveler Food And Books: A “Novel” Idea (Hartford Courant)