I personally think that foodies that have not been to Pittsburgh are missing out on some incredible stuff, from blue collar traditions to better imported foods than you can find in most other cities, especially at the prices you can get them in Pittsburgh.

My mom remarried when I was 11, to a man that was raised in Pittsburgh. Growing up, I wasn’t into the city much at all, though I didn’t turn down the food we got when we went there! Little did I realize how the place was becoming a part of me. Each time I go back, a couple of things happen. One is that memories come back to life. The Strip District changes here and there, but it remains the Strip District still. The city skyline still is a surprise when coming through the tunnels north into town at night. The first person still turns left when lights change, and people going the other way let them.

The other thing that happens is I make new memories. My wife and I enjoy going to the Strip District, and each trip is a bit different. We buy some of the same stuff to keep our pantry going at home, but we also try something different. We stay at different places, see parts of the area we haven’t seen before, or revisit areas we liked. This trip, we went to Phipps Conservatory, and they had an incredible Chihuly display. We also went to Fox Chapel to drive around, which is just a gorgeous town north of the city.

This last trip also brought a flat tire on I70, east of Cambridge, which meant we fought with AAA on the phone and ended up changing the tire with the help of Trooper Cunningham, at 11:30 PM, driving into the hotel on one of those weird spares. Unfortunately, we had to deal with getting new tires there, but we got a great deal on new ones, and we got to see yet another part of the area we’d not seen before, and I beat my wife at a video hunting game while we waited. We also fought with the VZ Navigator, Michelle, the voice on my phone that gives me directions. She wasn’t keeping up well, and I got kind of ticked off that she left me high and dry a couple of times when I needed directions.

One of the cool things about Pittsburgh is that the city seems very eastern US, but the people are more midwestern in attitude. The city used to be mostly blue collar, but that changed starting in the 80’s. The people keep the same feel as before, though, so it ends up being a very down-to-earth city. It’s very much a city of traditions more than one of trendiness.

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