I was in Utica for the past two days for a membership meeting for Upstate New York Physician Recruiters (UNYPR), for which I am the chair of the membership committee (this will come up again in my next few posts). I didn't have high hopes for my dining options while I was up there - and I was surprised by what I found!
After a 3 and a half hour train ride, I checked into my hotel room and was starving! My boss Allen and I met up with David Ewald in the lobby of the hotel, and all decided to go to lunch together (I had to give David his full credit here, because I promised I would include him in my posts about Utica).
We walked out of the hotel and down the block. The first place we came across was a pizza place, Pizza Classic. I have to admit that I protested about, because as a good Italian American, I was raised to believe that pizza gets worse the farther you travel from NYC. But, I was starving, so I went along with them.
We looked at the menu, which was listed above the counter. Listed (a full panel dedicated to it) is bold letters was "Hot Tunnels" and a listing of types. Hot Tunnel, what the hell is a hot tunnel. The 3 of us all looked at each other and asked the same thing - we had no idea. So I looked at the woman behind the counter and asked: "What is Hot Tunnel?". Her answer seemed basic enough: "it's like a parm, but you can get meatball or chicken or eggplant or whatever".
All 3 of us decided that when in Rome (well, Utica) and we each ordered one. Meatball for the men, chicken for me. (I'll readily admit that as the write of this blog, I had to order it for the name alone) When they came out, they sure as shit looked like parm subs! Meat, sauce and melted cheese on bread.
The most amazing part - they were good. The bread was surprisingly tasty, the chicken cutlets were flavorful. The sauce wasn't my mom's but it was good. I was shocked. Who would have thought, that something with that name would have been so good?!
Should you find yourself in Utica, you'd be well advised to get yourself a Hot Tunnel!
After a 3 and a half hour train ride, I checked into my hotel room and was starving! My boss Allen and I met up with David Ewald in the lobby of the hotel, and all decided to go to lunch together (I had to give David his full credit here, because I promised I would include him in my posts about Utica).
We walked out of the hotel and down the block. The first place we came across was a pizza place, Pizza Classic. I have to admit that I protested about, because as a good Italian American, I was raised to believe that pizza gets worse the farther you travel from NYC. But, I was starving, so I went along with them.
We looked at the menu, which was listed above the counter. Listed (a full panel dedicated to it) is bold letters was "Hot Tunnels" and a listing of types. Hot Tunnel, what the hell is a hot tunnel. The 3 of us all looked at each other and asked the same thing - we had no idea. So I looked at the woman behind the counter and asked: "What is Hot Tunnel?". Her answer seemed basic enough: "it's like a parm, but you can get meatball or chicken or eggplant or whatever".
All 3 of us decided that when in Rome (well, Utica) and we each ordered one. Meatball for the men, chicken for me. (I'll readily admit that as the write of this blog, I had to order it for the name alone) When they came out, they sure as shit looked like parm subs! Meat, sauce and melted cheese on bread.
The most amazing part - they were good. The bread was surprisingly tasty, the chicken cutlets were flavorful. The sauce wasn't my mom's but it was good. I was shocked. Who would have thought, that something with that name would have been so good?!
Should you find yourself in Utica, you'd be well advised to get yourself a Hot Tunnel!
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