Roadtrip! Part 2 of 2 - Roadtrip Dining = Crap (Except in Youngstown)

At last, I fight the procrastination plaguing me for weeks to bring you the biggest adventure of the return trip from New Jersey to Chicago.

As previously mentioned, our on-the-road dining from Chicago to Jersey was less than appealing. Julie and I expected much of the same on the return trip, so we savored the delight of the fresh donuts and coffee before we hit the road (and after Julie hit the glass when she inadvertently walked into a glass door at the Dunkin Donuts). We also purchased some food at the grocery store so that we could avoid the gross road cuisine we knew awaited us...at least for lunch.

The inevitable happens when we have to stop for dinner in Youngstown, Ohio, which was the location of the super skeevy Super 8 overnight stay during our Chicago-to-Jersey journey. Convinced that we could not avoid eating crap, we at least decide to avoid the standard crap chain restaurants (Perkins, Dennys, Applebee's, etc.) and pick the restaurant attached to the Super 8 restaurant, Station Square Restaurant. If we were gonna eat crap, at least it would be non-corporate crap!

But Station Square ended up being the weirdest restaurant ever. It was very much like a Perkins or Dennys in terms of patrons (i.e., bums like us in sweaty clothes and flip-flops), except there was an odd ambience of chandeliers and waitstaff dressed in a neat and coordinated manner. Although the main menu seemed standard (burgers, pastas, etc.), we were also handed a wrinkled computer print-out (poorly formatted in MS Word) of a "Specials" menu. One item caught my eye:

Australian Kangaroo Filet Italaino

That's right. Kangaroo. Italaino, no less.

Well, despite the obvious misspelling, I was intrigued and ordered the dish, wondering if it was really going to be kangaroo. It was good. I mean, as far as kangaroo goes (whatever this means -- I've never eaten such an animal before!). The meat tastes quite gamey, and it is rather tough, so it needs to preferably be cooked medium or rare and in a sauce. My Australian Kangaroo Filet Italaino was simmered with mushrooms, onions, and carrots in a red wine sauce, served over some pretty tasty house potatoes. Now, I don't know if I would eat it everyday, but I enjoyed my 'roo. Still, I felt a little bad for eating it, because this image kept popping up in my head:

We asked our waitress if kangaroo was a regular item on the menu, or if it was some sort of local specialty. She shrugged casually and simply replied, "No, the chef just got it in yesterday and put it on the menu." Oooookaaaay. After having some exotic mango custard pie for dessert, Julie and I concluded that the the Station Square Restaurant chef was some disallusioned chef from L.A. or San Francisco who decided to move to Youngstown and knock people's socks off with clever ingredients like kangaroo. Mission accomplished. Bring on the 'roo!

Nothing after the kangaroo could really make the night better, except for the additional surprise of the most excellent Super 8 in which I have ever had the pleasure of staying. Take note, folks: if you need to make an overnight stay in Ohio on any trips out west, hold out for the Super 8 Motel on Latcha Road in Toledo. The motel is literally in the middle of nowhere and feels like an awesome truck-stop joint. It's so clean and cheap that it'll just knock your socks off...kind of like eating kangaroo.