It’s been a while since I felt compelled to try getting a good cheesesteak in the Buffalo area, but after jonesing hard for a tasty sandwich this week, it was time to make another attempt. A coworker today suggested I try the sandwiches at Elmwood Taco & Subs, just a few minutes from my apartment, so I stopped by on the way home from work tonight.
What a mistake that was. Let’s start at the beginning. Continue reading “The Cheesesteak Diaries, Chapter 2: Elmwood Taco & Subs, Buffalo, NY”
A couple weeks ago I took the two CFI summer interns, Stef and Tony, to the classic Buffalo bar Klub Karaoke. (Wow, that site is dated.) We had an hour to kill before Stef had to go to the bus station; a karaoke dive bar seemed like a “FUN!!” way to pass the time.
The website mentions that there’s a “69 foot” (*snicker*) chalkboard bar—with free chalk!—which is a little strange but can indeed be FUN!!1!OMGZ. The music was too loud for casual chatting, so at some point I grabbed a piece of chalk and whipped up these two quick-and-terrible portraits of the interns: Continue reading “Portraits in Chalk at a Karaoke Bar: CFI Interns Stef and Tony”
When I moved from Philadelphia to Buffalo a handful of years ago, I thought I was pretty prepared for the major dialect differences. Pronunciation-wise, I had steeled myself for the Western New York pronunciation of words like car and crab shack, and I knew I wouldn’t be understood if I asked for a glass of water the way I was used to. (Check out the fantastic Super Grip Lock commercials on YouTube for examples of the accent here.) They say garbage where I say trash, pop for my soda, and they’re generally clueless about hoagies—but at least they don’t say tennis shoes or youins. Continue reading ““Sliding Board” v. “Slide”: Some Notes on the Mid-Atlantic Dialect”
