Time to start sharing my recent food adventure in Philadelphia. This was a work trip, so all the food was on the Computer Mine’s dime. At least hopefully. We will once again do a per diem check to see if I was able to cover 7 days of food with it or if some of these cheese steaks came out of my own pocket or if I came home with a little bit of cash in my pocket.
The per diem fund started at:
$559.00
Here are the cell phone pictures from Day 1 in Philadelphia:
Free food on the Delta flight from Des Moines to Detroit.
The layover in Detroit was only supposed to be 35 minutes. But they loaded us on the plane and then kicked us off. So suddenly, we had time for breakfast.
Once again, confirming by belief that you can’t get good chocolate milk outside of Iowa.
Not a bad meal for airport food. Not crazy expensive for airport food too.
Leaving Detroit.
Free drink on the flight from Detroit to Philadelphia.
I see you Delta!
I feel a restaurant called Youngest Child would probably be better.
The view from the hotel room.
We got in early enough to do a little bit of exploring.
Independence Hall and the building that houses the Liberty Bell.
Ben Franklin’s grave.
Chinatown.
For supper we went to the famous super touristy Cheesesteak Square. We tried Geno’s 1st.
My observations:
- Leo’s Coney Island is clearly no Ted’s Coney Island and why is Iowa the only state that can produce a decent chocolate milk.
- That being said my breakfast Pita Sandwich was pretty good. Maybe the best thing I’ve ever eaten in an airport. The bar for that is very low.
- With tip, breakfast in Detroit was $20.42.
- If you are in the Detroit airport, you can do much worse than Leo’s Coney Island.
- I was very leery of cheese wiz on a cheesesteak. I was assured it works. And it does. To some level. But I will definitely argue that they are better with real cheese.
- I had 4 cheesesteaks on my trip to Philadelphia. I don’t know I can necessarily rank them. I tried to go with how the locals eat them for the most part. Then on the last one I decided to order it how I think it should be ordered. Which is of course, with apologies to the City of Brotherly Love, is the right way.
- Geno’s has a very strange way of ordering and paying. You order AND pay and wait for your cheesesteak at one window. Then you go to an entirely different window to order and get your drink. Weird.
- The cheesesteak was delicious. Maybe it is touristy, but the place was constantly packed for a reason. I’d love to know what it tastes like with real cheese some day.
- The cheesesteak cost $15.38. The fries and drink cost $10.25.
- I would go back to Geno’s although if I ever go back to Philadelphia I’ll probably try some cheesesteaks from other places than I tried on this trip.
After Day 1, this is what was waiting in the Per Diem Fund:
$512.95
Was I able to make it 6 more days on $512.95? You will have to wait and see!