My Almost Heaven Bucket List

.As you may have already discovered in my posts, I was born and raised in West Virginia. I truly love that majestic forest covered mountain state. I grew up in the Kanawha Valley area of Putnam County and I’m an alumnus of Poca High School. I moved away from West Virginia in 1983 to live with my mother in rural Norwalk Ohio, near the small burg of East Townsend to help with my then six-month-old little brother and my aging grandfather. The first few months away from my home were tortuous to say the least, though I was getting to know my little brother, getting reacquainted with my grandfather and becoming friends with my mother, it still wasn’t home; yet. However; over time this area became my home and I have grown to love it, support it and defend it. My roots though are continually dragging me back to the land of my ancestors the land that has been subjected to hardship upon hardship and most often a source for the rest of the nation to make fun of and disregard. West Virginia will always be my home, my birthplace and the land I love no matter where I’m at anywhere in time. I absolutely love getting to go there and visit my family and friends, most all my Dad’s family lives there and a large amount of my mother’s family does as well. Life has a way of keeping us busy, and in the past few years I haven’t been able to visit as often as I wish, and some years not even at all. When I do get to go home I have a bucket list of all the things I must do, people to see and well mostly the food I want to eat. That’s where I want to go with this post, the food, the food and places that call my name (or belly) as soon as my car crosses the Ohio River. Never do I ever go to West Virginia without a stop at the Eleanor Dairy Queen, always with my best friend, Debbie to have the quintessential meal of a West Virginia style hot dog, or for me, a foot long. Hot dogs are different all over this nation and I’ve tried many of them; however, there is never any comparison than a hot dog served the WV way! Steamed bun, boiled beef wiener, a squirt of mustard, delectable chili, creamy coleslaw and topped with a few chopped onions, everything in that exact order no ifs, ands or buts! I love this simple meal and West Virginians, almost all I’m assuming enjoy this as much as I do. For more of a sit-down meal my car has its own navigational system that simply drives itself to Diehl’s in Nitro. I study the menu, with growing stress as I just can’t make up my mind, who knows when I’ll get to eat here again, but in the end, one of two dishes always wins out. Roast beef served with the best mashed potatoes and smothered in rich gravy is what my 1st instinct tells me to order, with the side of deep fried stuffing, however the hot sauce fried thick bologna sandwich has won out a lot of times as well. Every meal at Diehl’s, no matter how full I am, is ended with a large slice of graham cracker pie – now that is heaven on a plate! Everything at Diehl’s is homemade from scratch and cooked with lots of love from the Diehl family. Opening in 1960, not much has changed about this Nitro institution in its 57 years except for the outrageous amounts of potatoes they hand peel in a day. We West Virginians love our pepperoni rolls, something I can’t purchase in Ohio and a food item that is most directly associated with West Virginians. Growing up I ate a lot of pizza at Gino’s Pizza and Spaghetti House (another WV institution and local favorite) and for me though my must have item is a pubwich, think stuffed pizza crust with ham, mozzarella cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions and sauce, along with a couple pepperoni roll! Lastly, I’ve mentioned this place before in my biscuit post but Tudor’s Biscuit World always deserves an additional shout out. I always get the “Herd” biscuit, with sausage, egg, cheese and a hash brown in it, though recently I’ve tried the “Politician” with bologna, egg and cheese and fell in love with it too. Tudor’s biscuits are fluffy on the inside brown and slightly crispy on the outside and a mile high to hold all the stuff they put in them. The best of both world’s is when you live near a Gino’s/Tudor’s combination location, like in Eleanor. My latest must have before I leave WV treat is an everything hot dog from the Spring Hill Pastry Shop. This is the absolute best pastry on the planet, I promise! Imagine a flaky éclair split down one side and filled with delish custard filling and then topped with powdered sugar and drizzled with chocolate! I was in West Virginia a couple of years ago for my Reed family Christmas party and my aunt Linda brought these, I ate at least 5 of them and secretly wanted more but was afraid I would go into a diabetic coma. On the way back that evening we were stopped near the Winfield Bridge during an early holiday sobriety check, as the state trooper shined his flashlight into the car he spotted the box of hot dogs, and inquired if the box contained what he thought they were? …without hesitation, I said to him grabbing my Aunt Linda…” here take her…but leave the dogs”! Yes…they are that good! If you’re ever on Chestnut Street in the Spring Hill neighborhood of Charleston, stop at the Spring Hill Pastry Shop for an everything hot dog or two, get there early because they sell out quick. I tried unsuccessfully to convince my daughters to attend Marshall University to no avail, we visited Huntington on campus tours and in my attempt to sway them to choose Marshall I treated both of them to a visit to Stewarts Root Beer stand on 5th Avenue in sight of the campus, not a must have on my list but always one I have if I’m in the Huntington area is an Orange Cream soda or a Key Lime soda and you can’t go wrong with the root beer either – Huntington is also home to Frostop another great root beer and hot dog stand However; my most favorite meal is that of an Aunt Corkey breakfast on the morning of my departure back to Ohio, she beams from head to toe as I gobble up her breakfast and praise her cooking skills! My car is always packed with pepperoni rolls to smuggle back across the border, usually having ate most of them before I even reach Columbus on my five-hour drive home. I’m sure missing West Virginia today, as always!