Ain't Done Eatin' in Dunedin

     It was a beautiful sunny and 65 degrees in downtown Dunedin Florida yesterday, and my wife and I took a walking food tour with Alex of Tampa Bay Food Tours ( https://tampabayfoodtours.com/ ) Dunedin (pronounced Dun-Eden) is a quaint little beach town, right next to some of the best beaches in the world, Clearwater, St. Pete, Honeymoon Island, Caladesi, etc.) with a population of about 36,000.  It's also the Spring Training home of the Toronto Blue Jays, and when the 2021 season opens, the Blue Jays have announced that they will play their first few homestands in Dunedin due to COVID-19. We have been to the beaches, but we had not been to downtown Dunedin, so we figured the tour would be a great way to get acquainted.

    Downtown Dunedin was full of people walking, riding bikes, and enjoying the beautiful weather.  Locals joke that the town should be called Dog-edin, because it is a very dog-friendly town, and dogs were everywhere.   If you have never taken a food tour of a city, check it out; it's a great way to get a feel of the city. The tour guides generally lead a leisurely walk of a mile or two in a 2-3 hour period during which you stop at several restaurants for a sample of their menu. Restaurants serve their most popular or well-known dishes, hoping that you will return for future meals.

    We started at Lucky Lobster, where we met our guide, Alex, born and raised in Dunedin. We also met the other 8 members of our party. Being a part of a group from all over is a big part of the fun, and this was a fun group. Besides ourselves, there was a couple from Illinois, a pair of friends from Washington state, another pair from Indiana, and an aunt and niece who were locals to Clearwater. At Lucky Lobster, we had their shrimp and lobster pizza.

    From there, we went next door to the Cueni Brewing Company and Cotherman Distilling Company, a couple of doors down. Dunedin must set the record for most breweries and distilleries per capita; and many are with the same block or two. We sampled Cueni's beers, and Cotherman offered samples of their rums, gins, and vodkas.

    The most unusual stop was Harley's Gourmet Popcorn and Cider, where they had the most unusual flavors for us to sample: Smoked Maple Bacon, Buffalo Wing, Salted Caramel, etc.

    The next stop was Sea Sea Riders, a seafood restaurant located in one of the oldest buildings in Dunedin, from the turn of the 20th century.  There, we sampled their Tsunami Shrimp with a sweet chili sauce.

    At Hog Island Fish Camp, we enjoyed hogfish sliders. Hogfish was a first for us; it's a very firm, meaty fish, mild-ish, with a texture like grouper. It was delicious, and we will be seeking out hogfish in the future.

    The tour ended with coffee and dessert at Veskolini cafe, owned by a Ukrainian couple and only open for a couple of months.

    It was a fun afternoon, and we can't wait to get back to Dunedin for further explorations and to take the Tampa and St, Petersburg tours that Tampa Bay Food Tours.  

Take a Walk!

     When you are in a new city, and you're a history buff, how do you get your history? At ground level, of course. Take a walking tour; learn history, meet new people, and get some exercise, all at the same time.

    Walking tours can be found in every city. How do you find one? Google it. Check to see if the city has a visitors bureau location or webpage. Discount sites like Groupon, Local Flavor, and Travelzoo also list tours. Tripadvisor is a great source, too. If you're staying in an Airbnb, you can find experiences listed. If you're staying in a hotel, ask the concierge or look for brochures in the lobby. Also check with local museums. The Tampa Bay History Center runs several walking tours, and we've done two so far.

    My wife and I love doing walking history tours and walking food tours in cities that we visit. On a walking tour, you're part of a small group of interested and interesting people, and you're guided by a person who is excited to share his or her town's history with you.  On a food tour, you have the added benefit of tasting some great food at several restaurant stops along the way. 

    Tours are usually 2-3 hours long, easy walking, with lots of steps. Sometimes your guide might be in costume or in character, like the great Freedom Trail tour we took in Boston, when we had "Prince Hall" leading the way. Sometimes you just get an interesting local character, like Larry from Holy City Tours in Charleston, who told us all about the "naughty women" of Charleston's history.

Larry, Charleston                                      Prince Hall, Boston

    Walking tours are the only way you can get a close-up look at architectural details and historical markers you would probably miss otherwise. These pictures are from our most recent walking tours in Tampa, a general history tour and a Black history tour.  They were both very fun and educational. Did you know, for example, that Tampa Florida was called the Harlem of the South because of the thriving Black business and arts community? Tampa was a major stop on the "chitlin' circuit", the network of theaters where Black performers played for enthusiastic Black audiences. Greats like Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, and numerous Jazz greats made regular trips through Tampa. On the general history tour, we learned that Tampa was a hotbed of organized crime activity. ( So much so that I think the Tampa Bay History Center should create a walking tour dedicated to organized crime.)

   We have done some great food tours on our travels, and I'm already looking at a few offerings for future tours. In Ybor City (old Tampa), we had the best Cuban sandwich ever and saw cigars being made by hand like they were made there over a hundred years ago. In Philadelphia, we sampled a great Philly cheese steak (from a mom and pop neighborhood place, not one of the tourist traps), and we found out what a tomato pie was (basically a cheese pizza, sorry Philadelphians).

    
    If you're not a foodie, or even if you're not a huge history buff, there is probably a walking tour in every city that will strike your fancy. There are ghost tours, murder tours, scandal tours, etc. Go ahead and check it out. I bet your own city has a tour or two, and you can learn some neat local history, and when you travel, look for tours in your destination city.  They're fun and educational, and they give you great ideas for places to explore and places to eat at on your own.