Jean Ishmon, pal of my wife and me, is a fellow Northwest Indiana native who occasionally hangs out in Washington but is still very much connected to 'The Region.' (Which is what people call Northwest Indiana, home of the South Shore--it's not really fully part of the Chicago suburbs, yet also different from the rest of mostly rural Indiana)
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| Zel's roast beef is what you eat in South Shore country. Polo shirt courtesy Jean Ishmon, my 'Region' pal. |
Jean visited recently and with the conspiratorial help of my wife, brought me one of my favorite Region culinary treats, a
Zel's roast beef sandwich. Think of an Arby's sandwich, but made with real, thinly sliced, juicy roast beef instead of latex solar beef or whatever Arby's is made of. Jean had the sandwich lovingly packed by Zel's awesome staff, and then smuggled it to Washington via planes, trains, and automobiles. It was delicious and brought a tear to my as I ate for lunch at work last week. I don't want to rat her out, but I think she might also have flagrantly defied various authority figures along the way.
As an added bonus, Jean also managed to rustle up a rare Zel's polo shirt, seen above. This shall henceforth be my 'running trains' shirt. Thanks, Jean, for the awesome treat and cool bit of Northwest Indiana culture to go with my Northwest Indiana trains!
What a treat to discover your blog, Steve. I, too, am a Northern Indiana native (South Bend) who has been transplanted to the D.C. area -- working on K Street and living in the Maryland 'burbs.
ReplyDeleteI, of course, grew up on and around the beloved big orange cars and have several Nickel Plate Products models of them just waiting for me to build a layout -- or at least a diorama -- around them.
Good t'see ya!
Craig Roberts
Washington, DC
Craig, thanks for the kind words about the blog. Looking forward to seeing you around the blog and maybe around the neighborhood. Great to know there's another South Shore fan and Hoosier expatriate nearby. Please feel free to contact me offline.
Deletev/r
steve