Top 5 week of 4/22--ahh Omaha

I am going back to Omaha this week. I grew up in the river city. I get all nostalgic about the place. Here are five things I love about Omaha.

1) Goldberg's Bread Pudding-- Breading pudding gets a bad rap because usually somebody's mom made with wonder bread and bunch of raisins = gross. But Goldbergs at 50th & Dodge makes the best darn bread pudding-- try it with ice cream.

2) Fish and Chips at the Dundee Dell-- The old Dell was great. It was right on Dodge Street, Omaha's main street, most of the seats and booths were broke...the bathrooms stunk, at least the men's room did...and it was great place to have a drink. The speciality was and is fish and chips served in a little aluminum sack. The trick is to douse the breaded fried fish and chips with about a quart of malt vinegar so you get this salty-sour-fried-fish stuff that is great after you have drank about 3 pints of Guinness. The Dell has since moved. It is actually in the Dundee neighborhood proper...the fish and chips are still very good.

3) Stoysich-- Omaha's stock yards brought in thousands of immigrants in the early 20th Century, many of them from mainland Europe. Most of them settled in South Omaha like my grandparents. Stoysich in the heart of South Omaha is remnant of the era: a true old world butcher shop with what seems like hundreds of meats, especially sausages. One my favorite things is to go to the back of the place and pick up one the cooked the sausages they sale...you then proceed put the sausage on a hoagie-like-bun and fill it full of sweet peppers. So good.



4) Field Club Neighborhood-- I love old houses. I live in one in my home town. Some of the prettiest and coolest houses reside along Woolworth Street in Omaha. I've spent hours just driving the streets marveling at some the great architecture.

5) Woodman Tower-- This is an icon to me, and I'm sure many other Omahans. It is a big old box of building. But it was a marvel when it was built in 1969. It represented to me the sort of industrial spirit of Omaha, but it is dang ugly that is for sure.