Portlandia. PDX. Or just plain Portland, Oregon. Whatever you call it, we all know this city has a rep for food, style and weather. This was not my first visit to the PDX. In 2014 I was sent all along with an army of food bloggers(vloggers) armed with the now defunct Tastemade app to shoot and eat the heck out of this venerable food town. I discovered loads of young chefs taking fried chicken seriously, farm to table tacos, plenty of ...

Washington D.C. – Chocolate City – City of Magnificent Intentions. Call it what you like, after Cheap Eats hit this town up, I know how it tastes: international and forward thinking. Long standing in the shadows of NYC, Washington DC has come into a culinary standing of its own, with high end cuisine drawing even New Yorkers down to the beltway. But as far as Cheap Eats goes – heck I was scared. Little know fact is that I worked ...

Ahh, Charlottesville. Or “Cville” if you are a local. Or just loco for the UVA Cavaliers. This quaint East Coast college town might seem timeless thanks to the Jeffersonian architecture of the University of Virginia’s campus but the food scene is very much in the 21st century. This episode of Cheap Eats starts off with familiar enough territory at Bodo’s Bagels. And let’s face it, what college kid didn’t survive off the occasional bagel? But Cheap Eats also found familiar ...

Cheap Eats returns with all new episodes this summer, Wednesday nights, starting July 12th 10pm EST/ 7pm PST. In his third season, Food Blogger Ali Khan, aka yours truly, heads first to the Mid Atlantic, scoping out Cheap Eats in Annapolis MD, Charlottesville and Alexandria VA and Washington DC. Then the Cheap Eats tour heads out west to Portlandia aka Portland OR, and Spokane WA. Things shift south when Cheap Eats heads to Nashville TN, before crossing the Mason-Dixon line ...

The things you just may not know about your hometown. Like finding out that St. Louis is the chess capital of the world. A fact to surely take pride in but something that also seems just a little trivial when placed next to the earliest memories of one’s life. The first time I saw fireworks was off the banks of the mighty Mississippi. The heat of a humid St. Louis summer is synonymous with watching professional baseball(Go Cards!). And then ...

The time has come to put Des Moines on your food map. I can’t say exactly when this Midwest town shifted from land of pork tenderloin sandwiches(you have company Indy) to a James Bear nominated food scene but the food renaissance of the 21st century is making its presence known in Des Moines. Of course there are somethings that remain timeless in Des Moines, like Miller High Life paired with quality fried anything or a college bar that doubles as ...

Chattanooga. Nooga. Gig City. Chat-town. Maybe you have heard of all the nicknames, or maybe your knowledge of this growing tech hub of the south is limited to the famous choo-choo. Whatever camp you fall in, you know now that Chat-town loves their food. Like big brother Nashville to the north, the Chattanooga food scene is rooted in the ways of the South but is also keenly aware of the adventurous palates of 21st century American diners. The Cheap Eats ...

That smile on my face(along with the best carnitas torta I have ever had) serves as an instant reminder on how happy I would be to return to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Now this is no slight against the other cities we have visited in Cheap Eats, from the no brainers like beautiful Bozeman and Jackson Hole to towns I would love to catch my beloved St. Louis Cardinals play(I’m looking at you Pittsburgh). Its just that to be frank: Grand ...