Steakhouses
One thing I certainly wasn't prepared for was the proliferation of steakhouses. In the Champaign-Urbana area, which has about 100,000 people, there must be at least 20 steakhouses. Some are chains, while some are local establishments. Everywhere you went, there was some kind of steakhouse.

On Cunningham Avenue in Urbana, northeast of downtown, there are three within a two block stretch. In Champaign, they tended to group in the shopping centers like the North Prospect and I-94 area. You saw ads all over town bragging how "authentic" their BBQ was. (Note the quotation marks)

In California, we don't have the same ratio. It's much smaller because a lot of people over here are into that gourmet food crap. I'm not into it, however.

When Jay Leno has the Tonight Show in Chicago a whlie back, he was constantly making jokes about all of the steakhouses with the manhole-sized steaks. He wasn't kidding around. It's probably a Midwest thing. Some of the steaks are big enough for lunch and dinner for a couple of days.

The best one I went to was the Round Barn in Champaign. It's a nice place where you can get some really good steak for a reasonable price.

I guarantee you won't leave hungry from a steakhouse, at least out here. I wish I could say that about California...