Left at the Fork

the road | the food | a new direction

Month: October 2014 (Page 1 of 5)

Fried seafood at Markey's is utterly grease-free. The clams are excellent but the scallops are superlative.

Markey’s Lobster Pool, Seabrook NH

October 31, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

In the far northeastern corner of Massachusetts, around Ipswich and Essex, you’ll find the best fried clams in America. Head about 18 miles up the coast, to Maine, and you’ll begin to find America’s finest lobsters. So doesn’t it seem reasonable that those short 18 miles between the Massachusetts and Maine coasts would be an equally rich source for great seafood? Yet, have you ever heard of anyone heading to New Hampshire for seafood? Well, that’s not quite what we did, but we did stop in Seabrook on the way to Maine, where we found worthy fried clams and lobster rolls that are well-known to locals but mostly a secret to visitors passing by on the interstate. Continue reading

Ribs smoking at Joe's Kansas City

LAF in the A.M. October 31st, 2014

October 31, 2014 / / 0 Comments

A Morning Menu of Stories We Think You’ll Find Interesting

Maybe Billy Butler Shoulda Had the Brisket

Professional baseball players, on the whole, are a pretty superstitious bunch. If they called their mother and didn’t shave the morning of a win, you can bet Mom will be receiving wake-up calls and that beard will continue to grow as long as the team keeps winning. KC Royals DH Billy Butler had lunch at Joe’s Kansas City Tuesday and the Royals that night proceeded to win game six of the World Series 10-0. Butler had a double and an RBI. So there he was at Joe’s Kansas City again Wednesday, dining on ribs, beans, and Mountain Dew. Unfortunately for Butler and Kansas City fans, Butler singled in four at bats and the Royals lost the final World Series game to the Giants, 3-2. Continue reading

Maple French Toast, garnished with caramelized bananas, bacon marmalade, and walnuts. Stunningly good!

Original General Store, Pittsfield VT

October 30, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

What’s happening to the Vermont general store? It’s actually quite simple. They are becoming unnecessary, made obsolete by highways and easy access to the big boxes. It’s amazing that they’ve lasted as long as they have. And yet… there are large constituencies that mourn their continued disappearance. There are the old-time Vermonters who have grown up with general stores, the Vermont newcomers who came here, to some degree, precisely because this was a region that had clung to the old ways, and the tourists (fueling a large part of the local economy), who want to experience the Vermont of legend and lore. Continue reading

Prince's Hot Chicken is Nashville's original fiery chicken purveyor.

LAF in the A.M. October 30th, 2014

October 30, 2014 / / 1 Comment

A Morning Menu of Stories We Think You’ll Find Interesting

Carla Hall Giving Out Free Hot Chicken in Philly

Carla Hall is working towards opening her first Carla Hall’s Southern Kitchen in New York, and to help her with the project she’s enlisted culinary students from Drexel in Philadelphia. They’ll be testing out menu items by taking over a food truck in front of Drexel and handing out free hot chicken, macaroni and cheese, braised greens and fresh lemonade. The date is November 5th, the time is 5:30 p.m., just before a 6 p.m. Drexel basketball event. If you’re in the area head over and grab a sample! Continue reading

Would you like some jelly with your toast? Then you'll have some fun selecting your flavors from the kaleidoscopic presentation. All homemade.

Hash House, Las Vegas NV

October 29, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

For some reason we feel compelled to make this confession whenever we are about to recommend a restaurant for its hash: we like canned hash. OK, not “we”; one of us does (we won’t say which one, but we will say that his wife finds the tightly packed, greasy, cylindrical-shaped substance with an aroma uncomfortably close to dog food to be, how to put this delicately… vile). Hopefully, you’ll take that as an indication of a real love of hash, not a real lack of taste. Because if you trust us, we can direct you to a Las Vegas breakfast jackpot called Hash House, which really is a HASH house. Continue reading

Many deli mavens name Katz's on Houston Street in New York as America's greatest deli.

LAF in the A.M. October 29th, 2014

October 29, 2014 / / 0 Comments

A Morning Menu of Stories We Think You’ll Find Interesting

The Future of Katz’s Deli

The ever-present disquieting thought in the backs of the minds of New York deli mavens, as they wait for their Katz’s Deli slicer to build their pastrami sandwich is, how long can this good thing last? The neighborhood keeps improving, real estate prices keep rising, yet here remains Katz’s, slicing cured meats since 1888. In Jordan Weissmann’s fascinating story for Slate about Katz’s, and its owner Jake Dell, we learn that there are additional financial pressures on the deli business in general. For instance, wholesale brisket prices have tripled since just 1988. Delis pretty much sell cured meat as a loss leader, making most of their profit on everything else. Continue reading

Pardon the poor photo but at least the thick-sliced bacon and quality bun is evident. Every element of a Worthy Burger is worth eating on its own.

Worthy Burger, South Royalton VT

October 28, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

If you are predisposed to steer clear of hipster restaurants try to get past that bias in the instance of Worthy Burger. Yes, it can be insanely crowded, but the provenance-tagged, locally sourced ingredients are impeccable,  the local brews are eminently quaffable, and the prices are downright low by big-city standards, which South Royalton, Vermont most assuredly is not. It may not seem like a town as small as South Royalton can have a wrong side of the tracks, but here it is. The location may be improbable but the 20- and 30-somethings have found Worthy Burger and made it theirs. Continue reading

Who would figure you can get cheap eats at Le Parker Meridien in central Manhattan? Yet, here it is, at The Burger Joint.

LAF in the A.M. October 28th, 2014

October 28, 2014 / / 1 Comment

A Morning Menu of Stories We Think You’ll Find Interesting

Less Than $10 in NYC: 7 Finds

New York City is notorious for finding ways to separate you from your money, especially when it comes to dining out. But it is possible to find bargains, if you look hard enough, or start with a crib sheet. And that’s where this story from Wall St. Cheat Sheet comes in. They’ve found seven spots to dine well for under $10, from Chinese dumplings to falafel to tacos to the burgers at The Burger Joint in Le Parker Meridien. Check it out. Continue reading

Cheese frenchees are a favorite Eastern Nebraska snack.

Don & Millie’s, Omaha NE

October 27, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

The cheese frenchee (on some local menus you’ll see it spelled frenchie) might be the quintessential bar food: a salty, fatty, gooey, thirst-inducing snack. Invented at a now-defunct regional chain named King’s Food Host, it shows up on the fast-food menus of a few eastern Nebraska restaurants, including Don & Millie’s, a mini-chain with about half a dozen locations between Omaha and Lincoln. Continue reading

Sticky post
We admire any seafood chef who gets a good crust on sea scallops without overcooking them.

Tozier’s, Bethel VT

October 26, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

Do you love side-of-the-road eateries from the early days of motor touring? They are really quite scarce now, most having been razed for chain restaurants, shopping malls, and housing developments. That’s why we were especially delighted to find Tozier’s, very much as we imagine it must have looked in 1946 when Rip and Gwen Tozier purchased Rood’s Ice Cream Stand and cabin court. It was the Toziers who initiated the tradition of seafood at this restaurant in a New England state without a coastline. Today’s Tozier’s (motto: Tastes of the Ocean) still serves the fresh Ipswich clams and scallops, clam chowder, and lobster rolls that the 1940s Tozier’s was famous for. Continue reading

The Grand Central Oyster Bar in New York City has a constantly changing, but enormous, inventory of oysters.

LAF in the A.M. October 26th, 2014

October 26, 2014 / / 0 Comments

A Morning Menu of Stories We Think You’ll Find Interesting

Oysters and Beer in Brooklyn

There are now three franchises of New York City’s venerable Grand Central Oyster Bar: in Newark Airport, in Tokyo, and, since December of last year, in Brooklyn. Currently, the Brooklyn location is running a special fall beer and oyster pairing menu. Four oysters with four five-ounce beers sounds like a great idea and, at $14.95, a great deal too. Read about Kate Kolenda’s experience with the pairings at The Daily Meal. Continue reading

Bissinger's chocolate covered fresh blackberries are one of the world's great candies.

Bissinger’s, Saint Louis MO

October 25, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

The original Bissinger’s store in St. Louis, a dark wood-lined jewelry store of a chocolate shop, is no more. There are other, more modern branches in the St. Louis area, but it’s not for the St. Louis bricks-and-mortar chocolate shops that we sing our highest praises. Continue reading

Those who responded to Zagat's recent NYC burger survey selected Peter Luger's as best in the city.

LAF in the A.M. October 25th, 2014

October 25, 2014 / / 1 Comment

A Morning Menu of Stories We Think You’ll Find Interesting

New Zagat Survey: Luger Burger Best in NYC

For the first time, Zagat surveyed NYC diners to find out where the best burgers in the city can be found, and Peter Luger came out on top. At about $13, the chopped dry-aged prime beef is really quite a bargain, too. The one catch: it’s lunch only. No burgers at dinner. We’re not sure, though: can you get one at the bar at night? We’ve been to Luger multiple times but have never tried the burger, because how can we pass up the steak? Yes, we could always order a burger as an appetizer, but doesn’t that really cross the line of indulgence? Perhaps one day. Here’s the Zagat top NYC burgers list. Continue reading

Does maple syrup vary depending on where the trees grow, how they're tapped, how the sap is handled, ... ? We think so.

Mom and Pop’s World’s Best Vermont Maple Syrup, Rochester VT

October 24, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

It’s interesting how maple syrup is treated, for the most part, like a commodity. There isn’t a lot of talk in maple-producing regions about the differences in flavor between one producer’s, or region’s, product, and another, the way wines or cheeses are discussed. Oh, the New York industry, for instance, surely will claim that their syrup, as a whole, is superior to any other maple syrup produced in the world, but they never go beyond such boilerplate to explain the subtle differences that make their syrup so good. And, it’s very rare to see, say, one Vermont sugar producer detail exactly what makes their syrup better than others or, if not better, even distinctive. The message we, as consumers, get is that it’s all good, and all pretty much the same. Continue reading

Briny, salty, garlicky, juicy, oily, toasty, chewy... Pepe's New Haven, CT white clam pizza is the perfect food!

LAF in the A.M. October 24th, 2014

October 24, 2014 / / 0 Comments

A Morning Menu of Stories We Think You’ll Find Interesting

101 Pizzas

This time it’s The Daily Meal, and their twist on the “greatest pizza” list is to choose specific pies from the chosen pizzerias, ranked 101 to 1. Who did the choosing? 78 “experts.” Which pizza came in first place? This is one time we agree with the “experts” because Frank Pepe‘s white clam pizza, from New Haven, CT, is our #1 choice, too. No, not our #1 pizza, our #1 food, period! Continue reading

Enter here for a top notch enchilada plate.

Elite Restaurant, Jackson MS

October 23, 2014 / / 4 Comments

REVIEW

The Elite is a Greek-American-owned Southern diner, opened in 1947 by Pete and Jimmy Zouboukos, serving a terrific enchilada plate. It’s not a diner in the New Jersey sense of the word, yet they specialize in the kinds of food you would expect to find in diners, if diners had originated in the American South; simple, comforting food. Continue reading

Grilled Pizza Margarita as served at Al Forno of Providence, RI - named by Food & Wine magazine as one of the best pizza places in the U.S. (although Al Forno is much more than a pizza place).

LAF in the A.M. October 22nd, 2014

October 22, 2014 / / 1 Comment

A Morning Menu of Stories We Think You’ll Find Interesting

America’s Best Pizza, Chosen by Food & Wine

Top Pot Watch

Ina Pinkney Comes Home

Attack of the Killer Pumpkins!

Sad News from Memphis

Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! Tries the Pitts-burger

Continue reading

Corned beef hash with eggs over easy and the great grilled Woody roll

Checking In at: Woody’s Towne Cafe, Allentown NJ

October 21, 2014 / / 0 Comments

A recent visit to Woody’s turned up some news: Woody sold the place! The sale happened this summer. We met the new owner; seemed like a friendly guy. He also owns a small Mexican place, MAC’s Tex-Mex, down the street. Almost nothing has changed at Woody’s, as far as we could tell. Every table was filled on a Sunday morning at 11 a.m., and nine of us had to wait about 15 minutes to be seated in the small dining room. Waitresses are the same too. Our waitress told us there was some initial concern from the townsfolk as to how much Woody’s would change but that settled down quickly as they realized Woody’s would still be Woody’s. The transition to the new owner has gone smoothly. Continue reading

Roast beef sandwiches at Kelly's of Revere, MA, ready to be dressed

LAF in the A.M. October 21st, 2014

October 21, 2014 / / 0 Comments

A Morning Menu of Stories We Think You’ll Find Interesting

Good Eats in Revere MA

CNN Ranks the 12 Best Meat-Eating Cities in the U.S.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan Loves Eating, Especially in Chicago

A Visit with the Owner of Geno’s Steaks

Difficult Times for the Owners of Mr. Mac’s Canteen

Shake Shack Watch

Continue reading

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