the road | the food | a new direction
We learned over the winter that Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken planned to open in Atlanta this year, as part of their big national rollout, and we learned exactly where. The latest news is that the good people of Atlanta will be tearing into Gus’s thighs and breasts by the end of the summer. It’s an eagerly anticipated opening in these parts, though it’s not as if there’s any shortage of great fried chicken in the ATL.
Ahh, the huckleberry! Anyone who has spent significant time in the Mountain States of the U.S. has surely encountered huckleberry jams, syrups, and milkshakes, and the taste is unforgettable. They look like blueberries but, as a food (as opposed to horticulturally, about which we know nothing), there are two main distinctions: they tend to be seedy, and the flavor, to us, is like a more intense combination of blueberry and blackberry. They only grow wild – all efforts to farm them have failed. While they are generally associated with the Mountain States (they are the state fruit of Idaho), plenty of huckleberries can be found elsewhere – they are abundant in New York forests, for instance. Continue reading
If good food, and its expression of place, interests you (as surely it does if you’re visiting LeftAtTheFork.net), the Ithaca Farmers Market should be on any itinerary that finds you near the town by the shores of Cayuga Lake. Continue reading
Carnegie Deli of New York City has been closed since late April, which is when Con Edison (the New York utility) shut off gas to the building when it discovered that the Carnegie had been stealing about half of its gas, for over five years, by diverting the supply before it reached the meter. The Carnegie has been in the process of paying for the stolen gas and paying various fines, and then they will have to have work done on the building before Con Edison will turn the gas on. The deli’s lawyer said the Carnegie will remain closed for at least two more weeks.
Have a rooster that won’t shut up? Bring him to the town of Rogue River in Oregon on Saturday, June 25th and he might just make you a little spending cash. That’s the date of the 63rd annual Rooster Crow, held since 1953. Each competing rooster is watched for 30 minutes and the one who crows most often is the winner. If you don’t have a farm background you might be surprised to learn that the winning rooster typically crows over 60 times in that half hour. That’s over twice a minute. Imagine living with that outside your bedroom window! Continue reading
There’s a scene in an old Woody Allen movie, Love and Death. Woody, playing a Russian peasant, is pointing a gun at Napoleon:
Woody: You’re a tyrant and a dictator and you start wars.
Napoleon: Why is he reciting my credits?
That’s how we feel about the Midway Steak House on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights: they use knockoff Cheez Whiz, the meat’s chewy, and there’s not much of it. And those are Midway’s credits! Continue reading
There are two kinds of goetta fans: those who live in or come from the Cincinnati area, and those who have received their advanced degrees in regional eating. Yes, for some reason goetta (pronounced as if the “o” wasn’t there), unlike its close Philadelphia cousin scrapple, has never ventured beyond its hometown. Goetta is a loaf made with ground pork and/or beef and pinhead oats (which are the coarse oats also known as steel-cut or Irish). It’s then sliced and fried, often for breakfast. Continue reading
The first Alma Center Strawberry Festival was held way back in 1945, and the local Lions Club upholds the tradition to this day. First thing to know about this three-day party: there’ll be strawberry shortcake! Isn’t that enough? But there’s more: how about brats (this is Wisconsin, after all) and chicken and hot pork sandwiches? Continue reading
We are very saddened to pass on the news that George Nopoulos, owner of perhaps the oldest soda fountain in the country, passed away Sunday at the age of 95. The Wilton Candy Kitchen, of Wilton, Iowa, was founded in 1860 and purchased by Mr. Nopoulos’ father in 1910. George started working at the fountain in 1925. He met his future wife, Thelma, there, and proposed to her in the Candy Kitchen in 1949. Continue reading
The peaches that hang from the trees in north-central Louisiana orchards are ripe and ready to eat from mid-June through mid-July. Until 2011, some of these locally grown peaches were peeled and cut up by volunteers. Then the Louisiana Tech Dairy incorporated them into the locally beloved peach ice cream that was only produced for the two days of the Louisiana Peach Festival in Ruston (the flavor was too labor-intensive for year-round production). Continue reading
The Pennsylvania Turnpike runs 360 miles from Pennsylvania’s eastern to western borders, a five to seven hour drive end to end, which is long enough to send most long-distance drivers in search of sustenance along the way. And therein lies a problem, because the Pennsylvania Turnpike has long been notorious for its extremely meager dining options, both on the turnpike and in the nearby communities. The situation is so bad that most of those who have rolled on its pavement would be grateful for any sort of tip at all that would lead them to something more promising than the rest areas or the burger and chicken chains. Continue reading
“[N]o Southern road trip itinerary brings more pleasure than a west-to-east trek across North Carolina.” So says Bill Addison, as he and two cohorts from Eater made that trip, sampling the fare from 26 restaurants, both rural and urban, along the way. They check out the two major regional styles of barbecue, fall for the Tar Heel State’s way with biscuits, and enjoy boiled peanuts elevated by the regions chefs into risottos and ragouts. Want “the best damn mac and cheese in the country”? It can be found as macaroni au gratin, made with cheddar, Jarlsberg, and Grano Padano, at Poole’s Diner of Raleigh. Essential reading for any LAF fan.
Are you a seed spitter? A really, really good seed spitter? As in, can you break the world seed spit record of 68 feet, 9 1/8 inches? Because if you can spit a watermelon seed farther than the current world record, you will be awarded a bonus prize of $500. That’s in addition to the regular cash prizes awarded in the World Championship Seed Spitting Contest to be held at the Luling Watermelon Thump this year. Continue reading
Any chowder tour of the Oregon coast should include on its itinerary a visit to The Chowder Bowl, a few steps from the Pacific Ocean in the Nye Beach neighborhood of Newport. Continue reading
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