the road | the food | a new direction
Our mini-cheesesteak tour of Philadelphia brought us to American Sardine Bar. Now we understood that the Sardine is by no means a cheesesteak joint – it’s an anti-hipster/hipster pub with a reputation for quirky quality bar food. Nonetheless we’d read that they served a mean cheesesteak done Pittsburgh-style with fries and slaw on the steak, and we felt like a beer, so here we were. And, of course, there was no cheesesteak on the blackboard menu. Continue reading
We’re always on the lookout for good barbecue when we travel, due in part to our residence in the barbecue-deprived Northeast (and partly because we simply love all kinds of barbecue). The often Southern-seeming Midwest state of Indiana is a good place to look. For instance, in Lafayette we found good barbecue at the South Street Smoke House, located by the railroad tracks, on the main drag heading east out of the city. Continue reading
We’ve been posting here at LeftAtTheFork.net lately about the disappearing kosher deli, but let us not forget that many of the same forces that are hitting old-fashioned Jewish cuisine hard — assimilation of the customer base, dying off of the generation that embraced these restaurants, modern health-consciousness, the younger generation’s rejection of the previous generation’s ways — are having a similar effect on the old-style African-American cuisine known as soul food. The situation isn’t as dire but, as the Chicago Sun-Times documented in a 2011 story, soul food restaurants have been closing rapidly in Chicago. Continue reading
Across much of the US, roast beef sandwiches are The People’s Choice; regardless of the local specialties, you’re likely to see some kind of roast beef sandwich on the menus, and tables, of bars and casual eateries. People love ’em. So do we. Sometimes served cold, often served hot with gravy, the meat is generally thinly sliced, and the sandwiches, satisfying as they may be, generally have a commercial quality to them; they don’t often resemble home cooking. Continue reading
As we take our first bites out of our good cheesesteaks from Campo’s we are reminded once again of one of our basic street food tenets. For hoagies, subs, heroes, or whatever you want to call the torpedo-shaped cold cut sandwiches, we want the best bread available, with good chew and well-developed flavor. For hot torpedo sandwiches like cheesesteaks, veal parm heroes, or roast pork rabe, we prefer the bread to be less assertive. Continue reading
We love the way the Pacific Northwest treats breakfast as more than a grab-a-bite afterthought. Some real consideration is given to the first meal of the day, and our “breakfast tour” of Portland turned up a number of winners, from the old-time hash-house Fuller’s to the hash specialists at the energized Bijou. Add to that the comfortable, laid-back ambiance of the J & M Cafe, a restaurant with a counterculture spirit. Continue reading
What, you think a little thing like the Delaware River is enough to confine all the great cheesesteaks to the City of Brotherly Love? Hardly! Good ones can be found east of the river and, as in Philadelphia, you’ll encounter plenty of mediocre, or worse, cheesesteaks, too. But what’s the point of Left at the Fork if we can’t provide a little assistance in directing you to a steak worth your time? One such place is Chick’s Deli, a sandwiches-only joint in Cherry Hill since 1957. Continue reading
First off, let us state up front that we are not vegans, nor have we ever been vegans (save for a seemingly endless five-day macrobiotic episode decades ago). So why do we recommend a vegan version of one of America’s naughtiest foods? More to the point, in our minds: why is there a vegan version of donuts? Are there really that many people who crave fried, sugared dough but avoid them because of the use of animal products? There must be, because here is Ronald’s Donuts of Las Vegas, maker of vegan donuts that put to shame those turned out by the big donut chains. Continue reading
Traditional New England cuisine has a lot to recommend it but whether you’re talking about jonnycakes or Indian pudding, lobster rolls or Anadama bread, clam chowder or baked beans , one thing it’s not is spicy and vibrant. Not that we’re complaining, mind you, but the modern American palate accustomed to the cuisines of Asia may find itself in need of the occasional jolt. And that’s where Thai Basil enters the picture. Continue reading
Cajun Mkt. Donut Co. has a new name (they used to call themselves Meche’s Donut King) and a new look, but the donuts, stuffed breads, and Cajun kolaches have not changed. Â They make what has been called Acadiana’s best king cake, and they are also, of course, a donut shop. We’ve tried neither king cake (a Mardi Gras specialty) nor donuts at Cajun Market, yet we still highly recommend a breakfast visit for a few unique items we did try. Continue reading
This was Zally’s restaurant! Who is Zally, you ask? Zal Yanovsky was famous for three things: he was lead guitarist for the Lovin’ Spoonful; he was ostracized by the ’60s counterculture for allegedly ratting on his dealer when he was picked up for possession; and, in the ’70s, back home in Canada, he opened Chez Piggy. Zally died in 2002. Chez Piggy is now owned by Zally’s daughter, Zoe. Learn more about Zally by listening to The Mamas and the Papas song, Creeque Alley. Continue reading
What are you looking for from your visit to Vermont? A beautiful, small, old town? Dorset was founded in 1761; today it’s postcard-ready. A cozy old inn? The Dorset Inn first opened in 1796. Good New England food? The current menu at the restaurant in The Dorset Inn features chicken pot pie, turkey croquettes, locally smoked meats and cheeses from local farms, and cheesecake made by nuns a few miles to the east of Dorset. You can enjoy all this beside a roaring fire in an 18th-century dining room.
Continue reading
We don’t have cafeterias where we live (at least none that we’d want to eat in), so we’re always impressed, when traveling in a cafeteria-rich region of America, with the bounty of home-style cooking that can be enjoyed in one with the same ease, and minimal expense, of visiting a fast-food chain back home. We normally avoid chain restaurants during our travels, but one cafeteria chain we enjoy when passing through Indiana is MCL. Born in Indianapolis in 1950, MCL now numbers 19 primarily-Indiana restaurants. Continue reading
We’re impressed: Brasserie L’Oustau de Provence does reasonably capture much of the French brasserie experience. The bright, country-French Provencal-styled restaurant hits most of the old French country classics; this is not the spot for cutting edge cuisine. That’s not what a brasserie is about. Continue reading
The northeast coast of Florida is one of the country’s great shrimping regions, and it’s said to be the birthplace of the commercial shrimping industry. The specific variety of shrimp pulled from the sea varies with the time of year, and we won’t pretend to understand all the differences between them. What we found during a March trip through the region were shrimp that were uniformly soft and dry, with fugitive flavor. Not among our favorites, though they are much loved by others. The best we found were served at O’Steen’s in St. Augustine. Continue reading
The Quaker is a diner for diner lovers. The brick-exterior little restaurant was built in 1931 by Aristides “Harry” Bassilakis, and the diner appears little changed from those early days (there’s a 1930s photo of the Quaker floating around on the net, and you’d be hard-pressed to identify any physical changes). It is run today by descendents of Mr. Bassilakis. Continue reading
Of the string of casual and kitschy restaurants that line Barton Springs Road, we recommend Shady Grove, a supremely laid-back Austin institution. You dine outside, on a patio under the shade of a grove of pecan trees, and maybe listen to some live music or catch an old flick (there’s inside dining too, but that would seem to defeat most of the point of The Grove). Continue reading
Are you someone who looks through a bag of potato chips to find the darkest ones? Is your favorite part of the pizza the burnt edge of the crust? Do you keep the toaster down until it starts to smoke? If so, we have a treat for you. Continue reading
Newburgh is a small city, population 29,000, on the western bank of the Hudson River, almost an hour-and-a-half north of New York City. It’s also one of the most violent, gang-infested cities in the country. But don’t let that stop you from paying a breakfast or lunch visit to Tony’s Newburgh Lunch. It’s just a short hop off the New York State Thruway, and this short shopping stretch along Broadway is not threatening in the least. Tony’s is an ideal way station for travelers headed north. Continue reading
There’s no shortage of seafood restaurants along coastal Oregon, but for a stripped-down-to-the-basics experience, we recommend Ecola Seafoods. In the town of Cannon Beach, Seaside’s relatively upscale neighbor to the south, Ecola is a seafood market with inside and outside seating. Continue reading
© 2024 Left at the Fork
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑