the road | the food | a new direction
We’ve encountered a style of hamburger cookery in the Midwest that we rarely see in the East. Many of these places use fresh, coarsely ground beef and smoosh it down hard on the cooktop, resulting in a thin, irregularly formed patty with crisp edges and the chaw of real beef which hasn’t been pulverized to a pulpy paste. The Kansas City chain Winstead’s makes such a burger. Continue reading
Phillips Grocery in Oxford is a branch of the original in Holly Springs. The one in Holly Springs is a can’t miss stop. This one, while not really a grocery, or even a former grocery, is a genuinely old wooden house south of town, converted into something reminiscent of the Holly Springs original, in an impressionistic sort of way. There are some picnic tables out on the front porch, and they can be a very pleasant place to spend some time munching on first-class hamburgers. Continue reading
Maine means lobster for many of us, but Maine is also a great place to try all manner of seafood, including the fine smoked versions turned out by Grindstone Neck. Located on the picturesque Schoodic Peninsula, Grindstone is not a restaurant, but a seafood smokehouse, owned by a local restaurateur/innkeeper. There’s a retail store on the premises, but you’ll have to take your purchases elsewhere to enjoy them. Continue reading
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 visit the somewhat decrepit Montgomery Cinemas pretty often because it’s the only place less than an hour’s drive from home that shows independent and foreign films. It’s not that we never noticed Ya Ya Noodles, in the same shopping center as the theater, before. It’s just that virtually every Chinese restaurant we’ve been to in central New Jersey seems to have been stamped out by a single Take-Out Chinese Factory. The food sent forth from these places ranges from dismal to just decent enough for delivery. We don’t remember what exactly finally brought us through Ya Ya’s front doors but we are surprisingly glad we did so. 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 brought us to Pho Tan was not the pho but the banh mi which were recently touted in a local publication as the “perfect sandwich” that will “change your life.” Our lives remain as they were but the sandwich has all the right flavors, and would make a pleasant appetizer to a bowl of pho. The problem is the almost comical paucity of filling. We haven’t seen sandwiches this under-filled since our days in ’70s London. The banh mi is only $4, and perhaps what else could you expect at the price? 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
We were faced with a tricky proposition: a bunch of us would be spending the day in Chelsea (a neighborhood in Manhattan) and wanted somewhere to hang out and get something to eat around 7:30 p.m. Oh, did we mention it was Valentine’s Day? Not only is that holiday the ultimate amateur night for diners (special menus geared toward those who dine out once a year), but every table at every restaurant that could even remotely be considered romantic had been booked weeks in advance. We had to find the sort of place that no couple in their right minds would even consider visiting on the most romantic evening of the year. And so we did. Continue reading
One of the problems we have with fast-food chains is how the food’s had all traces of regionality wrung out of it. To a large extent, the success of national or global fast-food chains depends on their ability to serve the same burger and fries in Maine that’s served in New Mexico. So we think it’s interesting when we encounter a local fast-food chain serving something unique to its region, like Runza does in Nebraska. Continue reading
Chef Leo LeDoux’s menu utilizes an assortment of locally produced products, wild seafood, and antibiotic-free meats, prepared in whatever manner strikes his fancy. You’ll find plenty of Asian and Mediterranean influences as well as traditional comfort foods such as French onion soup and pasta and meatballs. Fresh vegetables abound. It’s a clean, pure, and vibrant cuisine that impresses more with freshness and quality ingredients than in-your-face excess. Continue reading
It was just a grilled cheese sandwich. That’s all we tried at Rubi’s, a single sandwich split between the two of us. But what a sandwich! Pullman slices enclose Comté and the optional tomato (which turns out to be roasted yellow specimens, full of flavor). The sandwich is wrapped up and THEN gets placed in the grill press. Press isn’t quite the right word, though, because while the sandwich is grilled on both sides simultaneously it does not get heavily compressed (unlike the grilled cheese we make at home, which gets pressed down hard in the pan as it cooks). 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. 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
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