Left at the Fork

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Category: Reviews (Page 14 of 16)

Pancakes at Rochester Cafe are superb. Here we have a short stack topped with fresh sliced strawberries, bananas, and walnuts - no goop! Real maple on the side, of course.

Rochester Cafe, Rochester VT

November 7, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

Let’s deal with first things first. As soon as you are seated comfortably in the Rochester Cafe, whether you’re there for breakfast or lunch, ask for a slice of Vermont Maple Cream Pie. And ask them to bring it right away. The graham-crusted smooth cream flavored with local syrup (and, yes, extract, but added with a light hand) comes topped with whipped cream and a sprinkle of maple sugar. It’s fantastic! Share with your tablemates, if you must. You won’t regret this one bit of self-indulgence. Continue reading

Apple Hills grows apples, of course, and you can get your pancakes filled with them if you like, but they also grow blueberries. During blueberry season, a 75 cent surcharge will get your cakes chock-full of luscious, ripe berries.

Apple Dumpling Cafe, West Chenango, NY

November 6, 2014 / / 0 Comments

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Give us good pancakes made with farm fresh berries, and a bottle of locally produced maple syrup, and we will spend the rest of our day with smiles on our faces. And that’s just what happens to us at the Apple Dumpling Cafe inside the farm market at the Apple Hills farm. Continue reading

Rolls are homemade, using what seems to be pizza dough. They are served with garlic-infused olive oil.

Villa Barone, Robbinsville NJ

November 5, 2014 / / 1 Comment

REVIEW

Dining in Central New Jersey generally offers a choice of Italian, Italian, and… oh, yes, Italian. There are plenty of take-out Chinese restaurants, many mediocre pizzerias, and a light sprinkling of other cuisines but the Italian offerings are overwhelming. So why is it next to impossible to find a decent Italian restaurant around here, especially since Trenton’s Chambersburg district lost its Little Italy identity? We don’t have the answer to that question but there’s no denying that, hard as we’ve tried, we have not found an Italian restaurant around here to call our own, something not very expensive or formal, but with solidly good food. Until we dined at Villa Barone. Continue reading

Red chile-braised spare ribs are, in and of themselves, reason enough to pay a visit to Sadie's.

Sadie’s on 4th, Los Ranchos de Albuquerque NM

November 4, 2014 / / 0 Comments

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Are you searching for that little, unknown, out-of-the-way mom-and-pop restaurant serving home-style New Mexican food? Then you should have come to Sadie’s 50 years ago. Today’s Sadie’s is huge and extremely popular. The portions are beyond huge and what’s on the plate is most definitely restaurant food. But if flavor is what you are after, you will be very happy at Sadie’s. Continue reading

A Rose's Special hoagie from Carmen's Deli in Bellmawr, NJ is a tour de force of two kinds of provolone, hot capicola, prosciutto, sopressata, roasted peppers, tomato, onion, oregano, and oil.

Carmen’s Deli, Bellmawr NJ

November 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

Carmen’s Deli has achieved a measure of national fame from a visit by The Next Food Network Star winner Aaron “Big Daddy” McCargo, Jr. His sandwich of choice for The Best Thing I Ever Ate was a Carmen’s cheese steak with fried onions and cherry peppers. That combo is now listed on the menu as the Big Daddy, and we gave it a try (“we” being Bruce and the ayersian couple of Chris and Amy). It was quite alright, with plenty of meat, but it didn’t blow us away. Needed more onions and cheese, and the peppers were sparse and too timid. Better than average but not LAF-worthy. Continue reading

Sugar on snow is made by boiling maple syrup to the right point, and then pouring it over snow or crushed ice.

Vermont State Fair, Rutland VT

November 1, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

The Vermont State Fair’s origins go way back to 1846, when it was known as the Rutland State Fair. Thirteen years later the fair moved to Rutland County Park, where it’s been held ever since. It didn’t become known as the Vermont State Fair until 1972, 126 years after that first fair! The owner of the fair property deeded it to the fair under the condition that an agricultural fair be held every year on the grounds. Otherwise, the property reverts to the heirs of the original owner. But the Vermont State Fair has been in trouble lately. Continue reading

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Get your pie with vegetables and you'll find firm cubes of potatoes and colorful carrot pieces added to the mix. This is our preference. Note the generous quantity of chicken, big pieces slow-cooked the night before.

Harrow’s Chicken Pies, Reading MA

October 20, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

What foods do you turn to when you want, no, need to have jangly nerves soothed; to enjoy the culinary equivalent of a leisurely back rub; to shut out the modern world for a quiet evening at home? A mug of hot cocoa? A big plate of macaroni and cheese? Yes, those might work, but how does a warm chicken pie sound? Better yet, one you don’t have to cook yourself. Like the kind you can bring home from Harrows. Continue reading

Eaton's is all about maple syrup. We like Eaton's syrup on their very good blueberry pancakes.

Eaton’s Sugarhouse, South Royalton VT

October 19, 2014 / / 8 Comments

REVIEW

Eaton’s is a tourist restaurant. Let’s state that right up front. Yes, almost anywhere in Vermont that specializes in things maple receives plenty of tourists but (and maybe we’re wrong here) we can’t imagine the local who would walk through Eaton’s doors.  That doesn’t have to imply that there’s nothing good to eat under Eaton’s roof. In fact, there is, but you’ll have to choose carefully. Continue reading

Yes, that's sizzled bologna (!) garnishing those excellent kosher dogs.

Attman’s Authentic New York Delicatessen, Baltimore MD

October 18, 2014 / / 2 Comments

REVIEW

Corned Beef Row. The name designates an area that was once the center of Jewish life in Baltimore. Today, Corned Beef Row consists of Attman’s Deli and little else. Seymour Attman, longtime owner of the deli, has passed on but the deli continues. This once thriving Jewish neighborhood can today seem a little intimidating to some, but a daytime trip to Attman’s (the only time it’s open) will make it worthwhile. Continue reading

Guess what's a specialty of Onion Flats? Homemade, of course.

Onion Flats, Bethel VT

October 17, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

Summer along the New England shore means seafood, but what about inland New England? What’s the great roadside food to be found at summer only stands in the Green Mountains of Vermont? How about seafood? Yes, improbable as it may seem, locals flock to Onion Flats in the Bethel countryside for belly clams, haddock, scallops, and lobster rolls. Continue reading

Barnacles on a weather-beaten lobster are a good sign, indicating that the creature hasn't shed its shell in a while.

Beal’s Lobster Pier, Southwest Harbor ME

October 16, 2014 / / 0 Comments

REVIEW

A longtime favorite of ours, Beal’s is a no-frills lobster pound on a working Southwest Harbor pier. Beal’s seems a bit more “permanent” than we remember it from our initial visit decades ago, when it was more working lobster pier than restaurant. Continue reading

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