Roadfood Digest

A trip to the Iowa State Fair allowed me to check off Stops 6 and 7 on my list of 100 things in Iowa to eat before I die. Although I had tried Bauder Pharmacy’s  peach ice cream (#34) once before, it somehow tasted better when eaten under the hot sun on the fair midway. The ice cream tastes more natural than it does bold, which is why many fans will forego more readily available imitators until summer rolls around. In addition, the corn dog from Campbell’s Concessions (#36) immediately won my vote as the top item on a stick…both within and outside of the fairground gates. Campbell’s batter was thick, flavorful, and perfectly crunchy—a true fair delight!

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After hearing that there were over 30 foods-on-a-stick at the ISF, we considered strict adherence to a stick-only rule. However, after risking splinters with 3 or 4 items, we felt constrained culinarily, and decided to sample freely…and often. Our stand-out favorite was the corn dog from Campbell’s Concessions, with a thick and crunchy batter encasing a soft and juicy hot dog. For the full scoop on our fair feast, check out our trip report!

Just a few years ago, New Haven had no noodle houses, and now there are three downtown, all no more than a block from Yale. Nestled atop the space that once housed Yalie’s Pizza, York St. Noodle House at 166 York Street sits above all competitors in the Elm City. Five dollars gets you a steaming bowl of noodle soup that will keep your hunger satisfied all day. Renée, Adam, and I arrived just before noon to a virtually empty dining room, and thirty minutes later, there was a line snaking out the door. Adam & I ordered the Vegetable Dumpling Noodle Soup ($5.00), which was served in a large bowl with a hole and a groove for holding chopsticks. Each bowl featured three plump veggie dumplings floating in a clear broth with sprouts, thin rice noodles, cabbage, and green onions. Renée chose Wok Noodles with chicken ($5.50), stir-fried with broccoli, kale, and cabbage. York St. Noodle House also has an extensive bubble tea list, so I picked a Green Apple Bubble Tea smoothie ($2.75), which was wonderfully slushy, refreshingly tart, and chock full of black tapioca beads at the bottom of the glass. It’s no wonder that I often walk past customers sipping these drinks on the streetside patio in the afternoons. York St. Noodle House has rib-sticking and inexpensive food, fast service, and seemingly all the business that they can handle. More...

As fellow Roadfooder Doggydaddy mentioned in a recent RFDigest comment, New Haven has a preponderance of Thai restaurants on or near Chapel Street downtown. There’s Indochine (1180 Chapel), Pad Thai (1170 Chapel), Thai Taste (1151 Chapel), Thai Pan Asian (1150 Chapel), and Bangkok Gardens (172 York)—and four of these are on the same block. Food-wise, one almost can’t go wrong, as all of them are delicious and reasonably priced, but one rises above the rest as my favorite: Bangkok Gardens. On this visit, Hanna, Mike, and I began with an appetizer of Golden Bags ($5.95, above), which are little fried tofu pouches of minced shrimp, chicken, straw mushrooms, water chestnuts, and scallions. The bags are tied with edible seaweed, and they’re served with a spicy sweet dipping sauce. Hanna then ordered Yellow Curry ($5.95, yellow curry in coconut milk with chicken, bamboo shoots, and green peppers), Mike chose Chaiya Noodles ($6.95, shrimp and scallops cooked with yellow noodles, bean sprouts, and scallions in a red curry sauce), and I picked my Thai stand-by, the ever spicy Drunken Noodles ($5.95, wide rice noodles stir-fried with tofu, onions, peppers, and basil leaves). All dishes were scrumptious, and we were hard-pressed to finish them all. If we had room for dessert, we’d’ve ordered the Mango Delight ($4.95, sweet purple sticky rice with fresh mangoes). Great Thai food is easy to find in New Haven, and Bangkok Gardens is among the finest. More...

My Elm City pal Sam described his three favorite pizzas thusly: “Modern has the perfect dinner pizza, I love BAR pizza with their microbrews, and Yorkside pizza is best cold the next day.” Taking over the volume of take-out sales from the dearly departed Yalie’s Pizza up the street, Yorkside has been a convenient stop for Yale students and families for nearly 40 years. Located on York Street a few doors down from Toad’s Place and Ashley’s Ice Cream, Yorkside has a full menu of sandwiches, salads, and Italian dishes, but their specialty is Greek style pizza. This large pepperoni pie (above) is perfect for students looking for cheap eats, and like Sam said, it’s quite good straight from the fridge on the following day. Though the Pepe’s/Sally’s/Modern purists will turn up their noses, Yorkside is everyday pizza for neighborhood New Havenites.

When Stephen Rushmore’s review of New Hampshire’s Friendly Toast was posted, my friend Kate from Portsmouth remarked that she had never eaten there during daylight hours. “Doesn’t everyone have a place like that?” she asked. After some thought, my only entry in Connecticut’s night-owl category is A1 on Broadway, and it’s a place whose pizza I unequivocally crave after a concert at Toad’s Place—or just late-night carousing around New Haven. Like Yorkside Restaurant around the corner, A1 specializes in Greek-style pizza: thick, airy, oily crust baked in a pan, sweet sauce, hearty toppings, and lots of cheese. But somehow A1 is better than all of the ubiquitous “house of pizza” restaurants in seemingly every New England town: it’s crispy, almost crunchy, and it sure hits the spot in the wee hours. A1 is also the only place in the Broadway district to serve slices, plus they stay open late when other eateries have already displayed their closed signs and mopped the floors. After a liberal dusting of crushed red pepper, parm, and Italian seasoning, the slice stays crisp to the last bite, and it’s perfect to munch on while strolling with other nocturnal denizens along Elm and York Streets. A1 has a perfectly fine Italian/Greek/burger/grinder menu, too, though I shall be eternally drawn to the place only for pizza and only after the sun goes down.

Stop #5 was at Chocolaterie Stam to sample their locally-renowned bonbons. As a self-proclaimed dark chocolate snob (no milk, please), I selected half a pound worth of bonbons with a variety of creamy fillings (rum, Irish cream, butter, caramel, etc.). Although the cream fillings were decadently delicious, my favorite of the box was a dense marzipan, which brought back memories of visits to Europe and left my tastebuds yearning for more!

The truest New Haven style pizza that’s available by the slice, Est Est Est serves you an eighth of a large pie for only two ducats. This shop stands on the corner of Chapel and Park Streets, a stone’s throw from the Yale Art building. I was fortunate to arrive early when an unadorned cheese pie just came out of the gas-fired oven, and I ordered two slices: one with pepperoni, and the other with hot cherry peppers, and both were served in a small pizza box. Both were rigid enough to lift without droopage, and the chewy end-crust was a welcomed finale to a wonderful lunch. New Haven has its apizza triumvirate (a quadrumvirate if you count BAR on Crown Street) long cinched, but for those who don’t have enough time to indulge in a whole pizza, Est Est Est delivers the New Haven style pie quite admirably.

There is only one opportunity a year to sample Item #2 on the list of 100 things in Iowa to eat before you die. This year the Adel Sweet Corn Festival fell on Saturday, August 9th and luckily I was able to make the detour from Des Moines. The centerpiece of the event is obviously the corn, which was freely dished out to long lines of Iowans. Although I only helped myself to a single corn cob, I watched with wide eyes as single individuals buttered and salted a half dozen or more. For those folks with a hunger for more, a variety of fair foods were also available for purchase including corn dogs, walking tacos, and funnel cakes.

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Roadfood connoisseurs had better visit the famous pizzerias in New Haven with an empty stomach, because they sell only whole pies. Where does one go for individual slices, then, in such a renowned city? There are three excellent stops in the downtown area, and Brick Oven is the most hidden of all. Located two blocks from the hustle ‘n’ bustle of the Broadway shopping district, this small, family-run business sits on a quiet corner of Howe and Elm Streets. Two bucks and some change get you a slice so large that it pours off the plate. This is closer to New York style pie rather than New Haven: an extremely slender interior crust hosts thin layers of sauce, cheese, and toppings, with a thick railing of bread as a handhold. Structurally too floppy to pick up, this slice yearns to be folded in half, and only about halfway through does it become wieldy enough to be airborne. Brick Oven also stocks locally bottled Foxon Park sodas, including such flavors as Iron Brew (a cream/cola mix) and Strawberry, both relative rarities around town. You may miss Brick Oven’s diminutive signage but not the multiple cords of firewood (background, below) stacked in their front parking lot—the most obvious evidence of their wood-fired oven.