Multidimensional Red Hots

Chicagoan Matt Bergstrom, when we checked in a few years ago, was in the midst of a cross-country trip aiming to draw pancakes in every state. We’re not sure he accomplished that goal, but in the meanwhile, Matt has gotten into the View-Master business, producing three different reels: Route 66 in Chicago, Motels of Lincoln Avenue and, pictured above, Chicago Hot Dog Stands. Each comes with an informative booklet (I didn’t know that “Fluky” was the nickname of Abe Drexler, who began serving red hots on Maxwell Street in 1929); and Matt guarantees that “All photos are genuine 3D images, taken with twinned digital cameras, or with a single camera and slide platform.” You need only a View-Master which, to my amazement, is still being made. In fact you can buy one, as well as one or all of Matt’s reels, at his website: Wurlington Bros. Press.

I Dream of Weenie

What is wrong with these pictures? If you look around the border of the image of the one on the left, you can see that it is reversed – a photo taken in a mirror. It shows the counter of my beloved Blackie's at about 11:30 this morning when I walked in and called out “two, well.” The picture at the right is one of those two, totally split apart from its well-doneness, its skin crisp and insides succulent, mustard and relish applied. What is wrong with the picture? I am busy fussing with focus instead of doing what I should be doing: eating it! (No need to write and tell me I am wiener-obsessed; those who are close remind me all the time.)

The Last Roadfood Calendar Can Be Yours

Bruce Bilmes, who creates the Roadfood calendars, has exactly one 2010 calendar remaining. If you don't have one, or if you do have one and need another as the perfect gift for the foodie in your life, here is your one and only opportunity to get the last one. Post a response here, in the form of a comment, and the winner will be drawn at random from all comments one week from today, January 29, 2010. Only one comment per person, please! (The photo above is the pulchritudinous Miss March: Doe’s Eat Place tamales and chili.)

Triple Coconut Holy Grail

The great Seattle chef Tom Douglas put on a bash last night featuring a roasted pig (cooked on the sidewalk, perfuming the whole neighborhood), chicken-fried steak sandwiches on biscuits, buttermilk macaroni-n-cheese, fine-stranded slaw, pickled okra and tomatoes, fried dill pickles, and – ta-da! – the ultimate coconut cream pie. It’s called triple coconut pie because even the crust is laced with it. Creamy beyond words, jolted with vanilla, piled with whipped cream and garnished with not only coconut chips but also shreds of white chocolate (the only time I’ve ever loved white chocolate), it is a shoe-in for the Pie Hall of Fame. (Please pardon the crappy photo. It was dark in the Palace Ballroom and flash would have totally washed out this pale piece of perfection.)

The Happy Journey From Trenton to Buffalo: Part 5

Buffalo is 73 miles west of Rochester yet, other than their common infatuation with hot dog cuisine, they each have their own world of local delicacies.  And, if ever there was a local food item that seemed primed to go national in a big way, beef on weck should be it.  Should be, but it’s been around for decades and you’d be hard-pressed to find one 50 miles out of town.  We have no idea why.  What is beef on weck?  It’s a roast beef sandwich on a roll that is heavily crusted with pretzel salt and caraway seeds:

Our first visit of the Roadfood Tour day took us to Schwabl’s, home of the finest beef on weck in Buffalo, hence the finest in the world.  The plate above is sided by some of the best German potato salad you’ll ever enjoy, good homemade mayo-less slaw, and a few stray slices of beet.

What makes Schwabl’s so much better than the rest is the care taken in the cooking, slicing, and trimming of the beef.  Schwabl’s opened early for us – we had the entire place to ourselves – and there were tables for everyone but we chose to stand at the bar where we had a ringside seat at the sandwich station.  The master carver went about his business with a Zen-like focus, carefully carving choice pieces off the giant roast, then trimming and thinly slicing those pieces on a board with the dexterity of a master lox slicer from the Lower East Side.  Each half of the roll is momentarily dipped in natural jus before receiving an alottment of the worried-over beef.

The folks at Schwabl’s seemed concerned that perhaps they weren’t serving people as fast as they should, but they need not have given it a thought: the sandwiches were perfect, the show was fascinating, the talent inspiring.  Bruce felt Schwabl’s was the highlight of the two-day event.

Buffalo is a hot dog town, and there’s no better way to see that for yourself than at one of the seven area Ted’s Hot Dog shops.  Local Sahlen’s dogs are grilled over coals till crusty and blackened, then dressed as you like, but especially with Ted’s own hot sauce.

A footlong is really getting in the spirit of things at Ted’s, even though there is much more food to come today.  And don’t forget to order a side of Ted’s superlative O-rings.

If an entire footlong just seems like too much food, you can always share:

You’ve qualified for our bonus lightning round!  The goal?  To dash across six lanes of traffic, reach the other side without making contact with a moving vehicle, and then grab the frozen custard of your choice from Anderson’s.

Let the debate begin!  Who serves better custard?  Abbott’s in Rochester or Anderson’s in Buffalo?  Many chose Anderson’s (especially the pumpkin).  Many chose Abbott’s (especially the chocolate almond).  We’ll give a small edge to Abbott’s for now, but we really need more samples of each to truly declare a winner.  If they’d both care to ship a few dry ice packed containers to us in NJ we promise to give the weighty subject further consideration.

Back on the bus, and off to Parkside.

Parkside Candies is a beautiful old candy and ice cream shop with a stunning and dramatic interior reminiscent of the great old movie palaces.  They specialize in that fascinating and delectable Buffalo specialty know as sponge candy, which is a light and airy chunk of crisp caramelized sugar that is enrobed in dark or milk chocolate.

Our own eating capacities having been temporarily exceeded, we were unfortunately only able to look but not taste.  We trust from the happy look on the chocolate-smudged faces of those spooning into cups of ice cream and carrying bags of nut clusters and milk chocolate sponge that Parkside was a worthy stop.

Our final stop was the source of the very first Buffalo wing ever created by mankind: the Anchor Bar.  It’s a huge tourist attraction now, but in some ways it’s still the same thing it always was: a neighborhood bar, a place to catch the Bills on TV and down some local beer and wings.  And the thing is, when all is said and done… with the proliferation of Buffalo wings throughout the city, and all over the country… with people now proclaiming this place in Tampa or that place in Milwaukee, or even someplace else in Buffalo, as the source for the “world’s greatest wings”… we think the Anchor serves the best wings we’ve ever had (that is Bruce talking there; Sue does not like wings).  They are perfectly crisp, yet moist within, and the wings are not swimming in sauce.

The platters were served
Both in mid-hot and mild,
With sides of hot sauce
For all fans of the wild.

Each wing bone was nibbled
And stripped of its meat.
Leaving morsels too small
For even Cindy Lou Who to eat:

Now ordinarily this would be the end of the story, as well it should be for anyone who has eaten along with the Roadfood gang.  But there was that old Roadfood magic in the air, and as all the world knows, where Roadfood travels, romance follows.  And so it was that a Roadfooder named JoJo, from Hawaii by way of Florida, asked for the microphone and asked to speak to those gathered on the bus for the ride back to the hotel from Anchor Bar.  The words were halting… nervous… but oh so sincere, as she proposed marriage to Mike, seated at the back of the bus.  He, of course, said yes.

Here is the first photo of the happy, engaged couple, in the back of the bus.  They have promised to name their first born buffetbuster.

The bus returned to the hotel, as many folks had planes to catch.  A few true diehards continued on the bus for another Antoinette’s visit, and more ice cream.  We just could not face another bite.  Hugs and kisses all around/promises to gather again in March for the 2nd Annual Louisiana Roadfood Festival/waves to cars heading off to home.  Stephen promised that this would be the best Roadfood tour yet.  Listen when Stephen speaks.  He knows what he’s talking about.  He was absolutely right.

Many of the photos in this report are the work of Stephen Rushmore Jr. and Judy Rushmore.

The Happy Journey From Trenton to Buffalo: Part 4

Ayersian did a wonderful series of writeups about the Rochester portion of the Roadfood tour.  There’s really little else for us to say about it, but we do want to add a couple of notes.  At Nick Tahou, home of the Garbage Plate, you are offered a slew of garbage plate options.  Not only do you choose the sides, you also choose the central item that serves as the focal point of the dish.  Choices include red or white hots, sausages, burgers, haddock, etc.  Bruce’s sisters, Pete and Dee, chose to go with a grilled cheese garbage plate.  We aren’t sure what led them to that decision.  Did they think it was the health-conscious option?  Who knows?

The point is, a grilled cheese garbage plate is the sleeper winner.  Two straight-ahead grilled cheese sandwiches replace the standard meat; otherwise, the plate is exactly the same, with mustard, hot sauce, chopped onions… the flavors and textures just seem to be made for each other, and the toasted bread soaks up the juices (read grease) beautifully.  A brilliant choice that we highly recommend!  The fact that it is also the least expensive garbage plate on the menu doesn’t hurt, either.

We also want to give a shout-out to the chocolate almond custard at Abbott’s:

This is another example of WNY’s nut consciousness when it comes to ice cream, because we watched as they dished this stuff out.  See, what they do is they make a big tub of chocolate custard, not chocolate almond custard.  Every so often, the server would take a big bag of fresh nuts and dump a mess into the tub, then work it in a little with the spade before grabbing a serving.  The result?  Extremely fresh and crunchy almonds, and lots of them!  It was really quite extraordinary; the chocolate almond custard at Abbott’s, as we see it, is the reason to pay them a visit.

We are not ones to pine for the “good old days.”  We recognize that there is much about the modern world that puts the olden days to shame.  But the converse is also true.  It is so common these days for the sizzle to be greater than the steak that we almost expect to be taken.  We assume the salesmanship will exceed the product.  And that’s one of the reasons we love Roadfood.  In what has come to be a Stephen Rushmore Jr. trademark, far more was delivered than was promised.  That these Roadfood tours are full of fun, good food, and camaraderie is now expected.  That local apples which were picked yesterday were handed out to everybody, and there were tubs of iced, locally brewed Genesee, and New York State cider, thoughtful touches that were not even mentioned in the publicity for the tour, well that just made the tour extra-special (big thanks to Greg Marshall of VisitRochester for providing the apples and beer!).  But it didn’t end there.  Because after all was said and done in Rochester, and we boarded the bus back to Buffalo, we were greeted with yet another surprise: we were taken to an outdoor Cornell chicken feast put on by the East Shelby Fire Company!
 
We were taken to the Orleans County Fairgrounds in Knowlesville, about equidistant from Rochester and Buffalo.  The atmosphere was “small country fair and flea market.”  The chicken and pies and hospitality were extraordinary!

Cornell chicken, for the uninitiated, is a chicken-cooking method developed some decades ago by a Cornell University professor.  It’s based on an egg-enriched vinaigrette with poultry spice that is used both as a marinade and a basting sauce.  The result, especially when cooked outdoors over hot coals, is amazing and unique.  Cornell chicken is found at fairs and festivals throughout the western half of the state.  As one poster to the Roadfood forums pointed out, there is also a Buffalo company called Chiavetta’s that markets a marinade, and catered prepared chicken, to be sold in similar venues.  The poster suggested this chicken might have been Chiavetta’s, given the proximity to Buffalo.  Never having tasted Chiavetta’s we cannot say with certainty but, as we understand it, Chiavetta’s marinade has an Italian accent, and this chicken tasted exactly like what you want and expect from Cornell chicken, so we’re putting our money on Cornell.

How can you beat the serving style?  The grilled chicken halves were torn in two and dropped into a foil-lined garbage can.  As you passed through the serving line a piece of chicken was taken from the garbage can and placed on your tray.  Beautiful!  That other New York State classic, salt potatoes (small potatoes boiled, skins on, in heavily salted water, then put in a melted butter bath), were offered, along with homemade slaw and potato salad, and rolls.  And, as if that weren’t enough, there were pies.  Lots and lots of homemade pies!

Did people enjoy themselves?  Decide for yourself:

Roadfood was lucky to have Jeanne Martillotta from the Orleans County Tourism Agency coordinate the barbecue with the East Shelby Fire Company.  The event came off flawlessly.  On a personal note, we enjoyed (a whole lot) every one of the stops on the tour (when the question was asked on the bus, each place had their many partisans), but we both pick the chicken barbecue as the highlight of the day (Sue feels it was her own highlight of the entire weekend; Bruce’s single favorite stop came on Sunday in Buffalo).  Everyone finally rolled themselves to the waiting bus and cars, and we headed back to the hotel, filled with barbecue and garbage plates and apples and cider and beer and steak sandwiches and frozen custard and Cornell chicken and salt potatoes and homemade pie.  Thoughts of tomorrow’s Buffalo tour would have to wait as we basked in the glow of a perfect Roadfood day.

Most of the photos in this report were taken by Stephen Rushmore Jr. and the most lovely and talented Judy Rushmore.

Breakfast at Zingerman’s

Jane and I were on a panel at Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown Bookfest over the weekend discussing food with Ari Weinzweig, co-founder, with Paul Saginaw, of Zingerman’s Deli and, more recently, Zingerman’s Roadhouse, which now serves breakfast. Ari’s newly-published book is Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon, and bacon, along with superb sausage, was prominent in the menu degustation brought out that morning by Ari and his chef, Alex Young. Rather than yammer on about what we ate, here are pictures of the Breakfast of the Century.

First, biscuits with chocolate gravy and bacon, which Ari said is actually an old Appalachian recipe:

Then, biscuits dolloped with sorghum mixed with butter:

And, while on the subject of bread, an excellent, hand-rolled bagel and cream cheese that really tasted like cheese, not xantham gum:

Bread is Ari’s passion, and his rye glorious. There is none better anywhere: glossy-crusted, dense, chewy,slightly sour and shot through with caraway seeds. New York’s delis with their blah, soulless rye, should be ashamed of themselves!

Eggs Benedict with prosciutto, anyone?

How about eggs Benedict topped with hunks of Chesapeake Bay crab?

Or, good old corned beef hash:

Maybe oyster hash, the eggs poached in oyster liquor:

Here are some hot donuts, dense and cakey and yet so fragile that they quite literally fall apart when you heft one:

Finally, what could be simpler than bacon and eggs and grits; and what could be better when the bacon is thick and smoky, the eggs fresh from free-range chickens, and the grits, from Anson Mills, butter-rich?

By the way, for lunch, we went to Zingerman’s Deli and had Jalapeno peaches:

And also some “farmer’s hash,” made with sweet potatoes and redskins, sauteed spinach, crisp shallots and piquillo peppers. Alongside it comes some of that fine rye, toasted and buttered:

These Were Some Excellent Meals

Emphasis on were. No one ever accused me of being a being a beauty-food photographer; and while pictures of ready-to-savor fare are definitely preferred, I admit to a perverse fondness for photographing the aftermath of especially delicious, messy meals. Can you identify what each of these pictures used to be, and which landmark Roadfood restaurant served it?