Natural Food

Natural is best, at least when it comes to hot dog casing. I love the bit of chew it adds to the snap of a good wiener. Anyway, that’s my excuse for posting this picture of an excellent lunch at Mr. Mac's Canteen in Monroe, Connecticut. The chili seemed especially hot today – really, very, very hot – to the degree that the wonderful earthy/sunny scent of capsicum provided good competition for the piggy-garlic perfume of the hot dog itself. And did I mention how perfect the tender, lightly toasted bun is as a backdrop to that dramatic duet?

Love is a Many-Layered Cake

Many ultra-thin layers of yellow cake alternating with chocolate fudge icing: that’s the obscure Smith Island cake as invented by the ladies of Smith Island, Maryland, an inhabited island in the Chesapeake reachable only by boat.  Smith Island’s economy is based on the blue crab, but the cake is beginning to make a name for itself, too.  Hear about this cake, and how you can sample it on the mainland, by catching Jane and Michael Stern’s appearance on this weekend’s episode of Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s The Splendid Table.  The Cove, in Crisfield, MD imports genuine Smith Island cake by ferry.  If you miss the show on radio you can listen the the Sterns’ segment, or the whole show, online.

BBQ Bites

My local barbecue (words I never thought I’d say), JB’s of Brewster, New York, recently added BBQ bites to the lunch menu. For $5.25 you get a half-dozen halved hushpuppies filled with barbecued pork and cole slaw: a well-balanced and comparatively healthful alternative to my usual brisket sandwich, which is about 1/3 melty-good smoked beef fat.

“We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby”

Those are Jane Stern’s words, as she describes the life journey from hot Nestle’s Quick to the pure, thick, intense hot chocolate of Sahagun, in Portland, OR.  Jane and Michael Stern appear on this weekend’s edition of Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s The Splendid Table to giddily describe Sahagun’s amazing potion.  You can listen to the show on your local public radio station, or you can catch the Sterns’ segment, or the entire show, online.  Also be sure to get a look at the Roadfood.com review of Sahagun.

Danbury Cuban Report

First, the bad news: Amigo's no longer sells lottery tickets. Next, good news: the interior has been opened up, providing a few more seats in the all-too-small deli as well as what appears to be a larger selection of extremely appetizing hot lunches. Chickens were coming off the rotisserie when I walked in, and the aroma was intoxicating. Finally, the great news: Amigo’s Cuban sandwich is as wonderful as ever. If you sit at the four-stool counter, you can watch the Caribbean Dagwood constructed before it goes into the hot press and, as ever, the secret is its stupendously good roast pork. For each sandwich, a pile of it is brought over from the hot-foods counter; and as much as I like this pork on a plate with rice and plantains, its supreme destiny is to be sandwiched with ham, cheese, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, mustard and mayonnaise in a crisp-toasted torpedo roll. Bravo!

Crumbs

What grabs you, the cake or the crumbs?  If you said crumbs, you’ll want to listen to last weekend’s episode of Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s The Splendid Table, because Jane and Michael Stern discuss the crumb cake to end all crumb cakes: the one made by B&W Bakery of Hackensack NJ.  The bakery calls it “heavy crumb cake,” and they’re not kidding.  The show has already aired but you can still listen to the Sterns’ segment, or the whole show, online.  You can also check out the Roadfood.com review of the B&W.

Who Cares that Cupcakes Have Peaked?

I have been informed that cupcakes are passé, like red velvet cake (and soon, salted caramel-flavored everything). I confess I love them, even if it does make me unfashionable in the eyes of cutting-edge gastronomes. The cupcake pictured here, bought at my local diner/cafe, O’Neil’s, where a member of the staff regularly makes them, is particularly unchic, being plain, ordinary yellow cake with plain, ordinary chocolate frosting and broken Reese’s peanut butter cups on top. It’s not a recipe for ten minutes of culinary fame, but as soon as this photo was taken I joyfully consumed the fresh lovely with mid-morning coffee … and plan on going back after lunch in hopes that there will be one remaining for dessert. Perhaps the cream-cheese-frosted red velvet cupcake. (O’Neil’s Sandwich and Coffee Bar: 114 Greenwood Ave., Bethel, CT. 203-791-8121)

Boutique Twinkie

Approximately once every 12 years, I crave a Twinkie. One or two completely sates the hunger. This afternoon, after chowing down on chicken wings at the Candlelight Inn in Scarsdale, New York (review to come), I walked into Lulu Cake Boutique and spotted some interesting snack cakes behind the counter. I asked, “What are those Twinkie-shaped things?” The response: “Twinkies.” Of course, they are not real Twinkies; they are Lulu’s artisan versions thereof, coated in chocolate and containing cream, not creme -- an East Coast cognate of the wonderful chocolate espresso Twinkies made at Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, California. The man behind the counter warned us to wait an hour until his pastries were at room temperature before eating them. A serious challenge, but good advice, especially for the other dessert we took home: a big block of salted caramel chocolate cake with milk chocolate ganache icing, which blossomed as it warmed.

50 American Classics

Hot dogs at Coney Island’s Nathan’s (Roadfood.com review).  Beignets outdoors at Cafe du Monde (Roadfood.com review) in the French Market.  Arthur Bryant’s KC barbecue (Roadfood.com review).  Philippe’s famous French Dip (Roadfood.com review).  These and 46 more eateries are on the list of iconic American restaurants compiled by the trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News.  All of these restaurants were founded pre-1960, and all “have survived and thrived in good times and bad, and have captured, and held, the attention of diners everywhere.”  We’ll add that the majority can also be found on Roadfood.com (29 by our quick count, and that doesn’t include the half-dozen or so that appeared only in print versions of Roadfood)!  Jane and Michael Stern’s Roadfood book is even quoted in the Pepe’s Pizza story (Roadfood.com review).

NRN provides links to slide shows of all 50 restaurants, and greater depth stories on 11 of them.  To see the stories on the other 39, unfortunately, you’ll have to pay (a lot).

Essence of Cleveland and Great Polish Food

Do you enjoy muscular lengths of juicy kielbasa, heartwarming bowls of halushka, and buttery pierogi dressed in well-cooked onions?  Then you’ll want to catch Jane and Michael Stern’s appearance on this weekend’s episode of Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s The Splendid Table.  The Sterns talk about the terrific Polish cuisine to be found in Cleveland at the Polish cafeteria named Sokolowski’s.  You can also listen online: here’s their appearance, and here’s the whole show.  In the Roadfood.com review of Sokolowski’s, Michael Stern said: “This hearty food is of high quality and dished out with good cheer in abundance.”