Offbeat Eats

As I mentioned in my review of Kathmandu Spice, much of my early spring is spent volunteering at various FIRST Robotics competitions. In March, this led to my visiting the rare new-to-me New England city, Lewiston, Maine. Like a lot of smaller New England cities, it’s a former lumber and textile mill town, with the challenges that brings, but it has a lot of interesting food and drink options. It has a strong French-Canadian heritage (indeed, the event venue I was at was covered by Mailhot Sausage banners), and more recently, a surprisingly large Somali population, and the downtown has a decent collection of restaurants ranging from diners, to brewpubs, to Mediterranean, to even a few Somali restaurants. The first of these is what caught my eye on this visit, with my visiting The Pub at Baxter.

Like most springs, I spent a lot of my weekends volunteering at various FIRST Robotics competitions as a robotics judge, and that usually means I spend a lot of time staying at hotels in various smaller towns and cities around New England, but it also gives me a nice chance to try out a few places on my hit list. In this particular case, heading back home from a weekend in Salem, NH, this gave me a good opportunity to stop off and visit one particular Indian and Nepalese place in Manchester: Kathmandu Spice.

One of the places that I’ve always enjoyed in New Hampshire for a nice dinner outing is Greenleaf in Milford, NH, run by well-respected local chef Chris Viaud. We’ve been to Greenleaf a handful of times in the last few years, including our 2021 review. But every once in a while, I like to revisit a few old favorites for a new review, and see how they are doing. When we saw that Greenleaf was doing a Black History Month dinner in collaboration with area chef Antonio Wormley, we decided it was worth checking out, and headed out to Milford

One of those items is a proper Italian-American sub sandwich. London has almost uncountably-many good Italian places, including delis, but the “Italian Sub” (aka “Hero”, “Hoagie”, “Grinder”, “Maine Italian”, or “Wedge”, depending on exact location in the Northeast) is a distinct product of the Italian-American tradition. Back in the day when we were growing up, this would mean a trip to Guido’s Deli for subs, but the Mesa outpost of that venerable Chicagoans-moved-to-Scottsdale institution closed years ago, and we didn’t have time to go that far for lunch. Seeing that we were bouncing around Chandler doing various errands, I decided this was a great opportunity to head over to west Gilbert and check out Little Joe’s Italian Market (formerly “East Coast Joe’s Food Truck”).

As mentioned in the previous review of Kraken Coffee & Kitchen Co., St Marys, Georgia is a small town, and there are a handful of businesses that cater to the ferry terminal and marina that are located right in central St Marys. One of these, Riverside Café, sits immediately across the street from the ferry terminal, and does a brisk business, being open in time for the first returning ferries from Cumberland Island, and staying open into the early dinner service, so it’s a great place for those looking for a meal either before or after a trip to the Island.

As our regular readers know, we like to go on occasional backpacking trips to interesting destinations. This January, we headed down to the small town of St Marys, Georgia, in order to catch the ferry to Cumberland Island National Seashore for several days of hiking and relaxation (and, very unexpectedly for Georgia… a few inches of snow!). The ferry only runs periodically, so the act of loading the ferry is pretty involved: you show up early in the morning, they have you load your larger items (bikes, backpacks, etc.) onto the ferry, and then you’ve got about 45 minutes to wait around the small town of St Marys while waiting for the mandatory Park Service briefing before the ferry departs. The local volunteers that help load the boat and direct traffic very helpfully have suggestions for some of the places near the ferry to check out while you wait, indeed, one volunteer very enthusiastically recommended a fairly new coffee shop just down Osborne street from the ferry dock: Kraken Coffee & Kitchen Co.

Back in January, right before we left for our winter vacation, we met up with friends of ours from the FOM for an outing to a place that’s long been on my radar, Dragon 88 in Boylston, MA. As you can read in my older review of House of Wu in Road Island, I’ve got a soft spot for old-school, New England-style Chinese food, which has had a good century of divergence from the food eaten in China, and even had a fair bit of divergence from West Coast Chinese places as well. Dragon 88 in Boylston is one of the better-regarded “old school” Chinese places, known for good, classic “New England Chinese” food, a reasonably good modern “authentic” menu, and, perhaps most importantly, particularly good (and strong) house Mai Tais. So we decided to meet up and give the place a try.

Si Aku Ramen A recent trip to Montpelier to visit Barr Hill to have some cocktails with friends ended up with our taking the back way through Barre, VT to get home, and hoping to pick up some dinner while in town. When we first moved here, Barre was a bit of a food desert, but over the years it’s sprouted more than a few decent eateries like Cornerstone Pub and Kitchen. But this time, I figured it was finally a chance to check out a rarity in the region: a ramen joint, Si Aku Ramen. Si Aku Ramen Interior Located right on Barre’s Main Street next to the cinema, Si Aku Ramen opened up back in 2018 as a combined ramen and Asian grocery store, but walking in, you can see that the “grocery” side of the business has faded (I would guess this happened during the Pandemic). But they maintain a takeout counter, a modest dining area, and a good selection of Japanese, Thai, Filipino, and other assorted Asian cuisine specials. But, true to their name, you can pretty much always count on the menu having at least classic pork belly tonkatsu ramen, phở, and a few other basic Asian soup dishes, and the occasional dumplings. Pork Belly Tonkatsu Ramen Since the place nominally is a ramen shop (having ramen right in the title), we both decided to get the tonkatsu ramen. Starting with the most important ingredient (ramen is really more about the broth than the noodles), this was a good, thick, and flavorful tonkatsu broth with a lot of body too it, without being too greasy. The noodles themselves were well-above your average “ramen” noodles, with a particularly good tooth to them. Some fresh carrot and sprouts were a good touch, and the soft-boiled egg decent (but the yolk a bit firmer than I like in a ramen). The pork? I always like this really delicately simmered, and the version here was a bit firmer than that, but still decent. Overall, however, a good, solid, and enjoyable bowl of ramen. And it’s one of the more unique and enjoyable places I’ve found in Barre, with a friendly staff. It is definitely worth checking out if you’re in the greater Barre/Montpelier area.

As I mentioned a few months ago in my review of the Community Supper at the Union Episcopal Church in Claremont, NH, I’ve been trying to make it to more of the various community meals that spring up around the area. Harvest suppers. Fire department fund raisers. Non-profit fundraisers. That sort of thing. And that brings me to an event I had seen advertised a handful of times, a monthly community breakfast run by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Forest Lodge #69 Breakfast. Held the third Sunday of each month from 8:00 to 11:00 am, the breakfast is served buffet-style, with scrambled eggs, eggs and omelettes to order, blueberry and plain pancakes, biscuits and sausage gravy, corned beef hash, homemade brown beans, homefries, bacon, sausage, fresh-carved ham, and various beverages. Oh, and they use real maple syrup.

As our regular readers know, we’re often (although not as often as pre-Pandemic) darting off to destinations both exotic and prosaic, and most of the time that means grabbing the occasional airport meal. As you can read in my many airport dining reviews, dining in airports is pretty much never ideal. You’re dealing with higher prices, service challenges, tight timelines, and often poor ambiance. But every once in a while I find a case where an airport managed to scare up an actually good option, such as our stop at Tony Luke’s at Philadelphia International Airport.