Offbeat Eats

One of the highlights of a trip to southern Florida is the ability to get some good Cuban food. Up here in cold New England, Cuban food is so far off the culinary radar (Boston proper doesn’t even have a vaguely authentic Cuban restaurant for example) that most people up here are of the mistaken impression that Cuban food is like Mexican food, which is really unfortunate, since Cuban food is very distinctive, and very delicious in it’s own right. Indeed, if I had to characterize Cuban food in terms of other cuisines, it’s basically a fusion of Spanish, French, African and Caribbean cuisines, drawing many distinctive flavors from each of these, with heavy influences of garlic, citrus, and sugar cane. Unfortunately, the downtown tourist areas (Port of Miami, Bayside, etc) are definitely not the center of Cuban cuisine in Miami, for that sort of action, you’re best heading to Calle Ocho and Little Habana. But in Bayside Marketplace (the big outdoor mall right on the Bay) is one little gem of a Cuban place, Latin American Bayside Cuban Cafe.

One of the unfortunate facts of life is that, in general, air travel isn’t as convenient as it used to be. In these days of higher fuel costs and lower profits, most airlines have trimmed back their food service, mostly replacing it with expensive “buy-on-board” meals. We’ve got the silly TSA liquid ban as well, which also make it harder to bring stuff with you. Which makes it increasingly likely these days that on longer plane trips, you’ll be getting some of your sustenance from various food vendors at the airport. Unfortunately, in most cases, airport food sucks. While there are a few notable exceptions, the general airport fare is either poorly done versions of your basic fast food fare, ultra-expensive, or both. However, there are a few places that seem to fill the airport food niche decently. Recently, on a trip to Miami we had a nice long layover at Newark’s Concourse C, and we spied Garden State Diner and decided to give it a try.

Around a year ago, Claremont, NH picked up a BBQ place on Mulberry Street. I would never have even known this place was there, except for taking a wrong turn a few months ago, so it had been on my chronic “I should check that out list.” Last weekend, as we were coming back from our trip to Bennington, we passed through Claremont again, so I figured we’d give the place a try. Inside, the place is mostly a bar (with a good selection of draft beers, and a very good selection of bottles), with a few booths as well. The menu sports your basic variety of BBQ meats (ribs, chicken, pork, and brisket) and your typically appropriate sides (cole slaw, beans, cornbread, etc)…

(Closed) Last weekend, we had a free day, and decided to us this opportunity to go see some of the fall colors (due to our trip to Miami, most of the leaves will be gone by the time we get back). After discussing many possible destinations with good colors, we settled on Bennington, VT. We were planning on eating at the Blue Benn Diner (which gets really good reviews), but, unfortunately, the Blue Benn had a kitchen fire and was closed for several days. The guy in the parking lot recommended the Northside Diner as a good alternative.

When I was growing up (including trips in college in the early 90s), Providence was fairly rough around the edges town, and fine dining in Providence mostly consisted of going to some Italian restaurants up on Federal Hill. However, over the last 10 years or so, it’s been really pleasant watching Providence rebuild itself as a nice town. And one thing that Providence really has excelled at is the restaurant scene. Providence now sports several incredibly good restaurants, including such gems as Al Forno, Pot Au Feu, and Blue Grotto. And, of course, Gracie’s, which has been on my hit list for several years (when it was first recommended to me, it was located in Federal Hill, and not downtown like it is now)…

(Closed) A few weeks ago I was visiting my grandfather in Rhode Island along with my brother, and we decided to pick up lunch in Providence. One place that has been on my list for a while was Stanley’s. Stanley’s Hamburgers has been a venerable burger stand in Central Falls, RI for decades, and they opened a new Providence location this last spring. I’ve been meaning to check it out, but since my previous trips to Providence were on holidays, Stanley’s was closed. This time they were open. Stanley’s is pretty much a burger bar. The main attractions at Stanley’s are the burgers and the fries. The burgers are fairly thin patties, that are cooked by smashing them into the grill to get a good char on them (a technique familiar to people that have been to Steak n’ Shake). The result is a nicely crisp burger, albeit a little on the light side, so I usually get a double burger at these sorts of places.

You know the place. Every area has one. That restaurant that most everyone knows exists, but, for some reason, never thinks of actually going there to eat. In my case, that place is the Baited Hook restaurant in Lebanon, NH, on the west shore of Mascoma Lake (yes, folks, that is Lebanon, go look on a map…). It’s a small restaurant with both indoor and outdoor seating, and an ice cream window for the nicer months. I’ve seen this place ever time I’ve driven down Rt 4A since moving here, but for some reason I never thought of stopping in.

In late August I had a business trip that included a stop in Arlington, Virginia. From roughly 1991 through earlier this year, my brother used to live in the DC area, so I’ve been coming to various Arlington and DC destinations for quite a long time. Indeed, I’ve long been a fan of several of the Arlington Vietnamese joints. Pho 75 has long been a favorite, and the Clarendon area used to be chock-a-block with little Vietnamese restaurants. Alas, times change, and many of the Clarendon Vietnamese places have been turned into parking lots, apartment buildings, or parking lots turned into apartment buildings.

One of my simple guilty pleasures that I indulge in on every trip to the DC metro area: A “Half Smoke” hot dog , with mustard and “cooked onion” sauce. Many of you that aren’t from broader Washington, DC metropolitan area are probably asking, “what the heck is a half-smoke?” Like many areas (Chicago and Rochester being particularly good examples), Washington, DC has it’s own particular variant of the hot dog, the half-smoke. A half-smoke is a close cousin to the hot dog, but is a slightly larger and spicier sausage, with a level of seasoning halfway between a typical smoked sausage and a hot dog, hence the name. Interestingly, however, the sausage itself isn’t smoked (halfway or otherwise).

Big Ed’s is one of the historical institutions of Oak Ridge, TN. I’m not sure when exactly Big Ed’s opened it’s doors, but it’s definitely the pizza place that’s been around longest in Oak Ridge, since when I lived there I knew several people that had been swearing by Big Ed’s pizza for at least 3 generations. There are a lot of reasons to go to Big Ed’s. The pizza is one of them, being a contender for the best pizza in Oak Ridge (however, as one coworker of mine would say, that’s “damning with faint praise”, the rest of the pizza in town is pretty marginal). The other draws are the gritty ambiance (shown here, just the right amount of “dank”, and a bunch of TV, sports, and military banners that have been hanging probably at least as long as I’ve been alive). The friendly service. The catering to the little kids watching them make pizzas while hoping for a spare piece of pepperoni to get hurled to them. The very cheap beer. The decades of multilingual intercontinental graffiti in the men’s room. In other words, Big Ed’s is the epitome of a “Pizza Joint”…