Offbeat Eats

(Closed) It seems everyone is moving to Canaan these days. It’s like it’s becoming the new Enfield. In any case, it was time for another visit to Canaan to check out the food scene. So Finn and I met up with Chris and Val to try out on of Canaan’s newer restaurants: Mom and Dad’s Family Diner, right on Route 4. Mom and Dad’s is your basic diner, with an array of pancakes, waffles, omelets, and related breakfast fare, including some fairly interesting items such as the “Hangover Special” (a poutine-like assemblage of home fries with gravy), as well are the more usual items like biscuits and gravy and CBH.

(Closed) I’ve always had a fascination for old diners. And small restaurants with very small seating areas. So when I happen across a gem like Dot’s Diner in Bisbee, Arizona, it’s obligatory that I stop in and check it out. Dot’s is an authentic Valentine Diner care, originally built in Kansas bu the Valentine Manufacturing Company in Wichita. According to the literature they’ve got as a diner, Dot’s started life as a burger diner in Los Angeles before being purchased in the mid-90s and moved to it’s current location in the Shady Dell RV Park in Bisbee in 1997, with Dot at the grill.

(Closed) Recently, the Rusty Moose restaurant in Grantham, NH closed, and after several weeks of vacancy, it has reopened as the Grantham Cafe, open for breakfast and lunch 6 days a week (closed Mondays). The owner of the cafe also owns Grantham Video down the way, so the new incarnation of this restaurant sports a Hollywood motif, with movie posters, some film reels on the wall, and most of the menu items named after movies (mine was named after McGuffin, for example).

(Closed) My friend Karla wanted to meet with us for a mid-afternoon snack while we were in Phoenix. She recommended that we get pie at Linda’s, which is at 24th and Osborn in Phoenix. It’s a little hard to find, since the only obvious name on the place is BJ’s (from the previous business name). However, it was worth our effort tracking this joint down. Despite the non-descript exterior, Linda’s has quite a good selection of homemade pies. Our group opted for Coconut Cream, Banana-Chocolate (shown here), and Cherry. Mine was the Banana-Chocolate, which was pleasantly creamy, not too banana-y, with a good substantial flaky crust and a nice chocolate flavor.

(Closed) I’ve been a pho addict for almost 15 years now. Unfortunately, living in New Hampshire, I’ve got no local pho joints, and only two that are within an hour’s drive of my home. So most any time I’m traveling to an area with good Pho shops, I try and get a pho fix. Phoenix is a particularly good area for Pho, with a large Vietnamese population. I used to have a favorite place up in Scottsdale by the Motorola plant, but it isn’t there anymore. Khai Hoan on Apache in Tempe is good as well, but wasn’t open on Christmas Eve this year, so we decided to give one of the better-reviewed places in Phoenix a try (19th Ave around Camelback has a number of Vietnamese businesses). We settled on Pho Bang due to a number of good reviews online, including two that mention that it’s John McCain’s favorite Pho joint.

For many years, Haji Baba’s in Tempe has been one of my go-to places for good Middle Eastern food in the Phoenix area. Indeed, it’s been one of the places on my hit list whenever I’m in the Phoenix area. Haji Baba’s isn’t exactly the best decorated place—it’s important to realize that the idea here is a market that sells food, and not a restaurant. As a result, the overall ambiance here is a bit lacking, it’s like eating in an office supply store. But you’re not coming here to enjoy the ambiance, you’re coming here to eat. And that’s where Haji Baba’s shines, with a solid menu of Middle Eastern delights, such as gyros, schawarma (shown here), hummus, tabouleh, grape leaves, olives, and such.

Anyone that knows me knows that I love hot dogs. I’ve made it a point to seek out iconic hot dogs at places such as Blackie’s in CT, Lafayette Coney Island in Detroit, various Chicago spots, Ted’s in Buffalo (and Arizona), as well as any number of additional places. One noticeable omission in my reviews has been Pink’s in Los Angeles. I’ve been here before, but not in many years. But, with a late night flight arrival, I had an opportunity to visit on the way out to Edwards AFB.

(Closed) Every since I started going to Edwards AFB regularly several years ago, this place has been on my to-do list. Several people on Chowhound raved about it. Several area guides recommend it. And the place is photogenic to boot. But every other time I’ve come to the area, I’ve had to be out at Edwards early enough that I couldn’t do breakfast. But finally, on my 5th trip out here, I had a chance to go here for breakfast. And I’m glad I did.

In one of the more anticipated changes in the local restaurant scene, Umpleby’s new location at 3 South Street in Hanover (approximately where the hardware store used to be before the big South Main/South Street construction happened) is now open, so Carol and I decided to head over there for Sunday breakfast before heading out for a hike. Previously located in Bridgewater, Umpleby’s has been known for several years as the go-to people for croissants and meat pies at the Norwich Farmers Market. Indeed, either the Umpleby’s line would be quite long, or they’d be sold out.

As part of my job, I had to spend a whole week in the Yuma, AZ area. One of the brighter spots of Yuma is that it’s one of the best places to get good authentic Mexican food (without the usual Tex Mex or New Mexico influences, which are good in their own right, but not true Mexican Food). I’ve known several good places in Yuma (including Mi Rancho, which has been around forever), and several good taco stands, but I wanted to see what the best Mexican food out there was. Consulting several online sources (Chowhound, FindItinYuma, and several blogs), there was quite a consensus that Los Manjares was the place to try first.