Profoundly Palatable Pop-Tarts

If you’re Roadfooders like us, you grew up eating Kellogg’s® Pop-Tarts® and you still suffer from occasional cravings. Though the debate over the best flavor—fruit filling or chocolate, frosted or not—will probably never end, Caiola’s Restaurant of Portland, Maine offers a toaster pastry for adults with their housemade cinnamon and sugar pop tart. More brittle than the store-bought brands, this gem is warm, flaky, and filled with semi-gooey cinnamon goodness. Like most Portland breakfast spots, Caiola’s small foyer was crowded when we wiggled our way to the register to order a tart to go. One waiting patron overheard us and admitted, “I had to wean myself off those pop tarts so I could try the rest of the menu!” Another asked to see the tart before we left and declared, “I’m having one of those!” With a daily rotating menu that reflects ingredients from local farms, we’ll definitely be back to try their oyster po-boy, polenta cookies, and homemade tater tots. Caiola’s is located in Portland’s West End neighborhood at 58 Pine Street.

Roadfood Glee Club Conquers Charleston, Day 3

Though some Roadfooders had already departed, the remaining group soldiered on for multiple brunches centering on higher-end RF establishments in downtown Charleston. Our first meet was at Magnolia’s on East Bay Street, where we shared a smorgasbord of fine Lowcountry fare: housemade pimento cheese (made with diced green olives) on flatbread crackers, Down South Egg Roll (stuffed with chicken, collards, tasso ham, and served with red pepper purée and spicy mustard), fried green tomatoes, and crab cakes topped with poached eggs. Our main entrées were blue crab bisque and Shellfish over Grits, an amazing amalgam of lobster, scallops, and shrimp in a butter sauce over creamy grits and topped with fried spinach.

Our second stop was at 82 Queen on Queen Street. Hot biscuits were placed on the table after ordering, so we dispensed with the appetizers and headed straight for the main dishes: pesto-crusted grouper on fried green tomatoes and grits, shrimp & grits, and the city’s best she-crab soup. We tapped out after these magnificent meals, as did others, though we knew no one could beat the inimitable ChiTownDiner, who managed to hit an astonishing 22 eateries in three days! Could that be a Roadfood record? A few locations were bandied about for the 2011 meeting, including Houston and Key West, the latter surely stemming from South Carolina’s abnormally snowy weather. Special thanks to The Travelin’ Man, Buffetbuster, ChiTownDiner, and WanderingJew for advance planning; to WanderingJew and Nocarolina for treating the group; and to Nocarolina, Nancypalooza and Julie, and Louis and Anna for conquering storm-swept highways to join us—and of course, a tip of our collective hats to Mayor Al, Glee Club founder and primary source of inspiration.

Roadfood Glee Club Conquers Charleston, Day 2

With some areas recording up to five inches of snow, Charleston looked like it had just rained by 10 a.m.: the sun was bright, the temperature rising, and the snow melting. By the afternoon, there was snow only in shady spots and a lone snowman here and there in front yards. Nancypalooza and Julie rode with us to Charleston’s Café on Johnnie Dobbs Boulevard in Mount Pleasant. We chose the Southern Benedict with fried green tomatoes and chippers (housemade potato chips), but a daily special also caught our eyes: deep-fried peanut butter & jelly sandwich! Lunch followed at Gullah Cuisine, also on Johnnie Dobbs, with she-crab soup, fried catfish, shrimp, and two trips to their hot buffet: fried chicken, pork BBQ, succotash, red rice, collards, mac & cheese, okra gumbo, stewed cabbage, and candied yams. Amy wanted to see the Angel Oak on Johns Island, so we drove across the Ashley River and over washboard roads to marvel at the massive, Tolkien-esque tree with its tentacle-like branches.

After snagging a rockstar parking spot, exploring Upper King Street was a cinch. The Southeastern Wildlife Expo was in town, and Cupcake on King Street was preternaturally packed with camo-clad cakehounds. We shared Pumpkin, Almond, and the curious Black Bottom (chocolate cake with a cheesecake center) cupcakes before a final, pre-dinner stop at Hannibal’s Kitchen on Blake Street. One glorious, $2 fried bologna sandwich and a Cheerwine later, we were heading toward Folly Beach and Bowen’s Island for dinner. Armed with oyster knives and rags, we pried open trays of roasted oysters and slurped them down alongside fried shrimp, fish, Frogmore stew, and deliriously good hushpuppies. Local patrons didn’t bat an eye at our Hawaiian garb, and we had a dining room to ourselves as we exchanged Roadfood gifts from around the country with each other. We said our goodbyes to a few Roadfooders and planned to meet with the remaining group for Sunday brunch.

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.

Roadfood Glee Club Conquers Charleston, Day 1

Charleston, South Carolina received record snow last weekend, but that didn’t dampen the appetites of the West Tennessee Glee Club’s seventh annual meeting of Roadfooders from around the country. From roasted oysters to okra gumbo and every Southern staple in between, the group made its way around greater Carolopolis and visited an equal number of Roadfood-reviewed restaurants and as-of-yet undiscovered gems. Joey Holleman of Columbia’s The State newspaper caught wind of the event and wrote an article spotlighting the meet.

Arriving late Thursday night, we made a beeline for the one Roadfood outpost that we knew would be open after 10 p.m.: Dave’s Carry-Out on Morris Street. The fried shrimp was excellent, as were the deviled crab and French fries. Friday morning began with a bowl of hot grits at Hominy Grill on Rutledge Avenue. An egg & sausage biscuit, pumpkin-ginger bread, and buttermilk pie rounded out our meal before we walked it off in the Historic Market. The pink cinder blocks of Martha Lou’s Kitchen on Morrison Drive beckoned us, and inside we ordered a plate of fried chicken, lima beans, macaroni & cheese, and cornbread. The rain turned to snow halfway on the drive to Holly Hill, but Sweatman’s Bar-B-Que (a mainstay in the older editions of the Roadfood books) stayed open long enough to accommodate us before closing early, due to bad weather. Their buffet featured light and dark ’que, pork ribs slathered with mustard sauce, BBQ hash and white rice, and sweet ‘n’ sour pickles, and a few added banana pudding for dessert. We then drove slowly and carefully in the windy snow on slippery I-26 back to Mount Pleasant to rest up for Saturday’s festivities!

World’s Best Mac & Cheese?

Beecher’s is a cheese shop at 100 Pike Place in Seattle, across the street from the covered market. It’s an aromatic storefront that makes and sells everything from fresh curds to flavored varieties that include No Woman (jerk spices and brown sugar) and Marco Polo (dotted with green and black peppercorns). I love eating on the stroll around the market, and Beecher’s mac & cheese, made with penne pasta and billed as the “world’s best,” is available in small containers with plastic forks for stand-up enjoyment. It’s mighty good, but is it the world’s best? I would love to do a side-by-side comparison with some of these contenders, going clockwise from the upper left: Rocky and Carlo's, Hell's Kitchen, Mary Mac's Tea Room, Zingerman's Roadhouse and Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

Doctored Roadfood Redux

Last summer, we brought a jar of Howard’s Hot Relish down to Mt. View Drive-In in Hampden, Massachusetts to dress their foot-long hot dog, wonderfully prepared but woefully lacking in the condiment department. Now we’ve fulfilled another vision of gastronomic glee, wedding the sultry spicy chili from Orangeside Luncheonette in New Haven to the celebrated cheeseburger at Shady Glen in Manchester, Connecticut. No one looked our way when we pulled out our to-go container of chili and spooned it on the burger. The taste was astounding as predicted, though our favorite result of this brainstorm was unexpected: scooping up the excess chili on the plate with the crunchy flaps of cheese…heaven on earth! We extend extra-special thanks to the fine folks at Orangeside (who gave us the chili for free because there was only enough to fill half of the container) for helping us to reach chili cheeseburger nirvana.

Louis’ Lunch Wins First Place in Chowdown Countdown

Travel Channel just aired an intriguing series entitled 101 Tastiest Places to Chowdown, which counted down the finest Roadfood spots (reviewed and unreviewed) around the country. Not surprisingly, 14 of the Top 20 places have previously been reviewed by Roadfood, including Buffalo’s Anchor Bar, Boston’s Durgin-Park, and Kansas City’s Arthur Bryant’s, among others. But the humble Louis’ Lunch in New Haven won the coveted top spot as the birthplace of the hamburger, and we took this opportunity to revisit one of our favorite Elm City haunts for lunch. The place was packed with a large group of Chinese students on an Explorica tour of the city. While waiting for our “cheese works” (that’s a burger with Cheese Whiz, sliced tomato, and grilled onions on white toast), a grandfather and grandson plopped down next to us. “I’m 93 years old,” the old-timer explained, while his grandson recalled not too long ago when the burgers were $2.50 (now $5). The pattie was smaller than on previous visits, but it was incredibly juicy, down to the last morsel. T-shirts with the infamous “No Ketchup” logo are also available.

Come for the Strips, Stay for the Chips

Rhode Island is well-known for many Roadfood staples: hot wieners, Del’s Frozen Lemonade, and snail salad, for starters. But another unique item is the beloved pizza strip, and Borelli’s Bakery makes them perfectly. This is bakery pizza in large sheets that’s cut into strips for $1 each. Borelli’s offers a red strip with sauce and a dusting of parmesan cheese, or the no-sauce version with cheese, peppers, and onions. Pizza strips are sold in other variations throughout New England, but it seems that the Ocean State is the epicenter. Even more enticing are pizza chips (also $1 each), which are rounded squares of dough topped with red sauce and parmesan sprinkles. The edges are toasted by oil when baking, so that the texture does indeed have a chewy ‘crunch.’ Both pizza offerings are exactly as the cashier warned us: completely addictive. Borelli’s is located at 805 Charles Street in North Providence.

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.