Bullet Pointing on a Friday

• I forget how different central New York is from other parts of the state and how it is more reflective of the mores of the rest of the country. This is not necessarily a compliment.

• Regarding diner food, which is something that I will get on my high horse about every once in a while, but I understand that some places will not serve the poached eggs on the toast but there is no excuse to bring a poached egg in a bowl where the yolk is broken. No excuse. The diner that I was dining in came highly recommended and I am willing to try it again but...yeah. The portions were huge though and my dining companion had the most amazing combination ever.

• Guayaki Energy Shots taste like lemon flavored evil and I can only assume that Satan will make me drink these when I am in Hell.

• Great Korean food should not use fake seafood.

• Qloo.com is interesting and while I understand how it makes Pinterest look like a beta test, I wonder how it is going to integrate into existing platforms.

• For the record, I am not bald. It is that Mitt Romney hates my haircut and forcibly changes it every time I see him.

• John Travolta gets a lot of massages, doesn't he?

• Finally, check out the shirt on the woman behind me. It is pink and black lace and terrible in awesomeness. Oh, it is also a maternity shirt...which makes it cooler!

Diner Food

Now that M.A.D. is closed, my favorite diner is Duncan's Dairy Bar which re-opens on February 16th.

I am looking forward to it.

Diner Food - Modern Diner

Yesterday, HJ77 and I made a pilgramage of sorts. To the Modern Diner (FTR: That link brings you to Quahog.org which I wrongly assumed was a support group for those addicted to "Family Guy") which was the first diner placed on the National Registry of Historic Places (read the Times piece about the diners in the area that features the Modern). It has be important as it has it's own entry in Wikipedia.



HJ77 had been telling me for months that we had to go here and try it, as we both have a fondness for diners and she claimed that this was one of the best. She did not lie. (Not that I would expect her to lie about something as critical as diner food.)



As you can see, it has the traditional counter and booth setup (strikingly similar to Albany's Miss Albany which is a homage to the Rhode Island diner) and it smells like well cooked food, hot coffee, and that smell that I can only describe as "diner". (The diner smell is not a pejorative...it is a very comforting smell for me and places that do not have it that are in the diner motif are suspect.)

First things first, I had to try some "Coffee Milk" as I have been tempted to, but...somehow drinking the state drink of Rhode Island in any other place than Rhode Island seemed...blasphemous.



It was tasty...like melted coffee ice cream...but...I do not think that I am going to add it to my list of preferred beverages. Why would I?

The menu is extensive when it comes to breakfast fare, and the list of specials was incredible.



But...as you know...I do not often vary what I have in diners.

Two Eggs (poached), Rye Toast, Home Fries, and Bacon. I had already tried something new with Coffee Milk so I was not going to go further out on a limb with my food choice.



The eggs were in a bowl, which is a bit of a pet peeve, and slightly overcooked. I do prefer mine very runny and I should have said something, but...I think this may be both of our faults.



I was able to transition to the toast with little problem. (The benefit of the egg being overcooked, I suppose.) I was very happy that when HJ77 and I asked for hot sauce, the server (who was great!) brought us both Frank's and Tabasco. Little touches like this make me really happy. The rye bread, which I assume was baked in-house was incredible and slathered with a lot of butter. It was just what my taste buds wanted (and caused my arteries to harden a bit more) and it was very much appreciated.



HJ77 ordered a mushroom and American omelette with wheat toast. While I did not taste it (I have an aversion to American cheese when it is in cooked eggs.), it did smell wonderful.



The food and service was very good and it made it some easy to become a member of the "Clean Plate Club".

I strongly recommend the Modern Diner, for both the food and the sense of history that comes with it.


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Choosing what you eat...

This is the tale of two meals.

Both of the meals were comfort foods and both places were new to me.

The first was dinner at Hose Company No. 6 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and the second was breakfast at the South Street Diner in Boston, MA.

HJ77 and I were looking for something yummy and close by the other night, so I used Urban Spoon in order to determine what the best rated place was near us. After going back and forth, trying to figure out something that sounded good to both of us, we decided on trying HC No.6, which HJ77 had never been to, despite proximity. Now, I am game for anything (most of the time) but HJ77 was not feeling well (allergies) and she had to be convinced to go out. Neither of us felt like cooking.

I like places that are functional and do some things really well while everything else is at least good. If more restaurants were like that, it would be a much better world. With hopes of this, HJ77 and I ordered. I knew what I wanted when I walked in: the lobster roll special. (Yes, lecture me about specials all you want, but I wanted a lobster roll and I started salivating as soon as I saw it on the board.) But first, a starter...Calamari Ala Mama.

Calamari, "hot pepper rings", olives, roasted red pepper, tossed with lemon juice and olive oil and dusted with grated Romano. It would have been perfect if it came out to us while it was still warm, and we would have waited for it. Even though it was room temperature, I still enjoyed it.

For out entrees, HJ77 order the Chicken Parm and I ordered the Lobster Sandwich but with Cole Slaw instead of fries, and I asked the waitress about the slaw.



Look at that! The was a great (albeit small) lobster roll, but...what is that next to it? Yes, folks, that is jarred slaw. How they could make such a perfect lobster roll (and it is in my top three of all time) and then serve it with jarred slaw? (Think of the slaw that the Arquette brother consumed in Never Been Kissed...) So, I asked out waitress, who was very good, for fries, and without prompting, she delivered them without charge (Yes, I did tip her well.) but they were over done. Not wanting to complain, I ignored that.

HJ77's Chicken Parm was great is huge. I could have used the take away box as a work out implement. When I put it in the refrigerator, there was a dramatic settling of the floor. Yes, it was that big.

Yes, I am willing to go back there, but...I am going to stick to bar food and such...oh, and we have a new place to watch football...and she can watch whatever the Pats fans call it...

Now on to breakfast...

I had about ninety minutes to kill this morning, and I was hungry, so not being willing to trust the wisdom of the crowds again, I walked up to one of the security guards and asked him where he would have breakfast around there and he pointed me in the direction of the South Street Diner.

As everyone who has read this more than once knows that I am both a sucker for diner food and remarkably consistent as to what I order.

Coffee
Two Poached Eggs
Home Fries
Rye Toast

(NB: on occasion, there will be an order of bacon, corned beef hash, or I will change it up entirely and get a sandwich, or a breakfast taco)

This being someplace new to me, I was not going to venture all that far afield of my usual order.

The coffee was hot, black and had a spoon in it. (How many of you get that reference?)

It was diner coffee but it was good.

While sipping on my coffee, and waiting for the poached eggs and egg eating infrastructure to arrive, the waitress (who was outstanding) brought over a plate of warm banana bread that was great. I am not a huge fan of banana bread, and I think a lot of people who make it fail to make it properly (hence, why I am not a fan) making it too light. It should be dense, with the consistency of a proper pudding. This was great!

It made me regret not going with something else, I will admit.

Then the main event came along...

In this case, the eggs and the toast took a backseat to the home fries which, while not being like the home fries I am used to, were amazing. Seasoned with a dusting of cayenne, they were an excellent compliment to the well prepared eggs.

Oh and checking in at the Diner earned me a new badge on Foursquare!

The Foodie Badge! Awesome! I am a living breathing cliche now.

So, Security Guard at South Station, thank you.

And now I get to the point of this...

Over the course of a couple of days, I was looking for food and I did not know where to go. I suppose I could have gone to someplace like TGIMcOliveLobster (TM Pending) but what is the point in that? What, apart from sustenance, would I have received from the experience of eating the same generic things that people in Syracuse, Erie, Cleveland, Chicago, Madison, and Missoula were able to get? I am not saying that I do not love my comfort food and my staples (see above, I order the same breakfast everywhere...though I do want to find a place in the 518 that does the Full English and does it well...ideas/suggestions please) but I want a unique spin on it. Specifically, the unique spin of that individual cook/chef who is deciding what to do with what is fresh and local.

For one situation, I used the crowd to offer suggestions, and while I had a superlative lobster roll, I was ultimately disappointed. For the other, I just asked someone, face to face, and was sent to a place that I would happily go back to, especially since it is so close to South Station and for some reason, I always end up having to kill time there.

I am all in favor of social media being used for the greater good, i.e. finding me fun things to eat and enjoy by myself or with friends and loved ones, but...some times it is easier to just ask someone.

I am glad that I did.

The Greatest Bar and Other Places of Interest

Sorry, I have been...busy (as well as technologically challenged) for most of the week. It has been interesting being disconnected, but...in the next 36 hours I will be back to almost normal...for me.

Anyway...I am going to go all the way back to last Thursday to start this post.

As you may have gathered, I have not been around. I am currently in an undisclosed location, north of Boston. While I was packing, I was stressing out more than usually, and it seemed like a good idea to drink a four pack of Sugar Free Red Bull, which made sleep damn near impossible. It did leave me time to pack and do laundry and fret and such, and when I finally fell asleep at quarter to five, that two hours of sleep that I felt so good, but then there was Habitat.

Now, being a little bit of a planner, I had asked Teacher Dave for an easier day, and to be done early. As the Ploughman Poet once wrote, "the best laid schemes of mice and men, gang aft agley." It was fine, actually, with the exception of one pickup which was unscheduled and difficult. It was hot and I was gross. Now, I had planned on being able to take a shower before meeting up with HJ77 and that plan was ruined, but I was able to mask my disgustingness but feeding her craft beer (UFO, for those keeping track at home) at McGeary's before I could shower. Teacher Dave was unable to meet up with us, which was disappointing (but they became Facebook friends, which works) and she and I got ready and headed up to Ford's show, which was great. Then we had a quick dinner (full of coconut shrimp, naturally) at DeJohn's, a stop at the afterparty for Ford's show, and then a quick nightcap at McGeary's (where we were unable to meet up with Ms. Lee).

Saturday started out with a trip to the Miss Albany Diner (Scrapple FTW!) and then a side trip out to Schenectady. We ended up getting on the road for Boston around 1:30. It was a great ride. There were sing-alongs to George Michael/Wham! and a mix made on the fly.

Then we arrived in Boston!

(An aside to people who really want resident parking permits in the City of Albany. They make parking extremely difficult sometimes. There has to be a better balance than what Boston is doing, especially around the State House and Common.)

I purchased my ticket for the 6:45 train (with the full knowledge that there was an eleven ten) and we looked for a place to kill a couple of hours. We ended up, for a little bit, at a place called "The Greatest Bar". What makes this place the greatest bar? Is it the plastic pint glasses? Is it the proximity to the Garden? Is it because HJ77's sister likes it there? We do not know. I could not determine the cause of the greatest-ness, so...I guess the greatness must be considered alleged. Anyway, because I was spending time with HJ77, I missed my train, and we did a quick tour of North Boston...including Mike's Pastry. What is so special about this place? Why did we have to wait 45 minutes to get what was being offered inside? Sheeple.

Then...it was time to take the train north. I would say that it was pleasant, but I fell asleep. It was full of drunken fans of some team called the Red Stockings who had beating a team from New York called the Yankees, or as they were saying, the "F***in' New York Yankees" in that adorable accent that they have, at some game that is similar to rounders, as it was explained to me. Quite an experience.

Then I was in Maine...which is the subject of another post...

My return to poached eggs

It has been a little while since I had poached eggs, or breakfast out in general. I have been eating a lot of oatmeal at home in an attempt to be a little more healthy. I am also drinking tea at home instead of coffee. Yes, I am making these changes based on some small belief that I am going to live forever with the level of health that I have had for the bulk of my adult life. I kid. I want to be dead by 65 but oatmeal is filling while being low in calories and it tastes pretty good. The tea thing I cannot describe for any reason other than I made tea one morning and I have been sticking with it.

So, when Teacher Dave suggested that we get breakfast before Habitat on Friday, I knew that I wanted a poached egg.

Where to go?

Some of my suggestions were impractical due to parking issues but...Duncan's Dairy Bar was perfect.

I cannot remember the last time I was in Duncan's. Maybe when I was fourteen or fifteen? We are talking more than twenty years since I last had breakfast there.

Why I had I stopped going here? It was as good as I remembered.

Better than good, actually, is was a taste of home. What made it sublime? The fresh baked rye bread turned into great rye toast.

Yes, it is my usual. Rye toast, poached eggs and home fries, with black coffee. My sounded so good, Teacher Dave ordered the same thing.

I know that I have forgotten about Duncan's but...you shouldn't.

Visit as soon at you can.


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Diner Food Revisted

After seeing Dub is a weapon on Friday night, either I suggested breakfast or Teacher Dave suggested it, and we decided to go to the Truck Stop Diner.

It was late, we were hungry, but I am a stickler, and I want to try the poached eggs in every diner in Albany.

Looks good, doesn't it?

It tasted better.

Teacher Dave got the steak and eggs and they were apparently wonderful as well.

So, I have tried a lot of poached eggs in the area, but...where am I missing? Where should I try them next?

(Also, I know a number of people who don't like a runny egg, and I am trying to figure out why. Is it a texture thing? Is it that they have the palates of children?)