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Post by showmedot on Mar 16, 2014 10:05:45 GMT -6
The digression to humorous arguing about the comparative merits of the Big Mac vs. other McD's fine fare inspired me to start a food thread.
Let's talk about good eats from carnival midway "delicacies" to top-quality restaurant fare.
What's your pleasure?
My best-fast-food-EVER saga dates back to mid-90's Coney Island before Nathan's by the sea lost its century-old grill to Hurricane Sandy's flooding. Not as good since it reopened, report my in-laws.
For thr record, I'm not terrifically fond of hot dogs. It's gotta be a very special dog for me to be interested.
So, hubby who's a native Brooklynite takes me to Nathan's and assures me I MUST have a dog and potato knish dipped in Nathan's own spicy brown mustard.
"Naw, I don't think so," says fool me. "I'd rather have a burger really."
Hubby insists I must have a bite of each of his. So, I take a bite of that garlicky bit of heaven a grilled Nathan's dog was then. The knish with a good smear of their mustard was next. He got neither back and had to order himself others.
Then, there's Brooklyn's Brennan & Carr's braised roast beef double-dip. A tale for another time....
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Post by woodrowli on Mar 16, 2014 12:03:56 GMT -6
I go back to the days of the original "Greasy Spoon" Restaurants usually named "Joes". A place where the cook didn't have a name but wore a torn dirty T-Shirt, a WW2 sailors cap and had a MOM in a heart tattooed on his left arm
The hamburgers were as big as how much meat the cook could grab in his hand, was odd shaped and had jagged edges. An order of French fries had no 2 the same as they were individually hand cut on the spot with a paring knife. The menu was the Blackboard over the counter, Usually had on it Hambuger-15 cents, with pickle 17 cents, Hash 20 cents, Cole slaw 10 cents and Soup 10 cents. Coffee free with any order or 5 cents a cup.
Doesn't sound like much but holds millions of dollars worth of memories.
You sat at the counter, and the cook served you.
But those were the best hamburgers of all time. The soup is an unknown as nobody ever ordered it. the slaw was fresh crisp and not made until you ordered it.
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Post by stevec on Mar 16, 2014 21:01:33 GMT -6
In Fall River, MA, we have something called a Coney Island hotdog also. It's not the same as the original, it's better - just a steamed bun, medium quality dog, mustard, onions and special meat sauce. We also have chourico pizza and a heart attack on a bun - chourico and french fries sandwich. They're still available and still as good as ever when I go back to visit family.
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Post by showmedot on Mar 17, 2014 0:43:56 GMT -6
Hubby insisted the only way to have a Nathan's dog was plain with mustard and maybe shredded raw onion. So, I never heard mention of anything called a coney when we got dogs there.
Apparently, Nathan's does have the meaty chili, says Google, as well as shredded cheese that has come to be known as a coney dog.
So, you're talking about a particular combo of dog with accompaniments that has acquired that name. We have them here in the country's midsection, too. Generally, here that's a regular sized dog topped with a very mildly spiced meat chili, also often called just a chili dog or chili-cheese dog if shredded cheese or cheese sauce is added. Shredded raw onions are also typical.
"Coney" around here and where you mentioned, Steve, appears to signify only a dog with some kind of meat sauce on it rather than just a dog with the standard condiments--mustard, ketchup and sweet or dill pickle relish.
Maybe that style originated at Nathan's which has been on Coney Island since its founding a hundred years ago and its location, Coney Island, stuck as the name of that type. Wouldn't surprise me.
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Post by showmedot on Mar 17, 2014 1:16:52 GMT -6
What's chourico pizza? Some kind of local specialty? Never heard of it.
Hadn't ever heard of St. Louis-style pizza with Provel cheese either until moving here. I don't think it's available anywhere but St. Louis, for which the rest of the country should be very grateful indeed. Nasty stuff, really awful, says hubby who's eaten it. I never have but have had the sickeningly sweet sauce used on that crap as well as Provel, which tastes like dirty gym socks smell.
I swear you'd have to have grown up here and thus have no idea what really good pizza tastes like to think STL-style is great stuff.
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Post by showmedot on Mar 17, 2014 1:45:33 GMT -6
Interesting! Apparently, the origin of the Coney Island actually is Detroit.
Greek immigrants coming in through Ellis Island may have hit Nathan's and gotten the idea they popularized as the Coney Island, a Greek-spiced dog with mild meaty chili, chopped or diced onion and two thin stripes of mustard.
The Coney Island, always capitalized in Detroit and Flint, Michigan, refers to the fact that the Greeks ending up in Michigan who started restaurants featuring this type dog used Coney Island as the restaurant name.
Coneys differ from chili dogs in that the dog itself is distinctively Greek-spiced and must have a casing that snaps when bitten. The chili is milder than the dog as opposed to a chili dog which has a standard hot dog and spicier chili with Mexican spices.
Coneys are such a staple in Detroit that they're often served at formal occasions such as wedding and funeral dinners. Weird!
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Post by woodrowli on Mar 17, 2014 4:18:46 GMT -6
In Fall River, MA, we have something called a Coney Island hotdog also. It's not the same as the original, it's better - just a steamed bun, medium quality dog, mustard, onions and special meat sauce. We also have chourico pizza and a heart attack on a bun - chourico and french fries sandwich. They're still available and still as good as ever when I go back to visit family. FALL RIVER!!!! Memories here Al Mac's the world's most high class "Greasy Spoon" Used to stop there often when going fishing with my Uncles. Remember a Boguslavsky family there. they had relatives in Tariffville CT, except the CT Branch cut the name to Bogus. Except for the ones that worked for Coleman Brothers over in East Granby. One of my cousins married a Boguslavsky Girl. But Getting back to Al Macs, it opened in 1953 I remember somebody took me there for the opening as it was right at the time of my 13th birthday. Became a tradition for us to stop there on the way to going fishing. Our favorite fishing spots were near Providence, and then down towards Martha's Vineyard. there was also a spot in Falls river we used get Galumpkis that were almost as good as the ones my grandmother made. |
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Post by stevec on Mar 17, 2014 8:24:10 GMT -6
In Fall River, MA, we have something called a Coney Island hotdog also. It's not the same as the original, it's better - just a steamed bun, medium quality dog, mustard, onions and special meat sauce. We also have chourico pizza and a heart attack on a bun - chourico and french fries sandwich. They're still available and still as good as ever when I go back to visit family. FALL RIVER!!!! Memories here Al Mac's the world's most high class "Greasy Spoon" Used to stop there often when going fishing with my Uncles. Remember a Boguslavsky family there. they had relatives in Tariffville CT, except the CT Branch cut the name to Bogus. Except for the ones that worked for Coleman Brothers over in East Granby. One of my cousins married a Boguslavsky Girl. But Getting back to Al Macs, it opened in 1953 I remember somebody took me there for the opening as it was right at the time of my 13th birthday. Became a tradition for us to stop there on the way to going fishing. Our favorite fishing spots were near Providence, and then down towards Martha's Vineyard. there was also a spot in Falls river we used get Galumpkis that were almost as good as the ones my grandmother made. Al Maks!! You've got one hell of a memory. If you had strayed a bit further away, you would have been treated to "Dirty" Nick's Coney Island Hot Dogs on South Main St. I used to fish off the Brightman St Bridge(Rt 6) with my father. |
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Post by woodrowli on Mar 17, 2014 8:41:48 GMT -6
FALL RIVER!!!! Memories here Al Mac's the world's most high class "Greasy Spoon" Used to stop there often when going fishing with my Uncles. Remember a Boguslavsky family there. they had relatives in Tariffville CT, except the CT Branch cut the name to Bogus. Except for the ones that worked for Coleman Brothers over in East Granby. One of my cousins married a Boguslavsky Girl. But Getting back to Al Macs, it opened in 1953 I remember somebody took me there for the opening as it was right at the time of my 13th birthday. Became a tradition for us to stop there on the way to going fishing. Our favorite fishing spots were near Providence, and then down towards Martha's Vineyard. there was also a spot in Falls river we used get Galumpkis that were almost as good as the ones my grandmother made. Al Maks!! You've got one hell of a memory. If you had strayed a bit further away, you would have been treated to "Dirty" Nick's Coney Island Hot Dogs on South Main St. I used to fish off the Brightman St Bridge(Rt 6) with my father. Somehow don't recall ever going to "Dirty" Nicks. The name sounds like it would be my kind of place. I would have remembered that if I had found it. |
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Post by stevec on Mar 17, 2014 11:47:48 GMT -6
Woodrowli,
"Dirty" is the unofficial name of course, but that doesn't stop locals from eating there. Legend has it that some hairy guy lined up hotdogs up his arm when preparing orders of 4 or more, hence the dirty designation. I used to see employees line hotdogs up their arms, but not any longer. They wear disposable gloves and line up the hotdogs on trays while preparing. The jury is still out concerning whether or not the new sanitary laws detract from the taste.
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Post by showmedot on Mar 17, 2014 18:22:57 GMT -6
Sounds like "Dirty" Dan's, the only 24-hour place in the little college town where I got my undergrad degree.
Dirty's was where you went after a night of drinking dinner. Best damn coffee, and I have only once in all the years since had diced potatoes fried with chopped onions as good as theirs. We sometimes ordered those with a burger instead of fries. They made burgers like Woodrow described as late as the early 70's.
There was a pretty fine fried chicken place in town, too, Al's Chickenette. Nothing but fried chicken and sides on the menu. Everything served on paper in a plastic basket unless you ordered slaw or potato salad which still came in one of those pleated paper cups as late as the mid-90's. If you ordered the "Big Al's" (nearly a whole chicken), it came on paper in one of those round metal beer trays. Helluva good chicken place!
I had an uncle who was a traveling salesman who said he'd detour if he could just to get chicken there.
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Post by stevec on Mar 17, 2014 19:20:26 GMT -6
Dot,
It appears "dirty" is universally understood to mean the best eats in town, especially when you've got a buzz going on.
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Post by showmedot on Mar 17, 2014 19:45:56 GMT -6
Actually, Dan's was the kind of old-time greasy spoon where you weren't terribly sure but what the nickname was justified.
Best damn burger I'd had in my life to that point was there the night I inhaled for the first time. Damn, but a greasy pile of real-potato fries and one of Dirty's cheeseburgers with grilled onions cured the munchies.
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Post by stevec on Mar 17, 2014 19:46:23 GMT -6
What's chourico pizza? Some kind of local specialty? Never heard of it. Hadn't ever heard of St. Louis-style pizza with Provel cheese either until moving here. I don't think it's available anywhere but St. Louis, for which the rest of the country should be very grateful indeed. Nasty stuff, really awful, says hubby who's eaten it. I never have but have had the sickeningly sweet sauce used on that crap as well as Provel, which tastes like dirty gym socks smell. I swear you'd have to have grown up here and thus have no idea what really good pizza tastes like to think STL-style is great stuff. Chourico is a Portuguese pork sausage. Fall River is mostly Portuguese, I'm half Portuguese. Chourico tastes best when ground up, since there's bits of fat in the sausage which dissolve while cooking. If the sausage is not ground, then you'll sense the fatty consistency. I'm not big on that, even after growing up with the sausage. The ground sausage is simply delicious on pizza. My wife and I honeymooned in Hawaii long ago. We were exhausted after the long flight, so we decided to get some easy fast food - pizza. My wife asked what I wanted on my pizza, and without thinking I said pepperoni. She ordered, and while sitting there I casually looked up at the menu above the service counter. On the menu I noticed chourico, I coulda had CHOURICO!!! Hawaii, as I soon discovered, has a huge Portuguese population. |
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Post by showmedot on Mar 17, 2014 20:34:16 GMT -6
Huh. No idea. Thanks for the info.
As far as foods reflecting my ethnicity (mostly German), I hardly knew of any until I went to college in the middle of Kansas where a lot of German Catholics homesteaded in the late 1800's. Every one of their little farm communities had a Catholic church, most of them gorgeous inside.
Oktoberfest was a BIG deal. Every parish had its bierock specialist. Damn! but you could get some kick butt bierocks and other German stuff like homemade wursts of various types. All you could buy at Oktoberfest back then was 3.2 beer. Better than nothing.
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