Hooray! Steven arrived in Binghamton today to spend a week with us. The first place he wanted to hit was a diner, so we took him to the Park, at 119 Conklin Avenue, right on the water. This is somewhat of an upscale diner, with floor to ceiling windows that look out onto the Susquehanna river. It was late, so there were slim pickens, but Steven ordered the chopped steak with onions and I had a cheese omelet with home fries. Matt chose the fried fish special. The standout: the home fries. They were sublime, all brown and crispy with bits of caramelized onion. If you don’t know what to order at a diner, the breakfast is usually a good bet. The one annoyance was the ladies’ room – which was a single stall affair! For such a huge place this is crazy. Maybe there are additional rest rooms elsewhere, but I could not find them.
Category Archives: Restaurants & Reviews
Real Chinese food in Endwell, NY
Oh, where are you, braised pork belly with preserved cabbage? What about you, dry-fried tripe with hot peppers? And you , whole steamed fish with black bean sauce? Apparently at the Moon Star Restaurant (3600 George F. Highway, Endwell). Who knew? Matthew and I happened upon a Chinese food menu in our own private Motel Hell and laughed when we saw the words REAL CHINESE FOOD. The menu listed many authentic items on it and not just the Americanized crap, I mean selections. Makes sense since Endwell is near Endicott, where IBM lives. I suppose you have to have at least one decent Chinese restaurant for all those engineers. We got into the car immediately and took Main Street all the way into Endwell and got our fix of what we eat regularly at home. Everything was the real deal. I could have sworn I was in Daimo when I tasted the fish, and the pork belly was every bit as good as the version I braise in my own clay pot.
Back home in Northeastern PA
It’s our second day in Pennsylvania at Martha Yanavitch’s house, so we took the opportunity to go around and see my old haunts. I wanted Matt to get a gander at where I hung out when I was a nubile chick with the world at my feet and not the shell you see before you now. First, we stopped at the Wyalusing Valley Junior-Senior High School in Wyalusing, a set of buildings I have not set foot in since June of 1979, when I graduated. Lucky for us the school was open for registration so we were able to wander around. I showed him where I entered the building every day from the school bus, my home ec room, my locker, and other sites of significance to myself only. Honestly, it was weird. How could all those years have passed? What happened?
We hooked onto Route 6 and headed to Tunkhannock, a town larger yet and a place I was taken on dates and where we shopped occasionally. The shopping strip with the Murphy’s Mart that we used to frequent was so different I would not have recognized it had it not been for Pompei’s, a pizza and sub place that figured large in my life as a 17-year old. We decided to eat there and had some kick-ass Buffalo wings and Italian and fish subs in the same orange and white Formica surroundings that ensconced me in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.
The Italian sub was wonderful, having plenty of the usual cold cuts like ham and salami, along with provolone, shredded lettuce, sliced tomato and sub dressing, an essential ingredient. If that sub dressing — which is like vinaigrette with plenty of oregano — is “off,” the sub will not work. This worked. Maim me if you like, but you cannot find this kind of sub in the Bay Area.
On the way back, we stopped at my friend Lori’s old house in Stevensville. Although it looked well past condemned today, I spent many a late evening on her porch listening to Dolly Parton’s “Heartbreaker” while taking in the fragrant air and dreaming about Ralph, the boy up the road – whom I was mad about, in the mid 1970’s.
I also snapped a photo of Matthew at “fish rocks,” the local swimming hole on the Wyalusing Creek that runs through Stevensville. The last place we went was my old house. We knocked on the door and were invited to check out the inside, which I have not seen since the closing of the sale of the property in 1982. This was the hardest memory to confront since it represents a number of broken dreams and fruitless hopes, made all the worse by my father’s condition. When he lived here he was young, robust and unstoppable. We all were.
Spiedies again
Matt insisted on spiedies today, so we hit up a Spiedie and Rib Pit for dinner (1268 Front Street, Binghamton). This is a little place with Formica tables and a self-serve soda machine with lots of serious eaters inside. Really, I mean tables full of big guys chowing down. Spiedies are a Binghamton specialty. Marinated meat cubes are grilled and served on a hero roll with or without a bunch of other things. While the marinades are top-secret at some of these spiedie joints, I would imagine they are akin to Italian dressing. We both got a regular spiedie sub – nothing on the bun except meat so we could judge its quality. We both had chicken, agreeing they serve up a good sandwich, but next time we’d get the frills. The chicken was very moist, by the way, and both large sandwiches and two sodas set us back about $15.
The Cracker Barrel in Binghamton
This evening we ate at a chain restaurant called The Cracker Barrel on (where else?) Front Street. We had planned on going there one of the other days but my dad claimed it was too “cutesy” for me and that it would drive me crazy. Since we were once again dying of the heat, we didn’t much care where we ate so long as it had a cooling system. I did not know it was a Southern chain with a number of outposts outside the South. I never heard of it, period. Yes, it was cutesy, and it had a large gift shop that you were routed through to get to the restaurant, but there was enough there I was actually interested in to make it fun. Once you get past all the chickie dishes and overblown cookie jars and homespun-looking tschotchkes, there are a few things worth your time. First, Lodge makes things for The Cracker Barrel — basically their usual cast iron ware but with a Cracker Barrel logo cast into the bottom. While you can find this stuff cheaper on Amazon.com and discount stores, it is still nice to look at and handle while you are waiting to be seated. Then there is a large Southern candy section, and a really cool toy section, with some nice kid-sized cookware sets. Ah, time to eat! We were brought corn muffins, biscuits and butter to munch on while we looked at the huge comfort food menu. Meat loaf, beef stew, chicken and dumplings. You get the idea. Matt had the chicken fried chicken and I had chicken and dumplings. You get three sides with your entree, chosen from a huge variety of sides, and we came up with six to share: cole slaw, fried okra, cornbread stuffing, fries, corn and mashed potatoes. The sides were fine but the fried okra could have been better. Once I received my dinner and spent an hour watching lots of other entrees come out of the kitchen, I realized that their stock in trade was boneless chicken breast. Almost all of the chicken dishes (and maybe it is all, I’m not sure) use this boneless chicken breast meat. While this is healthier and easier on the kitchen, I was very disappointed not to receive chicken on the bone with my dumplings. You just can’t get the same flavor in certain dishes without chicken on the bone. And, come on!, what kind of Southern place has no real fried chicken?! I have to admit, though, it was quite tasty and gave us our comfort food fix in a cool environment.