Hungry Travels

(I feel weird sitting here writing about salad greens while watching a debate to determine one of the most important Presidential elections in recent history. This is an odd form of multi-tasking.)

Check it out, in three short weeks, my Aerogarden went from this:

To this:

Isn’t that some good looking lettuce?   I made my first salad with grape tomatoes and feta.

Can’t get much fresher than snipping off the leaves and dropping them directly into a bowl.  It really was an amazing tasting salad.  

Okay, back to the debate.

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Elaine: “I met this lawyer, we went out to dinner, I had the lobster bisque, we went back to my place, yada yada yada, I never heard from him again.”
Jerry: “But you yada yada’d over the best part.”
Elaine: “No, I mentioned the bisque.“

Soups are one my favorite things about this time of the year. True, they’re not exclusive to fall, but when the weather turns cold, restaurants say goodbye to gazpacho and hello to the hearty stuff like corn chowder and potato leek.  A steaming bowl of soup (with crusty bread of course) can cure a cold, warm your insides and make you almost forget that it’s getting dark out at 4:30 pm.

I’m on a soup kick — if a place serves soup, chances are I’m going in.  Which is how I discovered This Little Piggy in Harrison.  I was driving down Halstead Ave., happened to glance over to my left, and saw this sign:

“This Little Piggy”?  Now that’s awesome. The awning also said “Soups”, so based on that and the name (never underestimate the power of a catchy name), I pulled a U-ey and turned back. Very cute place, with a pig motif and large selection of salads, sandwiches and soups.

Hello, pig.

The turkey wrap was nothing special, I but I really enjoyed the Tuscan white bean soup.  

At Lenny’s Bagels in Rye Brook (currently my favorite Westchester bagel shop), a soup and toasted bagel make a satisfying light lunch.  I’m usually partial to chunkier soups, but this tomato basil was fragrant and bright with tomato flavor.

One of the all-time greats, matzo ball.  This one’s from June & Ho in Rye.

Do you have a favorite Westchester soup spot?  What are your favorite soups?  And have you ever preferred a bisque to a date?

This Little Piggy
64 Halstead Ave.
Harrison, NY 10528
914-835-1121

Lenny’s Bagels
200 S. Ridge St.
Rye Brook, NY 10573
914-939-1379 

June & Ho
70 Purchase St.
Rye, NY 10580
914-967-1900 

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A few weeks ago I came across the new PBS food/travel series, Spain… on the Road Again.  Already it’s become one of my favorite food shows.  You know what I like about it?  It’s slow.

The premise is that Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, Gwyneth Paltrow (yup, that’s right, she of Apple/Moses fame) and Claudia Bassols amble around Spain while ruminating about life, learning about history and eating the best of regional Spanish cuisine. They drive around in fancy Mercedes convertibles, wander through picturesque fields and generally make those of us watching insane with jealousy.  

Sure, the show’s a little pretentious and contrived (they try a bit too hard to make everything look spontaneous: I’ve got an idea — let’s drive down to Galicia!  We didn’t plan this ahead of time!).  That said, I appreciate a show that’s in no hurry, gives you a distinct feeling of place and an almost tangible sense of the food.   In one episode, Mario and company spent five meandering minutes sitting at a table and practically having orgasms while eating shellfish.  Any other show would have cut that scene in half.  Spain let them ramble on — I could taste the shellfish.

Then there are the female co-stars. Gwyneth Paltrow’s getting the publicity as the big name, but forget her, I’m all about the lovely and charming Claudia Bassols. When she’s wearing her hair all messy, speaking in both English and Spanish and munching on a slice of manchego cheese… hoo boy, I think I’m in love.  (Note to the producers: More Claudia, please.)

Who wouldn’t want to travel around Spain with this woman?

I hope people find and enjoy Spain…  It’s a show that’s almost out of place in today’s ADD fast-editing tv landscape.  Give it a chance though — it’s got Spain, food and Claudia.  What more could you want?

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(photo courtesy of Roadfood.com)

The picture above is of a burger from Louis’ Lunch in New Haven.  My friend Veronica and I were emailing yesterday about what else, food.  Veronica used to live in Philadelphia (before my Philly road trip a few months ago she gave me an incredible and vast list of dining suggestions — she’s a walking Philly Zagat Guide).  She lives in New Haven now, and asked when I was coming up to sample the city’s famous pizza. That led to this exchange:

Veronica: “And if you want you can also try the oldest hamburger in America which is TERRIBLE. The place is called Louis’ Lunch and it sucks… no seasoning, no toppings, no ketchup and the meat is terribly undercooked.”

Me:  ”Um, I don’t think I want to try a place that’s “terrible”.  You really didn’t sell it too well.”

Veronica:  ”Well, the place sucks, but a lot of people who come here want to try it.”

That got me thinking (and hurriedly googling Louis’ Lunch): Why would a place that’s serving crap food continue to draw steady crowds?  

The answer might be as simple as this: Louis’ Lunch has history. (To be fair, many of the reviewers did also rave about its burgers.) It’s the oldest hamburger restaurant in the U.S., operating out of New Haven since 1895.   The burgers are still prepared in the original way, in the same antique gas stoves.   Kind of cool.  In our disposable culture the rarity of an establishment with a story, where you can actually say “This is the same way they did it 100 years ago!”… well, I understand the appeal.

Is Nathan’s Famous really worth a pilgrimage to Coney Island?   Do Walter’s hot dogs justify waiting in a 20-deep line?  Maybe, maybe not.   Maybe we’re all suckers and these landmarks are capitalizing on our sentimentality; in a sense, we’re paying for the nostalgia.  

So despite Veronica’s not-so-ringing endorsement of Louis’ Lunch, I probably will give it a shot the next time I’m in New Haven.  Am I expecting to enjoy it?  Not really.  The burger looks pretty nasty in that pic.  But that’s okay — at least I’ll be able to say I’ve eaten at the oldest burger joint in America.

Louis’ Lunch
263 Crown St.
New Haven, CT
203-562-5507 

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After a summer of enjoying herbs galore from my Aerogarden, the growing cycle has come to an end.   Time for a new seed kit; this time I decided to change it up and try the salad greens. Looks even easier to take care of than the herbs, and the manual says the first greens should be ready for harvest in just two and a half weeks!  Stay tuned to see what happens.  I’m hoping to be up to my ears in salad by October…

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