Upon moving to Texas in 2004, I couldn’t help but notice the change in food. For whatever reason, I never really documented this. Now, in 2012, I have moved back to my home state of Connecticut and have decided to highlight some of the foods that I couldn’t get (or just were not nearly as good in) the Houston, Texas area. And yes, the inevitable comparison of New England Mexican food to Tex Mex will eventually happen.
This first issue is dedicated to my dad, as he ate most of this food with me.
Bacon & Olives Winter 2012 Issue
©2012 Raised by Gypsies Productions All rights reserved.
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Freebirds is to burritos what Subway is to sandwiches, but only in the way that it is presented (made in front of you) because Freebirds is of a much higher quality than that nationwide food chain that’s practically become fast food.
Aside from their most awesome burritos, Freebirds also has their own hot sauce called Death Sauce and a very chocolate dessert known as the Pot Brownie.
There was no hesitation in my bringing one of each of these with me back to Connecticut as I said bye-bye to Texas‌ at least for now.
Mamoun’ s // 85 Howe Street, New Haven, CT 06511 // August 31 st, 2012
I don’ t recall what first made me want to go to Mamoun’ s, but it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
Their food is just so good
that you simply cannot go wrong no matter what you order. My first visit there consisted of a falafel plate, which is like the sandwich only bigger and they give you pitas on the side.
I only had
falafel once before and when I did that first time they gave me beets with it. This time there were no beets but I wasn’ t complaining. My second time out I ordered the same falafel plate as before only I also got a Baba Ganoush sandwich.
Eggplant may not sound all that
appealing but when you’ re eating it and not necessarily aware of it then you come to find you actually enjoy it. Both times at Mamoun’ s so far have been very pleasant.
The
only odd bit was the first time our server went home before we were done eating so we were victim to a shift change.
That’ s a small pet peeve of
mine, but no reason to stay away from Mamoun’ s. Seriously one of the single best places I have ever eaten. eat their every day.
I could
D’Angelo’s // 641 Queen Street Rt. 10, Southington, CT 06489 // August 30 th, 2012
When it comes to the world of sandwich shops, I’d say that even though they’re probably the best known, Subway ranks amongst the worst of them. Lenny’s and Quizno’s aren’t entirely bad, but D’Angelo’s is one of the best that I’ve eaten at in a very long time. While they existed before I moved away from Connecticut, I never ate at them for probably the same reasons why I’ve still yet to eat at a Blimpie’s—no reason. Now I’ve been to D’Angelo twice and can safely say that I am in love with their pastrami sandwich. How did I not have this before now? Eating the pastrami sandwich here also made me wonder how I never really knew about pastrami before now. I was never a fan of roast beef, but pastrami falls somewhere in between corn beef and bacon for me, which is just perfect. When I asked my mom why I never really had pastrami before – why it wasn’t a household name with me like ham was, or even roast beef- she said it was because pastrami was both expensive and apparently not that good for you. I could tell it was sort of this rich and fatty meat, which meant both money and possible death, but yet I still need to eat it anyway. At least every other day now I make myself a pastrami sandwich for lunch on a Portuguese Roll. If this trend persists, yes, I could go broke, but hey, it won’t matter if I have a triple heart attack. (Be healthy, people. For every slice of pastrami I eat- or any other bad food- I eat a ton of salad. Hmm… I wonder if anyone puts pastrami in some sort of salad)
Dad’s Restaurant // 740 North Colony Road Wallingford, CT // September 1 st, 2012 Going to Dad’s on Saturday morning for breakfast was quite different than any other experience at a restaurant I think I’ve ever had before, but that is partially due to something beyond their control. About halfway through eating our breakfast, the power went out. It wasn’t just the restaurant; however, as the power went out on the entire strip and people who were trying to eat at other places down the road were driving up, wondering where the power actually was still on. Given my newfound love of pastrami, I decided to order a pastrami omelet, which came with cheese, diced tomatoes and diced onions as well as a side of potatoes. The food itself was actually very, very good. I felt like the omelet had enough inside of it to make it a success without overflowing the actual content and having it spill out somewhere, as omelets can tend to do when people want to overfill them. The power going out was a rather different story, which involved many discrepancies. First off, we were seated next to a door- the second door in the establishment- and when we first got our table we were specifically told not to block that door because it was a fire exit and people needed to get out. I didn’t have a problem with that, but was unsure of their motives when they later contradicted themselves and stated that we were not to open the door to let some fresh air in because not only was it a door that the owner never wanted open, but they also claimed that if it was to be opened it would “fall off the hinges”. On another odd note about this power outage (Which made the heat in the restaurant unbearable, so much that the wait staff was sweating) they actually locked the front door. This was presumably done, in part, to keep new customers from coming in, which seemed reasonable because of the power outage, but they also had the customers who were actually inside already locked in. Locking in your customers is not just a no-no in restaurant etiquette, but it is also illegal. This also takes us back to the earlier discussion of fire hazards, but at this point I felt like this place was a sinking ship and I just wanted off no matter how good the food was.
Bacon & Olives Rating: Somebody Call Fire Marshall Bill
http://www.dadswallingford.com/Home.html
Young Young’s // 1668 Meriden & Waterbury Road (Rte. 322), Milldale, CT 06467 // September 1st, 2012
This was by far my first time from eating at Young Young’s. I really enjoy their buffet because while it may appear small, it has what matters- at least to me. A lot of buffets- especially when it comes to Chinese food- tend to want to fill themselves up with a whole bunch of stuff that only a select handful of people would actually want to eat (or are items more for kids) so they lack in the overall quality. That’s not to say that Young Young’s doesn’t have their fair share of American food that kids could eat (like French Fries), but they just don’t seem to have as much of it as other buffets. They really do just seem to get down to the core of it and the core of it is oh-so-good.
When I go to a Chinese buffet, I look for two things to be of the highest quality: The lo mein and the fried rice. If either of these two mainstays lacks for me, it typically tends to ruin the buffet on a whole. In Houston, we always went to a buffet called Beijing that I really liked. There was another buffet- a much larger one, off the interstate- called China Bear that we went to a few times. They might have had better quality sushi (Though I don’t really look for sushi at the Chinese buffet) but their lo mein noodles left a lot to be desired.
Aside from my two core ingredients being right on target, I also enjoy Young Young’s for their selection of chicken and, let’s face it, their soft serve ice cream. My Dad actually really seems like he wants to go to Young Young’s all the time just for the soft serve ice cream. He said it’s the best soft serve chocolate ice cream that he’s ever had and though I prefer vanilla with rainbow sprinkles, I still cannot disagree with him.
Napoli // 1145 North Colony Road, Wallingford, CT // September 15 th, 2012 This was my first real taste (Though I’ve eaten here before moving) of Italian food- specifically pizza- while in Connecticut. I started with an Anti Pasto, which my wife and I managed to eat. (I ate most of it though, while Quentin had a few tomatoes)
The main course consisted of a large pizza. My wife wanted half to be pepperoni and olives because she wasn’t the biggest fan of my choice (which my Dad ate with me without a problem)… you guessed it: Bacon and Olives.
If I can eat at every Italian place in CT just to hear the server say “Bacon and Olives”, it will be a food life well spent.
Not that I plan on doing that of course. The food, by the way, was excellent. (Which I already knew going in)
Friendly’s // Queen Street Southington, CT // September 12 th, 2012 During my eight year stay in Houston, Texas, Friendly’s- a New England based restaurant that can be compared to Chili’s, Friday’s, etc. had fallen on hard times. The economy wiped out many staples in my life (Though the paper franchise Staples was, oddly enough, not one of them) which ranged from Hollywood Video to Circuit City to my home away from home, KB Toys. Friendly’s may have had most of their locations shut down, but they are far from gone. In their restaurant locations that are left standing as well as your local grocer’s freezer (local to New England at least) you can find and purchase a variety of their ice creams which are just fantastic. I never even realized how much I missed their Black Raspberry flavor (Which, to me as a kid, was always “the purple kind”) until I remembered it existed and immediately had to buy some to consume. While a location in Meriden, CT that I spent many nights at in my prior life in CT got shut down, we also lost a less than friendly one in Wallingford, CT. I’m still trying to piece together which ones are still there and which ones have gone, but the one on Queen Street in Southington has survived the plague. Typically, a visit to CT (whilst living in Houston) meant going to Massachusetts with my Dad for a day to check out used book stores. Nearly every time we did this, we also went to a nearby Friendly’s, so this has really been no stranger to me in my absence. I also recall one time going up to the Holyoke Mall with my Mom, sisters, brother-in-law and nephew where we ate at Friendly’s in their food court for lunch. While Friendly’s can seemingly be slowed down, it simply refuses to die. Whenever I eat there I always get the same thing. I’m not sure if I’ve ever tried another menu item and that’s all right by me. It can often imitated, but never duplicated, as I always order the Kickin’ Buffalo Chicken Salad. If you’ve never had one as made by Friendly’s, you’re definitely missing out.