Stealth Trip to Maine

Why is it that I only seem to blog after eating with Micah?

I had a quick weekend trip to Maine to visit a friend who is ailing, but first stopped off to dine with Micah and another radio refuge, Steve, at Portland's Great Lost Bear.

They may have lost the Bear, but they've found the Beer, with 72 taps going.

What you see at right are the remains of a very good, creamy cheesecake. We started with loaded nachos. I had a cheesesteak, Steve a burger and Micah a haddock rollup. It's that kind of place.

What is really impressive is the Bear has been there longer than our server has been alive. I wrote the first radio commercials for them when they opened in 1979. The place has hardly changed. Decor pretty much the same. Menu has nearly all the items it had originally, with additions to address trends of the past three decades such as rollups and fajitas. The main addition is all of those taps.

Predictable but never boring. We went early on Friday and by the time we exited, around 7 pm there was a line out the door. The Great Lost Bear is my favorite restaurant success story. Kudos to Dave and Wesley for doing it right!

New Jersey Pastrami Tour

My friend Micah and I like to call ourselves the Kreplach Brothers. Micah often visits his mom in northern New Jersey and when he's there I go down to avail myself of shopping and eating opportunities not found in Dutchess County. Since we've enjoyed a few pastrami sandwiches in our time, he had the idea of a comparison tour -- let's split sandwiches at four locations and decide which is best. Seemed reasonable to me!

Stop #1 was the wonderfully-named Nosher Rye in Allendale. We had been there recently and thought the pastrami very good. We got four sandwiches to go. One for Micah's mom, two for her nice neighbors as a father's day present and one for Micah and me to split. Micah had pre-selected Dr. Brown's cream soda. One of the pickle slices on the plate is from a batch of 3/4-sours I just made and it was pretty good; nearly as sour as the sour pickle from the deli.

Stop #2 was Harold's Superette in Paramus. Since this was strictly take-out, we ate in a nearby park. This pastrami had a very mild cure, and tasted more like slightly spiced corned beef. Which is essentially what it was. Enjoyable, but not a truly satisfying pastrami flavor.

Stop #3 was the Kosher Nosh in Glen Rock. This is where we met our Waterloo. They had a soup and half sandwich special, and once Micah told me the mushroom barley soup was good I couldn't resist. As well they have a free salad bar. The pickle, tomato, health salad and potato salad were all very good. And the soup was indeed excellent. We chose Dr. Brown's black cherry here for variety's sake.

By the time we finished all that, had our third soda each, and the third half sandwich, we were done. We had planned a fourth stop at Harold's Deli in Lyndhurst, but it was not to be. Even the Kreplach Brothers have their limits! The pastrami here was almost as mild as that from Harold's Superette. Enjoyable, but not strident enough for us. So the winner as far as pastrami was concerned was clearly the Nosher Rye.

We then worked off the calories with some shopping, including the wonderful Corrado's and a 3-pound seeded rye from Rockland Bakery. At $4.75 I feel I've stolen something when I shop there.

All in all, New Jersey isn't as bad as I thought it was growing up in the Bronx.

Ben's Best is Right

Some of my favorite meals have been shared with my Kreplach Brother, Micah. Ever since seeing Ben's Best Kosher Deli on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, we've been wanting to go. I live in the Hudson Valley and Micah visits northern New Jersey often. So last week I picked him up and we drove to Queens.

We tried a number of sides and appetizers. We realized that we had never eaten kreplach together. Ben's fried kreplach were superb. Served with lots of caramelized onions. Also, they provided duck sauce for dipping, which seemed strange, but went amazingly well. Had it not been Kosher, I might have wanted sour cream instead. We also recommend the health salad, more finely shredded than others we have had, and that helped the flavors blend beautifully.

The highlight, and what we really came for, was the sandwiches. He had pastrami. And while I normally favor pastrami these days, I grew up eating corned beef and wanted that comfort feeling again. We each took a taste of the other's. Both were the best we can recall. Great flavor, and just the right amount of fat. And while disappointed that the rye was seedless, it was fresh and substantial. We were quite in heaven with those sandwiches, the accompanying cole slaw, pickles and Dr. Brown's cream sodas.

Owner Jay Parker was kind enough to pose with us for a photo. He said the corned beef and pastrami are their own; made to their recipe, and the pastrami smoked in house.

Becky's Diner, Portland, Maine

Every time I visit Maine, I meet Micah for breakfast at Becky's on the Portland waterfront. According to their sign they serve lunch and dinner, but I've only been there for breakfast.

Typically, I won't eat pancakes out because I hate faux maple syrup, but Becky's offers the real thing. Of course you pay for it.

We both had the Hobson's Wharf Special with blueberry pancakes:

Onions are optional with the home fries, so ask for them. The pancakes were just chock full of wonderful Maine blueberries. Those low-bush "wild" berries have a much more intense flavor than regular blueberries.

I usually try to take a picture of the food before I eat it, but we were too hungry, so here we are later:

Eric & Micah Eat Cheesesteaks

My friend Micah Engber and I have enjoyed many a good meal together. We found ourselves in Philadelphia earlier this fall. I mentioned that I had never had a cheesesteak sandwich in Philadelphia, so Micah said he'd take me to both Geno's and Pat's, the two most famous purveyors of cheesesteak, across the street from each other. Pat's claims to have invented the sandwich.

Aficionados will claim one is better than the other, or that there are better purveyors in Philly than these pioneers.

We decided to do an apples to apples comparison. At each place we had a basic sandwich with just steak, onions and cheese. We chose Whiz at both stands, although it appeared more like melted American cheese than something shot from a pressurized can.

We enjoyed both, but discerned no difference between them. heresy, I know. Micah's Mom, Harriett, joined us and took these photos.


From Micah:

Both use rib eye (Delmonico) steak, sliced thin for their cheese steaks. Geno's never claimed to be the creator of the sandwich, they just claim to make a better sandwich then Pat's.

They each use different styles of grill keeping. While Geno's keeps there grill immaculately clean, and free from grease, Pat's keeps their grill covered with grease from the previous sandwiches. Both claim that it makes for a better taste. Both are also supposed to be open 24/7 -365.

The other big rivalry is between Pat's King of Steaks and Rick's Philly Steaks. I heard the story on FoodTV but took this part from Wikepedia to save time in toying it all out.

"Pat's King of Steaks is the original shop opened by Pasquale "Pat" Olivieri and his brother, Harry. Harry's grandson, Frank, owns Pat's. Pat's grandson, Rick, owns Rick's Original Philly Steaks at Reading Terminal Market.

Pat's son, Herbert (Rick's father), expanded the business by opening franchises of Pat's King of Steaks. In the 1980's, the Olivieris split up the business. Harry and Frank Sr. kept the original location, Herbert ("King" Pat's son) opened Olivieri's Prince of Steaks in Reading Terminal Market. Herbert's son Rick renamed it "Rick's" in the mid-1990s, still using the crown logo and mentioning his grandfather, Pat Olivieri.

In October 2006, Pat's sued Rick's, alleging trademark infringement, trademark dilution and unfair competition, based on the use of the crown logo and the name "Pat Olivieri"."

I've made cheesesteaks at home.

My method is to thinly slice a relatively inexpensive cut of steak such as round and fry the slices in a cast iron pan, seasoning liberally with kosher salt. I use 1/4 pound per person.

Separately, I saute sliced (not chopped) onions and green peppers until soft. Quantity is based on how you wish to balance the vegetables with the meat and cheese.

For cheese, I use yellow American -- the actual cheese, not cheese food or process cheese food, and melt it in the microwave. I use two slices per sandwich.

The roll is always a supermarket brand soft sub roll.

I've made these as part of a party spread and cut each roll into three or four pieces.

A great tarted up steak sandwich is the Number 9 at D'Angelo, a sandwich chain in New England. I once had one when dining with a girlfriend. As chunks of food fell out of the sandwich and juices ran down my chin she said, "You're making a spectacle of yourself!" Indeed I did.