Food: Maine vs Mass

ABOVE: Tim, who is a construction superintendent, built the Honey Dew behind him....

My dad and I got talking about food (big surprise that the two of us would talk about food, right?) the other day, and the disparity that exists between food "up here" and food down in Massachusetts. Although not "too" far away, you would be surprised at the huge differences in quality AND availability that each state offers. I thought I would try to categorize some of the things that Mass SCORES with as far as food goes--and, for a brief moment, even reflect on things I miss from my time in Massachusetts. Obviously, I welcome your feedback....

BONE IN CHINESE SPARE RIBS: Down in Mass, at places like Maui and Cheng Du, you always had to specify if your spare ribs were to be bone in or without the bone. And, actually, until I was a teenager, I dont even remember there BEING that many boneless ribs. Today, in Maine, that is ALL you can get. In fact, I cannot find one Chinese restaurant up here that has REAL spare ribs

BREAD: While on the topic of Chinese Restaurants, bread must be a mass tradition too. Whenever you went out to eat at a Chinese Restaurant, the waiter ALWAYS brought over bread and butter before your meal came. It was always as hard as a rock, but I didnt care. I have such fond memories of dipping the bread into the hot mustard, and then having my dad yell at me that I was rude and gross for doing so.

NEWBURG SAUCE: A bit hit down in Mass, at all the "Capey" and "Plymouthey" places; even at Edmunds, the restaurant at which I worked in high school, Newburg sauce was always a constant on the menu! It is one of my favorites, and you NEVER see seafood newburg up here. In fact, what got me thinking of this whole post to begin with was my telling Hank that The Senator had seafood newburg on the buffet on Easter....

FISH: This is a mass thing: You see fish advertised on menus as sCrod....or sCHrod. The one with JUST the c in it means that the fish you are eating is a small cod. The one with the "ch" in it means you are eating "catch of the day" and it could be pollack, haddock, cod, or the like. Growing up, my mom and nana always used to get broiled scrod or schrod. Up here, I dont think I have EVER heard the term....

LINGUICA: The most amazing sausage known to man. Score one for the Portuguese. Down in southern NE, like Fall River, New Bedford, and Taunton, you have your pick of the spicy sausage. Up here, even at Joseph's butcher shop, finding it is impossible. Kevin at Josephs told me "I dont order it...folks up here dont like it...."

PIZZA: The pizza up here just sucks. It is really sad. .Even the places everyone RAVES about up here as having the best pizza are borderline "average" when you consider Massachusetts places. The BEST pizza I have had up here is a "normal" one by Mass standards. Score one for Timmy and MummaandPuppaKappa: The Greeks down in Mass know how to do pizza right. Alas, rednecks do not. It is like in that movie "Pleasantville" when all of the sudden everyone could see in color?? That is what it would be like if my central Maine friends came down and went to Lindo's or Papa Gino's or Town Spa, or such and such...

COFFEE SHOPS: Dunkin Donuts rules up here...there are a splattering of Starbucks, surprisingly. Personally, I do my coffee at Hillman's. BUT, if we had a HONEY DEW donuts, that would all change. Honey Dew remains the STRONGEST thing I miss about Mass. The best coffee. Jay doesnt know how lucky he is to have Honey Dew in his byackyard. And this place has donuts that...well...are actual donuts. And they usually have hot girls working there. And their mascot is a cute bear. And yeah

HASH: No,, not that kind. I am talking corned beef hash. It isnt a quality thing necessarily...it is an availability thing. My friend Wick always said "you can always tell how serious a place is about breakfast if they have hash on the menu." He is right. Butcher's Choice used to have it regularly. And I think the Flatlanda has it on special sometimes. But, other than that, you dont find hash that much; it remains a CONSTANT on Mass breakfast menus though. Mel's Diner always had the best hash, as I remember. Jay, you will have to chime in and tell us where to get the best hash. Jay is the hash man for sure.

ROLLS: Of the potato variety, I mean. Martin's Potato Rolls. They arent even made in Mass; they come from PA, I think. But they are a big deal down there. Cant get them up here. Nice, buttery, soft rolls. A burger isnt a burger without one. Whenever I see my dad, he always gets me two things: A pound of Honey Dew coffee and a few packs of Martin's Potato Rolls.

Your comments?????

Happy Easter 2012

Our day started off like it usually does on Easter Sunday--except this year I did not help cook the breakfast as I have done in years past. But we got up and the kids checked out their "Easter surprises" from US and NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT the Easter Bunny. This was Callum's request, and we are fine with this; the kid is intensely afraid of the Easter Bunny and did not want him (or it) anywhere NEAR our home. No prob.. The Easter Bunny has got to be one of the dumber modern creations anyway. #oldcrotchedyman

Maira got her own pack of crayons and some puzzles. Callum got a Mickey Mouse record he had been eyeing at The Record Connection, and he got a new shovel and hoe for digging outside. We headed over to the breakfast at church at 830, and then, at 9:28, my Sunday school kids and I ran the Easter egg hunt for all the church kids...it was a blast as it always is.

After a beautiful service and fitting sermon from Pastor, we made our way over to BaBa's house at about 12:30. He always has an Easter Egg hunt for "the kids" and this year Maira participated a bit...I will post pics of this next time. We had reservations at The Senator Inn restaurant in Disgusta for 330; BaBa took everyone out for a great buffet, and all I have to say are three words: Braised. Lamb. Shanks.

Here's the kids with Mee Mee and Stephen King...


And with BaBa....(note Callum's PINK tie)BaBa has this big inflatable Easter Bunny that I guess is older than I am--he brings it out each Easter. Last year Callum was petrified of this, but this year both he and Maira THOROUGHLY embraced it....literally! They were having a blast with it, and this bunny needed to be in most of the family pictures we took that day....

Three generations of women who drive me crazy.....

800th Post!!!!

Wow! 800 posts .I wonder if anyone has read all 800! Continuing on with the Easter post from yesterday, here are some other "Easter Season" pictures (these were taken yesterday) when Callum and (kind of) Maira dyed some eggs. Callum did a spectacular job; he took it seriously, listened very well, and didnt make a mess! I think he has some artsyness (is that a word?) in him...and I dont know from where he gets it. Well, I guess Amanda can draw a bit. I cannot. At all.

Here, Callum and Lupine dye some eggs. Each one of the mugs was a different color, and Callum started combining colors, etc. While he was doing this, Maira and I were playing chase around the house....

Like I said, he followed directions very well; after each one was dyed, he gently rolled it in a napkin so the color wouldnt bleed onto anything else....

Dont you just love Maira's shirt? Callum ended up eating three hard boiled eggs in a row. Maira, as you can see, is content to look at the pretty eggs. She thinks they are BALLS, and calls them as such. Her big things lately are balls and balloons. Also, she loves to say EYES and GLASSES and GO OUTSIDE!!! Finally, she likes to sneak up on you and say ISEEYOU!!! Obviously, none of these utterances sound like they are supposed to....

One happy kid with a legit supply of beautiful Easter Eggs!

Oh, and here I am in my "Easter Pyants." No, that doesnt mean they are the pyants I bought for Easter! Rather, they LOOK like the color of an Easter egg. I found them at Mardens for 2.99. Naturally, I had to get them. Johnny Crockett probably wears pyants like this on a daily basis since he is a Reno hipster

Smiles/Easter #1

I was looking through some of our recently downloaded pictures tonight, and it came to me: Our kids really have great smiles.....and, they smile A LOT. This is amazing to me. I love this. The fact that they smile so much must mean they are happy; it makes me feel like maybe I am actually doing something right as a father. (but I dont want to push it TOOOO far....)

Anyway, here are some great pictures of our kids smiling during the Easter season, like this one taken during the trip to the Fitzpatrick Easter party last week....they even smile in the car! (maybe cuz they are in a Volvo turbo, and those things are awesome!)

Here's Callum and his little friends giving the THUMBS UP for the Easter Bunny....although, in 3.8 years of life, I have never seen my son more acutely terrified than when the lovely Siena Fitzpatrick manifested herself as one E. Bunny.. Kid. Was. Petrified.
Callum and Mia are becoming such great buddies. This makes, in turn, mommy and daddy smile. The Fitzpatricks are such wonderful people all around, and each time we get to be with them is a gift. The things that happen while I am at work: Callum enjoys his special K chocolate bit cereal with Rover, the LL Bean duog. As you can see, Rover enjoys the cereal as well. I guess this hyappens each morning.

Dont worry....there are lots of Maira pictures to come...but here is CS getting all his food colorings ready for Easter Egg Dyeing. The kid was a PRO at this. And he loved each minute of it. And Maira will too....in time.....But wait til you see the next picsRight now, as I write this, I am drinking one of Amanda's ciders I got for her at Joka's today....she is at Crap Mart finalizing the Chinese crap we will get the kids for Easter....then, when she gets home,I will kick her butt in cribbage, he. said.

MeAnDeRiNgS 72

1. We have Disney on ice, Sesame street on ice, and everything else on ice. What about VIDEO GAMES on ice? I'm surprised we dont have these....how funny would this be? Picture Super Mario Bros on ice, where the whole thing is just these little koopa turtles on ice trying to get a little Italian ice skater, and he constantly is skating away from them. Or Call of Duty on ice, where basically its just a bunch of misfit high school kids, who have learned to ice skate, and are playing air soft, wearing burger king drive thru headsets, while they entertain kids eating popcorn. Hilarity.

2. When I tell Amanda: "We're having split pea soup for supper" and she says "OOH....SOUNDS GOOD!" How can food SOUND good? It can smell and taste good. But can it SOUND like anything? I guess bacon frying SOUNDS good. But I dont know. Whatever.

3. Is one solitary candy from a bag of Reeses Pieces call a Reeses PIECE? Or a Reeses 'PEESEE?' I'd like to think it is pronounced PEESEE; how often in our lives will we otherwise get to say it. Join me.

4. Sometimes movies are rated R for "Suggestive Adult Behavior." What does this mean exactly? So, they are 'suggesting' I try this 'behavior' on my own, if I am really to be an adult? Are they trying to teach me something? Is it like "hey..I dont know what you are up to later, but why not find a girl and try this, ya know? Just a suggestion..."

5. Every single time we see "heaven" in pictures, movies, or TV, we see angels, playing harps, standing around on clouds. BUT, if heaven is supposed to be a "perfect" place, then shouldnt there be NO clouds? Wouldnt it always be blue skies and sunny? HA! CAUGHT YA!

6. The word "rejoice." We think this means "be happy and celebrate." But what if I am already happy, and NOT sad? What if I dont have to REdo it again. Can I just "joice" and call it good?

7. Coming soon to a theater near you: "Negative Relationships: A Math Romance." Shut up.

Annoying male food show hosts....

I am increasingly annoyed by the way my species gender is portrayed in television food programs. Have you noticed there arent that many male "chefs" anymore--and the ones that are, if they arent non-Caucasian, are typecast into barbeque type segments? Alas, males on food networky types of channels have been emasculated to merely VISITING other restaurants, being loud, and annoying people while they eat. Have you seen these? Here is the formula they use: First, find the most unhealthy, off the beaten path, obscure, and gimmicky (while at the same time being world famous) restaurant, and tout it like you discovered it yourself. This makes them look "grungely hipsterish." Second, they hang out outside the restaurant, yelling and screaming about how awesome the restaurant is. Then they go inside and interrupt EVERYONE'S day--the cooks, the patrons, the servers, etc (Oh...sorry...before they go into the restaurant, they make sure they have enough hair product in). Once they are in, they go into the kitchen and kiss the cook's behind, telling him how awesome it is that he combines (pick one) mayo with hamburger grease with fried onions with glazed donuts with four types of cheese with a specially baked roll with fried bologna with some type of secret sauce, etc. Then they take a bite of whatever the stupid gimmicky artery clogging bacon laden item is, and react in a way that is more cliche than pink Redsox hats on girls in April. OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD, they say, while simultaneously wiping their soul patched chin of cheese AND giving the cook a cool "manly" handshake and calling him "one crazy bro," or something of the like. Then it is off to annoy the customers--JUST as some innocent retired looking man is about to take a bite of his tunajiveymozzarellabomb, the overweight TV host gets all up in their face asking them questions like HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN COMING HERE? and WHAT DID YOU GET? and HOW WAS IT? and WHY DID MY PARENTS HATE ME AND FORCE ME TO GET ATTENTION IN THIS MANNER? and WHEN THIS SEGMENT IS OVER CAN I SIT WITH YOU AND CAN WE BE FRIENDS FOREVER? What annoys me even more are the behemoth cases of ethnocentrism they patrons have about their silly, backwoods grotto of a restaurant....and it is usually about totally NORMAL and BORING items (we have the best peanut butter and jelly in the south!) or items that seemingly would be the same anywhere you go (we SPECIALLY boil OUR corn on the cob here....) The bragging is just ridiculous. I will never go to your restaurant. Ever. (mostly cuz no one would sit with me, however)

The ongoing emasculating of my male species. Now playing on food network....

Nannie has fun with a scanner.....

My mom must have found out how to use a computer scanner, because today she sent me 7 of the most excellent email attachments I have seen in a long time....

You undoubtedly can tell what this is......right?

DUH!! It is an OWL!!! What is wrong with you? How could you not tell that? This photo dates back from 1989 (I think) when I attended Camp Squanto for summer boy scout camp, and took the class to get my "woodcarver's merit badge." I used to be really into wood carving, and my dad used to let me use his knife to "whittle" sticks into....well....skinnier sticks, I guess. This was my project for that merit badge, and obviously I OWNED this class. I should try to auction this off on ebay. .Consequently, I cannot. Callum laughs uncontrollably whenever he sees this picture (he has asked 13 times today) and Nannie told him HE can have it (my own three year old...making fun of me....jeesh...)

Okay. This one. Seriously.

What. The Heck.. Is this sweater. I cant even tell you how much I wish I still, somehow, owned this sweater. The things I would do with it....

Also, this was taken on Christmas Eve. We were at my dad's house, and this was right before going over to Evelyn and Al's Christmas party where I met one of Barbara's second or third cousins named Tammy, and she totally had a huge crush on me. Besides Amanda, this makes the second girl of all time to have a crush on me. It must have been this sweater. Kris, you dont look too bad yourself, girl! (Oh yeah...I remember I also got rollerblades for Christmas that year...)

I never even knew this existed until today:

Consequently, Mrs Armstrong is the only teacher I ever had who called my house to speak to my parents because I was, in her words, "floundering" in English class. I know I got a C minus in her class in seventh grade...I didnt like her very much. Actually, I didnt like English (or school) very much. Tough year.

I really love this photo here:

This is me and my Papa Goldsmith. I not only love this because my legs look awesome....but also because, come to think of it, I dont have very many pictures of my grandfather and I. My Papa Goldsmith was an extraordinary guy, whose story, as my dad will attest, seems to keep getting extraordinaryer (yes, this is a word....okay...it isnt....but I dont care...), because we keep finding out new things about him--bootlegging, going to Wentworth Institute of Technology, being an amateur arborist and planting a bunch of fruit trees at his old house, being a really good speed skater in Boston, etc. Also, we share the interesting bond in that I officially went into remission from cancer on the day he died of cancer. The list goes on and on.....

This was a picture taken of my mom and I at the L.A.Gear Hair Products Symposium '92. The next day was the "frosted jeans" National Summit, so I think we were around for the whole weekend. Wow. My mom tells me this was taken at our friends The Shaw's house (?) I dont remember the circumstances. But I have on a Michigan sweatshirt because I was a total bandwagon jumper and everyone else work Michigan stuff.. Good times.