Collingswood Diner

 

The Collingswood Diner is not my favorite diner, although I wish it could be. I feel like it’s a diner that I had to have been a part of growing up, and to suddenly enter as an outsider, I feel disconnected, and unaware of what’s ‘usual and customary’ here.

Collingswood Diner

Our waitress was kind and attentive enough, but had unkempt hair and makeup, with a distinctive ring around the collar on her white polo accented with a festive “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” pin. (We visited a few days before Christmas.) As she poured our coffee, I can definitely say it detracted from my appetite a little, although I tried to see past it.

This is not a shiny, new diner. It is large, kind of dark and impressing from the outside, located at a major intersection that connects to a highway, so getting into the actual parking lot can be a little daunting if you haven’t done it before. However, I am a fan of having diner at this part of time, simply because I think it’s as nice cross-section of diner-enthusiasts of all socio-economic ranges, since you get populations from the major towns nearby. Inside, there is a friendly, multi-cultural atmosphere- tables full, and big group tables of work buddies hanging out.

An Excess of Powders

My French toast was well intended, but overall not that delicious. I appreciated the extra cinnamon they sprinkled on top (quite liberally) because it gave an extra pop of flavor that can be missing from mass produced breakfast breads. However, because of this generous cinnamon, and the cold (and NOT plentiful) butter that was provided, my butter stuck to the cinnamon and to my knife, and not to my toast! As happens with French toast when it’s too thick- very little of the egg can even hope to get all the way through, so I felt as if I was eating a kind of bland cake. After dolling it up with the works, it was decent, but kind of disappointing.

Darn Good Omelet

As Chi worked her way through her French toast, I picked through my western omelet. It is my favorite of the omelet and I'm very pleased that the Collingswood Diner had one of their top chefs on the line that morning. One of the easiest tasks that diners can't get right is cooking an egg all the way through. I've had omelets, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, and poached eggs where In the middle is slimy, clear, raw egg. Too me, that's unacceptable. Collingswood Diner cooked the egg in the omelet perfectly. There was plenty of diced ham, onion, and green bell pepper. It was a great omelet. There was one small problem, and that was with the cheese. Cheese in an omelet costs extra, but I ordered it anyway. The slices of American were concentrated to one half of the omelet making it very globular and gooey on one side and flat and a little dry on the other. However, I'm not going to let concentrated cheese sully this omelet's good name.

The home fries were a bit on the lacking side. I'm starting to think I'm become more of a hash-brown  type of guy. There's more of an opportunity for crispiness and fluffy potato to live in harmony with hash-browns. These home fries met the same fate as other establishment's home fries. They weren't cooked enough twice. They weren't cooked down to an appropriate level of softness and then when they got to the grill or frying pan, they weren't cooked to the right level of crispy. This leaves the diner with kind of hot, kind of raw potatoes.

Rise & Shine: A Steak & Egg Place

Butter and Jam

On December 28th of last year I woke up in Las Vegas, Nevada absolutely starving. I usually eat breakfast at 6am on weekdays, so by the time I drive Chi and myself to the Smith's shopping center on Decatur Boulevard at 8am pacific time, we were famished. The shopping center (strip mall) was home to a sunny looking breakfast joint called Rise & Shine: A Steak & Egg Place. The name of the restaurant needs some work as does some of the decorating and uniforms, but the food (for me) was quite pleasant.

Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

I've been on a bit of a biscuits and gravy kick for the past month, so I thought it would be neat to try a southern standard in the great southwest. The meal consisted of two biscuits covered in sausage gravy, two eggs any style, and hash browns. Oh, and a pot of bread. "What is a pot of bread?" I inquired. I soon found out that it was essentially a cinnamon loaf biscuit baked in a tiny clay pot, fun. The entire plate was very good. I was surprised at how well they pulled off this regional dish. The gravy was thick and covered the biscuits like the Silver Coin's Hollandaise sause, except it was delicious. The gravy could have used a little more sausage, but what sausage was there offered a ton of zesty flavor. The eggs over medium were placed on top of the gravy and biscuits which made for a playful presentation that I have yet to see on the east coast. Also, the eggs were cooked perfectly. The hash browns were only kind of hash browns, but definitely good. Instead of shredding the potatoes, they made little potato pellets which created a high surface area to volume ratio and in effect crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The next time I'm visiting Sin City I'll make sure to stop by Rise and Shine.

A Potted Pot of Bread...

Now, let me preface this by saying that for the three years I lived in Vegas growing up, I hardly ever ate breakfast, and it was never impressed upon me that Vegas had any significant breakfast scene despite the famed $5.99 steak and eggs buffets at the casinos. So, to find a breakfast place that was so close to my family's house was a pleasantry in itself.

Inverted Flower Ceiling

Rise and Shine is a cute place, a bit too bubbly and funkily decorated for its own good, but perfect for a whimsical child at breakfast with his or her parent(s). I enjoyed the ceramic collage walls, even the umbrella flowers that made the ceiling of orange, pinks, purples. (Despite the fact that look kind of like jellyfish). A back wall occupied by an exposed kitchen and an organized prep bar was nice to see, but the cook did not work as fast as I would have expected a kitchen to run back home. (This being said, the restaurant was no where near being full).  I did NOT enjoy those uniforms- like a mix between pajamas and scrubs, and styled like the girls who wore them couldn't figure out what they were either.

Fluffed Up, West Coast Style

My Illy brand coffee was delicious, and for an extra fee they offered it double-pressed (!!) I made my own omelette, filling it with spinach, green pepper, avocado, etc. which came with a side of hashbrowns and a biscuit. These hashbrowns were not hashbrowns in the traditional sense, nor were they homefries...they were little somewhat crispy, greasy, highly flavored potato pellets that were unlike any potato breakfast food I've had before, but one that I would happily have again. My biscuit was entirely passable with its warm, somewhat dense softness, although not as tasty as the butter it came with. My omelette was also tasty- well done on the outside like I like it, although perhaps with too much avocado. The vegetables were a good size and were not overcooked. Overall, it tasted just as good as any veggie omelette I could have concocted back home, so nothing to complain about.

I would definitely try another dish the next time I'm in Vegas and need a breakfast near home (in Southern Highlands, Las Vegas). I will say, however, that Chris and I were definitely put off by how fast we were given our check. Even if you say "it's no rush", but you give us our check less than two minutes after you give us our meal, it's going to be rushed. Or, I may just get a side of those tasty potato hashbrowns and watch the young,awkward waitresses scuttle around. Total cost: $24.

By the way, the difference between breakfast on the East Coast vs. breakfast on the West Coast? The table settings:

Look at all that hot sauce!!

Red Wine Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Taken from a book I received for Christmas:

The Vegan Holiday Kitchen

Below is our take on the recipe, which we followed pretty well, all things considered. Makes 8 servings (seriously, a LOT of food). Ingredients below:

1 and a half to 2 pounds of  brussel sprouts (we used a packaged bag of 2lbs from Wegmans)
1 red bell pepper
1 cup of carrots (recipe calls for baby carrots, but we just sliced normal ones)
2-3 cloves of garlic
2/3 cup of Red Splash - a blended dry red wine (instead of 1/3)
3 tablespoons of maple syrup (or agave nectar, for a lighter/healthier feel)
1 and 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce (sodium reduced as a the recipe suggested)
1/2 tablespoon of dried tarragon
1/4 teaspoon of dried thyme (or, fresh, since they're not that hard to come by)
and salt and pepper to taste

The pictures are pretty self explanatory- and the recipe is super easy! Prep and cook time took about an hour for us in execution, and we also reheated up some creamy wild rice soup we made the day before (pictured below).

Wash the brussel sprouts, take off the stems, and cut them in half.

Add brussel sprouts to carrots and peppers in a large mixing bowl.

Drizzle delicious maple syrup over the bowl of veggies.

Kikkoman is the only type of soy sauce that should be used.

We doubled the red wine because we could. Good choice.

Everything from the mixing bowl goes into a baking pan, we used a clay one.

The red wine made for an interesting color with a great rustic taste.

A match made in heaven (the salt in the soup balanced out the meal).

The Little Tuna

What makes a restaurant successful? Is it a well executed vision of food profiles and flavor? Is it friendly, passionate and knowledgeable staff? Or, is it in a name?

I had heard good things about The Little Tuna, located on "Restaurant Row" in Haddonfield, NJ, which is why I leaped at the chance to buy $50 worth of food for $25 on LivingSocial a few months back. However, when I got home that same day, in the weekly coupon saver, was a Little Tuna PAGE of coupons. It made me wonder if the restaurant was struggling, which in turn made me wonder about its quality.


Luckily, they (do) do tuna very well.


Let me preface this by saying that I have, thus far in my short relationship with fish, had a very volatile relationship with fish in any raw form. My first meal after becoming a pescatarian, about a year ago, I had sushi- nothing crazy, but some tuna rolls and some salmon ones. Taste-wise it was pretty uninteresting to me (I guess I'm all about the tempura-based sushi), but the real horror was that on the walk home and for the rest of the night, I started swelling up...everywhere. I had a severe allergic reaction- and to what exactly I'll never know- but that's enough to make anyone avoid raw fish.

Seared Tuna wins MVP

But, this tuna was seared, so I decided that I would try some peices off of their appetizer menu, instead of getting a tuna meal, and that it was safe enough.


The Little Tuna offers a series of tuna plates (they make it a point to tell you that it's "sushi-grade") that can be served with (a) wasabi and ginger, (b) jamacian jerk style, or (c), what we got, sesame encrusted. Truly delicious, and not overdone with sesame, the pieces came out a touch before warm with one sesame and one wasabi-based sauce for dipping. The tuna was a great pink, with no sliminess. In the past, I find that tuna in extended slices can get strange in the middle with the flesh tearing in strange, unappealing ways (especially at the moment where cooked meat meets with uncooked), but the transition on these pieces was perfect. I felt that I was actually just enjoying tuna in a very pure form with my own choice to enhance the flavor as much as I wanted. By far, my favorite part of the meal and something I would come back for.

Coconut Crusted Tilapia with Lime (?) Chutney

My main entree wasn't quite as delicious. I ordered the coconut crusted tilapia with a (supposed) lime chutney. I say supposed because the chutney was comprised of apples, and what I can only assume are a bevvy of spices, with (maybe) a squirt of lime over it. Very little lime was there to help cut through the coconut- which was thick and of the sweetened variety. This threw me off because between the reduced apples, the coconut, and the white fish (which was soft, and relatively tasty on their own) left the meal very sweet overall. Relatively delicious, but very strange. I had to salt it quite a bit to help the flavors balance out. The sides were decent- vegetables weren't too over-boiled, and my potato was yummy, as potatoes always are.

The Little Tuna served good food, however the restaurant was inconsistent to the point where it did not live up to my expectations. The Little Tuna did a nice job of creating a feeling of private dining even though most of the seating is an open table style. The tables were draped with immaculate white table clothes and came with its own bottle of imported, bottled water, which I'm sure was not complementary. We were seated immediately and our waiter hurried over. He was very eager, but that didn't make up for his lack of focus/forgetfulness since we ended up waiting for him most of the night. To put this in perspective we started out just getting water, he then said he would bring us bread, he came back and took our appetizer order without bread, reassured us he would bring us bread, came back minutes later with our appetizer with no bread, took our entree order, asked if there was anything else he could do for us, and I replied, "just the bread, please." Five minutes later we had bread. I know this sounds petty, but the point is I must hold The Little Tuna to a higher standard than Ponzio's Diner down the road.

Flounder Stuffed with Lump (?) Crabmeat

For my entree I ordered the Flounder Stuffed with Lump Crabmeat. As a rule, if I have the opportunity to eat more than one animal in an entree, I usually take the opportunity. The flounder was delicious. It was very flaky and tender. It was seasoned with an expected Old Bay-type crab seasoning making it feel very Maryland. Although it made sense it was boring. I expected that the lump crabmeat on the inside would tie everything together and bring the dish to the next level that it should be at. I was met with something I did not order. The lump crabmeat was much closer to a paste crabmeat. It was a bland texture that could have been fulfilled by the delicious garlic mashed potatoes (skin included) next to the fish. The end result tasted like delicious flounder stuffed with mushy crab-flounder. The second side on the plate was a pile of steamed, unseasoned vegetables. It was sadly uninspired and lacked an overall freshness that I look for in seafood. The natural texture and taste of crabmeat is what makes it special when paired with a flaky white fish. Don't pulverize the crab, please. Maybe I'll get a double order of seared tuna next time.

OM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM!

Pizza Extravaganza!!

and now, for a change of pace:

Usually Friday is take-out night, but last Friday I was able to get out of work a half an hour early and Chris and I decided we should actually make something since we've been doing very little cooking as of late. We decided to make pizzas, and below outlines our ingredients - all of which were purchased at Wegmans for approximately $45. The following makes FOUR LARGE PIZZAS, with a week's left of leftovers.

Toppings:
Onion (white), large -  sliced as desired, uncooked
Shitake mushrooms - tops only, lightly washed/dried in a paper towel, sauteed with truffle and olive oil 
Italian sausage - taken out of casing, broken into bite-sized pieces, and browned in a frying pan
Broccoli - sliced into bite-sized, crowns only, blanched 
Basil/Pesto mix (comes in an easy to squeeze tube!)

Sauce:
Cento Whole Tomatoes (large)
Cento tomato paste (small)

Sauce was started first and left to simmer over low heat while the rest of the ingredients were being prepared. Whole tomatoes were sliced up (so that they still retained a tomato flavor). The spices were added (see list below) with a heavy emphasis on depth of flavor. Hence, lots of middle of the road flavor (garlic/onion/pepper) and some salt to balance the natural sweetness from the paste. It was important to create a sauce that would go well with both meat-heavy pizzas and vegetarian ones. 


Cheeses:
Gouda (aged 18 months)
Mozzarella
Wegman's "pizza" mix (still not sure what's in it or what makes it a pizza mix)
Cheddar
Blue Cheese - (Note: we bought this, but no one ended up using it. Hence, it's not in the pictures.) 

Spices:
Garlic Powder
Minced Garlic
Onion Powder
Cumin
Black Pepper
Salt

Oven was preheated to 425 degrees. Each pizza varied slightly in baking times, depending on the ingredients, but overall super quick at a reasonable 10-15 minutes.  And the result? Whimsical, personalized, pizzas at a great value.  $45/ 4 people = $11.25 per person for a Friday night meal. See how gorgeous they came out below! 

Italian Sausage, Broccoli, Mixed Cheeses 

Sausage, Onion, topped with a layer of Mixed Cheese (heavy Mozzarella)

ANGRY PIZZA, is angry (Sausage, Mixed Cheese, Sausage, and Two Broccoli Florets)   

Shiitake Mushrooms, Broccoli, Mozzarella/Gouda, Truffle, Pesto

(The New) Maple Hill Restaurant and Maritsa's Part Deux

Two Eggs and Home Fries

I won’t lie. I remember very little from this experience. In fact, I’m pretty sure I went into this meal expecting that it would be forgettable, and thus got my standard 2 eggs with home fries (not even well-done) and wheat toast. If my veggie omelette orders are the basis from which I judge tastiness (eggs  are important to all diners, and the quality/cooking of veggies determines how fresh their produce is/their rudimentary skills of cooking/not overcooking things), then 2 eggs is what I order when I just want to eat breakfast and go. I remember everything being okay, with little happening on the delicious side or the not so delicious side. If anything, I would say that it was very satisfactory, with good prices. It’s very small, with a strong local crowd, so if you want more of a diner where you can hang out with your friends and be left alone, this may be a bit too social for you. However, it’s a great place for a small party (I wouldn’t suggest more than four or five people) to enjoy a quick breakfast. This being said, now that the renovations at Maritsa’s down the street is done, I would recommend that over the Maple Hill restaurant.

Looks Good, Tastes OK.

This restaurant is quite forgettable. Chi and brainstormed for about twenty four hours before we remembered the name of the New Maple Hill Restaurant. Sadly, Chi had even taken a picture of their exterior, but forgotten she had taken it. That was the first time that happened to us. Strangely enough, the food for me, even though boring, was still good. It  was just good though, vanilla, not vanilla bean. I ordered the french toast with sausage patties (always superior to sausage links, right?). The french toast smelled great due to the copious amount of cinnamon, but it was kind of soggy and limp. It tasted good, but it was boring and it was an example of when I left feeling I could have cooked the same dish better than they could have. The sausage links impressed me a little more. I'm used to tiny hockey pucks of sausage at other diners that are overcooked and unfulfilling. At the New Maple Hill, the sausage patties were larger than average and had decent flavor and above average texture. I believed it was real. Unfortunately they still need to work on their cooking time since the patties were brought out to me lukewarm.

Combine the mediocre food with the fact the inside looked like it was put together with glossy plywood and a nail gun, the over all experience left me glad to leave. With the concentration of diners in New Jersey I recommend you head out and explore for a different place to get your breakfast fix.


Chi sums it up perfectly,

If we ate at the NEW Maple Hill Restaurant, it makes me wonder what it used to be like.

Maritsa’s PART DEUX:

Yes, we’ve gone back to Maritsa’s since the muddy mushroom’s incident. I ordered French toast, and it was very soft/buttery although perhaps not as large portion-wise as other places. My home fries were a little too well-done for my liking, because I didn’t ask them to be so. Coffee was good, and the service was faster than last time and our cups never emptied.  The inside is complete (no more random ending to the carpet/stucco-looking walls) and the waitresses were wearing proper uniforms this time. Definitely no longer a place to avoid. We'll have to go back and try something more complex and see how they handle it.


Definitely a better experience at Maritsa's. Good thing my parents really like it or I might not have gone back. My second time around I ordered the short-stack of blueberry pancakes with sausage links and scrambled eggs. The sausage was average. The blueberry pancakes were almost disappointing. They were all loaded with fresh, delicious blueberries and they were cooked to perfection. They were sadly not nearly as tasty as they looked. The blueberry came through nicely, but the sweetness had a watered down taste to it and their Heinz Syrup packets didn't help out with the flavor. When I have blueberries I expect some tartness, and since there was not I left a little suspicious. The eggs, thankfully, stole the show and Maritsa's knows how to cook them right. They were super fluffy and light and buttery. Next time I'm ordering a plate of scrambled eggs and double toast.

Berlin Diner

So Inviting

Chris has been wanting to go to this diner for at least a month, but it's always been just a little too far away to justify after a long day of work. However, last Friday we decided to take an impromptu trip to Atlantic City to celebrate our both being 21-ness, and thus, the opportunity presented itself. At 117 S. White Horse Pike, is the Courier Post's [One of] The Best of South Jersey Berlin Diner.


The layout is strange with the door/host/cashier desk (one and the same) acting almost like an apex to two wings (a left and a right) where booths and tables are. The left side, where we were seated, also has a breakfast bar.

Where's the Veggie Patty?

This menu is full of specials (you get the sense that this is a local favorite) w/ an impressive Early Bird Special that includes a full page of 9.99 meals (entree, two sides, housecake, etc.) This is also why, I assume, that the place was packed at 5:30 PM.


I ordered a veggie burger with some swiss (I think) cheese and mushrooms. I tried to find it on the menu online to reference it, but it must be relatively new burger, because it's not on the menu. It was fine, but fell short of delicious. The bread was dense, and a little crusty, like it had been out for a while. My veggie patty was average, and tasted very similar to the type of veggie meat concoction that Subway uses in its veggie patty subs. My fries were yummy and crispy, so I ate the majority of them. Overall, I enjoyed the service and attention that the waitress paid us more than I really cared for the food. Chris, who tried my slaw for me, said that it was one of the wateriest slaws he ever tried. Wah-wah.

Some Creaminess Would Add Stability

I ended up getting a proper PM meal instead of greasy eggs and sausage and chose my first wrap of this adventure. I was torn between the chicken ceasar and the buffalo chicken, but after a few minutes of self reflection I decided on the latter. The wrap came with french fries, slaw, and a pickle. Sadly for the wrap it was very one dimensional. The actual buffalo sauce that they used was good that it had decent heat and flavor to it, but that's where the train stopped. The next step to making buffalo chicken delicious is adding a creamy element. The two best that I've experienced have been a melted blue cheese or ranch dressing. I've had both in wraps, on pizzas, and as sauces for dipping buffalo chicken wings into. Without the added dimension, the buffalo sauce isn't much of a sauce and instead just spicy, oily, water. So the obvious folly was that the sandwich was completely devoid of creamy goodness, but on a positive note, the fresh grilled chicken was accompanied with fresh tomato and lettuce. It made the wrap more watery, but it lent some acidity and crispiness.

Shiny

The sides fell on the boring side of the excite-o-meter. The french fries were actually cooked nicely with a crunchy exterior and light interior, but I gave them demerits when they also tasted like they had been under a heat lamp for the better part of the hour. The slaw was watered down and had almost no substance to it whatsoever. Sadly, the pickle was drabber than most pickles I've ever seen. I had such high hopes for this place since I pass it every single day. It's very appealing with its bright lights and shiny exterior, but just like the Berlin Diner's food the restaurant lacks substance.

Additional Notes: The Berlin Diner is very shiny and seems to be a popular spot for locals. The average age of everyone else was somewhere in the range of forty to fifty. They must be doing something right for what appears to be customer loyalty. Prices are definitely reasonable. This is not a 24/7 deal and is open until 10pm Sunday through Thursday and 11pm Friday and Saturday.

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