crab cakes with cucumber salad, lemon-pepper pappardelle with sausage, red pepper, and peas in a pesto cream sauce, tj’s $2.99 riesling (corkscrew fail…)
and i call this one: why the heck am i still single?!
p.s. thank you maggie. :) you know how to cure the ailments of the heart.
one of my favorite things about spontaneous road trips is all the little hidden gems you find when you’re not looking. cypress grill was one of those places that makes you say, this is what it’s all about.
we were on a particularly long stretch of lonely road in north carolina when i happened upon this place in my trusty guidebook. my moon handbook says: “the cypress grill is an unprepossessing wooden shack right-smack on the river, a survivor of the days when jamesville made its living in the herring industry, dragging the fish out of the water with horse-drawn seine nets … the cypress grill is open for the three and a half months of the year (from the second thurs in jan through the end of apr), when the herrings run, and you could hardly have a more intensely authentic, small-town dining experience anywhere else.”
i was intrigued but cautious, so i asked my dad to turn into the tiny street off the empty highway in search of this shack on the river. “if there are less than three cars there,” i said, “we’re leaving.” it kinda freaks me out when we’re the only people in a restaurant. (sorry, make that the only asian people in a restaurant in the middle of sparsely populated southern territory.)
so we drove down this tiny residential street and i was growing increasingly skeptical. we drove down a good three miles of quiet gravel road without seeing a soul. i was about to say we should turn back when the road ended at this spectacular scene:
to my utter surprise there was a makeshift dirt parking lot to my left PACKED with cars. very good sign. i tell my dad to park, and he nearly drives us into the river trying to fit the car into the crevice between the shack and the river. not a real parking space, mind you.
it was exactly what i would expect it to be inside. kitschy and sweet. a ton of locals. someone’s grandma yelled across the room for us to grab a seat anywhere. the menu was a flimsy worn piece of white paper with hastily typed items in times new roman. i smiled because this was the kind of place you’d try to replicate in california but just can’t.
of course you have to order the herring. twice deep fried, and you eat them whole, with a side of southern staples like hush puppies (we literally had this for 50% of our meals on our trip), cole slaw, boiled potatoes.
oyster plate. for under $7. what?! i never get to enjoy these at home because of they are so expensive..
and my personal favorite, deviled crab. it’s a spicy crabcake in a shell. oh, i ate a ton of crab on this trip. maryland crabcakes, btw, to die for. but that’s for another post should i ever get to it. :)
i think my dad’s happy.
(see john mayer’s blog for his holiday baking contest)
dear john,
here’s our holiday interpretation of “slow dancing in a burning room,” complete with orange icing flames and sad-faced gingerbread people in a winter wonder-globe. the cake is double layered devil’s food with cream cheese frosting. we had lots of fun making it and we really really hope we make it on your blog! this might be the beginning of our baking career. we’ll remember you when we make it big. :)
hope you enjoy & happy holidays!
love,
crystal & jane
(okay, due to a technical mishap we’re not sure if the cake ever made it to him :( because we’re SURE we would have WON if it had!!! but here it is in all its glory anyway…)
jane spreading yummy cream cheese frosting. i thought this looked very professional. :)
m&m doors
all our little gingerbread pieces!
look at the details! sad faces! blonde ringlets! orange flames on red shingles!
gumdrop lane. the globe is an inverted fishbowl with sugar sprinkled inside.
i’m pretty sure we’re awesome.
(massive photo post… continued from yesterday)
pretty sure any new york city tourist has heard of lombardi’s. so of course it was on our must-eat list. and, i have to say it lived up to every bit of its hype. they had the most delicious sausage–sweet, and with lots of fennel. oh, and a word of warning–new york pizza places dont ever serve by the slice.. so you gotta grab a table and wait. we learned that the hard way haha..
we also took a little side trip to coney island since we heard it was closing down at the end of september for massive renovations. and what’s a trip to coney island without world famous nathan’s hot dogs? they were delicious, but it’s the same stuff as the nathan’s you can find in your grocery store. i still liked gray’s papaya better.
angie and i had an AMAZING greek meal that totally took us by surprise. it’s kind of a funny story actually. this one night we were pretty tired and didnt have anywhere special to eat, so we decided to go back to astoria (where her cousin lives) early and hopefully try one of the places there. apparently lots of greek people live in astoria and there are greek restaurants up and down the block. so we had no idea what we were doing and wandered into one of the shops that had a million people inside. it was exactly like my big fat greek wedding. i mean the waiters were yelling at each other and all seemed to be related, ranging in age from 12 to 60, haha. the menu was written in greek on whiteboards around the room and everyone sat at long, shared tables. it was pretty cool since ive never been in a really authentic greek place. and the food was AMAZING! i had the moussaka, which is kind of like lasagna.. its a casserole with eggplant, ground beef, pasta and bechamel sauce. angie had a gyro, and i think its the best one ive ever tasted–i usually don’t like lamb but theirs was delicious. we were soo stuffed at that point but it was so good that we just. kept. eating. haha. okay i cant remember the name of this place which sucks. i think it’s called michael’s.
and of course, serendipity. it would be embarrassing to mention how many times we stopped by and left because the wait was 1.5 hours. but the last time we tried there was no wait at all :) overrated, of course. but i still loved the frozen hot chocolate. its surprisingly rich.
this is the shake shack! it’s right in the middle of union square and the place is not a joke. i wish i had a picture of the line (angie does but im too lazy to get it :P), because it was about fifty people long. maybe more. they even have these signs that tell you how to “shack-xercise” while youre waiting in that ridiculous line. but they’re amazingly efficient–you get a pager for when your food is ready, none of that standing around and waiting for your name to get called or whatever. besides the burgers, shake shack’s also famous for frozen custards and, well, shakes. and the shakes WERE good. you can actually suck it up with a straw and it doesn’t taste like melted ice cream. how do they do it??? we got strawberry. :)
quite possibly the best burger i’ve ever had, outside of the kobe burger i had at anthology (that doesn’t count–it’s $26 compared to this one at $7). OMG, i need to hunt for a burger as good as this one in LA. i think its only good for cheese lovers though. that fried thing right there is a deep fried portobello stuffed with emmental. to die for.
finally, we couldn’t leave new york without trying junior’s cheesecake. this was sort of a cheap way out since we got it at the airport, haha. it was still delicious, but a lot more like what you would think a cheesecake would taste like. carnegie’s though… that’s something else. :D
okay, that’s it. now that ive made myself all wistful about (and hungry for) new york… i’m determined to find some good food right here in LA. i’ve lived here all my life and havent really explored it. who wants to go on a food adventure?? :D
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