Home is Where the Food Lives, So You Live There, too

Real Pizza

Sure, there's pizza here in the northwest, but it's not "real" pizza. What is real pizza? Real pizza is crust, sauce, and cheese, but done in that magical way that is unique to the east coast. Sorry, Chicago, what you call pizza is more like a casserole with it being deep dish (think of Bis-quik's magic crust pizza). And yes, California, a nod to you for showing the world that pizza can be topped with barbecue chicken, or with Thai peanut sauce and chicken, which is very delicious indeed.

Yet, real pizza to me shall always be the kind of simple pie found in the northeast. We stopped at Sunny's Pizza where we used to frequent about once a week. Sunny's is a typical pizza restaurant with more than just pizza on the menu: cheesesteaks, hoagies, pasta dinners, fried foods, calzones, and strombolis. Sunny knows the Jarvis family, being that most of the clan lives less than half a mile from the restaurant. Sunny recognized Pooky and welcomed him back home for a visit.

We enjoyed a second meal on our last day from Sunny's, this time eating some cheesesteaks, meatball sub, onion rings, deep fried pierogies, and more.

Cow Cloud

We stayed with Ann and Rich, Pooky's sister and BIL. Rich works for a restaurant and knows how to cook delicious food. Ann invited us to have dinner on Sunday night, saying Rich would be making filet mignon. I thought she meant steaks, and was undecided about having them, but as Pooky and I discussed it, we realized to turn down a steak dinner would be silly, plus we wanted to spend more time with family.

When we arrived for dinner after visiting family, Ann showed me the roast—the filet mignon roast—which is also known as chateaubriand, or tenderloin of beef. I about died because this cut of meat is the prime cut, better than prime rib roast, and it is melt-in-your-mouth tender delicious beefy meaty goodness! We ate chateaubriand for dinner on our wedding night and still rave about it.

I announced to Pooky that we were going to be served "cow cloud" our personal nickname for the tenderloin. Our eyes got big. Holy cow! (No pun intended) We were being treated royally and I then realized that I almost had considered not coming for dinner since Ann presented it as somewhat optional. Chateaubriand is never optional, at least according to my stomach.

Real Chinese Food

We have missed good Chinese food. It has long been a mystery to us why Chinese food in the northwest is of lesser quality and taste than in the northeast. Example: here if you order "fried wantons" you get a dozen for $.395 and all they are is a wanton wrapper deep fried. Back in PA you order 12 for $2.25 and they are stuffed with a savory meat and then deep fried. Also, the fried rice served around here has no meat in it and seems to be old and stale. The main dishes are served with a ton of bean sprouts or other cheap vegetable and have no savory sauce.

We went to our favorite eatery and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the menu and prices hadn't changed in four years! The boneless sparerib combo platter was only $6.50 and was loaded with meat and rice and enough to serve 4 people! I totally forgot how in the northeast you can order by the pint and quart. And I forgot what having real fried rice is like that has real pieces of meat in it!

Junk Food

On Monday we had a pleasant lunch at Granny McCarthy's Tea Room, located in the historic downtown Bethlehem. I had the pastie of the day and Pooky enjoyed a tasty serving of beef shepard's pie. We ended the meal with some goodies from the dessert case.

Being that Entennman's crumb topped donuts are unique to being only sold in the northeast, I bought three boxes of them, two of which came home with me, the first one being devoured during our stay. I also brought back some potato chips that aren't available here. It's the donuts that have me happier than a clam in muddy water!

More pictures of the food so that you might find yourself drooling: