Rhode Island Dining: Caserta Pizzeria

Caserta Pizzeria
121 Spruce Street, Providence RI

Web Site: http://www.casertapizzeria.com

Caserta Pizzeria is OLD school pizza from an old New England Italian neighborhood. Don’t pass it up.

Some people want to live vicariously through my stomach, in order to re-live their childhood.

One of these people is Andy Patrizio, a friend of mine and fellow technology industry journalist who lives out in the San Francisco Bay area. As soon as he heard I was going to be traveling to Rhode Island and Providence, where he spent the first 25 years of his life, his face lit up. Well, I didn’t actually SEE his face lit up, but I could feel as much with his IM’s and Twitters coming my way.

Andy insisted that I could not leave the city of his youth without going to one of his favorite haunts, Caserta Pizza. I don’t do a lot of Pizza these days, but I do know that New England has legit pizza traditions, such as the style served in New Haven, CT. Like New Haven, Providence has its own version of Little Italy, complete with restaurants, groceries and delis,  and it also has its legendary pizzeria — Caserta’s, which has been in operation for over 50 years.

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New England Dining: Horton’s Seafood (UPDATED)

Horton’s Seafood
809 Broadway, East Providence, RI 02914
(401) 434-3116

Okay, let’s face it — no matter how hard you try to eat healthy when on vacation, you are going to fall off the wagon. For me, this would be fried seafood. But if you are going to fall off the wagon, then it better be worth the fall.

Horton’s Seafood, in East Providence, Rhode Island. Considered by many locals to be the best fried seafood restaurant in the entire city, and by far the best place I have found to sample the main varieties of New England-style clam chowders.

Click Here to listen to the Horton’s Seafood Mini Podcast

Click Here for Hi-Res Photos

You want Fried Seafood? You want Chowdah? You makin’ your way thru Providence? Then head to Horton’s. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

Rhode Island Dining: Evelyn’s Drive In

Evelyn’s Drive In
2335 Main Road (Rt. 77) Tiverton, RI
(401) 624-3100

Web Site: http://www.evelynsdrivein.com

Evelyn’s Drive In, on the shores of the Narragansett Bay on Nanaquaket Pond in Tiverton, Rhode Island, is one of the most authentic New England clam shack dining experiences you are going to ever going to encounter.

When I’m traveling  to places that I’m not familiar with, I rely heavily on online sources of information for discovering new restaurants to dine at. Forums such as eGullet and Chowhound used to be where I got most of my recommendations, but now that I’ve long joined the corps of rogue bloggers, I search out “locals” who write blogs like my own, who are close to the action and have the most up-to-date information.

So when I was headed towards Providence, Rhode Island this week on a business trip, I contacted local resident Jennifer Hess, who writes the very excellent cooking blog Last Night’s Dinner.

Jennifer is a recently expatriated  New Yorker who now lives in Providence. One of the recommendations she gave me was for Evelyn’s Drive In, a true New England “Clam Shack” in the historic town of Tiverton, about 22 miles Southeast of Providence crossing the Taunton River and the Braga Bridge. The 41-year old restaurant was featured on a 2007 episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” on Food Network.

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NJ Dining: The 2009 Feedbag Burger Summit

The First Feedbag Burger Summit, hosted by Citysearch‘s Josh Ozersky, was held on July 26, 2009.

Click to view hi-res slideshow

I feel very, very queasy. And I know that God is punishing me. I have proof of this, because the act of punishment, served in Biblical fashion with ketchup, mayonnaise and and pickle slices was witnessed by hundreds of people.

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NYC Dining: Telly’s Taverna

Telly’s Taverna
2813 23rd Ave, Astoria, NY 11105-2707
(718) 728-9056

Web Site: http://www.tellystaverna.com

Telly’s Taverna, one of the oldest operating Greek restaurants in Astoria.

As I mentioned in my previous post about Ali’s Kabab Cafe, Astoria is starting to get more of my restaurant business as LaGuardia has become a more frequent departure and arrival destination for my business travel. Traditionally Astoria has been one of the largest Greek communities in the United States. Considering that I love Mediterranean and Greek food, that happens to be a fortuitous combination.

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NYC Dining: Kabab Cafe

Ali’s Kabab Cafe
2512 Steinway St, Astoria, NY 11103
(718) 728-9858

Ali Kabab Cafe on Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens. This tiny storefront could be easily overlooked by a passer-by given the dozens of Middle Eastern restaurants and stores on that block. Don’t pass this one up.

Lately I’ve been taking more flights in and out of New York’s LaGuardia airport given that fact that I have been giving more and more of my airline business to Delta, who has a substantial presence at LGA in both the main and Marine Air Terminals. The side benefit of this is that LaGuardia is right next to the town of Astoria, which houses one of the largest Greek and Middle Eastern communities in the United States.

The main strip of Steinway Street, which used to be predominantly Greek 20 or 30 years ago is now more of an enclave of Lebanese, Palestinian and Egyptian stores and cafes. One such cafe that I had always wanted to visit but never really had the opportunity to eat at is Ali Kabab Cafe, a tiny, cramped but eclectic cafe that rightfully boasts some of the best Middle Eastern food in the New York metropolitan area.

I do have to warn you that if you eat at Ali’s, you are not just going there for the food, which in and of itself is creative and phenomenal and will not be like any Middle Eastern food you have ever eaten before.

You’re going there to be a guest of Ali Al-Sayed, who is a character that can only be described as an intellectual entertainer. If you strike up a conversation with Ali, you had better be prepared to listen, because this guy is a student of art, history and politics. If you have any interest at all in Egyptian and Middle Eastern culture, you’re in for even more of an experience. Just ask him questions about the stuff hung on his walls and you’re going to get an earful. He is the closest thing to a culinary ambassador that Egypt has in New York, or perhaps the United States.

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NJ Dining: Little Charm

Little Charm Thai Kitchen
210 Main Street, Fort Lee NJ
(201)944-0009

Little Charm, located on Main Street in Fort Lee, is a tiny storefront serving inexpensive Thai food.

I love cute little restaurants, particularly inexpensive ones. Recently, a tiny little Thai place, Little Charm, opened up shop next door to another one of my favorite Asian restaurants, Mo’Pho in Fort Lee. I must say up front that I am a long time friend of the owner of Mo’Pho and I am predisposed and biased towards eating her cuisine, so when I saw the competition next door, I thought I had best check it out.

Little Charm really isn’t competing with Mo’Pho in the sense that its price point is  lower and is not trying to match their next door neighbor on a qualitative or creative level and is serving a different type of Asian cuisine, but from the perspective that they are next door and are serving similar types of dishes, I wanted to see what it was all about.

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NJ Dining: Mikado 23

Mikado 23 Hibachi and Sushi Buffet
29 Weston Ct, Wayne, NJ 07470
(973) 339-9832

Web Site: http://mikado23usa.com

Mikado 23’s storefront in Wayne.

In the past, I’ve written about other Asian-style buffet restaurants in New Jersey, such as Minado, in Little Ferry. Recently a new Asian buffet and hibachi restaurant — the similarly named Mikado 23 — has opened in Wayne, near the Willowbrook Mall and the recently closed Wayne Town Center, which may or may not open in the future if the economy pulls out of its current recession.

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July 18, 2009 Updates: Havana’s Cuban Cafe, Tenafly Farmer’s Market

Crack open a Hatuey or an Ironbeer, Havana’s Cuban Cafe in Edgewater has an expanded dining room and is serving some of the best Caribbean Latino food in the entire area.

Sunny Organic Treats abound in late July at the Tenafly Farmers Market.

NYC Dining: Pastrami Queen / Orwasher’s Bakery

Pastrami Queen
1125 Lexington Ave # 2
New York, NY 10075-0429
(212) 734-1500

Web Site: http://www.pastramiqueen.com

You’re definitely know you’re not getting Asian-Fusion cuisine when you see a sign like this.

The old school New York Jewish Deli is going extinct. We have perhaps less than a dozen notable places in Manhattan, let alone the five boroughs that conform to the classic Jewish Deli archetype where you can get a good Pastrami or Corned Beef sandwich, and I may even have to downgrade that dozen to less than a handful, including Katz’s, 2nd Avenue Deli (which re-opened in 2008 in a new location) , Carnegie, The Stage, Sarge’s and Junior’s (which has really focused on its cheesecake business now more than anything else, although they do a great burger). All of those landmark delis are either downtown or in Midtown. Other fine examples, like Liebman’s in the Bronx, are lesser known but are part of the city’s restaurant culture that is in rapid decline.

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