Northwestern New Jersey is full of many wonders. It’s nothing like the factory-littered alleyway that the turnpike cuts through, or the dirty montage in the opening of the Sopranos. We’re called the Garden State, and this part of NJ is full of farmland, open spaces, barns, zoos, the Delaware Water Gap, the Appalachian Trail.. etc. When I go out there, I like to visit the Chatterbox, a 1950s-style restaurant that is round on the outside and filled with old movie posters on the inside.

They sell diner-like food: burgers, shakes, fries, chicken fingers, and whatnot. In the summer, they’ll even bring your food out to your car to keep the drive-in vibe going. We opted to go inside and ordered a cheesesteak. As you can see, they finely chop the meat, then add onions and peppers with a cheese of your choice on top. In this case, Lou opted for mozzarella. The fries were hot and fresh, which always makes me happy.

Cheesesteak from the Chatterbox

Staring down the barrel of a cheesesteak..

Melted cheese on a cheesesteak

I got a malted chocolate shake. I couldn’t taste the malt, but the shake was really thick, of medium chocolatiness, and topped with homemade whipped cream. The whipped cream was the best part.

Chocolate shake

They are generous with the serving, as you can see. It looks swirly like it came out of a can, but the color and taste really made it seem like it was freshly made. I ate it by the spoonful.

Tower of whipped cream

Naturally, I started off the meal with a salad. Vegetables make all dietary indiscretions go away, right?

Salad from the Chatterbox

The Chatterbox’s great vibe is helped by its frequent antique car shows. They hold them every weekend during the summer, with special evenings for Corvettes and motorcycles. These events are so popular that I’ve seen plates from New York and Pennsylvania, and they have a booth outside grilling hamburgers because the restaurant can’t keep up with feeding all the people there. The amount of vehicles is staggering; they circle the building several times, then spill out into a grassy lot behind the restaurant. I’ve seen Model-Ts, old volkswagens, cadillacs with the wings on the back, antique pickup trucks, and more. They pop the hood on them all so you can marvel at how immaculate the engines are. They make engines look beautiful – nothing like the leaf-laden, black mass beneath a modern car’s hood.

Cars at the Chatterbox

When I was researching restaurants with a view for my Denver trip, I read about The Fort in Morrison, Colorado. I was lucky to have stumbled upon this list because I hadn’t been looking at places in Boulder, Morrison, Aurora, and other surrounding towns. The Fort is in the foothills of the Rockies, a few miles from Red Rock Amphitheatre. It has its own slab of red rock, and it’s built entirely out of adobe mud to look like a trading post that stood on the same site in 1846.

The Fort has decided to live up to its rich history by serving game that is local to Colorado. As soon as I saw elk, rattlesnake, quail, buffalo, and other meats on the menu, I was sold. I got there at 6:00 and hoped to park at a Denver-facing window until sunset.

To start, I had a mint julep in a mason jar. I’ve never had one, but the Great Gatsby made them sound awesome, so I gave it a try. It had French brandy, peach brandy, and some mint. I’m not much of a drinker so it was a little strong for me, but I felt pretty cool drinking from a jar, having never done that before.

Old-fashioned mint julep in a mason jar

They didn’t have rattlesnake on the menu that day, which I found deeply disappointing. I replaced it with beef tongue, which sounded strange and therefore interesting. It was extremely soft and tender; it literally melted in your mouth. When you took a bite out of it on the toast, it just pulled apart. However, it was all texture; because it was sliced so thin, it didn’t have a lot of beefy flavor. I don’t know what I expected. All I know about beef tongue is a scene in a Ramona/Judy Bloom book.

I am pleased with this picture because I was seated a few feet from the window and already starting to have lighting problems because of the setting sun. A good sharpening in my graphics program helped out a lot.

Beef tongue from The Fort

The other appetizer I had planned for was indeed available that evening: Rocky Mountain Oysters. For those unacquainted, they are beef testicles. This preparation breaded and fried them, which I am told is common. I actually never eat fried things if I can help it, both for health reasons and a deep loathing for getting grease on my hands or face. This means no fried chicken, chicken nuggets, deep fried turkey/poptarts/twinkies, etc. I do eat French fries and the occasional mozzarella stick, though, so I gave these a try.

Fried Rocky Mountain Oysters

This is the inside of one. It’s pale, right? Like dark meat chicken? That’s what it tasted like. (Ironic, right?) It didn’t taste like beef — just meat and iron. I ate a few with the provided salsa but I didn’t care for them. It was like eating chicken nuggets. I hoped for something more revolutionary. I mean, it’s a testicle!  I should note, too, that both of these appetizers were half portions because I was eating by myself.

Rocky Mountain Oysters

I followed that with a jicama and pumpkin seed salad with a damiana vinaigrette. Damiana is an herb native to Mexico, and it smelled extremely familiar when I was eating it. I later found out it is used in teas and some people liken it to chamomile which might explain it. It was a nice dressing — the herbal notes really upped the vegetation factor of the salad. I want to eat a salad to eat plants, not chicken, cheese, tortilla strips, or wontons, and the damiana vinaigrette really cements that experience.

This is my favorite salad photo ever. I like the white light in the background, the shape of the bowl, the luminescence of the leaves, and the overall framing of the shot. I can see why a lot of food photographers style with light behind the subject, though I think it gets boring after awhile.

Salad

I haven’t been going to as many farmer’s markets as I’d like this year. They hold one every Wednesday in my town in the afternoon, but it ends at 6 which is precisely when I get off my train after work. I’ve recently been to one in nearby Montclair which was fun; I got two delicious cider donuts, some ras el hanout (a Moroccan spice of cinnamon, clove, cardamom, coriander, etc), and a few sugar plums. Yes, sugar plums really exist, and people grow them! They actually weren’t as sweet as I anticipated from the name.

Here is a bounty of peppers. The pale green ones on the left are cubanelles, a sweet variety.  The very slender green and red ones on the right are chile peppers. I didn’t know that until I looked it up – I assumed they were super long and wrinkled jalapenos. I also didn’t know that apparently red and purple peppers are just ripened green peppers. The longer you let the pepper sit on the vine, the more color it takes on; however, that means  a longer time-to-market and a diminished capacity for making pepper seeds, so letting peppers ripen to other colors is more expensive.

Peppers at a farmer's market

That round, purple vegetable is a Rosa Bianca eggplant. I wish I had known that when I took this picture. Rosa Biancas are Italian heirloom eggplants that are creamy, mildly-flavored, and have no bitterness. If I knew such an eggplant existed, I would have bought it in a second; I love when my eggplant gets all creamy and squishy after a long braise in tomato sauce. If there is no sauce, I definitely taste the bitterness. I try to salt it out, but I don’t think I give it enough time. This variety sounds like a great solution to both issues. Probably good in a stir-fry. This is why I need to go to more markets – to try out awesome produce like this before the season ends.

Eggplant at a farmer's market

And this is what we get after we buy the vegetables. Oh, how I love sauteed squash. I grew up in a house that only ate canned vegetables, so my first taste of sauteed squash happened in a college cafeteria. It was love at first bite. This dish came from La Taverna, an Italian restaurant in Dayton, NJ that serves some pretty tasty food in a nice historic setting.

Sauteed veggies at La Taverna

I love the char and the speckled pattern on the zucchini.

Sauteed squash at La Taverna

I originally thought these heirloom tomatoes were Ugly Tomatoes, which I find particularly interesting. They were not allowed to be sold despite their superior flavor because they violated Florida’s rules on how bumpy and misshapen a publicly-sold tomato could be. I love this crazy fluted/ribbed one. I can’t find what it is called. It looks extra cool when sliced because its edges zigzag crazily.

I photographed these in front of basil, then later made a tomato, basil, mozzarella, and spinach salad. I used these three heirlooms and a regular plum. They definitely tasted different from each other, but not necessarily in a way I enjoyed. I don’t think I am a convert to heirloom flavor over standard plum tomatoes.

Heirloom tomatoes

Ribbed Heirloom Tomato

This pale yellow tomato wasn’t for me; I can’t shake the idea that it’s not ripe yet.

Pale yellow heirloom tomato

I bought this cute kitty bowl because some of its cost went towards feeding animals at the Animal Rescue Site. I like to think he’s leaning over curiously to take a look at this crazy fruit in his bowl.

Kitty looking at an heirloom tomato

Read the rest of this entry »