the rix mix

Labels: boardwalks, cuisine, Fine Cuisine, jersey shore, postcard

Labels: boardwalks, cuisine, jersey shore, obituary, postcard

Between the afternoon & evening viewings of my dad's wake in Elizabeth, thirty years ago,  my oldest brother & I drove down to Big Stash's in Linden. We should have gone to White Rose Diner, which was much closer. But Joe & I had bonded a few times at Stash's. I probably had pastrami on rye unless I got the stuffed pepper, & a couple of beers. & macaroni salad & Polish pickles, always had those. We returned to the Wake about 15 minutes late, which shouldn't have been a big deal except our next-door neighbors had come & gone during the break, which I thought was inappropriate of them, like showing up early at a garage sale. So some family members were pissed at us. But I was still there in time to greet the former Democratic Mayor of Roselle Park (who knew I'd switched sides to his party) & watch the Masonic ceremony.

As the current menu shows, the food prices are very reasonable.

Since learned - no surprise -  Stash's is a popular post-funeral meal venue for area Polish-American families. My dad's was at Galloping Hill Inn Caterers. Dad had patronized Galloping Hill Inn since high school, when it was Peterson's, the name he always used. But GHI was famous for its hot dogs  & fries, sold at  a classic wooden stand across the parking lot from the catering hall, & these hot dogs were not served at the reception.

Labels: cuisine, Fine Cuisine

Labels: cuisine, New Jersey, Newark NJ, postcard

Labels: cuisine, New Jersey, postcard

Somebody tried to tell me that the Chick-Fil-A "Appreciation Day " was in defense of free speech. Utter bullshit. There's no serious free speech issue involving the owners of Chick-Fil-A.  Mike Huckabee wrote:

"The goal is simple: Let's affirm a business that operates on Christian principles and whose executives are willing to take a stand for the godly values we espouse by simply showing up and eating at Chick Fil-A on Wednesday, August 1."

In other words, show up at Chick-Fil-A if you're against marriage equality & LGBT rights. Those are the "godly values."  When you give me the free speech nonsense, what you're really saying is you won't express your honest opinion on the issue at hand, so you set up a strawman, "Those People Against Free Speech," & knock that down.  We want the views of the Cathy family known, & the anti-LGBT organizations they & the non-profit arm of Chick-fil-A contribute to exposed.

I grew up with the same kind of evasive  bigotry in the form of racism, the personal distancing from  actual racist acts, the "states rights" crap justifying Jim Crow,  the pretensions to innocence or even naivete.  Letting proxies do your talking (& violence).  I'm not  fooled by it. No surprise that the person with the "free speech" excuse grew up in my hometown. He wouldn't have had  the nerve to go to a Chick-fil-A on "Appreciation Day."

Labels: cuisine, human rights

Labels: cuisine, gin mill, New Jersey, postcard

Labels: cuisine, holidays, jersey shore, nature, postcard

Labels: cuisine, gin mill, New Jersey, postcard

Labels: boardwalks, cuisine, jersey shore, postcard

Labels: cuisine, gin mill, New Jersey, postcard

Labels: cuisine, nature, New Jersey, postcard

Labels: cuisine, New Jersey, postcard

When I was a kid, a couple of times each year my dad brought us siblings to The Donut Bus. It was a converted school bus  parked on the corner of North & Morris Avenues  by Kean University (then
Newark State College), a few blocks from where I currently reside. It was a mobile donut factory. The Donut Bus sold only one kind of donut, plain, deep-fried in vats of bubbling oil, crunchy on the outside, soft inside, without or without powdered sugar. Also available were bags of broken donut pieces at a discount. They were equally good.

By the time I grew up the bus had disappeared.

Fast forward several decades. It's 1999. A small tornado has hit Rahway NJ, knocking down big trees across a swath of the town. I was at work when it happened  & had to pass through a police checkpoint downtown to reach my apt. Power was out. I walked around looking at the damage. A police car came around broadcasting that there was no driving permitted in the affected areas &  police had blocked traffic into & out of downtown where I lived. By later that evening I was getting bored. I was also getting a craving for a certain brand of donut  - I forget the name, it was from Pennsylvania - I knew was sold at the Quick Chek in the next town over. I liked the brand because they were plain donuts crunchy on the outside & soft on the inside & reminded me of the Donut Bus. So about 11 pm I got in my car, negotiated a maze of side streets, some blocked by fallen trees, very dark, assuming correctly that the police had only enough personnel to maintain road blocks on the three or four main streets. I made it to the Quick Chek, where the power was on, bought a box of my preferred donuts,  took it next door to a Dunkin' Donuts, which was crowded with refugees like myself,  ordered a cup of coffee & ate some of my donuts,  Then I sneaked back home the way I had come.

Labels: cuisine, growing up, holidays

Labels: Atlantic City, cuisine, jersey shore, postcard

Labels: cuisine, New Jersey, postcard