Great Taste Coaster

These are big in England but not so popular here. Read more »

I was thinking of all the hoagie’s I want to try out there. Almost everyone has some kind of legendary hoagie place that’s a hole-in-the-wall-hidden treasure. I’d like to find as many of those places before I die. By hoagie I mean anything that comes on a hoagie roll. This includes cheesesteaks, subs, grinders, cubanos (if in hoagie roll), torpedoes, po’ boys, etc. Here are places I like so far.

• Captain Gus’s in the triangle of W. Orange St. and W. King St. Lancaster. The cheeseburger sub is my favorite, the steaks are good there too. The Captain is an amazing dude, you gotta get him to tell you a story sometime.
• Campus Deli on Harrisburg Pike and Mary St. Probably best Philly style hoagie’s in Lancaster. Great selection of Italian heart burn producing meats.
• Montgomery Lunch in Norristown, PA . This place has been in Norristown forever, the previous owners sold the restaurant and the recipes to some Mexican brothers. So Montgomery Lunch has all the classic menu items on the front of the menu (great chili dogs), and an awesome Mexican menu on the back. The cool things are their “mash-ups” of the two cultures. I got a chorizo hoagie there, that was a life altering experience. It came on a great Philly style hoagie roll as long as my forearm. It was filled with chorizo, fresh jalapeno slices, lettuce, tomatoes, and mayonnaise. I had heart burn for days, but well worth it.

So here are some places recommended to me that I’d like to try this year. I’d also like some company to help me objectively evaluate these hoagies.

• Smith’s Hotel in Columbia, PA. This place does the “shifter” which is a traditional sandwich that only exists in Columbia, and they do a Lebanon Bologna Hoagie?!?!
• Smiley’s Deli. Just heard good things.
• That Vietnamese place on Queen St. Lancaster that has “Vietnamese Subs” written on their shop window.
• G&G’s Deli (I just met the owner), and apparently they have a good subs

Post up your recommendations and we’ll try to get a review of all of these places this year.

I’d say 90% of cooking is starting off with good raw ingredients.  Really the rest of cooking is about not screwing up those ingredients.  That being said, all food is best when it’s processed and shipped as little as possible, and local food is where it’s at.  Eating seasonally is great for you because, humans like most animals aren’t designed to eat the same thing all year round.  Seasonal eats forces you to eat things you normally wouldn’t and once you get tired of it, the season ends.  In addition seasonal, local food has more nutrients and better taste.  So enough with the soapbox, here’s what you should be finding and eating now:

• Watercress, I love this stuff and it doesn’t stay around for very long.  It’s best served on soft bread with cream cheese or a soft cheese like wemsleydale.  Trim the crusts on your sandwich and eat with tea in the late afternoon.
• Early spring greens, a lot of growers around here are using poly tunnels.  They are essentially quick and dirty greenhouses, set up over the fields.  I’ve already started getting some mesclun from some local growers.
• Winter Root Vegetables, they’re on their way out, but still good.  Potatoes, parsnips, and beets.
• Lambing season is coming soon.  So get that Easter leg of lamb!

I’ve always heard how chefs rave about duck fat and it’s properties. I never quite understood it until I finally got the nerve to buy some duck confit at market from Carr’s. Duck confit is a ridiculously time consuming and messy three hour process of cooking and preserving duck, and I would never want to do it at home. Fortunately for me Carr’s has great chefs who do it for you. So I got myself a duck leg (very affordable by the way), and took it home. Read more »