Tell Me It Ain't So -- Coney Island Tacos!!!

Van (on right) and I at Angelo's on Dort Highway

My friend Van from Georgia paid a visit to Michigan recently and I was lucky enough to be able to spend an entire day with him back in our old hometown of Flint, Michigan.  Since time was short,  we combined the two things that we loved to do into one – which is sitting down in front of two up and a side of fries from Angelo’s and playing a game of Scrabble.

Van and I take Scrabble pretty seriously.  For the last eight years or so, a Friday night doesn’t go by where the both of us aren’t online taking each other on in a game of Scrabble.  We connect to some Scrabble playing board located in Romania (I’m serious) and we use Yahoo or Google Talk for live audio chat to talk trash to each other as we play.   His wife and my girlfriend think that the both of us are nuts and neither Van or I will correct their opinion of us, because we know that despite our weirdness that they still love us.

The date was August 21, 2010.  I drove over to Flint from the Port Huron area (where I now live) to pick up Van at the motel where he was staying on Hill Road in Grand Blanc.  We were both hungry for coneys and playing a game of Scrabble and I decided that the best place to play and eat would be at Angelo’s Dort Hwy location – not only because the place isn’t as busy as the Franklin and Davison location – but this Angelo’s is located in the old Wendy’s restaurant location (next to where Ember’s use to be) and we had spent many hours soaking up alcohol with burgers and fries there in the early 80s.

You might think that people might say something to you or give you an odd look or two when two normal looking guys sit down in a coney island restaurant and set a Scrabble board before the drinks and menus are brought to the table – you might think it – but nothing whatsoever happened.  No stares, no comments, no nothing.  As a matter of fact, our waitress was nice enough to take a picture of the both of us playing and enjoying our coneys and who said the people in Flint aren’t friendly.  Hahaha!

To make a long story short – I am proud to say that I won what we titled “The Flint Angelo’s Scrabble Challenge” by a score of 348 to 283.  I should have taken a picture of the winning board – but it totally escaped me.

What didn’t escape Van or I was something that we saw posted on a sign at Angelo’s.  Angelo’s was introducing a new menu item and Van and I took it as a slap the Flint coney dog and something that we felt embarrassed that Angelo’s would stoop to doing just to sell a few more dogs.  The item that they were selling: ‘HARD SHELL CONEYS” – which is nothing more than coney island tacos.  What the…..

If you were born and bred in Flint, Michigan – there is one thing that we could always be proud of and that’s Koegel hot dogs.  Koegel hot dogs aren’t your everyday hot dog made with animal parts that you wouldn’t feed to your pet.  Koegel’s were (and still are) made to some pretty high standards and anyone who has ever eaten a Kogel coney longs to hear and feel that snap of the dog when you bite into it.  It’s that snap and the high quality that we have come to expect in a coney made with a Koegel hot dog – but now Angelo’s (of all places) is cheapening the coney experience by turning it into a taco.

I have had arguments with coney island cooks in the Port Huron area about the Flint coney versus the Detroit style coney.  I don’t care what these slap-happy grease pushers say --- the Flint coney is a better hot dog and I’m sure that there are other people out there who feel the same way that I do, but it just saddens me that Angelo’s has now turned the coney into a taco.  What’s next coney pizza?  Coney Subs?  Coney sushi?  Coney on a stick?

If you love coneys like I love coneys….I urge you to say no to the Hard Shell Coney at Angelo’s,  After all that Flint has gone through as a city – the last thing we need is to see Angelo’s make a mockery of our beloved coney island. 

And with that said…if you see my waitress…tell her that I could use another coney and a side of fries with gravy.

Memories Of Food

It’s one-thirty in the morning and what am I doing? I’m sitting in front of this god-damn computer thinking about food. Not just any kind of food. Food that I will never be able to enjoy again – because either the people that made it are gone or the restaurants that I enjoyed them at no longer exist.

Memories of Food

I love ribs! Especially pork ribs drenched in barbeque sauce with meat that falls off the bone. In Port Huron, Michigan there’s a restaurant called “Chicken Shack” and they got pretty decent ribs and their fried broasted potatoes are a treat in themselves – but neither of them can compare to this rib dinner that I use to get at this bar/restaurant on the corner of Hill Road and Saginaw in Grand Blanc, Michigan. (I wish I could remember the name of the place – the restaurant was also located at one time on South Saginaw Street just past where the light was at Center Road). What made these ribs so damn good was the sauce – it was thick – but it sweeten the taste of the ribs oh so delicately and they would place your slab of ribs on the top of their cottage fries and the juice from the ribs and the sauce took these thinly sliced fries to a whole new level. I have had some pretty good ribs in my time – but nothing that could compare to the ribs at this restaurant. I know that there’s going to be someone from the Flint area that will tell me that nothing could compare to the ribs at the old PX and they’re probably right…but I never had a chance to enjoy a slab of ribs from the famous PX – which is my loss.

Man can not live on just meat alone -- that’s why there’s salad. My Cousin Shirley’s first husband, George, use to own Broadway Coney Island on the east side of Flint, Michigan. For a long time – George’s restaurant was located on Broadway and Franklin, just a block away from Flint’s most famous Coney Island restaurant – Angelo’s. He eventually moved Broadway Coney Island to the corner of Leith and Franklin and that was the location where I would go and enjoy one of George’s Chef Salads. Let me tell you right from the get-go – this salad was nothing fancy – but it was good and I have never been able to duplicate that taste – but I can remember it like it was yesterday.

George would take one of his standard dinner plates and plop a couple fistfuls of lettuce and chopped onions on top of it. Then he would take out a piece of the roast pork and roast beef that he used for his dinners and sandwiches and slice them into strips. Then he would take a slice or two of your standard American pasteurized cheese and slice them into strips and then serve it to you with that orange colored French dressing that you seem to find in every Coney Island restaurant in every city. I know that it doesn’t sound like much -- but damn was it delicious and I have never been able to find another salad like the one George would serve at Broadway Coney Island.

My memories of good food aren’t limited to just restaurants – because if you’re lucky – the best food that you’ll ever eat will always be at home. When it comes to good food – Sunday dinners should be in a category all by itself. My Mom and her second husband, Steve Rosa, really did Sunday dinners proud and it was usually centered around chicken. Most of the time it was fried chicken and other times it was Hungarian chicken and rice – and if you know the Rosa family – they never made just a “little bit of red rice” – they made enough rice to last for days.

My Mom and Steve’s fried chicken is another one of those items that I have never been able to find anywhere or see duplicated anywhere. The both of them made the chicken and it was a team effort all of the way – from cutting up the chicken, skinning the chicken, dipping it in egg and then rolling it in bread crumbs before they placed it into a pan of hot bubbling Mazola oil to cook. I think part of the good flavor of the chicken came from the pan – they always used this one oval shaped pan and the bread crumbs weren’t just any bread crumbs – it was dry bread crumbs that they made and seasoned themselves from loaves of dried Mother’s Bread from the Balkan Bakery.

(It should be noted that after we attended Sunday mass at Sacred Heart Church – we would drive over to the Balkan Bakery in Flint where my step-father would pick up maybe 8-10 loaves of Balkan Bread each week. A few of the loaves we would eat throughout the week….a few more loaves were placed inside of our oven to dry and then be ground down into bread crumbs…and the rest of the loaves he would share with his brother.)

There was something about my Mom and step-father’s fried chicken. I love to eat the skin on fried chicken – but you didn’t miss the skin not being on my parents’ fried chicken – you just enjoyed it!

I also have great memories of some of the baked goods that my Mom use to make. Everyone in our family was a big fan of my Mom’s carrot cake and there was a running joke that if there was any kind of family get-together, event, etc., my Mom had to make the carrot cake. I like carrot cake – but the cream cheese frosting on the top of it was too sweet for me.

When it comes to my Mom’s baked goods – I was a sucker for her frosted cinnamon rolls. My Mom never made small cinnamon rolls – each one of her cinnamon rolls was about the size of the upper peninsula of Michigan and each one of them were delicious. The dough that she made the cinnamon rolls with was sweet and the thing you had to do was to put it in the microwave for about fifteen seconds and then eat them. Slowly unraveling the roll until you got to that center which usually was filled with a burst of cinnamon and sugar. If you could eat two of these cinnamon rolls with a cup of coffee – you were doing good – and if your sugar levels didn’t go bonkers – then something was wrong with you.

I’m looking at the clock and it’s damn near two-thirty. Time goes by fast when you think of food. It also makes you hungry….so….I might as well wrap this up and grab a peanut butter sandwich or something.

I Hate Winter...But It Won't Be Too Long....

(Looking out our back door - Winter 2009)

I don’t know about you – but I have had it with winter – it could go away tomorrow and I wouldn't miss it one bit. And, it’s not like we have had one of those brutal kick you in the ass Michigan winters either – you know the kind -- with temperatures so cold that your thoughts freeze and the snow drifts way past your naughty bits. To be honest with you – it’s been a pretty mild winter – it’s just that we have had enough of it already.

Let’s be honest – winter weather sucks. I also know that there are lots of people who cherish a hearty Michigan winter so that they can take to the slopes and ski – I’m not one of them. I never was and never will be one of them.. Skiing is something that I have never understood. What’s fun about strapping putting pieces of wood or fiberglass to the bottom of your feet so that you can go sliding down the side of a ski slope? If you like going down a ski slope – cut out the middle man and just do a belly flop and do it naturally. Plus, skiing is not one of the safest things that you can do either, and if you need proof, I have but two words for you: Sonny Bono.

Winter has no social redeeming values going for it. With winter – you get snow (and depending on where you live -- and lots of it). Snow requires you to shovel it so that you can get from point A to point B. If you live in the country like I do, not only do you shovel, but you have to pay someone to plow your driveway. Plus, winter weather provides you with another item that you can add to your “something you have to do” list – and that’s brush the snow and scraping your car windows. I hate waiting for my windows to defrost in the winter about as much as I hate sitting in my car and waiting at a train crossing or, better yet, waiting for the Military Street drawbridge in Port Huron to go down.

There’s something else – other than the cold, the wind and the snow – that is irritating about winter and that’s the local TV weather team. Yup – there’s nothing like watching a TV weather team go into a full attack mode when a ugly winter storm front comes barreling through your town. They’re outside standing in they’re “weather patio” with the big fur-lined coat with the station’s logo over the left breast measuring the downfall with a yard stick; or they have enlisted every member of the station’s news team to do live shots in front of every busy intersection in the viewing area. The TV coverage during a major storm makes you feel like the end of the world is coming when all it really should be doing is telling us when the storm is coming, when it’s here, how much snow are we going to get and when is it going to end. We don’t need wall-to-wall coverage – because believe it or not – there is other news happening other than a god-damn storm.

So, here I sit and bitch about winter. There’s nothing I can do about it except to wait for spring and warmer weather. In the meantime, I’ll join that growing list of people like my friends Jason and Paul at Radio First in Port Huron and my step-mother Helen in Zeyphrhills, Florida who hate winter just as much as I do and are counting down the days to the start of Tiger spring training in Lakeland.

I can hear the music playing in my head as I speak:

We’re all behind our baseball team…

Go get ‘em Tigers.

World series bound and picking up steam…

Go get ‘em Tiger.

They’ll be joy in Tiger-town

We’ll sing you a song

When the Bengals bring the pendant home --

Where it belongs…

We’re all behind our baseball team…

Go get ‘em,,,

Detroit Tigers…

Go get ‘em Tigers…

(Roar)

Tuesday Morning Frost Bites

The Palms Krystal Bar in Port Huron is one of the few places where you can

get chicken gizzards and gravy.

In the time honored dot-dot-dot tradition of the late Bob Talbert of the Detroit Free Press and Larry King’s of USA Today – I now present a few quick takes on things with Frost Bites:

I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to winter ending and soon. I know that we here in the Port Huron, Michigan area have not had to deal with an over abundance of snow and the temperatures really haven’t been that bad – but enough is enough already! When you have people posting on FACEBOOK how many days are left until the start of Tiger baseball spring training, you know that there are other people out there who are enjoying this winter just about as much as I am…..When I have an urge for a candy bar – it’s usually a battle between Snickers or Kit Kat….The power of the internet always surprises me. The only reason that I signed up to have Google place ads on my blog was so that I could see if there’s anybody that reads this blog and lo and behold after just five days Google Adsense is telling me that nearly one hundred impressions have been made to this site. One hundred impressions – that tells me that people other than my friends are actually reading this. Incredible.

Is it just me – but is there some real tension on the set of “The View” between Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Whoopi Goldberg? Some of the confrontations between the two in the last couple of months have been pretty heated and it looks like Whoopi wants to jump over the table and give this young Republican a “reality adjustment”….Looking for a good burger? The people in my hometown of Flint, Michigan would direct you to a Bill Thomas Halo Burger for one of their Olive burgers or a Halo Supreme. My allegiance to Halo Burger is not as strong as it once ever since I discovered the burger at the Palms Krystal Bar in Port Huron. Who would have thought that the addition of sweet relish along with the usual ketchup and mustard could tip the scales to make this one of the best damn burgers you’ll ever taste. Way to go, Palms!!!.....There are two Beatle songs that can bring a tear to my eye nearly every time that I hear them and I don’t know why. The songs are “In My Life” and The Beatles version of the Motown classic “You Really Got A Hold On Me”.

I have put it off long enough – but I’m going to have to go in soon and get my eyes examined for a new pair of glasses…..When it comes to peanut butter – forget the name brands like Jif, Skippy and Peter Pan – and grab a jab of Kroger’s honey roasted peanut butter off the shelf. It taste great on an English muffin or bagel hot from the toaster or combined with your favorite jelly for a good ole traditional p-b-and j. Not only is this peanut butter delicious – it’s a lot cheaper than the name brand and sometimes Kroger’s has it on sale during one of the 10-for-10 sales…..It’s a toss-up for me when it comes to who’s face on the TV screen will have me reaching for the remote quicker – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi or that dynamic duo in the Senate – John McCain and Joe Lieberman.

You can beat a book for a buck and some of the more entertaining books that I have read recently have only cost me a dollar at a Dollar Tree store. If you ever see me coming out of Dollar Tree store – the odds are pretty good that I was there to see if they have added any new dollar books to their selection…..It’s always amazes me how people want to share their faith in Jesus via their latest e-mail to me. I can accept that the people who send these e-mails are sincere when it comes to their faith – but I find it somewhat weird that they try to get me to believe the same way that they do when they turn their e-mail into a chain letter. The wrath of God and all of his followers will be on my head if I’m not one of the people who send the e-mail off to ten other people – it’s kind of a weird way to share God’s love, isn’t it?….I wish that more places that sell fountain soft drinks had Coke Zero as a drink choice. To me it’s a better tasting diet cola than their Diet Coke and it beats Diet Pepsi…..You can count me in as being one of those people that is looking forward to February when comedian Ellen DeGenerees joins the judges table on Fox’s “American Idol”. Imagine a whole season of “American Idol” without Paula Abdul’s lame ass “that’s pitchy” comments….And if you’re ever near a “Sonic” drive-in restaurant – forget about the burgers, the chicken sandwiches or hot dogs and grab a large order of their onion rings – you’ll thank me for it later.