Ode to White Castle

I don't like White Castle...I love it. I truly, absolutely, and completely adore it.

Some of my happiest memories from growing up are sitting in a car in the crime-stricken neighborhood of East Orange, pounding burgers from sleeves out of a "Crave Case" and listening to sports talk radio. Exchanges would go something like this:

Me: Pass me a burger
G: (Chewing) With cheese or without?
Me: Cheese
Joe: (Chewing) Regular or Jalapeno?
Me: Regular
Mad Dog: Vinny from Queens you are on the fan
Vinny: Benny Agbayani is a bum. I have a trade for you: Agbayani and Rick Reed for Manny Ramirez.
Mike Francesca: I like Inge a lot

And that is the way it went. After school, late night, it didn't matter. Sometimes we would just get a couple each to hold us over between meals, and other times it was our actual meal. We routinely finished a crave case (for those of you who don't know, a crave case is a cardboard suitcase consisting of 30 burgers).

This weekend when I was home, I got to have White Castle again. There is one in the city, but I save this for a coming home tradition. I even got to try their new pulled pork (not that great). The original cheeseburger is the best- little soft bun, steamed burger, minced onions, melted american cheese, warm ketchup, and a pickle slice. Man, do I love white castle.

City Restaurant in the Suburbs

It is fairly common knowledge that on the whole, city restaurants are of a higher quality than those found in the suburbs. Whether it is for the talent, the real estate prices, or quality of ingredients, this has always seemed to be the case. However, once in awhile, a restaurant of "city" quality can be found to the suburbs. This is what my family found with Osteria Giotto in Montclair, NJ. I have been hearing rave reviews about this restaurant from my family for months, so this past weekend when I was home I finally had the opportunity to try it.

First off, if you live in North Jersey, you need to check out Montclair as a food destination. I have been to some fantastic restaurants in this town, ranging from Thai to Italian. It has a college town vibe with some awesome culinary spots.

Osteria Giotto is on a quiet side-street right off of Bloomfield Ave, the town's main street. It has the feeling of a "Tuscan Farmhouse" inside, with high ceilings and red brick. Looking back on the meal, three things stuck out:

1. The restaurant is BYOB (something you find a lot in Montclair). Apparently, there are a fixed number of liquor licenses for each town in NJ, so the more restaurants that open, the more BYOB places there are. I love BYOB- it is cheaper and you get to bring exactly what you want to drink. Nothing not to like about this.

2. They serve one hell of a bread basket. Everything is baked on premises, and each basket contains a variety of breads including foccocia, a flaky coissant like roll, and olive bread (which I hate).

3. The pasta is fantastic. I had fettucini in a cherry tomato sauce with crab, lobster, and shrimp meat mixed throughout. The pasta is homemade, and the seafood was fresh and plentiful. Very delicious.

This is a restaurant I would definitely check out again next time I am home. I highly recommend it.