Holly Moore

With a few exceptions like Waffle House, Krispy Kreme, and The Palm I abhor chain restaurants and will tread the gastronomical precipe of unknown local eateries to avoid them. It gauls me that hundreds of thousands of non-urban kids are growing up believing that Olive Garden is great Eye-talian cuisine, that all seafood must be drenched in orange red oil a la Red Lobster or that Chi Chi's fried ice cream is as Mexican as it gets. I disagree that Olive Garden can be the best restaurant in any town. Nor would I ever seek a safe harbor of consistency. There is always a buffet or a tap room or a local dinner house to try. You may strike out, but you may hit a home run or at least a double. And with dessert you can savor the satisfaction that you haven't encouraged the spread / blight of lowest common denominator menu planning, fabricated plastic ethnic decor and the Wal-Marting of local restaurants by the giant corporations.

I'll third or fourth Sheppard's pie. Whenever my mother roasted a leg of lamb on Sunday, sheppards pie was soon to follow. My mother would cut the left over lamb into bite size cubes, throw in some peas and pearl onions, maybe carrots, make a thick lamb pan gravy, and top it off with mashed potatoes and back until piping. Not traditional but as it was the sheppard's pie of my youth, I consider anything made with ground meat to be unacceptable. Three other delicacies come to mind: One might be expected of me. Bangers and mash. But also yorkshire pudding - I was banned from a friends aparment after I turned white walls gray roasting a prime rib on an electric oven rack with the pan of pudding under the roast to catch the drippings. This is the sort of thing that you should try at someone else's house first. The other, the proper english breakfast - fried eggs with a rasher of thick slab bacon, bangers, kidneys, mushrooms, baked tomatoes, black pudding. Which brings me to one other delicacy I belive to be English - Marmalade.

Gaffers is already on my list to hit the next time I get to North Jersey. But, as great as the White Manner Burger is, part of its "flavor" comes from the whole experience - the interplay with the grill man, the jostling as people come and go, the sizzling splattering burgers on the grill, the community of the customers all having a great time, even the building itself, inside and out. I find it hard to believe that any other burger joint has put it all together as well as White Manna has, though Charlies, just south of Philadelphia, comes close.

Agree re Usingers. I recently flew in a carton of both their 4/lb and 8/lb certified Angus skinless frankss. Also a carton of their fresh brats. Have been sharing them around and all agree they are a great dog. Not just for home use though. Word has it there may be a vending truck opening in Philadelphia selling the Usinger dogs. With Rutt's you mentioned dogs made specifically for frying. Any idea what the difference is?

I finally made it to White Manna on River Street in Hackensack. Best burgers in at least New Jersey and a great floor show to boot - from the emcee working the grill to the 5 year old spinning on the stool behind while I was standing, waiting for order and kicking the back of my legs every time he spun. Worth the three hour round trip from Philadelphia and then some. What White Castle wishes it could be and I'm a fan of White Castle, though not as much now as I used to be. (Edited by Holly Moore at 7:44 pm on Aug. 4, 2001)