Jim Charles

If you go to the bottom of the page on this site you can click on a number of restaurants in the area while taking a peek at their menus. http://www.medfordmenus.com/

I don't know about Camden, but Donkey's II here in Medford is always open on Saturdays. We get take out about once a month there and they are exactly the same sandwich as Camden, good. I first tried them at least 30 years ago whenever I would be working around Camden and was thrilled when they opened one here.

"Eat oats and die of boredom"

Before I retired we also spent a bundle on food, primarily because we had no time and ate out and bought carry out so much. I now cook from scratch every day while my poor wife continues (her choice) to work for another year. We have found we love soups, stews and braised dishes and the bonus is that the ingredients are relatively inexpensive. We are also fortunate to live in an area with many farms for low cost fresh vegetables. We seldom have left over because I make my rounds locally on a daily basis for our purchases. Bulk purchases are individually packaged with my wife’s vacuum bag do hicky, and frozen. After looking at my old Quicken files I see that we use to spend even more than you on a monthly basis. We now spend about half as much, but eat much better. My wife tells me she is usually disappointed by our visits to restaurants now because I can do a better job and the food is better. By cutting out 4 dinners a month eaten out that saves about $400 in this area. If we cut out our wine bills we would be rolling in the money, but that ain’t happening anytime soon.

I know some Philadelphians sometimes venture over here to the wilds of Jersey so I have to mention this place. If you jump off the expressway at the Hammonton exit and drive about 2 miles to Hammonton you will be on 12th street. The Fiesta Mexicana is at 327. We’ve eaten there 2 or 3 times and though it’s always busy we have been the only gringos in there. The food is excellent.

Now I’m really embarrassed! I guess I should be used to the memory errors, as I get older and older. It seemed like a week ago I was sitting in there stuffing my face and then racing back to Medford before the grease took control of my stomach. My apologies for causing the inconvenience of searching for something that’s no longer there.

The White Castle I'm referring to is on Rt 73 just over the Tacony Palmyra in Pennsauken. It's been open for years and still is. The White Castle your refering to was on on Admiral Wilson Blvd. (also Pennsauken not Cherry Hill) and that was closed about 35 or 40 years ago.

I know this will probably result in my banishment and drummed off the BB, but I sometimes secretly stop at the White Castle on 73 and pig out on a bag of their grease burgers with fried onions. I don’t know if I should be in a twelve-step program or check myself into re-hab.

Thanksgiving will be quite different for us this year. We will be at sea, somewhere between Haiti and Aruba on our way to the Panama Canal. This is one of our favorite family holidays and they will all be sorely missed, but we do what we have to do.

My first and only kitchen job was at 15 back in Illinois where I grew up. I worked on weekends as a short order cook in a small luncheonette type place where I was by myself with the steam table and grill. I worked the midnight to 8am shift and made big bucks (for the 50’s), $1 an hour under the table. The problem was this was only a front for the high stakes card games and gambling parlor in the basement. There was a small vestibule with a guard as you entered the basement and then hooks all over the wall where you had to hang your pistol before entering the game room. One morning around 3am I heard a loud bang from a shotgun from downstairs. I was out the door never to return. There was never any report of anything happening but I was sure someone took a swim with an anchor in Lake Michigan that night.

Without knowing your tastes how is one to know? All of the major casinos have fine restaurants and the dinning can be superb, but who knows what you may be looking for since you give no hint as to what your looking for?

If you want to include shellfish it would be blue claws, clams and of course stripped bass, weakfish and a multitude of other fish. They couldn't be any fresher because we catch our own.

A Ron Popiel anything.

The only reason I ever read a food magazine is to try new or even old recipes. Gourmet magazinehas always left me cold when they have 23 ingredients and 36 steps to a recipe. Maybe it’s my mid-west farm roots that makes Taste of Home appeal to me. I also like the fact that it has no advertising and once you’re a subscriber you have access to all the recipes from all their different publications via the Internet.

Katie, 206 ends at rt30 in Hammonton and maybe someone not familiar with the area would think they are still on 206. It's 12ths street (main st.) that turns into rt54. There are several Mexican restaurants in town due to a high concentration of Mexicans that work on the surounding blueberry and truck farms. I can't remember the name to save me, but it's a very colorful and for the area good sized place that was just remodeled. You can't miss it when you go through town between the railroad and Illianos Italian Restaurant on 12th st.

The only place I ever eat French fries are at home and I cut large steak fries from Idaho potatoes. I parboil them and then fry them or bake them and cover with sausage gravy or melted cheddar cheese…sometimes both. I make a meal out of them.

Penza's is about 6 miles from me (I'm in Medford) on 206 outside Hammonton. This is about 45 minutes from Vineland. It's ok, but it's become very touristy as a result of the write-ups. To get there you have to go through Hammonton (the largest percentage of Italians of any town in America). Coming from Vineland as you come into town you will see an old Italian grocery store on your left. Super old store with barrels of olives, great cheeses, meats and the best Italian sausage on the east coast. About a 1/2 block past it on your left is a Mexican Restaurant. You will be the only gringo there and they will have to find someone to speak English, but the food is out of this world and as close to free as you'll find in Jersey.

I’m sorry to say that Vineland isn’t really close to anything even though it’s the largest (area wise) town in NJ. You can be within the city limits and see nothing but farms. There is a high concentration of Italian and Spanish and I would think there must be some great hidden places to eat there, but I guess you have to be a local to know where they are. That general area of Vineland, Millville and Bridgeton have many sales tax free areas due to it being listed as an impoverished area or something by the state. There is a big effort to bring back the area and it seems to be working. I think you will like the people there and hopefully, the food.

That would gag a maggot.

I negotiated every day during my working career, but would never do that with my farmer friends. I’ve been going to the same stand for many years a couple miles from my home and the woman who has always run it is now about 80 and still working hard. Her two middle-aged sons tend a large truck garden on the property and my wife or I visit it every evening during the season. I would feel like the biggest jerk in the world to try and bicker with her and besides she’d probably kick my butt. She is always trying to give us stuff and sneaks extras into our bags all the time. If she finds out I’m making sauce she throws a big bag of very ripe peppers and tomatoes into the back of my truck and tells me to drop some gravy off to her on my next trip. She never forgets, so I have to remember to bring it. They are a great family of hard working down to earth people that I’m sure going to miss when they are gone.

Two things. One, I’ve made knives as a hobby and part time income for 40 years. My favorites will go to my children and grandchildren. Two, I have my cookbook where I’ve accumulated only the best of my best recipes that I want them to have. Oh yea, they’ll also get a pretty good load of money that I’m sure will be number one on their list.

I’ve gone the other way. I like the latest kitchen and the best equipment. After many years of sacrifice and simply not having the money to accumulate stuff I’m now taking advantage. I figure after all those years we’ve earned the right.

What do you mean by raw, uncooked?

I love Portuguese food, but here in south jersey there is no Portuguese contingent that I know of to make it. We have friends up there in north jersey (I don’t know how that happened) and when we visit them our first choice for food is to visit one of these restaurants. They should move a couple down here in the boondocks of the sunny south.

Actually, I’d just sit down in front of the TV and eat them. I love sour cherries.