eG Foodblog: balmagowry - Back to the future....

[balmagowry]

No red X's here  - my Internet is not broken (yet).  Gotta love those Greek diners (and yes they are typically owned by Greek families).  Let me guess....  do they have a sort of glass pie and cake case that's circular, visible when you enter, as a way to plant the seed for a subconscious desire to order dessert?

Dang, shoulda snagged a picture of it! It isn't round, but in other respects it is of course exactly as you picture it. And of course it has a counterpart, or rather a counter-part - i.e. smaller cases along the counter so that the counter-sitters (not to be confused with counterfeiters) are equally tempted.

[Pan]

Ahhhhh, we were about two blocks apart; I grew up on 90th and Riverside.  And at about the same time, if the avatar is anything to go by -- as a birth-date, I mean.

Cool! My uncle & family lived at 88th and West End - and I subsequently lived at 106th & Riverside and at 90th & Columbus... there's something about that neighborhood, I guess.

As to the birth-date, hell, I don't see any reason to be coy about it: 1957.

Close?

You're a year older than my brother, Lisa! In 1960, my family moved to 97 St. and West End Av., and I grew up there also (b. 1965).

[mags]

You mean all three of us were hanging around the playground near the Soliders and Sailors Monument at the SAME TIME?????

Balmagowry, I bet you were one of the cool big girls at the playground. They always chewed gum -- which was one of the things that was cool about them -- but my mother wouldn't let me, so I used to wander around sort of wiggling my mouth and making wet "chomp chomp" noises so that people would THINK I was chewing gum.

[balmagowry]

You're a year older than my brother, Lisa! In 1960, my family moved to 97 St. and West End Av., and I grew up there also (b. 1965).

Ain'tchew up past yer bed-time, young 'un?

[balmagowry]

You mean all three of us were hanging around the playground near the Soliders and Sailors Monument at the SAME TIME?????

Nah - 'fraid not. We were in Ballmer from '59 to '61, then in Pittsburgh for a year, and when we came back to NY it was to the 106th & Riverside address. The S&SM was too far south to be within my normal orbit, except when I went to play with the cousins on 88th & WEA.

Balmagowry, I bet you were one of the cool big girls at the playground.  They always chewed gum -- which was one of the things that was cool about them -- but my mother wouldn't let me, so I used to wander around sort of wiggling my mouth and making wet "chomp chomp" noises so that people would THINK I was chewing gum.

Oh Mags, I hate to disappoint you again - but no, on all counts. I wasn't a gum-chewer (can't even remember whether I wanted to be; which I suppose probably means I did want to and was thwarted and thereby permanently warped), and I was anything but cool. Oh - and I went to school on the East Side, so most of my precious-little playground time was spent across town.

[Pan]

You mean all three of us were hanging around the playground near the Soliders and Sailors Monument at the SAME TIME?????

I usually went to the one near 97 St.

[mags]

Ah well, another dream shattered.

[Pan]

Ah well, another dream shattered.

Don't be so sad. We're in the same playground now.

[balmagowry]

Good morning.

Some like it cold.

Don't you hate it when the first thing you see in the morning

is an unexpected temptation lying across your path? I don't know where these things come from... but I'm a sucker for them. :sigh: No fair - not before coffee!

[winesonoma]

I used to go to that diner after the movies at the Babylon theatre on Friday nite. Is the diner in Babylon on the south side of Montauk hwy still there? We'd buy beer there cause they did not card you. Your taking me back to my childhood.

[mongo_jones]

i haven't yet gone through this whole blog but has the balmagowry name been explained yet? i have discovered your "real" name, and while it wasn't on par with finding out that cary grant began life as archibald leach i feel that much of the romance has gone out of my life.

[balmagowry]

I've been thinking about this diner thing; there's something lurking in my mind that I haven't yet expressed. The reason I wanted to go there the other night - well, mainly I just wanted to. But as I think I mentioned up-thread, I was also bearing in mind Lucy's experience chez M. Pierre, and the comparison between the two places, thinking it might be amusing. In the event, I'm not so sure "amusing" is the word.

There is no comparison, you will say - and of course we all thought exactly that when Lucy suggested that a bouchon was the equivalent of a diner and then immediately proceeded to explode that definition by showing us the bouchon.

The thing about the Delphi, though, the thing I'm trying to get a handle on, is that there's something unpretentious about its pretentions, if you see what I mean. Yes, there are sections of the menu that are over-ambitious and incongruous, and the gussied-up dishes under that heading are not often well-executed. Yes, the place itself is tarted up with chrome and neon and gaudy pictures. But underneath all that crap it's still a diner. It does diner things well, and a few non-diner things superbly, and it has nothing to be ashamed of. The staff is friendly - not obtrusively so - and obliging. And sincere. Not a one of 'em but really cares that you get what you want and are content with it. At heart it's a neighborhood place, and it walks like one and quacks like one. Weirdly, there's something endearing about the things they occasionally get wrong (such as an inexperienced busboy, the other night, letting dishes clatter and make a hell of a racket when he cleared a table - no wonder he's on the late shift...). I'm not enough of a regular to be acquainted with any of the staff, but there are some such and you can tell that they love the place and it loves them.

My father and I went out to dinner to mark my mother's birthday, the first one since her death. He loves the Outback; she wasn't crazy about it but would go there (and enjoy it once she got there, I might add) to indulge him. So when he proposed it I of course agreed. Trouble is, it was a Saturday night and the lines were... well, it was Saturday night. We decided to try something different. Thinking about what might have amused my mother, I suggested the diner. (And that was the night I first tried the aforementioned veal chop. And a glass of quite execrable wine, which under the circumstances I strangely enjoyed.) On an extraordinarily difficult occasion, it proved exactly the right place to be. It's that kind of place.

Despite the oceans (literally) of difference in decor and cuisine and culture, the bell that all this rings for me is the honesty that Lucy evoked in her portrait of M. Pierre's bouchon. One is lyrical and poetic; the other solid with a veneer of silliness; but at bottom they share that quality you look for in a place of comfort food; they're genuine. They're real. Both are guided by the same principle; and the same impulse might guide you to either one.

Hey, it's a diner. I'm lucky to have it nearby.

Edited April 25, 2004 by balmagowry (log)

[balmagowry]

I used to go to that diner after the movies at the Babylon theatre on Friday nite. Is the diner in Babylon on the south side of Montauk hwy still there? We'd buy beer there  cause they did not card you. Your taking me back to my childhood.

In Babylon itself? No. But this place is also on the south side of Montauk Highway and it's barely outside the limits of Babylon Village - I trust you're not, um, confusing the two? No, of course you wouldn't be, you're a local. Sorry. Where was it? There's a place right in the village, on the north side of Montauk Hwy, that bears all the architectural hallmarks of having once been a diner, but it has long been converted into a Chinese restaurant. It's just a door or two west of the old Town Hall, practically across from the movie theatre. Ring any bells?

BTW, I have a feeling they're a little less lax about carding these days....

[balmagowry]

i haven't yet gone through this whole blog but has the balmagowry name been explained yet? i have discovered your "real" name, and while it wasn't on par with finding out that cary grant began life as archibald leach i feel that much of the romance has gone out of my life.

Oh Mongo, I'm so sorry; I certainly never meant to disillusion anyone. But think of it this way. Cary Grant may have begun life as Archibald Leach, but as far as I'm concerned Cary Grant is his real name. So... extrapolate.

The balmagowry name has not been explained here, but I know there was some discussion of it a little while back - I'll hunt it down and link it later. Not a light task, as I fear it may be buried somewhere in the Cookbook Tally thead....

[winesonoma]

I used to go to that diner after the movies at the Babylon theatre on Friday nite. Is the diner in Babylon on the south side of Montauk hwy still there? We'd buy beer there  cause they did not card you. Your taking me back to my childhood.

In Babylon itself? No. But this place is also on the south side of Montauk Highway and it's barely outside the limits of Babylon Village - I trust you're not, um, confusing the two? No, of course you wouldn't be, you're a local. Sorry. Where was it? There's a place right in the village, on the north side of Montauk Hwy, that bears all the architectural hallmarks of having once been a diner, but it has long been converted into a Chinese restaurant. It's just a door or two west of the old Town Hall, practically across from the movie theatre. Ring any bells?

BTW, I have a feeling they're a little less lax about carding these days....

This one was on the left just as you entered town. It was old in 66 so it's probably gone by now. Drinking age was 18 back then. Chinese place was a diner.

[bloviatrix]

   

Blovie loves that stuff. He also goes through the ritual of heating up the milk and adding the syrup. And here I thought it was another one of his strange eating habits.

[balmagowry]

The balmagowry name has not been explained here, but I know there was some discussion of it a little while back - I'll hunt it down and link it later. Not a light task, as I fear it may be buried somewhere in the Cookbook Tally thead....

Yup, it was. But look - I found it!

Lately I've begun to wonder (I think I mentioned this on the Yogurt-Making thread) whether "Balmagowry" might not turn out to be some intricate corruption of "creme bulgare." Reaching, I know.

[balmagowry]

Blovie loves that stuff. He also goes through the ritual of heating up the milk and adding the syrup. And here I thought it was another one of his strange eating habits.

Um... you were right. It was.

[balmagowry]

This one was on the left just as you entered town. It was old in 66 so it's probably gone by now. Drinking age was 18 back then. Chinese place was a diner.

OK, now you've got me confused. On the left as you enter town from which direction? Are you saying the former-diner-now-chinese-restaurant was the place in question? That would work if you're coming from the west. But if you're coming from the east, then the Delphi is on your left just as (well, OK, just barely before) you enter town. And as of now, there's no other diner, or diner-like thing, on Main Street. Except Glen's Dinette, on the north side of Main in the middle of town, but I believe that's been there since the Flood, and it isn't really a diner, as such. Maybe I need to post a map, or something. I can't even picture where this diner would have been. There are, however, a couple of fairly new enclaves, those genteel upscale mini-strip-mall things, and either of them may well have replaced a diner. Considering how close it is to the Delphi (and also to the Carousel on Higbie Lane, also in WI), I can see where another diner in town might have been overkill at some point. Babylon never got quite as down-at-heel as Bay Shore did, but it certainly had its seedy years from an economic standpoint - followed by a substantial rebirth around 10-15 years ago (Bay Shore is just starting to do the same now). I still mourn the loss of that strange variety store on Deer Park Ave. - shouldn't, because the expanded Sherry's which has moved in there is a marvelous resource for me. But that old place had such character! and such weird superannuated merchandise! Oh well. Win some, lose some, I guess.

[mongo_jones]

The balmagowry name has not been explained here, but I know there was some discussion of it a little while back - I'll hunt it down and link it later. Not a light task, as I fear it may be buried somewhere in the Cookbook Tally thead....

Yup, it was. But look - I found it!

Lately I've begun to wonder (I think I mentioned this on the Yogurt-Making thread) whether "Balmagowry" might not turn out to be some intricate corruption of "creme bulgare." Reaching, I know.

ah. all i know of the series is the recent movie--which i found to be fairly tedious.

[bleudauvergne]

... at bottom they share that quality you look for in a place of comfort food; they're genuine. They're real. Both are guided by the same principle; and the same impulse might guide you to either one.

Hey, it's a diner. I'm lucky to have it nearby.

When I saw fries, and the chive, and the shot you took of the inside of the place, I had strange pangs of homesickness. They really don't exist on this side of the pond. Genuine is a good word. I loved the laminated menu, too. I spent some time this morning thinking of what might have been wrapped up in that baseball mitt of roast beef, and wishing I could have been there to cut into it and take a big solid chewy bite.

Edited April 25, 2004 by bleudauvergne (log)

[balmagowry]

When I saw fries, and the chive, and the shot you took of the inside of the place, I had strange pangs of homesickness.  They really don't exist on this side of the pond.  Genuine is a good word.  I loved the laminated menu, too.  I spent some time this morning thinking of what might have been wrapped up in that baseball mitt of roast beef, and wishing I could have been there to cut into it and take a big solid chewy bite. 

I wish you could have, too.

(And we would have had at least two extra orders of fries.)

[balmagowry]

ah. all i know of the series is the recent movie--which i found to be fairly tedious.

Wow. Well, I can't say them's fightin' words, but given the impact that movie has been having on the O'Brian community for the past 10 years (i.e. yes, long before it was made), it sure feels funny to see it dismissed like that. Amazing - there's a Real World out there! and it doesn't revolve around Jack Aubrey! Well, FWIW I must say I really enjoyed the movie, despite a couple of jarring notes. Most of which I will not go so far OT as to bore you with here. But I do have a very serious bone to pick with the food treatment, and that I will discuss here some time in the next couple of days, since you guys are really the only crowd, other than O'Brian fans, to which it'll have any meaning (and no, you don't have to be an O'Brian reader for such discussion, not at all). And OK, while I'm at it I might as well admit I'm not overly impressed with the way they handled me....

[balex]

I have been a O'Brian fan for quite a while, and I liked the film quite a lot. I think it was the most faithful adaptation that you could possibly want to make while still being sufficiently commercial to get it made (faiiling some Mel Gibson type, and though Maturiin et al. inspire passion and devotion they aren't quite in the same league as the subject of Mel's magnum opus).

So what was wrong with the food? The toasted cheese looked good, both times.

[tanabutler]

So who is your "iillustrious grandfather"?