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Volume 114, Number 361 - Tuesday, November 24, 1998
It's true: Home = Food.
by John Friedlander
Thanksgiving is the time food, home and memories go together like mashed potatoes and gravy. Almost everyone has food memories that relate to home. Loving Grandma's pies, hating Mom's cooked-to-death green beans, the unpredictable surprises of Dad's Sunday breakfasts -- delicious or awful, somehow these memories never fade.
One great comfort on my return to Middletown has been revisiting my favorite local restaurants. It's not that there wasn't good food during the nine months I spent out west -- far from it! But in a town-to-town competition, Middletown wins hands down. Here are a few reasons I'm thankful to be back.
Mikado. Master Sushi Chef Teddy Endo and partner Andrew Huang's basement Japanese grille and sushi bar hidden under the southeast corner of Main and Washington Streets wraps around me like a warm blanket on a cold night. Maybe it's the staff that teases me by name, while knowing exactly what I drink. Maybe it's Teddy's patience with my curiosity about his knife technique, or his willingness to teach me new dishes to fall in love with. Maybe it's all the folks I've met at the sushi bar, and seen so many times over the three years Mikado has served the best Japanese food in the state. Maybe it's the smiles up and down the bar when a new sushi eater gets that "wow, this is delicious," look on her face. Or when a daredevil takes too much wasabi paste and gets that teary "will I survive this spice blast?" look on his face.
For some people a local bar or coffee house becomes their special warm corner of the world, but for me it's this sushi bar. Whatever makes Mikado feel so much like home, I hope it never changes.
Two words: Oh! Rourke's. Diners are like political parties: where you hang out helps define who you are.
I'm simple food prepared well and served unpretentiously. I'm also adventurous fare from places I don't know. So O'Rourke's versions of diner standards alongside more exotic items fits me to a T.
Long-time owner Brian O'Rourke winces when he hears his food called "cuisine." "I'm not a chef, I'm a cook," Brian protests. Same here. I love to cook, but I don't put on airs about it.
When Brian or new cooking partner James Owens serves a plate of langostino cakes with three sauces, it's a great plate of delicious food, and not too fussy. While I eat, my hometown neighbors come and go, greeting each other by name. New customers go wide-eyed as they taste samples of three different freshly-made soups and four different home-baked breads. I'll remember all the breakfast meetings, the long-ago steamed cheeseburgers at 3am, the view of rain-slicked traffic coming off the Arrigoni Bridge, the trains rumbling by, and the blissed-out lovers at the corner table that give texture to this special place. When I'm done, I'll leave smiling about my lunch, and not worried about the sauce I dripped on my jeans. It's a family kind of place that feeds you when you're hungry and doesn't care if you don't look your best. Doesn't that sound like home?
A walk along Main Street brings back lots of other memories: wild birthday music after tandoori at Taj of India, dinners with Dad at Tuscany Grill, incredible spice fests at the Imperial Caribbean, graduation celebrations at Thai Gardens, family reunions at Cornerstone's, the intoxicating smell of barbecue from somewhere mid-Main, meeting old friends at Eli Cannon's, buying strange noodles and exotic sauces at the Asian Market... there isn't a block that doesn't have an aroma and memories associated with it.
One measure of a town's economic strength is the variety and vitality of its restaurants. Another is the depth of the memories those places evoke. By either measure, Middletown is definitely a very healthy home sweet home.
Mikado serves lunches Tuesdays through Friday, and dinners Tuesday through Sunday. Call 860 346-6655 for hours or reservations for parties of five or more.
O'Rourke's Diner is located at 728 Main Street, serves breakfast and lunch from 4:30am to 2pm Monday through Friday, and closes at 1pm Saturday and Sunday. Call 860 346-6101 for takeout orders.
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Though I wrote this column, the Middletown Press owns it now, including the copyright associated with it. The column appears here by permission, and no other publication is allowed without express permission from the publisher.