Food Nostalgia
I think it's something about fall, and the old family tradition of taking me to birthday dinner at Stephenson's Apple Farm Restaurant, but for whatever reason tonight I'm on a serious Food Nostalgia trip.


Pic by fotoedge

Sigh. It closed last year. And I don't begin to know how to describe what you all are missing. You'd park your car, get out, and immediately the heavenly smell of hickory smoked meat filled your nostrils. The restaurant was an offshoot of a large apple and fruit orchard in the surrounding area. I hear vague rumors that they still produce Stephenson's famous Apple Butter and Apple Cider. (I must call Dad and tell him if he finds any Apple Butter, to send me some.)

The restaurant was a slice of classic Americana out of the world of Norman Rockwell or something. What apparently started as a "luncheonette" grew to fill an old farmhouse in a ramshackle sort of way...a maze of small dining rooms, each themed and decorated - the porch, the dining room, the parlor - with ramps and stairs along the winding hallways. The lobby and waiting area was in the old barn itself, centered around a keg of fresh pressed apple cider for free tastings while you waited. (I never drink "apple juice." Once you've had real god-damned apple cider, grocery store "apple juice" becomes a complete joke.)

I always got the same thing. A big slab of hickory smoked ham steak. The glaze or sauce changed over the years, I think, but never mattered much, as that gorgeous smoky ham was plenty good all on its own. And then the apple fritters - deep fried scoops of apples in batter, coated with powdered sugar that melted into a glaze on the warm fritters. And in the heyday of the place, there was also the "Muffin Man" - every so often during your meal, a man would appear in the dining room carrying a baking tin of scrumptious muffins right out of the oven, distributing them to all the tables. (Then you'd slather them in apple butter...)

Frozen fruit salad - basically "fruit cocktail" frozen with a white cream cheese and mayonnaise base. Or "marshmallow salad" with pineapple. They were also famous for a "green rice casserole" that I confess I didn't go for as a kid, and came to appreciate too late. Also, back then, this was the kind of fancy establishment that, after the main course was finished, brought round little pewter bowls of hot water with slices of lemon in them - finger bowls, to clean off one's fingers that had gotten sticky after a meal of baked chicken, BBQ brisket, and smoked pork. (There's an infamous story in my family of the time we went with my Aunt Fran and her then-husband Frank, and neither of them knew what to do when the finger bowls came... Fran managed to elbow Frank in the ribs just in time to keep him from drinking it!)

Dessert? Honestly there's only one I remember. Since it was always my birthday, I was always brought a little cake with a candle in it. Only on my final visit, just a few years ago, did we finally think to ask "just what sort of cake is this, anyway?" The waitress said "I know this sounds strange, but it's a tomato spice cake!" Think carrot cake, only with tomatoes, basically.

And now I'm also craving Gates BBQ, Fritz's smoked ham, Snead's BBQ (because the best BBQ is always in hole-in-the-wall places where your clothes come out smelling like hickory smoke)...

Actually possibly the best news of the night is that Andre's Confisserie seems to indicate that they may be able to ship their Matterhorn pastries. I haven't been able to have one of these in almost 20 years!!! I need one badly.

(Maybe I should just go visit Dad for a weekend...)