Up until recently, eating at either of Connecticut’s massive casinos really, really sucked.  It was not completely impossible to find something edible at either place, but for every passable meal I’ve found at Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods there’s been plenty of the bland, the gross, the overpriced, and the so awful you feel bad for every party involved including the wait staff, the kitchen, and the guests at your table.  I won’t single out the perpetrator for that last one but his name rhymes with Nimmy Buffet and the inside of his Mohegan Sun location is reminiscent of an echo-y, weirdly depressing high school gymnasium painted electric-blue.  Which happens to serves really bad food.

So as you can see, in contrast Bobby’s Burger Palace (Bobby Flay is the Bobby) is a pretty sexy room, considering its location.  A long seating counter graces one side, arching tables are on the other side which open up onto the kitchen, and golden light from the fixtures above permeates.  Bobby’s is not perfect, not by a long shot, but even the room does a good job of still looking like it’s in a casino without being garish or gawdy, which makes for a nice start.

The fries are good if not piping hot.  They were salted well, and came in an attractive paper lined cup, which thankfully was filled to the brim with full-sized fries instead of the nubs some places annoyingly hide in the bottom.  I wasn’t crazy about the generic tasting, orange colored dipping sauce that came with them but they were good enough to not even need ketchup.

For the burger I order the “classic” and immediately on inspection I wish I hadn’t.  The quality of the ingredients was outstanding, the amount of cheese was generous, and it was all put together well but it was a little too constructed and measured and mannered to really do it for me.  To be sure it’s still one of the best things I’ve ever had at Mohegan but next time I’ll try one of the specialty burgers (the Dallas Burger, with coleslaw, Monterey Jack, BBQ sauce and pickles sounded good) in hopes for a little bit more zip, zing, sloppiness, and juice.

Slightly disappointed but still very much satisfied and pleased I came, the mango milkshake was the highlight of the meal.  Not overly sweet, and perfectly tangy with real flecks of vanilla bean and chunks of mango, it was just the right consistency for either the straw or the spoon it came with.  Pricey at $5, but still a much better bet than the closest slot machine.

Bobby’s Burger Palace

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First, you park at Abbott’s and see this.  It’s a helpful hint that you shouldn’t order the chicken.

Then you walk up and check out the Galley Menu.  Get there early, lines get long otherwise.

Walk up to the window, and order.  Take your blue ticket over to The Long Red Counter.

This is The Long Red Counter.

Grab your chow before any other hungry daytrippers try to nab it.

Sit and have some mussels.  I love mussels and these were pretty good - small, clean, briny and easy to pluck out of the shell using another shell.  Good deal, too, this whole bag could have easily been split between three or four hungry folks.  Oh, the murky broth-style chowder was also excellent.

Contemplate what you’re about to eat.  The “Lobster Roll” requires those quotation marks around it, I feel.  It seems every place has it’s own idea of what a “Lobster Roll” actually is, but here at Abbott’s it’s a hot, buttery, toasted hamburger bun with a gargantuan puck-like formation of lobster meat in between.

Let’s get this straight, there is no way for this to not be delicious.  For many of us though, it must be asked, “Is it…14 dollars delicious?”  And in that case I say, “perhaps.”  If you’ve never been to Abbott’s before I think it’s certainly a sandwich worth buying once, and of course if money is no consideration feel free to order two.  Otherwise, compared to the tightly compacted patty of Abbott’s lobster roll I’d probably prefer to just order a real lobster next time.  As I picked at the last of my mussels I watched plenty of people greedily rip apart bright red lobsters at other tables and none of them looked disappointed in the least.

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For those into roller coasters, theme parks, and all of the Americana flavored cultural minutae obsessing that comes hand in hand with the hobby of coaster enthusiasting, you already know: Kennywood, near Pittsburgh, PA, is a bit of a mindbender.

The park is a wild combination of 1920’s-style trolley park charm, mid-20th century tackiness and kitsch, unique and varied rides that span decades of amusement park tradition all wrapped up a wonderfully traditional, family friendly atmosphere.  Unlike many of the parks built in suburban outskirts of metropolitan areas in the post-Disneyland area, Kennywood is wedged between the streets and houses of the town of West Mifflin, overlooking the Monongahela River and the slowly rusting industrial facilities that scatter the area’s landscape.

It’s way, way cool.

And so are the world-famous french fries at Kennywood’s Potato Patch.  Nestled between the park’s famous Thunderbolt and Phantom’s Revenge roller coasters, Potato Patch serves up fresh-cut fries with toppings that include cheese, vinegar, bacon, and gravy.

And they’re good!  Although the fries + gravy combo is wildly popular in Canada, it still hasn’t penetrated much of this country.  The cheese was your standard neon goopy stuff, but the beefy and salty gravy made perfect sense against the browned potatoes.

They’re a sort of perfect park food; greasy and decadent enough to feel appropriate for the setting, but also regionally famous and not the sort of thing you can get everywhere else.  A few laps on Phantom’s Revenge and you’ll burn off those calories in no time.

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What: Iguana Ranas Taqueria

Where:  574 Main St, Middletown, CT

Highlights:  Tacos, duh.  Middletown has a fantastic dining scene, and Iguana Ranas plays a nice role - you can easily come in a do a full meal of tacos, tortas, taquitos, and mango soda, but it’s just as easy to stop by for a snack and a drink on the cheap.  For tacos they have all the classics, including chorizo, al pastor (with pineapple, nice) and my favorite, tongue.  Doused with lime, onion, and cilantro, the tacos are inexpensive, filling, and packed with flavor.

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Amazing strawberries from Lyman Orchards got me so excited I could only take blurry pictures, I suppose.  Here in Connecticut strawberry season is just heating up, so if you like to pick ‘em yourself, or you’re lazy like me and you just want a basket-full without all the work, several sources around Southern New England can get you covered this weekend.

Luckily if there are strawberries out, there’s probably rhubarb, too.  My mouth has been watering over Dorie Greenspan’s Roasted Rhubarb, which looks simple and delicious.  Could make an easy dessert this evening for those of us heading out to the local market today.

Of course, those devilish supermarkets know it’s berry season, too, so even if these blueberries I used for Mark Bittman’s No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake Bars were not grown locally, they were at least cheap and on sale.  The whole thing comes together in minutes, and given the hot and steamy weather lately it’s a relief to not turn on the oven.

Indeed, trying to read or scan the whole piece online requires an insufferable amount of click click clicking so to peruse the full list first head on over to Slice.

I don’t have much commentary to add, other than the original Pepe’s in New Haven (#12) serves the best pizza I’ve ever had, and the branch in Manchster serves as a nice proxy.  For New Haven fans I also very much like Modern, and I wish I could say I like Sally’s (#6) but I can never get in.  The wait in line on a typical day would be insufferable at Sally’s but if you’re not a regular, or have a connection, it seems you’ll also stand in line while further suffering the indignity of watching those-in-the-know slipping in and getting tables long before you even get a whiff of pizza aroma.

The list does make a guide for my next pizza travels - Mario Batali’s Tarry Lodge (#11) has been on my radar since it opened and it sounds like Bob and Timmy’s (#5) may merit another trip over to Providence.

Stop one - Kalustyan’s, an overwhelming emporium of spices, dried fruits, chutneys and all sorts of goodies.  I was saving room for other stuff so I did not go up to the deli on the second floor but they say over on Yelp it’s good stuff.

Stop two - the original Shake Shack.  Oh God, Shake Shack.  Believe the hype.  As a long-time lover of smaller, thin-pattied, griddled burgers I’ve been drooling over a taste of Shake Shack for quite a while, and the wait was worth it.  This was everything I wanted in a burger, close to my ideal, and a lot closer to me than In-N-Out, for sure.  Profoundly delicious.

Stop three - Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar.  As in, David Chang, hottest chef in the known universe, Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar.  Intriguied by what I had read about the green curry banana bread, I picked up a loaf for eating the next day, which was just divine.  It sounds weird at first but I mean, really - banana and green curry.  These things go together.  Putting them together in an American standard like banana bread takes a leap of logic most of us mere mortals would never be able to make, but still it makes sense, especially once you taste it.

The famous banana cake is killer, just killer.  If it sounds like I’m gushing here, it’s for good reason - it just may have been the best slice of cake I’ve ever had.  It was so good I completely failed to get a picture, but a picture would not have done it justice anyway.  Speaking of pictures,

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  This one is worth two:  Pork.  Fat.  Yes, the bun was pillowy and soft and probably would have been delicious on their own.  And that green stuff they throw in there is all fine and dandy, but for anyone who knows the wonders of pork belly, you know what I’m talking about.  The belly was cooked almost to the point of being unctous, melt-in-your-mouth pork Jello, except delicious because whe you type it out like that it sounds kinda gross.  But it’s not, trust me on this one.

Time for dessert at Laboratorio del gelato for a small cup with peanut butter on the left, bracingly bitter Guinness on the right.  Both were exploding with flavor, and a perfect way to cap off a calorie-packed walking lunch around town.

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