Taylor pork roll, two eggs and Cooper sharp cheddar on toasted white bread. This is what I would eat for breakfast four days a week if it wouldn't lead to a heart attack in few months. If you're not familiar with Taylor pork roll, imagine salt-cured bacon made into bologna. It can get crispy if you want, but mostly it's an extremely salty and succulent way to induce heart failure.
I feel buffalo chicken "pizza" is almost always a bad idea. My friend decided to take the gamble and much like you can't not look at the decapitated corpse in the flaming wreckage on the side of the highway, I took a bite of this pizza. The sauce was mostly vinegar and cayenne, which doesn't leave a lot of room for a subtle balance of flavors. A healthy dose of bleu cheese dressing would have been very welcome here.
Back at the house it was snack time: Reduced fat potato chips, cherries, salted pistachios and Cooper sharp. Much like Pringles, "reduced fat" and "lite" potato chips usually compensate by putting on a lot more salt. I'm pretty happy with that. The salty foods danced well with the first beer of the afternoon, and the cherries and cheese danced pretty well around each other.
Entenmann's chocolate donut holes with sprinkles vs Tastykake's plain/powdered/cinnamon powdered donut assortment: if you're going for irresistibility, Entenmann's has the edge. I had three or four over the course of the day. Owing a lot to their small size and, I feel, a more home-made texture, the donut holes were just a lot easier to pop. I did have a piece of a cinnamon donut later in the day, as well as one of the plain donuts for desert after dinner.
Speaking of which, here are the sides: a variation of my simple spinach salad featuring the Cooper sharp cheese and hot dog buns soaked in olive oil and lamb juices and then grilled and cut into croûtons and corn on the cob, grilled in the husk.
And the main event was roasted lamb tenderloins with a nice layer of fat on one side. The lamb was from Elysian Fields farm in Western Pennsylvania. Their lambs have been served in the French Laundry and their quality was very apparent here, even after freezing and shipping. Grilled to a juicy medium-rare while allowing time for the fat to char a bit, this might have been the best lamb I've ever eaten. I've had Elysian Fields lamb as a roast in the past, but freshly grilled and still very rare on the inside, the meat managed to balance delicacy with richness.
It was so good I used a plain Tastykake donut to sop up the juices on the plate. Mmm, meat desert.
Third desert was a chocolate covered strawberry. Second desert, not pictured here, was a swiss roll. They could have made a nice desert together, but the chocolate shell on the strawberry would not have stood up to slicing of any kind. I tried to take a small bite, but had to slam the entire thing as chocolate chunks started to drop into my lap.
Then, later on the boardwalk again, I decided it was time for a corn dog. This one was a little under done. I can eat cold hot dogs, and the gooey edge to the inner-most batter was actually pretty good, but all in all, I would have preferred my corn dog was at least genuinely warm on the inside. The batter was very light and smooth, more corn starch than corn meal, so it took on a very brisk crunchiness (where not still verging on raw) as opposed to cakier versions I have had elsewhere.
And of course this weekend had to feature boardwalk fries somewhere. These were from a Stewart's Rootbeer restaurant/stand. Excellent cheese-to-fry ratio: enough for each fry while leaving the occaisional dry spot that maintained crunchiness and let you eat with your fingers amongst friends without having to lick your fingers clean between rounds. UNSANITARY!
Later, back at the house again, there were Canadian Tommies, a twist on the Texas Tommy with Canadian bacon instead of strip bacon. My friend and I each had two, one with some packet of hot sauce from a Chinese restaurant that was left over in the beach house fridge, and the other with a squirt of mayo. I think we managed to out-swill the boardwalk, and that takes some effort, ingenuity and a dangerous disregard for the safety of your colon. The Chinese hot sauce caught me off guard as much spicier than I expected. I had to slog the first bite down with a chase of beer. The mayo CT was fantastic, though. Nothing gets me ready for bed like abusive ingestion of cholesterol.
But first, just to clean off the ol' palate before bed, a freezer pop. How much does your inner child just scream in delight just looking at this glorious orange rod of icy awesome? There was a whole bag left in the freezer, and if this weren't already the fourteenth course of food for the day I would not have been able to hold myself to just one. I'm going to have to stock up on these for the rest of summer.
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