The Diner - Pine Grove PA

It's about time I review this place! Lord knows I've stopped at the Pilot here in Pine Grove PA (that's I-81 exit 100) so many times. But why have I stopped here so many times and never tried the restaurant? Because they have AUNTIE ANNIE'S! Who needs a sit down meal when you could have a freshly made, hot buttery pretzel instead? Exactly. Well, that's assuming you're stopping when Auntie Annie's is actually open...which the last few times I have not. :(

But no! We're going to talk about the restaurant that was brilliantly and simply called...The Diner. Not Pine Grove Diner. Not Grove Diner. Not Ye Olde Diner. Just...The Diner.

Okay...whatever works I guess...

This....diner...is open 24 hours, thankfully. IT'S 50'S THEMED! They have old pictures. They have memorabilia. They have a juke box ... no wait, that was a claw machine game. There were 2 things that seemed really out of place here and I'm going to look past it and pretend it doesn't exist: they serve beer and they sell beer...meaning..they have...beer coolers. Yeah with like 12-packs and stuff. Yeah, like what you'd normally see at a gas station. Huh?! *scratches head*

Okay...whatever works I guess...

I was here for breakfast and the service was...mediocre at best. It really set the tone for what could easily be a lousy breakfast buy a server who didn't give a crap about me being seated in her section. I was having trouble deciding what to order for breakfast. It was too early for lunch, which is a shame because their appetizer menu included: pierogies (will have to come back and try those) and a crock of French Onion soup (will really have to come back to try that!).

I did notice a Jersey special for breakfast that involved taylor ham. I have no idea what taylor ham is but apparently they love it over there. I'll have to try that, too, next time. I was kind of in the mood for an omelette and one in particular really jumped out at me: Greek omelette. Spinach, olives and feta cheese. I dismissed it because I don't like olives but the more I kept looking at other things in the menu, I kept going back to that darn Greek omelette. Alright, Liz, just get it!

So, Greek omelette, home fries with onions (or without, she asked), and toast. Oh and coffee.

...man that's a lot of olives. Baked in olives, at that. 

So how was it? The home fries were pretty good. They tasted fresh and home made. I could do with or without the onions next time, didn't really add or take away from anything. The wheat toast was nice, and the coffee was really good except my server was really lacking in the refill department.

Oh you wanted to know about the omelette, didn't you? I was afraid you were going to ask me about that. Okay, okay. I'll tell you about the omelette. Oh hey, the 50s decor was really fun and they even have a frequent diner card if you stop in frequen...

..you really want to know about that omelette don't you? Geez you're pushy, alright! I'll tell you about the omelette...

AFTER THIS WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS!

I'm stalling aren't I? Yes, yes I am. I don't want to talk about the omelette!


Alright I'll talk about the omelette...



...TOMORROW! Sorry kids, we're out of time today. Tune in tomor...

...

...fine I'll talk about the stupid omelette.

My general enjoyment of feta cheese almost made up for my general disdain (ooo! nice word choice, Liz!).. sorry I'll start over. My general enjoyment of feta cheese almost made up for my general disdain of black olives. They were so gross! The first bite I thought "okay, this isn't so bad, I can do this." Second bite, "well, I really like the spinach and the feta cheese!" Third bite "this isn't enjoyable any more". Fourth bite "OH MY GAWD I CAN'T MASK THE FLAVOR!"

So I'm sure you're asking one of two questions, and I'll address them both.

Question #1) Why did you keep eating it, Liz?
Answer #1) For the sake of writing this blog. I suffered for my craft. Plus I thought maybe, MAYBE, when you cook olives the flavor and texture wouldn't be as bad. I was wrong. Even the strong taste of the feta cheese didn't cover up the flavor of the olives. And then the texture. Ugh..the texture. Don't make me order that again, please.

Question #2) Why didn't you just take the olives...out?
Answer #2) They were cooked into the omelette! Do you realize how much of an OCD freak I would have looked like taking my knife and fork and cutting...every..single..olive...out of that omelette? And then, say I did do that. Do you realize what my omelette would have looked like when I was done? It would be a very hole-y omelette! Think of how ridiculous it would look to see one slightly neurotic lady truck driver with an omelette full of holes and a pile of black olives off to the side with little bits of egg still attached. They'd put me in the nuthouse after observing such a scene!

Question #3) Why didn't you order something else?
Answer #Mind_Your_Own_Business) I didn't want to be a bother.

(hypothetical exchange that never actually happened)
"Is everything alright?"
"I really don't like this, can I order something else?"
"Was something wrong with it?"
"...I don't like olives."
"You didn't know it came with olives? It says so on the menu. Why did you order it if you knew you wouldn't like it?"
"BECAUSE I'M AN IDIOT! Can I have the mushroom and swiss omelette even though I hate mushrooms but maybe there's an off-chance cooking mushrooms will cancel out the flavor and texture that I find so repulsive?"
"Leave before I call the cops."
(end of hypothetical exchange that never actually happened)

So there you have it.
If you like black olives, you'll love the Greek omelette!
If you hate black olives, get some cereal or something. Don't get the Greek omelette!

Let's talk about something better, shall we?
While I was checking out to pay for my wretched Greek omelette, I noticed the muffins under a glass lid by the register. Blueberry or chocolate. They looked enticing. They were presented nicely. I could use a snack for later.
"How much are the muffins?"
"$1.99"
"Could you add one to my check, please?"
"Sure, sweetie, which one?"
(I never get tired of it when a woman calls me sweetie in a nice way, I don't know why)

Here is where I conducted my own very carefully crafted and executed opinion poll. Gallup would have been really proud of me. I asked the lady assisting me, which would she suggest and she said blueberry. So I asked another lady behind the counter who was taking an interest in our conversation which one she would suggest and she said blueberry. Finally a third server behind the counter came out from the back and fell victim to my carefully crafted and executed poll which muffin she'd recommend and she said blueberry. So that settles it! 100% of The Diner servers polled preferred the blueberry muffin over the chocolate muffin. Sample size - 3. Check this out: no margin of error! 100% accuracy, baby!

Now granted they did ask me if I liked chocolate, to which I responded, "I'm a girl, of course I like chocolate" which garnered a few understanding laughs. So they wrapped up a nice, fresh, blueberry muffin for me to snack on later. But before I were to tear into it, I thought it would be a good idea to take a picture first.

Looks nice, right? I love how they did that paper instead of a usual muffin cup thing. It looks fancy. It looks snazzy (do people even say that any more?). It looked high-quality and pricey.

And loyal readers, it tasted as good as it looked...no...it tasted even better than it looked. This muffin was delightful! It was scrumptous. It was moist and soft and tasty and...it was one of the best muffins I've ever had. No wonder 100% of servers I polled suggested it! It was so good! I almost turned around to go get another (not really, I was already in New York by that time). It was...really really good. I should have had that for breakfast instead.

..but then this blog entry wouldn't be as interesting. or as long (sorry about that).

Ugaldes Family Restaurant, Warren Indiana

Alright! Let's switch gears! Let's go from bad Tex-Mex to good Tex-Mex! I'm changing it up a bit and doing this out of order to keep with....a "theme". So if you remember from the last entry, I had an awful Tex-Mex dinner at a Petro, well let's talk about a place that did it really well.

I'm talking about Ugaldes Family Restaurant in Warren, Indiana. This is on I-69, south of Fort Wayne at exit 278. Good news for you truck drivers reading this (as I hope you would be), there's truck parking in the back for like 10 trucks. If you're coming south, you'll see Ugalde's on the right. If you're coming north, after you exit the interstate, turn left (and go under I-69) and it will be on the right hand side. Extra bonus, it's directly across the street from another truck stop, so worst case scenario you just park across the street (more truck parking over there, by the way) and walk across.

I stopped here around lunch time. I had some time to kill and I've never been before. It seemed decent, it's open 24 hours. Something just told me, "Liz, go try this place out." So I walked in and it had a regular diner feel to it, nothing fancy or out of the ordinary. My server was this really sweet young lady and I told her, "I've never been here before, what do you recommend?" (I do this a lot when trying out a new restaurant)

Without hesitation she said "The wet burrito". She eats them herself, so that's a fine testimonial. While she also suggested the burgers, she did say the wet burrito was really good. I'll take it! She said it comes with chips and salsa, too. Great! Free appetizer!

So she brought the chips and salsa out and my only question was: how hot is it? You see, I can do mild. I can do medium, but when it gets hotter than that is where I start having reservations. Plus I saw a few Hispanic gentlemen working so I was a little worried because I'm sure they like their food, *ahem* muy caliente. (is that racist?)

My cute and adorable server assured me the salsa wasn't that hot and in fact...she would drink it if she could. Kinda of an odd thing to say but...okay! Thanks, honey, I'll give it a try. She also told me it's homemade.  I just imagined a dark kitchen illuminated with some dramatic lighting and fog while two Hispanic gentlemen in aprons laugh maniacally while shoving ghost peppers into a food processor..wait, is that racist?

Oh I totally got sidetracked. Yeah the salsa was good. It was mild. I don't know if they have options to make it spicier or not, I didn't ask, but yeah it was good. Runny, but good.

Then..the wet burrito. Cue the bold ray of light. The singing of angels...and the dramatic thud of it landing on the table.

It's a shame I didn't give a perspective shot. This was a large burrito. It was thick. It was stout. It was...covered in queso. IT REQUIRED A KNIFE AND FORK!

Let's get the side items out of the way. Refried beans with un-melted cheese on top. Sure. Spanish rice that wasn't screwed up because the person making it actually knew how to make rice. Wonderful.

This. burrito. was. heavenly. Beef and rice and lettuce and tomato and onion and sour cream and then the queso from on top mixes in with it and you have to cut it in half twice just to make bite size pieces and..yeah, this was a damn good burrito. In fact, I was so busy devouring this burrito that I totally forgot to do a picture of the insides after I cut into it to show you everything that was inside. It was just that tasty and delicious.

You're darn right I'll order it again! This is worth stopping for.

Ugaldes Family Restaurant, Warren Indiana. I-69 exit 278 (on the west side of the highway). Truck parking in back, or across the street at another truck stop. Open 24 hours and they take credit cards.

GO THERE!

Petro makes a run for the border.

That's Petro, not Pedro. It's not a typo. I really meant Petro Stopping Centers.

I think this entry might be a little late, either that or this is coming in at the tail end of their special "South of the Border" menu. They did some Tex-Mex entrees and unfortunately I haven't had an opportunity to stop at Petro aside from once this past month, but I did try an entree and I am happy to report...

..that it sucked.

To be honest, I'm not happy to report that it sucked. I'm really sad to report that it sucked. I apologize for not getting a full plate picture, as one of my key gripes is something you can barely see other than a green....thing at the top.

Okay so what the heck is all this mess?

Well on the left is your gassy friend, refried beans. 

Next to the that is an enchilada that was really lackluster and a disappointing.

Next to that is a burrito that was actually pretty good and was the highlight of the entire dish.

Next to that is a taco that you can file away with the enchilada as dull and lackluster.

Above those is Spanish rice, that will inevitably get screwed up because the kitchen staff doesn't care and isn't good at cooking rice anyway so why would this be any different.

That green thing is a fried jalapeno. This was one of the things they specially mentioned about this dish. "You get X, Y and Z and on top of all that, a fried jalapeno". I've never had a fried jalapeno before so that seemed interesting and what the heck, I'm stocked up on Tums in case it gives me heart burn, bring it on!

Now when they said 'fried jalapeno', I was assuming it was fried when they were preparing the dish. Meaning, while they were assembling everything, there was a jalapeno on the grill sizzling away to heat up the juices and get everything all spicy and hot.

I didn't know 'fried jalapeno' meant "fried....some time ago and put in the refrigerator until we need one." Now if this was a refried jalapeno, maybe I could give them some credit.

But no, they slapped that thing down on my plate straight out of the cooler. IT WAS FREAKING COLD! Do you know what a 'fried and then put back in the refrigerator for a few hours' tastes like? It's disgusting. Not only is it not the temperature you were expecting, it also has.....a film on it.

But it was spicy. Yes I muscled past the yucky texture and lack of temperature of it and gave it my best attempt, much like those people on Survivor when they have to eat weird stuff to avoid elimination.

I wouldn't do it again.

Nor would I order this again.

Nailed it!....almost

Yeah..I...um...

Just looking at it makes me giggle again.

The two black balls (please, no comments about that please) are bubble gum. Doesn't have the same effect when they're frozen, but hey, small sacrifice, right? The bar itself was actually not that bad. Cotton candy and (another flavor). Since it was only 100 calories, I didn't feel guilty!

Those teeth and those eyes tho. *giggle*

The forgotten foods

Apparently I'm getting old.
I took these pictures and cannot for the life of me remember exactly where I was or what restaurant I ate them in. Perhaps I should set a self-imposed blog posting time limit for writing these up.

Well, let's fire up these pictures and see what memories they conjure up, shall we?

Okay. These are obviously mozzarella sticks, and the last place I had them was at IHOP because they were huge! (thanks for noticing, Liz, I've been working out). So there you have it. Mozzarella Sticks. IHOP. Big. Tasty. Big. Marinara. I don't even want to know how many calories those were.

So that wasn't so bad, let's move on to the next one. :)

Okay. Hmm. This is chicken alfredo of sorts with tomato and broccoli. And that's where the thought train derails. Going by the table, it's not the same as the above so it wasn't IHOP. Where did I have chicken alfredo last? It wasn't Petro, theirs sucks. It wasn't Country Pride. I..don't..think it was Denny's? Also, did I even like it? Did I enjoy the tomatos? So many unanswered questions....

Well that was a downer, let's try the next one.

 

Ah ha! A sandwich! Hey look, it's like you're looking at it through rectangle glasses. Pretty nails, by the way, I love that color! Oh wait, that's my hand. Hey, what are you doing with my sandwich?! Help! Food thief! Stop them before they get away with my crummy roasted chicken sandwich with roasted red peppers on a ciabatta bun from Denny's that I wouldn't order again! 

(did you like how I worked it all in there? Crafty Liz is crafty)

So that's it for now. The forgotten foods. I have a weird feeling this won't be the first time it happens.

Liz returns to IHOP

Last time I was at IHOP, the food I ordered was a little...lacking. If you recall, I tried the IHOP version of chicken and waffles and was not impressed at all. I felt it was a half-hearted effort to capitalize on a trend. They could have done better, no doubt about it.

This time, however, I decided to give breakfast a try. Curiously enough, I was at the same IHOP as last time, The Detroiter, located just south of Detroit on I-75. This time I got a pot of coffee and tried the international crepe' passport.....I think.

2 eggs, 2 strips of bacon, 2 sausage and 2 crepes. You could get the crepes one of two ways and I looked over my options and went with the ligonberry option. What the hell is a ligonberry? I have no idea, that's the fun of discovery! I'm suffering for my food blog that hardly anyone reads, so why not.

So...crepes. Yeah I am not using the right letter e for these, I don't think. It's late, I'm tired and I don't really care. I know they're pronounced "cray-ps" so I'm not worried about spelling. You can pronounce it "creeps" for all I care, this isn't a spelling or pronunciation bee, this is just a food blog. Hey, can we stop arguing and get back to the food? Thank you...

CREPES!

Looks pretty harmless, right? A thin pancake with some raspberry-blueberry love child on top, what could go wrong? Well, it's probably really good....but it's not for me. For starters, while the crepe was very thin and it was folded several times to become the shape you see on the plate...it...tasted funny. That was the first thing that struck me as odd because these two crepes weren't filled with anything! I checked! I unfolded! I re-folded! 

I guess crepes aren't made with a pancake batter, either, because that was my first thought "oh, it's just a really thin pancake" but it had this odd aftertaste where I thought "okay, this isn't pancake mix" I'm not exactly sure what it was but it just tasted....weird. Ligonberry is, like I said, the love child of the raspberry and blueberry. That was the fruit you see in the picture. The lump of something in the center of the picture is like this ligonberry butter. Sure.

Would I order it again? Probably not, it...I mean....well...I was just put off by the taste of the crepe and the after taste it left behind (that's why it's called as after taste, Liz!) Would I try the other crepe option they had? Maybe? If I didn't have a food blog, probably not.

By the way, that white stuff sprinkled on top isn't dandruff, it's powdered sugar....