The Ten Year Itch

             For little more than three weeks I've been giving alot of thought to fast fast chains and I was laying in  bed trying to remember when the last time I walked into a White Castle. It probably had to have been around 2002 or 2003 when I was attending Fordham University, and there is one located on Fordham Road. That doesn't mean I haven't had any White Castle burgers since that time, I have eaten some as a result of them being made available at a party or some type of social gathering. As for setting foot inside a White Castle, ordering up some of their vintage micro hamburgers, and dining in, that had to have been about ten years ago. Although there is another White Castle located right where I live, for some reason the Fordham Road White Castle seems the most authentic of White Castle experiences, so I was going to make my return there.

             With red lights and more useless roadside construction projects that will take the next five years to complete, I arrived at Fordham Road with my car and luckily this location offers a parking lot in which there were plenty of spots. The outside looked completely different from what I remembered, which sported a brick European castle-look in place of the old white siding (that was growing ever more filthy). The inside was renovated and re-arranged as well. The counter and kitchen used to be in the middle, hidden behind thick protective glass. The rest of the inside had those grimy benches with a harsh and cold feeling to go along with the meal. This new 2012 version had a completely different look and feel to it. First of all, the counter and kitchen area was moved to the left of the building, opening more space to comfortably seat more patrons. The soda machine was on the outside and is self-serve, similar to what Burger King does. In keeping up with the times there is free Wi-Fi available, and overall that harsh grimy atmosphere has been replaced with a clean homely environment. In terms of fat and calories, the White Castle hamburger might actually be the best option in terms of portion of nutritional score. Each burger only goes for 140 calories, with a side of small fries that are higher at 350. In order to keep my aorta from shutting down, I kept my order to three hamburger sliders, a side of small fries (which I was only going to eat half of), and a diet coke. White Castle sprinkles their burgers with small onions tips, and of course there is that annoying pickle which gets removed automatically. I was finished in less than five minutes and found myself wanting to get more, but I maintained the line I drew before I walked in that I would only get three. I took a final look at the inside and still needed to adjust to all the changes that were made. I wished it was that nice ten years ago when I was across the street almost every day.

             My appetite had been awakened, and with more White Castle burgers out of the question, I knew there would be other options on Arthur Avenue, just a few blocks away. The area, known for its Italian heritage and wide variety of Italian cuisine and pastry, always comes through when someone wants something good to eat. My first stop was at Cosenza's Fish Market, not to buy any fish, but in the front during good weathered days, they offer a raw bar out front in which you can eat oysters and clams on the spot. I slurped down two blue point oysters at $1.50 each and continued on my way. The next stop was the Arthur Avenue Retail Market, a large indoor market with over a dozen different vendors selling pasta, meat, pizza, cheeses, cigars, clothes, and more. I saw myself perhaps spending too much money if I stayed in there, so I made a quick circle inside and was out there door before I allowed anything to entice me. Anytime I go to Arthur Avenue I can't leave without a stop at De Lillo, in my opinion the best of the bakeries in the area, although all of them are rather solid, but I find the dessert options and setting inside De Lillo to be the top of the line. I felt cheesecake might be a little to much since I just came from White Castle, so I went with a lighter slice of strawberry shortcake with a cup of coffee. Del Lillo has both indoor and outside seating, but even in the nice weather, I still prefer to be inside and in view of shelves and shelves of cakes and cookies. There was one last stop I needed to make before getting into my car and heading home. I haven't made ravioli in nearly two months, so a visit to Borgatti's to pick up some fresh ones couldn't have come at a better time. A staple of the neighborhood, Borgatti's has been making fresh pasta and an assortment of other foods since 1935. Their ravioli are their signature item and that's all I had on my mind when I walked in. They offer a box of twenty-seven large cheese ravioli for thirteen dollars, perhaps a few more bucks than average, but the taste and quality of Borgatti's is always worth it.

              With White Castle and Arthur Avenue fresh in my stomach, the first thing I did when I got home was grab my bicycle and burn off those calories.....

The Next Partner in Crime

             During a rainy afternoon a couple of weeks ago I felt the heel of one of my feet was a little wet and I was perplexed by it because it wasn't raining that hard and I'm rather careful about stepping into puddles. I checked under my shoe and discovered the cause of the problem; a hole that went right through the sole. I bought this particular pair of shoes back in December and since I had them less than a year, it was surprising they wore out like that. Then it occurred to me that since it was my favorite pair of shoes, I did wear them alot and put alot of mileage on those soles from my various travels over the past year. The reason I liked them so much was that they were an "in-between" black shoe of business casual and sneaker, which allowed me to use them for a wide range of occasions. I purchased them at Marshalls Shoe Shop for a bargain price of twenty four dollars, so I figured I should go there again to find another treasure as I uncovered last December.

             There was going to be more than new shoes on my agenda, I wanted to get a few items from the supermarket, and a trip to Barnes & Noble was called for since I finished a book recently and needed a new one to wrap my head around. The drive to Marshalls Shoe Shop was less than ten minutes from my house. The store is officially part of the Marshalls franchise, known for their discounted prices on name-brand clothing that might be a few years old or were just overstocked in other department stores, that are likely charging more money for the same product. Typically this shoe store is an absolute mess with shoes thrown all over the floor or boxes places in the wrong area. It's also common to open a box and find either two matching shoes at different sizes, or just two unmatched shoes thrown together. On this particular day, not only was the place not a mess, it was immaculately in order and the rug looked vacuumed. Perhaps because I came during a lazy weekday when employees would have nothing to do and find themselves so bored that they would want to straighten the shelves out, but either way it made browsing through the shoes that much easier. Initially I was disappointed by the selection that seemed available, nothing really jumped out at me. On the clearance rack there were a pair of black K-Swiss sneakers at twenty dollars that seemed like a good option, but they were "too sneaker" and wouldn't be able to reach across the aisle to be considered business casual if needed, although the twenty dollar price tag was very attractive.

             Usually I take a size ten and a half, so I had to take a few minutes to scan all the black K-Swiss pairs on the clearance rack and happily I found one that size. In case I missed any other options in the regular aisles, I made another trip to look at what was around and then strikingly I saw a pair quite similar to the one I bought about a year ago. The only difference was that this new pair had a brown sole instead of all black, had a leathery look to it, and worst of all was priced at thirty four bucks, ten more dollars than I paid last year. I figured there's enough rising prices for stuff in this world, I wasn't going to give in for a pair of shoes I really wasn't thrilled with. So it would be the black pair of K-Swiss for twenty dollars that would serve as my next partner in crime while I go on various adventures in the near future. With taxes it actually came out to twenty four dollars, but I still felt like it was a bargain. The next stop on the schedule was Barnes & Noble, only three minutes away from the shoe store. I could spend a whole day in a Barnes & Noble, flipping through books, looking for pictures, but I told myself to try to keep it under an hour. I wanted to revisit my interest in JFK, and found our society troublesome when a book about him neighbored "The Drunk Diet" by Luc Carl. I did find another intriguing from Col. Fletcher Prouty on the subject and selected that for my next read over the next few weeks.

             The final stop before reaching home was only a minute away from Barnes & Noble and it would be the rock-bottom priced Adli Food Market. Unlike a Sam's Club or a BJ's which offers brand named products in large sizes and low prices, this supermarket has copycat options at normal portioned sizes and very low prices. Most of the goods seem to come from a distributor called Millville, and it names it products similar to more known items. For example, instead of Kellogg's Rice Krispies, Aldi has Crisp Rice, instead of Toucan Sam and Fruit Loops, Aldi has a green parrot for Fruit Rounds. There are some more infamous products there, such as Arizona drinks, and Driscoll's strawberries priced at $2.99, meanwhile Fairway is charging $3.99. The best find was a loaf of L'Oven Fresh white bread for only $1.29. Shoppers may think Aldi just sprung up out of nowhere, but the chain had its birth in Germany back in 1948 from the brothers Theo and Karl Albrecht (Aldi - short for Albrecht Discounts). Aldi did go international in 1990, opening a store in Australia, and their roots in America were planted in North Carolina and has been spreading since. One important fact patrons must know, at least for this location, is that they don't provide any shopping bags, you need to bring your own. I was without this little piece of information and ended up placing all my purchases in the back seat of the car. I was amazed at all the food I was able to buy; two boxes of granola bars, a loaf of bread, strawberries, and a half-gallon of milk, all for under ten dollars!! The quality of food is certainly not up to par with their more known counterparts, but getting a good price makes things taste a little better than what they are.

             Once I got home and put all the food away, I turned my attention to my new pair of sneakers and it dawned on me that I never tried them on in the store to see if they fit....