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.....

Orchard Beach Rock Climbing Expedition

         
             Monday brought the first glimpse of summer as temperatures reached the low 80's for the first time this year. Knowing what the temperature was going to be ahead of time, I was looking forward to a day spent in the sand reading a book and soaking in the sun. Although there was no swimming allowed since there's no lifeguards on duty until Memorial Day, and the water is still probably too cold to swim in to begin with, it was still a day worthy enough to be spent at the beach.

             I packed a lounge chair, sunscreen, a book, and picked up a quesadilla with a water bottle and made my way over to Orchard Beach. Since its not summer season yet, parking was free, and there were a great many deal of cars in the parking lot since it was such a nice day. When I arrived at the beach area I noticed there were about a hundred or so people on the sand already as if it was a normal summer day. A few people were in the water up to their ankles, but no one was fully swimming, except for a few rogues far off at the end of the beach who were out of sight of the one police jeep on patrol. I downed my black bean quesadilla rather quickly and dove into my book shortly thereafter. As I gave my eyes a break every now and then, I recalled an previous experience at this beach months earlier where a encountered an unexpected rocky terrain. It was several months earlier when I was at this beach and I walked over to the very far left end. I was always curious of what lied ahead beyond that part of the beach, so I checked it out one day and discovered large boulders of land that people were sunbathing on and fishing off of.

             The sun was beaming down on me and I was without an umbrella at the beach, so between that and needing something to rest my reading eyes with, I decided to head over to those rocks again. With the tied down low, water had exposed more of the rocky beach front, and slippery algae had formed against the large boulders When I saw the green matter, I thought of it nothing more than sea weed, so I stepped on it. As soon as my foot made contact, I almost fell down immediately. I wanted to keep going, but these rocks were proving to be slipperier than ice. What I needed was time to regroup, so instead of worrying about how slippery the rocks were, I took a minute to focus on a pair of ducks which happened to be swimming by at the time. Then when I was ready, I slowly maneuvered from one small rock to the next, to the next, to the next, until I was able to get up onto one of the higher boulders which was way above water level and without slippery algae. Once I reached that peak I saw that there were about a dozen other people around; some were fishing, some where taking pictures, and some were even sunbathing like I had seen months earlier there.

             After getting to the high-point of the rocks, the rest of the walking is far easier, but one still must be careful not to fall down and possibly face a serious injury. I walked along the rocks until I was brought to a small hiking trail which lies in the Orchard Beach area as well. I took up on the trail, not knowing what I would encounter, and for the most part everything seemed like the typical wooded trail one would expect. The only difference with the trail is that every now and then some weird guy would pop out of nowhere and look at you as if you didn't belong there. As I was walking on the trail I was able to see the beachfront area again up ahead, so instead of continuing and possibly bump into some sinister group burying a body or something, I went for a trail lane that exited back to the beach. It was nice to see that nobody stole my book or my lounge chair when I returned to the area I set up on the sand, and I went on to do a little more reading. In total I was there for probably about three before I made my way back home.

            Although I was happy I didn't fall off any of the algae covered rocks, I was even more happier to escape the hiking trail of weirdos.......

Special Video Edition: A Ride Through Pelham Bay Park

                                          
                                           Pump some air in the tires and get ready for a ride!

                                         CLICK HERE to be brought to YouTube to watch video.

                                        Special thanks to Casey and the crew of CIII Productions!!