Text 10003, 96 rader
Skriven 2008-07-02 17:34:00 av Michael Loo
Ärende: trip 3 of 5 553
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Bernie's Dining Depot is a legend in western Massachusetts.
Huge portions, good quality, reasonable prices is the rep. I am
happy to say that all this is true. Dave's mom, to be referred
to as Lynn I, of whom Lynn II is sort of the namesake, made a
reservation for 4:30 in the afternoon, in order that we
definitely get our pick of the prime rib, which tends to sell
out early. You get soup or salad, main course, two veg included;
the prices tend to be quite reasonable - fried scallops or
clams, $12; sirloin, a buck an ounce; roast beef, between
a buck and 65c an ounce, depending on the size.

The place has a diner part and a dining car part. As an
odd party (odd-size, I mean) we were given a round table
in the dining car part, separated from the rest of the
car by an almost soundproof partition. Good choice, Bernie's
Dining Depot. With Clean Dave and me (and to some extent
Lynnie), this is almost a necessity.

Food.

I had a respectable turkey rice soup for starter; the women
all had salads, which looked fine. Dave ordered chowder -
mistake. It was from a drum of perhaps 55 gallons, and not
so distinguished as that at the Northampton Brewery.

Sides: two each of the following, fries, baked, mash, steak
fries, rice, canned green beans, pickled beets, or slaw.
The ones I saw are industrial at best. You don't go to such
places for the sides.

Maryanne and Lynn II ordered fried scallops and fried shrimp.
These were abundant and quite good - one seldom gets decent
scallops any more, and these were better than decent, sweet
and briny, with a nice crust and pearly juicy inside.

Lynn I had the fisherman's platter, which was enough
food for a small village: a half a large flounder, it
appeared, along with handfuls of belly clams, shrimp, and
scallops, and a few stray clam strips. I ended up eating
nearly half of it, as she kept shoveling food onto my plate,
and she still had enough to take home for lunch the next day.

I'd been thinking of a steak, but the roast beef is what the
place is known for, and I wanted to know what the regular
cut looked like. It's 2 lb and change, bone in. Pretty good,
but with the flavor pallor that is common to prime rib,
which is one of the few meats that often tastes better
well done than rare. Certainly the cap meat tastes better
than the eye meat. The roast came rubbed in a rub that is
mostly garlic, though Dave detected some thyme. Thankfully,
there's not much salt in the rub. I ate half of it, my
excuse being that I'd eaten a pound of Dave's mom's dinner.

My sides: rice from a bag at best; green beans from a can.

Dave had the caboose cut (supposedly a pound to a pound and
a half, according to the waitress) on a surf and turf special
with fried clams. I said, "pound and a half? that's not
nearly enough," to which she replied, well, for a small
supplement, maybe you can upgrade to the regular cut. Dave
said that he would be fine, which he was: his serving was a
bone-in cut as big as mine; perhaps our waitress told the
kitchen to err on the side of generosity. His serving of
clams was as much as most places serve as a main course,
close on a pint. They were also excellent.

We passed on dessert and in fact had several pounds of
leftovers to take home for us and the dog. The roast beef
tasted better that night and the next day.

There was no supplement charged for Dave's extra big piece
of meat, so the waitress's tip got the supplement.

As we were real gluttons, we went on to the famed Collins
Creamery for ice cream. Things I tasted:

orange pineapple - mostly pineapple; pretty good;

chocolate brownie - the usual, creamy and good;

mocha chip - quite good, though Lynn didn't care for it;
it was very coffee-ish, and not white coffee, either;

something else chip - I forget, of course;

white chocolate chip - I thought this pointless, but then
I seldom indulge in white chocolate, which I think is part
of a nefarious plot by the blandness industry.

I had a small scoop of blueberry, because I love blueberries
- this had good fruit flavor but a bit of a sour dairy taste.

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