I Heart NY Part 1: Diners

I absolutely love a good diner. One with a lot of chrome on the outside, big booths on the inside, a big fat menu and enormous plates piled high with food. So diners were one of the things I missed most about New York while we were away. (No, there weren't any in Michigan.)

Last night we had a wonderful diner experience at the Triple Crown Diner in Bellerose, named for its proximity to the Belmont racetrack. My sister-in-law says that sometimes she and Mackenzie see them washing down the horses when they drive by Belmont Park in the morning. How exciting to see the horses get their baths! (Perhaps this is part of the reason Mac was so excited about the horses in the St. Pat's parade?)

The Triple Crown Diner is adorned with beautiful chrome fans and turquoise panels along its flanks. This is definitely what a diner should look like.

If you look above Mr. O'Kitten's head, you can see that the chrome fan motif continues inside the diner. Recessed ceiling lighting and extensive wall mirrors all promise that this will provide us with a quintessential diner experience.

A real diner should have a menu that weighs at least a pound, is half a meter tall, and boasts no fewer than twelve laminated pages. There will be a page of daily specials inside the menu, and, ideally, an additional page of dinner specials will be handed to you at the table. This means that unless you have some idea of what you would like to eat in advance, it will take you at least twenty minutes to peruse the menu and another twenty minutes to make a decision.

Fortunately, you get a basket of bread to eat while you decide what to order.

I had onion soup and Greek salad...

...followed by an amazing boneless baby salmon stuffed with about a pound of crabmeat. A good diner should bring you enough food that you have enough left over for another one (or possibly two) more meals. I will be eating crabmeat-stuffed salmon all weekend. Hooray! The spinach with rice side dish tasted a lot like the filling for a good spanakopita. Delicious.

Mr. O'Kitten had a reuben (rye bread, corned beef, sauerkraut, and Swiss cheese), which is pretty much his favorite sandwich of all time. Look at the size of it!



My dinner came with dessert, but I took it home because we were celebrating Claudine's birthday. Just look at this incredible mango cake!



Isis: Hey! Did I hear someone say "crabmeat-stuffed salmon"?
I'd be very happy to help you with that...