Royal Warsaw, Elmwood Park, NJ

Many people find it easy to overlook Polish cuisine. While not as flashy as French, or as well known as Italian, it stands up against them very well. In general, you'll find Polish food remarkably simple, but very comforting. This is no-nonsense, straightforward, good food. I've had the pleasure of having authentic Polish food on several occasions, and I've never left the table hungry or unhappy. It's certainly worth a try.

Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken, Memphis Tennessee

When in Memphis... if you ever travel to the south, you absolutely HAVE to sample the local food. Your "must have" list should have barbecue and fried chicken as the first two items. If you're from the Northeast US, like me, you've probably had pretty good fried chicken and/or barbecue at some point in your life... but even the best and most authentic in the northeast pales in comparison to the real thing. The place to go for fried chicken in Memphis, according to my contacts there, is Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken - featured on multiple TV shows such as, $40 a Day, Man Vs Food, and Best Thing I Ever Ate. Gus's is the real deal, no hype, no fuss, just the best fried chicken I've ever dug into.

Home Made Dill Pickles - A First Experiment

Making Your own pickles is a great way to put all those extra vegetables to use

So my backyard garden is producing cucumbers at an alarming rate. We've been eating quite a few of them, and even gave a few to our neighbors, but it's clear that we will have more cucumbers than we know what to do with. There is one thing that can help preserve all these great fresh cucumbers, and put them to good use later- I guess the saying should be- if life gives you cucumbers, make pickles! (OK, so that's not the saying, but you get the idea). I've never made pickles before, but the process is fairly simple if you have a a lot of cucumbers, a few basic pantry items, and the right mix of spices. After hunting around for some information about pickling, I found a general process that's easy enough to be a starting point for what will probably be a whole summer of pickling...