Saturday, June 27, 2009

Drive-bys: Recent Summer Food

A couple of quick bits about various places for not-good-for-you but good for your soul treats:

Fried fish and shrimp and onion rings: my favorite is Olympic Broil, which is in the old drive-in on Seymour Street in northwest Lansing. (Technically it's at 1320 N Grand River Ave, just north of the intersection of Grand River and Grand River. Below that intersection, the street is called Seymour. For those of us on the East Side, it's on the way to the airport.) They have great batter dipped fish and onion rings, as well as the usual burgers and fries and shrimp baskets and some Greek specialties.

However, I also just tried the place called just "Fish and Chips" at 2418 E Michigan Ave, a few blocks west of Frandor. Their cod was pretty ordinary fast foodish, but the perch was great. The chip were greasy but big and thick, and though I didn't try the shrimp, I took a quick bit of their cocktail sauce and found that it wasn't just ketchup - there's real horseradish in there. I'll be checking out the whitefish and catfish later on, and give you a better review. Oh, and the hush puppies I had with my order were good too. (Which is not true of the last time I was there many years ago.)


And ICE CREAM!

The soft-serve ice cream place in Old Town formerly known as Tate's Freeze is open again under the name of Arctic Corner. It's at 314 E. Grand River Ave. - that's the southwest corner of East Grand River and Center St., kitty corner from the soul food restaurant that used to be Vernadine's (and the old Lamai's before that). Here is a rather sloppy but thoroughly enjoyable Turtle Sundae that I had during a recent rainstorm.

Of course, when it comes to old fashioned soft-serve, you can't beat the Tasty Twist at 1307 E. Grand River Ave. in East Lansing. We always stop for a small cone dipped in chocolate whenever we actually have room left in our stomachs. I don't have a picture because you can't set the cone down to take the picture as easily as a sundae. (Okay, that's an excuse, usually I'm too busy eating the cone to take the picture.)

5 comments:

BTime said...

I've been to the Fish and Chips place a number of times. Steer clear of the chicken however. You would think they would be doing chicken on the bone, but they serve up patties instead.

For Fish I head over to Scalawags in Okemos which is really good, though their tartar sauce isn't.

Anonymous said...

Any new eateries lately?

The Eastside Food Geek said...

BT Time - Scalawags is a bit out of my stomping grounds, so I haven't tried it yet. (I have a friend looking for REAL WHOLE fried clams, though, so if they have them, let me know.) Still, from what I hear it's a great place, and constitutes a real restaurant and not just a summer junk food takeout place - which is why I put these in a "Drive By".

Anonymous - I hear Ramon's is back. But mostly I've been revisiting old places this summer. Summer is the time of year when restaurants really suffer in the Lansing/East Lansing area.

chilepepper99 said...

The Fish and Chips is hit or miss. You may get really good fish one time and then the next time it will be extremely greasy and fishy tasting. Plus the uniformly shaped fish "fillets" are kind of disturbing (I think they are triangles).

Scalawags is a much better option, but it is also quite a bit more expensive. The fried walleye there is AWESOME.

The Eastside Food Geek said...

Yeah, as I said the "cod" was just fast food style. But in a pinch the perch was worth eating. (And thanks for the tip on the walleye! I don't get out that way much, or indulge in that much fried food too much, so I like to make it count when I do.)