A road trip to northern Jersey took us to lunch yesterday at the famed Black Forest Inn in Stanhope. This is our usual dining spot with Kevin's parents, who live nearby. They have been coming here for years and years and the Chef/Owner Heinz Aichem makes them what ever they want. Their habit seems to be to come in for lunch on Friday, when Heinz discusses with them what the options will be for Sunday lunch, and that's what they have. Probably pretty much a weekly event, Heinz comes out to the table on Sundays and talks about the special he has for them and asks them would they like the creamed spinach or the boiled potatoes; after the meal he comes out to see how they enjoyed it and takes their comments seriously. Kevin's dad says "I didn't like the creamed spinach; it was chopped too finely". Heinz says "Okay, next time I will not chop it so fine." Heinz and his wife have owned the Black Forest for 31 years; his son Heimer works with him now. Originally from Konstanz, which is right on the border of Switzerland and Germany, on Lake Konstanz, Heinz cooks the food of his homeland for his grateful patrons in New Jersey.
This Sunday the special dish was called "koenigsberger klopse". I kid you not. Koenigsberger Klopse, an East Prussian favorite. Here's a picture from Google to give you an idea of what these veal "dumplings" actually looked like. Heinz served them with rice, which I think was perfect with that caper sauce - I could have eaten a bowl of just the rice and sauce! The meatballs were light and tasty; Kevin's dad exclaimed that they were better than he remembered from the time he had had them 50 years prior!
I had a couple bites of Kevin's Klopse, but for my lunch I started with the Pate plate and enjoyed the lobster dumplings for my main course. We had a couple pieces of Plum Tart for dessert, which was more like an upside-down cake than a tart, but pretty good anyway. (I just wish they would use real whipped cream instead of that aeresol stuff.) Actually my favorite dessert there is the brandied cherries over vanilla ice cream, but this time I went with Heinz's seasonal suggestion.
It's a four hour drive to Stanhope from Kennedyville, so on the way home we stopped at the Hooters near New Castle to try some of their wings for dinner. We've never had Hooters wings. And probably won't again. They smelled heavenly in the car on the way home, but upon opening the carry-out box we were stunned by just how tiny wings could be. These must be the smallest wings available on the market. Amazingly enough, they were not over cooked but man, I wonder how big the poor little chickens were that these wings came from...these were definitely the most mini-wings I've ever seen.
Our order of 20 wings was $17 (the dipping sauce was extra!). Hmmm, must be the fashion on the female servers that keeps the place so busy, eh?
This Sunday the special dish was called "koenigsberger klopse". I kid you not. Koenigsberger Klopse, an East Prussian favorite. Here's a picture from Google to give you an idea of what these veal "dumplings" actually looked like. Heinz served them with rice, which I think was perfect with that caper sauce - I could have eaten a bowl of just the rice and sauce! The meatballs were light and tasty; Kevin's dad exclaimed that they were better than he remembered from the time he had had them 50 years prior!
I had a couple bites of Kevin's Klopse, but for my lunch I started with the Pate plate and enjoyed the lobster dumplings for my main course. We had a couple pieces of Plum Tart for dessert, which was more like an upside-down cake than a tart, but pretty good anyway. (I just wish they would use real whipped cream instead of that aeresol stuff.) Actually my favorite dessert there is the brandied cherries over vanilla ice cream, but this time I went with Heinz's seasonal suggestion.
It's a four hour drive to Stanhope from Kennedyville, so on the way home we stopped at the Hooters near New Castle to try some of their wings for dinner. We've never had Hooters wings. And probably won't again. They smelled heavenly in the car on the way home, but upon opening the carry-out box we were stunned by just how tiny wings could be. These must be the smallest wings available on the market. Amazingly enough, they were not over cooked but man, I wonder how big the poor little chickens were that these wings came from...these were definitely the most mini-wings I've ever seen.
Our order of 20 wings was $17 (the dipping sauce was extra!). Hmmm, must be the fashion on the female servers that keeps the place so busy, eh?
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