Old Time Diner Food

One of my favorite places here in New Jersey, the Coach House Diner in North Bergen just had its menus printed up from its first year back in 1939. It was a time when life and food were a lot simple- not to mention cheaper and better for you. Seeing the menu back a lot of memories for my Mom who reminisced about the types of food back then. Some things have changed, some haven't.

Diners at the end of the Depression didn't have the wide variety their descendents have today. it was plain and simple chopped steak , pork chops and hamburgers. You could get a hot chicken dish or an open faced turkey sandwich . That's as exotic as it got. Yet this lack of choice is better. You just ordered something simple and ate it. Omelets haven't changed. They were probably only one egg back then and the eggs were farm fresh and organic. Surprisingly enough they were served with fries , just as they are today. The Western style was a big seller it seemed.

I noticed some foods fell out of fashion. There was the icky offering of stewed prunes. (I'm sorry that's just yucky to the nth degree) along with oysters, both stewed and fried. The first was a big deal back in the day. My Dad loved it especially when his grandmother , my Great Granny Roberts always made it on Christmas Eve. Nowadays it's rarely ever cooked in this country. Ditto with fried oysters, especially in the New York area. Liver and onions were a special lunchtime offering and I know only of a few diners that offer it today.

Some things come and go but diners, like the Coach House remain the same. There will always be a menu full of good things a welcoming plate of home cooked food waiting for you. That's what's so comforting. about them