A Quiet Powerhouse IN The Diner Industry

It takes a lot of guts and determination to run any eating establishment.  You have to be strong to deal with suppliers yet kind when dealing with all sorts of customers. Eva Diakakis was one of these diner owners. She owned the Famed Bendix Diner on Route 17 in Hasbrouck Heights , New Jersey for a number of years. She brought home cooking  and comfort to people who needed both.

The Bemdix Diner on it's own is a salute to Jersey  diner history. It started in the 1940's , named after the nearby Bendix  Corporation. It was a popular spot thanks to it's location in the middle of Route 17 and near Route 46. Eva and her husband John bought it and then had their son  John took over.They were from the beautiful island of Kos, just south of another lovely Greek isle, Karpathos. They brought their recipes to the states , settling in New York. Their son John,a former comedian took over the diner. He rose to local fame through documentaries.He is legally blind yet expertly took over the diner from his parents.His three sons, Michael Anthony and Dimitri helped their yiayia or Granny with cooking .She taught them an amazing slew of recipes that are still being made for diners today.Yet it was Eva;s kindness and caring that stood out. She knew her customers well and became family to them. She was that to mine, always treating my Mom with such kindness and friendliness. She knew her and my brother's favorite dishes along with mine.

Her food was amazing. She knew my brother was a vegetarian and went out for her way to make vegan soups like a tomato basil for him. She and their cook Julio whipped original vegan dishes for him as well. He loves his mashed potatoes and Eva always made sure he had a big plate of them, airily whipped and as light as a meringue. However it was her French fries that shone. They were crisp and tasty , a specialty of both her and her other son Chris. Of course there were Greek specialties that she also made for her fellow Kossians and Karpathians. (she went to high school on Karpathos because Kos was such a small island it couldn't afford one). Eva was a truly spiritual and virtuous individual who followed all the Greek Orthodox fasting days .She read the Bible daily and also made special breads for the church. She also had special breads for her customers like us too. They were always a treat, thickly sliced and spread with a generous layer of butter.

There will never be another Eva Diakakis, She was a gentle soul yet one with a steel backbone. She guided her family and business with such will and force. She made a huge impact on their and on her customers who became family to her.

Souvenir Recipes

One of the best things about vacations is the slew of souvenirs we take home. They can be tee shirts or shells, maybe even jewelry or salt and pepper shakers. Yet the best ones are the food memories, souvenirs perfect for our kitchens. No matter where we go, there's a recipe we're bound to recreate.

Foreign vacations mean foreign foods. It's easy nowadays to recreate dishes from across the globe. Recipes can be easily gotten and translated, thanks to the Web.If you were lucky enough to lounge on Mediterranean beaches, you probably got to lunch on pissaladiere slices or a bowl of pasta vongole .Pissaladiere is relatively easy to make.It's a short crust base topped with a yummy mixture of anchovies , olives and onions spiced with thyme sprigs. Pasta vongole is simply linguini with clams. Again homemade is an easy make. Use fresh clams (none of the canned stuff) and boil them. reserve the juice or broth.It's then cooking chopped clams in them with a little white wine, red pepper flakes and garlic. If you spent July sunning on Mikonis or Karpathos and Kos, then you may be hankering for stuffed grape leaves or dolmades. Fill grape leaves (which can be easily bought at Trader Joe's) with a tasty marriage of arborio rice and pine nuts along with raisins, chopped onions, and mint. You can  add meat, usually ground lamb.

You can still bring back recipes even if you stuck close to home. South Jersey has a variety of fun dishes and boardwalk snacks. Taylor ham, a Boardwalk specialty can be recreated in a variety of dishes.It is good on a soft roll, Atlantic City style, especially when the bread sops up all that melted butter, yet you can also have it as a side with scrambled or sunny side up eggs. Seafood is big  along both of New Jersey and New York coasts. Go to your local fish monger for fresh seafood. You can make an easy dipping sauce using just ketchup and horseradish that's perfect for everything from clams to shrimp. Boardwalk fare can be easily copied. Frozen custard is a treat and can be created on any stove top. It's an egg rich custard that's then poured into an ice cream maker. A fun, spin, popular at many shore ice cream parlors is frozen custard served in a hot waffle boat. The last requires a special machine but you can make fresh  ones with a regular waffle maker.Homemade fudge is a Jersey classic and must have.It's super simple to make, both over a stove top and microwave.Use semisweet chocolate and condensed milk for a Boardwalk must have.

A summer traveled is a summer full of souvenirs. Recreate your tastiest ones in your kitchen. It' s a way of still having the best time all year round.