Food for Thought by Ken Cutler

I was a bit of a surprise to my parents. My father was 44 and my mother was 40 when I was born. My youngest sister was over seven years older than me. Because of the age differences between my three sisters and me, after about age 10 I rarely had any siblings at home. I was essentially an only child from that point on.

Besides having my parents to myself, my experience growing up in southern New Jersey was a bit different than my sisters’ in another way. Money wasn’t so tight and my parents would eat out with me at least a couple times a month. They also liked to take mini-vacations regularly, bringing me along. Some of my warmest memories of my parents are from when we shared a restaurant meal together.

Aside from Italian, ethnic food wasn’t much of a thing when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s. There just weren’t many ethnic restaurants around. We didn’t even have a Taco Bell in my town. Still, there was a small Chinese restaurant in a nearby shopping center. My mother was not a fan of Chinese food. Dad was more adventuresome and he would occasionally take me to lunch there during my pre-teen and early teen years. It was not unusual for us to be the only customers present. I was a huge fan of their pork fried rice and would always get the $2.50 lunch special, which also included wonton soup and a small dip of ice cream. I enjoyed being in what was to me an exotic atmosphere. My dad and I would engage in pleasant chit-chat and observe that the newspaper the owner liked to read during slow periods was written in Chinese.

After I graduated from college, Dad and I would take a day trip to the Jersey shore each summer. Our first stop would always be Allen’s Clam Bar in New Gretna. It featured a very primitive eating area, replete with a concrete floor. The lack of ambience was easily made up for by the quality of the seafood. Mom might not have agreed with that assessment, but Dad and I relished their delicious Manhattan clam chowder (rumored to be made fresh daily by Allen’s grandmother) and the super-fresh fried flounder they served. After the meal, Dad and I would scout out a frozen custard stand for dessert.

Mom was not big on fast food, but she did enjoy the fare at Roy Rogers, a popular chain during my childhood. Sometimes she’d take me along when she had some errands near the local Roy Rogers and we’d get lunch together. I almost always got the roast beef platter: sandwich, fries, and coleslaw. She usually let me indulge in a chocolate shake as well. This was my version of a Happy Meal.

New Jersey is known as the Garden State, but it could just as well be called the Diner State. My favorite diner was Mastoris in Bordentown, which sadly closed a few years back. It was a bit of a drive and while in the car I would hungrily anticipate the forthcoming feast. I usually got spaghetti and meatballs or the roast turkey dinner. To this day, the slightly sweet cinnamon bread stuffing at Mastoris lives on as legend in my mind. I even enjoyed the salads there.

Another favorite was the Pub, an iconic restaurant near Camden. I haven’t been there for decades, but I understand it’s largely unchanged from the 70s. Steaks are cooked on open charcoal grills in the back of the restaurant, creating a wonderful aroma that wafts its way around the main dining area. When I was in high school, my parents would take me there if I got straight A’s on my report card. I had quite the incentive to buckle down on my studies.

Possibly my favorite benefit of being retired and financially independent is having a virtually unlimited restaurant budget. In reality, though, we’ve never skimped on eating out. 2012 was the last year both my kids lived at home full-time. In inflation-adjusted dollars, we spent $7,700 on restaurants that year. After that, our eating out expenditures settled into a range of around $3,500-$4,500 annually. Here in my first year of retirement, our spending on eating out is trending back to the 2012 level. I get together with my son for lunch each Thursday. My wife Lisa meets monthly with my daughter and daughter-in-law for a Cutler girls’ meal. The five of us celebrate occasions at our favorite local restaurants. Lisa and I often join with friends at a restaurant to share a meal, both as a couple and separately.

My entire family loves ethnic foods: restaurants offering Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, Mexican, Peruvian, Indian, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, and Japanese are all in our rotation. New options locally include German, Laotian/Colombian fusion, and Moroccan. Of course, we love pizza and good old American favorites as well. I’m pretty certain my children are building up their own storehouses of fond food memories.