Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [39]
The hot dogs are excellent—bisected and grilled, served in soft buns and available with terrific hot peppers—and the cheesesteaks are near-Philly quality, loaded with griddle-cooked, thin-sliced meat and soft sweet onions. About the only other item on the menu we care about is the turkey sandwich. This is the real thing, made from a bird roasted on premises using meat that is, as the sign above the counter boasts, “handpicked for easy eating.”
Hadfield’s Seafood
192 N. DuPont Hwy. (Route 13)
302–322–0900
New Castle, DE
LD | $
You will have no trouble spotting Hadfield’s as you travel north on Route 13. It is the shop with a crab statuette the size of a minivan hovering over the front door. While many people buy crabs and other raw seafood to take home and cook, Hadfield’s makes a specialty of selling whole meals to go. There used to be makeshift tables where you could sit down and eat here, but they are gone, so finding a place to eat is your responsibility.
Beyond whole crab, fried fish is the star of the show—scallops, flounder, oysters, whiting, and shrimp—but it is also possible to get broiled crab cakes, stuffed flounder, a pair of shells filled with creamy crab imperial, and hot chicken wings by the ten-count, up to 100 for $35.99, including blue cheese and celery. Dinners include coleslaw, French fries, a roll and butter, and tartar sauce. It is also possible to get just about anything the kitchen makes by the pound or dozen.
We love browsing Hadfield’s cases and studying all the seafood on display, especially the bounty of the Chesapeake Bay. Last time we visited, it was the height of crab season and the counter contained a visual demonstration of different-size hard-shell crabs, from itty-bitty hardly worth cracking to the kind we all want to eat, here labeled “Texas monsters” and selling for $49 per dozen, live or cooked, and $189 a bushel (live) or $193 a bushel (cooked).
Helen’s Sausage House
4866 N. Dupont Hwy. (Route 13)
302–653–4200
Smyrna, DE
BL | $
If you are hungry and rushing north toward the Delaware Valley Bridge any time between four in the morning and lunch (or on Sunday, starting at 7:00 A.M.), call Helen’s and place a sandwich order. That’s the way the truckers do it, and in this case, the truckers are onto a very good thing. Helen’s Sausage House is a roadside eatery with huge sandwiches at small prices.
The sausages Helen serves are thick and crusty giants with plenty of Italian zest. They spurt juice when you bite them, and a normal sandwich is two in a roll (although wimpy appetites can get a single). With fried green peppers and onions, this is a truly majestic arrangement of food—a little messy to eat with one hand while driving, but nevertheless, one of the great sausage sandwiches anywhere.
Helen’s offers all manner of breakfast sandwich on bread or rolls, made with eggs, bacon, scrapple, and fried ham, as well as lunchtime sandwiches of steak, cheesesteak, burgers, hot beef, and hot ham. Other than the sausage, the one must-eat (and must see!) meal is Helen’s pork chop sandwich. When the menu says jumbo pork chop, you better believe it. This slab of meat is approximately three times larger than the puny pieces of white bread that are stuck on either side of it. It isn’t all that thick a chop, but it is tender, moist, and mouth-wateringly spiced.
While most of Helen’s clientele stop by for sandwiches wrapped to go, it is possible to dine here. Place your order at the counter and carry it to one of a few tables on ground level opposite the instant-order counter, or proceed up a couple of steps into a dining room decorated entirely with pictures of Elvis. Roadfood extraordinaire!
Woodside Farm Creamery
1310 Little Baltimore