Scrapple Screw Up at Zambo’s

My search for properly cooked scrapple recently found me in the hamlet of New Centerville at Zambo’s Country Cottage, a well maintained and landscaped restaurant on New Centerville Road (RT 281) just north of town.

The well maintained exterior of Zambo’s Country Cottage showing the ice cream take out window.

With the exception of a pizza shop/bakery, Zambo’s is the only game in town and usually has a respectable crowd, but on this day the restaurant was empty. The menu confirmed that Zambo’s did indeed serve scrapple and they also offered mush, which is even rarer on menus these days. For those unfamiliar with mush, think fried polenta. Although some attempt to make a distinction, there is absolutely no practical difference between polenta and cornmeal mush. I was tempted to order both the scrapple and mush, but not being very hungry I stuck with the scrapple, two eggs (over easy), home fries and sausage. One very nice touch was the option of getting onions in the home fries, which I took. Since I was the only patron in the restaurant, the food arrived quickly. As illustrated by the photo, the scrapple was a mess. Although it was crisp (unlike The Summit Diner and Mostoller’s), the scrapple was nothing but scraps on top of the eggs.

Scraps of Scrapple on my eggs.

It looked as if it had stuck to the griddle and had to be scraped off. I also wasn’t thrilled with the sausage. Two paper thin patties were served and were clearly not hand formed. The seasoning was a bit unusual for a commercial product leading me to wonder if the restaurant had used a press to make their own patties or if perhaps they had been produced in a small, local shop. Either way, the restaurant gets a failing grade for serving a product that if not commercially produced certainly appeared to be so. And although I’m used to it, I’m always disappointed with the toast served. It would be nice once in a while to be served a freshly baked, in house product or at least a premium commercial brand. The rest of my breakfast was acceptable with the eggs being properly cooked and the home fries nicely crisped and flavorful with the addition of the onion. The transferware plate on which the food was served lended a nice country touch to the meal, but overall it was a disappointing breakfast. I really can’t figure out why I can’t get a good order of scrapple as it is really not difficult to cook. If you’re looking for scrapple, I wouldn’t recommend Zambo’s and the rest of the breakfast I grade as simply OK. In other words, if you’re in New Centerville I wouldn’t drive 12 miles to avoid Zambo’s, but neither would I drive 12 miles to get there.