Offbeat Eats

New World Chinese Restaurant

2011-01-25T11:17:00.001-05:00

(Probably my last Blogger posting, you should be reading these over at Offbeateats.org instead...)

We celebrated Boxing Day in London by doing some more wandering about town. One of the places we checked out was London’s Chinatown. While a lot smaller (it’s essentially Gerrard Street in Soho) and more compact than the Chinatowns in San Francisco, New York, and Montreal that I’ve recently experienced, it does sport a quite impressive number of Asian markets, and more importantly, restaurants. So we used this as a good opportunity to check out New World Chinese Restaurant, one of London’s better-known (and older) Dim Sum restaurants.

While London has a lot of Dim Sum places (I’ve been to Ping Pong several times, for example, although, oddly, I never seem to have written it up here…), New World is one of the few bastions of the traditional dim sum experience, with traditional Hong Kong-style dim sum dishes brought out to you in an unending parade of steel trolleys being wheeled by your table, so you can simply point to the dishes that look good and have them dropped off. So without much effort at all, you can easily sample any of a number of dim sum dishes being dropped off in bamboo steamers, plates of barbecued meats, little dishes of fried or steamed dumplings, and the occasional bowl of soup.

As far as variety, New World is indeed pretty strictly old school dim sum. While having a very good range of dumplings, soups, and meats, pretty much everything here I sampled was straightforward Chinese dim sum, with one plate of Vietnamese-style Cha Gio being the sole exception. But, as I always say, you don’t need to do a lot, as long as you do it well, and my dumplings were done very nicely. My buns had nice fluffy exteriors, and a nicely seasons tangy pork interior. My rolls were nicely fried and not overly greasy, and the steamed dumplings were cooked thoroughly without being overly gummy. In short, they’ve got the dim sum thing well under control. And I really like that they still do trolleys—while menu service allows a lot of fresh and inventive dim sum to be made to order, there’s always something to be said for being able to have the instant gratification of getting a fresh dish right off of the cart.

Overall, while there are a lot of more modern and inventive Dim Sum places in London, an old-school Dim Sum joint like New World still has its place, and we thoroughly enjoyed the quality of our dim sum, and the relative affordability of it as well. Between that and the nice old-school decor (New World still has the perfect 1960s Chinese Restaurant ambiance), made for a rather pleasant outing.

Reubens (Baker Street, London, UK)

2011-01-20T17:27:00.001-05:00

Reubens Salt Beef

(You shouldn't be seeing this, unless your RSS isn't point to the right sight. Please adjust your feed to point to
The difference goes a little deeper than that as well, since the spicing is definitely a bit different as well, with UK salt beef definitely having a lighter spice and more beef flavor than the US counterpart (not unlike the subtle difference between a Montreal "Viande Fumee" and a New York "Pastrami"). Now that you mention it, I feel like I could probably do an entire book comparing the pickled and smoked beef products of several Jewish communities...

But back to the meat itself. Regardless of the name, the resulting sandwich was quite good. The meat tender and plentiful, the rye flavorful and substantial enough to hold up to the juices of the beef, and the mustard being good tangy Colman's. This pretty much just worked. Less spiced than a New York pastrami, and less smokey that a viande fumee, this was basically what I'd call a really top notch corned beef sandwich. Or salt beef. It's all good.

As far as non-sandwich accompaniments? Reubens is hitting on all cylinders here as well. We ordered up a whole mess of sides, including some latkes, some salads, some pickles, and some chips. The latkes we had were quite nicely fried up, and not overly greasy, with just a hint of herbs rounding out the potato. The chips where nicely done as well, with the sort of texture I always like: fluffy in the middle, barely crisp on the outside.

Overall, a very pleasant dining trip that was a nice respite from the fairly dreary weather and last-minute shopping headaches.

Moving Day

2011-01-15T16:22:00.001-05:00

Well, after just short of five years of being here on Blogger, it was finally time to move to my own domain and new content management system.

Head on over to the new site at Offbeateats.org

Over there you'll see the same content, a whole new layout, and, most importantly, geocoding of the data! So now you can easily see maps of where places are, do searchs for nearby places I've reviewed, and such.

See you over there!

(For those that are RSSing, since this blog didn't use Feedburner, you'll have to re-subscribe over there. Sorry.)

Hand-Made Noodles (Greenwich Market, Greenwich, UK)

2011-01-12T14:35:00.006-05:00

Hand-Made Noodles

On our recent trip to London, we decided to take a day trip out to Greenwich. After we were done with the Greenwhich Tunnel (walk under the Thames...), Maritime Museum, and the Observatory, we went back down the hill to downtown Greenwich. One of the features of downtown is the Greenwich Market, which is filled with all sorts of art vendors and food stands. A bit touristy, we did like the place. I ended up buying a ring made of a recycled one-shilling coin, and Carol bought a nice felted wool coat, so it was also a shopping success.

And, most importantly, the place is filled with good food stands. One in particular, however, stands out. At the sound of them market was a small stand selling, simply, "Hand-Made Noodles".

Pulling Noodles

Run by a friendly Chinese guy, he was making hand-pulled La-Mian noodle dishes to order, so as you ordered, he'd cut off some dough and pull some fresh noodles, throw them in some cooking water, add some bok choi, and then build the rest of your dish around it once the noodles and bok choi were cooked.

Carol was the first one drawn in. After making a giant batch of char sui pork for ourselves a few weeks ago, we had really been enjoying all sorts of char sui pork dishes and dumplings. So Carol decided to order some La Mian hand-pulled noodles with Char Sui. The man dutifully sectioned off some dough, and in an impressive display of noodle pulling, quickly made the noodles for Carol's dish and put them in the water to cook. A bit of broth, a few chopped veggies, and some char sui, and there it was, a perfect little bowl of noodle soup with pork. The pork was delicious and tender, the broth flavorful, and the noodles delightful.

Char Siu La-Mian

Myself, I opted for the Szechuan Dan-Dan and La-Mian: shredded chicken with peanuts and sesame, lots of hot oil, and several veggies cooked with the noodles. The procedure was the same, but the end result being a nice, firely Szechuan-style noodle dish, with just enough chili kick and sesame oil to really make this the perfect warm up dish for a cold, drizzly, and overcast day.

This was one of those little examples of a place where neither words nor pictures really do the place justice...

Hand-Made Noodles

Szechuan Dan-Dan La-Mian
Greenwich Market
Greenwich, London, UK

The Golden Hind (Marylebone, London, UK)

2011-01-06T18:15:00.002-05:00

The Golden Hind

While out and about doing some last-minute Christmas shopping on Marylebone High Street, we decided to divert a little bit and check out The Golden Hind for some fish and chips. While a seemingly simple task (in fact, we're lucky enough to have a decent place for fish and chips back in New Hampshire), to do it right is actually somewhat difficult in London. Despite Fish and Chips being one of the national dishes of England, there aren't a lot of places in London itself that serve it ("Chippys" seem to have been replaced with an almost uncountable number of bad fried chicken joints), and fewer that do it well (most serve some sort of half-assed product geared towards tourists). Finding a good one that is generally well-regarded is a bit of a challenge, and the list is short. One that we had an opportunity to try, due to our location, was The Golden Hind.

I had previously heard that this place was crazy busy, but we found it busy but workable. Despite it being a very busy day on Marylebone High Street, we only had to wait a few minutes during the lunch rush for a table (and by the time we were done with lunch, several tables were available). But checking the Google street view of the place, I figured out why: they recently expanded, taking over the Cafe Creperie that used to be next door. Looking at just the footprint of the original store? Yeah, it was probably almost intractable at times.

Haddock and Chips

That said, it's a very charming little shop, having that vibe that you expect from a good chip shop. The decor is stuck in a former era (there's a nice art-deco deep fryer that is the centerpiece of the main room, although it has been decommissioned) .

After looking at the extensive fish options on the menu, I dend up opting for the Haddock and Chips. Specifically, I ordered the "Small Haddock and Chips". Glad I didn't opt for the large, since as you can see that portion size was definitely generous.

Overall, the haddock was perfectly cooked, with a nice crisp breading, and done correctly so that it wasn't very greasy but was also moist inside. Indeed, quite a good, tasty piece of fish which I really enjoyed. The sauce was also quite good, albeit a bit more on the creamy end instead of the tangy end. Carol opted for the cod, which was also nicely crisp but moist. We also got some pickles, and some mushy peas, the latter of which I actually enjoyed a lot. I'm not generally a fan of mushy peas, but here they've added something subtle to the peas to give them just a little more flavor, and it turned out that it made them a particularly good accompaniment for the fish.

Cod and Chips

How were the chips? Meh. It's been my experience that, outside of a very few places, it's generally impossible to get both good fish and good chips. Doing one well usually means the other suffers (primarily because proper chips are fried twice in two different oil temperatures, and fish in yet another, so to do everything right can take three fryers and a lot of time). In the case of The Golden Hind, the chips were definitely suffering a bit, but they weren't bad, either. Just not the sort of chips we'd go out of our way for.

Overall, The Golden Hind was a rather pleasant stop, and a good way to indulge in one of our guilty, deep-fried, indulgences.

The Golden Hind
73 Marylebone Ln (just off the south end of Marylebone High St)
London, UK

The Gay Hussar (Soho, London, UK)

2010-12-31T14:07:00.003-05:00

The Gay Hussar

After a few days of our touring around England, my brother returned from his trip to Finland, and we decided to go out to dinner to The Gay Hussar in Soho.

Around since 1953, the Gay Hussar has a long history. It's the oldest Hungarian place in London. And for most of it's history, it's been a stomping ground for various liberal politicians and VIPs (indeed, at the table next to us was Labour's Lord Borrie, talking with his colleagues about his upcoming second reading of some bill on passenger security and travelers' rights). And the the walls of the Hussar are lined with caricatures of the various liberal VIPs that dine here (being American, I only recognized a single caricature that I could see from my seat: Jon Snow). So the place has some air of authenticity, even if it isn't due to their culinary abilities: the place has been bringing in customers for 50 years.

Dinner started well, with a nice selection of very hot peppers on the table (you don't see a lot of hot peppers in the UK). These were both sweet and firey. After that, we moved on to appetizers, myself selecting their Hungarian charcuterie plate, and Carol selecting their chilled cherry soup. We both enjoyed our starters quite a bit: the soup was soft and pleasant, and the charcuterie plate had a nice variety of salamis on it.

Becsi Szelet

Moving on to the main course, I went on my brother's suggestion and ordered the Becsi Szelet, which is basically Wiener Schnitzel. This was actually a very well done schnitzel, with a crisp breading, tender pork, and not a lot of greasiness. The chips, however, were a little soggy, but certainly not bad. I'd rate this overall a somewhat successful main course, although with a bit of room from improvement on the sides.

Carol instead opted for the sirkepaprikas (Chicken Paprikash). I only sampled a little bit of this, but was somewhat disappointed. The cream and paprika sauce was definitely more on the "cream" side, having very little bite to it. Being one of the hallmark dishes of Hungary, I was a bit let down by this, since over the years I've had some phenomenally good paprikashes. Alas, I think Gay Hussar's 50+ years of being one of the only Hungarian places in London has resulted in them going soft.

Csirkepaprikas

Dessert, however, is where the Gay Hussar made up some ground. Several of us ordered the walnut pancakes (Gundel Palacsinta), which were very, very walnutty, nicely crisped, and served up with a nice bitter chocolate sauce. A bit pricey, but these were very flavorful and enjoyable, obviously made to order with a fair bit of care, and pleased everyone at the table.

All in all, The Gay Hussar was a bit of a mixed bag. We were really expecting something more from them when it came to having what are basically Hungarian classics, but were left wanting. That said, the meal certainly wasn't bad (and the dessert quite well done), and this place will be around for a long time, if for no other reason than tradition.

Gundel Palacsinta

The Gay Hussar
2 Greek Street
Soho
London, UK

Byron Proper Hamburgers (London, UK)

2010-12-29T14:18:00.004-05:00

Byron Proper Hamburgers

My brother, being an expat, often found himself craving a proper hamburger. Which is difficult, since Britain is notoriously bad for their burgers (doubly-so since the Mad Cow period, since most burgers here are cooked to oblivion). But in the interest of keeping my brother from going crazy, I asked around, and several reliable sources of mine (primarily from SeriousEats) recommending Byron Proper Hamburgers.

So he went. He tried the burger at Byron, and he determined it worthy. So this time when we came to town, we decided to go with him this time to see how well Byron fared. Looking over the menu, I settled for their version of a classic, the "Byron Burger", with bacon, cheddar cheese, and "Byron Sauce" (basically, your standard Thousand Island style burger sauce, although I learned in the ensuing conversation that "Thousand Island Dressing" isn't well known in Britain, at least by that name).

A Proper Hamburger

This was indeed a proper burger. Good beef. Not compressed during cooking, so it's still juicy. Cooked medium, with a still slightly pink interior and a good crisp on the outside. Nice, fresh toppings, and crisp bacon. Overall, this is about a 7 or 8 out of 10 on my burger scale for any situation. And it's definitely the best proper hamburger I've had in the UK, although I've got several other places I really need to try as well (Hawksmoor, which was booked solid; Meatwagon, which had their wagon stolen; and even the Queen's Arms down the street from the flat, which has always done well by me on their other menu items I've tried).

The one real mistake I made at Byron was ordering chips instead of fries (they have both UK-style chips and US-style fries). Big and fluffy, these just didn't have quite the kick to them that the burger did.

Byron's chips

Don't get me wrong, these were really good chips, but the fries were great (due to the ol' "leftovers in the basket" effect, I had a few fries in my order as well as chips). Next time I'm getting fries, making it a proper combo overall. The other sides sampled by our table (onion rings, and zucchini (errr.... courgette) chips) were quite nicely done as well, so they've got the burger accompaniments down pat, too.

Finally, Carol and my brother both decided they wanted to try the shakes, so a chocolate malt and an Oreo shake were procured. Both were good, nicely thick (I hate runny milkshakes), made with good ice cream, and for the chocolate malt they didn't skimp on the malt powder. And they served it in the mixing can, which is always a good touch (those that know me well, know I'm still bitter about the time the St Clair Broiler in St Paul stiffed me on a third of a milkshake since the waitress didn't want to bring out the can).

Byron Proper Malt

So, while it's a bit of indulgence to go out for what's basically "American" fare while in London, Byron did indeed do a good job, and is a really good place to go for both Londoners and expats looking for a real American-style burger experience.

Byron Proper Hamburgers
75 Gloucester Road (and 11 other London-area locations)
London, UK

World Food Cafe (Seven Dials, London, UK)

2010-12-27T04:40:00.003-05:00

World Food Cafe

After a walking trip through some fairly heavy blowing snow, we decided that we'd try to gamble and see if we could get into Hawksmoor in Seven Dials for a lunch (they were out of reservations, but sometimes I've gotten lucky at busy places). However, this time luck was not on my side, so we needed to find someplace else good in Seven Dials to eat. Luckily, my sister-in-law pointed us to World Food Cafe.

World Food Cafe is a cozy vegetarian place, one which I was already somewhat familiar with, since I've had a cookbook from them for a few years. Nestled into a small kitchen on the first floor above Neals Yard, they are a vegetarian restaurant, focusing on providing a good cross-section of vegetarian dishes from around the world.

Indeed, the menu there is rather daunting, with a large chalkboard outlining dishes ranging from Indian dals, to Egyptian falafel, to West African dishes, to Mexican and Latin American dishes. Once you order, they assemble your food in their open kitchen and serve it up to you.

West African

Both Carol and I opted for the West African meal: sweet potatoes in a spicy ginger peanut sauce with beets and bananas. Interesting combination, the sweet potatoes were very flavorful, the peanut sauce pleasantly nutty and spicy, and the beets and greens adding a nice overall crunch and a little bit of flavor to the dish. Honestly, I would have left out the bananas, they made the overall dish a little sweet for my general tastes, but it wasn't bad, either. Overall, this dish was quite a success.

My sister-in-law ordered the Oat Pancake, which was also good: the nicely done cake was folded over cheese, spinach, and salsa, and paired with a nice salad.

Oat Pancake

Overall, World Food Cafe was a very pleasant find: cheap and reasonably healthy vegetarian food in a neighborhood not generally known for either affordability or vegetarian food. It's definitely a vegetarian place that is truly good, not just "good as vegetarian places go." I'd certainly wouldn't mind going back, and those people that enjoy vegetarian food should certainly seek this place out.

World Food Cafe
14 Neal's Yard
Seven Dials
London, UK

Canteen (Baker Street, London, UK)

2010-12-25T12:43:00.003-05:00

Canteen

One of the fine English culinary traditions I embrace is that of the Full English Breakfast (you can read my previous article on the topic). Every time I come to London, I try to accomplish two things: (a) another trip to the Regency (it's a 5 minute walk from the flat), and (b) get a Full English someplace other than the Regency.

This time, we decided to try out Canteen. Canteen's motto (and the name of their cookbook) is "Real British Food", and their menu reflects it, with your basic selection of roasts, fresh fish, and poultry dishes. They also serve breakfast, so we went so I could try out their Full English (which, oddly, hasn't been on their menu long, they recently added it "because you asked for it!"). Meanwhile, Carol opted for their Eggs Florentine.

Canteen Full English

The Canteen Full English came with two eggs, sausage, bacon (streaky), mushrooms, tomato, and toast. I'll have to start off with mentioning that I really get disappointed when a "Full English" doesn't have beans, I'll have to remember to order them if I come back to Canteen. As far as the eggs, they were very nicely fried and crisp, and both the sausage and bacon were nicely crisped up but still fork tender. However, the mushrooms and tomato were where this dish started to fall apart. My mushrooms were cold, and the tomato was just kinda limp, in that weird halfway world between "stewed" and "grilled". I like them either way, but these were just in the middle. Quite frankly, I usually expect better for eight-plus quid.

Carol fared a bit better with her Eggs Florentine, the eggs were decently poached, the spinach tender, and the hollandaise sauce smooth but tangy. She rather enjoyed it, so apparently the new Full English on their menu still needs some tweaking.

Canteen Eggs Florentine

Where Canteen really shined, however, was my beverage. Many places in London sport the fairly frequent combination of carrot and orange juice. Canteen does the same, but adds a healthy shake of paprika to the mix. The result is a very pleasant morning quencher, with the body of carrot juice, softened just enough with the orange juice to not taste too vegetable-y, and with just enough bite from the paprika to be interesting. I liked this enough that I'll be trying to make this at home.

So, overall, Canteen was a mixed bag. Several items showed that they had the basic concepts down, but the execution on the Full English fell a little flat. I'll probably give them another try at some point, but they aren't near the top of my Full English list.

What's Up, Doc?

Canteen
55 Baker Street (and 3 other London locations)
Westminster
London, UK

Thai Cafe (Pimlico, London, UK)

2010-12-24T12:10:00.004-05:00

Thai Cafe

On of the things I really like about London is that the immigrant population over the many years has led it having a really good cross section of ethnic restaurants, many of which are quite good.

One place that I've been meaning to try for quite a few years is Thai Cafe, since (a) I don't get a lot of Thai Food back home (I have to drive to Montpelier or Concord to find decent Thai food), and (b) it's pretty much right across the street from my brother's flat. It also gets rather good ratings.

So on our first day in London, both my brother and his wife had to work, so we were on our own for wandering about the city. After a somewhat jet-lagged-dazed trip of shopping on Oxford street, we decided that it was time to head back to Pimlico and have a nice, relaxing dinner of Thai food.

Paneng Kiew Wan

I'm glad we did. Thai Cafe is a nice little spot, having a very thorough menu of Thai noodle dishes and curries. Having a soft spot for Thai curries ourselves, both of us opted to try some of the "dry" curries (with the thicker sauces instead of the soupier ones), myself trying the Paneng Kiew Wan (dry green curry with chicken) and Carol trying the Paneng Ped (dry red curry with duck).

Both dishes were quite good. My Paneng Kiew Wan had some nicely simmered chicken slices, and was served up in a thick, rich green curry that had a really pleasant peppery note, along with really strong thai basil and coconut milk notes rounding it out. Definitely the sort of curry I was craving. Carol's Paneng Ped was similarly good: a bit less sweet and slightly less peppery, it complemented the duck well without overwhelming it.

Paneng Ped

We're rather pleased we tried this spot: Pimlico doesn't get a whole lot of foot traffic as London neighborhoods go (aside from the tourists from Victoria station staying in the various Belgrade Road mini-hotels), and as such doesn't always have the selection of some of the other parts of town, but Thai Cafe is definitely going to remain a go-to place for me when I'm in town.

Thai Cafe
22 Charlwood St
London SW1
United Kingdom

Revisiting Gusanoz (Lebanon, NH)

2010-12-20T04:50:00.002-05:00

Machaca con Huevos

Time for a quick Upper Valley update before I start blogging about London joints again....

Every once in a while something happens that causes me to revisit a place, be it finding out that I missed (such as finding out that I had missed the best dish at the now-closed The Pines Cafe in Palmdale, CA, or finding out that a place has a new menu.

This is actually my third writeup of Gusanoz (my second introduced you to their burger business, Revolutionary Burger), but a few weeks ago they made another menu change that I thought was worthy of checking out: they added breakfast.

This normally isn't that newsworthy to me, since most places adding breakfast just means they've added some waffles and egg dishes, but Gusanoz went and added something new to the Upper Valley: Mexican breakfasts. Real ones, not just a few omelets with hot peppers, or a quickly done Huevos Rancheros.

With my frequent trips to the Southwest, I've become a great fan of Mexican breakfast dishes, from the simple (such as my love of the burritos from Stan's Grocery) to the elaborate, like Machaca con Huevos (simmered shredded beef scrambled with eggs, tomatoes, and peppers). So I was really excited that something like this was now available in the Upper Valley.

Huevos Gusanoz

So we went. I got the Machaca con Huevos. Carol opted for the Huevos Gusanoz: two cheese enchiladas with red sauce and eggs. I never though I'd see Machaca on an Upper Valley menu, and Gusanoz did it right. The beef was tender and flavorful, and nicely coupled with peppers, onions, and eggs in a scramble where no one ingredient dominated. The home fries were a little odd (they are obviously using the fry slicer, and then redicing the results, making for a very fine dice) but good. The tortillas were simply steamed permade tortillas (sadly, I think the Gusanoz experiment with homemade fresh tortillas ended), but still good. Carol was similarly satisfied with her breakfast enchiladas, enjoying the nice combination of eggs and red enchilada sauce.

All in all, it was a good breakfast. For those of my readers in the Upper Valley that haven't yet gone, go. You are missing out.

Gusanoz Mexican Restaurant
410 Miracle Mile
Lebanon, NH

Three Birds (Corning, NY)

2010-12-14T17:35:00.004-05:00

Three Birds

I recently had a family-related trip to Corning, NY (where I was born), and found myself craving dinner in downtown Corning (Market Street, a.k.a. The Gaffer's District). While this part of town has quite a few restaurants (including one I've already reviewed), most of the places are pubs, Italian places, or pizza joints, none of which were really appealing to me. I was craving something a little more upscale, and a quick web search led me to Three Birds.

Nestled in at the eastern end of Market Street, Three Birds is in a doubled-up storefront having a rather ornate bar on one side, and dinner tables on the other. Being a solo diner this time, and somewhat light on my appetite, I decided to sit at the bar, which also allowed me to peruse both their normal dinner menu, as well as the lighter bar menu. Deciding that I was in a mood for steak, I ended up settling on the "Taris Major Steak" off of their bar menu.

The "Taris Major" Steak

I'm wondering if the name is a misspelling or an inside joke I'm not getting, since this is actually a "shoulder tender" steak, which is cut from the teres major muscle from the chuck. One of the more obscure cuts of beef (it's related to the flatiron steak, which is cut from the teres minor muscle) it and resembles a small filet mignon and can be a very tender and flavorful cut in the right hands, but you don't see it often on menus. I suspect the former, although to Three Birds' credit, they correctly spelled the name of their other steak, the hanger steak (if I had a $1 for every place that tried to sell me a "hangar steak", as if I'm eating it between aircraft in a hangar).

Pedantry aside, however, this was a very nicely done, perfectly cooked, and served up with nicely mashed potatoes and a good red wine jus. The potatoes were that nice balance between "starchy" and "soupy", and not overly doctored with cream, garlic, or butter. The steak had a very nice sear to it, without overcooking the middle. And the wine jus was flavorful without being overly salty or over-reduced. A rather good deal for the $10 I paid for this, although if I find myself back there, I may wheedle them into subbing fries, since the fries there look quite good, or ordering something off of the dinner menu (they seem to make pork a specialty, actually).

Certainly enough to encourage me to come another time.

Three Birds
73 E Market St
Corning, NY

MacLaomainn's Scottish Pub (Chester, VT)

2010-12-12T15:20:00.002-05:00

MacLaomainn's Scottish Pub

A few weeks ago I was driving to upstate New York, which involves the rather difficult process of negotiating Vermont, which lacks major East-West highways (while I love the scenery of Vermont, if they ever wanted to create an interstate heading across the state from either Bennington or Rutland, I wouldn't complain). This time I went on Highway 7, passing through Chester, and used it as an excuse to visit MacLaomainn's Scottish Pub, which I had noticed on several recent trips, but never had reason to stop in. Being 1pm and my not having lunch, stopping in for a late lunch seemed to be the order of the day.

Walking in, MacLaomainn's has the "Scottish Pub" ambiance down pat, with a small, cozy seating area (maybe 30 seats?), wood fixtures, maps of Scotland, swords and daggers, and the obligatory tartan patterns adorning the walls (nothing goes with a good Scottish beer than some Black Watch tartan). They've also got a good selections of beers, ranging from local offerings to several Scottish beers. When I stopped in, this selection ranged from McNeil's and Trapp representing Vermont, to Orkney and Belhaven representing Scotland. I opted for a Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA, which I rather enjoyed. Your typical British-style IPA isn't terribly hop-forward, and that's the first thing I really noticed about Twisted Thistle: it was one of the highly-hopped in-your-face IPAs like we've gotten used to over here in the states. But the rest of the beer was indeed Scottish, using hops and malt profiles much more British-isles in nature (I can't always places my hops correctly, but this tasted more of Challenger than the Cascade hops used in American IPAs). The result was a fairly pleasant blend of styles, one I'm going to keep my eye out for on other taps around here.

MacLaomainn's Mince and Tatties

Menu-wise, the menu is primarily Scottish pub food, with the obligatory haggis (actually, several varieties of haggis), various meat and potatoes dishes, scotch eggs, and the like. I ended up settling on the Mince and Tatties. A decent Scottish "comfort food" dish, Mince and Tatties is a pretty simple dish (minced beef and root veggies in a light gravy, served with potatoes), but as a relatively simple dish as a late lunch, it hit the spot. The mince was nicely seared and not greasy, the carrots soft but not mushy, and the gravely flavorful without being heavy or salty. Not the sort of dish that really challenges a chef, but they did a decent enough job of this that I'm looking forward to coming back and trying some more substantial dishes off the menu when I'm not in a hurry to get where I'm going. I'm certainly interested in stopping by again for another pint...

MacLaomainn's Scottish Pub
52 S Main St
Chester, VT

Skinny Pancake (Montpelier, VT)

2010-12-10T14:18:00.002-05:00

Skinny Pancake Menu Board

Last month we went to the Cabot Hosiery Mills (a.k.a. "Darn Tough Socks") annual factory sale in Northfield, VT, and afterward decided to go into Montpelier for a little bit of light shopping and eating. We eventually ended up at Skinny Pancake for some crêpes.

Skinny Pancake didn't start here, they actually started back around 2003 as a little cart selling crêpes on Burlington, VT's Church Street pedestrian mall (not too far down from one of my other favorite Church Street food vendors, Hong's Chinese Dumplings, which I reviewed last year. I had enjoyed their crêpes from the cart a few times, and then in 2007 they went big time, opening up a storefront on College St down by the waterfront.

Sadly, I've never been to their actual restaurant, and it had been on my chronic "Will check out sometime when I'm in Burlington" list. But sometime last year the Montpelier Ben and Jerry's closed, and was replaced by a Skinny Pancake location, so I finally got to try it.

Johnny Crêpe

The big change from being a food cart is that Skinny Pancake now has a real menu with a number selections, including entire Savory and Sweet crêpe menus. Since it was lunchtime, I opted for something off the savory side of the menu: a "Johnny Crêpe": Pulled Pork and a "Root Beer BBQ" sauce, Cabot Cheddar, and caramelized onions in a crepe.

I enjoyed this dish. The crêpe itself was a cornmeal one, done with a nice fine grind on the cornmeal so that it still had the expected texture. The pulled pork was very tendy, smoky, and flavorful, and was nicely complemented by the sauce. This was a bit of a surprise, since I usually dislike sweet BBQ sauces, but here it complemented the meat without covering it. The slaw was actually several veggies, not overdressed, and nicely rounded the dish.

Johnny Crêpe Exposed

The only downside? Skinny Pancake is a little expensive for what was once cheap street food. My Johnny Crêpe was just shy of $10, and Carol's "Localvore's Dream" just shy of $13. Good quality food, but I do have to wonder if I'm getting enough value here.

Skinny Pancake
89 Main St.
Montpelier, VT
(as well as Burlington, VT locations)

Home Hill Inn (Plainfield, NH)

2010-12-09T13:13:00.002-05:00

Home Hill Inn

As anyone reading my article on Eggs Benedict from earlier this year could tell, it's one of my favorite breakfast dishes from the savory side of things. The combination of a good toasted muffin, some sort of proper meat product, a nicely poached egg, and a well-executed tangy hollandaise makes for quite the nice breakfast.

It's also very, very hard to find such a beast in the Upper Valley. Lou's can poach a mean egg (their "poached eggs and hash" breakfast is one of my local favorites) biut only has a Benedict as an occasional special. Four Aces had one, but it was a rather poor specimen (limp sauce, and cold ham), and in any case Four Aces is no longer with us. I've had an outstanding one at Wasp's in Woodstock, but that's outside my normal range, and not open on Saturdays. Benedicts also grace a few other menus of area places (as the occasional special, mostly), but I'm generally left underwhelmed. In an area not particularly well-populated with a lot of breakfast joints, I'm generally forced to lived without.

One place, however, has been advertising that they had the "Best Benedicts in the Upper Valley": Home Hill Inn in Plainfield. Primarily a B+B, they also have a small pub and a dining room for both their guests and outside diners. So in mid-October we decided to drive to Plainfield and check it out.

Home Hill Bacon Benedict

I'm rather glad we did, since I've been meaning to check out Home Hill for quite a few years, and the Benedict was indeed quite good. With several to pick from, I ended up opting for the Bacon Benedict. This was definitely a carefully made dish, with homemade English muffins, perfectly crisp North Country Smokehouse bacon, two nicely poached eggs, and a Hollandaise sauce that, while being on the creamy end of the spectrum, was definitely tangy enough to give the right overall flavor. Not the finest Benedict I've had (that still goes to Al's in Minneapolis), but certainly on the top 10 list, and quite the well-executed dish.

Home Hill Inn
703 River Rd
Plainfield, NH

Pimlico Fresh (Pimlico, London, UK)

2010-12-08T15:43:00.002-05:00

Pimlico Fresh

I've finally blogged my way through my last UK/Spain trip (although, sadly, as I write this, I'm already starting to pack for my next UK trip). After two weeks of more eating and drinking around London, we had to get up fairly early in the morning and catch our flight out of Heathrow.

Being 7:30 in the morning, we decided that this would finally be a good opportunity to check out Pimlico Fresh, which is just down the road from my brother's flat. We've walked by a many times on the way to/from the local Sainsbury or Victoria station, but had never been inside before, since the place is usually packed to the rafters. But at 7:30 in the morning? No problem. We walked in right as they opened.

The interior of Pimlico Fresh is rather pleasant, with the overall motif being that of large wooden tables and chalkboards (those of you that have been to Le Pain Quotidien will find the decor familiar), with most of the seating being at a large wooden table to the right as you enter. Like the large table at Monmouth Coffee with the bread and butter, I've often walked by this table with no hope of ever getting a seat. That's most of the seating, hence the typical wait to get in.

Pimlico Fresh Menu Board

After a few minutes looking at the extensive menu board, I decided to get a cappucino (using coffee from the above-mentioned Monmouth) and one of my favorite simple English breakfasts: cheese on toast.

I've always enjoyed cheese on toast, for several reasons. First, it's the exact sort of savory breakfast that's very difficult to find in the United States, primarily due to the American tendency to find a way to cram eggs into just about every breakfast. I'm not the greatest fan of eggs (although I love a good Mexican-style huevos, or a proper Eggs Benedict), so there's always some I love about the simplicity of a little bit of cheese sauce on some toast. Get some good crusty bread. Mix up a few cheeses and add a few flavoring spices and sauces, like a good mustard, and you've got the right amount of cheesiness and tang. Now take that and make sure that both the bread and sauce are properly toasted (a light toast, with a firm presence of the Maillard reaction, but not enough to give the bread a sandpapery texture), with the entire top and bottom of the bread toasted while the interior is still soft, and just a hint of charring to the cheese, and you've now got a wonderful texture to go with the flavor. When well done, it's one of my favorite breakfasts.

Cheese on Toast

Well, my cheese on toast from Pimlico Fresh was indeed an excellent example of a dish well done: perfectly done multi-grain toast topped with y fenni mustard and ale cheddar. I enjoyed every little bite of this dish, and am still hoping that it's on the menu the next time I'm in Pimlico (less than a week now). I'm going to make it a point to rise early just to go back.

Overall, a pleasant breakfast spot. However, I wouldn't complain if they moved to a larger space...

Pimlico Fresh
86 Wilton Road
Pimlico, London, UK

Chocolate Ecstasy Tour (Various London, UK locations)

2010-12-07T12:25:00.007-05:00

The Chocolate Tour Take-Away Haul

Those that have been reading the blog for a while know that every year I participate in the annual Menu For Hope fundraiser (and last year I even sponsored a prize). I've traditionally had very good luck winning prizes (including a walking food tour of London in 2008). This year was no exception, with my winnings include a "Chelsea Chocolate Ecstasy Tour" from ChocolateEcstasyTours.com. So Carol and I invited my brother and sister-in-law along for a 3 hour walking tour of high-end chocolate stores in and near the Chelsea neighborhood (I'll try to carefully avoid defining the borders of London neighborhoods, that's always a mild issue of confusion and dispute).

Our first stop on the Chelsea Chocolate Tour: Hotel Chocolat in Mayfair. Hotel Chocolat is an international chocolate retailer who runs their own growing plantations and specializes in single-variety chocolates.

Hotel Chocolat

One of the major features of Hotel Chocolat is single-variety chocolates (their "Purist" line), wih high percentages (up to and including 100%) so you can really taste the difference between varieties. I ended up getting two really nice bars of Hacienda Iara chocolate from Ecuador, in both 90% and 100% versions. I rather liked our first stop at Hotel Chocolat, but it was definitely more mainstream and less inventive than most of the other stops.

Our second stop on the Chocolate Tour: Rococo Chocolates. Rococo works with their own cacao plantation (Grococo) in Grenada to supply their own chocolate, emphasizing the idea that the processing of the chocolate should be be done where it is grown. From these chocolates, Rococo makes quite a few truffles and flavored chocolate bars. The latter of these were what I really enjoyed, since Rococo applies the flavors with a gentle hand, not overpowering the underlying chocolate.

Rococo Chocolates

Despite that, they had quite a few interesting pairings, including the now-obligatory sea salt, caradom, Earl Grey tea, rose, and geranium. They also make miniature bars, which allowed us to try a half-dozen different flavors for only a few quid. Rococo is also where we had a celebrity sighting: Nigella Lawson came in to buy chocolate while we were on the tour.

L'Artisan du Chocolat, the third stop on our chocolate tour. A small London chain of chocolate shops run by chocolatiers Gerard Coleman and Anne Weyns, they are known for single-origin chocolates, liquid salted caramels, and unique flavor pairings. They are also one of the chocolate makers that produces their own chocolate from ground cocoa beans, conching and refining (most end-product stores start with already refined chocolate, usually from Italy).

The unique flavors of
L'artisan du Chocolate

And when I say "unique" pairings, I mean it. Several of their flavored truffles and bars included matcha (with white chocolate), and tobacco (with dark chocolate). Yes, you heard me right. Dark chocolate bar infused with tobacco. This resulted in a very intriguing taste, reminiscent of both fine dark chocolate and a top-notch cigar.

The other thing L'artisan is known for is their Liquid Salted Caramels: little dusted dark chocolate pearls filled with salty caramel liquid. These pretty much explode in your mouth in a salty, caramel explosion. Made in a variety of flavors, from basic salt to various spiced combinations (pink and black pepper, for example) and seasonal flavors (spiced fig, at the moment I'm writing this). I've always loved the combination of caramel, salt, and chocolate, but these took this to a new level. I'll certainly be back for more of these.

Liquid Salted Caramels

The final stop was William Curley Patissier Chocolatier. William Curley focuses on combining chocolate and Asian flavors, as well as having elaborate multi-course desserts. After giving us a brief tour and showing us some of the exotic flavors of chocolates there (particularly the Asian ones, like Black Vinegar, Yuzu, and Wasabi), they sat us at the Dessert Bar for our choice of hot chocolate, chocolate ice cream, or chocolate sorbet. Between myself, Carol, and my brother, we got all three. I opted for the sorbet, which was so soft and delicate that I could barely tell this wasn't dairy product. My brother's ice cream was almost as good, having a nice soft note added by the dairy. And the hot chocolate was probably one of the nicest I've sampled since my trips to L. A. Burdick's in Walpole, NH (the place where a single Hot Chocolate can give me the shakes).

William Curley Chocolate Sorbet

But the nicest thing about sitting at the dessert bar was that we could watch the staff assemble desserts for people having the multi-course tasting menu, including meticulously slicing fruit, and applying gold leaf. I'm intrigued enough that I'm going to try and fit in a trip here during our Christmas visit.

Overall, we were extremely pleased by the chocolate shops, the tour itself (including a discussion of some of the local sights in and around Chelsea), and the very pleasant tour guides. I highly recommend Chocolate Ecstasy Tours and the shops they took us to:

Chocolate Ecstasy Tours
chocolateecstasytours.com

Hotel Chocolat
5 Montpelier Street
Knightsbridge, London, UK
(as well as many other locations in the UK and US)

Applying gold leaf

Rococo Chocolates
5 Motcomb Street
Belgravia, London, UK
(as well as Chelsea and Marylebone locations)

L'Artisan du Chocolat
89 Lower Sloane Street
Chelsea, London, UK
(As well locations in Notting Hill and Selfridged)

William Curley Patissier Chocolatier
198 Ebury Street
Belgravia, London, UK
(as well as a location in Surrey)

The Dock Kitchen (London, UK)

2010-12-04T15:15:00.004-05:00

Go ahead, push the button

The real-estate bust hit London as well as the US, and a byproduct of this was the "Pop up restaurant". Basically a temporary restaurant, you find some cheap and available retail space (or another restaurant), set up a kitchen and a dining area, select a limited menu, and run a restaurant as a temporary endeavour, without all the overhead costs.

One example of this is "The Dock" off Portobello road. The Dock started as a popup restaurant for the London Design Festival, in space used by design Tom Dixon, the concept worked well enough that it's more-or-less permanent now.

But since the area wasn't really set up as a restaurant, it's still a bit of a weird experience. For example, it's by reservation only, and to even get to the restaurant, you have to go to a metal gate on Ladbroke Grove and get buzzed in, like you are going to a speakeasy or something (did they have "speakeasies" in England?).

Flatbread and pickles

Once we got inside, however, the space was rather pleasant, with nice tall windows, wood floors, and an overall "copper" motif for the dining area, with these large copper-colored plastic spheres everywhere (which at one point in the evening I caused a mild stir by toppling a pile of them, much like the sitcom scene where someone topples the pile of cans in the grocery store).

Foodwise, The Dock came out of the starting gate pretty nicely, with some very nice herbed Lebanese-style flatbread served with yogurt and some interesting middle-eastern pickles made from peppers and some oddly long and thing cucumbers. This was followed up by a rather nice rice pilau featuring several interesting ingredients, including chanterelles, herbs, and black cumin. This is one of those dishes that I'm not sure even a photo blog can really captures, since the dish itself outwardly resembled floor sweepings, but was actually one of the more enjoyable rice dishes I've had in recent history (including the week before in Spain). Despite the fairly rugged nature of the dish, it was quite pleasant.

The "Floor-Sweeping" Pilau

My main course was was a nicely roasted grouse, served up with a very light glaze and dusted with some salt and rosemary. The grouse itself was very flavorful and perfectly roasted, with a nice gamey note to it that might be a bit more than most people are comfortable with, but was just the kind of flavor I was looking for. The glaze nicely complemented the gamey, slightly bitter notes of the meat. While not necessarily what everyone would like in a roasted bird, I rather enjoyed this, and it showed that the kitchen staff at The Dock was capable of doing a good job with game. Served up with a side of perfectly done lentils and nicely braised chard, I thoroughly enjoyed the dish.

Dessert was a Damson Plum cobbler, which was nicely cooked, not overly sweet, and nicely presented for the entire table. Only downside was avoiding the plentiful stones.

Quit your grousing

All-in-all, I rather liked The Dock, and am pleasantly pleased to see what started as a temporary restaurant is well on it's way to being a good, permanent dining establishment. Hopefully they will soon get rid of the semi-industrial nature of the place (parts of the building are unfinished), and the rather odd access ("We're the locked gate across the road from the seedy pub!").

The Dock Kitchen
Portobello Docks, Ladbroke Grove
London W10
England

Mohsen Persian Restaurant (London, England)

2010-11-27T12:28:00.002-05:00

Mohsen Persian Restaurant

After we returned from Gloucestershire, my brother was craving Persian food, so we went to Mohsen, which is walking distance from the Earls Court tube station.

Mohsen (I had to look at the reviews on the wall to find the name of the place, since the sign outside only has Persian writing and the words "Persian Restaurant" on it) is your typical Middle-Eastern place, a nice cozy little restaurant with a bunch of tables crammed into a fairly narrow storefront, Persian decorations, and some travel posters that look like they date from the Shah's era.

Menu-wise, the place was pretty thoroughly Persian, which was pleasant. I'm used to these sorts of places (at least in the US) slowly becoming fairly generic "Middle-Eastern/Mediterranean" places over time, but the menu here is still fairly consistently Persian. We all opted to go fairly straightforward, starting with sabzi greens and a basket of bread hot from the oven.

Mohsen Bread and Greens

The bread was outstandingly good Persian Naan. Like it's Indian counterpart, this was nicely crisped bread fresh out of the clay oven (located in the store's window), but nicely seasoned with some herbs and sesame seed. The bread's texture was slightly stretchy overall with a perfect sear from the tandoor, and was so flavorful I was able to overlook the fact that I generally don't like sesame seeds.

For dinner, most of us had a basic variation on kebab, I ended up with a combination plate of chicken kabob and lamb koubideh. Both of these were very nicely seasoned and grilled perfectly, with just the right amount of sear without drying out. Served up with a nice plate of rice and some seared tomatoes, it was a pleasant dinner.

Kabob and Koubideh

Overall, I was very pleased with Mohsen. It pleasantly reminded me of one of my other favorite Persian places (Caspian Bistro in Minneapolis), but with much better bread, while still being affordable even by my US-calibrated standards. Aside from it being outside my normal London travels, it was pleasant enough that I plan to be back.

Mohsen Persian Restaurant
152 Warwick Road
London W14
United Kingdom

The Woolpack Free House (Slad, Gloucestershire, England, UK)

2010-11-19T17:39:00.003-05:00

The Woolpack

Our next stop in England was going to visit my brother's in-laws' new house in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire. After a ~2 hour train ride across England, the train enters into a tunnel and emerges into the rolling hills of Gloucestershire.

After being picked up in Stroud by my brother's father-in-law (Paul, who I will refer to now by name to avoid saying that phrase over and over) and settling into their house in Sheepscombe, they invited us out for a pleasant walk in the country as we made our way to one of the local pubs, the Woolpack, down the road in Slad.

Slad is famous for being the home of author Laurie Lee, who based his book Cider with Rosie on his own life in the village, and supposedly had many adventures at this very pub. It's a rather nice little pub, perched on the side of a small valley with a stream at the bottom, where you can sit in the dining room and look out over the countryside. It also has very good food, ranging from classic pub fare to some fairly inventive main dishes.

Sausages and Mash

I opted for the former, selecting the Stroud and Gloucester Sausages and Mash. Stroud in particular is known for having good English sausages, and my dish was no exception. Two very nice sausages, both nicely seared, with a good bed of mash and some very flavorful and not-too-salty gravy. The had nicely contrasting flavors, with one of the sausages primarily focusing on pork flavors, and the other having your more typical "banger" consistency with some rusk mixed in with the meat.

Carol was more adventuresome, and was handsomely awarded for it, since she ordered the Stuffed Pork Belly: a crisped pork belly, stuffed with black pudding, served on a bubble-and-squeak cake, served with a honey veloute.

Stuffed Pork Belly

This was a very well-executed dish, the belly had a perfect crisp on it, the black pudding added body without greatly interfering with the belly, and the bubble and squeak had the perfect texture. The veloute tied it all together and gave it a little bit of moisture. While my sausages were in no way inferior, this is one case where I had "menu envy" of what Carol had ordered...

All in all, a very pleasant little country pub, one that I'm glad is a nice country walk away from Paul's place. I certainly look forward to future visits.

The Woolpack.
Slad, Gloucestershire
England

Roast (London, UK)

2010-11-08T13:04:00.004-05:00

Roast

After returning to London (via an unanticipated extra night's layover in Madrid, courtesy of Iberia Airlines), my brother and his wife decidd to celebrate our return to the UK by taking took us out to Roast.

Nestled nicely above Burough Market in what used to be the portico of the Flower Market, it's a really pleasant and open dining space, and a restaurant known for high quality roasted meats, including game meats ("warning, may contain shot"). Their motto is "Deliciously British," and they pursue this with classical British cooking (think roasts, games, and classic British desserts) using the seasonal produce and locally-procured meats.

To start things off, I ordered a salad corn fed duck breast with blackberries and sour cream. While generally not a great fan of sour cream, this was a surprisingly nice combination: the duck was perfectly cooked (neither over- nor under-cooked) and tender, sporting a nice sear, and complemented with some nice plumb blackberries (in season, we saw them everywhere in England this trip), and a very mild sour cream that tied it all together without being heavy.

Duck with blackberries and sour cream

Then there was the main course, and the reason we came. In addition to their standard menu, Roast always has a special roast on the menu, ranging from catch of the day, to a roast, to beef Wellington). After perusing the menu, we all got the special, which was roast rib eye of Shorthorn beef with creamed baked potatoes. The beef itself came from North Yorkshire. Being served up at a absolutely perfect medium rare, this was a most excellent cut of beef, one of the finest rib eyes I've ever enjoyed (in the same league, but slightly below, that I had at St John Bread and Wine). Served up with some nicely done potatoes and mushrooms, and this was indeed a nice, near-perfect example of the cornerstone of British cuisine: the roast.

Roast Rib Eye

Following up, I opted for a dessert of English custard tart with Marsala plums. Aside from the plum pits, this was a most excellent English-style dessert, not too sweet, and having just enough tartness that it was a pleasant counterpoint to the starter and roast course.

While definitely on the expensive end of the spectrum, I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Roast, and have to rank it as a close second to St John Bread and Wine for the "best roasted meat" I've ever enjoyed. I'm interesting in coming back here to try their celebrated breakfast as well.

Custard Tart

Roast Restaurant
Borough Market
London, England

39º27N (Valencia, Spain)

2010-10-15T11:16:00.002-05:00

39º27N

For our last full day in Valencia, the weather had cooled off a few degrees to be just "pleasantly warm", so we decided it would be a good day to go check out the beach and go swimming (I had been to the beach twice before, but at night). After a few hours of swimming and relaxing on the sand, we needed a light lunch, so we decided to go walking.

The southern end of Malvarossa beach is actually several blocks of restaurants all packed together (including the very nice La Pepica that I had eaten at two nights before), but we ended up instead walking out on the breakwater of the Port of Valencia, where we came across 39º27N, and decided to have a light lunch there.

39º27N is perched on the edge of the breakwater, and has two parts, a nice glass walled bar and restaurant inside, and an open-air bar, both of which have a stunningly nice view back at Malvarossa Beach. Since the weather was so pleasant, we picked a nice table under one of the sunscreens and ordered a light lunch of Jamón ibérico, some Spanish cheeses, some wine.

Jamón ibérico

I'm suprised I've gotten this far into blogging my Spanish trip without really going on about Jamón ibérico... The Spaniards really like their ham, having real pride in their Jamóns, ranging from the fairly cheap and afford (but still delicious) Jamón Serrano (dry-cured ham sliced thinly) up to some of the crazy-expensive Jamón ibérico. Jamón ibérico is the ne plus ultra of Spanish hams, made only from Spanish cerdo negro pigs, fed on a special diet (feed for the cheaper stuff, a mix of feed and acorns for the moderate stuff, and an exclusive acorn diet for the expensive stuff). The result is a sublime experience of soft meat (speckled with fat), delicate fat layers, and a nice overall savory pork flavor. So when our lunch at 39º27N offered us another opportunity to have some jamón ibérico de bellota (the jamón made from the acorn-fed pigs), we couldn't resist. And the result was wonderful, a large plate with dozens of sumptuous thin slices of delicious jamón . Oh, how I wish I could get this stuff in the states (between Spanish export laws and US FDA import laws, this stuff is almost impossible to get).

Rounding out the lunch was another platter, this time of Spanish quesos. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not terribly good at identifying cheeses, but we ended up with the typical plate of medium and hard cow and goat milk cheeses, all having a nice texture and the nice slightly-sour flavor that I like in a good cheese. The one cheese on the plate that I could identify, Manchego, was very pleasant, relatively sweet, and with notes reminiscent of salted almonds. After my Spanish experience, I'm tempted to spend some more time experiencing aged cheeses.

Overall, it was a very light lunch, but we really enjoyed 39º27N as a place with good food, good wine, and a stellar view. I'll be sure to come back on future trips as well

39º27N
Malvarossa Beach Breakwater (Marina Norte)
Valencia, Spain

Labarra (Valencia, Spain)

2010-10-02T19:17:00.004-05:00

Labarra

For our second dinner in Valencia, we wanted to find something a little bit outside the tourist belt, but still Spanish and convenient to downtown. After a little bit of research, we settled on Labarra, a small Tapas bar located a few blocks south of Carre Colon, and thus a few blocks outside of both the old city and the main tourist beat in a fairly quiet neighborhood, with several outdoor tables nicely arranged on a little square.

Our goal this night was to do some tapas, since the previous night we'd done the obiglatory paella and morcillas, so wanted to try something a little brooders from Spain. Ordering was a little difficult, since, like the US, Monday is the slow night of the week for restaurants, and they didn't have several items on the menu. That, combined with our Spanish and the waiter's English having very little intersection (although the waiter was outstandingly patient in dealing with us and our bad pronunciation and pantomiming), we managed to order up a rather nice range of dishes for the evening.

First up was a nice plate of sliced Spanish chorizo (I had wanted Jamon Iberico, but they were out). Like the other Chorizos I'd already sampled in Spain, this was a rather pleasant dry sausage, with good smoky paprika notes, some mild garlic notes, and little streaks of fat that just gently melted on your tongue. As I write this, I've been back in the US almost two weeks, and I'm already missing Spanish pork products (I can actually get some decent Spanish chorizo. Jamon as well, if I want to pay through the nose for it).

Beans with Bacon and Garlic

Next up was a fairly simple dish that I encountered several times as a tapas dish: beans with bacon and garlic. It sounds like such a simple dish, and it is, but the several places I had experienced this dish did such a good job of it: nice beans cooked until wrinkly on the outside and creamy smooth inside, with just enough bacon and garlic to really blend with the smokier notes of the beans without overwhelming them. I really do need to try and duplicate this dish at home.

Another thing we found about Valencian cuisine (at least restaurants) was a distinct lack of vegetables except as ingredients in paella. Even at the tapas bars, most dishes were meat, sausage, or rice dishes. Labarra, however, served us up a very pleasant plate of marinated vegetables (peppers, onions, beans, and chickpeas) that did nicely satisfy out cravings, and worked with the rest of the meal.

Arroz al Horno

Finally, we ordered one main dish: Arroz al Horno ("baked rice"). Similar to Paella, it's a rice dish baked in the oven (instead of made on a pan) with blood sausage, pork, beans, garlic, and tomato. However, that's where the similarity ends. The rice is entirely different in texture, more like a US-style casserole instead of a paella's firm nature. And the dry cooking of the oven gives the rice a nice nuttiness. All in all, a rather pleasant and simple dish.

Overall, we really enjoyed Labarra, and were glad to find this place in it's nice little quiet corner of Valencia.

Labarra
Calle Maestro Gozalbo, 12
46005 Valencia, Spain

El Rall (Valencia, Spain)

2010-09-24T12:51:00.002-05:00

El Rall

Our first proper dining experience in Valencia: dinner at El Rall ("Especialitat en Arossos" or "Specialists in Rice Dishes"), located on a small plaza behind La Lonja, with the outdoor dining patio that most Valencian places seem to have (an ongoing mystery that I will have to return to Valencia to answer: what do they do when it's cold or rainy? 90% of Valencia's restaurant seating appears to be on outdoor plazas and patios), completely taking over a small plaza between four buildings.

El Rall is a good example of one of the things that makes this part of Spain rather cool: a restaurant that specializes in rice dishes. Valencia is known for it's many rice dishes, the foremost being Paella, which was actually invented here (Valencia is located at the edge of a giant marshy area called Albufera, which to this day has many rice paddies, although a substantial fraction of Spain's rice is actually imported now).

El Rall's Morcillas

Seeing that I'm at a place specializing in rice, we decided to order, well, rice. El Rall is, in particular, known as a place for Paella, especially the most-prized local variety, Valencian paella. Valencian paella consists of white rice, green vegetables, meat (usually pollo and canejo, the latter of which (rabbit) actually sent me looking for the phrasebook), beans and seasoning. Snails aren't uncommon, either. So we ordered up a large order of Paella Valencian (restaurants that serve up Paella for less than two people at a time are rare, so the single tourist needs to beware!), and settled back in for dinner.

However, we didn't start with the Paella, we started off with appetizers, picking probably one of the most Valencian items on the menu: Morcillas de Burgos con muselina de ajo confitado y jamon. Very hard to describe, it's basically the local black pudding (blood pudding with rice and barley) served up with a nice garlic mousseline and some Iberian ham. The result is a nice tapas-style little morsel that can be handled a bit like a finger sandwich, but popped into your mouth rather easily. I really liked these: the morcillas were very tasty, combining the nice flavor of the blood sausage with some rice for a nice texture, and the ham and mousseline atop atop the sausage added some nice savory notes to the item. I really liked this appetizer, and was kind of disappointed that I didn't order it again this trip (I did get a lot of Morcillas, but not prepared like this).

El Rall Paella Valencian

Then it was time for the paella to arrive. Being delivered with a flourish by the waiter, the paella Valencian was quite pleasant. Primarily being a dish of rice (in this case Spanish "bomba" rice), it was very nicely cooked, with just enough tooth to it to be reminiscent of a good risotto (there, now I've done it... I'll be pursued by angry Spaniards for comparing Spanish food to Italian...), but soft enough to start to char to the bottom of the pan in the way a good paella is supposed to (part of the joy of eating paella is scraping the pan). Also in the mix was a healthy mix of both chicken and rabbit, both nicely tender, and three different forms of beans (haricot, some sort of long flat bean, and fava beans), making for a pleasant dish.

The first of many paellas I experienced in Valencia, this was one of the most pleasant, and I got to enjoy it in an enjoyable outdoor terrace with perfect weather and friendly (albeit non-English speaking) waitstaff.

El Rall
Calle Tundidores, 2
Valencia, Spain

Concerning the Horchata (Various Valencian Locations)

2010-09-22T09:01:00.007-05:00

Horchata Daniel

Right after getting into Valencia, we had to go strait to our hotel in the outskirts of Valencia in a quiet little suburb known as Alboraya.

Alboraya's claim to fame is being the birthplace to the Horchata (also spelled Orchata, or Orxata in Valencian), the drink common to several Hispanic nations. The proper Valencian version has exactly three ingredients, water, chufa (tigernuts), and sugar. (The related Mexican horchata is generally made from rice or almonds and is spiced).

One legend links the origins of the name to James I of Aragon, who after being given the drink for the first time by a local in Alboraya, was said to have exclaimed "Això és or, xata!" ("That's gold, darling!")

In any case, the town of Alboraya is almost a shrine to the Horchata. The main street is Avenida de Horchata, and there are about a dozen horchaterias nearby, with Horchata Daniel being one of the most revered. So we went there to recuperate from our flight (we went at 1:30 am, which isn't "late" in Spain, this photo is from a later visit). Indeed, true to Spanish form, the place was quite happening, with most of the tables being filled with young couples or small groups going out to enjoy the Horchatas and many helados (ice creams) offered by Daniel.

Horchata Granizado

Of course, I had to get the Horchata. Being offered it either as liquid (liquida) or frozen (granizado), I opted for the latter, since it was still rather warm out. The resulting drink, shown here, was rather pleasant. Tasting somewhat similar to almond milk or a milkshake, it's a light, refreshing drink reminiscent of a nutty milkshake. A properly made Horchata de Chufa (I discovered during my visit that there is even a certifying authority for "authentico" horchata de chufas) has a nice robustness of flavor, which, quite frankly, I greatly prefer over the Latin American horchatas using almonds or rice (I can't blame them, however, since you can't make a horchata de chufa without chufa). We did discover sampling various other Horchatas around town that there is an art to making a proper one, since a few of the ones we sampled were gritty and/or chalky, but the ones from Horchata Daniel were silky smooth. As an added bonus, a proper Horchata is also dairy-free, so I didn't always have to lug my pills around.

Chufa (Tigernuts)

The waiter at Daniel was also nice enough to see that, as camera-toting tourists, we might need some explanation, so he came by and brought us a plate of chufas that we could sample, and explained what made the Valencian Horchata different from the Mexican ones I may have tried.

The next question, however, is how do you actually consume the horchata? There's a classic methodology to this in Valencia, which is the following process: (1) Order an ice-cold horchata. (2) Order a plate of fartons. (3) Consume horchata and fartons, primarily by dipping the fartons in the horchata. (4) Repeat. The overall process is really similar to that of Cafe du Monde in New Orleans (where you do the same with iced coffee and beignets).

Fartons

Of course, this begs the question, what the heck is a "farton"? The answer is simple, it's a soft breadstick-like pastry, very slightly sweetened, designed to be dipped into your horchata, soaking up some of it, so that the breadiness of the farton is nicely complemented by the sweet, milky liquid. Actually, though, the fartons themselves aren't that much by themselves, mostly tasting of bread. But this is by design, since there's already a lot of sugar in the horchata. The combination, however, is splendid, and I hope I didn't gain too much weight from the combination.

Over the trip, we also learned that horchata also makes a splendid base for several other desserts, such as what Horchata Daniel calls the "Flotaor": a scoop of ice cream floated on frozen horchata, or the "Sospir", a 50-50 blend of horchata and coffee granizado. Both were pleasant enough that we visited Horchata Daniel 6 times while we were in Alboraya, making us temporarily "regulars". Doing my part to support the local chufa industry, I guess.

Flotaor

We didn't limit ourselves to Horchata Daniel, either. Downtown Valencia also sports many Horchaterias, including Horchateria Santa Catalina and Horchateria El Siglo, both located a few meters off of Plaza de la Reina, and both having excellent Horchatas (the latter also having nice outside seating on the plaza, perfect for people-watching). Several of the mobile "Horxata" stands around the city (mostly by the tourist attractions) also serve up some nice horchatas,

So, if you ever find yourself even vaguely close to Valencia, I strongly suggest trying out the Horchata de Chufa. It's cold, it's refreshing, and it's part of a tradition going back hundreds of years.

Horchata Daniel
Avenida de la Horchata, 41
46120
Alboraya, Spain

Horchateria Santa Catalina
Plaza Santa Catalina, 6
46001
Valencia, Spain

El Siglo's Horchatas y Fartons

Horchateria El Siglo
Plaza Santa Catalina, 11
46001
Valencia, Spain

Vinea (Madrid Barajas International Airport, Spain)

2010-09-17T03:25:00.002-05:00

Vinea

As any of us that travel frequently can attest, the average quality of airport food is particularly lousy. Usually it's either fast food (served up by HMS Host catering, or some other similar foreign equivalent), captive-audience priced, or served by people that don't seem to understand that airports are frequented by people that are often in a hurry. So usually the result is quickly wolfing down some overpriced crappy food, hoping that your next flight won't be plagued by food poisoning.

So I always make it a point to review places that prove to be an exception to this rule. On my current trip, a great example of this was Vinea, in Terminal 4 at Madrid-Barajas International Airport. Vinea serves up a basic tapas menu and a selection of wines by the glass. If you've experienced Spain outside of airports, this sort of business isn't unusual, indeed, it is pretty much one of the concepts for Spanish fast food (the other is the similar stands serving jamon bocadillos and glasses of wine or cerveza). But the fact that Vinium does the same at Madrid's airport is nice, and makes it a very nice alternative to, say, the Spanish McDonalds right next door.

Vinea Tomato and Cheese salad

In any case, Carol and I had a fairly long layover, so we settled into two seats at the bar, and I went to the ordering counter. The staff quickly determined the obvious (that I'm approaching total non-fluency in Spanish), shifted to English, and offered up several nice suggestions for tapas, including a nice salmon, mozzarella, and tomato salad, a nice meat plate (they lit up when they heard me compare something to soppresata), and some nice wedges of Spanish cheese. We rounded it out with two glasses of temperanillo, running up the tab to 32 euro. A bit pricey, but not outlandish for an airport.

The food itself was quite good. The salad was made with perfectly ripe tomatoes, lightly smoked salmon, and nice, soft, and smooth mozzarella, making for a pleasant salad. The cheese plate was similarly nice, with two varieties of queso. The meat plate it where it really shined, with some nice Iberian ham (practically melting in your mouth), some sopresata, some chorizo, and another ham that I couldn't quite identify. Nice delicate meat textures with must enough cure and spicing to really make it shine.

Vinea Meat Tapas Plate

Rounded out with a nice glass of tempranillo, and it was a perfectly fine way to spend a layover at Madrid's airport (alas, my next layover here wasn't so lucky...)

Vinea
Terminal 4
Madrid Barajas International Airport
Spain

The Table Cafe (Southwark, London, UK)

2010-09-14T04:24:00.004-05:00

The Table

After a day of trekking about London (this time visiting the Imperial War Museum and the Tate Modern), we met up with my sister-in-law at The Founders Arms pub, and walked to dinner at The Table café in Southwark.

The Table is a modestly sized café that focuses on making meals with as many locally sourced meats and organic produce as possible, particularly from Essex, Surrey and Mersea. They are well known for having quality meats for dinner, and supposedly for having a great breakfast as well, although I haven't yet taken that opportunity.

I started my meal with some carpaccio, served up with a light frisee salad. The meat itself was nicely sliced and marbled, served up with a slightly Asian preparation, with a bit of soy, some ginger, and some sesame. Normally I eschew too many things added to my carpaccio, since it tends to cover up the flavor of the meat, but here it worked out quite nicely, complementing the meat in a similar manner to a nice bulgoki, and nicely dressing the frisee as well.

Carpaccio

My main course was braised pork cheeks with pasta. Both were perfectly executed, with the pork being nicely tender and flavorful, and the pasta being al dente. For those not familiar to pork cheeks, they are actually similar to pork belly: soft and tender meat (cheeks don't get a lot of work) with some nice fat layers, they are quite flavorful cuts of meat. Lightly sautéed and served up in a light cream sauci, this dish was quite enjoyable (and, indeed, both Carol and my brother ordered it as well).

Sophie opted for the rabbit sausage, which was also quite pleasing prepared and well received, although I didn't try any of it (I was already somewhat overstuffed by the time I finished my own entree).

Braised Pork Cheeks and Pasta

A

For dessert, Carol and split the white chocolate bread pudding, served up with ice cream. The bread pudding was nicely textured, with the chocolate notes from the white chocolate adding a nice flavor to the dish.

Overall, we rather enjoyed The Table, and were particularly pleased with the pork cheeks. I'm looking forward to going here for breakfast (likely on another visit)

The Table Cafe
83 Southwark Street
London, SE1
England

Wagamama (London, UK)

2010-09-08T04:29:00.003-05:00

Miso Ramen

While I mostly focus on the truly offbeat eats here, every once in while I encounter a chain restaurant that is notable for its quality, its novelty (especially chains in regions outside my normal travels), or both. One chain that I've enjoyed for many years for many trips to London is Wagamama.

For those note familiar with it, Wagamama has been around since the early 90s, primarily in London, and is based upon a somewhat loose interpretation of the Japanese Ramen Bar concept: serving up fresh bowls of noodles or rice on long bench tables to customers, focusing on quick but good food. They've changed it from a purely Ramen noodle concept to a more pan-Asian motif, with the menu also having several stir fries, Thai dishes, Chinese dishes, and other Japanese noodles dishes. Basically, they serve up everything from gyoza, to salads, to yaki soba, to curries, to ramen and itame in a "fast casual" setting.

Ginger Beer

I like it, since it's one of three ways to get fairly quick and affordable food while traveling around London (the others are to find a decent looking pub and get some pub fare, or grab a train station pasty from one of those places that make my sister-in-law's Cornish family shudder). They also have some nice little hidden gems on the menu, such as gyoza and their own ginger beer, which is rather tasty (reminding me of the made-to-order ginger ale at Big Bowl in Minneapolis, another similar restaurant concept).

As far as the food itself goes, I've always loved the ramen at Wagamama, particularly the miso ramen, with lemongrass-spiced chicken and miso broth severed over a giant bed of fresh ramen noodles. It's several notches better than those nasty instant ramen noodles (although somewhat shy of what you'd get from an authentic ramen shop). Served up with some nice hit chili oil, it's a good hearty meal for under 10 quid.

Chicken Itame

On the other side of the menu, Carol got the chicken itame, which is basically a Japanese-inspired variation of a Thai curry: coconut and lemongrass soup with sprouts, chili peppers, book choy, mushrooms, and cilantro (err, coriander, this is England...), which she rather enjoyed as well.

So, it's not fine cuisine, but it's a good option for a quick lunch, especially for people in a similar situation to mine (tourists looking for something affordable but different than your typical London fare). My US readers should aldo note: Wagamama even has a handful of US locations, mostly in the Boston area...

Wagamama
Over 100 locations worldwide, but primarily in the London area
www.wagamama.com

The Beefsteak

2010-09-06T17:07:00.003-05:00

A sample course of meat
(Delmonico here)

For the last several years, I've bee an active member of The Upper Valley Beer Society, which is primarily a homebrew club, although we also have visiting brewers, go on the occasional brewery/cidery tours, and host the occssional special event, such as last March's St Patricks Corned Beef dinner in conjuction with Umpleby's Bakery in Hanover.

Back in April, Charles, the owner of Umpleby's, distributed an essay about the history of the Beefsteak (you can read a NYTimes article on it here as well), a New York area traditional that is a lengthy food event featuring profound quantities of beef (and a few other meats), beer, and little else (tradition also mandates that one wear their "second best suit"). We found the tradition compelling, and given our easy access to amazing local beef and beer up here, decided to throw one of our own.

A proper beverage

So on August 28th, approximately 18 people gathered at Umpleby's with a half barrel of Victory Prima Pils, 100 pounds of beef (and other guest meats, including pork and bratwurst), and their appetites. The beef was provided by Back Beyond Farm in Chelsea, VT. Read more about them here: http://backbeyondfarm.com. The goal was to see how much of a dent we could make before everyone was satiated, or 10pm, hit.

We ended up hitting both at about the same point. Kicking off with the tapping of the keg at 4:30, the first round of meat came out shortly thereafter, with fresh grilled and sliced flank steak, pork, and bratwurst bring delivered out on a plate of bread (one of the principles of the Beefsteak is "no utensils", so the meat is served up on slices of bread, which generally serve as a service vehicle, being stacked upon your plate as the meat is consumed, occasionally eating some of the slices as they accumulate drippings). Five more such meat platters arrived periodically from the grill, including sirloin, skirt steak, hangar steak, tenderloin, and delmonico steaks delivered in wave after wave of meat. Around 7pm we took an intermission, standing up and hanging around the keg for a while, before resuming the meat courses. In the end, we ended up consuming 50 lbs of beef (as well as additional quantities of pork and sausage), and most of the beer (some being transferred to growlers for taking home). We also had a nice session of meat education, referring to Charles' copy of Larousse Gastronomique.

Meat Education

All in all, it was an outstanding success, and one that really allowed us to showcase the quality of our local meat, and enjoy some friendship over some pints. I'm looking forward to a repeat of the Upper Valley Beefsteak, albeit after having some months to recover from this one.

Full pictures can be seen here

Quince (Olmsted Falls, OH)

2010-09-06T04:30:00.002-05:00

Quince Scallop Mac and Cheese

As frequent readers of my blog are aware, one of my major clients is NASA Glenn Research Center, so I travel fairly frequently to the Cleveland area. As several of my other reviews, such as Greenhouse Tavern and Wonton Gourmet indicate, Cleveland is quite the food destination, and I've so far only touched the tip of the iceberg (with such recommended establishments as AMP150, Lola, Lolita, B-spot, and several others remaining on my hit list for reviewing). However, most of these places (with the noticeable exception of AMP 150) are downtown or other places not easily accessible to GRC (which is by the airport, well west of downtown), so for years the question of "Where shall we go for lunch?" was typically answered with "well, thte food court at the mall isn't too bad..." Indeed, that's where we've eaten, more times than I could count.

Until earlier this year, when my coworker Patrick and I visited GRC, and one of our NASA hosts, Don, said "Hey, I know a decent place in Olmsted Falls." So we packed into his car and drove out the west side of NASA GRC and headed down to Olmsted Falls by the railroad track.

Nestled into a little complex of buildings right on the tracks was a place called Quince, a small café featuring innovative variations on American classic fare, such as sandwiches, soups, and wild variations on mac and cheese. I ended having a stunningly good lunch platter of "Fish and Chips"' consisting of tuna tartare, homemade tater tots, some lightly breaded salmon, and a mixed green salad, that was a phenomenal value at $8. It was also perfectly executed, with the tartare being nicely spiced with a light ginger sauce, the tater tots being perfectly seasoned with herbs, and the breaded salmon not overcooked and having a nice horseradish sauce with it. The rest of the party's lunch selections were similarly amazing. Alas, having expected that I would be dining at the mall again, the camera was left back at my hotel room.

Quince Sandwich

So this time when I found that I had another trip to Cleveland on the docket, I made sure of two things... To make more reservations at Greenhouse Tavern (to introduce my coworker Patrick), and to make sure that I brought my camera so that I could get pictures of Quince.

This time, I decided to try one of the mac and cheese dishes, selecting the scallop mac and cheese. Those that know me and my food allergies know that I usually avoid seafood like the plague (due to allergies), but also know that very fresh seafood doesn't trigger them much (I'm allergic to one of the substances that forms as seafood breaks down, so quality raw fish, and anything that has been poached or fried without being abused usually doesn't affect me). At Quince, I decided it was worth the risk. And I'm glad I did, since it was a very nicely done dish. The scallops (small ones mixed in with the cheese, and a large pan-fried one on top) were perfectly cleaned and cooked, and combined very nicely with the tender hand-made pasta and rich cheese and béchamel sauce. The result was a near perfect dish for lunch, and again a bargain at $9.

My coworker Patrick opted for the chicken sandwich, and also wasn't disappointed. So if you find yourself on hhe west side of the Cleveland area, it's probably quite hard to find a better value for a high-quality lunch than Quince. I certainly plan to come back more often.

Quince
Grand Pacific Junction
8074 Columbia Road
Olmsted Falls, OH

German John's Bakery (Hillsborough, NH)

2010-09-02T07:38:00.002-05:00

German John's Bakery

A few weeks sgo, we found ourselves driving through Hillsborough and Peterborouh in southern NH. Looking for a snack, we had recalled that several years earlier we had passed some sort of German bakery, but couldn't recall details. This time, armed with GPS and 3G wireless, we found the place: German John's Bakery in Hillsborough.

A modest storefront in a building shared with an ice cream parlor (which appears to be run by the same folks), it's a cozy little bakery with a several racks of baked goods, a chalkboard listing available sausages, some shelves of German groceries, and a few tables. We opted for a few classic soft pretzels, and went outside to the tables out front.

Pretzels

These were rather good pretzels, with a nice, firm exterior crust with that nice, dark, finish you only get from lye. The interior was chewy but not heavy, with the thinner bits of the pretzel having a nice crunch. I don't get a lot of good soft pretzels these days, most resemble the sort of thing you get in a mall food court, but these actually reminded me of my many fine evenings in the biergarten in Munich, eating fine bretzen and radish with a nice dunkel. At least I kmow where to find a good pretzel if I'm in the area.

We also got a loaf of hefezopf, a nice, mildly sweet German breakfadt bread with walnuts and raisins, as well as scoring a fairly rare item from the grocery shelves, a zuckerhut. Now I can again fire up the fueurzangenbowle...

German John's Bakery
5 W Main St
Hillsborough, NH

Pho Hong (Burlington, VT)

2010-08-31T14:53:00.002-05:00

Pho Hong

(Getting caught up on my blogging...)

For the nth year in a row, Carol and I went to the Vermont Brewers' Festival in Burlington, VT. Every year we like to attend on Saturday, enjoy the festival, and then explore downtown Burlington a bit, and then find a new place to try to eat.

This year, we settled on Pho Hong. I've always loved Vietnamese food, but it's one of the hardest cuisines for me to indulge in. From my house in Grantham, I can draw an approximate 60 mile radius circle without enclosing a single Vietnamese place. The nearest is in Manchester (Golden Bowl, which I've reviewed here). But I'm always looking for new places, and sometime in 2008 Pho Hong appeared, making it the third Vietnamese place in the Burlington area, and (I believe) the first in the actual city. Located on the north side of town in what appears to be an old bus terminal (much of the ambiance of which is preserved in the laundromat next door), it's in a fairly industrial space, but I'm kinda used to that from Southeastern Asian places (my favorite Thai place in St Paul had all the ambiance of an office-supply store).

Pho Hong Cha Gio

Settling in, I realized that it had been long enough since my last Vietnamese food (March, at Pho Dao in Murieta, CA), I decided to again go back to one of my favorite dishes. While I love Pho, much of the time I instead opt for Bun Cha Gio Thit Nuong, that delicious combination of steamed noodles, charbroiled pork, egg roll, and pickled veggies. So I ordered up that and some cha giao (Vietnamese egg rolls).

The egg rolls themselves I was somewhat disappointed in. Unlike some of the richer, thicker, somewhat meaty rolls I've had at many places, my rolls here were thin and barely stuffed. But the spicing was good and the pork taste nice, and the four rolls on the plate made up for some of the lack of heft.

Bun Cha Gio Thit Nuong

My Bun Cha Gio Thit Nuong, however, was quite tasty. they did a good job with it, with a really nice sear on the the pork, decent crisp on the egg roll, and nicely soft-pickled veggies. The nuoc cham nicely complimented both the pork and the egg roll, making for a nice overall balance of flavor. The dish was also nicely layered, one of my pet peeves of some Vietnamese places is that they just toss a bunch of stuff in a bowl. Pho Hong nicely builds up the dish.

Carol opted for Hu Tieu Mi Bo Vien, white and yellow noodles with beef balls, which was basically Pho with more varied noodles, making for a nice change on the theme.

Hu Tieu Mi Bo Vien

So, I think Burlington does indeed have another worthy Vietnamese dining destination. I'm sure this place is popular with the laundromat crowd from next door....

Pho Hong
325 N Winooski Avenue
Burlington, VT

Latitudes Restaurant (New Castle, NH)

2010-07-07T09:08:00.002-05:00

Latitudes Restaurant

Two weekends ago my parents came to visit, and since we rarely get down to the seacoast (despite NH being a small state, the coast is ~2 hours from here), we decided that would be a good day trip, with some driving, seeing Strawbery Banke, and wandering around Portsmouth. Afterward, we wanted a late lunch, so we ended up heading down to New Castle to the Wentworth-by-the-sea resort so we could indulge in the classic New England summertime treat: the Lobster Roll.

Now, between the Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine coastlines, there are almost uncountably many shacks, stands, joints, diners, and restaurants that will serve up lobster rolls, throwing a mish-mash of shredded lobster (with maybe a token bit of claw meat), onion, celery, and mayo onto a hot dog bun and calling that a lobster roll... indeed, even McDonalds occasionally gets into this act (although it's been a few years since I've spotted a McLobster). But there's a difference between a good lobster roll and a great one, but even then, there are quite a few good choices in the Portsmouth Area (Red's Eats and Beach Plum, in particular, have lobster rolls that are well-regarded by both tourists and locals).

But one place that I was told had an outstanding lobster roll was Latitudes Restaurant, the open-air casual dining area down the hill from the Wentworth-by-the-Sea resort. Nestled in between Wentworth's pool and their little harbor, it's a modestly sized deck with about 20 tables (and another 8 crammed inside). Despite the questionable weather (clouds loomed ominously the entire meal, and a few drops even sprinkled on us at one point), we opted for a nice table overlooking the boats.

My mom opted for the Ocean Breeze salad (tomato green salad with melon, berries, and chicken salad), which I'm rather disappointed I didn't photograph, since the description doesn't do it justice, it was an elaborately crafted and bountiful salad of fresh greens and a really nice chicken salad. I almost wished I had ordered it, but I opted for the lobster roll like Carol and my father.

Latitudes Lobster Roll

I'm glad I did, since this was a stunningly good example of what a lobster roll should be. A very bountiful pile of lobster meat, not skimping on the claw meat, spilling out in a way making you certain that you aren't finishing this sandwich without at least a little fork action. Unlike a lot of lobster rolls, this one was lightly mayonnaised, with no significant filler like onion or celery, allowing the whole sandwich to focus on the perfectly cooked lobster. Served up on a perfectly butters and toasted fluffy jumbo-sized roll with some arugula lettuce, this sandwich was really about lobster, lobster, and nothing but lobster, in abundance, with no evidence of skimping.

However, it didn't end there. Most lobster rolls, especially those sold from little stands and shacks, typically come with some fries on the side, served up as an afterthought, often reeking of stale oil that's also been used to fry up fish filets. That definitely wasn't the case at Latitudes, both of the sides coming with my lobster roll were top notch, with both nice mustard potato salad and apple cole slaw, that, like the lobster roll itself, focused on their ingredients, were simple, and obvious handmade with care.

While this wasn't a cheap lunch (at $19, I think it's the most expensive lobster roll I've actually had), a typical good lobster roll will set you back $13 or $14 these days, and this was definitely several notches above most of those rolls, both in quality and quantity. I'd gladly pay $19 again for one of these rolls.

Latitudes Restaurant
Wentworth-by-the-sea Resort
588 Wentworth Road
New Castle, NH

American Flatbread Burlington Hearth (Burlington, VT)

2010-06-04T08:37:00.003-05:00

American Flatbread
Burlington Hearth

On Memorial Day, we decided to drive up to Burlington, Vermont, and go bike riding on the Island Line bike trail. Afterward, we then headed into downtown Burlington for some dinner, ending up at American Flatbread after stops at Three Needs for some beer and Hong's Chinese Dumplings for a quick snack.

We've long been fans of American Flatbread. Being first introduced to them via their frozen pizzas (which have outstanding quality, unlike most frozen pizza), we then visited their main bakery in Waitsfield, VT back in 2001. That place is an experience; they've taken an old barn, and 4-5 days a week they produce the frozen pizzas there, and for the weekends they put away the assembly line, rolls out tables with red-checked tableclothes, and run a very informal restaurant and bar. It's quite the experience, and one I recommend (I'd write it up here, but I still don't have photos from there), since it is about as "Vermont" as things get around here.

In 2005, American Flatbread opened up a location in downtown Burlington, which brings a good part of the Flatbread experience to town. They also have a small brewery on-site (Zero Gravity Brewing) that provides a nice variety of microbrews (and several guest taps) to enjoy with your pizza. After a pair of "Mr Black" Schwarzbiers at the bar, our table was ready.

American Flatbread
New Vermont Sausage Pizza

We ended up settling on their "New Vermont Sausage" pizza, which has locally made fennel sausage, mushrooms, and caramelized onions. Normally served as a sauceless pizza, we had them add their normal fire-roasted tomato sauce, which resulted in a very tasty pizza, without being too overloaded with toppings. It also has a most excellent crust; American Flatbread is well aware that the cornerstone of a good pizza is a good crust with a good toasted char to it. They don't disappoint.

One odd thing that I've noticed about American Flatbread. I'm used to three styles of cuts: the classic radial wedge slices, the midwest "square" cut, and the Pepe's style "drunken cut" (like the wedges, but done quickly and deliberately sloppily to make random slices). Here's one I haven't seen elsewhere: the "fishbone" cut: wedges on the ends, but "ribs" in the middle. Odd. I think I'll ask for classic wedges next time.

American Flatbread
"Fishbone" Cut

Despite the odd slicing, however, this is still great pizza, and it's nice to see them maintaining consistency even as they expand.

American Flatbread
Burlington Hearth
115 Saint Paul Street
Burlington, VT

The Umpleburger (Umpleby's Bakery, Hanover, NH)

2010-05-20T09:02:00.002-05:00

Umpleby's Bakery

While I've previously blogged about Umpleby's Bakery and Cafe in Hanover, they've recently made a menu change that made it worth revisiting my review.

In short, they've partly entered the world of burgers. Several minor happenings combined to make this happen. First, Umpleby's has had a good relationship with Back Beyond Farm in Chelsea, VT for several years (if I recall correctly, that's who supplies the sausage for their excellent sausage rolls). Charles Umpleby also read an article in New York Magazine about Pat La Frieda's wholesale meat business that sells well-regarded hamburger meat to many pubs and restaurants in the city (you can read more about Pat La Frieda's in a tour done by Nick Solares over at AHT) and wanted to try something similar. Finally, he's already running a successful bakery and cafe that includes sandwiches, so it wasn't a stretch to add a burger: the Umpleburger (great name, by the way).

Umpleburger and Oven Fries

There are some limitations to the approach. Right now the Umpleburger is a Thursday-only lunch special. And they don't have a deep fryer, so they are doing oven fries instead of deep-fried french fries (more on that later, however). But on Thursday at lunch you can go in and order an Umpleburger and fries for $8.25 (or $8.75 with cheese, good meat has its price), and go grab a seat on the patio as they cook it up.

The burger is made with local, grass-fed beef, formed into a nice not-overpacked patty. The beef itself was flavorful and juicy, and served as a good foundation for a burger, but there were two places this could be improved. First, I'd really like to order my burgers medium rare. Sure, I know all about how various health codes encourage places to cook burgers at least medium, but I'm willing to put up with "undercooked meat" warnings and fine print acknowledging that my burger may be killing me, if it allows my burger meat not to get killed as well. It's good meat coming from a good, local farm and not some meat-packing factory, we should be able to enjoy it that way.

Umpleburger closeup

Next, the burger patty itself needs more of a sear on it. Between the "medium" cooking and the lack of a sear, my burger had more of a uniform soft gray texture throughout. Good flavor and juiciness, but we're really missing the added crunch and taste that a good external sear provides. I'm willing to put up with a bit of overcooking of the burger if it gets me that good sear.

Enough about what didn't work, however. I don't usually like brioche buns on burgers: the bun is usually a bit too sweet, and usually not the right texture (I'm not alone in this, my friends over at AHT have quite a few entries about good burgers getting held back by brioche). However, in the case of the Umpleburger, it actually seems to work rather well, with a solid crust, good absorption of meat juices (this is one place many brioche buns fall flat), and decent flavor that's not overpowering the meat (indeed, I think this bun would be excellent with a few thick slabs of cold, rare roast beef).

The fries, however, were outstanding. Lacking the deep-fryer, these are made in the oven, but using bacon fat left over from the bakery's bacon preparation. The result is excellent oven fries, with a soft tender interior, a very crisp shell, and enough carryover flavor from the bacon fat that the fries were very flavorful.

In the end, the Umpleburger was a good burger, but not a great burger. Nothing earthshaking, but it showed quite a bit of potential, and with a little bit of tweaking, could possibly be a winner.

Umpleby's Bakery
3 South Street
Hanover, NH

Miracle of Science Bar and Grill (Cambridge, MA)

2010-05-19T09:21:00.003-05:00

Miracle of Science

Last week I had to have a quick trip down to MIT for work, and have been craving a good burger. Luckily, Cambridge sports several burger joints that all have a good following, including Mr Bartley's Burger Cottage (near Harvard, still on my hit list), Cambridge Common, Flat Patties, Four Burgers (which I almost went to this time), Craigie on Main, and Miracle of Science. I opted on the last of these, since the location is close to MIT (in the shadow of the Tootsie Roll factory, and kitty-corner from Toscanin's Ice Cream).

Miracle of Science has the sort of personality you expect from a place by MIT, between the name itself, and how the overall menu is designed with some modest geek appeal (the menu is scrawled on a blackboard in the style of a periodic table, and characterized by color, and most of the seating is lab stools). It's a little tacky, but it does give the place some ambiance, even if the actually crowd here is more the "business suit" crowd than the "geek" crowd, and the servers are more grumpy than anything else.

Miracle of Science Ronie Burger

The menu itself is actually pretty sparse: burgers and skewers being the bulk of it. After looking at the various options, I settled on the Ronie Burger, with sports minced jalapeno mixed into the patty and pepper-jack cheese on top.

I'm not usually a great fan of items mixed into my burgers (having suffered through the 1980s craze of mixing onion soup mix into every damn thing imaginable), but this actually worked. The burger was nicely cooked, juicy, and had a nice, pleasant jalapeno bite throughout, leaving a nice mellow pepper tingle on my lips with each bite. The potatoes on the side were also nicely seasoned and served with a pleasant tomato chutney, in a way that was actually more satisfying than most run-of-the-mill french fries would have been. Despite some slight disappointment in the bun (the French-style bun got an odd sogginess to it, and seemed a bit bland), I'd easily get this again, despite the "novelty burger" nature of it.

Ronie Burger Exposed

Overall, I was quite pleased, and I look forward to another visit so I can try the skewers.

Miracle of Science Bar and Grill
321 Mass Ave
Cambridge, MA

Blackie's Hot Dogs (Cheshire, CT)

2010-05-15T20:49:00.003-05:00

Blackie's

As I've mentioned a few times before, a lot of people believe that (to quote my former coworker Marc), "A hot dog is a hot dog." I don't concur, I've eaten enough hot dogs, from Sonoran Hot Dogs, to Chicago Dogs, to DC half-smokes, to New York papaya dogs, to Dodger dogs, that this clearly isn't the case (and for those that aren't up to speed on their hot dog styles, our buddies over at SeriousEats put together this handy guide).

It's also important to note that it's not just serving styles that vary, but also the dog itself. The Sabrett's beef hot dog is what give those New York dogs their flavor. Similarly, a Chicago dog isn't really right unless it's a Vienna Beef dog hiding under all that stuff. And in the case of Connecticut, there's quite a bit of variety hiding in this little state, with several regional butchers producing the hallmark style of that state: beef and pork blend, spiced similar to New York dog with lots of garlic and paprika notes. One of my favorite hot dogs is one of these from Hummel Bros. in New Haven, CT, making a good natural casing hot dog with a serious spiciness to it.

Blackie's Interior

And one of the best places to get a Hummel dog is Blackie's in Cheshire, CT. A no-nonsense hot dog place if you've ever seen one, it's basically a serving counter with two small dining rooms on each end of the building. You simply walk up to the counter, tell them how many hot dogs you'd like (the menu is basically just hot dogs, although allegedly you can get a burger if you really wanted one), and what to drink, and you're ready to go.

The Blackie's hot dog is prepared using a fairly exotic preparation approach, in which the dog is fried in shallow peanut oil until it starts to rip open down the side (for those folks familiar with Rutt's Hut in NJ, they do something similar with their "ripper" hot dogs). The result is a nice combination of the Hummel hot dog taste combined with just a little bit of crunch and the lighter snap of the natural casing.

Blackie's Hot Dogs

Served up in a side-split (instead of the more usual "New Enland Style" top-split) bun, the Blackie's dog is then served up naked, with a grand total of two toppings out on the counter: brown mustard, and Blackie's own hot pepper relish. The latter of these is what Blackie's is really about. The relish is rich, hearty, spicy, and has just enough heat that you feel it on your lips for 5 minutes after you eat. It's also the perfect complement to the spicing of the hot dogs, and just oozes into the little rips made from the cooking process.

Add in a Birch Beer (on tap!), and you've got an excellent roadside lunch.

Blackie's Hot Dogs
2200 Waterbury Rd
Cheshire, CT

John's Pizzeria (West Village, Manhattan, NY)

2010-05-14T09:23:00.006-05:00

John's Pizzeria

Well, at 7pm on May 1st we finished the "Manhattan Death March" by arriving at the south end of Battery Park. After a short break as we watched the sun starting to set, it was decided that a celebration was in order, and that beer and pizza was going to be the order of the evening.

After some discussion of various pizza options, we settled on John's Pizzeria on Bleecker Street in the West Village. Down the street from Joe's Pizza that I hit up earlier in the day, John's is a very different pizzeria from Joe's. Coal oven instead of gas fired. Whole pies and no slices. Table service instead of counter.

Indeed, John's Pizzeria is one of the venerable New York pizza institutions. Trained by Gennaro Lombardi (of Lombardi's fame), John Sasso opened this place in 1929, making it one of the oldest pizzerias in the city.

John's Pizzeria Coal Oven

It's also one of the limited number of coal-fired oven pizzerias in the city, since New York City banned coal for environmental reasons in the 1970s (existing ovens were grandfathered, but even then, it's led to some interesting occasional drama, such as the original Lombardi's closing in 1984 due to oven damage). The higher temperature (and hence very quick cooking) and different atmosphere of a coal oven gives a distinctive flavor to a good coal-oven pie.

The result is a really good pizza, and despite a few shortcomings (from watching the kitchen, they are using a canned pre-made sauce, for example), John's delivers a quality pie. We ordered three of them. Pizza #1 was Sausage, Pepper, and Pepperoni Pizza. A rather good example of a "meat pizza", this had excellent crust, proper amounts of sauce and cheese, and a really good toast to the cheese and meats.

Sausage, Pepper, and Pepperoni Pizza

Pizza #2 was Mozzarella, Basil, and Riccotta, which, while being a bit heavy, was very flavorful and enjoyable. Pizza #3 was Mushroom, Pepper, Basil, and Roasted Tomato (which my cousin's place up in Stowe, VT would call a "Treehugger"), this was a nice combination of flavors without any of the grease resulting from a lot of meat.

The result was a good dinner with some good beer in a pleasant pizzeria, without inflicting much damage on the wallet.

John's Pizzeria
278 Bleecker St

Mushroom, Pepper, Basil,
and Roasted Tomato Pizza

(between Jones St & Morton St)
West Village
New York, NY

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Truck (Various NYC Locations)

2010-05-13T10:26:00.002-05:00

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Truck

After stopping for a break and some pizza in Greenwich Village, the Death March then proceeded east to Greene Street to work our way south to Church St and the WTC site (and then on to Battery Park, finishing the nearly 20 mile hike). This wasn't completely planned (early routes had us traveling down Broadway), but this ended up working out quite well, since we happened across a Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream Truck on Greene between Spring and Prince. This wasn't the first Van Leeuwen truck we spotted, there had been another over by the High Line, but this time everyone was in the mood for a short ice cream break.

Van Leeuwen serves a number of premium ice cream flavors, with a nice thick, creamy ice cream base. Flavors run from the standard chocolate/vanilla/strawberry (although all are naturally flavored), with several nut- and spice-based flavors as well, including pistachio, hazelnut, and ginger.

Van Leeuwen Strawberry and Giandiua cone

Both Carol and I opted for the combination of strawberry and gianduia (which is a blend of the chocolate and hazelnut ice cream). This was some good artisan ice cream. The texture was creamy, the consistency perfect with no extra air whipped in, and for both flavors you could really taste the fresh cream and the delicate notes of the flavor. As far as the flavors themselves, the strawberry was a little too delicate for my tastes (it was more of a "cream with strawberry hints" flavor), but the gianduia was sublime. The chocolate notes combined perfectly with the hazelnut notes in the same manner as Nutella, but keeping the nice soft creaminess without any greasy notes. The chocolate notes were strong, and it wasn't overly sweetened, either. In short, it was a seriously good scoop of ice cream.

With several trucks around Manhattan, if seeking them out, it's best to check out their twitter feed

Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream
Various Manhattan Locations

Joe's Pizza (West Village, New York, NY)

2010-05-12T13:51:00.002-05:00

Joe's Pizza

I'm enough of a fan of both New York and pizza that last fall I even did a Pizza Tour of Manhattan and the Bronx from Scott's Pizza Tours. While I definitely have my favorite pizza places in this world (Bianco, Lombardi's, Patsy's, and the New Haven places), there's plenty of room for variety in the pizza world. Indeed, the folks over at Slice compiled this handy guide to 21 different regional pizza styles that are out there in this modern world of mine.

However, if you really add up all the styles, look at all the chains, and really look at what people think and expect with the word "pizza", the result is something similar to your basic New York style "Slice" of pizza. A thin but still chewy crust with moderate saucing and fairly heavy cheese (and not too many toppings), this is your standard "fold it down the middle and eat while standing" pizza, usually bought from a place advertising low cost slices ($0.99 used to be common, although recent inflation has hefted a lot of those prices to $1.25 and $1.50 these days).

Your typical "pizza joint"

I always have called this style of pizza "Joint" pizza, since you mostly get it in places that would be called "joints" and not "restaurants", "dining rooms", or anything else fancy. You walk in and buy your slices from the counter, usually with a quick re-heat in the oven, you slap on a quick sprinkle of dusty low-grade parm and/or red pepper flakes, and you're ready to go. Nothing fancy, but this is what the quintessential pizza is: a fast food.

I could probably exhaust years writing about nothing but the different places in New York (hundreds!) that serve a basic variation of the New York Slice (go look over at Slice's blog, they've been writing up New York pizza places for years, and still have a long way to go), but a quick check of several print and online media sources all list one place as rising above others for the basic slice: Joe's Pizza on 6th and Bleecker.

A modest storefront (shown here), Joe's is your basic pizza joint: slightly dark, with a serving counter where you can point at the slices you want, which are then (if not just out of the oven) reheated and served to you on a paper plate. And that's what I got, your basic regular slice (plain mozzarella), which I ate standing at a rickety table out front.

A proper "New York Slice"

The slice was a perfect example of the style: crust was perfectly thin and crisp. Sauce was nicely seasoned and not overpowering either the cheese or the crust. And the cheese itself was nicely toasted and warm, and just greasy enough to really taste like a good slice of pizza without being a complete gut bomb.

It this the best pizza ever? Not even close. Was it good? Yes, very good, and a great example of the classic New York slice.

Joe's Pizza
7 Carmine Street
West Village
New York, NY

Gray's Papaya (New York, NY)

2010-05-10T08:27:00.002-05:00

Gray's Papaya

Our next lunch stop on the Manhattan Death March was for hot dogs. Like many regions of the country (as an aside, Wikipedia has a rather nice summary of regional hot dog variations, New York City has it's own take on hot dogs. In fact, it has two: the "dirty water dog" (a typical street cart dog, so named since they simmer them in warm water in the cart) and the "papaya dog". The latter is the interesting one, since, despite the name, the papaya dog doesn't actually have papaya in or on it; it's the same Sabrett's hot dog you're buying from the dirty water carts on the street, although they've grilled it instead boiling it, and it's generally offered up with both kraut and hot onion sauce as condiments.

The name comes from the origin of the papaya dog, Papaya King on 86th St. and Third Ave. on the Upper East Side. Originally opening in 1931, Papaya King started out as a tropical fruit punch stand, but had enough requests for hot dogs that they started serving them, and one of the classics of New York street food was born: the combination of a grilled Sabrett's hot dog and a tropical fruit drink (typically a Papaya). The concept was so successful that by the 1970s, Papaya King had spawned several offspring, including Gray's Papaya (founded by a former Papaya King partner in 1973) and several other similar hot dog and fruit juice stands (Mike's Papaya, Papaya Dog, and several others throughout the city). However, there remain two giants in the business: Papaya King and Gray's Papaya, forming one of those legendary rivalries, one primarily enforce by geography: Gray's is a West Side set of eateries, while Papaya King is on the East Side.

Gray's Papaya Kitchen

Our hike took us through the West Side, so we didn't have a chance to partake in Papaya King (we passed not too far from their 125th St location, but it would've been too much of a detour), but the route took us by several Gray's Papaya locations, and we stopped as a group at the West 72nd Street and Broadway location.

Gray's is all about efficiency, with their motto being "When your hungry, broke, or just in a hurry", running two serving lines and a menu that's basically just hot dogs and a very wide assortment of tropical fruit drinks. Oh, and a "Recession Special" of two hot dogs and a medium drink that's been on the menu for several recessions (I recall seeing the same Recession Special signs in the 70s, although the price back then was $2). I opted for the recession special with a papaya drink, and took my two loaded dogs (with the onion sauce and kraut) out to the sidewalk to enjoy.

Gray's Papaya Dogs

I'll be honest in that a Gray's Papaya dog isn't my favorite hot dog, but at such a low price ($4.43 for my Recession Special), I can't exactly complain, and the resulting dog is actually pretty good. The Sabrett's dog is grilled but still has a nice natural casing "snap" to it. The kraut and sweet mysterious onion sauce (sweeter and less spicy than a lot of other similar sauces out there, like the DC-area "cooked onion" sauce common down there), complement the dog nicely. And the sweetness of the papaya drink both refresh and cleanse the salt of the hot dog, making this a very good snack. I think most everyone in the group enjoyed our brief stop at Gray's.

Gray's Papaya
72nd and Broadway (and 3 other Manhattan locations)
New York, NY

Beard Papa's Cream Puffs

2010-05-06T20:21:00.003-05:00

Beard Papa's Cream Puffs

Last fall, I had dinner with a bunch of my friends down in the DC area, and during the after-dinner conversation an interesting topic came up: "What would it be like to walk from one end of Manhattan to another?"

Well, I'd actually done this before (back in 2006, when I was visiting friends in NYC and had 6 hours to kill), but wanted to do it again, with some more time to kill. So did a bunch of the other folks, so we picked a date and decided to just do it. The result was the "Manhattan Death March", which you can read about here.

A nice byproduct of the effort was that, since we were planning on walking almost 20 miles, we didn't really have to feel guilty about stopping for the occasional snack. So snack we did.

Beard Papa's Cream Puffs

Our first stop was H&H Bagels, which I've covered already, but just down the street from H&H, we had our second pit stop, which was Beard Papa's Cream Puffs.

Beard Papa is a rather odd phenomenon, since despite all the French bakery-style decorations, it's actually a Japanese company (Muginoho). The first one opened in the late 90s in Osaka, and from there it's grown into a fairly large operation, with franchises in more than a dozen countries, and many large US metro areas.

While they've got a small menu of various pastries, there's really one reason you are going to Beard Papa's Cream Puffs, and that's the... (tada!) cream puffs. Available singly or in half- or whole-dozens, the Beard Papa cream puff is taken fresh from a baking sheet, and filled to order in front of you with one of several fillings (vanilla cream being the primary one).

Beard Papa's Cream Puff Exposed

The end result, however, is one serious cream puff. The puff itself is perfectly-puffed and toasted pate a choux, and the filling is a sinfully creamy vanilla cream with little tiny vanilla seeds in it. Since it's made to order, it also has absolutely no sogginess (although I strongly suspect these things have a 30 minute shelf life...).

In any case, Beard Papa was the perfect place for us to stop for 20 minutes to rest and recharge before resuming our walk. Even if the logo is a little creepy.

Beard Papa's Cream Puffs
2167 Broadway
New York, NY

Louis Lunch (New Haven, CT)

2010-05-06T11:04:00.007-05:00

Louis Lunch

On occasion, you run into little joints that have some culinary heritage to their offerings in addition to the food. Examples include Phillipe's in Los Angeles (a leading contender for the invention of the French Dip) and Matt's Bar in Minneapolis (one contender for the invention of the Jucy Lucy), although like any sort of invention claims, both of these come with some controversy.

When it comes to the idea of who invented the modern hamburger, Louis Lunch is one credible claimant. Now located on Crown Street in New Haven, Louis Lunch has been around since 1895 (in locations ranging from a street cart on Meadow Street to the current permanent location), and has been serving hamburgers for most of that time. Regardless of primacy, however, Louis Lunch is interesting since they haven't made any significant changes to their menu or hamburger preparation the entire time, and are still serving hamburgers prepared pretty much the same way they were done the beginning of the last century.

Louis Lunch Vertical Broilers

Unlike a typical burger joint that is either frying the burgers on a griddle or broiling them on a grill, Louis Lunch prepares their burgers by hand-forming patties, inserting the patties into a little grating, and inserting this grating into one of three antique 1898 vertical broilers located behind the counter. They are then grilled to the desired level (they claim the standard order is medium rare, although on my several visits to Louis I've never been able to get less than what I'd call medium well). When finished, they are pulled out and assembled into sandwiches on toasted white bread (Louis Lunch significantly predates the invention of the "hamburger bun") with optional toppings of cheese sauce, onion, and tomato. No other toppings or condiments are available, and, indeed, asking for ketchup and mustard will get you a brushoff, or maybe even result in your being asked to leave.

Louis Lunch "Ham Works"

With all this, what the result of all this effort? On my last trip I ordered a "ham works" (hamburger with all the toppings, which is, well, just onion and tomato) and a white birch beer (typical New Haven beverage), and after a good 10 minute wait (we arrived at the tail end of the lunch rush) my sandwich came out. There is a lot going for the burger at Louis, the meat is good quality (they grind and mix their own blend), and the method of preparation leaves them juicy (although, as mentioned above, I always think they overcook the burgers a bit). The resulting burger really is an exercise in simplicity, since the bread and scant toppings really leave you focusing on the meat. What works here is the juiciness of the meat and a decent sear. To be honest, however, these burgers, while good, aren't top 10 material for me, but I do enjoy coming here for Louis Lunch's dedication to still doing burgers using their classic methods.

Making Burgers, Old School

Another joy of Louis Lunch, however, is the quaint little building. Built out of components of the old lunch cart and donated building materials, it sports a unique interior, including some rather interesting seating (two of the smallest booths I've ever seen, and an odd row of what are best described as writing desks). The woodwork is ancient, having had decades of people's initials carved into them, leaving an interesting texture to the resulting wood.

So, if you are a hamburger fan and have any interest in the culinary history of the hamburger, Louis Lunch is a mandatory stop. If just looking for a good burger? You might want to look somewhere else

Louis Lunch Seating

Louis Lunch
263 Crown Street
New Haven, CT

Cotton (Manchester, NH)

2010-05-05T14:44:00.004-05:00

Cotton

Back in late April, due to competing obligations and business travel, Carol and I weren't able to celebrate her birthday on its actual date, so we decided instead to meet up in Manchester and give Cotton another try.

I like Cotton, since they are a nice combination of "old school" cuisine (steaks, chops, and the like) along with some new and funky ideas, of the sort that are usually labeled "New American Cuisine" these days. The result is usually quite impressive, yet familiar.

A good example of this is the salad that we usually get when we go to Cotton: the "Wedge Salad". About as old-school steakhouse as you can get, a wedge salad is generally a gigantic wedge of iceberg lettuce, drenched in bleu cheese dressing, and then topped with several other items (bacon and pecans are typical).

Wedge Salad

The result is actually a really nice combination of textures and flavors that, while certainly no culinary masterpiece, is always enjoyable. I wish more places had wedge salads (the only other one I've had recently was at Napa Valley Grille in Providence, although Les Halles' Frisee aux Lardons was essentially the same concept).

I ended up getting another classic dish for my main course, steak frites. Typically nothing more a steak accompanied with fries, it's a good test of a kitchen's ability to properly cook both these items (and, alas, these days both are likely to get screwed up). Here's where Cotton put the "new" in "new American", since their rendition was somewhat unusual in presentation. The frites were really wedges (albeit very nicely done wedges with a light dusting of sea salt), and the steak was piled on top of the wedges along with a nice shallot sauce. It wasn't in the same league as my recent trip to Les Halles, but it was certainly a perfectly cooked steak, nicely sauced, and complemented by the wedges.

Steak Frites

Carol opted for the Chicken and Lobster Carbonara, which pleasantly surprised us by being a notable exception to the "American restaurants overcook pasta" rule. The pasta was slightly firm and al dente, and very nicely sauced, with tender bits of chicken and lobster distributed throughout. A nicely executed pasta dish, reminiscent of some of the other good pastas we've had recently (like last year's celebration at Trattoria Delia with their excellent orechiette).

It's this sort of nice service and reinvention of basic dishes that keep us coming back to Cotton for the occasion celebration. I still, however, have yet to try their fried chicken (which looks excellent).

Carbonara

Cotton
75 Arms St (in the Millyard, across from Milly's Tavern)
Manchester, NH

Concerning Eggs Benedict...

2010-04-29T11:20:00.007-05:00

Al's Breakfast Benedict

Anyone that has dined with me for breakfast know that I generally don't do breakfast, usually opting for just a cup of coffee, and maybe a sweet roll or something. But when I get breakfast, I generally go all out. My favorite breakfast dishes include pancakes (yeah, I've got to write up my favorite pancake joints as well), waffles (my college roommate Steve still likes to tell people about my late night waffle cravings in college), a proper biscuits and gravy, all things hash brown related, and eggs Benedict.

The last of these sometimes surprises people, since one of the problems I usually have with American breakfasts is that I'm not generally a fan of eggs. Fried eggs generally don't excite me, and I've discovered over the years that entirely too many otherwise-talented cooks have the ability to completely kill omelets and scrambled eggs. But a perfectly poached egg can be quite pleasant, and combined with some good pork and well-executed Hollandaise sauce, that simple poached egg can be elevated to an item of near wonder.

Wasp's Diner Benedict

The concept of Eggs Benedict is so simple, consisting of a half of an English muffin, topped with ham or bacon, poached eggs, and topped with said Hollandaise sauce. Simple in concept, but within this dish lie two serious challenges to the breakfast cook. Like the scrambled eggs I mention above, properly poaching an egg is an art that a lot of cooks just haven't mastered. They either over-poaching it, having it collapse in the poaching water creating little ribbons of egg white around a gooey yolk, getting waterlogged (eww...), or just not ending up with the right texture. A properly poached egg has a nice soft yolk and a fluffy, light, and pillowy egg yolk, contained in a fairly compact package.

The next challenge is getting a proper Hollandaise sauce. Again, this is a simple concept, a basic emulsion of egg yolk and butter (lots of butter!), usually seasoned with lemon juice, salt, and a little cayenne pepper. Done right, the resulting sauce is yellow in appearance, with a texture that is smooth and creamy. The flavor should be rich and buttery, with a slight acid tang tang from the lemon and a slight bite from the pepper, but not enough so to mask the flavors of the egg and ham. There's a reason that Hollandaise is one of the classic Mother Sauces of haute cuisine. Alas, it's also a sauce that's easy to screw up, being very temperamental to correct temperature, and very easy to break if you don't get good emulsification. It also doesn't keep very long, so you can't easily make a 5 gallon batch of it for your kitchen.

Hell's Kitchen Benedict

Combine this with a decent English muffin and a quality pork product (the standard is generally what we American's call "Canadian bacon", but other bacon and ham products work quite well), and the result is sublime. It's also a really good benchmark of how good a restaurant's breakfast crew is. And it's so often messed up, that I even remember a chef in Minnesota (Alexander Dixon) open up a breakfast cafe (Z's Cafe) just so he could serve proper Benedicts and related variants (alas, both of Dixon's places are now closed, although I hear he is still making soup for several local coffee shops in the Twin Cities).

So, with that in mind, let me discuss some of my favorite Eggs Benedicts:

1. Al's Breakfast in Minneapolis. Shown at the top of the article, Al's makes a seriously good Benedict. The eggs are perfectly cooked, the ham slices perfectly seared, and the Hollandaise perfectly rich and creamy without outshining the eggs and ham. If there's a better execution of a classic Benedict, I'd like to know so I can try it. Sadly, I'd been eating at Al's for more than 15 years before actually trying this (since there are so many other items on the Al's menu that I just adore, like their CBH, their wally blues, and their Jose).

Chop Suey Benedict

2. Wasp's Diner in Woodstock, VT. Another good classic Benedict, with perfectly poached eggs and a good Hollandaise. What really impressed me about Wasp's is that, on my visit, the cook was out of Hollandaise, so she whipped up a batch to order, in about two minutes. The result was soft and tangy, with a nice dill note.

3. Hell's Kitchen in Minneapolis. Going slightly off of the standard rendition, Hell's Kitchen's Benedict used a big slab of pit smoked beef instead of the seared ham common in most preparations. In this case, the end result worked well, with their well-done Hollandaise complementing the soft tender smokiness of the slab of ham. Again, a nearly perfect execution of a Benedict.

Modern Diner Benedict

4. Chop Suey, New York. An interesting breakfast from the restaurant Chop Suey in Time Square's Renaissance Hotel included a perfectly executed Benedict. Alas, Chop Suey closed a few months after having this breakfast...

5. Modern Diner in Pawtucket, RI, has an extensive menu of Benedict variations, including substituting a variety of spicy meats in place of the usual ham. I rather liked both the linguica and corned-beef-hash Benedicts I had at Modern. The Hollandaise was softer than most, but that probably worked well with these substitutions.

Dream Diner Benedict

6. Dream Diner, Tyngsborough, MA. This was quite a good Benedict. Like Hell's Kitchen, Dream Diner uses a solid 1/2" thick slab of ham. And it's good ham at that, nicely roasted, flavorful, and not too salty. The eggs were nicely poached, and the Hollandaise sauce was quite flavorful (although I like just a slight bit more tanginess).

So, where are your favorite Benedicts?

Barbeque Hut (Fayetteville, NC)

2010-04-27T14:50:00.002-05:00

Barbeque Hut

If there's one thing that's obligatory about a trip to the Carolinas, it's that you must have some Carolina-style barbecue. Someplace near (but not identical with) the borders of the Carolinas, barbecue starts to take on it's own regional identify, with the use of primarily pulled pork, usually rubbed with a spice mixture before smoking, mopped with a spice and vinegar liquid during smoking, and served up with a thin, spicy, vinegar-based sauce.

It certainly makes for a good pork sandwich, or a nice plate of pulled pork. So earlier this month, when work travel had me going down to Raeford, NC, we had an overnight stay in Fayetteville, so we packed in the car and decided to find some decent BBQ. While there are more barbecue joints in the Fayetteville area than you can shake a stick at, several places (my Ft Bragg contacts as well) recommended Barbeque Hut (with Ft Bragg and Owen Drive locations) as the best place to get a pork sandwich, although interestingly, there is no consensus on how to spell this place's name (most directories insist it's Bar-B-Que Hut, even though the sign spells it "Barbeque Hut". Oh well, to each their own.

Barbeque Hut Platter

Being hungrier than that, we all opted for the pulled pork platter. I was basically pleased with it. The pork was tender, smoky, and had a nice vinegar tang to it, and the hush puppies were nicely crisped and shaped more like madelines than the typical spheres. Rounded out with some beans, and it was a pretty good dish. However, I've had better. The flavor was a bit flat... I'm not sure if it's just me, or the hour (we got there right before closing, although usually I find I get the best BBQ that way... it's been sitting in the juices all day), or just plain bad luck, but I'm only going 6 or 7 out of 10 with Barbeque Hut, especially with so many other promising barbecue joints we passed on the way (Fuller's, Old Hickory, ...)

But decent enough to give another try next time.

Barbeque Hut
2802 Fort Bragg Rd
Fayetteville, NC

Kramarczuk Sausage Co (Minneapolis, MN)

2010-04-24T12:58:00.003-05:00

Kramarczuk Sausage Co

This trip to Minneapolis also allowed me to indulge in another of my favorite Twin Cities culinary treasures: Kramarczuk Sausage Company on East Hennepin in Minneapolis, right where Marcy-Holmes and Nordeast meet up.

When I first moved to Minneapolis, Kramarczuk's and the nearby Surdyk's liquor store were the only major attractions in an otherwise tired out neighborhood of old furniture stores and former car dealers. In the years since then, Surdyk's moved from a storefront to their own giant building up the road, the neighborhood has been almost completely rebuilt (the old IGA and strip mall are now a Whole Foods, etc). I barely recognize the neighborhood, but Kramarczuk Sausage Co is still alive and well, dishing all sausages and all varieties of eastern European food.

Kramarczuk Sausage Case

Kramarczuk's takes up two storefronts: on the right side is the actual butcher shop/grocery, filled with several refrigerated cases absolutely stuffed with some of the most delectable sausage products I've ever experienced (one of the few places I'd even put in the same category is Karl's Sausage Kitchen in Saugus, MA). When I first moved here this side of the store was white 1950s-style refrigerated cases lorded over by older stern Polish and Ukrainian butchers. It's now much more bright and modern, but the bounty of sausages remains the same. Over the years I've sampled a substantial fraction of their sausage selection, and they produce several of the best polish sausages I've ever had, as well as several outstanding sausages from other countries (Chorizo, Andouille, Linguica, Italian, etc.). For everything I've had, the spices were just right, the texture perfect, and nothing over- or under-smoked. I seriously need to remember to bring a second suitcase on these trips to bring some sausage home with me (they very helpfully will vacuum pack your sausage for the trip home).

Kramarczuk Combo Platter

The other half of the store is a cafeteria-style serving line, where you grab your tray, select your meal from amongst the various sausages, sandwiches, borscht, verenky, hams, and other specials, grab a beverage, and then pay at the register, after which you can grab several slices of bread fresh sliced from a loaf. When I was living here, this process was overseen by an older Eastern European woman who would admonish you for not taking enough bread since you were (unless you were at least 200 lbs in weight) "all skin and bones." These days, the bread is self serve, but still good.

As far as the sausages and sides? Kramarczuk's is a veritable treasure trove of Polish and Ukrainian food. For my combo plate, I opted to go full-on Ukrainian, with three assorted varenyky (similar to peirogi), one holubets (cabbage roll), a Ukrainian sausage, sauerkraut, sour cream, and a pickle. I shudder to think about the number of calories present here, but the food is of such wonderful flavor and quality that it's worth it (even though I had to spend two hours in the gym later in the day to partially work off the calories). Rounded out with a Sprecker Root Beer (from Wisconsin), this was a nearly perfect lunch.

Kramarczuk Sausage Co
215 E Hennepin Ave
Minneapolis, MN
www.kramarczuk.com

Matt's Bar (Minneapolis, MN)

2010-04-24T09:22:00.003-05:00

Matt's Bar

Many areas have a particular food item that is well known locally, be it Philly's cheesesteaks, St Louis' toasted raviolis, or the Upper Peninsula's pasties. One of the local equivalents for the Twin Cities is the Jucy Lucy (and how to spell that is an issue it's own). Basically, a Jucy Lucy is a cheeseburger with the cheese stuffed inside the meat patty rather than on top, with two patties of meat crimped around a molten core of cheese. While having some cooking challenges (like getting thoroughly good melting of the cheese and cooking of the interior of the burger without completely killing the meat), it's a combination I rather like. It, however, also has some consumption issues: aside from the obviously unhealthy nature, the Jucy Lucy is also well-known for burning peoples' lips and chins on the hot liquid cheese as it bursts out of a burger, so warning about the cheese are common at Jucy Lucy joints.

Matt's Bar Interior

Who invented the Jucy Lucy (which is available at well over a dozen bars, taverns, and burger joints around the Twin Cities) is a matter of dispute which I won't even try to resolve here, but it's clear that several locations (including Matt's Bar, and the 5-8 Club a few miles down the street, a rivalry that's even been featured on Man vs. Food and Food Wars) have been dishing out variations on the the Jucy Lucy (including variant spellings) for longer than 50 years. Regardless of primacy, I still regard Matt's as one of the best (indeed, to date it's my favorite) Jucy Lucy's in town.

Matt's is definitely a Minneapolis institution, dating back to 1954, and one of the attractions of going to Matt's is that walking through the door, you are literally stepping back into the 1950s, back to a time when the Lustron Houses that still date much of this area as 1950s construction were still new. The bar is somewhat dark, with textures wallpaper and dark wood paneling, and is basically a bar aside from a grill and deep-fryer down at one end. Matt's historically was a bar first, and a burger joint second, but, in my experience, that's actually a good thing (for a nice comparison, my Matt's experience always reminds me of another of my favorite burger bars, Miller's Bar in Dearborn, MI).

Intact Jucy Lucy

The grill is where the magic happens, they take a fresh Jucy Lucy patty, in which a single square of American Cheese is quartered, crimped between two patties (usually when I'm at Matt's I see someone assembling the patties), and then seared on the grill. As mentioned above, to really get the inside of the burger cooked right and the cheese fully liquefied instead of just molten, this results in a sharp sear to a well-done burger, and a delicious smell of seared beef that permeates the bar (and your clothing, if you linger too long... Minneapolis is one of those towns where, if you make the mistake of wearing a wool jacket into a place, people the rest of the day will know where you ate...). The meat is thin enough (due to the hollow core) that the well-done cooking doesn't make it tough.

I must have lost my look of Jucy Lucy confidence over the years, since the waitress sized me up and decided that I was the sort that really needed two warning about the hot cheese. But this isn't my first Jucy Lucy rodeo, so after the customary minute cooling-off period, I took my first mild bite into the Lucy. Yup, that's still good. One of the things I love about a Matt's Jucy Lucy is that the cheese is actually 100% liquid, it really combines well with the seared beef without being at all waxy.

Fear the Cheese

Matt's does a handful of other sandwiches, but I've never tried anything but a hamburger and more Jucy Lucys than I can count. They have decent fries as well, served in almost ridiculous quantities (usually I can split a half order of fries with one other person, a full order is a whole deep-fryer basket).

Sure, there may be a lot of friendly rivalry about who exactly invented the Jucy Lucy, but the Matt's Bar Lucy is a good burger by most any standard, and worth a stop by or a small diversion to try out (although feel free to try some of the other perennial favorites like the 5-8 down the road, or St Paul's Groveland Tap or Blue Door).

Matt's Bar
3500 Cedar Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
www.mattsbar.com

Revolutionary Burger (Lebanon, NH)

2010-03-30T12:23:00.002-05:00

Che Burgers, Fries, and Root beer

Lunch today was an experiment, I got two Che Burgers, fries, and a root beer from Revolutionary Burger.

Revolutionary Burger is a bit of an interesting experimental concept, in that they don't have a storefront, and aren't their own restaurant, they are basically a sub-restaurant of the local Lebanon restaurant, Gusanoz. Apparently, one of their employees recently went on a trip to Southern California, and really enjoyed a trip to iconic In-N-Out Burger, and decided to try making a similar burger here. So they invented the Rev Burger, which is their rendition of the basic In-N-Out-style California burger: 100% real beef, never frozen, char-broiled over open flame, a toasted bun, lettuce, tomato, onion and, of course, the "special sauce". You can order it with american cheese as well, making a "Che Burger" (Anyone else chuckling at the irony of having the Che Burger made with American cheese?). You can even order them In-N-Out style, for example, ordering a "2x2" which is two patties and two slices of cheese. They also offer fresh-made fries, shakes, and beverages (basically, a similar small menu to the In-N-Out they are copying).

However, they don't have a storefront. Revolutionary Burger is run out of Gusanoz's kitchen, but is primarily a takeout business, with optional pickup at the bar inside Gusanoz as well. Prices are reasonable, however, with my Che Burgers costing $2.24 each, the fries $1.49, and my root beer (draft root beer from Eli's in Maine) was $1.49 as well. So I opted for two Che Burgers, fries, and root beer, placed my order, and drove over to Gusanoz.

When I got my order, I could immediately tell they were doing something right, since the order smelled right, with a strong smell of fresh fries and a hint of charbroiled beef coming out of the bag. Getting back to my office and opening it all up, I was a little less than impressed by the packaging, but I did find two nicely assembled (and not crushed, like oh-so-many burger places seem to do...) burgers hiding within.

Were they successful in the idea of duplicating the In-N-Out concept? I think they actually got the fundamentals right. The burger was nicely done, with a good seared crisp on it, but still juicy and not overcooked, resulting in a rather nice beefy texture. The topping were fresh, crisp, and well-assembled (one of the things I've always liked about In-N-Out is that I get a burger that actually looks pretty close to their menu pictures... Revolutionary Burgers isn't quite as meticulous, but still obviously isn't just slapping burgers together off an assembly line). The big difference from In-N-Out was the "Special Sauce", which unlike most resembled mayo more than Thousand Island dressing, and had a distinct pepper bite to it. The bun was lightly toasted as well, which is always a good touch. All in all, this was a good burger, and does justice to the concept they were shooting for. Not everyone will like this style of burger, but for those that do? They'll like it.

The fries were good as well. I really, really prefer fries properly done in the Belgian style, which requires two rounds of cooking (one at low temperature to cook the interior, and a second frying at high temperature to crisp up the outside). Like many places that work with fresh potatoes, Gusanoz single-cooks them, which makes them a little starchy my tastes, but these were otherwise good fries. They put a light dusting of seasoned salt on them as well, which gave them a nice extra kick without overwhelming them.

Overall, I was pleased with this lunch, although I find the concept a little bit odd, in that I'm not used to getting my burgers out of the back of a Mexican restaurant. I'm also concerned a bit that splitting off into a burger business might not be the greatest idea for Gusanoz... I'm not alone in my beliefs that Gusanoz has gone downhill in both quality and service recently, and trying to run a burger business as well is probably going to distract them a bit from the Mexican side restaurant. I've always thought that you should do one thing well before branching out. But at least the burger was good.

Revolutionary Burger (Take-Out and Delivery only)
www.revolutionaryburger.com
410 Miracle Mile (Part of Gusanoz Mexican)
Lebanon, NH

Pho Dao #1 (Murrieta, CA)

2010-03-25T20:12:00.003-05:00

Pho Dao #1

If you look over my history of postings, it's obvious that I like Vietnamese food, and like pho in particular (having done at least three postings on the topic). I'm still waiting for that magical day when some Vietnamese people decide to move to the Upper Valley and set up a good Vietnamese restaurant (if you're somehow thinking about it, let me know, I'll invest... And be one of the best customers). Until then, I have to get most of my Vietnamese food when traveling.

This time, it was Pho Dao #1 in Murrieta, CA. However, I've been lucky enough in the past few months to have quite a few good Pho outings (Pho 75 in Arlington, Bona in Minneapolis, Golden Bowl in Manchester, etc) that I decided that this time I was going to go for my second favorite Vietnamese dish: Bun cha gio thit nuong.

Bun cha gio thit nuong

Bun cha gio thit nuong is a great dish, since I get a little bit of everything I like: cold vermicelli noodles, nicely barbecued pork, and some egg roll, with some shredded veggies mixed in, with peanuts on top. Pho Dao did this quite well, this was an outstandingly good bun cha gio thit nuong, especially for the price. The barbecued pork was savory and smokey. The egg roll was crispy and filled with nicely seasoned pork. The veggies were all nicely seasoned, and the overall dish was actually assembled instead of hastily tossed in a bowl. While I love Pho, a good Bun dish really tells the good places from the average one, and Pho Dao shined here.

Banh Bao

They also had several Chinese items on the menu, and while usually I don't bother too much with these, the dumplings looked quite appetizing at another table, so Carol and I decided to get the steamed pork rolls (Banh Bao). These were a little more like the Chinese style pork buns at most dim sum joints than most Banh Bao I've had, but were definitely flavorful and pleasant.

Overall, a very pleasant and flavorful lunch, and an affordable one as well.

Pho Dao #1 (formerly Pho Hoa)
39840 Los Alamos Road
Murrieta, CA

Mad Madeline's Grill (Temecula, CA)

2010-03-19T09:58:00.002-05:00

Mad Madeline's Grill

One of the big questions I get from people is "How do you find the places you eat?" There are many answers to this, but the primary two answers are "research" and "happenstance". Mad Madeline's Grill was a good example of the latter. We were visiting Temecula with Carol's sister and her boyfriend, and walking down the street we passed by Mad Madeline's. I didn't even need to look inside to know that this was going to be a good burger joint. Walking by on the sidewalk, I walked through three successive bands of smells. First was the smoker. Second was the smell of nicely seared beef. The third was a fry cooker. It certainly smelled like a good burger joint.

Looking in, there were several tables of people, all having large burger and fry platters, and obviously enjoying them, so we decided to give the place a shot. So we went "inside" (Mad Madeline's seating is entirely outside, although somewhat sheltered from the weather).

Mad Madeline's "Interior"

Mad Madeline's sports quite an extensive menu of burgers, primarily half pounders ranging from the plain old cheeseburger, the obligatory-in-California lettuce-tomato-mayo burger, the also obligatory guacamole burger, several different chile-pepper burgers, and the like. I settled on a jalapeno cheeseburger and fries.

The burger was a very nicely done California style burger, with nicley leafed lettuce and tomato, a very nicely seared but very juicy and properly-cooked medium-rare half-pound patty, and a nicely toasted bun with just enough mayo to keep the very juicy burger from soaking into it. A good example of a burger that's hitting on all cylinders. The fries were also good, being cut on-site and freshly made to order, having a decent crispiness and a nice fluffy interior.

Mad Madeline's Jalapeno Cheeseburger

If I go back another time, I'm trying the ortega chile burger, since it looked quite promising as well. They also appeared to have decent barbecue, but I'll have to leave that for the next trip as well.

All in all, I enjoyed Mad Madeline's. The location is nice, and you can kick back and relax with your burger as you people-watch in Old Town Temecula. The burger and fries were enjoyable (although a bit expensive) as well.

Mad Madeline's Grill
28495 Old Town Front St
Temecula, CA

Libby's Blue Line Diner (Colchester, VT)

2010-03-18T10:48:00.002-05:00

Libby's Blue Line Diner

On our recent trip to Montreal, on the way back to our home in Grantham, NH, we decided we needed to stop for lunch someplace near Burlington. While the Burlington area has many establishments we rather enjoy (including Hong's Chinese Dumplings, Sneakers, and Penny Cluse Cafe, the last of which I realize I've never blogged here. I'll have to correct that), we decided to try another area establishment, finally settling on checking out Libby's Blue Line Diner, just off of I-89 in Colchester, VT.

Libby's sits up on a hill right off of Route 2, and is your basic Worcester diner (Worcester Diner #838, to be exact), although like almost all extant Worcester diner cars, which suffer from a lack of facilities, when it was moved from MA and installed in Colchester, the owners build some additional seating area, an entryway, and an expanded kitchen onto the building. But they did an outstanding job with the interior restoration, so this particular Worcester Diner's seating area isn't as worn and tired as most (the exterior, however, looks like it could use some paint and mild repairs).

Libby's Diner Exterior

We arrived at Libby's mid-afternoon on a Mondays (when most restaurants don't get large crowds), and indeed, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The owner was actually the person waiting tables, and was very friendly in welcoming us, talking about the specials, and giving us a brief history of the diner.

Carol and I opted for burgers, and I got the mushroom burger and fries, as shown here. The result was a rather good diner burger. The patty was decently thick, with a really nice, crisp sear on it, but the interior was still juicy and medium rare. The mushrooms were nicely sauteed, and the fries were nicely crisped and tender in the middle. The bun was quite nice as well, being a nice hefty New England-style bulky roll, although they lost a point for not leaving enough bun on top when they split it, leaving a mere 3/8" of bun on the lower "half" (a common problem up here in VT/NH, for some reason...). It didn't really detract much from the burger quality, however.

Libby's Diner Mushroom Burger

In the end, Libby's is your basic diner fare, but it's diner fare done well, and a burger I rather enjoyed. I'll definitely add this place to my repeat list.

Libby's Blue Line Diner
46 High Point Ctr
Colchester, VT

Premiere Moisson Boulangerie (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

2010-03-11T15:13:00.002-05:00

Premiere Moisson Boulangerie

While our hotel (Chateau Versailles) had a perfectly decent continental breakfast included with it, we were craving French pastries. So we went down the road looking for a nice local boulangerie. What we found was one location of a small Quebec chain, Premiere Moisson Boulangerie.

Walking in, the first thing we spotted were two large display cased filled with all varieties of pastries, both savory and sweet, with all sorts of croissants, millefeuilles, muffins, tarts, and the like. The second thing we spotted was the queue, with several people all lined up waiting to order from the display cases.

Pain au Chocolate et Cafe au Lait

Carol and I opted to start out with the same thing, Pain au Chocolate and a large bowl of cafe au lait. I was quite pleased with the pain au chocolate, the pastry was nice and flaky on the outside and buttery and soft on the inside, with just enough chocolate to make it sweet without overpowering it. I'm sure that if I explored more, there are better croissants to be had in Montreal, but theirs was pleasing enough. The cafe au lait was brewed strong and served in a generous bowl. All in all, a very nice execution of my standard "European-style" breakfast.

We also rather enjoyed the other item we tried, the "Filouze", a nice chocolate-chip filled pastry that was a pastry approximately halfway between a Pain au Chocolate and a Palmiere. Very tasty.

Filouze

So I'm rather impressed with both the quality and selection of their pastries, and will definitely be going back when in Montreal (this is what Panera *should* be like).

Premiere Moisson Boulangerie
1490 rue Sherbrooke Ouest (and other Montreal area locations)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Mikasa Sushi Bar (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

2010-02-21T13:00:00.006-05:00

Mikasa Sushi Bar

I've enjoyed sushi for quite a few years, but I always get a little frustrated that your typical sushi places just have the same standard rolls, with little attempt to be innovative or inventive. But every once in a while there is a sushi chef that's still trying to do things both creatively, and well. So one thing I make sure to do if I'm visiting a major metro area is to check to see what some of the local sushi places are up to.

In Montreal, quite a few of the local reviews gave really high marks to Mikasa Sushi Bar. It was walking distance from our hotel, so we decided to check it out our first night there.

I'm rather glad we did, since the sushi chefs at Mikasa really have some interesting concepts going. We started out with Obalix, tempuraed shiso leaves with a rich tuna salad on top of them. While I've had this dish before (the little sushi place in Palmdale, CA called these "monkey brains", actually), but these were a nice, pleasant start to the meal. The tuna salad highlighted the fresh tuna, and had a nice mild pepper sauce with them.

Obalix

Next up was probably the second-most unique roll we had, the sobaten maki, which was a deep-fried roll made with green soba noodles, tuna, and black sesame seeds. I've never had soba noodles in maki before, but the result was quite pleasing, with a result somewhat halfway between a standard tekka maki and a vientnamese cha gio. This roll really worked for us.

Next up was the Ring of Fire maki. This was basically a combination between spicy tuna maki and shrimp tempura maki, served with a sauce similar to a bulgoki. Good tuna, and perfectly cooked shrimp, this make for a very good combination.

Sobaten Maki

We followed that with their Nirvana roll (not shown), which was basically several different salmon preparations rolled together. Good, but this wasn't in the same class as the rest of the dishes, and I'd probably skip this if I went back.

However, our last dish is where Mikasa really shined. The Printanier Sushi Roll is what I was hoping for on the inventive sushi side: either a spicy tuna or salmon salad (the front two are tuna, the rear two salmon), rolled in rice paper with mango, strawberry, and papaya, served with a sweeter dipping sauce. Despite being well outside the usual sushi ingredients, this worked surprisingly well. The strawberry and mango melded perfectly with the tuna (and almost as well with the salmon),

Printanier Maki

and the rice paper held it together nicely without some of the seaweed notes that might have thrown it off if a regular wrapper was used.

All in all, we were very pleased with our dinner at Mikasa. The staff was friendly and made good suggestions, the prices were high but reasonable, and we had a meal that was definitely more creative than most of our sushi outings.

Mikasa Sushi Bar
2049 Rue Peel
Montreal, QC, Canada

Au Pied de Cochon (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

2010-02-14T17:42:00.007-05:00

The most unassuming storefront
of Au Pied de Cochon

As I talked about in my previous post, Quebec is known for it's culinary heritage, particularly that resulting from the French fur trading heritage, so there are a lot of rich, hearty dishes. Poutine, in particular, is a Quebecois favorite, consisting of fries, cheese curd (and it must be curd, poutine doesn't work with shredded cheese), and gravy. But it's almost impossible to do a web search on poutine in Montreal without getting a recommendation for Au Pied de Cochon.

Hiding behind a most unassuming storefront on Rue Duluth a few blocks east of St Denis, chef Martin Picard has opened a modest restaurant that is, quite frankly, a shrine to two things: traditional Quebecois cuisine, and meat itself. Au Pied de Cochon (the name literally mean's "pig's foot"), the restaurant is basically dedicated to large slabs of freshly roasted meat, served up with impossibly rich sauces, and even the more-than-occasional slab of foie gras. And it's become quite the foodie destination in Montreal (which even before Au Pied de Cochon had quite the reputation as a food tourism destination), meaning that every night it's open, PdC is packed to the gills, and it took some groveling for us to get a 9pm reservation.

Foi Gras Poutine

The menu here is basically, meat, meat, and more meat. Highlighted menu items include the "Happy Pork Chop", the "PdC Cut" (basically a 1 lb pork loin), and pig's feet (with or without foie gras stuffing), along with several sides, such as poutine (again, with or without foie gras). We opted for the foie gras poutine, the beef tartare, the "Happy Pork Chop" for Carol, and the Pied de Cochon for myself.

Opening with the foie gras poutine, it was the perfect expression of the dish, with perfectly double-cooked fries (cooked in duck fat), crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. The cheese curds were flavorful, and just starting to soften in the gravy. The gravy itself was a nice, savory gravy. And of course, several nice, thick slabs of perfectly seared foie gras.

Beef Tartare
(Hand roll)

Definitely the best poutine I've had. It's also a leading candidate for the most unhealthy single dish I've ever had.

Next up was the tartare. Nicely prepped and seasoned chopped beef, topped with a fresh quail's egg, this was served up hand-roll style in a seaweed cone. Which is unfortunate, the seaweed didn't really lend anything to this dish, and indeed, I think it subtracted from it, since it really covered up a lot of the beef taste, which should be the focus of a dish like this. It wasn't bad, but I won't order this again, I really prefer the classic presentation if I'm getting tartare.

When you're at a restaurant called Au Pied de Cochon, you've simply got to try the Pied de Cochon (pig's foot). This was a perfectly roasted pig's foot (crispy skin, cartilage softened, meat tender), although you can't see it hidden under the sauce (dijon mustard and shallot cream sauce).

Pied de Cochon
(without Foie Gras)

Served with Aligot, which is basically extremely cheesy mashed potatoes. (Scarily, you can also order this stuffed with foie gras, just in case you need that extra something...)
A most excellent dinner, and the rare example of a dish that bested me (I was simply unable to finish everything, although I did eat all the meat). Mind you, there was enough butter in this dish alone (probably three sticks between the sauce and the mash), plus some cheese whipped into the potatoes, that I may have to fast for a few days (remember that right before this we had the foie gras poutine!).

Carol did quite good with her Happy Pork Chop as well, a big giant pork chop which Carol got to watch them roast in their big oven, periodically pulling it out to baste it. Perfectly cooked, perfectly tender, and focused nicely on the pork, it was, pretty much, the perfect pork chop.

The Happy Pork Chop

Despite my earlier excesses, we did save just a sliver of room for desert, and got the dark chocolate pot de creme. Nicely done, with just enough orange zest to give it some zing, this was a really good dessert to finish this meal, cleansing the palate, and serving as a nice counterpoint to the extremely heavy meat flavors.

All-in-all, we loved Au Pied de Cochon, and have decided we're definitely returning on our next trip to Montreal. There's a lot to explore still on the menu, foremost the "Duck in a Can". in which a duck breast, foie gras, and garlic (plus a few other items) are cooked in can. Tableside, the can is opened and dumped over some cheese-crusted bread. We didn't get it, but it looked good. Kind of fun watching them bring out the cans, too. We'll try this next time.

Canard en Conserve
(Which we'll get next time)

We'll also starve ourselves for an entire day first. I'm still amazed that neither of us gained weight on this trip (thanks mostly to almost 16 miles of walking around in 10 degree air over the weekend).

Au Pied de Cochon
536 rue Duluth est
Montreal, QC, Canada

Schwartz's Charcuterie Hebraique de Montreal (Montreal, Quebec)

2010-02-10T12:07:00.005-05:00

Schwartz's Charcuterie
Hebraique de Montreal

Quebec isn't just another province in Canada: it has it's own language (Quebecois French, which, as my French colleagues like to point out, resembles Continental French, but has a distinct vocabulary and accent), it's own culture, and, particularly, it's own cuisine. In particular, it's rather hard to drive through Quebec without noticing all the businesses advertising poutine (I'll get back to the topic of poutine in my next article), Montreal-style bagels, and viande fumée ("Smoked Meat").

Which brings up the question of "What is viande fumée?" Several references translate this as simply "smoked meat", but that doesn't give the right mental image. Similarly, several sources translate it as "pastrami", which is closer, but isn't quite right, either. However, it shares the basic preparation style with pastrami: the meat is spiced, cured in a brine, "smoked" (which is really more of a roasting step than a proper smoking) and, finally, steamed it until the connecting tissues within the meat break down into gelatin. Where it differs from pastrami is in the spicing and smoke, the result being something approximately halfway between corned beef and pastrami, leaving a bit more of the natural beef flavor. The best description I've heard is "the flavor of pastrami but the mouthfeel of corned beef". If you like a good pastrami, you'll like viande fumée, although it'll be a matter of taste which one you really prefer.

Schwartz's Interior

As far as getting viande fumée, Montreal is full of delis that specialize in it. And one of the classic places to get viande fumée is Schwartz's Deli (err, Schwartz's Charcuterie Hebraique de Montreal according to the signage, due to Montreal's fairly strict French language signage laws) on Avenue St Laurent. A fixture at this location for over 80 years, Schwartz's is well-regarded by both locals and tourists as one of the go-to places for a thoroughly good viande fumée sandwich (although it's worth mentioning for the purists out there that Schwartz's is "Kosher-style" but not strictly Kosher).

It's popular enough that you need to go to Schwartz's expecting a wait (our wait was only 15 minutes, but we showed up at 2pm, well outside the lunch rush), with a healthy queue outside the door, but you can gaze in the window at the hanging sausages, pickled peppers, and whole smoked briskets. Once you get inside, you'll find a narrow restaurant with tables on the left and a service counter on the right, filled to the brim with people eating viande fumée.

Schwartz's Viande Fumée Sandwich

The menu is pretty simple, focusing on viande fumée (in sandwich form, or you can get a plate of it), a few other sandwich types (turkey, for example), and a few different steak options (liver steak and entrecote, for example), but really, the sandwich combo is where the action is, and what most people order: a viande fumée sandwich with a pickle (I prefer the half-sours) and cole slaw on the side.

The sandwich comes with several slices of thick, rough hand-cut beef, juicy and piled onto rye bread just high enough that it still looks like a sandwich, but you just won't be able to actually eat the whole thing without making a mess. My viande fumée sandwich at Schwartz's. The meat is tender, slightly spicy, beefy, and delicious, with the juice slightly soaking into the bread. As far as the sides, they are just about perfect. I love a good half-sour, where "cucumber" meats "pickle" right in the middle, and the half sour at Schwartz's delivers. The cole slaw is vinegar-based, and nicely complements the sandwich as well. Washed down with a can of black cherry soda, and you've got a great meal.

Schwartz's Half Sour and Cole Slaw

It's worth noting as well that Schwartz's has always shined for me in their service. The servers are friendly, prompt, and helpful, but don't try to rush you out the door the second your sandwich is done (although don't dally, the folks still waiting outside will appreciate your seat!).

So, for a good sandwich in Montreal, head to Schwartz's.

Schwartz's Charcuterie Hebraique de Montreal
3895 Boulevard St-Laurent
Montréal, QC H2W 1X9

Bar Cento (Cleveland, OH)

2010-02-03T14:10:00.003-05:00

Bar Cento

Cleveland continues to be good to me on my regular visits here. On my last visit here I had an outstanding evening at Greenhouse Tavern, and learned that a substantial fraction of the culinary professionals there know and respect each other. Indeed, one of the last pieces of advice from the bartender at Greenhouse Tavern was that if I wanted some good beer and pizza, I should check out Bar Cento (where Greenhouse's Jonathon Sawyer was chef before opening Greenhouse).

Interestingly, I also got a recommendation for Bar Cento from my friend Rick in Vermont, who happens to know the new chef at Cento, Michael Nowak, from his days as a culinary student at NECI. So that was two reasons to head to Bar Cento on this trip.

Duck Fat Fries

I'm rather glad I did. Bar Cento is located in the Ohio City part of Cleveland (West 25th), right around the corner from Great Lakes Brewing, which is a rather happening part of the Cleveland restaurant scene. I had, in fact, pegged Bar Cento's sister establishment (Bier Markt, located next door and sharing seating and menus) as a place to check out. Indeed, the Bar Cento/Bier Markt co-location works quite well, since I was able to avail myself of the healthy selection of Belgian beers, eventually settling on a Delirium Tremens (although I was hoping for the sister brew from Huyghe, Delirium Nocturnum).

As far as food, this is where I may have made a gaffe. Several people, and the majority of the web reviews, all herald the pizza at Cento (indeed, when I showed up at the restaurant, chef Michael Nowak was on the television news showing off one of his pizzas). But having just come off of a pizza bender, I opted for some duckfat fries and a braised shortrib and canneloni bean, in a move that probably frustrates the folks that told me to come to Cento in the first place.

Braised Short Rib and Bean Stew

They shouldn't be disappointed. The fries (cooked in a blend that mostly duck fat) were thorough excellent fries, with a nice crispy exterior transitioning to a nice, fluffy interior, nicely complemented by the flavor of the duck fat. These were definitely top-tier fries, the kind I wish every place could pull off (I need to hire some Belgian cook and go around to various pubs in the US and show their fry cooks how to make good fries).

The stew was also good, with nicely braised short rib meat, canneloni beans that were cooked just to the point of being soft but not squishy, held together by a nice sauce that hearty but not salty. I may have missed an opportunity by not getting pizza, but I certainly can't say I missed out on a good meal.

So Bar Cento is definitely on my "repeat visit" list, and hopefully one of the next times I'm in town I'll be able to return and try the pizza. However, it's competing for attention with several other Cleveland spots, I've got several of Michael Symon's places (B Spot, in particular) on my hit list, as well as a return trip to Quince in Olmsted Falls (where I had a truly phenomenal lunch, but having gone there straight from NASA Glenn, I didn't have my camera with me).

Bar Cento
1948 West 25th Street
Cleveland, OH 44113

Menu for Hope VI Winners announced

2010-01-20T09:24:00.001-05:00

Menu For Hope VI

Yesterday, Menu For Hope VI winners were announced. This year, MfH raised nearly $78,000 for the UN World Food Program. I'd like to give thanks to everyone who donated, as well as everyone else (bloggers and providers) that donated to this year's fundraiser. This was my first year sponsoring a prize, but my third year bidding (indeed, I won two prizes this year as well).
Congratulations go to Jennifer Mingolello, who won my prize, a 2 night stay at Poverty Lane Orchards and Farnum Hill Ciders in Lebanon, New Hampshire, with two nights at the rustic farmhouse at Poverty Lane Orchards learning about cider making with Stephen Wood and Louisa Spencer of Farnum Hill Ciders.

Jennifer, we'll be in contact with you soon about arranging your visit!

Menu for Hope VI: Farnum Hill Ciders

2009-12-14T00:01:00.006-05:00

Menu For Hope VI

Offbeat Eats is pleased to take a break from my normal reviews of interesting offbeat eateries and instead focus on this year's Menu for Hope charity fundraiser. Menu for Hope is an initiative started by by Pim at Chez Pim to raise money for the United Nations World Food Program's Purchase for Progress (P4P). P4P enables smallholder and low-income farmers to supply food to WFP’s global operation. P4P helps farmers improves farming practices and puts more cash directly into their pockets in return for their crops. More on P4P at http://www.wfp.org/purchase-progress.
Last year, Menu For Hope V raised over $60,000 for charity, and we hope to continue this tradition this year. You can read about the whole Menu For Hope program here, but this year Offbeat Eat's is pleased to offer up one of the bid items this year:

Farnum Hill Cider Tour

Menu for Hope Item UE05: 2 night stay at Poverty Lane Orchards and Farnum Hill Ciders in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

Offbeat Eats and Farnum Hill Ciders are pleased to offer two nights at the rustic farmhouse at Poverty Lane Orchards and learn the mysteries of cider making with Stephen Wood and Louisa Spencer of Farnum Hill Ciders.

The accommodations include a tour of the orchard, barrel tastings of a wide variety of Farnum Hill Ciders and a relaxing, humble atmosphere on the Vermont/NH border. Perfect for cider fans, wine folks, fermentation freaks, or apple lovers. There is a great deal of flexibility in this offer; you may choose to come at the time of year convenient for your schedule in 2010. Winner will provide their own transportation to Lebanon, NH.

For those that aren't familiar with Farnum Hill, you should be. Featured recently on NPR (article here), Farnum Hill Ciders has been getting a lot of press as one of America's best and most authentic cider producers, with coverage from the New York Times, Saveur, Wine Enthusiast, and several other food, wine, and brewing publications. The local paper, the Valley News, also did a very good writeup on it as well.

Cider-making tour

I've long been a fan of hard cider, and think this will be a fantastic item to bid on. Hard cider has a long tradition going all the way back to the founding of our nation (it used to be more common than beer), but until recently, very few places in the country were making a traditionally fermented natural cider. Farnum Hill is one of them, making true “cider” -- fermented from apples, exactly as a wine is fermented from grapes. Using a variety of apple grown at their own orchards (including heirloom varieties such as Kingston Black specific to making cidering), the result is a series of wonderfully flavorful ciders with noticeable dry, sharp, fruity and aromatic notes. I've considering myself lucky to be able to easily obtain FH ciders locally (at the local stores, and often on local taps), plus having the ability to go right to the orchard and get growlers of fresh cider during the week. I've also been lucky enough to have a behind-the-scenes tour myself, getting to taste the apples, see the fermentation, and experience how different heirloom apples lend different flavors to the resulting cider, and am happy to be able to offer this opportunity to our winner as well.

The Fine Print:

You and your guest will have to get yourself to Poverty Lane Orchards in Lebanon, NH at your own cost some time during 2010 to enjoy your time.
Exact date is to be coordinated with Poverty Lane Orchards, but dates are very flexible.

Donate here for your chance to win this item (the reference is UE05). Please also consider bidding on one of the other excellent items, Chez Pim has the total list (I've been a winner before, in Menu for Hope IV I won a Foodie Tour of London from Abby Dyson's Eat The Right Stuff Blog's Foodie Tour of London, see my pictures here). However, please make sure when bidding that you check the terms and conditions for the individual items before you bid, as some will come with restrictions regarding where they ship to or how long the bid item is valid for.

How to enter

Go to the Menu for Hope VI donation page on First Giving
Make your donation. Each $10 you donate will give you one entry toward a bid item of your choice. Please specify which items(s) you'd like in the 'personal message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation, or better yet, use the New Donation Form on Chez Pim. You must write-in how many tickets per item, and please use the complete item code. For example, a donation of $50 could be, say, 3 tickets for UE05 and 2 for UE01. (Please use the double-digits, not UE5, but UE05. My item code is UE05)
If your company matches your charity donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared.

Check here and Chez Pim January 18 when results are announced, to see if you have won! Good luck, and thanks for your donations!

Questions? Ask here, or on Chez Pim.

Paper Moon Diner (Baltimore, MD)

2009-12-10T15:34:00.003-05:00

Paper Moon Diner

Last month, Carol and I had a quick mini-vacation trip to the DC area (actually, it started as a business trip, but the business part got canceled and I decided to go anyways). Seeing that the fares from MHT to BWI are crazy-cheap ($118 RT at the moment), it was easy enough to fly through Baltimore, where we got picked up by my friend Betsy, and we met up with several other online friends at Paper Moon Diner.

The first thing that really stands out about Paper Moon Diner is the decor. You know those kids that instead of just playing with their toys take them apart? I think they hired one of those kids to do the interior decorating. The main diner room is filled with all sorts of action figures (including some fairly recent ones, like Treebeard) and Pez dispensers. The front dining room is filled with random "stuff" (like a blender), and the back room, where we ended up getting seated, is filled with Barbies and partial mannequins. It's definitely a trippy experience, especially late at night.

Paper Moon Diner Decor

Food-wise, the Paper Moon Diner features what's becoming increasingly common these days, the "upscale diner fare." Burgers. Fries. Omelets. Sandwiches. You know the drill. With a few interesting items, like the deep-fried green beans. Carol and I ended up getting sandwiches, myself getting a club sandwich, and Carol opting for the turkey and cranberry sandwich. I rather liked the sandwich (it had real sliced turkey breast, and not some of the "turkey-flavored cold cuts" that we're increasingly seeing these days, and it was on good bread. But I can't say I was overwhelmed by it. It was a good sandwich. It wasn't a great one.

One of the other folks in our party got one of the burgers, and that actually looks like where the real action is. A big 1/2 lb burger loaded with topping.

Paper Moon Club Sandwich
Decent but not earthshaking

I'd like to give this place another try, especially when I'm in a breakfast mood instead of a dinner one. It's definitely an interesting place, but was it worth the wait? Maybe not. Next time I need dinner in Baltimore I'm getting pit beef again.

Paper Moon Diner
227 W 29th St
Baltimore, MD

Ben's Chili Bowl (Washington, DC)

2009-12-03T17:15:00.003-05:00

Ben's Chili Bowl

As I've mentioned here several times before, I have a soft spot for one of the DC area's unique food items. Indeed, you can read my previous treatise on DC's most notable item, the half-smoke. But, after reading that and some of the comments I received from both my readers here and on flickr, I realized I've been amiss in visiting the mother of all half-smoke joints: Ben's Chili Bowl.

Ben's Chili Bowl is an institution. Located on U Street right across from the U St/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo Metro Stop (indeed, it predates the Green Line, and spent multiple years with a gaping hole in the street in front of the place as they built the Green Line), Ben's has been serving half-smokes, chili dogs, fries, and such to hungry area residents through good years and bad. It is, quite simply, a landmark.

Enough so that the first thing most people experience at Ben's is the line. When we went (and most previous visits as well), the line was spilling out the door and down the alley adjacent to the restaurant. Inside was packed solid with people, with all the seats taken, requiring folks to get their orders "to go" just in case there wasn't an open seat when your order came up (we got lucky and scored a booth, however).

Ben's Chili Half-Smoke

But aside from the crowd's, it's pure diner. The staff is friendly but busy, slaving over two separate grills as they assemble everyone's burgers, hot dogs, chili bowls, and half smokes. The music is going strong (and loud), with a nice selection of everything from the '50s through fairly recent hip hop. And the signage can be fun... Bill Cosby gets to eat for free. As do the Obamas, except for Barack himself ("'Cause Bill Cosby says so!" according to the sign).

As far as the food? As far as I've been concerned, there's one thing to order at Ben's, and despite it being called Ben's Chili Bowl, that's not what you order. You order a half-smoke with chili. Although virtually every little street cart in DC carries half smokes, Ben's has a half-smoke that's a grade above most of the carts, with an even coarser grind, more spice, and just a little more heft.

Ben's Chili Bowl Grill

Topped with the chili, it's a good, solid, version of the DC classic with just a bit more bite and flavor. The chili is also good, as are the fries (and, due to a miscommunication, ours came with chili and cheese on them, making this trip a complete chili overload), but if you don't do the half-smoke, you're missing out.

Alas, the founder of Ben's Chili Bowl, Ben Ali, died back in October. His memory lives on, however.

Ben's Chili Bowl
1213 U St. NW
Washington, District of Columbia

Stan's Grocery (Yuma, Arizona)

2009-10-30T10:16:00.003-05:00

Stan's Grocery Sign

Sometimes it pays off to take the back roads and shortcuts.

I've always found Yuma to be a bit challenging when it comes to finding a righteous breakfast. Actually, on my previous trips, my best breakfasts have all been out at the Proving Ground, that being the breakfast burritos from the bowling alley, and Sidewinder Cafe (the food truck across from Luguna Airfield and the Free Fall School). And in town, I've done all right at Brownie's Cafe, and found that Arizona Donut has a surprisingly good breakfast burrito, but in general, I haven't been wowed.

However, on last June's trip to Yuma, I took a shortcut from Burger's n' Beer on 20th street back to my hotel on Hwy 95, which took me through the residential area east of 4th Ave. Heading north on 1st Ave, between 19th and 20th Street I saw this little unassuming neighborhood grocery store call "Stan's Grocery", and I noticed their sign said "Voted Best Breakfast Burritos in Yuma." I put it on my Hit List as a place to check out the next time I'm in town.

Stan's Grocery Menu

Doing a little bit of web searching, and I discovered that the sign had some merit to it. Several review sites have given their breakfast burrito really high marks. Several locals I asked gave it good marks as well, and the Yuma Sun has given it "Best Burrito" awards going back at least 10 years. So, while my usual schedule when in Yuma requires me to be at YPG at a ridiculously early hour of the morning, this trip I had two mornings where I found myself in town instead out at the airfield. So I gave Stan's a try.

I'm glad I did. While the ambiance is your basic mom-and-pop mini-store, they've got quite an impressive list of breakfast burritos, with most any combination of eggs, beans, potatoes, and various meats (chorizo, bacon, sausage, machaca, and asada), with a few tables in back for those people dining in (the vast majority of the business is takeout, and I easily saw 50 burritos go out the door while I was eating mine).

Stan's Grocery Chorizo
Egg and Potato Burrito

I opted for the chorizo, egg, and potato burrito. Burritos don't photograph well, but this was a seriously good breakfast burrito. They started with a nice, fresh, soft tortilla from one of the local bakeries. Inside were some nicely crisped fine-diced potatoes that weren't starchy. Add in some perfectly scrambled eggs and some crisp, spicy, and non-greasy Chorizo, and you've got a solid burrito that was both more flavorful and heftier than most of the other burritos I've had around town. Top it off with a selection of good fresh salsas, and you've got a real winner.

As far as I was concerned, this place is indeed a winner. It's got it's downfalls, namely little seating, and sometimes big crowds (they've got only a simple range with 2-3 people working it). On the other hand, the quality is good and the staff friendly (the owner, JoAnn, is really friendly and outgoing).

I enjoyed it so much, I hit them up again on my way out of town last Friday).

Stan's Grocery
1920 S. 1st Ave
Yuma, AZ

Yes, this was a good breakfast.

Greenhouse Tavern (Cleveland, OH)

2009-10-24T13:11:00.007-05:00

Greenhouse Tavern

Two weeks ago, I had a free evening in Cleveland during a business trip. Coming to Cleveland after a huge bender in NYC (including Scott's Pizza Tour), I continued the heavy eating with a trip to Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse (part of the conference) and Wonton Gourmet earlier in the day. So, while I needed dinner, I decided to go someplace light. Greenhouse Tavern has been on my list for a while, so I decided that a burger at Greenhouse was just what I needed.

However, it turned into a most interesting evening (in a good way), almost as interesting as the infamous Willie Mae's Scotch House Adventure). Why? Two different (but related) reasons:

1. I gave the staff one of my photography business cards (the ones that say "Professional Bacon Photographer", with one of my, well, bacon photos on it).

2. Channel 3 was there filming a piece on Cleveland restaurants becoming foodie destinations, and there I am with the Big Honkin' Camera[tm], taking pictures of my food. This resulted in the unusual situation of the TV guys taking photos of me taking photos of my food. An unusual experience for me (although I didn't end up making the news segment...).

Beef Tartare

I started off ordering a beef tartare and a simple burger. However, once he found out I was taking pictures of my food and was a bacon photographer, the chef/owner, Jonathon Sawyer, really outdid himself, bringing out several extra dishes for me to photograph. So while I started off searching for a light dinner, I ended up with several courses of deliciousness.

My first course, the beef tartare, was served with a cold perfectly poached egg, spring onion, and some cornichon relish. This was a great start to the meal, being a perfectly done tartare (on par with my other favorite tartare: The Wolseley in London), focusing nicely on the beef without a lot of unnecessary additives. The sides were all perfect. I'd get this any day, and probably will get it again next time.

Country Ham

Next, the chef declared that a bacon lover like myself obviously needed some country ham to photograph, and brought out some of it. This was a really good ham, with nice earthy notes, and not overly salty either. It was nicely paired with a pear, mustard, and chili flake compote.

Next, the kitchen brought out a pork shoulder, which was coupled with a nicely-seared cippollini onion, mushrooms, and a homemade vinegar sauce made from Belgian beer. I'd order this any day, this was really hitting on all cylinders, even if it was weird to have the TV crew from Channel 3 filming me as I was eating and photograohing this. In general, food photography is always a bit difficult due to the lighting, but for this one dish, the guy from the TV station was shining the klieg lights at me.

Pork Shoulder

Finally, we got to the actual item I had come for, my Ohio Beef Burger. This was a perfectly cooked burger with some nice raclette cheese and cornichon relish. Nothing fancy, but an extremely well-executed burger, with a good sear on the outside of the patty, and a nice, juicy uniform pink throughout. Flavorful, juicy, and just the right amount of crisp.

If I was a bit hungrier, I would've done the same as the folks down the counter and ordered the off-the-menu Shaq Burger, which also had pickled green tomato, garlic aioli, mozzarella cheese curd, and some other stuff I didn't write down. Looked seriously good. But my basic Ohio Beef Burger was damn fine as well.

Greenhouse Tavern Burger
(cross-section)

So thanks, Jonathon. I hope to be back soon (well, as soon as an NH engineer can... although I do visit Cleveland for work pretty often). Cleveland is definitely on the repeat visit list.

Greenhouse Tavern
2038 E 4th Street
Cleveland, OH

Wonton Gourmet & BBQ (Cleveland, OH)

2009-10-24T12:21:00.003-05:00

Wonton Gourmet

Many people outside the region don't realize it, but Cleveland has a very vibrant and active Asian community, and several of my trips to Cleveland (usually to NASA Glenn) have involved trips to Asiatown for some good Chinese food. Looking to try someplace new, this time I decided to check up on some of the local blogs (Fun Playing With Food, in particular), and found that several sources recommended Wonton Gourment and BBQ.

Located on Payne Avenue, Wonton Gourmet is located in one of those fairly generic storefronts, that, if not for the big "Wonton Gourmet & BBQ" banner, you might mistake for a dry cleaner or office supply store. Inside, however, it's definitely one of those Chinese places that caters to natives, with big colorful pictures of food and banners (mostly in Chinese, with short English translations below) covering the walls. Like a lot of these little Chinese places from other cities (like my favorite Shuang Cheng in Minneapolis), there's a very noticeable difference between the food items pictured on the wall, and those in the menu (which seems to cater to Americanized dishes and interests). In short, you seem to be better ordering off the wall instead of the menu.

Beef Rice Rolls

I ended up ordering some steamed beef rice rolls and some Chinese steak with black bean sauce, hot peppers, and ginger. Immediately I ran into one of the problems of going to a family-style place by yourself: to sample things you end up with a huge amount of excess food. I ended up solving this on this trip by being friendly to the next table over, and bartered two of my rice rolls and some Chinese steak for some dumplings, a turnip cake, and some duck. (all of which were good, but not photogenic after the slicing and dicing involved in the portioning for the barter...)

However, even if I had stayed strictly with the food I ordered, I would have been very pleased. The rice rolls were delicious, delicate, tangy, and nicely spiced. The Chinese steak with black bean sauce, hot peppers, and ginger was very tasty and the meat perfectly spiced. I rather liked this dish, but did feel that I could have done better with a different entree. For the record, I did try to order the "Frog with Bitter Melon", but they were out of frog that day. C'est la vie!

Steak with black bean sauce, hot peppers, and ginger

In any case, Wonton Gourmet & BBQ really shined for me. I had so much food I was stuffed silly, all of it being excellently prepared. And I was out of there for a mere $10. Definitely one of the better stops in Asiatown.

Wonton Gourmet
3211 Payne Avenue
Cleveland, OH

Shake Shack (New York, NY)

2009-10-23T19:48:00.003-05:00

Shake Shack

In this modern world of web review sites, twitter, facebook, and the like, it's not uncommon for places to get a lot of hype these days. Sometimes the hype is warranted. Sometimes it isn't. On our recent trip to NYC, we decided to meet up with my friend Roy and give it a shot.

In the case of Shake Shack, the modestly-sized, well, shack in Madison Square Park in New York City, the hype is substantial. Pretty much every respectable burger blog has talked about (sometimes I swear AHT has an article a week on the place), as well as several magazines. The lines are often daunting as well. But, at least from my experience, the hype is warranted (especially if you know a little line management, such as going off-peak).

Shack Burger

Danny Meyer opened the first Shake Shack back in 2004 on the south end of Madison Square Park. Unlike a lot of burger joints these days, Shake Shack doesn't through a huge amount of toppings on a burger (with some exceptions, however, like the Shack Stack I'll discuss later), focusing primarily on the beef patty itself. The burgers are West Coast style, focusing on a fairly small patty that's grilled crisp on the griddle. By using their own beef blend of sirloin and brisket, packing it loosely, and using the "smash into the griddle" technique, they're pretty much masters of the "juicy patty with nice crispy bits around it." The patty isn't all that substantial, but that's why double burgers figure prominently on the menu. Their primary burger, the "Shack Burger" is true West Coast style: burger, cheese, "shack sauce", lettuce, tomato, and onion. And it really works. A patty that's pretty much perfect, and some condiments that complement but don't cover the burger's goodliness.

As far as the non-burger items, I was pretty satisfied. I've never been a great fan of crinkle-cut fries, but the ones at the Shack are nicely cooked, and certainly don't detract from the meal. Good, but not outstanding. I did, however, really enjoy my extra-thick chocolate malt, which was a nice consistency, and nicely malty.

Shack Stack

I also decided to throw caution to the wind and try one of the more outrageous items: The Shack Stack: consisting of two burger patties, cheese, a deep-fried cheese-stuffed portabello, lettuce, and tomato. Oh, and Shack Sauce. It's truly overkill, but it actually works. Biting through the monstrosity (which partially collapses in a river of cheese after the first bite), you get a little bit of everything: two cheeses, nice crispy burger bits, nice woody mushroom bits, some of the breading, some crunch from the lettuce, etc. It's actually quite good, although it's also very heavy. I'll probably just do a Double Shack next time instead.

Still, is the place worth the hype? I wouldn't wait two hours for a Shack burger, but I'd probably do an hour. Luckily, they have a webcam where you can check on the line.

Shake Shake
Madison Square Park (and two other locations in NYC)
New York, NY

Le Pain Quotidien (Bryant Park, New York, NY)

2009-10-20T00:02:00.002-05:00

Le Pain Quotidien

On weekend and vacation mornings, I really enjoy relaxing with a cup of coffee and the newspaper, and have a nice sweet breakfast, such as pancakes, waffles, or maybe a sweetroll or something. Unfortunately, this sort of thing can be a little difficult when you happen to be in New York City. Luckily, about 18 months ago my sister-in-law introduced me to Le Pain Quotidien ("The Daily Bread").

The first thing that impresses you upon entering LPQ is the aesthetic. The walls are rustically colored, and the tables and trim are made from recycled wood, with a large communal table set in the middle of the room (if you have a smaller party and there is space for you, they'll recommend you sit at the communal table with other diners). They have a lot of other quaint details, such as softly colored glass panels, pendant lights, and such, making for a very relaxing environment to enjoy coffee and perhaps a light meal. Since we had just finished our Pizza Tour (see the previous entry), this was just the sort of thing we needed.

Le Pain Quotidien Waffle

Carol and I both opted for lattes, which were served up perfectly in small drinking bowls with just the right balance between a good coffee blend and lightly frothed milk. Carol's breakfast order was the a parfait, which features thick layers of not-too-sweet yogurt mixed with some very fresh and flavorful fruit. I instead opted for the waffle. Since LPQ is a Belgian chain, I wasn't disappointed, my waffle was perfectly done in Belgian style, using yeasted batter, lots of sugar, and a large waffle iron to give a nice crispy exterior around a soft and malty interior (I'd do these myself more often at home if I could remember to make a yeasted waffle batter the night before). I think for both of us, LPQ delivered, and delivered well. It's certainly one of the few coffee chains I think I regularly enjoy when I go there.

Le Pain Quotidien
70 W 40th St
(between 5th Ave & Avenue Of The Americas)
New York, NY
(Plus a gazillion other locations in five states and 15 countries)

Scott's Pizza Tour (New York, NY)

2009-10-17T09:13:00.015-05:00

Two pizzas from Patricia's in The Bronx

Anyone knows me knows that I love pizza. I'll further admit that I'm a pizza snob. Growing up, I was taught by my Connecticut-raised father that there is One True Pizza, and that's the pizza (err, Apizza) from Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napolitana in New Haven, CT, with begrudging acceptance of a choice few other places on the planet (most of them near New Haven, like Sally's, and The Modern). Over the years, I've learned that there are a lot of other good pizza places hiding out there, turning out pizzas whose crust, sauce, or cheese (mostly the crust) are head-and-shoulders above the rest. Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco. American Flatbread in Waitsfield, VT. Grimaldi's in Brooklyn. Patsy's in Harlem. Lombardi's in New York City. The last two of these show that if there's a home to pizza in America that's not New Haven, it's New York.

Lombardi's Banner

Well, a little over a year ago, I had noticed an article on Serious Eat's Slice blog that an enterprising guy in New York City was renting a school bus and going around to different New York City pizzerias as "Scott's Pizza Tours". Showing it to Carol, her first response was the gentle eye roll that she gets when I start going off on one of these food obsessions. Her second response was to promise that she'd take me on a pizza tour some point during 2009. Well, 2009 has been a spectacularly busy year, but in October we were finally able to carve a weekend out of our busy schedule and head down to New York City for a weekend of food and pizza tourism, with my friend Matt from New Jersey turning out for the event as well. We chose the October 4th tour featuring stops in Manhattan and the Bronx.

First stop was the famous Lombardi's in Little Italy. NYC's oldest licensed pizzeria, it was founded in 1897 and first licensed in 1905. It's generally considered the home of pizza in New York City. It's also been one of my favorite pizza places for years, having been here several times since the 80s. It's consistently good pizza, made in a coal-fired brick oven like most (but not all) of my favorite pizzas, and despite being good pizza in New York, getting in generally isn't too difficult.

The oven at Lombardi's

One of the major attractions of the pizza tour is that our host Scott was really into not just the pizza, but spending a lot of time discussing the production of the pizza, with many discussions of different pizza ovens, fuels, and cooking techniques (indeed, one of the frequent destinations of his walking tour is the nearby pizza oven factory). Scott ended up taking us back into the kitchen at Lombardi's so we we could look at their coal-fired oven, including a discussion of how coal-fired ovens are no longer allowed in New York City (the one at Lombardi's is grandfathered), and the drama that resulted in the 1980s when the oven at the original Lombardi's location broke and they had to find another location with an existing coal-fired oven (ending up taking over a bakery down the way). The oven is a classic flat-roofed side-drafting coal-fired oven (smaller but not unlike the fixture obvious to any visitor to Pepe's in New Haven), generally running a little over 900 degrees. They were even kind enough to let us look inside the oven.

Lombard's Margherita

As we left the kitchen to get seated, the last thing Scott did was place the order for the pizza tour pizzas, pointing out that the high temperatures of the coal-fired oven allow the pizza to cook very quickly, meaning that from the time we ordered the pizzas until the final pizzas were delivered would be around 6 minutes later. Indeed, 6 minutes after seating, the pizzas were delivered to the table. Our pizza was a classic margherita pizza (for reasons of both logistics and comparative pizza tasting, all the pizzas on the tour were cheese pizzas). Lombardi's uses a fairly thin crust, crushed uncooked San Marzano tomatoes, sliced fresh mozzarella, and basil applied after cooking. The result is a nicely toasted slice with perfect crust. Since it's fresh mozzarella, it's not very oily, and doesn't tend to burn your mouth.

Vertical Topping Test

Scott was very animated about the pizza discussion, encouraging us to really inspect each slice before eating it. Turn it over to look at the crust (an activity that I've always used to tell a good slice from a mediocre one). Holding the pizza vertically to make sure it's not overly sauced or cheesed, so that the toppings still cling to the crust. Looking at the side view of the crust. And looking at the overall toasting of the cheese. Then we ate the pizza. Lombardi's excels at the three factors I enjoy most in a top-tier pizza: Good cheese quality (they use fresh mozzarella from down the street), good sauce (the Lombardi's sauce is crushed San Marzano tomatoes, not your regular sugared sauce, a feature of many of my favorite pizzas), and a nicely toasted and caramelized (bordering on, but not crossing too far into, territory that many people call "burnt").

After finishing at Lombardi's, we walked down the street past Ray's Pizza. While not stopping in (honestly, there are better pizza places than Ray's), Scott spent several minutes giving the sordid history of the "Ray's Pizza" name, showing menus from most of the 40+ "Ray's Pizza" places in New York City, and discussing how the location was actually the original. He also discussed the historical shift of pizza in New York from niche food to food for the masses, and how it shifted from the Lombardi's style Neapolitan pizzas into the more typical cheese-laden New York Slices we all know. We then boarded the school bus and headed up to Harlem.

Patsy's Oven

Our stop in Harlem was at Patsy's. Founded just after the close of Prohibition (in 1933), Patsy's originally started as a bar that served brick-oven pizza. Over the years, they absorbed the business next door and expanded, concentrating on the pizza business. Overall, the brick oven is really similar to Lombardi's, being an old coal-fired brick oven, albeit with a slightly arched roof and a slightly cooler operating temperature (around 850 degrees). And for those familiar with Pepe's, the overall look and feel of Patsy's is similar. Similar tile work and woodwork. Similar seating areas. The prominent bar. The felt-and-white-letter menu boards.

Unlike the Lombardi's pizza, the Patsy's pizza uses aged parmesan, and has a thinner crust (so the sauce seeps most of the way into the crust).

Patsy's Pizza

The sauce is more mellow, and the aged mozzarella also gives a lot of flavor to the resulting pizza, making the overall result a pizza that is definitely more about the cheese than the sauce. Still an excellent slice, however, with stunningly good crust. Myself, I found my pizza at Patsy's to be very remiscent Frank Pepe's. The establishment is from the same era, the pizza is cooked from similar ingredients using a similar oven, and the clientele has a similar loyalty.

Stops 3 and 4 on the Pizza Tour were in the Bronx, and focused on "New York Style" pizza, producing very good but not exceptional pizzas.

Comparative Pizza Anatomy

The first Bronx place was Patricia's on Morris Park Avenue. Patricia's was useful for a pizza tour, since they have both a wood-fired brick oven, and a gas-fired deck oven. They use the same sauce and dough for each, so you can compare pizzas made with each technique (see the top of the article). At right I've got a nice picture of Scott doing "comparative pizza anatomy". Both pizzas were good, although I vastly preferred the wood-fired pizza, having a much better crust, a the basil (which was cooked into the pizza here, unlike Lombardi's who adds it to the hot pizza coming out of the oven) gives it a bit of an extra kick.

Louie and Ernie's

The second place in The Bronx was Louie and Ernie's, which is one of the quainter pizza places I've seen. Literally built in a house's basement, it's got a tiny kitchen that is overwhelmingly dominated by a gas-fired deck oven. The pizza itself, for me, was just your standard well-executed New York Slice, but where Louie and Ernie's excelled was in their sausage, obtained from a local butcher shop. The sausage was delicious, flavorful, and juicy. One odd note is that for slices, Louie and Ernie's just makes up cheese pies and adds the condiments when rewarming the slices. Don't try the vertical hold test with this one...

So, it was an excellent pizza tour, and I'd highly recommend his tour to other interested pizza buffs, especially if you can time it to land on one of his "New York and Brooklyn" dates.

The full set of pictures is here.

Louie and Ernie's Sausage Slice

Lombardi's
32 Spring St
New York, NY 10012-4173
(212) 941-7994

Patsy's
2287 1 Ave
New York, NY 10035

Patricia's Pizza & Pasta
1080 Morris Park Ave
Bronx, NY 10461
(718) 409-9069

Louie and Ernie's
1300 Crosby Avenue
The Bronx, NY 10461

H&H Bagels (Upper West Side, New York, NY)

2009-10-15T11:01:00.003-05:00

H&H Bagels

If there's one thing I really like, it's a good bagel, in particular a New York style one. Unfortunately, fewer things in life seem more certain than the exponential decay in bagel quality one experiences as you move further in distance from NYC. By the time you are barely 50 miles into Connecticut most bagels have been replaced by some sort of circular bread product that resembles a bagel only slightly in appearance, and even less in taste. It's as if someone took a real bagel, described it in writing, and made someone re-invent it from that description. Most "bagels" leave me disappointed and wanting. And sometimes it's rather hard to explain, since their exists a pretty big bagel gap: it seems that most people outside NYC have never actually had a good bagel (for example, seeing the gushing reviews on Yelp for one of our local bad bagel ships), don't know what a bagel should be, and wrongly think that all bagels taste the same. On the other hand, I've met several people in NYC that haven't ever had a bad bagel.

For me, a trip to NYC is really the true antidote. There's a lot of places I've gotten excellent bagels in Manhattan. Tal Bagels on the Upper East Side. Daniel's near Grand Central. Murray's in the Village. And Kossar's on the Lower East Side. But the grandfather of them all is H&H Bagels on the Upper West Side. The common knowledge is that H&H bagels are the best. Kramer worked there on Seinfeld. And their sign itself proclaims "Like no other bagel in the World".

An H&H Bagel

I think the prevailing wisdom is right in this case. A good H&H bagel was the perfect heft, not too heavy, not too light. A very nice dense, chewy, doughy interior with a few air pockets. The crust is sturdy, brown, and smooth, with the bottom being slightly caramelized. That is what a bagel should be. If you aren't eating something that matches this description, well, it's not a bagel.

H&H Bagels
2239 Broadway
New York, NY

Brasserie Les Halles (Financial District, New York, NY)

2009-10-14T09:23:00.005-05:00

Brasserie Les Halles

Sometimes you just want a steak.

On our recent trip to New York City, Carol and I wanted to go someplace nice but not over the top to celebrate our tenth anniversary since we started dating. A quick search of OpenTable showed that the Saturday night slots at most places were really starting to fill up, but we noticed that the Financial District location of Brasserie Les Halles had decent availability, so we decided to give it a go. Les Halles has been on my hit list for a while, mostly since I love bistro food, French-style butchering, and good fries. And, admittedly, Bourdain's plugging of the place made me curious.

The location itself is a little bit of an interesting story. Located at 15 John Street, it's a stone's throw from the WTC site, and is one of the few operating businesses on that stretch of John Street. A lot of the other businesses relocated, and their storefronts are currently used as locker rooms and union halls for the WTC workers. Les Halles Downtown opened several months after 9/11, so it's definitely a case of optimism in the neighborhood's future, but it does give the place an odd ambiance, especially since the storefront is wrapped in scaffolding that appears to have been there for a long time, and doesn't appear to be leaving any time soon.

Frisee aux Lardons

The restaurant itself is your basic bistro, with a large bar in front, a dining room in back, and all sorts of white-tablecloth little tables crammed in slightly more tightly than most people are comfortable with . The ambiance is slightly dark, with the lighting, mirrors, and the obligatory brass fixtures offsetting the darkness a bit.

I ended up starting with a salad. Prior to showing up at Les Halles, I had been craving a wedge salad. You know, where they take a quarter of an iceberg lettuce, and basically drown it in bacon, bleu cheese, and ranch dressing.

Well, the don't have that at Les Halles. What they have is much, much better: Frisee aux lardons. Frisee lettuce in a light bacony sauce, served with plentiful chunks of perfectly fried bacon and a nice roquefort crouton. It was everything I was looking for in a salad, some nice crunchy but slightly bitter greens, plentiful but not overwhleming bacon-ness, and a good cheese note.

Onglet

For my main course, I ended up going with the onglet, or "hanger steak" for the non-French crowd. I was happy that Les Halles actually listed the translation as "Hanger Steak", since I've been to entirely too many places that incorrectly call it "Hangar Steak", as if I'm looking for a place to park my airplane or Zeppelin. The onglet (along with it's nearby cousin, the bavette) is one of my favorite steaks, although it's one that's easy to screw up. If not butchered properly it can be stringy or gristly, and if overcooked it picks up the same sort of funky gaminess that kidney sometimes has.

The onglet with served with a shallot reduction sauce, a small mesclun salad, and frites. The onglet was nicely butchered, and cooked a perfect medium rare, with nice pink interior, and just a slight crisp to the edges of the meat. The shallot sauce complemented it nicely, but the frites were the real action. I'm definitely a fry snob, having actually had what I consider to be the perfect fries from several little street vendors in Amsterdam and Brussels. These frites were very well done, with a nice soft, moist, mealy interior, a crisp exterior, and just enough caramelization to add a bit of flavor. A solid 9/10 on my fry scale, making this a solid entree (and at $19, not a bad price at all).

Crêpes Suzettes

For dessert, I discovered that Carol had never had Crêpes Suzettes. Now she has, and enjoyed the show. I've had better Suzettes, but these were good enough, and half of the idea of Crêpes Suzettes is the show (the other half is butter. Lots of butter.).

All-in-all, we really enjoyed Les Halles. The reviews of Les Halles have been mixed (especially for John St location), but for what it is (moderately-high-end Bistro food), they did well. Maybe not up to the hype, but it's definitely on my "visit again" list.

Brasserie Les Halles Downtown
15 John St.
Financial District
New York, NY

H-Mart (Burlington, MA)

2009-10-13T08:37:00.004-05:00

H-Mart

H-Mart, Korean-American Asian supermarket chain, recently opened a location in Burlington, MA. I'm really happy that the region has another Asian grocery store chain (although I've long been a fan of the Boston area's Super 88s).

One of the problems of our living in the Upper Valley region of VT/NH is that we don't really have access to a lot of Asian ingredients (we've got two small Asian grocery stores here, but their selection is limited, especially when it comes to produce), which is kind of a shame, since both of us really like Asian cuisines.

So when we happened to be in the Boston area a few weeks ago for another reason, I remembered seeing in the paper that H-Mart was opening, so Carol and I went there for their grand opening. We really enjoyed it, since we managed to stock up on a lot of produce items that are either impossible to find in the Upper Valley (jiu cai and gai lan, for example), were of better quality (we bought some phenomenal ginger), or just had significantly lower prices.

Noodles

We also tracked down a few specialty items (frozen banana leaves, frozen udon noodles), and really enjoyed the entire department dedicated to kimchi (leaving with a 1 gallon bag of the stuff!). The meat department was phenomenal as well, although I didn't bring a cooler down this time.

It's also a good place for Asian kitchen implements (they have a whole department dedicated to rice cookers), and for those who enjoy the fine art of "Engrish", the place is chock-a-block with all sorts of bad spellings and translations (such as the "Slided Squid" seen here)

I also found a new item that I'd never tried before: "drinkable vinegar". Basically a fruit flavored vinegar that you dilute down for drinking like a tea. I bought a big bottle of the raspberry flavor, and have been enjoying it.

"Slided Squid"

I'd shop here once a week if it was closer. I'll definitely be visiting again when I'm in the area.

Note to self: do not leave a gallon bag of kimchi in your fridge for two weeks, unless you really like the smell of kimchi!

H-Mart
3 Old Concord Rd.
Burlington, MA 01803

Billy's Famous Roast Beef (Wakefield, MA)

2009-10-12T09:07:00.004-05:00

Billy's Famous Roast Beef

Every region of the US has it's list of specialty foods, and New England is no exception. We all know about the New England style hot dog roll, the Lobster Roll, the clam strip, and Boston baked beans. Slightly less well-known is the area's love of the roast beef sandwich, with several layers of steaming, rare roast beef piled upon a heavy onion roll, preferably with some sort of horseradish condiment. Think Arby's, but done with actual meat and decent buns.

The north Boston area (the North Shore, in particular), is rife with various roast beef sandwich shops, ranging from the regional chains (Kelly's Roast Beef) to several other establishments, such as Liberty Bell. Royal's, Bill and Bob's, Beachmont. I'll be honest, I've not done a full tour of these, but I've been to Kelly's several times and Bill and Bob's once, and I've generally been very happy.

But several places that review these little roast beef stores all mentioned one place in particular as standing out amongst the rest: Billy's Famous Roast Beef in Wakefield, MA. So on a recent trip to the north Boston metro area, we decided to stop in an try them out.

Slicing the roasts

Located right on the line between Melrose and Wakefield, it's a small family-run establishment with a simple ordering counter and a line of booths. The menu is primarily roast beef sandwiches, fried seafood, and your basic sides (fries, onion rings, etc). Carol and I both opted for a "Super Beef" with horseradish, and split a side of fries. We watched them make the entire sandwich, pulling a roast from a holding oven, slicing it to order, toasting the buns, and assembling the sandwich.

The beef was very nicely roasted and juicy. I like it a titch rarer, but this wasn't overcooked by any stretch, and was nicely pink. It was sliced very, very thinly, and piled on generously, resulting in all sorts of beefy goodness piled up on a bun. The bun itself? Basic onion rolls, but fresh, soft, and nicely toasted, which kept the bun from getting completely destroyed by the juicy beef.

Overall, I'd give this a 9/10 on my beef sandwich scale, and certainly wouldn't mind coming back, this place has definitely earned it's reputation for beef sandwiches.

Billy's Super Roast Beef

The fries, however, are worth discussing. Billy's suffers from what I call "seafood funk", a common ailment of many a North Shore eatery. The restaurant itself smells of overcooked clam strips right as you come in the door, and the clam strips, fries, and onion rings are all cooked in the same deep fat frier. In general, this isn't a problem, but at Billy's I could tell that my french fries were cooked in the same oil as the clams and onion rings, since they tasted faintly of both. A shame, since it took what otherwise would've been good fries and downgraded them to, well, "meh."

So, I heartily recommend Billy's for a Roast Beef sandwich. I'd pass on the sides, however.

Billy's Famous Roast Beef (and Seafood)
1291 Main Street
Wakefield, MA 01880

The Three-Legged Mare (York, UK)

2009-10-09T20:37:00.002-05:00

Three-Legged Mare Pub

During our trip to the UK, we took a side trip up to the walled city of York. We rather enjoyed the city, with nice walks around the city wall, touring York Minster, shopping, and checking out the original "shambles".

However, one of the things York is known for is having one of England's highest number of pubs per capita, with all sorts of pubs distributed through the city.

Nicely located just about 100 yards from York Minster, and just about as close to the B+B at which we were staying, the Three-Legged Mare pub is a York Brewery pub (A "three-legged mare" is basically a hangman's gallows, not some sort of lame horse). It's one of those pubs that I like to call "Lunch" pubs (I'm sure there's a better British term for this), fairly brightly lit instead of being a little dark and cozy, and have a nice little garden in the back. It's the sort of place that makes you want to pop in and have a nice little light lunch to go with your pint.

Ploughman's Lunch

Well, the Three-Legged Mare is a pretty good spot for this. Instead of having some of the heavier pub food (big meat pies, bangers and mash, and such), the menu mostly consists of variations on the other British pub mainstay: the Ploughman's Lunch. It's somewhat traditional (although some of the skeptics say Britain's cheese industry started it) for pubs to serve a light lunch consisting of some bread, a big hunk of cheese, and some relish (err, "pickle" in British English). Sometimes a place will also add a few other items to round it out, such as a small salad, or some sliced meat.

The Three-Legged Mare goes all out on their Ploughman's Lunch, however. In addition to the bread (a nice hearty wheat bread) and some good thick chunks of Stilton with relish, the Mare served some some surprisingly good ham, pickled onions, chutney, bread, salad, pickles, and the like. Oh, and a pork pie. Not a bad spread, indeed. It was a lunch that was hearty enough to satisfy, but light enough to not weigh me down. And it paired perfectly with the York Brewery Centurion's Ghost Ale. A nice dark and malty bitter ale (one of my favorites on the trip).

It's probably not my favorite pub overall, but it was certainly a great place to stop in for a light lunch.

The Three-Legged Mare
York Brewery
15 High Petergate,
York
North Yorkshire, UK

Lava Restaurant (Blue Lagoon, Grindavík, Iceland)

2009-09-25T15:45:00.004-05:00

Iceland's Blue Lagoon

On our most recent trip to visit my brother and sister-in-law in London, we decided to finally try the Icelandair route, which involves two flight, one from BOS to KEF, and another shorter hop from KEF to LHR. What's intriguing about this approach is that Icelandair and Keflavik exist primarily on transit passengers (as opposed to people making Iceland their primary destination), and they make it very convenient for you to take an extended layover (nine hours in our case) and there are a number of cheap shuttle buses that will take you around SW Iceland, into Reykjavik, or off to soak in Iceland's Blue Lagoon Spa.

Mud, anyone?

We opted for the last of these options, feeling that nothing helps work out the kinks from an overseas red-eye flight like a nice long hot soak in some hot springs. $35 each (after currency conversion) for bus and entrance fee, and Carol and I were off to the lagoon.

The lagoon itself (shown here) was quite a novel experience. The blue-ish white water is a mix of fresh and seawater that comes from the nearby geothermal power plan, and it's pretty much saturated with minerals like silica and sulfur (while you can't tell from the photo, the majority of the lagoon's bottom is actually black sand, so the water itself is milky-blue). Bathing in the Blue Lagoon is supposedly very good for the skin (but, as we found, having a somewhat questionable affect on one's hair), and there is now all sorts of folklore about it's overall health effects. Big buckets of silica mud are available for slathering over your skin, and the nice warm water (over 100 degrees F in most of the pool) really makes for a pleasant soak. After several hours lounging in the pool, with the occasional break for a Viking beer (the main beer of Iceland, which I can't say is anything terribly special), I was thorough relaxed, and exfoliated to a degree I had not thought possible. My long plane flight and jetlag were long-forgotten memories.

Icelandic cuisine, including Minke Whale

But I was starting to get hungry. Luckily, the Blue Lagoon offers a handful of dining options, including a modest snack bar, as well as a full restaurant (Lava). The day we were there, Lava was running a buffet special featuring "a cross section of traditional Icelandic dishes." Although somewhat pricey (around $24 each after conversion), we both opted for the buffet.

I'll have to say, what I'm rather glad we did. Although fully half of the menu involved herring in one form or another (and anyone that knows me knows that most fish, and herring in particular, don't agree with me very much), I was pleasantly pleased with the selections, with several lamb dishes (open-faced smoked lamb sandwichs, lamb soup, and cold sliced leg of lamb), herring in cream, curried beans, several potato dishes, and salted cod mousse. While the herring was mildly enjoyable, I really liked the lamb dishes; several people had told me of the high reputation of Icelandic lamb, and I wasn't disappointed. However, the eye opener for me was the last meat item on the buffet, minke whale with pepper sauce.

I've never had whale before, but was intrigued by the deep tuna-like rare meat slices, so I grabbed several of them on my first pass. It was an interesting texture and flavor, reminding me mostly of buffalo carpaccio, with some slight gaminess, a hint of tuna-like flavor and texture, and just enough omega fatty acids to make it clear you're eating a creature of the sea. I'm not sure I'd enjoy a huge plate of minke whale, but it was pleasant enough, especially coupled with the excellent pepper sauce.

A nice view to dine by...

Rounding out the meal was one of my favorite parts of the meal, a dessert of Icelandic skyr. Kind of a half-way cross between strained yogurt and a very soft cheese, I don't really care for skyr straight up, but when served with a nice healthy dollop of not-to-sweet berry preserves, it was a most excellent dessert indeed. Excellent enough that I ended up polishing off four of the little skyr jars.

What also worked here was the view, our table was right up against the glass overlooking the lagoon, which made for a thoroughly pleasant dining experience. The opposite side of the room was a rock wall of solid lava, making for some very interesting environs.

So, while a bit pricey, and the heavy reliance on herring dishes wasn't my forte, I have plenty of enjoyment out of this meal, and will certainly consider a return trip to both the Blue Lagoon and its Lava Restaurant.

Lava Restaurant
Blue Lagoon
Grindavik
Iceland

Amaya (Knightsbridge, London, UK)

2009-09-16T17:03:00.004-05:00

Amaya

On last month's trip to London, we decided that at least one fancy dinner with my brother and sister-in-law was in order, and my brother got reservations at Amaya, an Indian place in Knightbridge.

Indian food in London has gotten to be almost a cliche, with all sort of little takeaway curry shops open serving out such dishes as Chicken Tikka Masala and various Baltis. But there are a few places that really stand out from the crowd, including The Punjab (in Covent Garden, one of London's oldest Indian restaurants), and the more recent efforts of Masala World (of which Amaya is one).

Amaya is best described as "Posh Indian, with small dishes", with an emphasis on carefully blended flavors instead of just bold spices, and emphasizing proper preparation instead of just slathering things in curry sauces and gravies.

Amaya's Kitchen

Indeed, most of the menu at Amaya is notable for the lack of curries and such, with most of the preparations being dry or grilled dishes. And the kitchen is open-air, so you can see most of the food being prepared (indeed, the kitchen's bright lights call attention to it in an otherwise dark restaurant).

While many of the menu items looked quite excellent, my brother recommended that we do the tasting menu, with a total of nine small courses including Chicken Tikka, Venison Kebab, Chicken Biryani, and Roasted Hamour.

Rose and Paprika Chicken Tikka

Each of these courses was small, but showed that quality was really the top goal at Amaya. The first course, chicken wraps, were a nice starter with flavorful ground chicken in lettuce. They then took it up a notch with the next course, a perfectly done chicken tikka delicately grilled with rose and paprika, smoky with nice hints of spice and rose. The hamour in pandan leaf was excellent as well, served wrapped up in the leaf with a soft mustard and chili sauce.. However, my favorites were the Venison kebab (perfectly done kebabs that were nicely complement with both the rose spice mix and the dry peanut curry they supplied as condiments) and the Chicken Biryani (perfectly cooked chicken and rice, delicately spiced).

Sweet Potato Chaat

The sides worked out as well, the naan was perfectly done with just a hint of black cumin, and the fried sweet potatoes were perfect little morsels coated with a light curry sauce (one of the few sauces we saw that night).

The only disappointment I had was the dessert. The lime wedge was reminiscent of your run-of-the-mill key lime pie (well, I guess key lime pie isn't common in London, but still...), served with a side of was was best described as "hospital lime Jello[tm]". Amaya was hitting on all cylinders until dessert, which really was a misfire.

Overall, however, I really enjoyed Amaya. The focus truly was one the flavors of the spices and not just ratcheting up the spice level.

Hospital Food

The starters were flavorful, the grilled entrees were perfectly done, and the Biryani ended up being one of those dishes that shows that perfect execution of a simple dish is sometimes the best way to get perfection. Oh, and the cocktails were excellent as well.

Amaya
Halkin Arcade
Motcomb Street
London SW1X 8LB

Tad Ocakbasi Meze Bar (Hackney Central, London, UK)

2009-09-04T16:46:00.006-05:00

Tad Ocakbasi Meze Bar

Earlier this week, we went walking through London with my brother and sister-in-law, ending up at the Tad Ocakbasi Meze Bar in Hackney Central, meeting up with my brother's brother-in-law and family for Turkish food.

Tad is a modestly classy Turkish place in Hackney Central sporting both eat-in and take-away service, based around classic Turkish grilled kebabs and meze dishes.

What really shined here was the meze. Meze is the cornerstone of Turkish cuisine, an assortment of appetizers or small dishes served before a main meal.

Mixed Meze

Tad serves a mixed meze which results in quite an impressive spread of food (I'm only showing about 1/3 of it here), with hummus, tabbouleh, muhammara, fattoush, and wider variety of salads than I chould hope to recall. Particularly good were the grilled onions. These were shockingly good, with a nice tangy pomegranate sauce.

My main course was Yogurtlu Basti, which was basically chicken kebab over Turkish bread, with both a garlicky tomato sauce and yogurti sauce liberally applied. The result was the sauce soaking into the strips of bread, resulting in little morsels of garlicky yumminess.

Onions

I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I think I would've enjoyed the straight up kebab almost as well.

We were very pleased with the food quality, and, while slightly pricey by my own only-partially-London-calibrated expectations, the quantity was almost excessive. If going here, expect to recieve shockingly bountiful quanties of food. The service was also friendly, pleasant, and efficient, making this a pleasant experience overall.

Tad Ocakbasi Meze Bar
261 Mare Street
Hackney Central
London E8 3NS

Yogurtlu Basti

Guest Blog: Annie's Kiosk (Sønderborg, Denmark)

2009-08-05T12:27:00.006-05:00

Annie's Kiosk

Today we have another from the European Bureau of Offbeat Eats (aka my brother, Mr K. Piltdown):

In an attempt to redeem our reputation, somewhat sullied by reviewing high-concept over-priced pabulum served in the dark, the European Bureau of Offbeat Eats has attempted to get back in touch with the culinary roots of this blog. Although we at the European bureau can’t really compete with Los Manjares de Pepe after a hot day of dropping things out of airplanes, the least we can do is find a decent hot dog in continental Europe.

As sometimes happens, you may find yourself on the scenic route from Flensburg (in the northern German region of Schleswig Holstein) to Sønderborg, Denmark. If you haven’t had your fill of herring and potatoes in Flensburg, you might be able to fill in the cracks with one of the better hot dogs on this side of the Atlantic. Not long after you cross the Danish frontier, you run across a roadside shack guaranteed to draw in any of the Offbeat Eats cognoscenti.

Annie’s, evidently run be the self-same Annie, has been dishing up hot dogs along this bit of the Flensburg Fjord. The layout is simple… you walk up to the counter, order from the menu on the wall, and get your toppings for your dogs to order. If your Danish is a bit weak, just point. Ice cream is also on offer.

Danish Hot Dogs

While we didn’t get a chance to sample everything, the basic offering is a either a pork or beef hotdog. With the standard pork dog you get a choice of grilled or boiled, beef is mysteriously just boiled. You get a choice of toppings. A dog with everything gets you ketchup, mustard (German-style), remoulade sauce (a Danish specialty), crispy fried onion bits, raw onion, and pickled cucumber slices. (Lightly pickled, like a US kosher style.) The fried onion bits get dispensed using a neat little stainless steel apparatus. Annie’s other options include the classic “French Style” where a piece of baguette is impaled and the hotdog inserted in the bread, as well as various regional sandwiches and sausages.

The field team sampled the hotdogs, served up by Annie herself. The results are shown here. Overall? Quite good. Basically, the best dog so far in Europe. Even by my exacting US standards, not bad at all, 7 out of 10. Not sure I understand the local remoulade business, and the cucumber slices are a bit subtle in taste, but they are the local style. The beef dog was quite good. It was a bit coarser grained than a normal US dog, but it had excellent flavor.

Annie's Kiosk
Fjordvejen 67, 6340 Kruså
Sønderborg, Denmark

Sneakers Bistro (Winooski, VT)

2009-07-28T11:35:00.004-05:00

Sneakers

Two weekends ago, Carol and I attended the Vermont Brewers Festival as we usually do. However, instead of our usual trip to Coffee Corner in Montpelier (note to self: haven't reviewed Coffee Corner yet!), we decided to shake it up a bit and find someplace new to try. Doing several online searches, Sneakers Bistro in Winooski seemed to be consistently recommended, so we gave it a try.

The place is very nondescript, with the primary signage being a pair of Converse All Stars hung outside the restaurant (shown here). It's a fairly cozy little storefront, but they have a reasonably large amount of outdoor seating as well. Which was good, since when we arrived, there was a healthy crowd of hungry people waiting for tables. Luckily, two-seaters were turning over quickly, so Carol and I got seated almost immediately at a nice sidewalk table.

The primary thing that had been recommended to me at Sneakers by both other foodies and the staff was one of the Corned Beef Hash dishes. As most people know, CBH is one of my favorite breakfast dishes, although I'm often disappointed by it (oh, the places I've been with "good" CBH that wasn't any better than the canned stuff...). But I decided to tempt fate in the pursuit of yumminess, so I ended up ordering the Hasher: a breakfast sandwich with CBH, egg, sauteed onions, and mushrooms.

Sneakers' "Hasher" sandwich

I'm glad I did, since it mostly worked. What worked here: The hash was excellent, and easily earning a spot on my "top 10 hash" list. It also combined well with the onions and mushrooms. The homefries were very good as well, with some nice spicing and a good crispiness. What didn't work? CBH as a breakfast sandwich is probably a workable idea, but a toasted bulky roll isn't the way to do it. The bread is too soft, and the CBH tends to squish out as you are eating. They should replace the bulky with some nice thick toast, or maybe a jumbo english muffin. But aside from that, it was a good breakfast.

Carol's Special

Carol, on the other hand, opted for one of the "Quickstart" breakfast specials: black bean cakes, eggs, shrimp, and grits. Overall, a pretty good dish, although the black bean cakes were a little dry, and one of the eggs wasn't 100% cooked. If they could get this dish dialed in, it would be a 10/10, but it lost a few points for those gaffes, and I'd probably give it an 8/10.

All in all, Sneakers makes my list of places to revisit, since (a) the CBH was indeed top 10 list material, and (b) only a few minor gaffes subtracted from what was otherwise a near-perfect breakfast.

Sneakers Bistro
36 Main Street
Winooski, VT

Pro's Ranch Market (Mesa, AZ)

2009-07-28T08:11:00.002-05:00

Ranch Market

One of the things I always enjoyed about the Phoenix area was the vast array of businesses that cater to the Mexican population. Unlike most places I've lived, it's relatively easy to go out and get some fresh masa, a wide variety of chile peppers, tamales, and the like, with most neighborhoods having either a grocery store that caters to the Mexican market, or at least does a good job of carrying Mexican staples and tortillas from some local bakery.

However, on my last trip through Mesa, Arizona, I noticed that Ranch Market, the long-time Phoenix Mexican-themed supermarket, had now opened a location in Mesa, so I decided to go in and check it out, since I hadn't been to Ranch Market in a while.

Agua Frescas

Ranch Market is probably best summed up as a "Mexican Culinary Carnival" that also sells groceries on the side. While half of the business is your basic Mexican grocery store (albeit with very competitive prices), the other half of the store is the Mercado, their food court, with several walkup counters for bakery items, fresh tortillas, a wonderfully stocked butcher counter (complete with a 10 foot long refrigerated case of sausages), a taqueria, and several other food vendors.

But the one that draws me in every time is the big agua fresca stand right inside the door. For those that aren't familiar with it, the aqua fresca is a blend of fresh fruit juices and water (and often teas, nuts, barley, spices, and other ingredients as well) to make a refreshing iced beverage. All day they are constantly making up giant jars of fresh-squeezed juices on ice, and ladling them out to thirsty customers. My particularly favorites are naranja (orange), jamaica (hibiscus and fruit), and sandia (watermelon, which suprises me, since I usually despise watermelon). This time I got a naranja, which was a nicely done aqua fresca, with perfectly fresh orange juice (I miss the days when much of eastern Mesa was still orange groves...) balanced with just the right amount of water to make it a refereshing beverage.

Tacos from the Mercado

And, since I stopped here for lunch, I ended up getting a trio of tacos, going for my holy trinity of asada, carnitas, and cabeza. These were good tacos, although a few points shy of what I was getting used to down in Yuma. The asada and carnitas were nicely crisped and smoky, and the cabeza rather flavorful (although a bit soggier than I'm used to). Overall, still a very good taco for $1. The rest of the food is so good that this is one grocery store where you should go when hungry.

However, the thing that still amazes me about Ranch Market is the prices. By local standards, Ranch Market is cheap ($5 for fresh roasted whole chickens, jalapenos for $0.39/lb, tortillas $1 for 15, etc), while maintaining excellent quality (all the peppers there were top grade, as was the rest of the produce). By my New-England-calibrated grocery costs, this places is insanely cheap (I could literally cut my grocery bill in a third if I had this place near me with the same prices...).

Cheap Produce

So, as far as I am concerned, Ranch Market is a local gem, and I'm glad that Mesa has a location as well.

Ranch Market
1118 E Southern Ave
Mesa, AZ (as well as several Phoenix locations)