When Alli, her parents, and her brother and I decided to go Colter Bay last week, we had a similar experience.  I normally don’t complain about restaurants or their service unless its really bad, and it’s not the worse service I’ve ever had… However, every time I dine there this has been an issue.  This past time we were one of only 3 tables in the whole place and still we had long waits for drinks and food and watched our server disappear for long periods of time. I don’t think I could have written about our visit without mentioning it.

Ignoring the service for a minute, I actually do not have much to say about the food at Colter Bay. Overall, it’s OK, but nothing that really blows me away. We started the meal with some potato skins, which overall were decently good and are a nice and easy snack to go along with a couple pints.  I’d say my favorite potato skins downtown are at Gabriel’s Gate where they basically deep fry them.

I went with something new on the menu and tried Colter Bay’s Wyoming Burger.  Covered with Guacamole, Cheddar Cheese, Salsa and Jalapeno Peppers, their Wyoming Burger had good flavor but, again, nothing outstanding.  The salsa was a suitable replacement for ketchup, the guacamole was a nice touch, and the actual beef was cooked to my order (medium).

Alli ordered herself their Chicken Wings, which I’ve actually had a couple times before and had some good experiences, but let’s be honest, most restuarants in Buffalo serve up a good decent wing.  In any case, they were prepared nice and crispy (my personal favorite), however, they were very small wings, almost comically so.

Overall, if you want to grab an awesome pint of beer (remember draft is 100x better then bottled) I would always suggest Colter Bay.  They have a good size bar that is usually filled with a good crowd, plenty of TVs, and every day of the week they have a beer/mixed drink special.  But, if you are looking for food, there are several other options for pub style food when you’re downtown and sadly I don’t recommend Colter Bay.  If you want to grab something quick while your hanging at the bar it’s OK but it’s certainly nothing worth going out of your way for and their service is just incredibly frustrating.

After watching that video I really really (yes two reallys) want to go to one of these competitions and Alli and I are hoping to make it to one of the later events this year.  So take a look at the video below and check the Events section in the sidebar for future dates and links to buy tickets.

PS: I wanted to say great job to Buffalo Eats friend Nate Peracciny on producing the video above, we love his work.

By the time I first found out about Captain Jack’s, it was too late.  They had posted a “Gone Fishin’” sign on their door and the windows had been covered in brown paper.  To say I was heartbroken would be a stretch but I was pretty upset; the idea of having a restaurant dedicated to making Fish and Chips right down the street was awesome.  So when I read that they had re-opened (they closed because of Fire Marshall issues) I was very excited.

Walking in, I was immediately surprised by the actual size of the restaurant.  Judging from the outside it’s hard to tell how deep the restaurant was and the seating is very limited.  There’s only about 4 tables and maybe 10 seats total so Captain Jack’s makes for a better take out then dine in.  Their menu is nice and simple; they offer several types of seafood in various fried varieties and all for under $10.  You can find shrimp, their fried haddock and cod, chicken fingers (for the boring friend who doesn’t eat fish or those of you who are allergic), clams, calamari and crab cakes.  We tried out their Fish N Chips (that choice was easy) and their House Specialty “The Sea Dog” which is a foot long beer battered Icelandic Cod on a hot dog style roll with lettuce and tartar sauce.

After going to WJ Morrisey’s and The Duke of Kent, I realized that Fish and Chips is really a just a different version of a classic Buffalo Fish Fry.  Captain Jack’s however, served their version with several smaller pieces of Haddock instead of one long piece.  This lead to more batter and that crispy fried goodness around the edges, which, lets be honest, is the best part.  Speaking of which, their beer batter is fantastic.  Even after driving the few miles back to my house it stayed crispy and the actual fish was nice and juicy.  By far one of the best pieces of fried fish I’ve had in a long time and their fries (chips) were pretty good too.  To note, the portion was pretty decent as well, there was more than enough for Alli and I to share.

We also tried their Sea Dog, which was a fish fry “hot dog” but instead of Haddock they used Cod.  The beer batter was very similar to the Fish and Chips but the fish didn’t have any major difference in taste (at least to me, I am not an expert on the difference between the two).  They toasted the foot long roll and it was a nice crispy, but they went a bit overboard with the tartar sauce.  I probably would have enjoyed it more if they could have cut down the volume by half.

Overall, we were very pleased with our spur of the moment decision to stop by Captain Jacks and I really hope they do well.  If you are in the mood for some seafood and crispy fried goodness but don’t want to spend a lot of time (or money) at a sit-down restaurant, I highly suggest stopping by.

source: Charles Lewis/Buffalo News

Just a reminder for everyone out there, this upcoming week (March 8th-March 14th) will be Local Restaurant week, meaning you can eat at literally hundreds of places while saving some serious cash.  Every one of their participating restaurants will have a special meal for $20.10 a person (some may even have meals for 2 for the same price!).  We have been going through the list and I’ve narrowed down a couple candidates, and hopefully reservations will be made and we can get to some serious eating.

Also, Food Wars (a new show on the Travel Channel) will premiere March 9th, and the Buffalo Chicken Wing challenge between Duffs and Anchor Bar will be shown at 10:30pm.  It looks like a pretty cool idea and I’m glad that Duffs is finally sharing the spotlight with Anchor Bar, a restaurant that seems to be on Food Network/Travel Channel every other weekend.

Finally, I am severely behind on my Food Porn postings and hopefully this week will post the following restaurants: El Canelo, Captain Jack’s Fish N Chips, Colter Bay, Fank’s Sunny Italy, and The Wine Thief.  So keep on the look out!  And everyone have an awesome week and EAT!

The basic pizza dough recipe contains a blend of flour, oil, salt and small amount of yeast. Some contain a small amount of sugar to help the yeast. Sauce and cheese are layered on top.  After trying many pizza dough recipes (from very famous chefs no less) I was disappointed.   Why? My taste buds have been spoiled by our regional pizza. There is something special about pizza in Western New York.  My non-expert conclusion is the secret lies in the quality of the dough.  What you put on top really doesn’t matter if the dough sucks.

I think the perfect combination of sweetness and yeasty yeastiness makes for a great pizza.  In this recipe I kick up the oil, sugar and yeast.   The sugar I use is in the form of two full tablespoons of honey for its unrefined natural flavor.  The oil I use is a very light, very delicate, EVOO along with active dry yeast.  I have mentioned before that the quality of the ingredients will make all the difference.   The fewer ingredients you are using make quality even more important since you will taste every one of them.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour  (any combination of flours will do but I always add a small percentage of whole grain when I can)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 ½ tsp active dry yeast or instant yeast
• 1 tbsp ground flax meal (optional but so good for you and taste great too)
• 2 tbsp honey
• ¼ cup light extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup distilled, bottled or filtered water heated to 120 degrees  (The chlorine in tap water is bad for yeast.  The flavor of some tap water is not great either)

TECHNIQUE:

When working with yeast you can simply add the yeast to the mix and everything should be fine or you can proof the yeast.  Some of you baker geeks out there will say, ‘you are using active dry so you have to proof.’  Well, you don’t.  Proofing gives the yeast a head start and guarantees that your yeast is still alive.  I use active dry because it comes in a glass jar that I can keep in my freezer and I can spoon out what I need when I need it.  The packets are nice but I like the jar.  Here is how you proof for my pizza dough.  Put 2 and ½ tsp of yeast in a small bowl and, if frozen, allow it to come up to room temperature.  Microwave 1 cup of water to just under 120 degrees.  Use a meat thermometer to check the temperature of the water.  If it hits 130 it’s too hot and you will kill your yeast!  Add two tablespoons of honey to the water and mix until honey is completely diluted.  Add a few tablespoons of water/honey mixture to yeast.  Mix and wait a few minutes.   If your yeast is still alive it will foam up and smell fantastic.  I let it double in volume but you can let it go as long as you want. Once the bowl is overflowing onto your counter, though, you should probably make a decision.

While your yeast is proofing thoroughly combine the dry ingredients.  Now combine all of your wet ingredients, including the yeast when ready, with the dry. I won’t get elementary by explaining how to knead dough but if you have never done it look it up on youtube. A bread baker on the dough setting works great.  It can do all the work for you and does not cost a lot.  King Arthur Flour’s website is a great place to look up technique that you can trust.  I will say one thing though and that is you should not prejudge your mixture based on look and feel and start adding more flour or water during your knead.  Sometimes it takes about 10 minutes or so but it should come together unless you have measured wrong or working in high humidity.  When working with whole grains they can take a little longer to absorb moisture too.  If using a sweet KitchenAid Artisan mixer you should be done in around 5 minutes.  I start with the paddle for around 20 seconds then switch to the dough hook and knead for 5 minutes.  Lightly oil a bowl and place you dough ball in it.  Spin the ball around to cover the ball in oil (prevents drying out) and then cover the bowl.  Let it rise for 45 minutes.   Since my house is cold this time of year I float the dough bowl in a larger bowl that has a little warm, not boiling, water in it.  This gives the dough a warm water jacket and encourages the yeast to eat.  The dough should almost double in size.  Turn out your dough onto a lightly floured surface, gently deflate to eliminate large bubbles, and divide in half.   This recipe makes two 10-14 inch pizza pies.  If you only need one you can freeze the rest of the dough or refrigerate if you are using it within a couple of days.

A perfect homemade pizza, to me, is perfectly round with a thick rim crust.  The easy way to make a round pizza is to roll each half into as perfect of a ball as you can make.  Take your rolling pin and push directly down on the center of the ball.  Lift your pin, rotate 90 degrees and push down again.  Keep lifting and rotating and pushing down on the center of your ball until it is as flat and round as it can get and looks like a large cookie.  Now you can begin rolling.  Roll from the center outward rotating continuously.  The dough will be elastic and will work against you.  Let the dough rest for a few minutes and work on the other ball.  .  You will have to do this rotation of rolling and resting in order to get each ball rolled to 10 to 12 inches.  When I get close to finishing I sprinkle corn meal on my work surface to make it easier to handle and move.  I then pinch the edge to create a thicker rim crust and perforate the center with a fork to prevent it from rising too much in the oven.  Ideally this will result in a thick outer rim crust and the center will stay evenly flatter. The end result will look like a real pizza and not some homemade frankenpizza.

Toppings are entirely up to you.  It is easy to get carried away with spices so I keep it simple.  Believe it or not I just use a light smearing of jarred pasta sauce since I do not like too much sauce.  Then I layer on a mixture of mozzarella and smoked provolone.  Finally I top it with any combination of pepperoni, roma tomatoes, mushrooms etc.   Toppings are a personal thing.  Another favorite is Frank’s hot sauce, cheddar cheese and bits of cooked chicken.

Just before you start rolling your dough you will want to start preheating your oven to 500 degrees.  If you are using a pizza stone then it should be in your oven preheating about 1/3 up from the bottom.  No pizza stone?  You can buy a pizza stone for 13 bucks.  If you have a heavy ½ sheet pan you can turn it over and let it preheat in your oven.  If you are using a stone you should let it preheat for around 30 minutes so time this with your prep.  You don’t want your pies sitting with the toppings for too long so do not top until just before the oven.  A couple notes about pizza stones:  keep it in the oven when preheating; keep it in the oven to cool down; don’t ever clean with soap, scrape it clean if something burns on it.  Also, the pizza stone is the best way to reheat day old pizza and breads.

Cornmeal or semolina is needed for the transfer from work surface to stone.  I do not have a pizza peel so I transfer the pie to a rimless cookie sheet sprinkled (coated) with cornmeal so I can easily slip the pie off the sheet onto the scorching hot stone.

In about 8 to 10 minutes the cheese will start to bubble and some bubbles will turn brown.  It is done.  Pull it out and transfer to a cutting board to cool for a few minutes before cutting.

BAKER’S NOTE:

Even though pizza dough is a simple recipe it requires some baker’s skill to get the desired result.   It is a great way to start developing baking skills and appreciating the science of it all.  Sequencing, ingredients, measurement and consistency are critical in baking every single time.  I remember watching Julia Child once and she stated that great bakers often turn out to be great cooks.  I am no great cook and I never understood it at the time but I can tell you that I could not even learn to cook until I learned to bake.

Matt Brewing Company in Utica, NY

Most beer fans are very familiar with the Saranac line of beers.  Saranac brews are produced by the Matt Brewing Company which is out of Utica, NY.  I have been a fan of many of their beers throughout the years, but the Pomegranate Wheat and Adirondack Lager really have won me over.  Since I enjoy two of their more popular beers, I decided to give their Irish Stout a try.  Now I must admit, I generally don’t spring quickly to a stout (I prefer to drink my beers rather than eat them), but when I do I generally stick to a pint of Guinness which seems to always hit the spot.  The disgusting weather outside not only depressed me, but also gave me a hunkering for a hearty, meal-replacement beer.  I opted for the Saranac in hopes that it could hit the spot that Guinness usually does.

The first things I noticed when I poured it into the pint glass was the consistency and the smell.  The consistency seemed a little lighter than the average stout, and certainly less viscous than Guinness.  Considering stouts usually aren’t my cup of tea, I was feeling good about the beer.  The smell was extremely distinct.  It basically smelled like a freshly brewed cup of coffee and being the coffee freak that I am, I figured this was the second sign that I was about to enjoy.

The first few sips basically validated what I had figured from pouring it.  It definitely was a bit thinner, and dare I say drinkable than previous stouts that I’ve tried.  The aroma of coffee from before stayed true as the stout had a roasted coffee taste.  The deep, roasted taste however was much less than I had anticipated from the distinct smell, yet still seemed to linger on the back of the tongue.  The stout actually was fairly light and refreshing.  I would recommend giving it a try if you want to experience a stout without eating, but this almost disappointed me a bit.  As I mentioned I don’t gravitate towards stouts often, but when I do I want it to be a STOUT.  Maybe the smell of coffee got me a little too excited, but the flavor I felt lacked a little compared to some of the other options.  That being said, I still can’t get enough of Saranac’s Pom Wheat and Adirondak Lager.

Cheers!

Rogue Chipotle Ale

All my friends (well anyone who has even eaten anything with me) know that I am, for the lack of a better phrase, a hot sauce freak.  I love hot sauce on just about anything and everything that can handle it.  I had long sworn by Franks Red Hot but within the past few years my sauce of choice has been without a doubt Chipotle Tobasco hot sauce.  For those of you who are not familiar, Chipotles are smoked jalapenos and the smoking process brings out a deep, rich flavor and spicy profile from the pepper and is absolutely amazing in chili!  This all being said, hot peppers and beer do not particularly seem like a logical (or remotely appetizing) combination.  I had my first taste of a hot pepper beer a few years ago when a local brew put attempted a jalapeno and Anaheim chili beer.  It wasn’t particularly great, but it definitely opened my eyes to the possibility of a combination sent from the gods, beer and hot peppers.

As I was reading through the latest Draft Magazine, which is one of the leading magazines on beer and food in North America, I noticed Rogue Brewery’s Chipotle Ale was being reviewed.  I have tried many of the Oregon brewery’s beers in the past, and never have been disappointed.  Rogue Brewery is one of the many West Coast micro-breweries pushing the limits on what actually entails as a delicious beer.

One thing that stood out immediately from the Draft Magazine’s review, was the incredibly high score their Chiptole Ale received.  Many times, innovative or “different” beers do not receive high grades with professional tasters.  So when when I saw their score for this unique beer, I knew it had to try it.  I went out and found one of the Rogue’s traditional 22 ounce bottles to give it a whirl.

As soon as you open the bottle, the smell of the Chipotle peppers is extremely apparent.  The first sip proved to back up what the nose was telling me, the peppers were certainly not just a back note of flavor.  The beer almost tasted like a creamy, liquid form of the Chipotle hot sauce that I love.  It is an amber style ale that was fairly heavy in flavor, although I would almost describe it as a cream style ale.  It has a very creamy like texture and its fantastic on the palate.  The Chipotle flavor definitely is the main thing you taste, however, the creamy texture cools the tongue to a point where even people who do not love very spicy foods could enjoy the beer.  That being said, if you can’t handle say, at least a solid medium wing, the beer would be much too spicy to enjoy.  In addition to the creamy texture, a faint hop aftertaste hits you to even further elevate the heat.  I could not have been more pleased with my beer choice.  The Chipotle ale obviously isn’t a beer that you are going to drink all the time, or drink a ton of at one time for that matter.  However to compliment a spicy meal (such as great Thai or Indian food), the beer was phenomenal.  It was very much deserving of the 95 out of 100 score that the professional tasters at Draft gave it.  If you are a fan of spicy wing, spicy food or hot sauce in general, this beer is a must try.

Enjoy and Cheers!

Food Network and the Travel Channel sometimes directly impact my appetite; watching an hour about steak and right after I’ll be trying to figure out how I can afford to make reservations at the Chophouse.  So when I watched an entire hour of cable television dedicated to donuts, guess what was on my mind?

Now, I’ve known about Paula’s for a while but I never seemed to be in the area or wanted to drive to the area just for donuts, but something inside me last Sunday forced me to take a drive to Paula’s on Kenmore Ave.  It actually wasn’t that bad of a drive and was a lot closer to UB’s South Campus then I thought.

Walking in, as you can imagine, it smelled fantastic.  The shop was pretty tiny but had a couple seats if you wanted to grab a coffee and donut on the spot.  As soon as you enter you are able to take a look at their “donut wall” which includes pretty much every traditional donut you may want and also a nice assortment of muffins and cookies to satisfy everyones sweet tooth.

After watching a special about Portland’s Voodoo Donuts, I really wanted something non-traditional and weird like bacon on a honey glaze or a pumpkin donut….really anything I can’t find at a Tops or Wegmans.  I want something creative, something that I couldn’t even think up.  Well, we don’t have that here (at least I think, if we do please someone let me know where).  That said, however, Paula’s Donuts does serve a really good, quality, fresh donut.

We ordered a dozen which was roughly 8 bucks. My personal favorite, and something I’ve never had before, was the peanut donut with white cream filling.  Simple, yes, but an awesome flavor combination.  Their chocolate cream filled were delicious and the strawberry short cake was pretty damn good as well.  While it didn’t satisfy my “I want a crazy weird donut” craving, it was still really good for a random Sunday lunch.

I’m not going to lie, I love Greek food but I’m not in a rush to go and try Sofia’s.  The bread looks great, and I love a good chicken souvlaki but nothing came across as unique or “OMG I NEED IT NOW”.  But who knows, maybe I’ll go there and be completely blown away.  Stay tuned!

I actually tried this sandwich for the first time about 2 months ago, the amount of batter they cover the bologna with is crazy.  At one point I thought I was eating fried dough until I hit meat.

The blog master and first lady of Buffaloeats.org paid a visit to the test kitchen yesterday and they brought locally made labneh.  Labneh is a strained yogurt that is very similar to greek yogurt but is not as easy to find.   I always have greek yogurt in my fridge and I have some almost every day so I was very excited to finally get my hands on some labneh.

Simple definition: Regular yogurt strained to remove the liquid and slime.  Both labneh and greek are super smooth and creamy and blow away regular yogurt in every department.  The Greek I use has the consistency of sour cream and the labneh I received was even less hydrated and is more like whipped cream cheese.  They both have much more protein per gram than regular yogurt.  I did a quick comparison to the some popular yogurt brands and found that there is 3 to 4 times more protein in strained yogurts!

Yogurt, in general, is a healthy part of a daily routine but the popular brands can have so much sugar and other stuff that they shouldn’t be anywhere near any routine.   When you start with a superfood like plain strained yogurt you can control the flavor by adding healthy extras.  Today I bring to you two great ways to enjoy strained yogurts.

Labneh with raw organic honey (pictured above):

In the photo above I took a ¼ cup of labneh, rolled it with my hands into a ball.  On top I placed a teaspoon of raw organic honey.  Raw honey is darker then processed honey and very thick.  I have to mention that the honey was purchased from the Lexington Co-operative Market on Elmwood.  I don’t like crappy honey.  If you don’t like honey it is probably because you have never had really good honey.   I mashed my beautiful food porn with the back of my spoon to mix the honey and labneh together before eating.  This simple meal made with two perfect ingredients is on my list of the ten best things I have ever eaten.

Labneh is a yogurt cheese of sorts.  It is more like cream cheese and nothing like what most people would consider a yogurt which is why I was able to roll it into a ball.  The labneh I used today was locally made and came from the Washington Market.   Generally Don and Alli enjoy labneh (from the Washington Market) spread on pita bread (their preference is Cedar’s Bakery).  This is a very traditional and very delicious way to eat labneh.  Additionally, the flavor and texture of labneh makes it a perfect substitute for cream cheese in a bagel.

Greek Yogurt with Blueberries, Pomegranate Arils, Almonds and Honey:

The big name Greek Yogurt is Fage (fah-yeah) and it has done much to popularize strained yogurt on this side of the Atlantic. There are a couple other brands also readily available. Lately, I have been using Chobani.  Chobani is a little cheaper and comes from a small New York State producer.  They also have a fabulous web site with tons of recipe ideas.  I used fat free Chobani for this simple and healthy super food parfait.

I start with the Chobani Greek Yogurt.  I top it with blueberries.  In the winter you can buy bags of flash frozen blueberries.  I always have these in my freezer.  They are easy to thaw and can be used frozen in pancakes or bakes goods.  The pomegranate arils are a little more work.  I take the pomegranate fruit break it apart in a bowl of water and separate the arils from the rest of the fruit then freeze them.  They are kind of like tiny tart grapes with little nuts in the middle.  Almonds and tupelo honey drizzled on top makes for an amazing super treat.

Peter and Andrew at the CFL Grey Cup game in Montreal (2008)

Peter Farrell and Andrew Kulyk love to travel, they love sports and they love to document the places they go.  What they’ve accomplished since 1998 is nothing short of remarkable; from 1998 to 2002 they managed to visit 102 different venues in 49 cities to see 121 teams.  They managed to do something that every sport lover dreams and they documented it on their website The Ultimate Sports Road Trip (now moved to WNYMedia).  This did not go unnoticed; they appeared on the The Today Show, Sportscenter and Sports Illustrated (along with other publications).

Since they have been both Buffalo residents for an extended period of time (Peter for 15 years, Andrew for his entire life), I thought they would be perfect for our Buffalo Foodies feature.  So I asked them about their favorite places to eat locally as well as what have they fell in love with outside of this Buffalo.  Here is what they had to say:

Where is your favorite place to eat in Buffalo?

Peter: Right now I’m a huge fan of Jim’s SteakOut. I generally grab me a steak hoagy and poutine. I think having poutine puts it over the top for me, that’s an item that isn’t found in nearly enough fast food places around here.

Andrew: Now that I am a downtown denizen, I’ll have to go with Mode Bistro on Elmwood and Della Terra at Avant. Both have exquisite wine lists and wonderful ambiance.

What type of foods/cuisine did you grow up on?

Peter (grew up in Horseheads): It’s really not much different there (Horseheads), I can’t really think of a food item that is well known and native to the area.

I was your basic junk food eating kid growing up, much to my folks chagrin. I ate all kinds of sugary cold cereals and fast foods growing up there. Then again, I’ve been around these parts for about fifteen years now and that really hasn’t changed much. I’d say that I have the proper diet for someone who attends sporting events across the country.

Andrew: Growing up on the east side, I used to love the ethnic treats dished up at the Broadway Market. Fresh and smoked Kielbasa, Pyrohy, Holupchi, all those great Ukrainian and Polish foods!

Where would you take a friend from out of town to eat, to show him/her some great “Buffalo” cuisine?

Peter: Since it has the national rep, the Anchor Bar is generally the meeting spot for sports road trippers who come to Buffalo and hang with us. It’s a place they know and wish to see more often than not so we’re happy to oblige.  Of course, if said meeting is prior to a Bills game then anywhere in the parking lots surrounding the Ralph for a pregame tailgate. In a sense, what’s more Buffalo than that?

Duff’s is another good option for repeat visitors to town. I’m a bit of wuss when it comes to flavors though, mild or lower for me…

Andrew:  The Aud in Depew has the quintessential Buffalo grub menu and a great setting for sports buffs. Fat Bob’s Smokehouse in Allentown is also awesome. The mac and cheese is to die for.

Where is your favorite place to grab a drink in Buffalo?

Peter: I’m getting up there in years and I think my best drinking years are behind me. But I tend to be at Washington Square Lounge after Sabres games when I need to forget what I just witnessed.

Andrew: Ditto on Washington Square Lounge. That’s our signature Sabres post game hang out and Bob the owner serves up our traditional pitcher of Labatt’s and an order of wings as soon as we walk in. Some of the Chippewa taverns: Jack Devine’s, The Local, and Bada Bing are all a short walk for me.

Since you guys travel so much, What have you fallen in love with (food wise) outside of Buffalo, anything you wish we had here?

Peter: Traveling everywhere as we do, we always try to sample the local fare and we have a few favorites. Primanti Brothers sandwiches in Pittsburgh(meat, cole slaw, and fries piled in a sandwich). Pulled pork nachos from Rendezvous in Memphis, Fish Tacos in San Diego, Toasted Ravioli in St. Louis. You could ask me this several times and I’d come up with several different answers.

Simply put, Buffalo. Needs. White Castle!!!! If I were President of the United States I’d take a chunk of that stimulus money and spend it so that no American has to be more than ten miles away from a White Castle restaurant. OK, maybe just spend enough of that money so I wouldn’t have to suffer that fate.

Andrew: Pittsburgh’s Primanti Brothers sandwich is the absolute best. I’ll toss in Montreal’s famous Smoked Meat sandwich (Schwartz’ Deli is the marker), those massive Shopsy’s sausages with all the toppings served up from vending carts in Toronto, and the hand dipped milkshakes at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte.

Peter: You see what I mean? I look at Andrew’s list and I’m smacking my forehead and thinking: “How could I have forgotten that one…and that one!!!” And I’m certain that after we see this get published we’ll come up with a couple more……

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I’d like to thank Andrew and Peter for taking some time out to answer some questions about their favorite restaurants, bars and out-of-town favorites.  You can read their newest road trips and adventures, as well as thoughts on general sports talk on their blog on WNY Media.

I don’t know how I didn’t notice, but a new episode (see bottom) of True Blue Buffalo’s All Access Pass was released back in December and featured Buffalo’s love of Polish cuisine and Dyngus Day.  I finally went to Broadway Market last year for the first time in my life and experienced all of its wonders  (if you haven’t been there, go… NOW) but I never knew that I lived only a few short miles from a place tha offers a similar food selection.  Spar’s European Sausage Shop is one of the last true butchers in Buffalo…due to the massive super stores of Tops and Wegmans, the local butcher has kind of become obsolete. But Spar’s is still making some old fashioned sausages with amazing flavors and using pieces of meat that you can’t find just anywhere (hello headcheese).

What’s remarkable is I found this out right as I’ve been craving sausage (in particular blood sausage) like crazy and was actually planning on going to the Polish Villa this evening with Alli.  But once I realized that Spar’s is located about 10 minutes from my house, I knew I had to attempt to cook a meal myself.

I can now say that, as I type this, I have satisfied every sausage urge I may have for the next month or so.  I ended up ordering 4 different types of sausage because I wanted a variety.  The white sausage on the far left was their Weisswurst, directly to the right were two Smoked Debreziner Sausages, above those was the Smoked Mild Hungarian and the sausage on the bottom was Smoked Linguisa.  For those who are curious how I prepared these…I put 2.5 cans of Pabst Blue, some chopped onions, and the sausages in a large pot and cooked it all on a low heat for about 50 minutes.  In retrospect, I wish I would have let it cook on a lower heat because some of the smoked sausages got a little overcooked and tough by the end (probably due to my inexperience).

The Weisswurst was the most mild of all 4 and basically exploded while cooking.  Hopefully that wasn’t the cause of the mild taste, but in any case, I had no idea that it was made with veal.  Then again, I haven’t had a lot of experience with veal, so the taste isn’t that familiar to me to begin with.  Out of the 4, this is the one I probably wouldn’t order again… that’s just my personal preference.  The other three were all smoked, meaning they were cooked and then smoked for some additional flavor.  The Smoked Linguisa had a spicy flavor to it, probably the spiciest out of all of them.  It had the “roughest” texture out of all of the sausages; inside the casing all the “good bits” were larger and less ground than your typical sausage.  The Smoked Debreziner had some heat to it as well and was a pork sausage.  Even though I cooked it, it actually didn’t need to be at all and would be great for a cheese and cracker platter for a future party.  The Smoked Mild Hungarian had probably the strongest taste out of all 4, and it was delicious.  Very similar to the Debreziner, with a smooth, ground up texture consisting of beef and spices.  Like the Debreziner, it also could have been served cold.

Overall, on my first trip to Spar’s I walked away with some new favorite sausages, but I didn’t really venture out of my comfort zone.  However, to be honest, this was my first time ever walking into the store and I was a little intimidated.  Next trip will find me ordering fresh sausages (raw, uncooked) and maybe try out some of their cold cuts (i.e. Headcheese).  But if anyone is looking for something different and wants to support some a great local business, please stop by Spar’s on 405 Amherst Street downtown, right near Grant St./Buff State.

Here’s the video that inspired my trip (around the 7 minute mark):

]]> http://buffaloeats.org/2010/02/18/food-porn-spars-european-sausage-shop/feed/ 1 D Bizzle 16739 P1020730 http://buffaloeats.org/2010/02/17/cookin-with-walt-puff-pastry-milky-ways-with-royal-icing/ http://buffaloeats.org/2010/02/17/cookin-with-walt-puff-pastry-milky-ways-with-royal-icing/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:15:35 +0000 Buffalo Eats Staff http://buffaloeats.org/?p=2795 ]]>

Pastry Hearts can be found in every buffalo bakery and pastry shop.   If you dissect the pastry heart you find that it is constructed of strips of puff pastry laid on edge to the shape of a heart.  I don’t think this is the most efficient use of puff pastry sine this limits the puff you can get and it makes for a more dense pastry.  I am just guessing but I can easily see a baker taking all their scraps and strips of leftover puff pastry, laying them on edge, shaping, baking then icing to take home to the kids.  You have probably already noticed that the desert I am making is not heart shaped.  I did not find a lot of info on pastry hearts so I decided to go with something I was comfortable with and used a standard cinnamon roll technique to get this result.  That is how we got from heart to milky way galaxy shaped.  One of my favorite things about these babies, other than that they are freakin’ delicious, is that you can easily prep these ahead of time and keep them in the fridge to bake after dinner and serve warm.  The icing is easy as pie and delicious.

I have to be honest and tell you that this is probably the easiest baked good I have ever made and it really can be made with 4 ingredients and three of them are in the icing.  I will use a total six ingredients.  Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of pastry chef technique involved so you will satisfy your baking itch by making these.  The truth is that other than the handling, thawing and re-freezing time involved to get to the finish line actual hands on time is less than 5 minutes if that.

Let’s talk a little about the key ingredients.  We need puff pastry and icing. Puff pastry has to contain hundreds, if not thousands of layers of butter and flour.  They make industrial automatic puff pastry machines but you have to crank out a lot of baked goods and a really big kitchen to justify this huge expense and making it by hand takes a couple of hours or days depending on how many layers you want and your skill set.  Just buy the box of frozen stuff.  It is a good thing to always have in your freezer and it will keep for months.   I never make puff pastry.

Royal icing is a traditional icing probably named for the icing used on Queen Victoria’s wedding cake and probably a lot of other ‘royal’ cakes and treats.  It is almost as easy to make as it is to open a can of frosting and a lot more rewarding.  The egg whites used are raw.  If you have a paralyzing fear of salmonella then you should google a royal icing recipe that calls for meringue powder in place of the egg white.  I will keep it traditional with the raw egg white for this recipe.

INGREDIENTS for the Milky Ways:

• 1 sheet of puff pastry
• Brown sugar and cinnamon sugar in amounts that satisfy your sweet tooth

INGREDIENTS for the Royal Icing:

• 1 cup confectioners sugar (aka icing sugar or powdered sugar)
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice (use the juice from the lemon shaped plastic bottle if you must)
• 1 fresh egg white

TECHNIQUE:

Pull out one of the two pastry sheets from the box. It will be wrapped in paper and folded in thirds.  Put a clean towel down on a the counter and put the sheet in the towel.  Fold the towel over to cover the pastry and let it thaw.  It could take around a half hour or so.  Check it from time to time to see if you can unfold the sheet completely without breaking it.  Once thawed, remove the towel, place the sheet on lightly floured work surface and cut into thirds with a pizza cutter or sharp knife.  Sprinkle a small amount of brown sugar and cinnamon sugar (or cinnamon)  on each of the three strips.  Layer the three strips staggering each layer by an inch or so they ends wind up separated to resemble the milky way galaxy.

Gently roll the combined strips to form a log.  Wrap in wax paper and put in the freezer for about a half hour.  After chilling unwrap the roll and cut with a sharp knife into 6 pieces.

Put the six loosely rolled wheels onto a baking sheet.  I always use parchment paper.  Sprinkle with a little more cinammon sugar or cinammon and sugar.  Puff pastry does not have a lot of sugar so you really should add a little sweetness to the recipe.

Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown.  About  15 minutes in my oven with a thick reflective baking pan and lightly colored parchment paper.  This is my go-to set up so I can keep things predictable but a dark pan and no parchment will speed things up so watch the color.  While they are baking get your ingredients set up for the icing.

Once they are done move them to a cooling rack.  You can now begin to prepare the royal icing sugar.  Royal icing hardens while exposed to air so it is a good idea not to make it too far in advance.

To prepare your royal icing sugar, whip smooth one egg white with 1 tsp of lemon juice in a stainless steel  or glass bowl with a stainless or silicone tipped whisk.  Once it is frothy begin to slowly sprinkle in the confectioners sugar while continuing to whip.  It will quickly come together to form royal icing.  Pour this over the warm milky ways and let them cool and harden.

BAKING TIP:

Every kitchen noob feels the need to continuously open and close the oven door to get a closer look at goods.  Every time you open your oven door you lose a big chunk of the convection heat that is blanketing and moving around your food.  You don’t want to disturb this.  After opening the door the oven will likely click on in an additional and prolonged heating cycle giving the bottom of your food a extra blast of heat as it tries to get back to temperature.  Hot bottoms and cold tops.  Not good!  Turn on your light and watch through the oven window.  If it looks like it is almost time but are unsure and you feel that you need to rotate the pan since things are uneven for some reason then do this as late and as quickly as possible.

Check out our article about all the other TV appearances Buffalo’s restaurants have been making.

source: www.jackdevinespub.com

Normally when a Buffalo-ian thinks of Chippewa, going out to eat is the last thing on their mind.  But in reality, there are actually a couple really good places to grab something to eat on the chip-strip.  Especially for those who work in the city (like myself) there are some quality and cheap lunch options.  On a day where we wanted to go to Kings Court, we instead ended up at Jack Devines Irish Pub across the street.

I’ve never been to Jack Devines to drink, but then again I really haven’t been to Chippewa to drink in a long time.  When walking inside it actually does look like an Irish Pub, an unique experience for an area known primarily for dance clubs.  On their sign outside of the building they claim to be home of Buffalo’s best Chicken Wings, Beef on Weck and Steak Sandwiches.  Those are pretty big claims, even more so because when getting their lunch menu (which was pretty simple) there was no Steak Sandwich to be seen.

My coworker Sue and I both tried out their Jack Daniels BBQ Burger which was not the worst burger I ever had but definitely not the best.  It was served with a good size beef patty, several onion rings, bacon strips and BBQ sauce.  My immediate thought was their buns were fresh and crispy but the burger was almost too big and hard to eat and got real messy pretty quickly.  The onion rings were a nice touch and I didn’t really taste too much BBQ sauce, but it would have been easy to be lost in a large burger like that.

In the words of my coworker Sue:

It was really juicy and had a nice charbroiled taste. I liked how they used real cheddar cheese instead of Kraft singles and the bun was nice and fresh.  However the Bacon tasted like it just came out of the microwave.  I wish the burger had been freshly made and wasn’t one of those ‘premade frozen patties.’ And my water had a horrible taste to it.

According to Matt, who ordered their Beef on Weck, the beef was a little over cooked (I personally love my Roast Beef a little pink).  Their rolls was fairly tame for a weck roll but I’ve never been a big fan of a generous amount of salt covering the top of the roll.

What we pretty much all agreed on, and Alli can attest to this, is that Waffle Cut French Fries are awesome in general.  And Jack Devines were just that, awesome.  Does that really warrant a repeat visit, just for a really good french fry?  Probably not, but I wouldn’t mind seeing how their other sandwiches, chicken wings, or salads were.  I also would love to give the bar a chance for some happy hour drinks or even a weekend night on Chippewa.  It looks like a great place to watch a hockey or football game and it has a casual atmosphere that I could enjoy.  However, I still would have rather ended up at King’s Court, their prices and larger selection of quality food has won me over.

Chipotle completely came out of nowhere for me, I had no idea what it was or what they served.  But suddenly twitter was blowing up about the new Buffalo location and people who had lived out of state were freaking out.  For a minute it seemed like the restaurant equivalent of Bass Pro coming to Buffalo (in my opinion that would be Five Guys).  Hell, even Buffalo Sabre Forward Drew Stafford praised its greatness on twitter and Alli cheated and stopped there without me while she was out at UB one day and could not wait to go back for more.

So to say I had high expectations before I even walked in the door would be an understatement.  I had somehow gone from knowing nothing at all about the restaurant to being convinced it was the best ‘Mexican’ in Buffalo.

To be fair, this really isn’t a “Mexican” restaurant;  Chipotle is more like a Burrito/fast food restaurant.  Their menu is really short and simple (see above) but in a really good way.  Your options really only consist of a Burrito/Taco/Fajita or a “Burrtio Bowl.”

I ordered the Carnitas Burrito, which was seasoned pork with black beans, rice, lettuce and their mild salsa.  I wasn’t incredibly thrilled with the salsa, mild was basically just chunks of tomato with little/no sauce while the medium (which Alli got on her chicken tacos) had more sauce and definitely jumped up the heat scale.  However, the pork was warm and seasoned just right, it had a great taste and the black beans and rice were, simply, just really really good.  This thing was pretty big, so I wasn’t too upset with the ~6 price tag for a single burrito.  I honestly couldn’t have finished it any faster if I tried, it got messy near the end but what good stuffed Burrito doesn’t?

As many who have been to Chipotle will tell you, the homemade Chips and Salsa is fantastic.  Just warning, however, if you are a fan of “smooth” or “fake” salsa, this might not be something you enjoy.  Chipotle’s salsas are fairly chunky, as I mentioned before, the mild salsa consists of mostly tomato chunks.  The medium salsa was  slightly smoother than the mild and the hot is probably the “smoothest” yet incredibly spicy (much more than your typical “hot” salsa would be).  I understand that using fresh ingredients and adding some authenticity is what a lot of people like about Chipotle so maybe some of you out there will love their salsa and some won’t, but everyone will love their freshly baked chips.  They were covered in salt and have a slight lime flavor and are just delicious.

Chiptole managed to definitely live up to their lofty expectations from basically everyone on Twitter and Facebook who raved about it.  Is this going to satisfy any transplants from California, Mexico or the general south who experience kick ass Mexican on a regular basis? Hell no, this is still a chain people.  I also don’t think there should be any comparison to Mighty Taco, these two places could not be more different.  Mighty Taco is a true fast food restaurant in almost every sense of the word.  If anything, the obvious comparison should be Moe’s and Chipotle.  I’ve only eaten at Moe’s twice and while I definitely don’t remember hating it, I don’t remember loving it (I haven’t wanted to go back in the 2-3 years since my last visit).  However with Chipotle, I’ve been dying to go back since we left and would recommend it over Moe’s if someone had the choice between the two.

I had the urge to melt some chocolate to pour over the double chocolate cookies I made.

I call it Tongues of Fire because of a single ingredient.  It is also the perfect title for a Valentine’s Day treat.

The food experience for a lot of people is more complex than they probably realize.  Most people eat with their eyes as well as their nose and mouth.  A good looking, great smelling meal helps with the experience but bad ingredients can screw it all up for me.  When you use great ingredients  in your food you will enjoy the experience so much more.  Tongues of Fire contains two fabulous ingredients.

Now, I have been obsessed lately with Frank’s Hot Sauce and thus have been pouring it over just about anything.  I love Frank’s since it only has a couple of ingredients and it uses aged cayenne peppers.  Don’t panic, I did not use Frank’s in this recipe but it was the inspiration for using cayenne pepper.  If you research cayenne you will find that it has a boat load of potential health benefits and  I try to incorporate super foods in anything I make and anything I eat.  Cayenne is a super food as far as I am concerned.  Franks is one of the easiest ways to consume cayenne.   I use cayenne powder which is available in any spice section.

Another super food is cacao.   High cacao content high price chocolate is one of the hottest trends in the candy bar world.  This is driven by the high antioxidant content in cacao and the potential health benefits.  This is a great example of a great ingredient creating a great food experience.  I used a Ghirardelli 60% cacao candy bar.

RECIPE:

• 1 high cacao content premium chocolate bar.
• ¼ tsp ground cayenne pepper.  (more or less to taste)

TECHNIQUE:

Melting chocolate could not be simpler but here is what I do just in case you need a tip:

I use a home made double boiler set up using a small sauce pan with a small amount of water over low heat and a thick stoneware bowl inserted in the pot.  The simmering water gently warms the stoneware.  The stoneware heats and cools slowly so you can more easily control the temperature.  This is what I do but you can use a stainless steel bowl or a ceramic cereal bowl in place of stoneware.  A lot of things will work.

Add most of the cayenne pepper powder once the chocolate is melted and thoroughly mixed.

Taste the chocolate to measure the heat.   The heat comes at the end so take a second to judge.  Add the remaining cayenne if you need it.  If you are nervous about the heat, melt ½ of the bar and add cayenne by the pinch to get it where you want it.

Dip strawberries, cookies, animal crackers, or even salty pretzels in the chocolate.  Salt and chocolate mix well so pretzels work great.  Set aside to harden.  The fridge makes it go a lot quicker.

Use toothpicks or skewers for strawberries.

Jeff Feather of Duffs, and Ivano Toscani of the Anchor Bar will be on The Travel Channel

In July of 2009, the Travel Channel’s No Reservations aired an episode about “Rust Belt Cities“.  The last third of that episode featured host Anthony Bourdain following around Nelson Starr through Buffalo.  The reception in Buffalo was pretty divided, but little did we know that this was only the beginning for Buffalo’s time on cable TV (and more specifically Buffalo’s food).  In the last 9 months Buffalo has been featured on No Reservations, 5 episodes of Food Networks’ Diners, Drive-in’s and Dives, had an entry on Travel Channel’s Chowdown Countdown and will be featured on the premiere (I think?) of Travel Channel’s new show Food Wars (above).

So for those who haven’t been watching TV lately here is a recap:

• July 27th, 2009 – Buffalo featured On the “Rust Belt” Episode of No Reservations Part 1 (skip to 4 minute mark), Part 2.  Showcases Ulrich’s Tavern, Schwabl’s and Nietzches.
• October 26th, 2009 – Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives “Dives Worth a Drive” featured East Amherst’s Grovers Bar and Grill.  View the entire episode here.
• November 16th, 2009 – Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives “Legacies: featured Buffalo’s Lake Effect Diner.  View the entire episode here.
• January 11th, 2010 – Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives “Piza, Pork and Paprikash” featured North Tonawanda’s Pizza Junction. View the entire episode here.
• February 1st, 2010 – Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives “Home and Away” featured South Buffalo’s Blackthorn Restaurant and Pub.  View the entire episode here.
• February 15th, 2010 – Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives “And the Kicker Is” features a yet un-named Buffalo diner that “that serves every dish with a side of homemade bread”.  After reading an article from Buffalo Rising, I have a feeling it is going to be Sofia’s.
• March 9th, 2010? – This is the premiere episode of The Travel Channel’s Food Wars.  Not sure when the Buffalo episode will be aired but it will feature The Anchor Bar go head to head with Duff’s in a blind taste test.  For more information check out this awesome article in The Buffalo News.

I can’t find the exact date but The Anchor Bar was voted #17 in the 101 Tastiest Places to Chowdown in the US, so check here to see the next showing for the “20-1 count down episode”.  A side note, Syracuse’s Dinosaur BBQ (many of you are very familiar with the Rochester location) was featured as #61.

This being a blog about Buffalo’s restaurant scene, we are thrilled to get some national attention.  Hell, I didn’t even know Pizza Junction existed until I saw it on TV.  Anytime we can show that we are more then just Chicken Wings (which we still should be proud of) and snow, I am thrilled.  I’m not sure what is left to be showcased or what other shows will come here…maybe Man Vs. Food, but we all know he has had enough chicken wing challenges in his two seasons.  Regardless, I hope that we continue to get some attention from television.

Sierra Nevada Kellerweis

After my first sip of the beer, I felt like it was a pretty standard Bavarian style wheat beer.  Seemed to have the smooth mouth feel, the familiar warm feeling and a bite of spice to end the sip.  However, as the beer warmed up a bit towards room temperature, the flavors became a bit more intense.  It is a little bit lighter than my favorite wheat beer (favorite beer of any kind for that matter) Hoegaarden and the bite of the spice exemplified the look.  The notes of clove and banana were there, but not quite as heavy as some other Bavarians on the shelves.  The beer sports an alcohol content of about 4.8% which is also slightly lower than other beers in it’s category.  If I have a choice, I would opt for a Hoegaarden or heavier wheat given the chance, yet this beer was very enjoyable and easy to drink.  The Kellerweis may actually be a nice introduction into Bavarian wheat style beers if you generally are a lighter beer drinker.  The lower alcohol content and the only subtle use of spices could prove to be enjoyable to almost all beer drinkers.

Those of you who have read to this point are now in for a treat, a little bonus if you will.  As I mentioned above, I tried this beer out while watching some hockey and enjoying a few snacks.  My favorite snack is without a doubt Guacamole.  I have spent many a year perfecting my Guacamole recipe, and this will be the first time I have shared the recipe, so damn it, feel privileged.

My recipe has the same core ingredients that almost every guac recipe sports, however give mine a try and I promise you won’t be disappointed.  Also, make sure you note that I adjusted the spice levels to my personal liking, so use this as a base and tweak away friends.

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe (slightly soft to the touch) Hass Avocados
• 1 lime
• 1 large shallot (about 2-3 T diced)
• 1 medium Roma tomato (or a few cherry tomatoes)
• 1/2 jalapeno (seeded and diced)
• 2-3 T Cilantro (chopped)
• 2 t sea salt
• 1 t pepper
• 1 t cumin
• 1 t garlic powder
• 1/2 t red pepper flake
• 1 t (small drizzle) Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Instructions

1. Cut avocados in half, score with knife and scoop out into a bowl
2. Squeeze the juice of 1 lime on top of the avocado
3. Mash the avocado with the lime until desired smoothness (I prefer a few chunks of the avocado left)
4. Seed then dice 1/2 jalapen0, dice shallot (can substitute red or white onion on preference) and chop cilantro and mix into avocado
5. Cut tomato in 1/2, squeeze the juice and seeds out, dice and add to mixture
6. Toast salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder and pepper flake for 30 t0 60 seconds over MH heat, or until the fragrances are released from the spices
7. Add the spices and drizzle of EVOO and mix thoroughly

As I mentioned, feel free to add and subtract from the spice amounts depending on taste.  The toasting of the spices is key to releasing the true flavor of them and YES the cumin is necessary!  Give it a try and I’m sure you won’t go back to your old guac recipe.

Cheers and enjoy!

I love waffles.  I mean I really love waffles.  I love baking too so it was only a matter of time before I would take on the waffle.  Now, you may think that wafflin’ is easy but you will find that it is just as hard as pimpin’ if you want good results.  Good results mean a shatteringly crispy exterior and a delicate crumb.   Wafflin’ ain’t easy.  Creating good food is a combination of great ingredients and proper technique and even waffles go from great to insanely delicious with great ingredients and proper technique.  Cool gear is helpful but not necessary although I do use a restaurant style rotation iron to create the deep waffle pictured.   A recipe I found on food network is what really pointed me in the right direction for waffles with the introduction of a key ingredient that I had not seen before.

Let’s talk about the key ingredients:  My waffle recipe contains a combination of ALL PURPOSE (AP) FLOUR and TRADITIONAL WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR. I really like this combination and it adds a whole grain element which is always nice. I use KING ARTHUR FLOUR.  Martha Stewart uses it too and that should be good enough reason for anyone.

OIL is a necessary evil.  I use SMART BALANCE oil because it is a blend of healthier oils and you can’t skimp on the oil.  Oil gives you a crisp crust and properly prepared, it will not taste oily. It really is what separates the pancakes from the waffles.

CORN STARCH!  Yes, you need corn starch and a seemingly large proportion of corn starch to flour for waffles. Waffles give off a lot of steam while frying and continue to steam a bit after they leave the iron.  This steam softens the crust of a 100% flour waffle but does not soften the crust of the corn starch enhanced waffle.  This recipe uses 25% corn starch to flour.  Use corn starch and you will get super crispy waffles.

BUTTERMILK gives the waffle a lot of flavor and helps activate the leavening reaction but not everyone has buttermilk on hand.  You need it in waffles for the acidity to create the leavening reaction and big rise.  In fact this is even more than important than the flavor it adds so you need a solution if you don’t have buttermilk.  I use a homemade buttermilk substitute. Just add one tablespoon of lemon juice to one cup of milk. I use skim milk. After about 15 minutes you have a curdled sour mess that is an almost perfect substitute for real buttermilk. Now for the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• ½ cup AP FLOUR
• ¼ cup Traditional WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR
• ¼ cup CORN STARCH
• 1 TBSP GROUND FLAX MEAL (optional but good for you)
• ¼ tsp BAKING SODA
• ½ tsp BAKING POWDER
• ½ tsp SALT
• 2 tsp CANE SUGAR  (use refined sugar if you don’t have cane sugar)
• 1 cup BUTTERMILK (or buttermilk substitute)
• 1/3 cup SMART BALANCE OIL (you have to use oil and this is probably the healthiest)
• 1 EGG (lightly beaten)
• 1 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT (You can use two if you like)

PREPARATION:

Thoroughly mix all of the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix thoroughly but don’t over mix.  Let it sit for 15 minutes and give it a couple of stirs.   Let it sit for 15 more minutes

Here is a punch list of techniques to guarantee success:

• Preheat the iron
• Do not spray the iron with non stick spray.  Plenty of oil in the recipe
• Fill the bottom of the iron with the correct amount of batter which will differ based on the model.
• Close the cover and leave it alone.  Some irons have a light that says it is done.  It is not done.  The waffle will steam a lot.  When the steam slows down to barely steaming the waffle is done.  You can now open it and check.  It should be medium dark golden brown.  It steam turns to smoke you waited too long.
• Close the iron for a minute between waffles and let it recover.
• You can heat an oven to 200 and keep your waffles in there for a bit if you are making a lot ahead of time.  Don’t stack them on top of each other and don’t cover them or they will get soft.

To make the strawberry topping on my waffles slice some fresh strawberries.  Taste the strawberries to determine if they need any added sugar!   If they are out of season and not quite sweet then sprinkle them with a little sugar and lemon juice. Taste one.  If it needs a little more sugar then add it.   Leave them in the fridge for a half hour but no more than an hour and they are done.  The sugar breaks the berries down and makes them juicy.  The lemon juice brings out the berry flavor.  This is also my favorite topping for crepes.  Mmmmm crepes.  I will have to make them soon.

Juniper dining room.

I’s sure many of you have driven by Juniper multiple times and not even noticed.  I myself was fairly unaware of the Elmwood Ave restaurant (about halfway between the “Elmwood strip” and Allentown) until my friend began working there a few months back.  After many nights of him coming home and bragging about the great food he was given by the chefs to try, I knew it was time to give it a whirl myself.  The menu, which changes constantly and can be checked out online, is full of a variety of chef Kate Elliott’s food designs.  It is obviously by looking at the menu, that she likes to showcase as many local products as possible.

Being a fine dining restaurant, the food comes with a fine dining price.  That being said, the atmosphere and design of the restaurant is both fancy and comforting at the same time, you easily could wear anything from a suit to jeans to and not feel out of place.  The night I decided to go, they debuted their new Pub Menu.  The Pub Menu consisted of about 8 items (which they rotate often as well) all under $15 in price.  I decided to eat at the bar and order from the Pub Menu so I could try a few different items.

The bar at Juniper.

After I sat down, I was pleasantly surprised to see they offered one of my favorite beers on tap, Hooegarden.  If you are a wheat beer fan it is a must, it has a spicy, warming and smooth taste (Don note: maybe one of my favorite beers to get on tap, the flavor are way more intense then in a bottle).  After chatting with the bartender and co-owner Lindsay Malinowski, I decided to go for the Focaccia of the night ($10) and the Steak Frittes ($11).  While I waited for my food and enjoyed my beer, Malinowski chatted about the struggles they initially had in opening the place, and also how they decided on everything from the decorations to the wine list.  The staff really made it a very comfortable and enjoyable experience.

The focaccia of the night (above) was a mixture of gorgonzola cheese, figs,  and bacon.  It was much larger than I had anticipated when it came out (considering it’s relatively low price tag).  It easily could have sufficed as my entire meal.  The focaccia was absolutely delicious.  The saltiness of the bacon combined with the sweetness of the figs and the bite of the gorgonzola was perfectly matched.  It was one of the better “pizzas” I have ever had.  It tasted light and fresh but still was hearty and very filling, overall it was damn good.  I would highly recommend the focaccia to anyone venturing to Juniper, whether it be a meal at the bar, a light dinner or an appetizer to split among the table.

Steak frittes.

The second part of my dinner (much of which went home with me) was the steak frittes.  It basically was a really nicesteak sandwich,topped with marinated mushrooms and a balsamic, garlic aoili.  The steak sandwich was good, however I think I was still enamored with the focaccia because it didn’t really stick in my mind as something extraordinary.  What was very tasty however, was the homemade aoili that was used as the sauce.  The garlic was balanced with the balsamic and it made for an excellent sauce.  The steak was well cooked to a perfect medium rare and was fairly juicy.  It was a bit tougher cut of meat than I had hoped, yet the taste of the sandwich all together was nice.  After dinner the bartender talked me into a “liquid dessert” and he whipped up a great cocktail to end the meal with.

The first thing that comes to mind when mentioning Juniper is probably something along the lines of fancy, expensive or fine dinning.  Although the restaurant offers its fair share of gourmet meals, which are well received and tasty, it is a very underrated place to go for a snack, small meal and a drink.  I will definitely return to Juniper for the Pub Menu and some Hooegarden on tap, and I think Juniper is a perfect place to hang out and chat over a nice drink and a delicious and fairly reasonably priced snack.  So next time you are in the Elmwood area and can’t decide on a place to check out, stop in at Juniper and I’m sure they will make you feel as welcome as they did me.

Back in October of 2009 we featured an article about my friend Adam’s clothing company, My Buffalo Shirts.  They have a couple awesome designs for Buffalo sports fans with their Hockey, Lacrosse and now Football t shirts.  Well after already having one clothing company, I realized that I should ask Adam about his favorite places to eat around Buffalo.  He took some time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions.  Here’s what he had to say in our first Buffalo Foodie of 2010:

Where is your favorite place to eat & What do you order there?

Adam: Definitely a tough question. I have been to Black & Blue Steak & Crab twice and it has become easily one of my top places to go for an outstanding meal. The Filet Mignon and the King Crab Legs are the two entrees I’ve had (It makes my mouth water just thinking of them).  I’m a big fan of the show Deadliest Catch and Black and Blue prides themselves on using the king crab from Bristol Bay, which is off of Dutch Harbor. Its an added exquisite touch knowing where your food came from.  Everything about Black & Blue I really enjoy, from the layout, the lighting, the gignormous wine refrigerator, the courteous staff and the presentation of the food.

Other than B&B, two other places I frequent are Buffalo Brew Pub and Pearl Street Brewery. Why not go to places that have some great beer? I consider both these places staples of the Buffalo area.  I like the Chicken Wings at the Brew Pub.  At Pearl St. you can never go wrong with the Spinach Artichoke Dip. Pearl st is one of those places in my mind that its hard to get sick off.

Where do you like to go grab a drink and relax?

Adam: BSG is a favorite of mine. They have pretty outstanding bar food and you can’t go wrong with their prices. In addition, they have a nice waitress staff…..

Growing up in the southtowns, it was quite often a ritual to go to The Boston Hotel (the original location) on Monday nights for clams and crab leg clusters. No lie my brother once ate 12 dozen clams drenched in butter and hot sauce in one sitting.

Being raised in Buffalo, What foods did you grow up on?

Adam: My mother’s side was Italian, so we ate a lot of Italian based foods….lots of breads and pasta. Buffalo seems to be full of Italian restaurants from Salvatores to Chefs which I always liked. When ordering out, we would generally order from Ricottas pizza.  Pizza and subs! (Ricottas pizza was my first job and to this day I still eat their food, and I still think their pizza is by far the best in WNY).

What restaurants are you most looking forward to trying?

Adam: I would like to try Jo-Jo’s Wine and Bistro (located next to black and blue), it seems like a really sweet place to take a bunch of people, a classy place to sit and enjoy the ambiance and partake in some conversation and drink some good wine.

I also feel I’m the only one in buffalo that has yet to go to Gabriel’s Gate…maybe its time to spend less time making shirts and more time going out to eat!

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Buffalo Eats would like to thank Adam again for his time and recommend everyone go to Adam’s website My Buffalo Shirts and check out a couple of their designs or read an awesome article featured on Buffalo Rising about his company.  Or if you are afraid of shopping online (its 2010 people) then check out his shirts at Bay-6 in West Seneca’s South Gate Plaza.

]]> http://buffaloeats.org/2010/02/06/buffalo-foodies-my-buffalo-shirt-adam-kern/feed/ 0 D Bizzle a.kern http://buffaloeats.org/2010/02/03/beer-porn-river-horse-brewing-companys-tripel-horse/ http://buffaloeats.org/2010/02/03/beer-porn-river-horse-brewing-companys-tripel-horse/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:02:32 +0000 Adam Pfleegor http://buffaloeats.org/?p=2714 ]]>

River Horse Brewing Company in Lambertville, NJ

This article marks the start of what I am debuting as Beer Porn.  As I’m sure many of you are, most food lovers are also passionate about truly flavorful and unique beers.  As mentioned in many of my earlier posts, I love trying craft beers I have never had before.  Sometimes I end up finding hidden gems, and sometimes I end up tasting something that resembles what I envision being made in a garbage can in the backwoods.  That being said, no one can debate the fact that the United States offers more fantastic craft brew options than any other country in the world (Don edit: I totally agree, just go watch American Beer).

Taking my passion for great beers, I felt that everyone would enjoy hearing about new and unique beers on Buffalo Eats.  It’s obviously important to understand that as with food, everyone has slightly different beer tastes.  I generally steer toward heavier, unfiltered styles but I haven’t met a type of beer that I have ever legitimately hated.  Given a choice when out in Buffalo, I usually grab myself a Bravarian style wheat, yet recently have become more enamored with some of the hoppy delights breweries are pumping out.  Make sure you take this into consideration when hearing my thoughts, and I hope everyone enjoys the new Beer Porns on the site.

The first beer I chose to “test” is from the River Horse Brewing Company in Lambertville, NJ and was reccomended to me from my father.  River Horse offers what they call a Belgian style ale called Tripel Horse.

Tripel Horse Belgian Ale

The first thing I noticed when getting myself a bottle of Tripel Horse is that it proudly advertises its highly intense alcohol content of 10%  While most craft brews (average 5%) are a bit higher than the average American ale (around 3 1/2%), 10 percent is quite high and it definitely caught my attention after finishing the bottle.  That being said, most beers with that high alcohol have a much stronger and harsher alcohol taste.  The Tripel Horse is surprisingly smooth and easy drinking.  The mouth feel is thick and luxurious and almost seems to coat the inside of your mouth a bit.  The brewing company describes the beer as a fairly “dry” beer and this was noticeable.  It have a crisp clean finish and only a very faint back taste of hops.  Usually when I describe a beer as having a “crisp” taste, it usually means it was quite hoppy, yet this certainly wasn’t the case here.  The beer is brewed with hints of vanilla and that taste definitely comes through pretty heavily when drinking.  I would highly recommend giving this beer a try, especially to anyone who enjoys a hearty, warming beer.  If light lagers are your style, stay far away from the Tripel Horse.  However, it’s perfect for the cold Buffalo winters and the 10  percent alcohol content certainly helps put on your “liquid sweater.”

When I think of Buffalo I think Vegan.  Not really, but this recipe takes its inspiration from a recipe I found on the post punk kitchen web site hence the name.   All day I was jonesing to make something with oat flour and this afternoon, out of curiosity, I brought home a half-gallon of vanilla soy milk.   Everything happens for a reason.   I had the key ingredients and the inspiration thanks to theppk.com.  One thing led to another and I made these amazing cookies.

Before I get into the recipe I want to talk a little about some of the ingredients so you know where I cam coming from.  A few years ago I was searching for healthier ingredients for cookies and OATMEAL and was at the top of the list.  Soon I was loading the magic bullet with whole quaker oats and in a few seconds, home-made oat flour. You really should write this down.  Oats are a “superfood” and home-made oat four is much more versatile and can be added to almost any baked good.

Now let’s talk about Dutch-Processed Cocoa. DPC is cocoa treated with an alkali so it is neutral where as natural unsweetened baking cocoa is acidic and so will react with baking soda to create a leavening reaction and bitterness in my opinion.  DPC is a little more delicate in flavor so I almost always use it unless the recipe specifically calls for natural.

Espresso powder is brewed and then dehydrated and ground espresso.  Use it whenever you make something that includes any form of chocolate.  When added to chocolate baked goods it intensifies the cocoa flavor and causes a reaction called mochachocolatteyaya.

Flax is another super food.  I add it, in its ground meal form, to almost every single baked good I make.  It imparts a slightly nutty flavor.

White whole wheat flour is just as good as traditional whole wheat but much more delicate and light in flavor and color.  I only use King Arthur Flour.  In this recipe the DPC, espresso powder and flax meal are all optional. The white whole wheat can be replaced with equal parts of all purpose or oat flour.  Don’t be afraid to mix it up and experiment.

Now for the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups OAT FLOUR
• 2 cups WHITE WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR (all purpose or oat flour can be substituted)
• ½ cup DUTCH PROCESSED COCOA
• 2 tsp ESPRESS POWDER (optional)
• 1 tsp BAKING SODA
• 2 tsp BAKING POWDER
• 2 Tbsp GROUND FLAX MEAL
• ½ tsp SALT
• ½ cup LIGHT BROWN SUGAR
• 1 cup CANE SUGAR (white sugar is ok but I like the flavor of unrefined sugar in baked goods)
• 2/3 cups SMART BALANCE  LIGHT BUTTERY SPREAD.  (soften by leaving on counter)
• ½ cup LIGHT VANILLA SOY MILK (any soy milk or regular milk will do)
• 2 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
• 1 EGG (sorry vegans this is why I call them Vegan Intentions.  Leave the egg out if you want it won’t change much)
• 1 cup SEMI SWEET CHOCOLATE CHIPS (optional too)

Wet batter scooped onto parchment

DIRECTIONS:

Thoroughly mix the dry ingredients together minus the chips.  Cream the sugars and fats.  In other words, mix the smart balance and sugars until they are creamy.  Then mix in the other liquid ingredients.  Combine the dry and wet and mix well.  Don’t overmix.  Fold the chocolate chips into the batter.  It will be firm but very wet and sticky.

Use a small ice cream scoop to scoop batter onto a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 12 – 14 minutes.  I use a thick baking sheet with parchment paper so it take 14 minutes in my oven.  Let them cool on the sheet for a few minutes before you move them to the cooling rack.  They are ridiculous eaten warm with a glass of milk.  Sorry vegans but I like my milk.

Everyone in Buffalo has their own favorite pizza place and most of the time what matters the most is where you grew up.  Alli and I both grew up in Orchard Park, and in Orchard Park you fell into one of 4 categories of Pizza lovers….  There was the southern tip near Boston, NY that had Brunners or Ricotta’s (which is what I grew up eating and still has great pizza).  Those who lived in or near the Village of Orchard Park, like Alli did, mostly relied on Capelli’s, located next door to the Orchard Park Roller Rink.  The last category were the kids who grew up on the border of West Seneca or near the border of Hamburg.  And those kids were closest to one of the two locations of Nino’s. (There are other smaller pizzeria’s as well, but those of you from OP know those were the main 4).

Now I’m not trying to make the case that Nino’s pizza is the best Pizza in Buffalo; I think it’s almost impossible to even make such a claim.  Virtually every pizzeria in the greater Buffalo area has their own unique style of pizza and accordingly every person has their own idea of what a good pizza is.   With that said, however, Nino’s is OUR favorite pizza in WNY (and believe me, we have eaten at a LOT of pizza places).  It made in the standard Buffalo size: somewhere in between NY style thin and Chicago thick.  Their crust is always crunchy and the sauce and cheese they use has a unique flavor that you just can’t get anywhere else.  There really is no other way to describe it other than incredibly delicious.  Even though Alli and I have moved out of Orchard Park, we still make plenty of trips down there to get ourselves a slice or two…or twelve.  The pizza is the best when it comes right out of the oven, and luckily the West Seneca location has a great seating area.  Get a steamy slice and add in some of their house made blue cheese for dipping and there is absolutely no way you that you can’t enjoy this pizza.

When we recently stopped by their West Seneca location I realized that we’ve never mentioned them on the website and they were long over due for a Food Porn.  Not only do they make a great pizza, they do it at a really affordable price.  Their small pizza (seen above) is $6.50 for a cheese ($8 for a cheese and pepperoni) and a side of fries, which are also quite good, is less then $2.  As I said before, they have a large seating area at this location and the the wait for food is always pretty short.

Their Curly Fries are always fried to perfection, not a soggy fry to be seen for miles, and they are coated with a generous amount of salt and some other seasonings that I can’t put my finger on.  Basically, I have never been to Nino’s and NOT ordered these fries; they are an absolute must any time I go there.

If you live anywhere near the southtowns or are ever in the general area and have never tried Nino’s, I really really suggest you check this place out.  I know pizza is almost a religious food item in Buffalo and people take it very seriously so I promise that you will not be disappointed.   (And, hey, their wings and subs are pretty darn great as well).

For a long, long time now I have been told that I need to try DiBella’s.  In fact most people I’ve talked to have always made some “yum” noise immediately after I mentioned the name.  So while I had an idea of exactly what their subs were going to taste like, I still really wanted to try it out.  One weekend Alli and I found ourselves spending a good amount of our day in the Niagara Falls Boulevard area and figured it was a good time to try DiBella’s.

Walking into an empty restaurant (we got their shortly after they opened for the day) is always weird; you feel that everyone is automatically looking at you and it just always awkward.  Luckily at DiBella’s, as soon as you walk in the order counter (pictured above) is the first thing you see and I automatically noticed was how similar it was to the sub counter at Wegman’s.  In fact, nearly everything was the same as ordering a sub from Wegmans.  I remember hearing in the past that Wegman’s used DiBella’s subs rolls and after tasting a Turkey Sub I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true.

My Turkey Sub (pictured above) was quite the delicious meal.  Something that I really enjoyed about DiBella’s was they had 3 different sizes of rolls.  That didn’t mean they took a uniform 1-size-fits-all roll and cut it accordingly, they actually had different rolls cooked at different sizes.  What’s the big deal you ask?  You still get two “butt” ends!  I love that part of the roll; the crispy end that seems to soak in oil and that thick crust is arguably the best part of the roll.

Alli ordered a Hot Roast Beef (not pictured) that had the claim of being supplied by Stafford, NY’s Red Osier (a restaurant highly recommend from my coworker Matt).  Served with a side of Au jus, it was something that actually is not found on a Wegman’s Sub board.  For someone who isn’t a big fan of subs in general, Alli was very impressed with the quality of the Hot Roast Beef (not overcooked, still tender), the tasty juices, and the crisp and fresh roll.  Alli adds: As someone who would never go out of my way for a sub of any kind, I would actually put their hot Roast Beef as potential lunch option when I’m at UB.

DiBella’s has now grown out of Western New York and have opened locations in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.  The atmosphere of a 40’s/50’s style deli is pretty neat and the prices are fairly reasonable for the quality of food you get.  However, if you have eaten a Wegman’s sub before then you’ve basically eaten a Dibella’s sub, so there won’t be anything too exciting in your meal.  The different size rolls are great and they have some different menu options then Wegman’s has so if you are in the area (on the Boulevard or near their other WNY locations near the Galleria Mall on Union or on Transit in Williamsville) and are in the mood for a filling sub, go ahead and give it at try.

Now, I’ve been to WJ Morrisey’s before but that was before I began my journey into food blogging and sadly my first meal at this restaurant probably consisted of some sort of boring chicken sandwich.  That was years ago, and while I didnt remember the food to well, I did remember how much I loved the decor of the place.  It really does look like a (somewhat) authentic Irish pub and, though I have yet to experience this, probably a fantastic place to watch some soccer.  After going to Toronto last month and having an awesome meal at The Duke of Kent, I had an incredible urge to go back to WJ Morrisey’s and try out the “traditional fare” on the menu.

It hurts me to say this, but I really don’t like Guinness.  While I can enjoy a really good stout on occasion, I just don’t think it has a great taste.  But being in an Irish pub I knew that I couldn’t order just any regular beer, so I decided to go with a favorite of mine, Harp (yes I understand the North American version is brewed by Labatt).  What I loved about the Duke of Kent while we were in Toronto is that there was literally nothing boring on their tap menu and thus I was essentially forced into drinking something from England/Ireland/Scotland and I loved it.  I know in Buffalo you are pretty much required to put Bud Light and Labatt on your tap wall, but I would love something more exotic then Guinness and Harp….

Our previous visit to WJ’s involved a really disappointing and burnt to a crisp order of potato pancakes.  Thus we were tentative to try them again. However, we went for it anyway and it turned out to be a good move.  This time they were not burnt in the least and actually might have been the best part of the meal.  I can’t describe them much other than saying they were a very typical yet very deliciously seasoned and perfectly crisp potato pancake.  A very tasty but not filling appetizer that most people will be very happy with.

For our main entrees Alli ordered the Fish and Chips (~ $10) and I ordered the Shepherd’s Pie (~ $12, top picture).  We’ve had several fish fries on Buffalo Eats, and while the term “Fish and Chips” makes an eater assume they are getting something different, compared to Buffalo’s Fish Fry, this was pretty much the same thing.  WJ’s Fish wasn’t horrible but the actual batter was lacking and didn’t have that big crunch that I love.  In my opinion, the more batter the better; I want it basically to look like a gigantic Chicken Finger.  In all fairness, though, the fries were fantastic “pub fries”, thick but still having that crunchy outer shell.

My Shepherds Pie was delicious and I have to admit that it was just as good as my Toronto experience.  The beef wasn’t ground as much as it was sliced but that still worked for me.  It was loaded with peas, green beans and corn all covered in a fantastic brown gravy and covered with a thin shell of mashed potato.  I loved it and I ate every bit of it (while completely ignoring the salad that came on the side) and I caught Alli stealing a few bites here and there.

Overall I have to give WJ Morrisey’s one and a half thumbs up.  We were completely satisfied by the meal and while the beer list wasn’t a abundant as I hoped, I am looking forward to heading back when the World Cup begins to out their Bangers in Mash and Irish Stew.  Sitting directly next to HSBC Arena is a blessing and a curse, pre and post Sabres games I’m sure they are packed.  However, aside form Sabres games and the occasional Bandits game, I didn’t think people would really go downtown to that area.  I was wrong, however, and early on a random Friday night (with no Sabres on TV or playing next door), the place was pretty stocked.  If you have any urge to try out some Irish cuisine, I highly suggest that you go pick up a Restaurant.com certificate (they are good for drinks too!) and go check it out.

Ok, ok, I know what you are thinking, “Oh look he decided to write about another Buffalo place that was on the Food Network.”  I’ll admit, however, that it’s nice to see local places featured nationally, but the fact that a 40 year old with wristbands and terrible hair decided to feature this local place was not the reason I decided to write about the Lake Effect Diner.  I have been to this Main Street iconic diner a few times before, and to be honest, all have been after a great night out, full of adult beverages and debauchery, and this visit was not much different.  Nothing says a great weekend morning than some fantastic greasy diner food.

Every time I have visited I get the same immediate feeling when walking in….I always feel like I’m taking a little step back in time.  The silver decor, the soda jerk machine and the big board with daily specials are always a welcome sight.

The great atmosphere of the Lake Effect

After my standard morning beverage order of a large water and a coffee, I took a while to decide on the ultimate diner question…breakfast or lunch?  A lot of times I end up mixing the two into one interesting meal but my breakfast craving was curbed by the giant coffee portions at the Lake Effect.  I decided on a bowl of the soup special and a BLT sandwich.

The soup of the day was potato, cheese and ham soup.  It sounded just about perfect when I saw it on the board walking in.  The soup was very flavorful, very rich, and very filling.  It was seasoned well and had big chunks of the house made smoked ham.  The bowl, which was only 5 dollars, was very large and definitely filling.  The only problem that I had with it was that it was fairly cold when it arrived.  I generally don’t send food back in a restaurant and since it wasn’t ice cold I still ate it, but I think it would have made the soup a little better if it had been properly served hot.

I decided on the BLT for my sandwich, and this isn’t out of the ordinary.  A great BLT is one of my favorite sandwiches even though it is possibly one of the easiest meals to make and prepare.

The Lake Effect makes and smokes their own bacon in house and so I figured their version would be a treat (not to mention it was well priced at $5.50).  The BLT certainly did not disappoint.  The bacon was extremely think, crisp, and wonderfully smoked.  On top of that, they really piled the bacon onto the sandwich.  If you are a BLT fan, which I have no idea why you wouldn’t be, then I highly recommend giving the Lake Effects a try.

Between the coffee, soup and BLT, I ended up eating fairly cheaply at the diner.  That being said, for diner standards it definitely was priced a bit high.  Most sandwich’s were around 10 dollars and entrees more than that.  However, it needs to be mentioned that the quality of food and products used at the Lake Effect seem to be, and taste like, they are of slightly higher quality.  Not many diners would take the time and effort to smoke meats in house.  The Main Street diner car is a nice place to have a late breakfast or lunch on weekends.  Just be prepared to pay a little extra than your average diner for the increased quality in product.

I was sitting in Starbucks working on my thesis (aka staring at my computer screen and checking out facebook) when lunch time hit.  Since I was on Niagara Falls Boulevard, I figured I would go to one of my old standbys, Moes Southwest Grill, for a burrito and some chips and salsa.  Shot a call to my roommate who seemed interested in some Mexican/Southwest cuisine but instead recommended that I gave El Palenque a try.  I have heard a mixed-bag of reviews on the place, so I was skeptical to give it a try, yet he insisted and said they had an extremely cheap, yet filling lunch menu.  When I got to the restaurant (on the corner of NF Blvd and Sheridan) the place looked promising.  In my experience, Mexican places with old disgusting buildings and broken down old signs have by far the best food.  Walking in it was what I fully expected, a very stereotypical decorated Mexican place with bright red and green colors everywhere.

While we were taking a look at the menu, the server brought out some complementary chips and salsa.

Complimentary Chips and Salsa

The chips and salsa were definitely homemade and both were tasty.  The salsa was a little smooth for my taste but my roommate found it perfect, seeing he generally complains salsa and sauces are way too chunky.  We both thought the salsa was a bit mild but nothing a few dashes of the hot sauce on the table couldn’t cure.  (Hot sauce side note: Every table had two, both Habanero sauces, both very hot and tasty, yet one was green and one was red.  If anyone can ever tell a difference between the two, let me know because I couldn’t taste the difference for the life of me).

We both eventually decided on one of the lunch specials, considering there’s 21 to choose from, it wasn’t too difficult of a task.   The lunch specials are all very reasonably priced (between 4 and 7 dollars) and all looked to be of extremely sufficient size.  I went with lunch special #1 which was a chile relleno, a taco, beans, and a guacamole salad.  My roommate went with special #18 which was a burrito with a side of rice.

The special #1 turned out to be a ton of food for a lunch meal.  I am a big fan of chile relleno so I dug into that first.  The filling was tasty and the sauce that topped it was good, however the outside coating was a bit soggy.  All in all a pretty solid relleno.  The guacamole salad was basically just a scoop of prepared guac put on top of a bit of shredded lettuce.  I wouldn’t necessarily call it a salad but the guac went well as a topping for the taco.  The taco itself looked pretty standard until I took a bite.  The meat inside was seasoned perfectly and tasted much different from any other taco I have had from around here.  The meat was moist and had a bit of spice on the back of the tongue.  The biggest surprise of the lunch for me was the refried beans.  Refried beans can at times be terrible if they are not made properly.  However, this simple dish can be excellent when made well.  This version was very smooth, well spiced, and extremely tasty.  I would highly recommend giving their beans a try if you are a fan at all.

My roommate also seemed to enjoy his lunch.  The burrito was not overwhelmingly large, yet proved to be a filling and tasty lunch.  In a brief description, he offered the valuable insight of “Yeah, it tastes good.”  I will back up his palate and say that if he enjoyed, it probably was a pretty tasty dish.

It turned out to be a solid recommendation for lunch.  By no means is this place “authentic” Mexican food, however, as with most Americanized Mexican dishes, meat/cheese/sauce combos usually usually taste pretty good.  The dinner menu was a bit more expensive yet still very affordable.  If you are in the boulevard area, I would recommend stopping in to El Palenque for a quick, inexpensive, and tasty meal.

I think it says something about the Buffalo restaurant scene that I very rarely complain about service.  Sure we all have our preferences about how fast food should be served, how often servers should visit the table, their level of enthusiasm, etc.  But there is a line in every diner’s mind where they cross into the “I don’t think I’ll be coming back” mode.  For Alli and myself we crossed that line in our visit to the Aud and it has absolutely nothing to do with the food quality.

Our meal was good, I enjoyed the vintage Sabres jerseys on the walls, and I bet it would be an awesome place (service aside) to watch a Sabres game with a bunch of friends.  Before I get into the service, let’s discuss the food…

We started our meal with a Buffalo Eats favorite, fried cheese sticks.  The Aud’s version advertised something different than the norm.  Their’s included monterey jack with blue cheese instead of the normal mozzarella.  While they definitely had a unique flavor (most noticeably due to the monterey jack) the blue cheese seemed non-existent, which was very disappointing.

For my meal I ordered the Aud Burger (I can’t remember the exact title but it had Aud in the title) which was a pretty large beef pattie covered in cheese and really thick slices of bacon.  Aside from the difficult process of actually trying to hold the burger and eat it, everything else was awesome.  The burger was ordered medium and was very juicy.  The bacon was really thick and delicious and they definitely didn’t skimp on it (this coming from someone who is not the biggest bacon fan).  I also really enjoyed the fries; they were nice and thick yet crispy.

Alli ordered herself one of her favorite dishes, Chicken Wings, and in true Buffalo sports restaurant form, they were pretty damn good.  Nothing out of the world, but just a good solid Buffalo wing.

Our real dislike for The Aud was purely due to our server.  Upon being seating our server left us to figure out what we would like to drink, gave us a couple minutes and then came back and told us they would “give us a couple minutes to figure out what we’d like to eat” but then disappeared for maybe 15+ minutes.  She then reappeared across the dining room and even though she clearly saw we were ready to order (there were only two other tables of patrons in the seating area at the time) she proceeded to eat food while standing at the register for another good 5 minutes.  Literally this went on for all together 15-20 minutes.  I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but I think that is pretty ridiculous when it comes to service at a restaurant.  Alli almost got up and walked over to her because she was so bad.  There wasn’t even another waitress for us to flag down so we sat and tried to figure out what to do and eventually she wandered her way over and took our order.

I don’t mind waiting that long for service if the place is extremely busy or horribly understaffed, but we were dining on a random weeknight and, as I said, there were very few of us in the restaurant.  It’s pretty sad that our meal was tainted with crappy service, but I still can recommend the food…hopefully you won’t get the server we had.

and if you missed Buffalo’s other apparences:

Grover’s Bar and Grill:

Lake Effect Diner:

The only other restaurants that are confirmed to be on the show is South Buffalo’s Blackthorn but I’m hoping there are some more surprises coming.

While you’re surfing, check out Local Food Service’s Western New York site ran by Vince McConeghy.  There are some awesome food articles and a calender of some sweet events coming up.

The beer wasn’t that amazing (it sort of reminded us of Stella Artois, which is a great beer but I was hoping for something more exciting) but we drank roughly a 6 pack and it helped to create a more “authentic” Thai meal.  Since there was 6 of us we decided to split a couple appetizers between ourselves. Taking a couple recommendations from our server we choose the following…

Thoung tong

Essentially Thoung tong was ground up shrimp and chicken that was wrapped in a rice bag and deep fried.  As far as “safe” Thai cuisine is concerned, this would probably be it.   Served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce, the entire table enjoyed them.  The flavor wasn’t anything out of this world but when you deep fry something, who doesn’t like it?

Pho Peah Tod

Speaking of deep fried, that was the theme of our next appetizer as well.  Pho Peah Tod are deep fried Spring Rolls that are again stuffed with vegetables and chicken and are also served with a side of sweet and sour sauce.  I normally am not a huge Spring Roll fan, in fact I don’t like the texture/flavor of a “non fried” rice paper.  But King and I’s fried version was very crispy and flavorful and even though the dish normally included only 5 rolls, our server gave us an extra one since there were six of us.

Chicken Satay

Without a doubt the Chicken Satay was the appetizer with the most flavor.  Chicken Satay consists of marinated chicken strips with a coconut cream that are grilled on skewers and served with a side of Thai peanut sauce.  These were delicious and I could have had an entire meal of them on their own.

After our appetizers we once again took the advice from our server and decided on our entrees.  Since for many of us this was our first trip to the Kind and I, we all decided to order different items to get a wide spread of food.

Pra Rarm Long Song

Pud puk

I personally didn’t try the Pra Rarm Long Song (Chicken with napa, mushroom, peas, red pepper, baby corn, topped with peanut sauce, and served over a bed of steamed fresh spinach) or the Pud puk (Chicken sautéed with mixed vegetables in a light brown sauce) but those who ordered those dishes had no complaints and cleaned their plates.

Put Thai

Put Thai (or Pad Thai) is probably the most famous/well known Thai dish.  My friend Doug tried out the dish and thoroughly enjoyed it.  He said there was a little heat to the dish but definitely not too spicy.  He’s not the most adventurous eater out of our group of friends but I’ve found that Pad Thai is maybe the best dish that a new “foodie” should try when experiencing Thai food.  The chicken is always safe and the peanut sauce is a good intro to trying out Thai spices.

Green Curry with Pork

Mike (the guest of honor) straight up asked our waitress what she would normally be in the mood for and she suggested the Green Curry with pork, extra spicy.  And spicy it was….I tried some of the Curry and it definitely cleared out my sinuses.  Green Curry is normally one of the more mild curry’s, usually combined with coconut, but this was really strong.  The curry soaked pork was extremely tender and I would have to say the flavor was pretty intense in comparison to the Green Curry Soup I had at Left Bank.  It was pretty awesome.

Pra rarm Long Song

Ped Prew Wan

I ordered the Ped Prew Wan which was Roasted Duck with vegetables and a large amount of pineapple covered in a sweet and sour sauce.  I was unfortunately pretty full from all of the appetizers but I still ate most of the fairly large portion that was served.  The sweetness of the pineapple and the sweet and sour sauce combined with the spiciness of the dish made for a really incredible meal.  The Duck surprised me, it was only my second time trying Duck (the first a brief taste of crispy fried duck in Chinatown in NYC) and it saddens me to say “it tasted like chicken”.  Sure it was fattier than chicken but the flavor didn’t blow me away as much as I hoped.

I really love Thai/Vietnamese and this was a great place to enjoy a large meal with great friends.  Our waitress was extremely friendly and helpful and while the restaurant is on the smaller side, we had no trouble getting a table and our food came out rather quickly.  Be prepared for an onslaught of options as the menu is several pages and contains roughly 100+ different items. I am certainly ready to go back and try something else.

Just a short time ago Tokyo Shanghai Bistro opened their doors on Elmwood Ave (near Toro) and I was fairly skeptical.  They offer an interesting mix of Japanese and Chinese and Sushi.  In my experience, a Chinese buffet with sushi is never a good idea, but walking into Toyko Shanghai I instantly knew this was nothing like our trip to Blasdell’s Mongolian Buffet.  At Tokyo Shanghai Bistro the buffet seemed to be secondary to the option of ordering dishes at your table (similar to West Seneca’s Chang Garden aka “fancy Chinese food”)

After scouting their menu online, I decided to try out their sushi.  It has been a long time since I last ate sushi, and from looking at their extensive menu of Sashimi and Rolls I decided to satisfy that craving.

My co worker and I both ordered Lunch Sushi specials which is a really good deal.  For less then $9 you get to pick two sushi rolls (one from column A and one from B…. each had different options…B was a much better column in my opinion) and were served a bowl of Miso soup (above) and their house salad (far above).  The salad was alright; I still am not a fan of the Miso Carrat salad dressing and my experience with Miso soup was fairly dull.  They both were decent (the fact that they were “free” was a huge plus) but I they really aren’t my thing.

For an appetizer, my coworker and I tried out their Crab Rangoons (or “Fried Wontons”) which are maybe #1 right now on my “Guilty Pleasure Food List”.  There is absolutely nothing authentic about the dish, but the combination of imitation crab meat, cream cheese and fried wontons is fantastic (not to mention the sweet and sour dipping sauce was delicious).  Bistro’s offering of this dish would definitely be in my top 5.

Salmon Roll (left) and Spicy Tuna Roll (right)

Eel Roll (left) and Tuna Roll (right)

I know I am still a nOOb when it comes to sushi so bear with me.  This is maybe my 4th “real” experience with sushi but I can already tell you that it wasn’t up to par with Wasabi, Fuji Grill, or Sea Bar.  To me the only differentiating factor with sushi is the quality of the fish (in my opinion rice and seaweed don’t really have a wide spectrum of taste).  The texture of the spicy tuna was a little off (a tad mushy) and the taste wasn’t anything special (seemed heavy on the cucumber, low on the tuna).  The Salmon roll was actually pretty good but didn’t blow me away or anything.

In retrospect I wish I had tried the Sashimi and properly tasted the quality of their fish since their rolls didn’t do much to wow me.  While I would definitely need another trip to Tokyo Shanghai Bistro to give it a fair assessment in terms of their sushi quality, I probably won’t be in a rush to get there.  The location is nice and the prices for lunch are awesome (and quite reasonable for dinner).  The inside looks fantastic and we had no problems with service (although the dilemma of where/who to pay came up…do we pay at our seats or the counter?).  But if you are looking for really quality sushi and especially in the immediate area, you can check out Wasabi or Kuni’s (or so I’ve heard with Kuni’s; I have yet to try it).

2009 was a really good year for Buffalo Eats, but truth be told, it’s been our only year.  In our “first year” we ended up posting 184 articles from February 13th 2009 to December 31st 2009, many of which were Food Porn’s (our own take at a restaurant “review”).

Here are the Top 5 Most Viewed Food Porn’s of 2009:

1. Wasabi (Hamburg Location)
2. Zetti’s Pasta and Pizza
3. Merge
4. Grover’s Bar & Grill
5. Black & Blue (Steak & Crab)

Obviously the publish date has a big effect in the amount of views each article has had, but Grover’s is one of our most recent articles and come 2010 I’m sure we will have a more “well rounded” top 5.

In September we debuted our newest feature “Buffalo Foodies“; we were able to contact a couple local personalities and get them to share their opinions on favorite restaurants in the area.  For our first “round” of articles we had 10 participants and in 2010 we are working on getting some new Foodies.  Our most visited Buffalo Foodie for 2009 was easily PIECE Apparel, a new clothing company based out of Buffalo, NY.

We had a lot of help getting traffic to our site through various websites and social networking platforms.  By far Twitter has been huge for Buffalo Eats, our account has gained 1481 followers (as of 12/31/09) and we would like to thank each one of you (even the spam bots).  We’ve had some great conversations with readers, got some great ideas of places to go and even suggested specific dishes to order.  Also follow our Buffalo Restaurant Twitter list, we have now added over 20 different accounts to the list and they all post specials, coupons and special deals.  So don’t miss out and please keep up the feedback!!

Urbanspoon has been huge for us as well, being a featured blog on their site has helped direct a lot of views to Buffalo Eats and we hope some of you found out about us through their great site.

We have some cool idea’s for 2010 including a couple new ideas for features, maybe some more staff members (if anyone is interested feel free to email us) and obviously more restaurants.  We have a really long wish-list (soon to be posted) and we will try to knock off as many as possible.  As of right now we have posted reviews/articles about 113 restaurants and I hope we can add another 125+ new restaurants to that list in 2010.  And yes, hopefully we will get around to finishing our restaurant guides for Buffalo and it’s surrounding areas (fingers crossed).

Finally we would love to hear your suggestions/comments/recommendations:

-Is there any restaurants we NEED to go to, that haven’t been featured on the site yet?

-Is there any Buffalo “personalities” you would like to see be featured on Buffalo Foodies?

Really anything you have to say we are all open ears, again thank you for your continued readership and have a great New Years and we will see everyone in 2010!

I really enjoy using WordPress as our blogging platform/host for Buffalo Eats, I honestly can’t recommend the website enough for hosting your own blog.  It’s really easy for first time users, their pre-made themes are great and their Stat tools are pretty addictive.  Yes, I will admit that I look at our stats several times a day.  In addition to pretty line graphs I also get to see how people are getting to our website. They show me “Referrers” (twitter, facebook, other websites) but it also shows me “Search Terms” which come from sites like Google and Yahoo.  These range from hilarious, weird to even scary.  I went through and copied a couple of my “favorites” from 2009.

I realize that Buffalo Eats using the term “Food Porn” will inevitably get us traffic from Porn alone, and some poor misguided people aren’t getting anything close to what they were looking for.  But still, with that in mind the search terms are still funny.

• 3d porn
• Sex – on what page of google results were we?
• porno hotel
• fat bob porn
• is it true that you aren’t supposed to
• www.porncafe.ro
• falafel porn – what would that even be?
• game grill porn.com
• red caboose porn
• fiddle porn – again, what is that?
• bbg fat porn
• porn tybe porno celebrates
• mikhoury
• porn greek cheese - I love feta but not that much
• cool things to do with peeps – this was around Easter but still funny out of context
• porno on sea
• biker gangs buffalo ny – no idea
• chocolatebar porn – gross
• alli porn – HA
• tell me how much a buffalo eats in a day
• iamgame porno
• food foot porn – double gross
• foxes in south buffalo ny
• mike khouri sesame email
• what eats a dove
• porn store on chippewa street buffalo ny
• porn fat eat
• hardware store porn
• mike khourey buffalo ny
• porn overalls – really overalls?
• i am hooked to porn – sorry?
• sbarro-quality porn – that is a pretty high quality
• women with veggies porn – why not?
• huge porn mother
• fathers for porn – I really hope this an organization
• allen saint porn
• donnie’s steak in buffalo – I need to try this out
• porndoctor – somehow #5 on google with this search term!

Rest assured we will be tracking 2010’s terms as well.  Check back tomorrow for our 2009 Year End Article.

Without a doubt, the most talked about restaurant on our site that has yet to be “Food Porn-ed” is Left Bank.  In fact, some of our earliest comments were “You Need to try Left Bank” and with their constant #1 ranking on Urbanspoon, I was really excited when Alli and I made our reservations.  Not known for being the cheapest meal, I was surprised by how affordable their menu was when I looked online.  The prices range in the $13 to $25 for entrees and ~$10 for appetizers.  They are somewhat hidden downtown; located on Rhode Island just across the street from the great Prime 490.

To start, I have to comment that the service was fantastic.  Not only was our server great but we accidentally arrived one and a half hours before our reservation (we got it mixed up with another reservation we have next week) and they still sat us without any fuss.  While it wasn’t incredibly busy in the dining room, I was still impressed with how they handled the situation.

Our goal when we sat down was to try at least one of their specials for the day.  That plan was solidified after hearing the specials from our waittress.  Apparently on Wednesday’s Left Bank has a special Vietnamese and Thai menu specials.  Off of that menu I ordered a Thai Green Curry Coconut with Pork ($6, above).  While I’m not exactly as “familiar” with Curry as I would like to be, I thoroughly enjoyed the soup.  The broth wasn’t incredibly spicy but it did have some “heat”.  The pork wasn’t abundant but the coconut curry broth made up for it; it had a nice sweetness to it that complimented the spice very nicely.  I finished the entire bowl and could have easily eaten another.

For an appetizer, Alli picked out the Fondue for “two” ($14).  Left Bank’s “fondue” was a Gorgonzola cheese sauce surrounded by beef tenderloins on skewers, slices of foccacia, portobella mushroom “fries” and asparagus spears.  We’ve definitely had a good amount of fondue on this website as it is one of Alli’s favorite dishes, and this version from Left Bank did not leave us disappointed.  Sure the Gorgonzola was delicious, but it was the dipping options really set this apart.  The beef was cooked beautifully and was so tender that you didn’t even need a knife to cut it.  In addition, while I’ve never been a fan of mushrooms, when battered and fried they were quite delicious.  And the asparagus spears were gigantic and crisp and were just complimented wonderfully by the cheese.

Alli ordered her main entree from the special menu, Grilled twin 4 oz beef tenderloin medallions topped with butter poached lobster that came with a side of chevre mashed potatoes all covered with a balsamic-teriyaki demi-glace ($32).  While there was not as much lobster as she would have wanted, the beef was obviously incredibly tender and juicy and what she really raved about was the glaze.  It was incredibly smooth and sweet and she finished every bite of food on her plate with no problem.

I ordered my entree off the regular menu, after remembering a reader’s favorable comment about Carrot Papardella, I looked at the ingredients and quickly realized that it was something I would definitely enjoy.  The dish included fettuccine noodles that were covered with a shellfish-brandy cream and topped with a generous amount of lobster, shrimp and crab meat.  I could barely finish half of the bowl; it seemed like I had eaten 3 lobster tails worth of meat.  It did make for an amazing leftover lunch the following day.

Now it’s not a surprise that we enjoyed Left Bank.  Since I started the blog I’ve been told that Left Bank is one of the best restaurants in Buffalo and I will gladly carry on the praise.  Their menu is full of exciting and different dishes and the prices are really reasonable considering the quality of food and service.  Obviously this is a restaurant were reservations are a must and don’t be surprised if you have to book a couple weeks ahead for a Friday/Saturday night.  But save up the extra cash and do yourself a favor and try out this restaurant, it really lives up to the hype.

Restaurant.com never ceases to amaze me by how insane their deals are.  Every day, until the end of December (so that’s only 8 days left!) you can sign up 31 email address a day to get a free $10 gift card to use on their website.  Now if you remember, you can get a $25 gift certificate for several Buffalo restaurants for only $10.  And now you can use the code SANTA and get 80% off that, which means for $2 you can get a $25 gift card.

Buffalo Eats wishes everyone a safe holiday and look forward to Food Porn’s from Left Bank and Tokyo Shanghai Bistro coming after the holiday weekend.

Since going to the Taste of Buffalo this summer, Alli and I have still been trying to cross off some restaurants on our “wish list”.  One of those restaurants that I thought I would have visited along time ago (especially since we now live less then a mile away) was the Niagara Cafe.

The only menu item I knew I absolutely had to order was their Beef Pattie (pictured below) or Pastelitos.  Now this would be probably the 4th appearance of a Beef Pattie in any form featured on this website, but this is the first Beef and Cheese we’ve tried.  If there was ever a food that was designed for a 4 am snack, this would be it.  I would trade a hot dog stand for a beef pattie stand on Allen in a heartbeat.

It was such a delicious fried crispy shell, and the meat inside (combined with the cheese) was a perfect mix.  For roughly $2 we got a fairly large pattie and if I ordered 5 more of those I would have been satisfied without trying anything else.  It was just as good as I remembered from the Taste of Buffalo, maybe a little less crispy but filled with more beef.

For the main course Mike and I each ordered some fried pork. Mike ordered the Fried Pork Chops (~$9)which came with some rice, a bowl of tomato/bean soup, and a tiny salad.  Ignoring all other sides, the spectacle of this dish was the fried pork chop.  Clearly this was fresh from the fryer as the Pork chop was glistening with oil and the meat was juicy and warm.  It came clean off the bone with just his hands and teeth.

I ordered the Fried Pork Pieces (~$8), which essentially was the same basic principle (frying the hell out of pork) but in a different form.  Instead of a single chop, the pork was cut into little pieces and deep fried.  The taste was phenomenal.  Not only is oil and pork a great (albeit unhealthy) combination to begin with, but you could tell the oil hadn’t been changed in while (which is a good thing because all the flavor from previous meals were added to those pieces).

The Niagara Cafe is located on Niagara Street on the edge of the West Side of Buffalo, but don’t let that dissuade you from trying this little restaurant out.  The area might have a bad reputation but you don’t have to worry about parking your car in the lot.  If you want to, they appear to have a pretty fast takeout system and potential customers beware they only take cash (but they do have an ATM inside).  Regardless, the food was fabulous and they menu has many other great options that are sure to satisfy most taste buds (they even offer fried chicken in a quarter, half, or even a full size which would easily feed a whole family).

When I found out that PF Chang’s was coming to Buffalo, I was pretty excited and I barely knew anything about their restaurants.  I knew they were a national chain and I had heard a lot of kind words from my family and friends and I fondly remembered when they were mentioned in a hilarious South Park episode.  Even with my stance on “no chain restaurants”, I have already broken that rule with The Melting Pot and figured that I could bend the rules for another “upscale” national chain.

The problem with these new restaurants in the Galleria Mall is that Buffalo apparently goes nuts and EVERYONE tries to go at the same time.  It happened with The Cheesecake Factory, Bravo, and The Melting Pot.  Just for kicks, Alli and I tried to stop in (without a reservation) on a random Tuesday evening and found out that the wait was 3 HOURS.  I love food, and I love fine dining, but there really should be no reason to have to wait for 3 hours for food.  The following day I made my reservation, 2 and a half weeks later.

Egg Drop Soup

Hot & Sour Soup

We arrived on our pre-defined date and only had to wait maybe 10 minutes to be seated.  To start, the service was honestly great; our server was very friendly and constantly around to help with refills or to take our order.  She also mixed together her “signature” sauce (pictured below) which included some vinegar, chili oil, and soy sauce.  Apparently each server has their own thing and it’s a cute idea.  I didn’t really use the sauce for much but Alli enjoyed it.

We decided to go with their “PF Chang’s For 2″ Special that is a great deal for any couple.  For 39.99 we enjoyed two soups, 1 appetizer, 2 entrees, and 2 mini desserts.  For our two soups, Alli ordered the Egg Drop Soup and I ordered the Hot and Sour Soup.  While the Egg Drop soup was pretty standard in flavor, the Hot and Sour soup was fairly lackluster.  To be fair, however, I haven’t enjoyed any Hot and Sour soup since trying out The Saigon Cafe’s this summer.  Maybe its the gelatin.

Lettuce Wraps

For our appetizer we ordered the one item we had been dying to try, the Lettuce Wraps (see above).  Literally every person who had been to aPF Chang’s made mention of how great this appetizer was.  So, naturally, I was pretty excited to try it out, and it definitely lived up to my high expectations.  Mixing in some of our server’s “special sauce” they were messy but very good.  If there was one menu item that I can recommend for anyone considering a meal at PF Chang’s, it would be the Lettuce Wraps.

Crispy Honey Chicken

Sesame Chicken

For our main entrees we chose the Crispy Honey Chicken (in part because of a twitter follower’s suggestion) and the Sesame Chicken (a long time favorite).  The Crispy Honey Chicken was pretty good, infact we ate the entire order fairly quickly.  It wasn’t as “crispy” as I was hoping…I thought it would have a thick crispy batter that was completely unhealthy but instead it was very lightly fried (I should have paid more attention to their description on the menu).  Still the honey glaze on the chicken was sugary sweet and quite delicious.  I wish I could say the same for the sauce on the Sesame Chicken.  It was really thick and tasted weirdly like BBQ sauce to me.  It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever eaten but I have had much better (and cheaper) sesame chicken from the cheap little Chinese restaurant down my street.

Overall, it seems to be that most of the entrees you can order at PF Chang’s are just prettier looking (and much more expensive) versions of what you can get at any corner Chinese place.  And to be honest, your local Chinese take out probably tastes the exact same if not better.  The Lettuce Wraps were the only menu item that I would go out of my way for.  The service was great, the restaurant was actually gorgeous inside, and the atmosphere made you feel like you were in a hip “LA Style” restaurant.  I’m glad Buffalo has gained another “high end chain” and that it gives us some weird form of credibility as a “real city”, but in my opinion the food isn’t that great and its definitely not worth a 2+ hour wait.

I’m upset I didn’t make it to any of the 4 challenges, but I’m really hoping to go to Season 2.  For more information about the video check out Buffalo Rising’s article or Nickel City’s YouTube Channel.

source: CelebrateCanada.WordPress.com

For Day 2 of our Toronto Trip we decided to leave Yonge Street and the Eaten Centre and head off to Toronto’s Chinatown.   I was expecting something similar to New York City’s Canal Street with the street shops, bootleg DVD’s and fake Purses.  While those are fun and enjoyable at times they are also annoying and make walking down the street almost impossible.

We left our hotel and started the trek down Yonge Street for Chinatown with our lunch plans undetermined.  After walking by a Korean BBQ place and being tempted we decided to have a light & cheap lunch and grab a bowl of Pho from Green Fusion, located right on Yonge.  This was our first Pho attempt outside of Buffalo and Alli and I were pretty excited.  Walking into the restaurant we noticed immediately that this was a good choice as we were the only english-speaking patrons inside (always a good sign for authentic cuisine).  Alli ordered the Beef (top, roughly $5) and I ordered the Seafood (bottom, roughly $6).  It was fairly typical with bean sprouts and rice noodles and available rooster sauce.  Alli’s was really good, the broth was fantastic and the beef was very tender and rare when they brought out her bowl.  My seafood was actually a little odd, the imitation crab wasn’t that great and the broth was noticeably very sweet.  Needless to say it was a decent lunch (and reasonably healthy) and we saved ourselves some money that we planned on saving for future shopping that night.

For Toronto, their Chinatown really occupies the West Side of Dundas, a road that intersects Yonge and runs West to East.  Instead of the shops that spill out into the streets, the shopping takes place actually inside stores (not much like Canal Street, which was nice).  Walking down Dundas (which has a very hip, artistic vibe) you walk by Sushi restaurant after Sushi Restaurant (all advertising “All You Can Eat”).  The buildings increasingly have less and less English written on their signs and you start to smell all these delicious restaurants coming from both sides of the street.  We had read about a shopping center called Dragon City that has 3 floors of various food and shops and decided that was our first destination.

Walking into Dragon city I smelled this amazing dessert/waffle cone type scent coming from the corner.  Surely enough, right as we walked there was a stand (pictured above) with two women making some type of waffle-like treat.  I had literally no idea what it wasor really how I would order since very little if no English was spoken by anyone around.  So I just walked over and gave the universal “1 Please” paid 3 dollars and received a bag with little “waffle buttons” and preceded to eat the order in less then 2 minutes.  It truely was awesome and after getting back to the hotel later that night and doing some Google research I found out they are called Hong Kong Egg Waffles (I’m guessing because of the appearance).  But in all seriousness, who doesn’t love a freshly cooked super sugary waffle?

As we walked deeper and deeper into Chinatown our original goal was to find Soup-filled Dumplings.  We had only tried this out once before while visiting former Buffalo Eats staff member, Mike in New York City.  They were pretty awesome and we’ve never seen anything like that since that trip in the summer of 2008.  Well, after realizing that searching on our phones would roughly cost us $3,000 (thanks AT&T!) we walked around and hoped that something would stick out.  Luckily we did in fact run into a fantastic hidden gem Banh Mi Ba Le.  Now I’ve had Banh Mi (more info) once before but it was at 99 Fast Food and instead of the typical French Baguette roll they used a Constanzo’s roll (a Buffalo staple but not what I wanted).  This location in Chinatown seemed incredibly authentic and smelled delicious.  I ordered a Spicy BBQ Pork with all the fixings.  Theirs had a great  spread, a delicious mayo like sauce that was spicy and creamy that had just enough heat without becoming distracting.  I’m not sure if this is the best place for Banh Mi in Toronto, but if you are in Chinatown I suggest stopping by for a sandwich.  For 2.75 Canadian it is a fantastic steal for a large sandwich that would make for a great lunch.

After our Asian experiences we made it back to the Eaton Centre, did some more shopping, and started our search for our dinner location.  For some reason, Fish and Chips was on our mind and we were slightly tempted to go to the Eaton Center’s food court and try out their “London Style Fish and Chips” but we decided that was pretty lame.

Looking through our magazines of the best places to eat in Toronto, The Duke of Kent stuck out for some reason.  Were not sure why but we decided to drive a couple kilometers down Yonge Street and check out this English/Scottish Pub.  Walking in, I automatically knew we made a great choice.  The place seemed full of regulars and all were incredibly happy with pints of beer in hand.  All of the beers on draft were heavy beers, most of which imported from England or Ireland.  Already in the mood for an order of Fish and Chips we decided to split a large order (top, 12.99) and split a Traditional Shepherd’s Pie (bottom, 10.99).  While Buffalo has a similar restaurant with WJ Morrisey’s (located next to HSBC Arena) I wasn’t as adventurous when i tried it and I can’t compare the Shepherd’s Pie.  But if WJ’s has anything like The Duke of Kent’s I will be a regular in no time; the gravy and mashed potatoes were both great but it was the ground beef and lamb that made the dish delicious.  Alli joked that it was a classy KFC Snacker Bowl but in all honesty it really was.  After our meal and my pint of urBock’s Creemore (I know, its made in Canada) I suddenly had an urge to root for a soccer team and drink only dark beers.

We ended our last day in Toronto with something that has become more familiar to our diets, some Lebanese Food.  On top of All you can Eat Sushi, Korean BBQ and “All Day Dim Sum” restaurants that we saw everywhere the most popular type of restaurant that we saw was Lebanese food.  One of those restaurants that we passed was Wrap n’ Grab on Dundas.  Looking at the advertisement on the outside, we saw that the price of the combo meals would be incredibly cheap.  For $11 we ordered two Chicken Shawarma’s… which was chicken cut right off the spit then made into a wrap with some dressing, hummus, pickles, beats, onions, etc.  Similar to our cheap meals during the previous day, we saved ourselves more money by eating at Wrap n Grab.

Considering this was our first chance to spread our foodie wings on a vacation, I think Alli and I did a good job.  Sure there are things that I still want to try…I really want to try Dim Sum and a really nice Korean BBQ restaurant, for example…  There was a good amount of Indian and Thai restaurants that looked appetizing and all the different Tea joints were equally tempting.  Toronto is a huge city and you could eat there for 20 years and still have a wish list of 100+ restaurants.  It made me a little disappointed that Buffalo is lacking in such a diverse culinary culture.  I realized that more than anything Buffalo is lacking from a “Chinatown”-esque area.  Something like that would not only have the appeal of some cool shopping areas but the restaurants those areas bring would be well worth it alone.  But I guess I’ll continue to try and find the best of what Buffalo has to offer in the mean time.

I’m definitely looking forward to our next trip to Toronto and for the first time it has nothing to do with shopping.

When Alli and I made our reservations for Toronto several months ago, we realized that food would be a large factor in our plans.  In fact this was our first vacation/trip since becoming “amateur foodies” and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity of eating food that normally wouldn’t be available in Buffalo.

So we went to Toronto on a mission: we would try not to eat anything boring and we would go out of our way to eat as much Asian cuisine from Chinatown as possible.  Everything else was kind of a nice accident; aside from the first restaurant that we ate at, we didn’t really plan too much more and just walked around until we found something that caught our eye.

The day started with our only pre-destined location; something that has sort of turned into a regular visit every time I have gone to  Toronto.  Right next to the Hockey Hall of Fame is a restaurant located in the first floor of a corporate building called Richtree Market.  Richtree is a Toronto based and Canadian exclusive chain that offers a “cafeteria” style atmosphere.  All throughout the restaurant are stations that each have their own theme; you can get a burger or freshly grilled steak or some homemade pasta or try out some Asian cuisine or get some freshly made pancakes.

The food has always been pretty good and the incredible variety of fairly high quality options being prepared freshly while you wait has lead to a slightly over priced but still charming experience.  After surveying all of my options,  I eventually made my way over to the “Far East” section and tried out the Chicken Stir Fry (top picture).  For roughly $12, I tried the spicy Thai Peanut Sauce with chicken, snow peas, baby corn, mushrooms, garlic, broccoli and a bunch of other stuff that was delicious.  Really it was the Peanut Sauce that won Alli and myself over more then anything.  Alli went to the “Grill” station and ordered herself a a nice juicy Burger that was covered in Bacon and Caramelized Onions.  Delish.

Unfortunately, the taps were broken at the bar and I wasn’t able to try any of their microbrews.  In either case, it’s a great place to head post-trip to the Hall of Fame, especially if you’re not sure what you want to eat.

After several hours of shopping, Alli and I tried to figure out what we wanted to eat for dinner.  We settled on a restaurant across the street from our hotel (in all fairness our legs were pretty damn tired, and I needed a beer) and we settled on The 3 Brewers Microbrewery.  After looking over the menu I realized that this was some French chain, with only a handful of locations in North America (all of which are located in Canada).  I ended up getting a pint of whatever their special was for the night and enjoyed it.  Thinking back I believe it was a red amber lager, and it definitely was filling and warmed me up on a particularly cold night.

After visiting Canada since turning 19 several years ago, I have (sadly) never experienced a true order of Poutine.  Yes I understand that this is a Canadian staple (or at least to American’s who love it) but it has never interested me.  The idea was never appetizing; even when Jim’s Steakout added it to their menu a year ago I didn’t budge.  But this time around I figured I would try it out since Alli swears by it was going to order it whether I wanted it or not.  Now I’m not sure if it was my insane hunger or that 3 Brewers made a really good gravy, but it was better then my expectations.  Alli and I destroyed that bowl in minutes and all without forks!

Alli ordered herself the 3 Brewers Beef Stew, which had tender pieces of Beef, Potatoes, and Carrots cooked in their own beer-gravy and presented with some rice and greens.  I ordered their “The Italian” Flamm, which they touted as their “Specialty”.  Their Flamms or “tarte flambee” is a specialty from France which is basically “pizza-like” in its preparation, only recently becoming a popular item for restaurants to serve it resembles a thin crust pizza.  At 3 Brewers their “Italian” had yellow, green and red peppers as well as Italian sausage and mozzarella cheese.  While it wasn’t as “European” as I hoped, the execution was fantastic and I easily ate the entire thing by myself.  There was just enough ingredients on the dish that it wasn’t heavy; you could eat an entire section and get all the flavors of the cheese, peppers, sausage and crust without feeling like you just ate a cake.

The service was pretty lackluster but the wait was actually pretty short and we sat down in less then 10 minutes (which is pretty impressive on a Friday night at 6:30 pm) but our waitress didn’t bring us drinks or forks until we were just finishing our appetizer.  I understand the place was pretty busy but when asking if we could have a fork to eat our food with the response “those are kind of hard to get around here” was not the answer we were expecting.

When arriving back to the hotel we finally realized that we could indeed get free internet (thank god) in our hotel lobby and we went down t to get our facebook/twitter/perezhilton/sabres fix that we so desperately needed after 14 hours of no internet.  As we sat down there we looked at the hotel’s menu and noticed some “Home made Chips with Caramelized Onion Dip” that sounded like a great 11 pm snack.  So we put in an order and I enjoyed a Soparro on tap, which was fantastic.  After realizing that we were sitting next to a semi-popular rock band, we also realized that this dip was fantastic and tasted like a high class, slightly creamier Bison dip.  Such a simple item, yet it was so good that we ordered it again on Saturday night.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2 with our trip to Chinatown and an amazing English Pub.

Going to the Buffalo Chophouse is always a treat, I’ve only been there 3 times (and to be fair, always as a “guest”) but each time it’s been quite awesome.  My first trip was one of the first meals I ever had with Alli’s family; I ordered the Porterhouse and remember being shocked at how big a steak could be (along with the price).  The second time was for Alli’s birthday, but for some reason the actual meal didn’t stick out in my head as much.  This time we were treated by Alli’s family in celebration of our engagement and my meal might go down as the greatest I’ve had in years.

Over 2009 we have gone to several really nice restaurants, and I’ve eaten a decent amount of steak along the way.  The rule of thumb when eating steak (from what I gather, I am not yet an expert in this area) is that the closer the cut to the bone (and the more fat distributed throughout) the more flavor the cut will have.  Before I was a big filet mignon and strip steak eater, but I wanted to get something different this time.  And I wanted something that I couldn’t order at a Outback Steakhouse or Applebees (both on my list of worst restuarants ever).

Everytime I have gone to the Chophouse, the one constant (aside from the dining party) has been Alli’s youngest brother ordering their Applewood Bacon.  Now, I am not the biggest fan of Bacon but their $6 appetizer of 6 strips of fine Applewood Bacon is pretty damn delicious.  Seriously each slice tastes like the bacon has been dipped in a warm apple candy glaze.

For myself, I ordered the Lobster Bisque for my appetizer.  I honestly could have had a bucket of this for my main course.  Before trying the Chophouse’s offering I’ve only had Lobster Bisque at Eckl’s.  While Eckl’s version was great, this blew it away.  The actual bisque was creamy like a tomato soup and of course The Chophouse did not skimp on the lobster meat inside.  To top of it off (literally) they placed a perfectly baked, flake-y biscuit.  This was an awesome start to an awesome meal.

For my main dish I ordered myself the 32oz Bone In Rib Eye Steak.  Easily, one of the most expensive items I have ordered in a restaurant so my expectations were already high before I even cut off myself a bite.  For those aren’t familiar with cuts of meat, the Rib Eye is generally a fattier meat and has that great “marbled” look.  With that extra fat, and after being cooked with the bone still attached, the beef has a incredibly strong and delicious flavor.  To top off the steak, our waiter suggested we finish it off “Oscar Style” which, as you can see from the picture above. meant that they were covered in a Bearnaise sauce (a delicious wine/butter sauce) and a huge lump of crab meat.  On the side we enjoyed a hefty portion of broccoli and some french fries.  You may think to yourself, why would you order french fries at The Chophouse?  In my defense, it was Alli and her father and brother who wanted the fries (which, actually, are pretty great fries) and I was just happy to enjoy whatever food was placed in front of me.

Other meals ordered around the table included Filet Mignon and strip steaks and I can say with certainty that everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and found every bite to be delicious.

For anyone going to the Chophouse, you expect a certain level of quality when you are paying such premium prices.  Does the fantastic service, the great atmosphere (including incredibly comfortable furniture) and valet parking help? Of course.  That said, even with the incredibly high standards I had going into this meal, I was still blown away.  This could be the single greatest meal I’ve ever had in a restaurant since I started Buffalo Eats.  Does it help that Alli and I were celebrating our new engagement with her parents?  Yes, that certainly put us in a good mood to start, but the combination of a delicious and flavor packed cut of beef that was cooked to perfection (medium) and HUGE pieces of crab meat covered in a butter sauce…what else could you ask for?  My only wish is that I had room for dessert.

Start saving up your money now, because the Buffalo Chophouse can easily be argued as one of Buffalo finest restaurant and every dollar you spend is well worth it.

Since I quit the retail world, I have enjoyed actually shopping on Black Friday instead of being on the other end.  Many people ask me why, after spending 9 years working at 4 am to midnight, that I wouldn’t want to sleep in and enjoy the day off.  Nope…I want to make sure I can do my little part to make that retail worker’s life that much harder; it’s time to join all the crazy shoppers.  Along with my new tradition of shopping at an hour that most would find disgusting, is going out to “lunch” at 9am.  This year after some shopping at the Galleria Mall we tried to grab lunch close by and at the same time we tried out a favorite of Buffalo Foodie Josh Potter….so we hit up Alton’s.

I decided to go for the open Beef Souvlaki which came with a side of Tzatziki.  I’ve had my fair share of souvlaki in Buffalo, and I would have to put this a close second to Ambrosia as my favorite.  The house dressing was seasoned well and the olives and feta were a little conservative but none the less incredibly delicious.  I chose beef because I’ve been doing the “chicken thing” a lot lately and really wanted to switch it up.  The beef, unfortunately, was fairly bland which made me wish I had chosen the chicken after seeing Alli’s open Chicken Souvlaki (see below).  On a side note, Alli could not stop raving about the dill dip that was served with her dinner.  She still talks about it weeks later.  It was a wonderful condiment to the dish.  Looking back, I really wish they had a Lamb Souvlaki option.  They do offer Greek Lamp Chops, but that wasn’t exactly what I was in the mood for.

We ordered a side of Greek Potatoes, which I am discovering could mean a variety of things and each restaurant has their own idea.  With Alton’s, they were sliced and fried potatoes wedges that were covered in some kind of dressing.  It didn’t come with feta, so Alli and I decided to get an extra side to sprinkle on top.

Overall, Alton’s offered a pretty decent post-shopping meal.  I’m sure I didn’t order the best item on the menu, but Alli’s Chicken Souvlaki was fantastic and, according to her, the dill dipping sauce was out of this world..  They don’t have a huge Mediterranean food selection, but their menu variety is impressive and the prices are reasonable and what you would expect from a diner type establishment.  They cover everything from Pasta, Seafood, Sandwiches and Breakfast.  There aren’t too many great “Open 24 Hours”  (every day except Sunday) spots around town, especially ones that aren’t named Denny’s.  So, if you are looking for one in the Walden Galleria area (not the greatest of restaurant selections) then definitely give Alton’s a try.

If I were to say that the best taco I have ever eaten was from at the Colden Country Inn (a restaurant in the hills of Colden, NY-4 miles north of Kissing Bridge), I would understand a fair amount of the doubt and confusion that would follow.  I should emphasize that this taco wasn’t the most authentic, on the contrary, this was incredibly huge, fried, and American-ized and could easily make an appearance on This Is Why You’re Fat.

The Colden Inn is probably not on many Buffalo-ians “restaurant radar”, but for those in at least in the Southtowns, it should be.  Walking inside you’re greeted by a bar that looks full of plenty of regulars and an impressive beer selection (10+ on draft, 15+ bottles).  Just walk around the corner and you’ll enter a hallway that leads to the dinning area.  We sat down on a table that reminded me of one that would have been found in my grandparent’s old house.  The mood is incredibly down to earth and simple, and I really was enjoying it.

Yuengling on draft, always a plus

Sweet Potato Soup

Sitting down, I had already decided that I would be ordering the Deep Fried Taco, Lauren (my fiance’s sister) and her boyfriend Ted have been telling me about it for weeks prior.  But I was looking for something else to enjoy when I got there as an appetizer.  Lately I have been on a Sweet Potato kick; for years as a kid I refused to eat them, but I now crave them. So I opted for their Sweet Potato soup as a starter.  It was pretty much a bisque in terms of texture and consistency but actually had a good amount of spice behind it.  For anyone who loves Sweet Potatoes, you really wouldn’t be going wrong with this soup.  I wish I could have had tried more items on their menu such as their signature Hot Garlic Chicken Wings, but I was on a mission.

The Deep Fried Taco

More Deep Fried Taco

Now, when I originally imagined what a “Deep Fried Taco” could be, I had imagined just a regular ole’ soft taco lightly fried.  However, this taco destroyed any preconceived notions I could have had.  This thing was SERIOUSLY DEEP FRIED to a thick beer-battered crisp.  You could hold it (provided it had cooled down) and actually take a nice huge bit without it falling apart in your hands.  And inside was a delicious blend of cheese, lettuce, peppers, chicken (or beef/vegetable if you want) among other items that stayed juicy and delicious despite the incredibly fried exterior.  It was fabulous.

Looking back, over the many delicious meals I’ve had since February when I started this website, nothing has defined the term “Food Porn” better then Colden Inn’s Deep Fried Taco.  It was literally the size of the head and probably took a few years off my life due its fat content, but it was worth it.  For a moment, I contemplated eating more, but after finishing the full taco I realized I made the right call with sticking to just one.

The cool thing about the Colden Country Inn is that every day of the week they have something special going on.  Monday’s are Wing Night, Tuesday is Taco Tuesday and is the ONLY day you can get a Deep Fried Taco, Wednesday is Beef on Weck, Thursday has some seafood specials, and Friday is, of course, Fish Fry.  They even have special meals for the various holidays and I was told they have a fantastic Thanksgiving Meal.

If any of this seems even remotely enticing, please understand that I can’t really do this delicious meal justice.  It’s one of the best things I’ve eaten all year, in fact if I was going to make a “Best of 2009 List”, this would easily be in my top 5.  So if you ever find yourself near Colden (maybe on your way back after a full day of skiing) do yourself a favor and stop in at the Colden Country Inn.  The prices are incredibly reasonable, the tacos are delicious, and the atmosphere is casual and cool…a perfect combination for a great night.

• Buffalo Chophouse
• PF Chang’s
• Alton’s
• Colden Country Inn

We are also talking to a couple potential Buffalo Foodies, more on that later.

via CafeMom

In the meantime, we have a great new recipe from our resident Amateur chef Dougy Fresh and his recipe for some delicious Oreo Balls just in time for the holiday season.  Enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 regular sized pkg of oreos, crushed
1 (8oz.) pkg cream cheese, softened
1 pkg of white chocolate or regular chocolate

Directions:
-Use hand mixer and blend oreo and cream cheese together
-Roll into walnut size balls
-Chill for an hour
-Melt about 3/4 of whichever chocolate you wanna use (i do half the batch white, half regular chocolate)
-Stick toothpick in the oreo ball and dip into melted chocolate (or you can use your hands)
-Allow it to harden on wax paper (about 15 min)
-Chill again till your ready to serve

Source: http://www.kingscourtrestaurant.com/

I have been trying to find some new lunch locations lately; I think I have exhausted all of my options on Allen.  And the number of restaurants on Delaware that I haven’t tried is even starting to decrease slowly.  So when my co worker Matt and I tried to figure out a new restaurant to eat at (that wasn’t too exotic) I thought of King’s Court.

While I was driving into the City of Buffalo every , my recent move to Allentown, I would always pass by King’s Court and try to tell myself to “remember this place for lunch”.  I honestly have no real reason why I wanted to try it, I’ve only heard that its a great karaoke bar and I remember having a beer there once after a Thursday in the Square.  But maybe if you drive past something enough times it will just inevitably stick in your brain.

Walking inside I realized that I remembered very little about this place, the dining room (as seen above) totally surprised me by how nice it was.  The table settings, the filled water glasses, and our courteous and attentive server were all nice surprises.  As for the food options, I knew what to expect thanks to the internet, but the menu was very well priced.  You could easily get a lovely lunch for under 7 dollars and for Matt and myself the grand total (after tax) was just $18.  By far this is one of the cheapest lunches I’ve had in a while, at least one where I actually sat down and ate and didn’t order items by a number.

Matt ordered himself the cheeseburger and a basket of fries, both of which he thought were fantastic.  The burger was juicy and the fries were actually really good.

After looking over the menu, I decided to try out one of their Panini’s and ordered their Cobb Salad Panini (see above), which was basically Turkey, Bacon, Bleu Cheese, and Tomatoes.  While the ingredients were simple, the execution was great.  Instead of some pre-sliced deli meat turkey, these were some thick slices cut right off a whole cooked breast.  This may surprise some of you, but I really am not the biggest bacon fan and I was happy that they didn’t “over load” this sandwich with it.  The same could be said for the Tomato, except that I would have preferred maybe an extra slice or two.  The blue cheese had a strong presence, but I’m a big fan of that and when melted over meat and tomato, the sandwich really reaches an entirely new level of awesome.

As awesome as the Panini was, what really stole both Matt’s heart and mine was their home made Ribbon-style Potato Chips (see above).   I thought that type of food was reserved for the Erie County Fair.  They were fantastic and generously covered in salt and seasoning, I could have ordered and entire meal of just their chips.

I’ve driven by King’s Court over and over and never once thought it would have been a great lunch location, but I still am finding out there are still many surprises in Buffalo.  So if you work downtown and you’d like to try a new lunch location, I can now highly recommend King’s Court as a great little spot with really reasonable prices.