Chicken

I keep calling The Flying Chicken the Frying Chicken, mainly because that is the first thing I think of when I think of them. I got a massive biscuit with chicken fried steak, white gravy, and topped with a sunny side up egg. I had trouble finishing all of this, but it was so good!

Albany John got two pieces of dark meat with a biscuit and some collards. Man, those were some good collards.

The fry job on the chicken fried steak and chicken were great – crisp exterior with lots of crunch, and moist meat underneath. Yes. Albany John loves the Flying Chicken. He’s eaten there a whole bunch in the past month, and his only regret from his first meal there was that “All other lunches have not been at the Flying Chicken,”. It’s a casual place where you order and pay at the counter, then bus your own table.

Oh, and this is also the beginning of my camera dying – I thought the blurriness was just smudging I didn’t notice, but guess what? The pictures get blurrier/smudgier and it turns out my outer lens started dying, so now I need to find a new camera, yay.

Taiwan Noodle – Winter Steamed Rice Dishes!

November 30, 2012

Chicken, Chinese, dumplings, frugal, local, recommendations, restaurant, review, soup, veggies

4 Comments

Met up with one of my good ol’ Albany friends, her son, and her beau, Farmer Jon, for dinner at Taiwan Noodle recently. ‘Scuse the yellow-y and/or out of focus pictures. My white balance was slacking during this meal, and I don’t get to see my girly all that often so I was more focused on her.

We chose Taiwan Noodle because it was a good middle meeting point for us, and because they have seriously cheap eats. And we like to eat. Scallion pancakes to start!

Ground pork noodle soup for my friend & her kiddo.

Stuffed pork steamed buns. I think we also got some Xiao Long Baos as well.

I can’t not order the pork foot noodle soup. Or some iteration of pork trotter when I’m at Taiwan Noodle. So tender! Farmer Jon said he’s seen where pigs walk, and he’d rather not nibble on that, tyvm. Lol, love that Farmer Jon.

Oh, more snacks! Spicy chicken wings. These had a good amount of kick but weren’t overwhelming. It was a dry-spice heat, not saucy. Reminded me of togarashi spice like you can put on Japanese ramen soups.

And some wood ear & celery in the background. Albany John can’t get enough of these. I think he orders these every time we go to Taiwan Noodle. He likes how soft and tender they make them.

I am bummed this came out so yellow & blurry! Okay, so Taiwan Noodle now has steamed rice in bamboo baskets for the winter months. They’re all $7.95, and they are GIGANTIC! Albany John got a pork & black bean steamer above. I don’t know why I was surprised by the size, since at $7.95 they are the most expensive dish on the menu, but seriously… it’s enormous. It’s an entire large bamboo steamer – like 9-10″ in diameter, and filled with rice and pork. They come with a dark soy sauce on the side.

Farmer Jon got chicken & lop cheong (chinese sausage). He wasn’t too crazy about the chicken having bones in it (it’s rustically chopped and hacked pieces of chicken on the bone), but thought the flavors weren’t too shabby at all.

One of the best things is that an extra lop cheong is just $1, so you can add it to any of the steamed rice dishes. Yeesssssss.

Easter

April 10, 2012

beef, Chicken, cooking, fried, holiday, potatoes

2 Comments

ShopRite had beef rib roasts on sale for Easter – $4.88/lb with the card (so this 5+ lb roast was <$30)! I got a bunch of groceries delivered to my door using their Shop at Home program, oh man do I love it. I'd ordered a 3 lb roast, but got a 5.5 pounder, so I decided to volunteer it for Easter dinner. And dry roast it. (Thanks for the advice, tweeps!)
Rib roast pre-fridge. I came into ownership of a small humidity controlled wine fridge. I’ve mostly got it stocked with lychee juice & coconut water, so I used the bottom half of it to dry out the roast. Yay, no funky flavors getting picked up! It sat for about 1.5 days before…
Salting. The exterior was dry, so I had to use a touch of oil to coat it was kosher salt. Then I tried using the prime rib recipe from Serious Eats. Low and slow for a few hours until it reaches 120F, rest, then blast at 500F for 15 minutes.

I got it to about 115/120 on my non-instant thermometer. Wrapped it up, then headed to my Mom’s for Easter.
We blasted it in her oven. The exterior looks mighty nice.
BUT EPIC FAIL. IT’S A MEDIUM-WELL (at best) ROASTED BEAST. :< Not the medium rare I was shooting for. So much sadness. Le sigh.

So much room for error:
Too much resting time.
Too much time being blasted in the oven before carving.

Not using an instant thermometer
English heritage coming through for cooking meat

Slightly less grey in the center. Sigh. My Mom was way too nice and kept telling me I did a good job with it, and that it looked very good. Man, talk about a Mother’s love, hunh? The only good aspect of this roast were the crispy bits of fat on the outside. You can never go wrong with crispy fat.

Interestingly enough, most of my mom’s guests were Hindi or vegan/vegetarian, so not too many people other than Albany John & my mom had to suffer through the roast. Although some griping about the grossness of meat was had. And I got to eat some awesome tandoori chicken & egg masala curry. It was a ridiculous amount of food for our group, and so tasty.

My mom made super fluffy mashed potatoes, and some tasty fried chicken wings. Nom! For dessert she made lemon meringue pie – reminded me of what Nana would have made.

Wine & Cheese Dinner with the Cheese Traveler

April 9, 2012

bar, beverage, bloggers, cheese, Chicken, fried, local, review

The Dark Dinner

March 20, 2012

beverage, Chicken, dessert, fried, local, media, night life, pasta, restaurant, review, seafood

5 Comments

Last week I was invited as a guest of the Wishing Well Restaurant in Saratoga Springs along with some of their other close friends to try a new dining concept – The Dark Dinner. Guests gathered ’round for beverages (including a great Cava + St Germain) and passed nibbles before donning blindfolds and eating entirely in the dark. Executive Chef Patrick Longton created a fun menu for adventurous guests to enjoy.

The music for the evening was also curated by Burners UK frontman Jay Yager (you can check it out here on itunes).

Pork belly wrapped kimchi was a great little snack to enjoy pre-blindfolding.

And the ceviche was also a stand out dish. Fresh, great textures. It was almost as good as their luxe & buttery pate. Oh man, was that ever good. I think I had about three of them before realizing I still had a multi-course menu ahead of me.

After this, the waiters led each diner into the sectioned off dining room. It was lit with a few candles, but you had to wear your mask in. It was definitely an exercise in trust to put your hand in someone’s arm and have them guide you around a room. The staff doing so were very patient, though (and didn’t mind my occasional peeking from under the mask en route to the chair).

Bob Lee, the owner of the Wishing Well, and his staff made sure each and every guest was comfortable and addressed everyone by name.

Cheese filled puff pastry breadsticks were a fun starter in the dark. Inside the cups were mustard.
Nomtacular first course – Lobster, corn, & basil risotto on the left, and crispy lobster tempura on the right. It’s really interesting to be without your vision when trying a dish. I thought the tempura was shrimp, and the risotto was something with scallops in it. I might have to rethink my stance on risotto, because I finished all of this.

There were drink pairings with each dish. If you think trying to identify food without vision is tough, try identifying drinks!

A 2010 Tramin Chardonnay was served with the risotto, and Ichishima Silk Deluxe Junmai was served with the tempura. I’m normally not a sake person, but the Ichishima was quite smooth, sweet, and creamy.
The second dish was chicken galantine and linguine with pesto. The chicken was moist, and I found myself enjoying the red pepper flavor (which I usually really dislike). I thought the tomato was more of a grape, though!
Drink pairings were Cap de Faugeres 2004 & Bastianich Friuliano 2010
Lamb slider! One of the biggest “complaints” people had was that there was only one slider on their plate. Seriously, that good. Meaty and lamby – this was a comforting treat. I don’t think my slider had the decorative rosemary sprig. Either that, or I am really not paying attention to what I eat when meat is present. It was so good, I’ve decided that I need to make the trek back to Saratoga Springs with Albany John to try out some dishes at the Wishing Well in the near future.
An Ique Malbec was served as a wine pairing with the slider – robust and big!
Israelei couscous was a cold side dish with this, which was a bit clumpy, but tart and a nice foil to the lamb burger.
Blue Heron Pale Ale was the accompanying beverage with the salad. When everyone was trying it, we all knew it was beer, but what kind? Even the beer enthusiasts were having trouble trying to find the *exact* beer it was. If you can’t tell, these dinners are quite open to conversation with your table mates. You can also blissfully opt out of conversations if you’re the introverted type, because no one can see you or attempt to chat you up. But really, I’d suggest chatting – it’s fun trying to guess what exactly is going in your mouth.

Palate refresher! Peach bellini sorbet, which we weren’t allowed to eat until… Zardetto Proseco di Conegliano was poured atop. I loved this – not only was it a nice change of pace, but when you leaned in you could hear the bubbles fizzing with the sorbet.
The main was a mini beef tenderloin with a cheese potato croquette, and baby spinach timbale. A timbale! That would explain the light flavor & texture! This one was a real stumper – it was custardy soft, so I was thinking it was a mini crust-less quiche, or something eggy. I wasn’t imagining something so green!
The beef wellington was quite savory, thanks to the generous amount of Hudson Valley Foie Gras. I thought it was boar tempura! Haha. Boy was I off on that one!
And that potato croquette? Oh man, so good – very full of deliciously funky cheese.
I was totally digging the 2008 Hall Cabernet that was paired with this dish. It wasn’t so bold, and I thought it was similar to a lot of the gentle qualities that tempranillos have.
Dessert! These were four different kinds of truffles – chocolate & hazelnut, bacon & brown sugar, white chocolate & peanut butter, and POPROCKS!

I was in love with pretty much all of them. The Bottex Bugey Cerdon “La Cueille” was a wine like a hug, and a great way to end a fun meal.

Beverage pairing remnants. Each pairing was a treat, and really complemented the dishes they were paired with. I am definitely going to try some more sakes after this event, and am thinking some blindfolded drink tastings might be a thing in my future.

This was the first Dark Dinner evening, and I certainly hope it won’t be their last.

Photos kindly provided courtesy of the Wishing Well & Toque Consulting.

Last little bit of me dragging out my vacation

February 20, 2012

Chicken, fried, recipe, recommendations, restaurant, review, salad, travel

3 Comments

Ok, this is the last of the dead horse that is my vacation to Mississippi that you will read about. Albany John introduced my nephew to flying dics. The kid took to a liking to it quickly enough, but between you and me his aim is pretty weak.
My sis-in-law Margarita showed me how to make flour tortillas from a recipe she got from her grandmother. I miss cooking with her so much! This recipe was so simple, but makes delicious flour tortillas.
Knead dough.
Roll out.
Cut.
Roll into circles, then lightly rub with oil & let sit for 20 minutes.
Margarita says her grandmother’s generation really prides themselves on being able to make a flat and perfectly round tortilla by hand – we made our by pressing them on plates. Some of them came kind of close to being circular.
Cast iron pan + bubbles!
Flip. Nom. So delicious. I’ve made these a few times since coming back, and they don’t taste as good. :/ I need her guidance.
Albany John made beef stew. Mmm.
The next morning bro & Albany John found a discgolf location nearby called The Rez. Really nice layout.
And then we went for lunch at Two Sisters Kitchen in Jackson, MS. I’ve been lusting over this spot since my last visit two years ago and was psyched to finally make it. Southern home cooking on a small buffet.
This is a crappy picture, but it’s a lunch buffet for $12.50 per person (kids under 5 for free). Bro thought it was kind of high for the area, but being a New Yawkah I thought it was a steal. Plus this is the south, and there are some BIG appetites.
Fried chicken, fried okra & zucchini, cabbage, and collards. The collards might have been my only veggie while dining out – they were fabulously porky and salty.

I’ve not been into carbs lately, but I couldn’t get enough of these biscuits – cornbread on the left, and angel biscuit on the right. Cornbread was like polenta – so moist and crunchy on the outside. The angel biscuit, true to its name, was heavenly soft (and buttery).
Albany John loved their veggies as well.
For round two I had to have the chicken fried steak in gravy. And more collards and biscuits. So good! And while we made it for the last 30 minutes of service, they couldn’t have been more welcoming. Freshly fried chicken was coming out within the last 15 minutes of service.

Dessert is ordered at the table. Albany John got apple pie (way better than any I’ve had up north) and I got bread pudding with bourbon sauce.

That was my last meal in Mississippi – we went to the airport a little bit later. Sad to go, but so many more places to eat when we return.

Chili from Potbelly at Chicago airport.
And a vegetarian salad with loads of chickpeas. Mmmm.

New Orleans – Night

February 9, 2012

bar, beverage, Chicken, new food, New Orleans, restaurant, review, seafood, travel

2 Comments

Our trip to New Orleans began with fast food take out. Look, I know. But waffle fries. C’mon!
Grilled chicken & waffle fries! Nom. New Orleans is only 3.5-4 hours from Jackson, MS. Not bad for an overnight trip. It’s like going to NYC from Albany, only with a slightly more debaucherous air.
I met up with my Brother-In-Law (in-law?), my sis-in-law Maka’s brother. He lives in New Orleans and picked us up from our hotel in the French Quarter to grab dinner at the High Hat, a fairly new restaurant. One of the benefits of tourism is having people drive you to awesome places.
The high hat had a retro feel inside – lots of wood.
Dinner menu was short and sweet, with a few specials on the menu board. The most expensive thing tops out at $14, so you won’t break the bank here.
Specialty cocktail of the night – Albany John got one. Good stuff. I stole a sip. I can’t remember what it was. My bad!
I got the two cat fish dinner. $13.50 for two whole catfish. So good! And a TON of food for one person, but somehow I managed, hehe. Coleslaw as a side, and greens as another side. Greens were nice – zippy collards.

Albany John got an oyster po’boy with okra and tomatoes as his side. Man loves him some okra. I still think it’s pretty slimy stuff, but he really enjoyed this preparation. I really enjoyed the fried oysters. Mmm.

Afterward, my awesome bro-in-law^2 gave us a tour of the area at night – local colleges, and all that good stuff. It was interesting to see how some blocks would start off looking all fancy-dancy, but have a middle section that was run down.

After that, it was time for SECOND DINNER! Bwa ha! We waited in line at Felix’s for some oysters for a short spell.

Bro & Margarita got a Jester – some kind of specialty frozen drink. There were billboards on the drive in touting it as the strongest drink in New Orleans. I stole a sip – reminded me of alcoholic Ecto-Cooler Hi-C.

I was intrigued by these nearly open air bars. You can walk around New Orleans with alcoholic drinks. It’s kind of like Albany on a parade day, but with less rioting.

Albany John held our place in line, and it had scootched up for us to get a neat view of an empty grenade cup.

Oyster shucking!
Menu!
Once we were seated, we ordered quickly – Albany John and Margarita weren’t feeling savory, so they split a brick of bread pudding. Don’t put this on your bucket list. Interestingly spongy.
Bro & I were ALL ABOUT the oysters. We got a dozen char broiled. Holy moly! Order these, they’re awesome! $16 for a dozen deliciously briny oysters slathered in butter with some Romano or Parmesan tossed on top.

If you’re in New Orleans – get these, get these, GET THESE. The oysters themselves were lightly cooked, and oh man. So good. Charred and reminiscent of grilled beef – very meaty and savory things, these. Even Margarita liked them, and she doesn’t really care for oysters.

And a dozen raw! Their horseradish is on the table, and it’s got quite an addictive kick. So fresh, and not as pungent as oysters north of the Mason-Dixon line. Southern oysters grow quickly because of the warm waters, but don’t develop as much flavor. If you’re not a fan of Oysters in NY because of their pungency, give these a try. Same great texture, and a lighter flavor profile.

These all had bits of shell in it, though. Mildly annoying, but easy enough to spit out. No issues with shells in the char broiled variety.

It’s drinkin’ time! Felix’s is located right in the French Quarter, so there’s nightlife all over. These cherry bomb shots were $1. Good lord, I think they were made with a combination of tequila, everclear, and rubbing alcohol. Po-tent! Phew!
Here’s a place called the Rat’s Hole. So, story time:
In high school, my boyfriend’s parents liked going to New Orleans. They’d tell me about this place called the Rat’s Hole that was a fun little shop with Rat-themed shirts and souvenirs. They’d stop by when they visited for souvenirs. This is they story they told me.

Yes, they sold some shirts, but they also sold a whole lot of adult beads, and cheap ass drinks. It was neat to see it IRL-sies, and then be like, WAIT A MINUTE. They were out partying!

As it turns out, New Orleans is kind of a mecca for partiers and drinkers of all ages. We were probably on the younger side of the age spectrum, with a majority of people out and about in their late thirties through mid fifties.

Here’s a picture I snagged of their rat-related drink cups.

This was Miss Allison or Alice… something like that. She was directing traffic outside of two gay bars. And actually doing quite a good job of making sure traffic wasn’t completely impeded by pedestrians, and vice-versa.

We stopped in one of the bars for some people watching from the balconies – good spot to people watch from above.
Then We stopped in for a drink at the Tropical Isle.
Grenades! Albany John got a skinny grenade. Blech. Really artifical tasting. These came with ice or without. Wow, without is one potent drink I’d imagine. I went with ice.
I liked this old signage. Very cute. And hey, you can just barely make out our four shadows. We ended up hanging out/dancing in a clubby little bar called Voo Doo something or other. It was on Bourbon Street, but many of these clubs/bars are pretty darned similar – you can walk in with drinks, buy cheap ones there ($3 shots! Although Bro managed to find a beer for $6.50), and just dance around to whatever they have playing. There are… I wanna call ‘em “hosts” in these clubs. Basically just a guy on stage that sings along into a mic occasionally with whatever song is playing, and act as host/DJ to keep the crowds interested and lively. The songs are on loop after a while.

I liked this smaller bar over a larger one we went to. At the larger bar the crowd was a little rowdier – one guy walked up and knocked Albany John’s drink all over me for no reason on his way out. Thanks, buddy. This smaller one had a little more character and a whole lot of people watching crammed in. Having one or 17 drinks too many is definitely nothing out of the ordinary in New Orleans.

It was quite a fun night out. We had to leave the day of the first parade, so we missed what I’m guessing would be some really wild nightlife, but still – great time overall. I’m not a big club/nightlife kind of gal on most occasions, but in general, the people were all generally happy dispositions. Your hotel might cost you an arm and a leg in the French Quarter, but you’ll break even on the cheapo nighlife and noshes.

Troy Wings

January 19, 2012

bar, Chicken, fried, local, recommendations, review

5 Comments

Troy Wing tour! Wednesdays are $0.40 wing nights at the Ruck, which means if you drag your husbear & eating partner in crime there, you can split a 10 set of wings for $4!

One order fo BBQ hot for us, thanks! Unlike the last time I dragged Daniel B. there, our order didn’t sit on the counter cooling and getting soggy. I must have looked cute or something, because the guy working the line actually came out from behind the counter and searched for me around the bar.

This kind of service happens occasionally, but not usually on busy nights. You should expect to have your name shouted once and then go up to the line to pick up your food yourself. I’ve had folks bring my my food before, but it’s usually when it’s not very busy.

Oh, I also had a tasty beer – I think it was Bombardier? I used my time-honored method of choosing a cool-looking tap. It works more often than you’d thing.

After polishing off wings at The Ruck, we made our exit just before they started playing live music. Sorry, I’ll never be much of a live music or concert kind of gal.

We headed to The Ale House for the next stop on our mini tour of Troy wings.$7.99 for 10. It’s been a while since I’ve been out at night, and the Ale House is a place I’ve been meaning to hang out. It’s pretty much everything I want in a bar. Low lighting but not too dark, $5 beers from the tap, and low/no music so you can actually talk with people next to you without shouting.

The exteriors were very crispy. Nom. There wasn’t much sauce on the wings, and not much buffalo flavor going on. But really, as long as the wings are crispy, that’s all I really care about.
And in yet another probably not-so-healthy lifestyle choice, we also ordered a large basket of fries ($3) with sides of gravy made in-house. Turkey and beef. The beef is AWESOME. The turkey is too, but the beef is so savory and tasty. $0.50 per cup. They were a lot bigger cups the last time I went. Sign of the inflated times. To be fair, prob shouldn’t be guzzling much more gravy than this with deep fried potatoes.

I also was a lush and had two whole pints of woodchuck cider – it was SO good and refreshing. These were some really clean taps.

Cardona’s hot bar

January 13, 2012

Chicken, local, markets, pasta, recommendations, review, seafood

4 Comments

Mmm, I love Cardona’s hot bar. It’s like $7/lb, and this big tray of food was ~3/4 lb. Shrimp and tortellini with alfredo sauce (not for dieters, but so, so worth it!).
The broccoli rabe was surprisingly bitter. I wouldn’t have wanted to eat much more of it, but it was a nice foil to the uber-rich and fatty tortellini. The shrimp wasn’t overcooked or anything!
Albany John got seafood marinara with some grilled chicken. I was kinda skeptical about how the scallops would be on a hot bar, but they were just perfect – juicy, not at all rubbery or overcooked.

—Albany Eats!

Documenting the foodings of a local. With a grain of salt.

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