tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92151642244036460842024-03-20T05:09:50.278-07:00Pittsburgh Food ScenePittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-22186979749613223062012-09-30T10:15:00.001-07:002012-09-30T10:15:38.749-07:00Costa Rica Day 1 (San Jose)My plane landed in San Jose Costa Rica just before noon. I went through customs and got my luggage without too much hassle surprisingly. However, once I stepped outside I was hounded by taxi drivers asking me to go with them. I've seen aggressive people before, but these men and women are aggressive and tenacious to the point that I just wanted to really push them out of the way. Natalia, who was my couch surfing host in San Jose, suggested to take the bus and get off at the last stop at San Jose. I trusted her of course, and I eventually found the bus. On the bus I met an American guy by the name of Jacob. We chatted it up on the entire bus ride. He was there for half vacation and half business. He works for Whole Foods, which is pretty awesome and was there to look at potential produce for the supermarket. Then this where the conversation starts going crazy. I asked him if he was into couch surfing. He said he was totally into it, but unfortunately he could not find a host due to him doing last minute couch requests. I mentioned I was staying with a girl named Natalia, and his eyes lit up. He mentioned that he remembers asking a girl with that name if he could stay with her for a few nights, but she declined him because she already had a guest which was me. Jacob shows me her profile on his phone, and lo and behold that was Natalia. Jacob and I were both freaked out at just what transpired, but in a positive way. Also Jacob happened to be on my flight to San Jose. What are the odds of meeting a random person on the bus who happened to be on the same flight as you and also knows your couch surfing host? These kind of things rarely happen, and I'm sure this won't happen a whole lot in the future or even at all. Jacob and I parted ways when the bus made its final stop. I got his number in case Natalia changes her mind.<br />
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I had some hours to kill before meeting Natalia at Parque Central. Just walking around San Jose for the first five minutes, I realized why people don't come here to sight see. Downtown was relatively dirty, and there were many American stores and restaurants. I don't have problems with that, but it was pretty much overkill in San Jose. In fact I had a bad feeling about San Jose when the bus passed a Denny's five minutes into the ride. It felt like the city lacked culture and authenticity. I'm a hopeful person, and I hope Natalia would show me the awesome parts of San Jose. I did stop for some lunch at what I thought was a local fast food joint called Pollo Campero. I had two pieces of chicken, which pretty much tasted like KFC's extra crispy chicken. Nothing to write home about, but not terrible at all. I later found out though that Pollo Campero is actually global and there are some restaurants in Texas. In fact it was not even started in Costa Rica. That was so epic fail on my part. Don't worry, I made it up eventually. Here is the picture of the chicken I ate. The whole restaurant also seems eerily similar to Los Pollos Hermanos from the show Breaking Bad. I wonder if the creator of Breaking Bad was inspired by Pollo Campero. </div>
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I walked around a couple hours more. Nothing really too exciting other than seeing people dressed up in cool costumes for a show(I assume for their independence day festivities) at the park. Natalia met up with me at Parque Central, we hopped on a bus to her her apartment outside of downtown San Jose. We definitely got along from the get-go. It also helps that she is pretty passionate about food and was relieved that she was not a vegetarian. We made it to her apartment, which is a two story townhouse. She gave me a brief tour of her pad and told me about how to use the bathroom the Costa Rican way. Apparently in Costa Rica, you have to throw the toilet paper in the trash as opposed in the toilet. The reason being is that the pipes in Central America have much lower pressure, and that toilet paper clogs up the pipes easily. As any American I was first disgusted by the fact that I would have to put toilet paper in the trash. However, I was in a different world and I have to tolerate this for a week. After a day though, I got used to it.</div>
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I told Natalia about Jacob, and we decided to give him a call to see if he was still interested in staying with her. He called back and was down with it. Before we picked him up, Natalia and I checked out the Independence Day parade near her house. It was basically kids holding up homemade lanterns. My favorite lantern was the one with ox and the cart. There is of course a history to this. Here is the link for more explanation; <a href="http://www.fijatevos.com/latest-articles/getting-along/969-costa-rica-independence-day-traditions.html" target="_blank">Costa Rica Independence Day Traditions</a>. What I also liked about this parade is looking at the happy faces from everyone. You could clearly tell that they have so much pride in their country.</div>
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After the parade, we went to Walmart which I was surprised that Costa Rica even has one. I'm not a huge fan of the store because of their business practices, but I couldn't help but be a little intrigued by it to be honest. The weirdest part about Walmart was that in order to even park at the parking lot, you have to pass through a security checkpoint. Even in the United States, there aren't even any security checkpoints at Walmarts in shady areas. It does make sense since from what I hear crime is an issue in San Jose, but I think it's a little overkill. Inside Walmart, it was quite bright because it had yellow walls and surprisingly a fun place to shop. I love that many of the meat and fish in the store are local, and I got an opportunity to take a picture of Chocolate Frosted Flakes in Spanish. Also another good thing about this Walmart was that no customer was a candidate for the <a href="http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/" target="_blank">People of Walmart</a> website. I go on that website every so often, and I just shake my head sometimes of the people that go there.</div>
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After we left Walmart, we went to fill up Natalia's car with gas. The gas stations are full service which I find interesting. If I lived in Costa Rica, I don't think I would ever get used to the idea of full service gas stations. I trust the people that fill up my car, but I like to do it myself mainly because I'm used to it. </div>
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We picked up Jacob at the hostel he was staying at, and we all decided to go to one of the college bars in the city. We ended up going to a bar that had the name Buffalo. I can't remember the full name of it. Anything that has the word buffalo has to be good. Basically we just hung out, had some awesome nachos which I should have taken a picture of, and had my first Imperial beer, which I will discuss in more detail in a future post. Below is the slideshow from my first day at Costa Rica.</div>
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<embed flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F112838163165451984633%2Falbumid%2F5789127865314603025%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US" height="192" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="288"></embed>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-73106091844317182932012-09-27T05:20:00.001-07:002012-09-27T05:20:48.674-07:00Costa Rica Day 1(Flying)A couple months ago, I was trying to figure out where I wanted to go on vacation. For one, I knew I didn't want to go somewhere within the United States or Canada. Two, it had to be somewhat cheap. First I thought about going to South America, but the flights were a little pricey. I looked at Central America next, and there were a lot of good countries to choose from but I settled with Costa Rica. I chose Costa Rica because it was a beautiful country(minus San Jose as you will know why), stable, and flight round trip was only 400 dollars.<br />
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On Sept 14th I flew out of Pittsburgh early in the morning on my way to Houston for a brief layover. I was actually pretty excited about this flight because I've never been to Texas and was kind of dying to see what it's like despite only seeing it from the plane and just being in the airport. Fortunately, the person sitting next to me on my flight is originally from Texas, and we had a good solid conversation about Texas and other things. As we got closer to the airport, I looked out the window, and I saw Texas. It was pretty much what I expected in the Houston area; flat with a lot of trees. Now I can cross Texas off my bucket list of states I've been to. </div>
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We landed at the airport, and it was fairly unmemorable. I think mainly because I wasn't able to step on Texas ground. That would be an important moment in my life. One minor highlight though was seeing people drinking at the bar at 8:00 AM. They are definitely off to a good start for the day.</div>
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I boarded my flight to San Jose, and the flight wasn't too exciting other than hitting turbulence for a few minutes as the plane got closer to San Jose. The plane provided us breakfast, and I would rank it as the worst food I've ever ate and believe it or not I do enjoy airplane food because of the novelty of it mainly. The meal consisted of a pita sandwich with eggs and cheese, cup of fruit, and a muffin. The cup of fruit wasn't too bad, but the sandwich was horrible. It was pre-packaged, and it lacked any sort of flavor even when I put the hot sauce on it. With pita bread, eggs, and cheese, it should be fool proof even it wasn't fresh. It was just bland overall and I didn't even bother eating the muffin.</div>
Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-48158540633418347122012-09-03T10:51:00.001-07:002012-09-03T10:51:20.493-07:00Little Bangkok at the Strip District and a small story about Paula Deen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yesterday I went to the Strip District to pick up some ingredients for a Korean dish I want to make this week. Before I went to Lotus grocery store, I decided to head down to <a href="http://littlebangkokinthestrip.com/" target="_blank">Little Bangkok</a> for some lunch. I had been there before earlier this year, and I thought it was pretty good. When I walked in around 1:30 PM, S, the waiter, seated me and I noticed that restaurant was entirely empty. This doesn't bode well, and there were many people at the Strip yesterday. S told me that this happens occasionally, but nothing to be alarmed about. Eventually my fears were alleviated because a whole bunch of people came in at the same time fifteen minutes later after I arrived. I was thinking that I was a trendsetter but probably not. I'm just a dude that reviews restaurants. Before the throngs of people came in, S and I had a pretty good conversation. He did tell me a story about his experiences as a waiter in a Thai restaurant in Savannah, Georgia. When he mentioned Savannah, I had to ask this million dollar question; Has the Deen family ever been at that restaurant? S said that he actually was their waiter a few times. He mentioned that Jamie Deen's family were pretty nice. He also mentioned that Paula Deen had trouble deciding what to get at the restaurant. S said that she did not know a whole lot about Thai food which is okay because Southern cuisine is her specialty. If Paula Deen says she knows a lot about Thai food on TV, she's lying. Anyways let's talk about the Thai food at Little Bangkok.<br />
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For the first starter, I got the vegetable soup that is included with the lunch special. It had vegetable broth with small cuts of tofu, scallions, and two big pieces carrots. It didn't have a lot of heat to it but it didn't need to because the soup was good overall. The soup hit the spot and was to the point.<br />
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For the appetizer I got 3 crab wontons and 3 fishcakes with pineapple chili sauce. The wontons contain crab meat, cilantro, cream cheese, green onion and cilantro. It was one of the better crab wontons I've had. It actually contained real crab meat, which is key. The wontons were creamy without being too rich. From looking at the fishcakes, they were fried but not too friend. I enjoyed the taste and texture of the cakes. They mash the fish and combine it with Thai herbs, string beans, and shredded lime leaf. When you dip the wontons and fishcakes to the chili sauce, you can definitely taste the sweetness of pineapple but also get that spicy kick at end after each bite.<br />
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For the main event I got the Drunken Noodles with basil sauce, vegetables, eggs, and tofu. I enjoyed this immensely because of the wide noodles and especially the fried tofu. I was worried that the tofu wasn't going to be fried but I'm glad they fried them. The skin was fairly crunchy with lots of flavor from the basil sauce. The vegetables aren't anything too special but they helped give the dish color and were cooked pretty well. For the spicy scale, I chose an eight which was appropriate for me. The last time I was here, I ordered a ten. When they say a ten, they really mean a ten.</div>
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All in all I enjoyed my experience at Little Bangkok. You can't go wrong with authentic Thai food and a Paula Deen story.</div>
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<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/1634523/restaurant/Strip-District/Little-Bangkok-in-the-Strip-Pittsburgh"><img alt="Little Bangkok in the Strip on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1634523/biglink.gif" style="border: none; height: 146px; padding: 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-5929003246849744182012-08-28T05:07:00.000-07:002012-08-28T05:07:15.928-07:00Warrior Dash and Turkey LegsThis past Sunday I participated in the <a href="http://www.warriordash.com/" target="_blank">Warrior Dash</a> in Ohio near the town of Canton. In case you don't know what the Warrior Dash, it's a 5K obstacle course race where you have to go through several obstacles such as for example crawling through mud, climbing walls, and trudging through water waste deep. I initially had some concerns about it because some people said it wasn't too bad, and others said it was really rough for them. Once our heat started, adrenaline started to take over and just went with it. I almost did all the obstacles successfully except the swimming obstacles because I'm not a good swimmer. I finished the race with the time of 48:24:55. It wasn't too bad considering I didn't train too much for it. The whole point of the race is really to have fun and enjoy it with your friends. Below are pictures and videos.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC-qD06_U5ELllcu2oyr3A2F6s5a18Z0mLLhu9WYkIOkCBF1fWnIqMKUIEKK9V7PhPpo_ZbrscAHvCoJrAeakPE9ohtUq8q2BL29KgCr_vIB9DXe4xldEyPq7Bis-aO5eXl1rKPEuqd0t3/s1600/191725_10100888435749573_1469573632_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC-qD06_U5ELllcu2oyr3A2F6s5a18Z0mLLhu9WYkIOkCBF1fWnIqMKUIEKK9V7PhPpo_ZbrscAHvCoJrAeakPE9ohtUq8q2BL29KgCr_vIB9DXe4xldEyPq7Bis-aO5eXl1rKPEuqd0t3/s320/191725_10100888435749573_1469573632_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Awesome medal I got just for finishing the race</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3qZPy34v5RFu66xwKqaoGJKoUvICUPbCk-fqB0zciMzQ3SqnJ1l_sdyFZ6MItVsq_AgQ2A-6IiHFn7BE5vWTSv7mq84edNuCUBLKmibrsnnaD9E36AVKBT7uimu20OB79VbLrCW8EAH_x/s1600/339497_4381282260292_1041721937_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3qZPy34v5RFu66xwKqaoGJKoUvICUPbCk-fqB0zciMzQ3SqnJ1l_sdyFZ6MItVsq_AgQ2A-6IiHFn7BE5vWTSv7mq84edNuCUBLKmibrsnnaD9E36AVKBT7uimu20OB79VbLrCW8EAH_x/s320/339497_4381282260292_1041721937_o.jpg" width="193" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My two friends and I muddy.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyqAhIldtHUMHm9841oM8tZv-_Sw2R2CSwm9rBFCQMCiTHYxqCeVjd1n5iDcLEEth9mpfK-M4XvOTmA2o86VgxQ8voeFqeDs3Iaht-an3Z_fE9KTN-Xha884yhhRAWrNwqfqdXo5NbrGyQ/s1600/IMAG1146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyqAhIldtHUMHm9841oM8tZv-_Sw2R2CSwm9rBFCQMCiTHYxqCeVjd1n5iDcLEEth9mpfK-M4XvOTmA2o86VgxQ8voeFqeDs3Iaht-an3Z_fE9KTN-Xha884yhhRAWrNwqfqdXo5NbrGyQ/s320/IMAG1146.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Runners awaiting the results.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje2QwZLfEP-B8Y_F8wENxuuvAIKn-ScTO1CoQ60WKYrLugesIYc-B5MKnxnbRCrDAqUJC7tTWuOhKVIeYTgk0-Z_SC0NoY0LJrg6W8J356eNzzTs9X9iTsAXEoxqyPsUKQPaj0qNg_Y5kN/s1600/IMAG1147.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje2QwZLfEP-B8Y_F8wENxuuvAIKn-ScTO1CoQ60WKYrLugesIYc-B5MKnxnbRCrDAqUJC7tTWuOhKVIeYTgk0-Z_SC0NoY0LJrg6W8J356eNzzTs9X9iTsAXEoxqyPsUKQPaj0qNg_Y5kN/s320/IMAG1147.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Runners just hanging out</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgcDiYnE-o0m_zsTztXk8kT0DC9_OvZfGsKkbEDjEYWTpcj8kxj7toOzIcBR3Vvdh871ifdfNBB0jnai4CrtWNmtP3M_m9Q7WhbSx6OA2iRN3gB_VHkO7krN8270mIlkwjHvYDTjCvVCrE/s1600/IMAG1148.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgcDiYnE-o0m_zsTztXk8kT0DC9_OvZfGsKkbEDjEYWTpcj8kxj7toOzIcBR3Vvdh871ifdfNBB0jnai4CrtWNmtP3M_m9Q7WhbSx6OA2iRN3gB_VHkO7krN8270mIlkwjHvYDTjCvVCrE/s320/IMAG1148.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My results. I actually finished below 50 minutes, which was more than<br />
I could ask for.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrITBtmIieyZR7g8Lac7xCHC7RYhHw9YqClPOiE1NUJVO637JSJz1J4Z7sw2_U5kOff2XOIvWywTIXhh5A-PlNjHTAXaoYX7qldAhOPdHxfYkbuxbrHBmg-nb5ohmFg0jq3Z7MbRVZG4Q0/s1600/IMAG1149.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrITBtmIieyZR7g8Lac7xCHC7RYhHw9YqClPOiE1NUJVO637JSJz1J4Z7sw2_U5kOff2XOIvWywTIXhh5A-PlNjHTAXaoYX7qldAhOPdHxfYkbuxbrHBmg-nb5ohmFg0jq3Z7MbRVZG4Q0/s320/IMAG1149.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Awaiting for the dreaded shower</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKAV_TezJuynk8DmEp8mPXMV1s_28SGLoUWFYKswpOnGvsvf48QGEB5_oFtOS-LHDWO_tH6-8Xa9jWBtnfb4U8GA-LDM3n8m1AAU-lpLbO2hsRzOVtwGDi57EIoicvbGvUOlVmPEmKPx6H/s1600/IMAG1150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKAV_TezJuynk8DmEp8mPXMV1s_28SGLoUWFYKswpOnGvsvf48QGEB5_oFtOS-LHDWO_tH6-8Xa9jWBtnfb4U8GA-LDM3n8m1AAU-lpLbO2hsRzOVtwGDi57EIoicvbGvUOlVmPEmKPx6H/s320/IMAG1150.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Almost to the shower. It was mighty cold</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfJKnWbxgvpS1LWrXFgmlZYAATTWn93stQBtDL-syKIFP4OdXbb579iQHl4R0dkSM1M7nCqPak7vAvbNqtsNCQBkdgQLQMzR0LA9k-mc6tSMexjeYJTaqEZXpurZ61FNgwAP6_o3zScDg1/s1600/IMAG1151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfJKnWbxgvpS1LWrXFgmlZYAATTWn93stQBtDL-syKIFP4OdXbb579iQHl4R0dkSM1M7nCqPak7vAvbNqtsNCQBkdgQLQMzR0LA9k-mc6tSMexjeYJTaqEZXpurZ61FNgwAP6_o3zScDg1/s320/IMAG1151.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caterers with the turkey legs</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ZDcz1PebgMnVCsAnbK3wlIn_cZDhidJCgKh8Nk6paIFAgOFLjZ0vTfBWbjlJkXnrC2078v5nOe0ggsIAaeayZnCkMZ1U4jXPvVQSi6vCIvegDZwYgOrmuNgbe43DdKMz4Walt0IlInAN/s1600/IMAG1153.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ZDcz1PebgMnVCsAnbK3wlIn_cZDhidJCgKh8Nk6paIFAgOFLjZ0vTfBWbjlJkXnrC2078v5nOe0ggsIAaeayZnCkMZ1U4jXPvVQSi6vCIvegDZwYgOrmuNgbe43DdKMz4Walt0IlInAN/s320/IMAG1153.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The turkey legs were massive. They were 1.5 pounds. It was good,<br />
but could not finish eating it. I really don't think they are supposed to be<br />
this big to be honest. I am pretty sure this isn't natural or organic.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjih8z0DzgvYkkBbUv1LUzs6LEjkqYC_6vUxa9r5EYWCyufDqWDpxJ_98SXb6iRAc4Ifs38VRZ0OQ7omcqsJABwn2GMYV9j7X63vPI3V40uRxO-wumNGHcPtsaXKxvb2wJrXbf0grflAyXr/s1600/IMAG1154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjih8z0DzgvYkkBbUv1LUzs6LEjkqYC_6vUxa9r5EYWCyufDqWDpxJ_98SXb6iRAc4Ifs38VRZ0OQ7omcqsJABwn2GMYV9j7X63vPI3V40uRxO-wumNGHcPtsaXKxvb2wJrXbf0grflAyXr/s320/IMAG1154.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A dude crawling through mud</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYfnARgJGtg65VmzmYw8x5S4cNgVKdQ1mFLWIF37gmE870EqfZjQ_oD4mU-V8gQapAid1u6oSkUG1fcUocqibCOBMlpHsaB-Nb6q9JhR4Ro0poxsvVk48szHaOAEVvkx1BHHZ4Drk-C0EG/s1600/IMAG1155.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYfnARgJGtg65VmzmYw8x5S4cNgVKdQ1mFLWIF37gmE870EqfZjQ_oD4mU-V8gQapAid1u6oSkUG1fcUocqibCOBMlpHsaB-Nb6q9JhR4Ro0poxsvVk48szHaOAEVvkx1BHHZ4Drk-C0EG/s320/IMAG1155.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I donated my muddy sneakers. I'm such a nice guy, well most of the time.</td></tr>
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<br />Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-53770239999416108202012-08-19T13:39:00.003-07:002012-08-19T13:40:13.576-07:00How a dating site helped me find the International Village FestivalA few weeks back I was on a dating site, which will not be named, to check out some potential prospects. Normally I don't disclose to anyone that I'm on a dating website, but I am because it relates to food. Also, maybe I might get a date with one my readers. One could hope. Anyways, one of the profiles I was looking at, one her hobbies was finding all the Greek food festivals in the Pittsburgh area. I told her that hobby was rather strange, and she replied by mentioning that she enjoys going to the International Village festival in Mckeesport every year. I researched the festival on the Internet, and I was definitely down to going. From German to Croatian to Irish food, you can't go wrong.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfGaN4w3s-3Q_P9AB5XuLpKTG9fecG8voo6xc0GG2zcdXl5eZzQgGyCqA0G-3w51frkXK0bJ-E0vK_7afBEl3fhsVDfp22WQgVx10Eiqf1skACuEIb6TJ4TPCvVqnm_ouEFFfNS6JxKWSL/s1600/IMAG1123.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfGaN4w3s-3Q_P9AB5XuLpKTG9fecG8voo6xc0GG2zcdXl5eZzQgGyCqA0G-3w51frkXK0bJ-E0vK_7afBEl3fhsVDfp22WQgVx10Eiqf1skACuEIb6TJ4TPCvVqnm_ouEFFfNS6JxKWSL/s320/IMAG1123.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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My buddy D and I went to the festival this past Wednesday, and not surprisingly it was a great turnout. It was good mix of people from old to young just having good times What I also like the about these kind of festivals is that each ethnic booth serves simple comfort food from their homelands. I like foods that are complex, but deep down I enjoy comfort food the most. <br />
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D and I separated for awhile since each of us wanted something different. He wanted Hungarian, and I wanted German. I went to the German booth and got spatzle and a potato pancake. Spatzle is an egg noodle dish which primarily contains eggs, flour, and salt. From the looks and taste of it, they definitely added some cheese to add more creaminess to the dish. I was worried it was going to by dry but glad it wasn't. Overall, it was a pretty good egg noodle dish because the noodles were soft and creamy. The potato pancake was crunchy on the outside, and soft and flavorful on the inside. The sour cream adds a cool component to the pancake. I decided not to also get applesauce because I don't like applesauce at all. I just don't like the texture of it.<br />
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The highlight of the night was when I went to the Hawaiian booth and ordered pig wings. They are not really wings per say. They are pork shank that is cut from the fibula of the pig. From the looks and taste of the pig wings, they are similar to turkey legs. The pig wings were lean, flavorful, and juicy. I added the bacon bits on top to add some crunchiness and bacon flavor to the wings. Now my next goal is to buy pig wings and make them myself. It looks pretty versatile, and you can do a lot with them..</div>
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I had a very good experience at the festival, and I wish I would I could try more of the food but was too full. I'm looking forward to going back next year. I'm going to leave you guys a slideshow of the other pictures I took at the festivities including the ones above. The last picture will make you laugh for anyone who remembers late 90's politics. </div>
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<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="288" height="192" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F112838163165451984633%2Falbumid%2F5778484936262049297%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCM3UhZfsspCt0gE%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-71859879778916944342012-08-13T04:13:00.003-07:002012-08-13T04:13:52.932-07:00Sushi Tomo at Mcknight Road<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Before I started working at the Strip District, I used to work right by Mcknight Road near TGI Friday's for a year and a half. One of the problems about working in that area is that you have to drive everywhere if you want to get lunch. So for the most part, I would either bring lunch from home or go to the nearby Subway shop(I can sense some people shuddering......). On my way home after work, I would always notice <a href="http://www.sushi-tomo.com/" target="_blank">Sushi Tomo</a> on the left side. The building and the sign does not really stand out, and the place doesn't seem very jam-packed. It also does not help that no one I know ever talks about that place, at the same though at least no one talks bad about it. So on my way to see some friends at Wexford, I buckled and decided to stop in at Sushi Tomo to see what it's all about.<br />
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I got to the restaurant at 6:00 PM, and as you can tell above there weren't very many people. By the time I left though, the place was filling up pretty good. As far as atmosphere goes, it's pretty much the opposite of Nakama and that's a good thing. Throughout the whole dinner, I felt very relaxed and the lack of noise was a bonus. Usually a no-frills atmosphere equates to pretty good food.</div>
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Speaking of food, I ended up getting the wasabi shumai which has pork and shrimp as an appetizer. From the looks of it, I have a feeling that it might frozen just because it looks a little too perfect. Frozen or not, I did enjoy it. The skin didn't really provide any heat, and I really think the wasabi skin is just for show. They brought the mustard in for heat since the skin doesn't provide that. However, the pork and shrimp mixture was tasty, juicy, and just the right amount for the shumai.</div>
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For my main entree, I got the Hammer Roll. I really wanted to dance like M.C. Hammer when I got the dish, but there were way too people at the restaurant by that time and I really don't want to be a YouTube star if someone happened to record it. Maybe if I come in at 2:30 PM, then it could work. Anyways, it's a spicy tuna roll that is topped with sliced avocado, tempura flakes, and wasabi mayonnaise. The mayonnaise didn't provide a whole lot of heat, but just enough that you notice and you can still enjoy the flavor. The flakes add a crunchy element to the roll and the sliced avocado adds additional creaminess to the roll. The tuna itself didn't wow me, but it was certainly enjoyable. The star of this roll is truly the other parts that go to this roll.</div>
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All in all I had a good experience at Sushi Tomo because the food was great, and I was able to enjoy it in a peaceful, quiet setting. For all you Nakama lovers out there, give this place a shot. Your bank account will thank you for it.</div>
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<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/271727/restaurant/West-View/Sushi-Tomo-Pittsburgh"><img alt="Sushi Tomo on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/271727/biglink.gif" style="border: none; height: 146px; padding: 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-85371390623246802232012-08-08T15:47:00.003-07:002012-08-08T15:47:57.776-07:00Tried half the sandwiches at Marty's Market<a href="http://martysmarket.com/" target="_blank">Marty's Market</a> grand opening was last month at the spot where Right by Nature used to be. Since I work literally a block from the Market, I have gone their 3 times since the grand opening. They are a grocery store that sells organic and natural food. They sell everything from vegetables to meats to potato chips. They also have a coffee bar and a restaurant section, which I will be talking about. Looking at their menu, they seem to focus on natural and organic ingredients which is a good thing. For right now, I've only had their sandwiches thus far and will tell you about each one that I've ate.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roast Beef, arugula pesto, and roasted peppers<br />
on Italian Sourdough. They don't skimp on the<br />
Roast Beef.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turkey, spinach, cheddar, and dijon mustard on a ciabatta roll.<br />
Fairly basic sandwich, but fresh and tasted good. Bread was the<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">B.L.T with Niman Ranch bacon, heirloom tomatoes, red crisp lettuce,<br />
roasted garlic aioli on whole wheat. It was okay, but I've had better B.L.T's. <br />
The bread should have been white as opposed to wheat for this occasion.<br />
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<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/1694174/restaurant/Strip-District/Martys-Market-LLC-Pittsburgh"><img alt="Marty's Market, LLC on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1694174/biglink.gif" style="border: none; height: 146px; padding: 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-11235345276009389382012-08-05T15:39:00.002-07:002012-08-05T15:39:52.809-07:00SlidersGrowing up, my mom would sometimes get me frozen white castle burgers from the grocery store. I would microwave them for 60 seconds and just go town on them. You could not go wrong with a greasy slider with just diced onions, beef, and a slice of American cheese. Six years ago, I finally went to my first White Castle restaurant which was in St. Louis, MO. I was there for business, and when I found that there was a White Castle by the place I was staying at, first chance I had I would go check the place out. The sliders were similar to their frozen counterparts, but were much fresher and tastier. Even their crinkled fries wasn't even too bad. Then a few years later, the sliders craze really started to shape up at different restaurants in Pittsburgh. From the simple to the complex, you could not really go wrong from the basic slider to the pulled pork slider to the lobster slider(they really exist <a href="http://www.industrypgh.com/menu/starters/" target="_blank">The Industry House Starters</a>). These places I've mentioned have inspired to make my own sliders. I decided to make two types of basic sliders with a few twists.<br />
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If I'm going to make a slider, it needs to at least have one ingredient in season and local. So with that said, I got some zucchini that were grown at <a href="http://www.brenckle.com/" target="_blank">Brenckles</a> farm. The yellow zucchini gives the slider a bright color to the it. You'll want to cook until it's soft and has char on both sides. I also sprinkled in some salt as well</div>
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I bought two types of cheeses; Vermont cheddar and NY sharp cheddar. Slicing them to thin slices proved to be a challenge since they are hard cheeses. It would have been better if shredded them instead. They didn't quite melt the way I wanted, but they still went well with the burger.</div>
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I diced up one white onion, and covered it with water. I put a spoonful of the onions and the onion water on top of the burger when it's in the skillet being cooked. Doing this gives the burger an awesome onion flavor and steams the burger as well.</div>
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I whipped up some chili mayo sauce using mayonnaise and sriracha put together. I also bought a can of hummus spread. It turned out that for 3.5 ounces it was only 99 cents. It was originally $3.99, but it was being discontinued and sold for $1.99. Then you automatically get a dollar off of that hence 99 cents. It would have been better to make homemade hummus, but for time purposes I took it easy.</div>
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Now here's the meat(pun intended) of the blog. I decided to get a pound of ground chuck and rolled them to 20 small meatballs and sprinkled sea salt on them. The ground chuck has 80/20 fat ratio, and it's perfect because the amount of fat will give the burger so much flavor. Plus when the meat cooks, it doesn't lose too much of its size.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGt-fPeoAtEcH3IjKGnCL-7C_4aCWW5sGH3uFyEzNUtc8xFZiqDvJybtCfdYJ7UtCiJ8xhUly_nkcsQzOnei9mCqBoZb0EVOzy2rG7jqN9urUsyCguug2agOMabPNaVI3vqmYW5a5atju_/s1600/IMAG1099.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGt-fPeoAtEcH3IjKGnCL-7C_4aCWW5sGH3uFyEzNUtc8xFZiqDvJybtCfdYJ7UtCiJ8xhUly_nkcsQzOnei9mCqBoZb0EVOzy2rG7jqN9urUsyCguug2agOMabPNaVI3vqmYW5a5atju_/s320/IMAG1099.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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On the left is the Slider with NY sharp cheddar, diced onions, and the chili-mayo sauce. On the right is Vermont Cheddar, diced onions, zucchini slice, and hummus spread. Both burgers were pretty good, fun to eat, and hit the spot. I ended up eating 6 of them, and almost went into a meat coma. My buddy D had 10 of them and I watched him slowly go into a meat coma. Not even watching a George Carlin stand up act on Netflix saved him. It just goes to show that my burgers were pretty powerful. Here are the instructions below. You can adjust it any way you want it. This is for the Hummus burger</div>
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10 Potato Rolls</div>
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1/2 lb of ground chuck made into 10 small meatballs</div>
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10 small rectangular slices of Vermont Cheddar Cheese</div>
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10 yellow zucchini slices cooked till soft and translucent</div>
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10 teaspoons of hummus spread</div>
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1/2 white onion diced</div>
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sea salt to taste</div>
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Butter(1/2 tablespoon for each cooking session) for pan</div>
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1. Split four potato rolls. Spread 1 teaspoon of the hummus spread on the top portion(on the insides) of the potato roll. Repeat for the other 3 top portion of the potato rolls.</div>
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2. Put diced onion in a medium bowl, and cover with water</div>
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3. Heat large skillet on medium heat. Put the butter in</div>
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4. As you are waiting for the skillet to be fully heated, sprinkle sea salt on all the meatballs</div>
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5. Once butter is melted and skillet fully hot, put 4 meatballs on the pan and flatten them with a spatula. Cook for two minutes.</div>
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6. For each burger, pour a spoonful of the onions with the water on top of the burgers and flatten the burgers again so the onion meshes with the meat.</div>
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7. Flip the burgers, and for each burger put a slice of the vermont cheddar cheese, a slice of the zucchini and the bottom portion of the potato roll. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes depending on your desired doneness.</div>
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8. Slide the spatula under the burger and lay it on the inside portion of the top potato roll. Flip the burger and Wala....a slider. Repeat 3 more times.</div>
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Repeat directions 4 more times except steps 2 and 4.</div>
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<br />Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-83027826358572067532012-08-01T05:14:00.000-07:002012-08-01T05:14:18.497-07:00Kelly O's at the Strip District and Bonus "Entertainment"One of the many advantages of working at the Strip District is access to many of its restaurants and grocery stores. From Wholey's to Chicken Latino to Penn Avenue Fish Company, the Strip District offers something for everyone that works or lives there. Kelly O'Connor just opened her second Kelly O's office in the Strip District. I've been to her diner at the North Hills location, and I thought the food was pretty good but didn't get a chance to review it. Opening a second diner is a pretty good indication that her business has been doing very well. I believe that her restaurant's appearance in Diners Drive Ins and Dives has really helped Kelly O's get exposure and of course more customers. This past Sunday I went to Kelly O's with my friend E to check out their new digs and see if their food is just as good as the one in the North Hills.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguifsIBm2PLGjJqI239GXECjMte4kQn6YTg8JyE2MYOkcuFYJdSnV9X0cgErNiV-ycHaj-5muYT3YucmLHpoTuc6tNfHATPp3CUZylwHZumqyaS4lBuQ-jk1YH76puHHWr8h1NjSR-CZjP/s1600/IMAG1084.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguifsIBm2PLGjJqI239GXECjMte4kQn6YTg8JyE2MYOkcuFYJdSnV9X0cgErNiV-ycHaj-5muYT3YucmLHpoTuc6tNfHATPp3CUZylwHZumqyaS4lBuQ-jk1YH76puHHWr8h1NjSR-CZjP/s320/IMAG1084.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1FnNXkGZ8eKgS4r772JCUzRm0IjNtiDD70FUQueXKBCGSTfDrU6go0G_SoYOIwraqedDgjIYXpNDm-y3qg65xoMQhuBmLCHlrYU9xwrhwrYbuYYnqiTrtE1jl5teFoJPRB3qwNrfiNvmg/s1600/IMAG1085.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1FnNXkGZ8eKgS4r772JCUzRm0IjNtiDD70FUQueXKBCGSTfDrU6go0G_SoYOIwraqedDgjIYXpNDm-y3qg65xoMQhuBmLCHlrYU9xwrhwrYbuYYnqiTrtE1jl5teFoJPRB3qwNrfiNvmg/s320/IMAG1085.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Upon walking in, we were immediately met with a line of people, and of course pictures of celebrities who were in the Kelly O's restaurant at North Hills. I was not surprised some of the pictures were of course Guy Fieri. I also noticed that all the waitresses' t-shirts had a saying in the back "As Seen On Diners Drive Ins and Dives". So that definitely tells you that show has made such a positive impact on the restaurant. Personally, I think the t-shirts were a little bit overkill. I don't need to be always reminded that they were on that tv show. Being as successful as they are, they don't need to reference that show so much anymore since it aired more than three years ago. That's pretty much my only nitpick of the restaurant.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGR82Kss2ZfwU9TsVBnsLL6FHDIcJuhGNbk5i3VzQBUg348Xq8nQIxlNgJ0Ylyf7T_PY2hDrGXMUh6FJuRiJbVq7HKNclltRe7m6IMkU35TVGC0wa9vv2xlceq_vwQtuuoATcVUmKg6xGO/s1600/IMAG1086.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGR82Kss2ZfwU9TsVBnsLL6FHDIcJuhGNbk5i3VzQBUg348Xq8nQIxlNgJ0Ylyf7T_PY2hDrGXMUh6FJuRiJbVq7HKNclltRe7m6IMkU35TVGC0wa9vv2xlceq_vwQtuuoATcVUmKg6xGO/s320/IMAG1086.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They have an Orange Juice Machine. How bad ass is that?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_z4MwAImPalybjCcKykM0YnvvzpzXZj_YQm90ps3T9RMF4Hch7jQAOIlrDryaJl-xHqNhf-d3_ZmuwLXVi2mxuqQcMN1DbFcsARIxJvmGqGgsZN2js_eQsE2NV5QCwZw9hKwSxngRL2sc/s1600/IMAG1089.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_z4MwAImPalybjCcKykM0YnvvzpzXZj_YQm90ps3T9RMF4Hch7jQAOIlrDryaJl-xHqNhf-d3_ZmuwLXVi2mxuqQcMN1DbFcsARIxJvmGqGgsZN2js_eQsE2NV5QCwZw9hKwSxngRL2sc/s320/IMAG1089.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The kitchen. Would have been better without the accidental<br />
elbow shot.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDdSU18CbxBGu-HvPIO9brY8DsX2T7ixI6CudzCN1eM6Dw4keXAS6u2n3WMwl9esLKfie7kaRE1BhHFW_xgGh6SDwyPaxgqK70mMtJ3khGQCapH4hWPbRt7iqupssH8Afuc5FZbSGF-TFb/s1600/IMAG1092.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDdSU18CbxBGu-HvPIO9brY8DsX2T7ixI6CudzCN1eM6Dw4keXAS6u2n3WMwl9esLKfie7kaRE1BhHFW_xgGh6SDwyPaxgqK70mMtJ3khGQCapH4hWPbRt7iqupssH8Afuc5FZbSGF-TFb/s320/IMAG1092.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Looking at the breakfast menu, we decided to get the Crab Benedict special. We both wanted something that we would normally not eat for breakfast. Plus we are both crab fanatics as well since we both lived in Baltimore at different points of our lives. The waitress told us that it would probably be a 45 minute wait, which is understandable because everything is made-to-order, and there were many customers that morning. I normally don't like to wait too long, but at least the waitress was honest about her assessment. The food came and it looked and huge. The shredded potatoes were one of the best breakfast sides I ever had in my life. It was crispy on the outside while maintaining its softness on the inside. I ended up putting blue cheese on top of the potatoes. I know it's a fairly odd combination, but it works. The Crab Benedict was fantastic. The crab was fresh, meaty, and even more flavorful when the egg yolks go all over them. The hollandaise sauce was also fantastic because it was rich, smooth, and creamy and there was plenty of it. Even though there was lot of the sauce, it didn't drench the rest of the ingredients thus achieving balance all over. </div>
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Now here is where I talk about the bonus "entertainment" at our restaurant. While E and I were eating, a take out lady that sat next to us looked to be upset because it appears that her food was taking too long. She started complaining to one of the waitresses, and the waitress told her that they are doing their best to bring her food out. The lady then complained more, and it was back and forth between her and the waitress being as calm as possible. I can feel the tension just two feet away. I can understand the lady getting upset, but she has to realize there were a lot of people that morning and the food was made-to-order. Her expectations should have been that the food would take a while to cook. You can't make everyone happy I guess. By the time the lady got her food, she was still not satisfied. She asked if there was cheese on the scrambled eggs and if there was syrup. The way she asked about it was really mean and condescending. I am so glad I left the food industry over 10 years ago.</div>
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Overall, I had a very awesome experience at Kelly O's. Since I work near the place, I'll have to come back at least a couple times a month to try their other dishes. Plus I really commend them for handling difficult customers. It's not easy to deal with those kind of customers, but they handled it as well as they could have and without going to the same level as that horrible customer.</div>
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<a href="http://www.kellyos.com/" target="_blank">Kelly O's</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/1693369/restaurant/Strip-District/Kelly-Os-Diner-Pittsburgh"><img alt="Kelly O's Diner on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1693369/biglink.gif" style="border: none; height: 146px; padding: 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-81974822954491042952012-07-28T09:23:00.003-07:002012-07-28T09:24:05.409-07:00Beef StroganoffGrowing up during my middle and high school years, the cafeteria would serve up beef stroganoff on a monthly basis. I didn't really have an awesome experience eating it(well then again most school cafeteria food and the word awesome don't mix well). To me the sauce was very runny, bland, and the meat.......well I don't know if I would even call it meat. It's best that I don't theorize where the meat came from. I continued to eat the stroganoff anyways because no other option was better. Because of this experience, I swore off beef stroganoff for twelve years.<br />
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I always go to <a href="http://www.allrecipes.com/" target="_blank">AllRecipes</a> to find something decent by typing the ingredients I already have in the kitchen. I believed I only put in mustard and flour. The results came back and by filtering them by rating, beef stroganoff was high on the list. I was kind of debating for awhile whether to cook this or not based on past experience with the dish. Then I thought maybe if I make it myself, it might not be so bad. So I took that leap of faith, and went for it. Here is the link to the recipe: <a href="http://allrecipes.com/recipe/beef-stroganoff-iii/detail.aspx" target="_blank">Beef Stroganoff</a>. Overall I thought the dish was pretty good. I would still not put this on my top 20 list of favorite foods, but at least now I can eat beef stroganoff as long as I cook it myself.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsX_lxdm5Uk2TSQBVJCidjvISqIh3FVw-7aquibXVuv15-IPBbWTE6MyiLOWOPHcuLMkEu9F-mf9gsj5NFhu6jVrlxwnBi8ypHbaWs2yVnE3nfrlvXn5YLIduaqTPdVH4U0OLGHVKjSkdi/s1600/IMAG1052.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsX_lxdm5Uk2TSQBVJCidjvISqIh3FVw-7aquibXVuv15-IPBbWTE6MyiLOWOPHcuLMkEu9F-mf9gsj5NFhu6jVrlxwnBi8ypHbaWs2yVnE3nfrlvXn5YLIduaqTPdVH4U0OLGHVKjSkdi/s320/IMAG1052.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut up some celery. I just used the white ends only.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I cut up some mushrooms. The recipe asked for canned mushrooms,<br />
but I decided to make this harder on myself. It was worth it.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1EDSa54BnEHkugT-jvPhNpcPfMGjB53Cv74uA0TCOp6i7eBgq2kcXviX_HtyUNJIfjwNptR7IMD7zhPchkWWWrr7PgiSSEaBayAiv4YS5K8HYXNfpgYjNeLoU5FOlMYbSCpta6kAWghlw/s1600/IMAG1054.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1EDSa54BnEHkugT-jvPhNpcPfMGjB53Cv74uA0TCOp6i7eBgq2kcXviX_HtyUNJIfjwNptR7IMD7zhPchkWWWrr7PgiSSEaBayAiv4YS5K8HYXNfpgYjNeLoU5FOlMYbSCpta6kAWghlw/s320/IMAG1054.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut up some beef chuck roast into strips.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitE6r-1rC3hsrhzVFggWztcDN5t5BFrSRwzGhNHNL2KfdRkeHxLYTWg5rjuM1HdZC5GBCTzc-uROTIPU9AbF1dI2VjviPva1YbCnqyR-uih4dOa6MfvYIiACWU7YvMToOGIlsk_uJF7ErV/s1600/IMAG1056.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitE6r-1rC3hsrhzVFggWztcDN5t5BFrSRwzGhNHNL2KfdRkeHxLYTWg5rjuM1HdZC5GBCTzc-uROTIPU9AbF1dI2VjviPva1YbCnqyR-uih4dOa6MfvYIiACWU7YvMToOGIlsk_uJF7ErV/s320/IMAG1056.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cooking the beef stroganoff. Looking good.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfSFMJ7YYJtp0Ncm-wn3i-wz3G4ZzQOmdRqI70RiTPVKgT5z6lCPZfo_qZnBwt0m1zYX_1yriowLkwAKrrWEKcIzzpvwn1YZEWkiF7rRPPrrF13cP36Fn_eBh90GBidlJkjgpNtI2ZGshs/s1600/IMAG1062.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfSFMJ7YYJtp0Ncm-wn3i-wz3G4ZzQOmdRqI70RiTPVKgT5z6lCPZfo_qZnBwt0m1zYX_1yriowLkwAKrrWEKcIzzpvwn1YZEWkiF7rRPPrrF13cP36Fn_eBh90GBidlJkjgpNtI2ZGshs/s320/IMAG1062.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The completed dish. I decided to mix in greek yogurt instead <br />
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<br /></div>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-19424674465508700492012-07-22T07:59:00.001-07:002012-07-22T08:00:11.689-07:00Asian Cafe in GlenshawAs much I enjoy going to hip restaurants such as <a href="http://pittsburghfoodscene.blogspot.com/2011/11/nola-on-square.html" target="_blank">NOLA on the Square</a> and <a href="http://pittsburghfoodscene.blogspot.com/2012/07/porch-at-schenley-in-oakland-part-1.html" target="_blank">The Porch at Schenley</a>, every so often you'll want to go somewhere where there is familiarity and you know what to expect. No, I'm not talking about national chain restaurants. I'm talking about Chinese take-out restaurants. In fact I even did a review of <a href="http://pittsburghfoodscene.blogspot.com/2011/06/hong-kong-taste-in-etna.html" target="_blank">Hong Kong Taste</a> that is near my townhouse. Reasons why I like Chinese take-out restaurants:<br />
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1. You get to eat bastardized Chinese food(I'm looking at you crab rangoon and general tso's chicken)</div>
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2. You know what to expect and it never lets you down for the most part.</div>
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3. You at least get variety of food to choose from whether you are a carnivore or vegetarian.</div>
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So if you've never had Chinese take-out, you've never really lived. This past weekend, I happened to past by a take-out place in the new shopping center in Glenshaw called Asian Cafe. It clearly is a take-out restaurant with a few dining tables, but I find the name to be rather silly. For one it doesn't look like a cafe at all. Initially I thought they named it that way because they wanted to distinguish themselves from their competitors and fancy themselves as a sophisticated take-out restaurant. I do think that is true for the most part, but as I was looking at the menu they also provide Thai fusion cuisine. I thought that was a little bit of a twist(just like when Hong Kong Taste used to make sushi), but do they do a good job of it to warrant being called Asian Cafe? Let's find out.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg10hW10DlVNOR7_NMGs-pvDVnkGIvna3xmxkYNvwoZ2M2XPxgW_J8VW-bSq2eA_SPhk8ubOss5nG6IAMQChR3uAubta90Q4WYQavsz5ddGy-Q2Eg5KiHgQtJkoZV96Eb19BOObRVhhNUyv/s1600/IMAG1028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg10hW10DlVNOR7_NMGs-pvDVnkGIvna3xmxkYNvwoZ2M2XPxgW_J8VW-bSq2eA_SPhk8ubOss5nG6IAMQChR3uAubta90Q4WYQavsz5ddGy-Q2Eg5KiHgQtJkoZV96Eb19BOObRVhhNUyv/s320/IMAG1028.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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For our appetizer we got the red sauce wonton. First I like that they put scallions on top of the dish to give it a bright aspect to the dish. The wontons were fairly huge as far as the skin goes. I felt that there wasn't enough meat inside the wonton even though the meat itself was good. The red sauce was the best part of the dish. I thought it was pretty spicy, but I considered it tame compared to other spicy dishes I've ate. Other people might consider it really spicy. It just depends how much spice you can tolerate. I also liked how thick the red sauce was and how it covered all parts of the wonton. The thickness of the sauce gives the wonton more flavor and kick to it. It was a good dish overall; it just needed more meat in it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinn1MDJ5RbRXE1_GQyPrlrkFNBsp9s6r39nyZryB2B0bkCWj3yYSn8vO91ez3jyiPnBilYjf-tGLG8LzuwLnTxIjdypej0Bym-NC3h4ByFdSZTzQX8PuGnCbtJHQ3kZ4bTpRiNIyQmQpmM/s1600/IMAG1030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinn1MDJ5RbRXE1_GQyPrlrkFNBsp9s6r39nyZryB2B0bkCWj3yYSn8vO91ez3jyiPnBilYjf-tGLG8LzuwLnTxIjdypej0Bym-NC3h4ByFdSZTzQX8PuGnCbtJHQ3kZ4bTpRiNIyQmQpmM/s320/IMAG1030.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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For the main course, we got the Penang curry with beef. It's a spicy dish that is famous in Malaysia that is flavored with curry, garlic, and coconut milk. The beef was spicy and tender, and you can taste the ingredients as you take each bite but don't overpower one another. I like how they added the green beans and carrots to make the dish more bright and colorful. The orange was also a nice addition, but I didn't squeeze any of the orange juices on the dish because the dish had enough flavors. I've had better Penang curry at other restaurants, but for Chinese take-out, it is the best thus far. </div>
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Overall as much as I liked the food thus far, I would have to try more of their dishes to see if they really deserve the name Asian Cafe. The one thing that I won't think will change is the atmosphere. It looks just like any other take-out place in the city but only nicer looking because it's new. Hopefully eating more of their fusion cuisine and liking them will convince me that they deserve the name. Lastly, the prices of the food are fairly reasonable. The two dishes came out to around 13-14 dollars. Then again most Chinese food take-out places' prices are almost always reasonable.</div>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-69419996086496414642012-07-18T21:29:00.001-07:002012-07-18T21:29:47.377-07:00Lobsterfest near Smethport PAOne of the greatest pleasures in the world is eating fresh lobster. Before this past weekend, I could say I had lobster twice in my life, all in lobster roll form. Granted lobster rolls are pretty damn good, but I've always wanted to eat fresh whole lobster. My friend JP was in Maine last week visiting his siblings, and he brought fresh lobster back. So he invited me, our mutual friends, and his family members to the family cabin in the woods to partake in the festivities. For years JP has always talked about working on his family's cabin, but I don't ever recall him showing me pictures. I was pretty sure that he was making it up to make himself look good. By the time I got there, it turned out that his family really did have cabin, and it was very nice. So I give JP props on his family's cabin, and I had a great time hanging out with him and our friends. <br />
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Here are some major pictures are took of the festivities.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgljfLvjuG9xUozAZRDb5CyTVwrz83bjr34ZnIf3B3V5elmMkhkv1E3fPP3U35ka9ag-KVt2L39Qi-AruGDSlVhmEmZt_7LhYwkWU40yJEtWCqCo7fvo2qG2tzNvjPAm9ki9njbjDi-tq-3/s1600/IMAG1035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgljfLvjuG9xUozAZRDb5CyTVwrz83bjr34ZnIf3B3V5elmMkhkv1E3fPP3U35ka9ag-KVt2L39Qi-AruGDSlVhmEmZt_7LhYwkWU40yJEtWCqCo7fvo2qG2tzNvjPAm9ki9njbjDi-tq-3/s320/IMAG1035.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Small Steamed Clams. I could eat 200 of these and not be full.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirhY5h6dejG6mPewilEf4i5K6j21DVmGgVYIUx0LHMbflp7jjJ0zSRlnvbP9aWy7IR7HNBGVqf-A9TlWt5lTxUdhTSVG_EmtShJ6SAdArNFmqPDOcxYlWFkIkSL2GSvWHtGmAKpAatybZQ/s1600/IMAG1036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirhY5h6dejG6mPewilEf4i5K6j21DVmGgVYIUx0LHMbflp7jjJ0zSRlnvbP9aWy7IR7HNBGVqf-A9TlWt5lTxUdhTSVG_EmtShJ6SAdArNFmqPDOcxYlWFkIkSL2GSvWHtGmAKpAatybZQ/s320/IMAG1036.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Corn Salsa that I made. It was a hit at the party. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buffalo Chicken Dip. It's different in a sense that it's more gelatinous<br />
and the chicken actually was not from a can.<br />
I thought it was pretty good.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbHvBE56wrObkF190SnIgcAmlj58q6bcnvF9Hec-OQt0J5yICMS7I19UaHCqG0JAqMcXzKmlSnZoihm1FJqK0Gp4D-3oeynr0kltH5PMD8q0PrzUmQXWkCWIPgM0VtsE5knSVDR-lf8MN/s1600/IMAG1040.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbHvBE56wrObkF190SnIgcAmlj58q6bcnvF9Hec-OQt0J5yICMS7I19UaHCqG0JAqMcXzKmlSnZoihm1FJqK0Gp4D-3oeynr0kltH5PMD8q0PrzUmQXWkCWIPgM0VtsE5knSVDR-lf8MN/s320/IMAG1040.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lobster that was just finished steaming</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoGzjTHT_TwYECcABnSuyh9NNSjvWfrF6BAPuO_A3sxf043SqGP7caexywCUBvx2wXXecpLKrfMOE0xsSKHQ4VFGUECStBuzw6saj9Ks-h3lYO-Z4y6cvYy1Iv2sB3GsKCNTrVQbvX0NNP/s1600/IMAG1043.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoGzjTHT_TwYECcABnSuyh9NNSjvWfrF6BAPuO_A3sxf043SqGP7caexywCUBvx2wXXecpLKrfMOE0xsSKHQ4VFGUECStBuzw6saj9Ks-h3lYO-Z4y6cvYy1Iv2sB3GsKCNTrVQbvX0NNP/s320/IMAG1043.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My friend JP holding two live lobsters before getting steamed. <br />
Only if the lobsters knew what was really going to happen to them.<br />
R had to be "that guy" in the photo. Such a photo bomber.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My plate of lobster. The lobster tail on the right was very<br />meaty. With Lobster, all you really need is melted butter<br />and you're all set. I even ate the lobster meat from the legs. <br />I always aim to eat every part of the lobster. Anthony Bourdain<br />would be proud.</td></tr>
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<br />Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-88521267121840815752012-07-13T21:14:00.002-07:002012-07-13T21:15:07.998-07:00The Porch at Schenley part 2 - The Rooftop Garden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Before L and I had our dinner, the manager came over and started talking to us since we were both food bloggers. He asked if we would like to check out the rooftop garden of the restaurant. When he said this, it was almost like someone asking me to throw the first pitch in a Pittsburgh Pirates game. Well they are not really similar, but you get the idea. L and I were up for it. L likes to garden, and I knew she would like to go up and check it out. The manager brought us up there, and gave us a tour of the whole garden. Here are some awesome pictures to check out.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rosemary</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mint. This explains why my Almost Arnie drink was so good</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spicy Oregano</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj7F8aQSLgV8OMnir6_iYr9bfPjuA5LJ2ERSFaae9DMxRCkK8K9F06cUnM_KIj85-jXtxdHAN7FS6L7goW7qFhbIhyh3IrqGbliabH81pgZBo3f2vxICb2wdPDkhJpcauaaKRVWsCtB1D2/s1600/IMAG0957.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj7F8aQSLgV8OMnir6_iYr9bfPjuA5LJ2ERSFaae9DMxRCkK8K9F06cUnM_KIj85-jXtxdHAN7FS6L7goW7qFhbIhyh3IrqGbliabH81pgZBo3f2vxICb2wdPDkhJpcauaaKRVWsCtB1D2/s320/IMAG0957.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heirloom Tomatoes</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWO1BGcrxHrtHxph0D1soLmvOsWo9wVLMUQzFqfDo18pTwrLMIv1ATwqYtfy4O1rEVnpOVtX3pdSxCF-3lYs5G8BefUq-tT1xEr30xT4U1rFNEVCwjLMMfxSgG3BgZA1ypTOXtLL60WUq9/s1600/IMAG0958.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWO1BGcrxHrtHxph0D1soLmvOsWo9wVLMUQzFqfDo18pTwrLMIv1ATwqYtfy4O1rEVnpOVtX3pdSxCF-3lYs5G8BefUq-tT1xEr30xT4U1rFNEVCwjLMMfxSgG3BgZA1ypTOXtLL60WUq9/s320/IMAG0958.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grape Tomatoes</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zucchini</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stevia. I had an opportunity to taste the leaf and it tasted amazing because of the natural sugarness. I really should have asked for seconds.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lemon Cucumbers</td></tr>
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Being in that garden was an amazing experience because I can see where some of the ingredients in their food come from, and it shows that the restaurant is committed to using local ingredients as much as possible. It is also a good selling point to get people to come to the restaurant since people are getting more into eating local. The Porch at Schenley has a lot of good things going for them, and I don't see them slowing down anytime soon.<br />
<br />Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-83081357239946120522012-07-08T06:47:00.001-07:002012-07-08T06:47:07.496-07:00Tony Packo's in Toledo Ohio<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In the last day of D and I's road trip, we left Detroit to head back to Pittsburgh. We decided to take a detour and go back to his hometown of Toledo Ohio to grab some grub with his friends that live there. We decided that we will be eating at Tony Packo's because it's a Toledo institution and he said it was also really good as well. Before heading going there, D gave me a tour of his hometown. He showed me the neighborhoods he grew up in and talked about how Toledo is a struggling city finding its way again, albeit not easily. It really made me realize how fortunate I was living in Pittsburgh, since Pittburgh economically speaking is doing better than most other places. That will be a topic for another time and not in this blog. It is a food blog after all.<br />
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We met up with his friends and headed inside Tony Packo's. It's an institution because it has great Hungarian food and many celebrities have been in Tony Packo's due to the restaurant being mentioned in Mash Episodes since Jamie Farr is originally from Toledo.
I ordered the Cabbage Combo #1. It's a stuffed cabbage that contains ground beef and ground pork along with rice and special seasonings simmered in sour cream, cabbage, and tomatoes. I also got the paprika dumplings as a side dish. The paprika and the gravy were perfectly combined for the dumplings. The dumplings were spicy but not overpowering. The stuffed cabbage was very good and anytime I took a bite of it, it felt like I was at someone's house because you can clearly tell it was homemade and cooked just right with the perfect amount of meat, rice, and seasonings. This is comfort food at its best.<br />
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Another thing I like about the restaurant is their uniqueness in the way they get celebrities' signatures. Each celebrity signs a fake hot dog bun and Tony Packo's frames it on a wall in the restaurant. This tradition was started by Burt Reynolds in 1972 and continues to this day. Here are some notable buns. My personal favorite has to be Corin Nemic because he was in Parker Lewis Can't Lose, and he's still considered a celebrity in Toledo. Ultimately that's what really matters.<br />
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<a href="http://www.tonypacko.com/" target="_blank">Tony Packo's Cafe</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/305/1287478/restaurant/Tony-Packos-Toledo"><img alt="Tony Packo's on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1287478/biglink.gif" style="border: none; height: 146px; padding: 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-3411272130936888132012-07-05T19:35:00.001-07:002012-07-06T12:17:19.706-07:00The Porch at Schenley in Oakland Part 1 - The Meal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am going to split this post into a few parts because I want to save the other topics about this restaurant for later. For this post, I will talk about the dining experience. I've always wanted to dine at this establishment for months, but it was never perfect timing. That all changed when my partner in dine(I'll call her L) and I decided to go there for dinner a few weekends ago. Before we went, I decided to check out the menu online. The menu wasn't exactly large, but they all sounded so enticing that I still hadn't made up my mind by the time we made it to the restaurant. If I had to describe The Porch at Schenley, I would describe it as a modern American restaurant with a slightly upscale yet causal and local kick to it. From pizza's to burgers to even duck legs, they made sure that this is a place where people from all walks of life can come in and have a great time eating and socializing.<br />
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I usually don't make a big deal about drinks, but I got a particular that just needs to be talked about. I got the "Almost" Arnie, which has <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limoncello" target="_blank">limencello</a>, fresh brewed iced tea, and mint. For those unfamiliar with limoncello, it's Italian lemon liqueur mainly produced in Southern Italy. What made this drink happening though was the mint. It really gave the drink a cool, minty fresh flavor to the drink. I swear my breath even got better after I finished the whole drink.<br />
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For the appetizer we got the crispy calamari with crispy zucchini and marinara sauce. The calamari tasted pretty good in that it was seasoned evenly, not too greasy, and was not rubbery. The zucchini adds a vegetable and colorful component to the appetizer. I liked the way it was cut, almost looked like shoestring fries. The marinara sauce was the weakest part of the dish. It was pretty bland for the most part, and I would rather had something a little more exotic for the sauce. Fortunately, this was the only thing I disliked about the Porch.<br />
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Now we are the main event. L ordered the beef burger which had a brioche bun. The burger also came with crispy taters. L said that the burger was delicious and that she let me have some of her crispy taters. I only wanted to have a couple, but they were so good that I got a few more. It was crispy, fluffy, and fun to eat. It took me back to the days of me eating tater tots as a kid. L let me take the rest of the taters home. She is a nice partner in dine.<br />
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As for myself, I ultimately choose the duck legs. Looking at the description, the dish had fava bean salad, rhubarb-caramel cake, and blueberry-champagne sauce. I'm thinking to myself that this dish can't work because I couldn't imagine sweet components going along with duck legs. But I decided to take a chance on it because i was just that curious. I cut the the meat out of the duck leg and dipped it on the blueberry sauce. I got to say it was actually pretty good. The sweetness of the blueberry counters the saltiness and greasiness of the meat, and gave the meat really sweet kick to it but not overpowering. The fava bean salad was also good and also provided a savory counter to the sweetness of the dish. The rhubarb-caramel cake was fantastic. It was sweet without being overbearing, and it worked well with the duck legs. Overall I was really surprised by the entree, and give props to whoever thought this up.<br />
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All in all, it was a great experience dining at The Porch. The food, service, and atmosphere were all excellent. Definitely a great place to take your family, friends, or that special someone. Part 2 will be posted in a few weeks.<br />
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<a href="http://www.theporchatschenley.com/" target="_blank">The Porch at Schenley</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/1626172/restaurant/Oakland/The-Porch-at-Schenley-Pittsburgh"><img alt="The Porch at Schenley on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1626172/biglink.gif" style="border:none;padding:0px;width:200px;height:146px" /></a>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-21087466987148940252012-06-30T07:55:00.000-07:002012-06-30T07:55:17.111-07:00OssobucoA few years back, I was watching an episode of The Office where Michael Scott and his crazy girlfriend Jan hosted a dinner party for some of the employees of Dunder Mifflin. Well into the party, the topic of dinner finally came about. Jan said to everyone that she is cooking ossobuco and here is in my opinion one of the best parts of the episode:<br />
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Pam Beesly: Oh, I- I can help, starting dinner if you need it.<br />
Jan: Oh no, no, no, it's just the Osso Bucco needs to braise for about three hours. Everything else is done!
Pam Beesly: Three hours from now or three hours from earlier, like 4 o'clock?<br />
Jan: You know, Pam, in Spain, they often don't even start eating until midnight.<br />
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That scene makes me laugh all the time. This just proves that Jan is pretty crazy. But the scene also inspired me to make ossobuco, which I've never cooked before. It wasn't too difficult to make but it had some challenges.<br />
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I cut up some carrots, celery, garlic, and onions. These are the standard vegetables used for ossobuco.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEHCnF_hT_iTBrwp9ZX1sDmlQdvkdyw55kb6T00wWLuvHsif-7NaWfnLULiQD7cvsNPUFGg9j8whlxQPgrutmcLKBoqqiRW71RivRwPCGGJQT07YChCpMNmj5sWLA9ffGvBqFJNNwUJan9/s1600/IMAG0979.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEHCnF_hT_iTBrwp9ZX1sDmlQdvkdyw55kb6T00wWLuvHsif-7NaWfnLULiQD7cvsNPUFGg9j8whlxQPgrutmcLKBoqqiRW71RivRwPCGGJQT07YChCpMNmj5sWLA9ffGvBqFJNNwUJan9/s400/IMAG0979.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
Here are the veal shanks, which I browned slightly before I start braising them. They were actually relatively hard to find in the Strip District. I could not find it initially at Salem's or Anderson's Meat and Poultry. I was finally able to get them at Strip District Meats. I got 2 lbs that came out to around 20 bucks. Definitely not cheap meat.<br />
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Took a picture while the shanks are still being braised. For the sauce, I ended up using pizza sauce instead of tomato sauce from the can because I still had some left over pizza sauce and wanted to finish using it. I did add some sriracha sauce to give it a slight kick to it.<br />
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A plate of the ossobuco. The best part of eating this is when the meat just falls off the bone, and when you eat it it's so tender. The sauce gives it a nice sweet kick to it, but does not overpower the flavor of the meat. I left the fat intentionally because it gives that meat full flavor. All in all, it was very enjoyable. Below is the link of the recipe.<br />
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<a href="http://allrecipes.com/recipe/osso-buco/detail.aspx">Ossobuco</a>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-66772753676335737512012-06-25T04:40:00.000-07:002012-06-25T07:20:59.692-07:00Toledo/Detroit Part 2Part 2 of my road trip.<br />
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<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&noautoplay=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F112838163165451984633%2Falbumid%2F5749420204852951073%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCOSEpdy-g7itxgE%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-9926057051508466832012-06-23T10:09:00.001-07:002012-06-23T10:13:02.376-07:00Teppanyaki Kyoto in Highland ParkOne of the great things about working in the city is getting an opportunity to read the weekly edition of the City Paper. Besides reading Savage Love and perusing the adult ads(Admit it you've done it), I enjoy reading the restaurant reviews. I was reading a review about a Japanese restaurant called Teppanyaki Kyoto, and I was shocked to find out that it has been around since the beginning of the year at Bryant St. in Highland Park. I go to Bryant St quite a bit, and I never noticed a Japanese restaurant in the neighborhood. From reading the review, it sounded like I totally missed out on a great place. Better late than never, I decided to check out the restaurant last weekend.
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjp2ytc3JDEPIzeTncv9EXpLg3IJTpEQbyg9VGFq-16I0T10-rMRe2BOkk3x_8__DRY7G9pRny24DT_vUjpc80CC7TavMIAsLhPJins_v_DsAP4K2OwrwkcOg-2b5rsCKANSI-UQS2eIc2/s1600/IMAG0926.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjp2ytc3JDEPIzeTncv9EXpLg3IJTpEQbyg9VGFq-16I0T10-rMRe2BOkk3x_8__DRY7G9pRny24DT_vUjpc80CC7TavMIAsLhPJins_v_DsAP4K2OwrwkcOg-2b5rsCKANSI-UQS2eIc2/s400/IMAG0926.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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When I was about to enter the restaurant I can see why I never noticed it. There was no obvious sign in the front of their place. If they added a sign or logo on the top of their restaurant I think more people would know about the place.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOTJLMIaJXmaDQRbYoxRUbB3Y0bVkLUp1FByNAs3K-_NniGX2hXz9MIUwHqDhtNGdhJekWH-Ai5hevFQAgpSJYjN9BoxiSxtJE3hmxcWLvU_gmm0XZzhba8BFSbQEp6nLQwDzZhkcSnzLZ/s1600/IMAG0933.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOTJLMIaJXmaDQRbYoxRUbB3Y0bVkLUp1FByNAs3K-_NniGX2hXz9MIUwHqDhtNGdhJekWH-Ai5hevFQAgpSJYjN9BoxiSxtJE3hmxcWLvU_gmm0XZzhba8BFSbQEp6nLQwDzZhkcSnzLZ/s400/IMAG0933.jpg" width="400" /></a>I liked the inside of the restaurant, it may be fairly small but the decor was nice, simple, and to the point. I also liked the fact that there was a "bar" so to speak where you can watch the chef in action and we even chatted with him throughout the night.
Before I start talking about the food, there might be a few of you who are not familiar with teppanyaki. Basically it's style of cooking in Japan where they use an iron griddle to cook food. What sets it apart from hibachi is that with the griddle type cooking surface, it's useful for cooking smaller ingredients like chopped vegetables, eggs, rice, etc. Looking at the menu, I noticed that they had no sushi in the menu whatsoever. I think that's a bold and smart move because since there is no sushi, the customers that normally only eat sushi has an opportunity try other Japanese cuisine. The fact that they don't serve sushi sets this restaurant apart from all the other Japanese restaurants in the city.
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The two appetizers we ordered were the Tori no kar-age(Japanese fried chicken bites) and Corn and Asparagus. The chicken was crunchy, juicy, and the lime gives it a slight sour kick to it. Of course I dipped the chicken with sriracha sauce. No surprise there. The Corn and Asparagus was buttery and salty due to the soy sauce. The flavor doesn't overpower the vegetables. All in all, good appetizers to start out with.<br />
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For the main entree, I got the Hokkaido Okonomiyaki. It's a Japanese pancake made with wheat flour, eggs, lots and lots and did I mention lots of cabbage, Japanese mayonnaise, seaweed powder, and bonito fish flakes. What makes it Hokkaido is that it contains seafood such as scallops, shrimp, and squid. What I found interesting is that it takes 25 minutes to make one dish. I'm glad at least they were honest about it on the menu, and it was fun watching the chef cook it from start to finish. The ingredients for the most part all worked together in that there was not too much or too little of each. The only ingredient I didn't like was the fish flakes because the texture felt funny to me. It was almost like eating tissue paper. The Okonomiyaki was also very creamy because of the liberal amounts of the mayonnaise, and I liked how you could see some of the charred grill marks on the cabbage. It was a very unique dish and I can say now this is the most I have ever eaten cabbage at one time.<br />
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All in all, Teppanyaki Kyoto is welcome addition to the Highland Park restaurant scene. Once they have a website and a real sign, I am confident that they will even have better success. I am definitely looking forward to coming back and try their other dishes.<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Teppanyaki-Kyoto-Restaurant/245571672150764" target="_blank">Teppanyaki Facebook page</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/1648926/restaurant/Highland-Park-Morningside/Teppanyaki-Kyoto-Restaurant-Pittsburgh" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Teppanyaki Kyoto Restaurant on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1648926/biglink.gif" style="border: none; height: 146px; padding: 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-63371900555775933852012-06-19T16:05:00.000-07:002012-06-20T03:27:06.251-07:00Pittsburgh's Best Hot Dogs Part 4 - Krazy DogzKrazy Dogz is the fourth and final installment of the Pittsburgh's Best Hot Dogs series. It's a pretty cool hot dog shop in the Southside owned by the husband and wife team of RJ and Kelly. They have some pretty cool hot dogs especially the custom dog where you can have whatever toppings you want. Check the video out, and you'll be amazed at what kind of toppings they have.
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<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/1584180/restaurant/South-Side/Krazy-Dogz-Pittsburgh"><img alt="Krazy Dogz on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1584180/biglink.gif" style="border:none;padding:0px;width:200px;height:146px" /></a><br /><br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Krazy-Dogz/324781904207768">Krazy Dogz</a>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-48838450578595192062012-06-16T05:49:00.000-07:002012-06-18T04:41:53.980-07:00Pulled Pork Tacos(Well almost)I've always been a fan of pulled pork sandwiches because of how flavorful it is, and how comforting it is to eat. I realized that I've never made it before. So earlier this week, I decided to go with it make it. I found the recipe in AllRecipes.com(<a href="http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pulled-pork-tacos/detail.aspx?">Pulled Pork Tacos</a>). Most of the recipe turned out well, but one key ingredient did not and almost ruined the moment so to speak. I attempted to make the corn tortillas homemade, but it did not turn out well. Even with a roller, I wasn't able to make it circular. I recommend getting a tortilla press. It's so much easier. Then when I put it in the pan to cook, it was little to hard and I noticed cracks on the tortilla. It was very difficult to fold. Despite this mishap, I'm glad that the pork turned out great. Check out the slideshow below of my experience making pulled pork tacos.
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<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="288" height="192" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&noautoplay=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F112838163165451984633%2Falbumid%2F5754612585001996737%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-71338027164095898312012-06-12T04:40:00.000-07:002012-06-18T04:42:42.107-07:00Pittsburgh's Best Hot Dogs Part 3 Junkyard DoggsThe day before the shooting, I went to the Pittsburgh Public Market to grab some pierogies. By accident I found a hot dog stand called Junkyard Doggs. I looked at the stand and the menu, and I was very intrigued. I asked Will the owner to see if he would like to be part of the video project and he said yes. Here is the video and check it out.
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/junkyard.doggs">Junkyard Doggs</a>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-43570371657549913602012-06-10T15:41:00.001-07:002012-06-18T04:42:55.756-07:00Toledo/Detroit Part 1Pictures from Day 1 of my road trip to Toledo and Detroit<br />
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<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="288" height="192" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&noautoplay=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F112838163165451984633%2Falbumid%2F5749411510044944897%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-8450661305182059942012-06-05T04:42:00.001-07:002012-06-18T04:43:22.484-07:00Pittsburgh's Best Hot Dogs Part 2 D's Six Pax and DogzFor part 2 of my hot dog video series, I checked out a placed in Regent Square called D's Six Pax and Dogz. They have good food, great beer, and was able to get an interview with Cory the kitchen chef. Check it out.
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<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/270457/restaurant/Regent-Square/Ds-Six-Pax-Dogz-Pittsburgh"><img alt="D's Six Pax & Dogz on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/270457/biglink.gif" style="border: none; height: 146px; padding: 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>
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<a href="http://www.ds6pax.com/">D's Six Pax and Dogz</a>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-69587717460887806682012-06-02T06:33:00.000-07:002012-06-18T04:43:49.396-07:00Road Trip to Detroit - Heidelberg Project<div style="text-align: left;">
My good friend D and I decided to take a road trip to Detroit last weekend for Memorial Day. Despite Detroit's troubles, we thought it would be a worthwhile trip because we heard that they have a great food scene, and we wanted to check out the architecture of the city or what's left of it.
I will be posting future blogs about the food scene, but I want to talk about the Heidelberg Project. We decided to visit there because of the unique artwork and art structures that were built. The project demonstrates the passion and creativity of the people of Detroit. Check out the slideshow below.</div>
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<a href="http://www.heidelberg.org/" target="_blank">Heidelberg Project</a></div>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215164224403646084.post-12530695399351091922012-05-28T06:26:00.003-07:002012-06-18T17:50:37.207-07:00Casa Rasta in the Beechview neighborhood<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I finally made my way to Casa Rasta Friday, which is restaurant that features Mexican and Carribean fusion. I heard many good things about them through posts from <a href="http://www.foodcollage.com/2012/02/casa-rasta-beechview.html" target="_blank">Food Collage</a> and <a href="http://srtacibulkasavors.blogspot.com/2012/02/casa-rasta.html" target="_blank">Sabor PGH</a>. I've wanted to try Casa Rasta's food, but never really had the chance till this past Friday. It was well worth the trip. The restaurant itself isn't that big in that it had only four tables in the outside patio and two tables inside. But it was a very laid back atmosphere, and I felt welcome by the owners Laura and Antonio.<br />
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As we were waiting for the food, my friend DD and I yet again found Sriracha sauce. When JC and I were filming for the hot dog project earlier in the month, we noticed that two of the hot dog establishments had sriracha sauce. What I will say is controversial, but I feel that Sriracha will overtake Heinz ketchup as the go to condiment in a few years. It's a bold move to say that, and I'm sure most of my readers won't agree but I enjoy stirring the pot sometimes :).<br />
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We got our meal. The first thing I ate was the vegetarian poblano chilis and potatoes taco. I love how they roasted the chilis and it was a fairly spicy taco. The tortilla held the fillings very well and it helps when you have two. As much as I love the tacos, I thought the choriza torta was the highlight of the evening. I like how the torta was really crunchy and held the fillings well. When you take a bit of the torta, the combination of the crunchiness of the torta and the spicy bite of the chorizo takes the dish to whole new level and bliss. I definitely want to make this dish at home.<br />
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Overall Casa Rasta was a good experience. The menu may not be extensive like other Mexican establishments in Pittsburgh, but the quality of the food was phenomenal. I can't wait to go back again.<br />
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<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/1641623/restaurant/Far-South-South-Hills/Casa-Rasta-Pittsburgh"><img alt="Casa Rasta on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1641623/biglink.gif" style="border:none;padding:0px;width:200px;height:146px" /></a>
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<a href="http://www.casarastapgh.com/" target="_blank">Casa Rasta</a>Pittsburgh Food Scenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253157042729510103noreply@blogger.com0