Miscellaneous

i've had two dining experiences, since the korea house adventure, that i'd like to share (delete now if you are dave sanchez):
1) i visited my first St. Joseph's Day Table on March 19. although my hometown of Rochester has plenty of Italians, the St. Joe's Table phenomenon doesn't seem to have as much importance as here in Buffalo (neither does St. Patrick's Day for that matter). All I can say is that I need to either start dieting or running again (probably both after the gorging). let's see, I had spaghetti with red sauce, linguini with clam sauce, breaded haddock, calamari, lobster tortellini & cheese, shrimp in a spicy red sauce, cassata cake, about 50 cream puffs and éclairs. unfortunately, i didn't have enough room to taste all the other dishes that were available. everything was fantastic especially the calamari and cassata cake - it just reaffirms that nothing beats homemade. thanks again to the harrington's for the invite;
2) this past wednesday a friend asked if i wanted to try a restaurant that serves eastern european/russian food. i'm afraid to name the place in fear that the following might permit a lawsuit for libel but i will throw my friend ray under the bus for suggesting the place. we started with salad. yellow iceberg lettuce in a glass bowl - no dressing, some tomato bits - ugh. by the way, no one was there except for ray and i. we also given a basket of bread - some hearty, not-too-fresh bread. we had chicken and mushroom blintzes which I can say were ok but were plain tasting. then the entrees - i had ogbvny (this place doesn't deserve a spell check) - a breaded pork cutlet which was supposed to be served with the restaurant's 'special sauce' - I read a review later that said their special sauce was pretty much ketchup. ray had pressed cornish hen. the best part of the entrees were the side of home fries and the only thing I will say about them is that they were salted. the best part (read: worst) of the meal was the drink: kvas - apparently an authentic, non-alcoholic, russian drink which was described to be a cross between root beer and beer. it was so bad I wished there was alcohol in it - I had to hold my breath to drink it. I had the special treat of having a dingleberry floating in mine which almost resulted in ray having a stroke from laughing so hard. this is the kind of drink that put hair on the chests of the russian women and allows them to pass off as men. after the dingleberry, the funniest part of the night was when we were talking to the waitress after the meal (and I use that term loosely) - first, when the waitress said the place had been open for three (3) years - ray's eyes almost blew out of his head from the seeming impossibility that this s***hole could be sustained for that long. second, ray mentioned he read part of a review for the restaurant and the waitress said she read it too and it was not a good review which created an uncomfortable, awkward dynamic. the funny thing, is that the rating was a home run for this place as it used kid gloves for the entire review.

La Tee Da

last night six (6) partook in italian fare on the charming patio of La Tee Da in Allentown. the patio was packed and the jazz quartet jamming. the only negative to the patio was that i could barely hear anyone else's conversations (even when they included me) which of course did not stop me from talking the entire evening much to the dismay of the group. despite this, our clan seemed to enjoy the atmosphere.

starting off, we ordered their eggplant wings - breaded eggplant sticks in a buffalo wing sauce - basically healthy chicken fingers served with blue cheese, celery and carrots - delicious. th group also ordered the stuffed hot peppers (good, see previous discussions). i also had their caprese salad which was disappointing - no balsamic (see previous discussions).

for entrees, i ordered their spicy chicken sausage over penne pasta in what i can only guess to be not a marinara sauce but possibly a vodka, red sauce served with peppery sausage. at first bite, i wasn't sure if i liked the sauce or the dish but the taste grew on me and i found it to be an excellent choice. others ordered their vegetarian caponata with red & yellow peppers, onions, garlic, eggplant, zucchini over spaghetti which was spicy and tasty. also sampled was their seafood bowl - shrimp, muscles, clams and scallions in a broth served over pasta - very good.

for dessert, the table shared one slice of casada cake which was truly fantastic, maybe the best dessert i've had since starting the group.

it was a pleasant evening enjoyed on the urban, natural and inviting La Tee Da patio. nothing outstanding (except for the casada cake) and nothing negative (except for the noise) therefore, La Tee Da gets a B+.