The Tuck Shop in Chelsea, NY

While in NY, I was looking for a late breakfast and ended up at the Chelsea Market. I had been here before and tried The Lobster Place. On this visit, I quickly forgot breakfast foods and decided to try an Australian meat pie from a place called The Tuck Shop.

I guess what I ordered was more Australian fusion. I had the Thai Curry Chicken pie. It was filled with chicken, kafir lime leaves, galangal, coconut milk, thai basil and chilis. The crust was nice and flaky, similar to a typical pot pie. The fillings were creamy and tasty, although the chilis were very intense. I normally have a high tolerance for spicy foods, but I was tearing up every time I bit into a piece of pepper. Interesting how I ordered something denoted as spicy at a Thai restaurant the night before and there was hardly any spice, but this Australian-Thai pie with no warning about the heat was one of the spiciest foods I've eaten in recent memory. I really have no clue if pot pies like this are really a prevalent food in Australia, but I'm assuming this is more Australian than Outback Steakhouse is Australian...

One More Thai in Manhattan, NY

I made my way up to New York. One of my meals in the city was Thai food in the Lower East Side at a restaurant called One More Thai.

I ordered the Drunken Noodles. This consisted of wide noodles mixed with chicken, egg peanuts, peppers, and basil. The noodles were tasty, although the spiciness noted on the menu was hardly present even with all the peppers. I'm not an expert on Thai food, but each time I've had drunken noodles seems to be very different. The only consistency between my experiences with this dish seems to be with the shape of the noodles. Interesting...

Taj in East Village, NY

Another night in New York and I found myself looking for dinner again. This took me to the Little India section of the East Village where I ate at a restaurant called Taj.

 

They had musicians providing entertainment with sitar and drums near the entrance of the restaurant.

Taj offered a six course dinner for under $10, so that's what I went with. Course number one was a bowl of red lentil soup. The bright orange color of red lentils make soup look more enticing compared to their brown counterparts.

Course number two was a samosa appetizer. The vegetarian samosa contained potatoes and vegetables, wrapped up in a pastry-like shell.

The third, fourth, and fifth courses were all served simultaneously. These included a basket of naan and a big plate of rice for the table to share. The main course also came out at this point. This was the chicken tikka masala in my case. Cubes of chicken were served in an orange, yogurt based sauce and was very tasty. The vegetables that were also supposed to be in the dish were unfortunately nowhere to be found.

Course number six was rice pudding for dessert. I honestly wasn't counting how many courses we were served for the entire meal, so it was an unexpected nice surprise when dessert was served. It was an even nicer surprise when a second serving of rice pudding was brought to the table after we finished the first!

I enjoyed my meal at Taj. I really like these multi-course meals that all of the Indian restaurants in this neighborhood seem to all serve. They end up being a really good deal for the price, and I would much rather eat Indian food like this as opposed to the much more common Indian buffets.

Bruegger's Bagel Bakery in Syracuse, NY

At the end of October, I found myself enjoying the wonderful cold weather in Syracuse, NY for a weekend. For breakfast one morning, I ended up at Bruegger's Bagel Bakery at Syracuse University.



There was a Bruegger's in Altamonte Springs for a while, but I never visited and they eventually closed. After getting my bagel, I can kind of see why they were so short lived. This bagel was tiny! I was expecting the bagel to be on par with the other chain bagel places, but this wasn't even close! The everything bagel was topped with smoked salmon cream cheese, roasted red peppers, cucumbers, and red onions. It tasted good, but was just way too small!

International Delight Cafe in Rockville Centre, NY

Rockville Centre, NY is a very cool area of Long Island in my opinion. It has a nice urban feel, with most of the downtown area within walking distance of the elevated Long Island Railroad. There's plenty of shopping here, and also plenty of restaurants. One of these restaurants is the International Delight Cafe...
International Delight Cafe has been around a long time. I have memories of eating here as a little kid, then going next door to look at monkeys in the neighboring pet store (which is now gone) or going to Nunley's (also gone).

On this return visit to the International Delight Cafe, I ordered the Sicilian Salad. The salad consisted of romaine lettuce topped with fresh and sundried tomatoes, onions, kalamata olives, and lots of fresh mozzarella.The salad was good, and the generous portions of cheese and sundried tomatoes really made it better.

On the way out, I stopped to look at the huge selection of homemade gelato. Unfortunately, I was full from my salad so I passed on this visit...

Athens N.Y. Style Diner in Mount Dora, FL

I always enjoy my visits to the Greek Diners up in New York and New Jersey. They seem to be a mostly regional thing and rarely are seen elsewhere. While the quality varies greatly from diner to diner, I seem to always end up at a Greek diner at least once whenever I'm up north.

While in Mount Dora one afternoon, I decided to try Athens N.Y. Style Diner to see how they compare to the Greek diners that I've eaten at actually located in New York.

Athens is located in a strip mall. No classic diner building here. The interior of Athens seemed very dated...

A basket of rolls was brought out first. They were okay, but where was the challah and assorted crackers that you get in Greek diners in New York? And how about the appetizer plate of celery, carrots, and radishes that you get from New York Greek diners at dinner time?

I ordered a Chicken Souvlaki Pita. Rather than getting the normal side of fries, I substituted a side Greek Salad. It consisted of lettuce, onions, cucumber, olives, and feta cheese.

My pita soon followed the salad. It was filled with chicken, lettuce, onions, and tzatziki. While there was nothing exactly wrong with the pita, it all tasted very bland. Even with the tzatziki drenching the interior of the pita, there really wasn't much of any flavor that stood out. Athens needs to put more seasoning on their chicken or maybe add more spice to the tzatziki...

I've had some pretty tasteless souvlaki pitas in true NY Greek diners, so maybe it was authentic. Overall, Athens NY Style Diner had pretty average food. Nothing worth going out of my way to return to...

Bagel Talk Inc. in Elmont, NY

One morning I got breakfast from Bagel Talk Inc. in Elmont, NY. This little store is located in the back corner of a shopping center, right next to an Italian restaurant. Both stores seemed so small and close together that at first I thought they might be connected. Turned out they weren't.

I had an egg and cheese sandwich on a sesame bagel. I was initially considering getting a bagel and cream cheese, but then decided that since the temperature outside was just pushing 30°F, I'd go with something warm. The freshly scrambled eggs did the trick. No complaints here.

Caffe' Positano NY Pizza

I ate at the new Caffe' Positano in the Super Target shopping center in Sanford, FL. The restaurant is a few stores down from the Yokohama Japanese Restaurant in the space formerly occupied by Vivona's. Vivona's was a good Italian restaurant for a while, but when they opened this location, the Vivona's started going downhill. It seemed the quality and portions of the food went way down and the price increased. Towards the end, the Vivona's employees acted like the customers were an annoyance, and the service was horrible. The last time I went to this Vivona's location, the whole place smelled like rotting meat, and then a few weeks later, both of the Vivona's were closed. There is still one Vivona's left on Park Ave. in Sanford with different owners.

After Vivona's closed, Caffe' Positano opened in their place a few months later. I ate there a week or two after they originally opened, and the restaurant is pretty much unchanged from when Vivona's was there. Unlike the Caffe' Positano in Apopka, this one seems to be geared more towards take out. I ate in the restaurant anyway, and ordered a pizza and garlic knots.

The garlic knots came out first, and had plenty of garlic on them. They weren't served with a side of tomato sauce like most Italian restaurants give with their knots, but I never use the sauce anyway.

The pizza came out soon enough. We ordered an eighteen inch pizza topped with half meatball. The first thing that I noticed was the the meatballs were cubed instead of sliced. I had the cheese half of the pizza so I won't comment on the taste of the meatballs, but cubed meatballs remind me a bit of how meatballs are served at places like Pizza Hut and Papa Johns. As for the cheese half of the pizza, it was a pretty good pie, with the exception of two complaints. The first being that the crust was a bit too crispy. It moved past the perfect pizza crust consistency and was too near the consistency of a cracker. My second complaint was that it sort of tasted like their oven needed to be cleaned. The pizza had a burnt charcoal-like taste that pizzas sometimes get if they are cooked on an oven that's due for a cleaning. Otherwise, it was a pretty good pizza. I would put this pizza a step above the pizza that Vivona's served while they were in their prime.


The next day I had some of the leftover pizza, and the moisture in the refrigerator softened the crispy crust a bit. It turned the pizza that was too crispy into a pizza with the perfect crust consistency. It's amazing how sometimes pizza improves the next day out of the refrigerator.

More Ikea Pasta

I ate the same pasta from Ikea in Orlando once again. It seems I've been going there often lately to get their cheap food.

Speaking of Ikea, check out this new store in Brooklyn, NY. It's built on the site of an old shipyard. Instead of getting rid of the shipping stuff, they kept lots of it. They have huge shipping cranes in the store's parking lot!

Very cool!
Ikea in Brooklyn

Bairrada Rodizio Churrasqueira Restaurant

I ate take out Portuguese food for lunch from the Bairrada Rodizio Churrasqueira Restaurant in Mineola, NY. Roast suckling pig and mixed grill were ordered.

The roast suckling pig was good. The pig was served still in it's skin. There was a bit of fat in the meat, but as far as pork goes, the pig was very tasty and tender. It was served with rice and homemade potato chips. They needed some salt, but otherwise were very good.


The mixed grill consisted of a skewer of chicken, steak, sausage, onions, bell peppers, and sweet potatoes. It was served with rice and french fries. I am not a big fan of steak, so I didn't think it was anything that good, but at least it was well done rather than having the blood squirt out of the dead cow flesh when you take a bite. The chicken was tasty, but the best meat on the skewer was the sausage. The rest of the meat all tasted basically like char-grilled meats, while the sausage actually had a distinct flavor.

Eating the food as take out didn't give you the whole churrasqueira experience with waiters walking around with meat on sticks, slicing it at your table, but the food was still good. Take out was a whole lot cheaper too!

King Umbertos & Italian Pastries

I ate dinner from King Umbertos in Elmont, NY for a second time. Their pizza is still the best ever, and had improved from the last visit where the selection of pizza choices was somewhat slim. Tonight there were plenty of different pies to choose from.

I took home the slices of pizza from King Umbertos rather than eating in the restaurant. I can't name all of the slices, but the square slice is called Grandma's Pizza. Next to Grandmas, there is a stuffed vegetable slice. The slice next to that consists of a spinach crust topped with cheese, basil, plum tomatoes, and more. There is a cheese slice next to that, followed by a slice topped with fresh mozzarella, and then another slice on the spinach crust.



Out of all of those slices, I had the stuffed vegetable slice and one of the spinach crust slices.


They were both really good. It's hard to decide which was better...



I ate some dessert from Ramona Lee Italian Pastries in Franklin Square, NY. Cream puffs, pignolis, chocolate mousse, and more. It was good a good dessert!

More Italian Ices from Ralph's

I had more Italian ices from the good Ralph's in Franklin Square. I tried black cherry cheesecake, coconut, and passion fruit. It was a good combination...

Torigo Japanese Restaurant

I ate sushi from the Torigo Japanese Restaurant in Floral Park, NY for dinner. Dinner began by being seated under a pair of Japanese masks.

After looking over the menu, food was ordered and miso soup and a soba noodle appetizer were served. The noodles were very tasty, topped with some tempura crumbles. The miso soup was also very good, but there was some sort of sponge-like food that was floated on top of the soup that I wasn't too fond of. Otherwise, the soup was very good.

The main dishes followed the soup and appetizers. I had ordered Mom's Favorite Roll, which was filled with salmon tempura, pumpkin tempura, cream cheese, masago, and spicy-mayo. It was a very good roll. It was very large in diameter, filled with all of it's wonderful fillings. It's the first time I've ever had fried pumpkin in sushi...

Someone else ordered another roll that I tried a piece of. The name escapes me, but it was filled with crab, egg, plum, as well as other fillings that I must be forgetting. I liked Mom's Favorite Roll better...

Chicken Teriyaki was also ordered. It was served with rice, mashed potatoes, and some random vegetables. It had a nice presentation and tasted fine, but I preferred the rolls over the chicken.

Overall, Torigo was a really good Japanese Restaurant. If I lived nearby, I would be sure to return...