Are you starting the holiday weekend early?Lucky you. I'll be chained to my desk on Friday. You call it a holiday, we call it "early deadlines" here at Biden Central. So it's nose to the grindstone and all that.....
Next week, I will be taking a few days off so there will be little Second Helpings updating. Well, unless I have some fab meals, recipes, shopping tips or food news that I need to share....
But look for Buddy Hurlock's "Regular Guy Grub" postings every Tuesday. I think Buddy's take on food is great fun.
Also, please pick up USA Today on the newsstands on Fri., Sept. 5, and look inside for Open Air magazine. I've wrote another "Adventures in Eating" column for the glossy magazine about cooking with beer.
I talked to our own Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Mark Bittman of The New York Times and author of "How to Cook Everything" and Scott Kerksman, the Chief Beer Officer (CBO) for Four Points by Sheraton. (Kerkmans works with chefs at more than 125 hotels around the world and encourages them to pull draughts and pour beer into everything from marinades to ice cream floats.) It's a fun story. And it has recipes from Scott and tasting tips from Sam. Woo-hoo!
Here's the digital magazine version.
Had dinner Wednesday night at Kyoto in Pike Creek. Lovely, fresh, tasty sushi and sashimi. And, no, John, sake does NOT taste like lighter fluid. Give it more of a chance next time. Or we'll go to Soybean Asian Grille.
Remember, every Friday is Reader Mail. You ask. We answer. Email your thoughts, questions, ramblings....and we'll post 'em.
I recently asked readers to share tales of "What I Ate on My Summer Vacation." The stories ran Wednesday, but I missed one letter in the mailbag. Sorry! Here it is:
LETTER: "I had emu pate, crocodile satay and kangaroo in Caines, Australia."
Terry Oosterom
ANSWER: Very brave Terry. I've had emu and crocodile, but kangaroo? Not sure if I could do it. Visions of Winnie the Pooh's pals Kanga and Roo would be going through my head.......
AND SOME MORE MAIL:
QUESTION: Should have known better, but we relied on Eric Ruth's recommendation and went to Firebirds Wood Fired Grill in Stanton tonight. It was mediocre at best. (He had also raved about Valle restaurant in Pike Creek which disappointed us when we went there based on his recommendation. Steak was awful there.)
My husband had a thin and fatty rib eye steak. At least half of it was fat! I had a filet that was about a half-inch thick...I have never seen such thin steaks! The steak seasoning is way too salty and I love salt! The outside of the baked potato was crusted with salt and it was overkill. We did have a great salad--the BLT salad which is big enough to split.This is not a place to which we will return. I noticed a while back that he "panned" Walter's on Union Street.
Well, Walter's is five times better than Firebirds and Valle.
JANSWER: J, taste is certainly subjective. And it sounds like Firebirds had an "off" night. HERE'S ERIC'S REVIEW. Readers, any thoughts? I haven't yet been to Firebirds.
Walter's is certainly an "old-school" Wilmington steakhouse that has lots of fans. I had a fine steak dinner there earlier this summer.
IMHO, Valle has very good - but very expensive - crabcakes.
QUESTION: Have you checked out Ole Tapas Restaurant and Lounge, near Newark? They've taken a long time to open - and it's definitely been worth it. Would love to see them around for a long time! Am sure you already know - but on Kirkwood Highway - near Soffrito Italian restaurant. I enjoy your reviews.
ANSWER: Eric Ruth will be weighing in soon on Ole. Glad that it's finally open. I've been driving by that place and nosily peering into their windows for what feels like months now. Stay tuned.
4 comments:
Ole is awesome. We ate there a few weeks ago and had a great meal. Definitely a thumbs up from us.
Chris,
I think your review of Firebird's was right on! Normally I do not rely on other person reviews for food or movies, as everyone has a different palette and expectations! I had the Pecan Crusted Trout, while my companion had the Pepper Crusted Sirloin. The steak was perfectly served Medium Rare. Both dinners were EXCELLENT! The Staff was extremely pleasant and attentive! Only 1 complaint, that was not the fault of the restaurant, we chose to eat outside, the nats were annoying! I will be back!
Another note, I usually give a restaurant a second chance before making a final judgment unless I found something to be so foul, I can’t stomach walking back in the door! Perhaps others should be more tolerant, no one is PERFECT ALL the time.
I ate at Firebirds about 3 weeks ago and found it to be pretty good. Loved the fresh baked bread which our waitress told us is baked every 7 minutes. It was SOOOOO good! We had the Lobster Queso Dip and thought it was too salty for our liking but great flavor. As Eric Ruth said it had no discernible lobster but it definitely had the lobster flavor. Chicken Quesadillas were nothing special and neither were the burgers we had as an entree. I thought the people working there were excellent and really nice. Many would just stop by and chat at our table as we were waiting for our next course. One thing that really impressed us was that they had sent us a free appetizer coupon. When we used it they took off the most expensive appetizer as the freebie. I thought that was really nice and not something most restaurants would do. I would say the only real drawback was the noise. It is an incredibly noisy place. It's got high ceilings and no carpeting (that I can remember) so everyone's voices are amplified. Otherwise we'd give it another try. We liked the cool Aspen vibe that they're trying to convey. It did feel like a nice ski restaurant in Aspen and loved the huge stone fireplace.
The food was so salty it was impalpable. We were a group of 11 and 5 of our meals were so salty that you couldn't tell what you were eating.
Also during our meal the Manager approached our table and told a friend of mine that he would have to move his vehicle out of the handicapped spot. My friends vehicle has a handicapped license plate. Clearly visible. The manager made up what was in my opinion a lie and said that the police told him to tell the owner to move the car.
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