Home made soup from my garden

I cannot tell a lie: I prefer eating at home these days, mostly because my garden is bursting with produce. This is a picture of the yellow tomato soup I made the other day.

It was delicious and had a real tomato-ey flavor, despite the yellow color. It had exactly two ingredients:

1) Lillian's yellow heirloom tomatoes from my garden and
2) garlic, also from my garden.

It doesn't get much easier than that!
First, I boil the tomatoes each for about a minute, and peel the skins off. (The tomatoes get hot and can burn your hands, but if you wait another minute, it won't hurt!) Then quarter them and put them in a pot with garlic. Let simmer for about an hour, longer if you want a thicker soup. Then put all in a blender.

This is the way food is meant to be eaten: really fresh, totally organic of course, and just brimful of flavor.

Now, if we could only get some restaurants around here with the same philosophy....
Does anyone else around here grow Lillian's yellow? They are absolutely my favorite tomato, even better than the red tomatoes. I don't know why, they just are. They also come very late in the season. I've always been fond of late bloomers.

Illium Cafe: Where It's At

Troy is no longer lacking for coffee houses. We used to have just one-- the Daily Grind-- and now we have four and counting (Daily Grind, which moved a year or so ago to Third Street; Java ++, next to RPI; Illium Cafe; Shake Shake Mamas; and for a while the mysterious Mean Bean, whose atmosphere was just as uninspired as its coffee and food selections).

I want to get this out of the way up front: "Illium" as a word does not exist. There are two meanings for the spelling "Ilium" (*one* "L"): one of them means "Troy" (as in our intended meaning here); the other means part of the large intestine.

Ahem.

So "Illium" is some new kind of meaning. Oh and another thing to get out of the way: The Illium Cafe web site does not appear to be working at this moment. I'm including the link in case it decides to get its act together, though. Illium Cafe site here soon we hope.

And for me anyway, the jury is still out on exactly what this cafe will mean to Troy, as in Ilium, as in Ilium fuit, Troja est. For the past year or so, the Ilium cafe, despite its ideal location, was a fairly humdrum cafe, with just-okay coffee, some good tea choices, and dicey food. Once, I had a piece of quiche there that was the worst quiche I've ever had. And quiche should be easy to make!

Anyway, now there is a new owner and chef, Larry Shepici, whose Tosca Grill will be opening soon-- in November.

My first experience at the new and improved Illium was wonderful. I ordered a soup of the day-- there are usually two or three choices-- and it was one of the best potato soups I've ever had, potato with jalapeno. It was smooth and creamy with none of that watery taste that can sometimes bog a good potato soup down. It came with homemade croutons on top-- just the right touch. For dessert I had a slice of chocolate polenta cake, which was good and mysteriously trendy (see recent entry on Nicole's Bistro at Quackenbush). I can't say I'd order it again, but it was better than the choices used to be.

My second experience was okay, but not as blissful. I got the grilled vegetables on ciabatta, and it was just so-so. Plus, the service had started to annoy me; both times I've been there there has been some confusion as to where I place my order, when I pay, and exactly how the food is to be conveyed to my table (or not). Sometimes they bring the food over but sometimes (as when I ordered on my second visit a peanut butter cookie) they leave it sitting on the counter for you to pick up.

Plus, on my second visit I was sitting in front of two people who were apparently just released from the mental hospital. Now, I am a strong advocate of mental health. However, it is somewhat distressing to be trying to enjoy one's lunch when the conversation nearby consists of hopeless, despairing, and more depressing. ("If you want to be a shut-in, you can be a shut-in." "I'm not that kind of sick. I can't just lie down and get better.")

This is the problem Troy is up against. Troy seems to have attracted, with the power of a magnet, all the wretched, the tired, and the poor that the rest of America no longer has any time for.

However, at least for now, we're getting some decent coffee.

Nicole's Bistro at Quackenbush

For our anniversary, my husband and I went to Nicole's Bistro at Quackenbush, a French restaurant that has gotten excellent reviews in Times Union among other local rags. It's in an old brick building (dating at least to the 1700s, perhaps earlier) with wide worn wood planks and a cozy feel. There's a narrow bar at the front. Nicole's Bistro is located at 25 Quackenbush House Albany, right off 787. They think the building was at one point a Dutch family's kiln and pottery building, and they also think the building served as a garrison during the French and Indian War.

All intriguing stuff, really.

But what really counts is food. And is it good?

I'm going to depart from the other restaurant reviewers and say that honestly, I think you can do better for the money.

I started with a mixed-greens salad, pretty standard, but in with the nice fresh greens were several rotten leaves. And I don't mean just slightly yellow. I mean almost composted, and slimy.

Now, come on!! Everyone knows that when you buy greens, some of them can go bad pretty quickly. But you clean them, and you pick out the bad ones, folks. Don't serve them to your clients at a supposedly fancy restaurant. Yuck.

My husband's tomato and mozzarella appetizer with basil pesto was quite good; they had in-season flavorful tomatoes (why does *he* always luck out?!)

My scallop entry was very good: diver's scallops with a lime-cilantro sauce that wasn't too overpowering. They were fresh and cooked to perfection, and came with slivered carrots and tender haricots verts. My husband got the steak au poivre in brandy sauce, which was quite good, although they did NOT cook it well as he had requested. He was okay with it but really was craving more of the poivre, the pepper flavors, that come with true steak au poivre.

Desserts were only so-so. I got the peach tarte tatin, which was flavorful but texturally disappointing (peaches kinda mushy, and ditto on the crust). Hubs got a slice of the chocolate polenta, which was really a kind of ganache with some polenta in it. It was good, but seems trendy (see: upcoming blog entry on the Ilium cafe!!). And this seems really picky, but they did not fill my one-cup teapot for mint tea with hot water; it was only maybe 3/4 full, and as we were the only ones there at the time, it seemed kind of-- stingy.

The walls are painted pink, there are some charming prints of Albany. But the whole effect of the paint, the somewhat shabby carpeting, the self-consciousness of the whole 'fancy dining' experience--was overweening. A fancy (read: expensive) restaurant should be classy and understated, so that you are made to feel that you are experiencing the ordinary elevated, as it really ought to be. The best upscale restaurants make me think: "Every night should be like this! This is how to live!" Not: "God, this is stuffy and expensive, let's go home and get more comfortable." True fine dining elevates the mundane until it feels beautiful, and makes the exotic comfortable.

The rotten salad greens detail was bad, but oddly, not enough to make me overall nix on the restaurant. No: it was the combination of so-so food (for the price: we paid a total of $97 plus tip, and no drinks) plus the somewhat worn atmosphere more than anything else. There were a number of other parties dining when we got there, but we closed the place (at what, like 9 pm I think. Come on people, we can keep restaurants open longer around here!! This is a complaint against Albany in general, though, not this particular restaurant). Our waiter gave good recommendations, and they kept an eye on us, but something was missing (maybe excitement? Joie de vivre?)

Well, we need fine restaurants, and I wish Nicole's Bistro the best. They are close to something really good, and maybe it's gone downhill since the previous rave reviews. I think what they need is a revamping of the menu (less sauce on the whole, more simplicity, some more vegetarian/pasta entrees), maybe a vacation for the proprietors, and some better feng shui. It can't be good for your karma to be so close to 787 (Take out the old carpeting, paint it red instead of pink, play some soft music and replace those dorky vine-encrusted candle holders on the table with something simple and classic.)

Drop everything and go to Moxie's for ice cream.

Before I wrote about how much I liked Coldstone Creamery out in Stuyvesant Plaza, and about the ambience at Snowman. I had not yet tried the ultimate in ice cream: Moxie’s. Moxie’s is far east of central Troy on Spring Ave, and as you drive, you keep thinking, “there can’t possibly be ice cream here, let alone great ice cream.” It becomes rural; crickets chirp and the smells of the countryside sooth you. Then, just when you think there must be some mistake, you see the ginormous bug light, then the Moxie’s sign, and it’s like an oasis of pleasure in the worn down grind that is the Capital District.

I would like to empower you in your search for the good life here, the pleasurable things that aren’t necessary to sustain life, but without which life can become dreary and deadening. It is possible to live la dolce vita in the Capital District, but it takes some doing.

Moxie’s is a roadside stand of ice cream pleasure. And we’re not talking garden variety. We’re talking serious ice cream buffs. There are FIVE different types of vanilla ice cream at Moxie’s, all homemade, depending on where the vanilla bean was imported from (Haitian, Tahitian, Mexican). You can even get a sampler: “around the world with vanilla,” trying all six flavors, plus Moxie’s signature flavor, blue moon-- and a bottle of water “to cleanse your palate.” There is a flavor called Horchata, that has a creamy cinnamoney flavor (it is based on a rice pudding-like concoction). There is a flavor called chocolata peppercino, which is chocolate with a little aftertaste of spicy heat. These are all excellent flavors, and much much better than anything else I’ve had in the area. Not all the flavors are great: for example, fig was a disappointment (not much flavor, tasted too much like plain vanilla), and the pomegranate cherry was not as vibrant as it could be, either. Tonight, I had a sundae, and the fudge sauce is only so-so (I prefer my hot fudge really dark chocolate; this was too sweet). And the whipped cream, although supposedly from a better brand, was out of a can and not impressive (Ben and Jerry's has the real whipped cream).

Despite these minor flaws, there is a European influence here, and the proprietress has traveled to Italy when not running Moxie’s, during the winter. This year she plans to go to El Salvador, and says we’ll just have to see what new flavors get inspired by her travels there. Moxie’s has its own lovely backyard park with lots of space to run around and playground equipment for children, and picnic tables where you can sit and enjoy your icy confection.

Another benefit here is that the sizes are reasonable: a regular cup consists of two scoops of ice cream, not a whole pint. This is sensible! This is good. Prices are very reasonable, with a regular cone at $2.95; you can buy a half gallon of this heavenly stuff for $6.15.

Moxie’s is a family business, having been started by a father and now being run by his daughter. It’s in Wynantskill, at 1344 Spring Ave. Other flavors that sound good I have ended up not liking: the fig doesn’t have much ‘figgy’ flavor, and the cherry pomegranate was similarly disappointing. However, when they get it right here, they get it so right that it is downright addictive.

Moxie’s remains open only as long as supplies last. As of tonight (8/16/06) they estimate staying open only until the 29th. They aren’t making any more ice cream, and already the vanillas are gone (except for a vanilla with peppermint). So go now, and enjoy summer while it lasts.

At the Farmer's Market: Vegan Creations

I took this photo a week ago of Rada and Nena, purveyors of Vegan Creations at the Troy Farmer's Market. Their cookies are one of the weapons in my diet arsenal. See, I have to have something sweet to nibble on during the day. Most days around 3 p.m. I hit this real low. I get a craving for some little tidbit or sweet morsel to go with a cup of tea or decaf. But this can lead to a cookie here, a piece of cake there... and before you know it I'm up a waist size.

The solution is to nosh on something delicious and tasty but light. Enter Vegan Creations, with the just-right-sized cookies they sell in many flavors. My favorite are the double chocolate and the regular chocolate. Just one or two of these fulfills my craving, and you see since they are Vegan, there is no sinful butter or egg.

Just for the record, I am not vegan. I am a lacto-ovo-fisho vegetarian. But vegan baking intrigues me (it's such a challenge: how to make delicious baked goods without the dairy or eggs?). It's not often well met. But Vegan Creations have figured out how to do it, at least for the things I've tried.

They also sell baklava, and things like carrot cake. Some of their delights are wheat- free as well, and their card says they specialize in seitan.

Their telephone number is: 518-479-5112
They also take orders.

The other intriguing development here is that they say they will soon start selling their baked goods at a vegetarian cafe that's supposed to be opening up in Averill Park (not far from Troy) called Slow Jed's Mud House Inc.

Here is their web site, but the links don't seem to work yet: Slow Jed's


More when I know for sure what the story is.

Brown's Brewery: Mixed Results. Too Damn Noisy Last Night.

Brown's Brewery in Troy on River Street is a perfectly adequate place to go most of the time. It is not one of my favorite places. But after discovering last night that Al Baraki closed at 9, we were left with hungry tummies and not too many options. So Brown's it was.

They seated us quickly, our waitress was friendly and efficient, and the menu offers a wide range of options. It's your typical brewery fare, although I read an article that I can't seem to find online that says there is a new chef there now.

I ordered the linguini with clams and white sauce, which was quite good. I am somewhat of a stickler about my linguini vongole, and this one passed the test. (Although don't expect actual parmesan cheese here. It came with one of those little shake jars with the crumbly kind of parmesan, not the real stuff). It was adequate (I seem to be using that word a lot, but it does describe the food, at least so far).

Some things they do really well: burgers. I don't eat meat but their vegetarian burger is one of the very best I've had. I've had the salmon there before, and it was just okay, not really great. I think they have a new version of it on the menu now, but I'm not eager for it, based on the mediocre quality of version the first.

My husband got the Reuben, and he complained that the corned beef in it this time was chipped. Apparently other times he's gotten it, it's come in the whole form that is preferable.

And the onion rings he ordered were below par. First of all there were exactly 6 onion rings of a standard size. That's not very many. The sauce they came with was basically just plain mayonnaise with flecks of something in it (pepper? I don't know. It didn't have any flavor). And they were doughy, not crunchy.

The other bad thing about Brown's last night was it was so noisy. They had this guy who was channelling Van Morrisson or Creedence Clearwater Revival or just drunk folk guy and I couldn't hear myself talk. So we skipped dessert and left early. Too bad, because I would have liked to try their Porter Chocolate cake.

This remains a standby, a kind of backup plan for us. And, it is a good place to go for beer. But beer alone doesn't make a restaurant.

76 Diner in Latham: Always Open, Always Something Good

The 76 Diner in Latham is exactly what every diner should be: open all the time, warm and welcoming, and chock-full of so many different options (breakfast all day, dessert all day, Greek salad, shrimp scampi, steak....) that it boggles the mind where they store all that food. How do they keep all those options in readyness, at a moment's notice, 24 hours a day? Plus the beverages.

The 76 Diner is located on 722 Loudon Road, Latham, tel. 785-3793.

They have a lovely dessert case that greets you and gets the salivary glands going just as you walk in. In it are all kinds of over-the-top things like Napoleons bursting with cream you know isn't good for you, strawberry cheesecake, and cherry and blueberry pies.

We were there the other night after having made an emergency run to the Lowe's in Latham Circle, and I got the broiled Haddock that came with: salad, side vegetable (I chose the spinach with mushroom, very good, almost creamy), potato (I chose the home fries, very good again). The piece de resistance was the garnish: a canned pineapple round with a maraschino cherry in the center on top of a piece of lettuce.

Where else can you go and order broiled Haddock and get a garnish like that, I ask you?! You know that love and care goes into that. And it is the essence of dinertude. My husband got the omelet with tomato and cheese (and home fries) and it was quite good.

Now let's be frank here: we're not talking organic eggs or quaint Berkshire-style diner. We're talking working man's, 24-hour, nightshifters, Greek-food inflected diner. But for what it is, it's at the top of its form.

The waitress, who spoke with a Russian accent, and I had a frank discussion about the fish. Was it fresh? I wondered. Well, she said, don't believe ANYONE if they tell you that fish is fresh at any restaurant, unless it is very very expensive. Almost all fish will be frozen in some way. But, she assured me, this Haddock would be good. I appreciated her honesty.

And the fish was good. It wasn't the best (or the freshest-- despite what she said, there are levels of freshness) I've ever had, but it was quite good. Better than I expected.

So go. Don't hesitate. And at $23 for two full meals, you can't beat it.

The Great Ice Cream Lick-Off

The Capital Region is blessed with several options for ice cream indulgence. At the risk of my street cred, I am going to endorse as one of my favorites the Cold Stone Creamery chain. We went to the one in Stuyvesant Plaza the other night and it was packed. The ice cream itself is of superior quality, and then there is the whole 'add-in' thing, whereby you personalize your ice cream. You can ask for any kind of mix-in (Snickers, Heath bar, M&Ms, nuts, sprinkles, etc.) and the servers then pound it all into a sludgy cold gooey submission on a marble slab. It's part of a larger trend of everyone being their own movie star/dreammaker/barista/iPod music mixer. They give you choices, and I got the peanut butter/chocolate concoction. It was chocolate ice cream with Reese's peanut butter cups plus actual peanut butter mixed in.

Can I just say YUM?!? Intense chocolateyness, plus peanut buttery goodness.

I was torn, though, and in retrospect I think I should have gotten the strawberry cheesecake concoction or the birthday cake one (actual pieces of birthday cake thrown in, with sprinkles!!!) There will just have to be many other samplings.

I might suggest ordering the smallest size, just because of the richness of the ice cream. It must have a high cream content, so a little bit goes a long way. There's another Cold Stone Creamery in Saratoga.

The other option for ice cream is of course the Ben and Jerry's on Lark Street in Albany. And I'm never going to pass up the chance for good old politically correct and intensely delicious ice cream by them. Plus, they use REAL WHIPPED CREAM!!! That is a big bonus in my book. And their fudge sauce isn't too overly sweet. One of the problems is parking, though: where are you gonna park, say, on a Friday night!??! It's not like there's a whole lot of room to double park with your flashers on while your sweetie runs in and contemplates the 20 or so incredibly delicious flavors.

It's problematic.

The institution we have come to love almost in spite of ourselves right here in Troy is The Snowman in Lansingburgh. Here is an article from the Business Review about ice cream with information about the owner of the Snowman, who makes his ice cream from scratch. Add to that all the soft ice cream options your heart could ever desire (vanilla and orange sherbert swirl for creamsicle effect cone, butterscotch or chocolate dipped cones, low-fat sherbert....) and you have a real conundrum. Pencil in about an hour's time just to decide what on earth out of all this sinful goodness you want. Recently I've had Maple Walnut, which was quite good. Their chocolate is okay, but not nearly as chocolately as Cold Stone's. Snowman tends towards the sweeter side of things, whereas I prefer less sugar, more flavor.

However, the Snowman is a social scene. Go on a Friday or Saturday night around 8 pm and you'll see everyone there: old, young, and in between lined up for their cold sugary goodness. It's so nice to see people out enjoying themselves in the Capital Region, where more often than not people are rushing around being workaholics.

The Snowman is on 5th Ave around 114th Street in Lansingburgh.

The article in the Business Review also mentions a place called Moxie's near Emma Willard which I'd love to try.

Happy lickings folks.

Wild blueberries on State Street

I haven't been active here because I've been battling my demons. I've had an extended period of the major demons. But I'm coming out of it. In the meantime I've relied on DeFazio's pizza and Edie's frozen yogurt (vanilla) as well as the double-chocolate vegan cookies sold at the Troy Waterfront Farmer's Market (subject for another post) to get me through. And of course, now that I'm starting to feel better, the first thing on my mind is food.

Today (a Wednesday, around noon) I was in downtown Troy, and there were three farmer stalls set up on State Street and Third. One woman was selling, among other things (cukes, zucchini, corn, potatoes), tiny wild blueberries. Natch I got some.

That I can buy wild blueberries on State Street in downtown Troy gives me hope, not only for our fair city but for humanity.

Feast well, friends.

Al Baraki: Excellent Lebanese food with heart

Al Baraki is one of the best places to eat in the Capital Region. You may be surprised by that statement, but you shouldn't be: consistently, immigrant and 'ethnic' restaurants in this area outpace more traditional (read: white) eateries for freshness, originality, and heart.

What is heart? Heart is that personal connection to food, that sense of emotional nourishment and connection we get when we eat food prepared with care and love. Too often, that quality is missing from overly corporatized chain restaurants and overbuilt, overly fussy places that try to pass as gourmet, like Provence in Stuyvesant Plaza.

At Al Baraki, you get garlicky, fresh food with great variety and a down-home feeling. Paul and Simone are the proprietors, and the restaurant is situated in what used to be a pizzeria. Apparently, Paul started out selling pizza pie, but was encouraged to prepare foods that reflect his Lebanese heritage. It has been working, and I for one will be going back for more. They had a very successful Lebanese festival recently and they tell me they plan to do it again next year. Also, students, be on the lookout for a promotion in the fall.

Today I had the sampler platter, and usually with these types of platters, I'll like one or two of the samples while the rest are pretty bland. But on the Al Baraki platter, I *loved* everything: the baba ganouj was light and garlicky; the stuffed grape leaf and the makdous (baby eggplant stuffed with walnuts and peppers) were topped with Al Baraki's stupendous, home made garlic mayonnaise (which sometimes you can buy to take home in jars); and the tabbouli was full-bodied with mint and lemon. Another one of their signatures is the homemade turnip pickle. It doesn't sound like much, but it packs a wonderful flavor punch, and they use it as a garnish/side on a lot of their dishes.

They also offer meat dishes such as shawarma (chicken or beef), home made pies (lahm-ajeen, which is ground beef with tomato; or goat cheese pie, which I want to try next); and hot vegetable dishes like mousakaa (this looks like a vegetarian version, with onion, eggplant and chickpeas) or loubieh (green beans cooked with onion and garlic).

Their hours are:
Daily 10:30 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Friday 10:30- 9 p.m.
Closed Sunday

telephone: 270-9404

Today it was nice, so I sat at an outdoor table, but they also have seats inside. Go to Al Baraki; it'll make you want to become a regular.