Cella Bistro: If You Lived There, You'd Be Home By Now

Cella Bistro is for me a schlep. I define 'schlep' as anything more than about a 15 minute drive around here, especially if it's winter. Also, I define 'schlep' as anything taking place in the greater Schenectady area-- apologies to Schenectady folks. I'm sure you feel the same way about Troy, so it's even. The word also is appropriate here because, ultimately, I felt that this would be a fine restaurant if we lived nearby, but it isn't something I plan to go out of my way for again. And that's not just because I'm grouchy. If you met me in person, you'd never realize how grouchy I am. For the most part I hide it really well.

For your consideration is this wall of family photos that my husband and I had almost an hour to contemplate as we waited for our appetizers. It didn't make me feel like part of the family. It made me feel like maybe there is some kind of competition, and the people with bigger families win.

I had heard numerous good things about Cella Bistro from acquaintances and also from various reviews. Click here for Steve Barnes' review of them this summer. It's supposed to be a more contemporary Italian place than what we usually expect in the Capital Region, where old school red-sauce joints are King. So we schlepped, and then we further schlepped, because we parked about a block away on a quiet residential street that was full of cars. The parking lot there is small (although to our chagrin once we hoofed it in the cold to the restaurant we discovered there were, in fact, plenty of spaces right in the lot). It's in a building that looks like it was once a house, although it's been nicely redecorated, with warm-toned brown painted walls and new beadboard.

After our initial expenditure of schlep energy in the drive, we further depleted our patience resources by waiting for service that was creepingly slow. At one point, our waiter, who was of the more obsequious and frighteningly cheerful variety, apologized, saying there was a large party of 20 people that was slowing everything down. We were understanding, really we were. And then we realized that we had been sitting there for almost an hour and hadn't even gotten our salads yet. So that was count one against Cella Bistro, although as an experienced restaurant-goer knows, sometimes these things happen. Still, times like this I feel like saying, "Hey, will you just show me the kitchen-- I'll fix the salad!"

The food itself was uneven. The appetizers weren't that good: this spring roll
is an example of nouveau cuisine making too much of itself, with goat cheese and artichoke filling (artichokes should never be used to 'fill' anything. I have too much respect for artichokes). The endive salad we shared was mostly just that-- endive with a too-heavy dressing sitting inside a radicchio leaf. But by that time, we were hungry and grateful.

I had a lovely rosé wine from Provence. I wouldn't mind another right now.

Then dinner: my husband's bolognese was really good, with homemade wide pasta noodles; mine was mahi-mahi with a sauce that was too sweet. There's nothing that turns me off more than too much sweetness. Cloying and saccharine, too much sweetness is always trying to hide something. But the haricots verts were the real thing, which I appreciate because I don't have much luck growing them like that (nice, dark and skinny) in my garden.

The scene was quite the Niskayuna-Schenectady do-gooders scene. People at a table behind us were yukking it up in that way that people who function in society yet like to get drunk do. And our waiter seemed to egg them on by chatting them up. This loud group then moved to the bar area and it was remarkably quieter.

We opted out of dessert. It's probably a good thing because today alone I hate half a large farmer's market chocolate cookie (Placid Baker, I love you!) and a biscotti as well as a bag of Cheetos. 'Tis the season, folks. Happy Thanksgiving.

My New Addiction: Roma Importing Co.

Roma Foods Importing Company is in Latham in Cobbee Road, in the shadow of the Price Chopper plaza. It's one of those great secret places you can live here for years and not know about, because it's on one of those little side streets off Route 9. It's awesome and you must go, now and again! I didn't have my camera with me, but here's a pic of the booty:


If you want to skip reading this blog and just go there to get delicious food here is their info:

Roma Foods
9 Cobbee Rd., Latham
tel. 785-7480
hours: M- Th and Sat: 9-6
Friday: 9-7
Sunday: closed

There is also a location in Saratoga.

Although they are a deli, there is a whole separate meats shop next door, and "deli" doesn't even begin to explain the nummyness here. (It will take a meat eater to go there and report on their salamis, but they looked really, really good. They also had things like chicken sausage and whole turkey).

There is an entire aisle of different kinds of pastas: imported types from Italy, Farro pastas, and all different shapes and sizes. There is a frozen foods section with raviolis (plain as well as things like lobster ravioli), and spinach pies that looked wonderful. They have those homemade Italian lemon cookies with icing. Sauces galore, both Italian and salsas (I got a bottle of mango salsa). Greek tarama and taramosalata. Relishes, every size and shape of caper you could possibly want in large or small bottles, about a dozen types of olives in their deli section (plus others in jars). There are hard-to-find baking ingredients like marzipan and chestnuts. There are chocolates, panettone, biscottis, Italian cookies (the typical American kinds that are outlandishly colored pink and green and such, in a glass case) and a whole selection of packaged taralli, those heavenly little donut-shaped Italian crackers I became obsessed with two years ago after finding them at the Italian festival in Schenectady.

I bought the anise kind (for dessert) and the fennel kind (for snacking). They are dangerously addictive!

You can easily pick up dinner there, and the prices are very reasonable. I got the chef Paul caponata, which is just bursting with big juicy capers, olives, and pine nuts. The grilled eggplant and zucchini weren't as good, but still, who's complaining-- that you can *get* these things in Latham is a major achievement. I got a large jar of Maille dijon mustard for just $3.99, and a large jar of red peppers for just $3.49. I got a gorgeous bottle of unfiltered olive oil (the real thing, with smoky green olive sedimentation) for just $16.95 for a whole liter, where that would easily cost me $35 or $40 anywhere else.

The people who work there are efficient and friendly, and the woman behind the deli counter cut in half a big ball of fresh cow's milk (fior di latte type-- the kind in water) mozzarella* for me to take home. It's the best buffalo mozarella I've found around here. They had these intriguing antique wooden bins of salted chickpeas that are a snack I'd never seen before. They had bags of black melon seeds (also a snack). They have reassuringly large glass jars of spices (beyond cinnamon-- things like sumac) so you can get as much as you need (not like those stingy little dank pricey plastic or glass bottles at the supermarket).

They also do catering and parties.

I was so excited when I left that I forgot entirely why I was out on Route 9 anyway and had to backtrack to do my errands. I'm planning on becoming a regular at Roma's.

*Note that "buffalo mozzarella" technically means the kind made from actual buffalo milk: read the comments for more info. I often use "buffalo mozzarella" just to refer generically to "mozzarella in water" but usually the kind in the US is made from cow's milk.

Via Fresca: If You Lived There, You'd Have Lunch By Now

After the ferocious snows I had quite an appetite, so I decided to find Via Fresca, which has been given good reviews in the Albany blogosphere. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it is a respectable Italian lunch spot and deli with many tasty treats. Their panini especially have drawn raves (I didn't try the panini, but I believe it from their overall good quality).

Via Fresca is at 1666 Western Ave., on the left hand side if you're coming from Albany, past the entrance to Crossgates.

Let's get this out of the way: the building looks like an el cheapo location for the future manicurists of America to flunk out of beauty school. It is not at all attractive. From the looks of it, it might as well be a dentist's office or a skeezy pet shop with goldfish dying from unfiltered water or an insurance agent's office that will finance your drug habit. Okay maybe I exaggerate just a little bit. But. The entrance from the parking lot actually made me wonder if I was in the right place.

And it's not really the kind of place you can hang out or relax and have your meal. There are a few tables in the back for wastrels like me, but I was the only one using them. This is really more of a takeout place.

But if I lived nearby I'd go there regularly to stock up on their wonderful deli salads like artichoke, shrimp, and pastas. They had a nice lineup of meats, some hot dishes (the eggplant parm looked addictive), and some gourmet grocery items (mascarpone, chocolates). We need more places like this in the Capital Region so those of us who are busy can still do takeout and eat well.

And last but not least, they have excellent cookies. I went for the coconut rounds and the raspberry bars, which rocked my world.

Nicole's Italia in Guilderland and "family values" food

Last night (Sunday) I went to see a movie at Crossgates with a friend. Afterwards we wanted to get something to eat and didn't want to deal with Houlihan's or Uno's at the mall (noisy, food not great). So we tried Nicole's Italia, which is about a mile west of the mall on Western Ave (Rte 20) in what is known as the "20 mall." It's near the Guilderland public library.

Nicole's has a web page, but I can't get it to click on anything.

As my goal was to escape the whole mall feeling, I felt that all in all, we had really just traded one mall for another, since Nicole's is in a large strip mall wedged near Hollywood video. The food at Nicole's was *okay* but overall I don't think I'd go back there. Next time I'm near the mall I will try BFS restaurant, but unfortunately they are closed Sundays.


We shared the bruschetta for appetizer, and that was good in a grilled-cheesey kind of way; it was on the same warm fresh white bread that was set on our table when we arrived. (And doh! I forgot my camera so I couldn't take a picture of anything! Dammit!) Then I had a Caesar salad, which was good, but unremarkable. It was a salad of the dark outer leaves of Romaine, and a so-so dressing that didn't have any of that tangy-salty bite I love. (In the case of an actual Caesar salad, I would have tasted fresh garlic and anchovy paste).

Our waiter was helpful and the service was good. We didn't have to wait at all-- that's the good news. On the other hand, the atmosphere in Nicole's Italia is something between grandmother's living room circa 1975 and the foyer of a funeral home. Lots of mauve and pink and candles on the tables with a partition between the main dining room and the bar made of that cut-glass that was so popular in the 80s. Their bathroom was clean.

My main course was the Gamberi Ortolano, "Lightly battered shrimp, sauteed with broccoli, mushrooms, mozarella in a marinara cream sauce over fettuccini." Oy! Too too much. I should have known from the description, but your Nosher is ever-optimistic and hopeful that her culinary dreams will be realized. The cream sauce was okay but a little bit watery, and there was overall too much mozarella. DeFazio's in Troy does a much better marinara-cream sauce (they call it Rosario). And as usual my portion was way too big, with the signature “family restaurant” mozarella melted and draped over everything like smog in a developing country.

The shrimps were somewhat overcooked (or perhaps just not very fresh) and absolutely buried in layers of fried stuff then sauce then cheese, until it almost didn't matter that I had ordered shrimp at all. It might as well have been tofu or chicken nuggets or eyeballs in there.

Why, one wonders, is this food burial dining referred to as “family” style? I consider "family style" these days to be a euphemism, but for what? Is it perhaps a reference to the sedentary nature of most American families, who like to eat doughy bread and deep-fried everything? Or is it our repression-- we repress our shrimps as we repress our emotions in family life? Is there something politically conservative about people who have resisted the changes wrought by the gourmet movement (a la The United States of Arugula) that aligns them with the “family values” crowd? I do suspect that the people who bring you food unchanged from the 1970s are the same ones who resist changing definitions of family like gay marriage and women's rights. Repression, smothered shrimp, backwards politics-- it's all the same, man!

Albany, apparently, is one of those outposts that has resisted changes both political and culinary, where diners can still glut on major splooges of melted mozarella.

To you, dear reader, this may be a good or a bad thing. For me, it inspired a dream last night in which I had moved back to New York City.

My friend got chicken parmigiana, which looked quite good, and he enjoyed it. It came with a generous side of linguini.

Then came dessert: I asked the waiter what he would recommend-- the strawberry shortcake, or the tiramisu. His vote was for the tiramisu. It was okay, but I must remark that it was the first time I ever had a tiramisu that came with whipped cream (the kind from a can) and chocolate goop, like as in Hershey's from a squeeze bottle.

Gack.

Usually tiramisu = lady fingers soaked in espresso with mascarpone and bittersweet chocolate. Click here for good normal recipes for tiramisu at Heavenly tiramisu!! I've eaten tiramisu all over the world, and it took good ole Albany to put doubt in my heart about it. Now whenever I want to order it, part of me will hesitate, wondering: are they going to serve the tiramisu with chocolate squeeze sauce and whipped cream?

My friend's pecan pie was pretty good, with a butterscotchy rich flavor, but I had only one bite-- it was really sweet, and more might have felled me right there to the mauve carpeted floor.

Antipasto's: cozy and fresh

The other night, I *finally* made it to Antipasto's, after a few years of saying "I should try Antipasto's some time!" It's in Clifton Park: you get off 87 for Rte. 9 west, and keep going past the Clifton Park mallapalooza (pass the Borders and TGIFridays) continuing for about a mile. Antipasto's is in a small outdoor strip on the left near a Price Chopper; it's easy to miss because it's tucked into a corner.

But if you are in the area, you owe it to yourself to try it out. It is a vegetarian friendly (and also vegan-friendly) Italian/Meditteranean restaurant, but you'll like it even if you're not a vegetarian. Antipasto's has a real neighborhood feel; it actually has the vibe of a restaurant in Italy where the locals like to congregate, which many restaurants claim to have but most don't actually manage. It also has an impressive wine bar. There are signed wine posters on the walls, attesting to the owner's love of quality vino.

Before I get started describing all the gustatory pleasures at hand here, I should warn you: Antipasto's does not take credit cards. So go there with some cash.

We shared a sauteed spinach and white bean appetizer, which really turned out to be a most enjoyable huge platter (and, note: we got the small) of vegetarian antipasto: pepperoncini, really nice olives of different sorts, and the spinach and bean mixture. The waitress, who was pleasant and helpful, also brought out some warm bread (from Bella Napoli-- a real plus) and balsamic dipping sauce. For my main dish I had "The Thomas Jefferson": eggplant parm with vegetables on the side. And oh, what fresh and delightful vegetables, all convivially making way into the tomato sauce at the center! There were carrots, broccoli, and more olives, and I felt not only sated but healthy. The eggplant was wonderful, and my glass of Chianti better than the usual. My husband got the Mixed Vegetable Ravioli, which were homemade and served in a simple olive oil and garlic sauce.

Other items on the menu include many types of pizzas, which you can order in individual or larger sizes; a soup of the day; plentiful salads, like a Spinach salad with Artichokes and feta or the Josey Wales with Gorgonzola and grapeseed vinaigrette. Salads can be had in small or large sizes (what a great idea!), and you can also get a gourmet cheese course or bruschetta for appetizers or to go with wine. Other dishes include Portobello Parmesan, Cheese Melt Florentine, and pasta of many types (Cheese Ravioli, Pasta Primavera, Porta Putanesca [sic]-- mushrooms with Puttanesca). They also had a 'vegetarian seafood' dish and vegetarian cutlets as one of the main dishes.

We passed on dessert (see my entry on Angel's to come soon!) but felt sure that we'd be back to try it out some time. I left only wishing that Antipasto's would open more venues around the Capital Region; Clifton Park is too far away from everything else. This is a neighborhood restaurant-- and I want it in my neighborhood!