Taste of India Syracuse Buffet

I went to the buffet for lunch on Friday.  It's a small buffet, about six dishes plus rice, naan, condiments and salad.  There was also a desert Gulab Jamin - like donut holes soaked in honey syrup.  I didn't have the desert because I was trying not to overeat.

On the plate is Kadi Pakorda Gujarati (vegetable dumplings in a creamy mild sauce), Tandoori Chicken (cooked in a clay oven), Raita (yogurt sauce) Saag Paneer (Cheese the texture of tofu in spinach) Chicken Vindaloo (very hot) Vegetable Pakoras (vegetable fritters).
Buffet costs $8.95 per person.

I liked being able to get Raita and Tamarind sauce with the meal.  Raita is yogurt and it is good to eat alongside spicy foods.  Tamarind sauce is a slightly sweet sauce I like to put on the Pakoras.

Most of the food here was pretty mild, with the exception of the Vindaloo which was hot, and the Saag Paneer which I would say was a medium spice.

The buffet is a good value and gives you a chance to try small amounts of dishes to see what you like.

I prefer the buffet at Sahota Palace in Liverpool because there are more than twice as many selections, so I'd probably be more inclined to eat there.  They have a buffet for both lunch and dinner.

I would come back here to try it again, especially if I was in the Westcott Street area around lunchtime.

What I really need to do is spend less time obsessing about Indian food and more time at the gym.

Review of Taste of India Syracuse dinner

Taste of India Restaurant Review

This was taken before it opened!
I forgot to take a new one last night.

Last night we went to Taste of India, the new Indian restaurant on Dell at Westcott that opened a few weeks ago.  The building is a converted mechanic's garage and it sits back from the street with parking in front.

We were hoping to have buffet because we didn't have that much time.  Buffet is only for lunch though.  We decided to stay and have dinner.

We were quickly seated in a comfortable booth.  I ordered a Mango Lasi, a drink made from yogurt, milk and sweetened mango pulp for $2.95.  I always get this in Indian restaurants.  They are a good companion to spicy food -- if something is too spicy they also take away a little of the burn.

We ordered the taste of India Special Appetizers for two at $6.95, Plain Paratha bread for $2.95, Lamb Biryani at $11.95 and Chicken Shahi Korma at $9.95.

Our order was taken fairly quickly.  The food did not arrive quickly, though certainly within an acceptable amount of time.  A pleasant young woman apologized for the delay and informed us that our food would be there in a few minutes.  I appreciate when places do this as I don't mind waiting but want to know that they are working on it and that the food isn't sitting there getting cold.

Note TV on left side!

Taste of India has a large screen TV on the wall playing Indian Music Videos.  This seems to be the new thing for Indian restaurants, several that I have been to in the last year have added this.  I like Indian music and it adds to the atmosphere.  I don't like watching TV or videos while I eat usually but since I can't understand what they are saying and there are no commercials I like having it on.

The appetizers were my least favorite part of the meal.  They were very fried.  However, my dining companion enjoyed them and was happy to eat most of my share.

The main courses were served in little brass pots, with a dish of rice.  My dining companion at first said he didn't like the biryani, then changed his mind and said he liked it a lot.  I thought it was a good basic biryani.

He ordered it medium spicy and we thought it was mild, so if you want spicy food here you might tell them that you really do want it spicy.  They tend to adjust for upstate NY palates at many restaurants here, and though many people will have no problem with super-hot Buffalo wings they seem to be scared to eat spicy Indian or Thai food.

My dining companion said the korma looked like chicken pot pie filling and it did somewhat.  I liked the korma, it was mild and creamy with cashews and was perfect over the rice.

Biryani and Chicken Korma

The Plain Paratha bread was thinner than naan bread, more along the lines of a tortilla.  It was slightly crispy and very buttery.  I'm not much of a bread person and the thinner it is the more I usually like it.  I would order this again.

We were unable to order most of what I would have wanted because my companion hates tomatoes, cheese and yogurt, and a lot of things I would have liked have these ingredients.  I will have to come back for lunch and try some more things.

Note: We went back on Friday and had the Buffet Lunch.  Click to read review of Taste of India Syracuse Buffet

This restaurant is a welcome addition to the Westcott area and I'm glad they opened.

Click for Taste of India Syracuse Menu


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Thai Flavor on Erie

This is Thai Flavor on Erie Boulevard. There used to be another Thai place here, but it closed and this one opened up. This one is much better. It reminds me of the ones I used to eat at when I lived in California and Toronto.
They have done a nice job on the interior. Sorry for the terrible camera phone photos!
On our last visit, we had a curry and a salad. I can't find these items on their online menu, I think we ordered from their special items menu which is not online. The curry was amazing.
My husband and I have eaten here three times and we have been happy. The people here are friendly and the service was attentive. We plan on coming back frequently.

Actually I'd eat here a couple of times a week if I had more money and wasn't on a weight loss/fitness plan. Luckily my plan allows me a free day once a week so I can eat out!

Thai Flavor of Syracuse website and menu

Location: 2863 1/2 Erie Blvd East

Syracuse, New York 13224

Tel : 315-251-1366

Hours: Mon 11:00-3:00 and 5:00-10:00

Tue Closed

Wed 11:00-3:00 and 5:00-10:00

Thur 11:00-3:00 and 5:00-10:00

Fri 11:00-3:00 and 5:00-10:00

Sat 11:00-3:00 and 5:00-10:00

Sun 11:00-3:00 and 5:00-10:00

Smorals: Comfort food and good service = relaxing night out

Smoral's is a restaurant that seems like it is in the 1950s. I mean this in a very good way. It has an old fashioned air about it. I just love it.

It's not like one of those fake 50s diners where they have waitresses in poodle skirts and jukeboxes, but more the quality of a family restaurant where people go to eat tried and true good food. It's fancy enough for a nice dinner out but not so formal that you can't bring your kids or that you have to dress up.

The food is kind of typical old style family restaurant/steakhouse - steaks, shrimp cocktails, seafood platter, some pasta and chicken dishes. That's why it reminds me of the 50s - there's really no fusion food or innovative new tastes. It strikes me as something that would have been cutting edge in the 50s. I can imagine someone saying "I went out on a date last night and he took me to a restaurant with crab stuffed mushrooms and I had a lettuce wedge salad!" but now we have become more sophisticated with our celebrity chefs and gourmet cooking shows. Smoral's harkens back to a simpler time, and I like that.

The food is well prepared. Steaks are tender and you don't need steak sauce. Clam chowder (Friday only) has big clams.

Pies are the desert specialty here. They are made on the premises and the crusts are perfect - nice and buttery. Pie selection varies by what they have on hand, and sometimes they run out. If there is a particular type of pie you want, order it when you order dinner so no one else gets it!

There is also a bar, with a bar menu of appetizers and light meals.

The wait staff is friendly and competent. I've only had good service and good meals here.

This is what we had last time we were here: fried seafood platter and chicken Avery. The chicken dish is in a wine cream sauce with mushrooms - my husband loved it. I actually think the broiled seafood platter is better than the fried one, but this night I was in the mood for fish and chips!

These are the salads that come with dinner.

So if you are looking for comfort food in an old fashioned place with good service, head over to Smorals.

I ate at the Dosa Grill and it was great

This restaurant is getting a lot of positive attention, and it is well deserved. This is an Indian Restaurant at Erie and Genesee in Dewitt in the small plaza across the street from the new fire station.

I've eaten there twice. The first time we went for dinner and ordered off the menu, and the second time I went with a group and we ate at the Sunday Brunch Buffet.

If you are not familiar with Indian food, start with the buffet so you can see all the dishes and try some smaller samples of the various foods.

The buffet setup is a little awkward, having the condiments first, then the main dishes!

Raita is a yoghurt sauce, and it helps tone down the richness and spiciness of the sauces. I also like tamarind sauce, a somewhat sweet sauce that goes well on pakoras (vegetable fritters).

After the condiments/salad area there is the main dishes area. It has naan bread and basmati rice, and then a selection of curries and other sauce type dishes which change from week to week. Dishes when I went included butter chicken, chana masala (vegetarian chick peas in sauce), mutter paneer (cubed cheese and peas in a red sauce), a spinach dish, and the previously mentioned pakoras.

There is also an area with tandoori chicken, which is marinated chicken cooked in a special clay oven, and biryani, a rice dish with vegetables. Deserts were rice pudding, which seems to be manditory in Indian buffets, and this one was decent but nothing special. They also had an orange colored "fruit pudding" which I tried. One of my dining companions asked me what flavor it was and I was unable to answer - it was incredibly bland with very little flavor.

At the end of the buffet is an actual dosa grill. Dosas are very much like a crepe, and come with a filling of thick curry. They are dipped in a coconut chutney or a red sauce that is hotter and I'm not sure what it is. I consulted the menu to find out what it was, but oddly enough they do not mention the sauces or even dosas on the menu at all!

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Ocean Sushi in Liverpool

Ocean Sushi is a small sushi restaurant in a strip mall on Route 57 in Liverpool, New York. It's right next to the Starbucks.
I have heard this place gets really crowded. My husband and I went there at around 5:30 on a Saturday in September. There was only one other table occupied when we got there, and only one other party came in while we were eating.

It's basically your average upstate NY sushi bar. The sushi was good, not great, average in price. Service was prompt and pleasant. You'd expect service to be like that if the place is pretty much empty, however that is not always the case. The server was a young man who seemed very confused by me ordering a glass of wine - like this had never happened before. It was an average house wine type chardonnay for about six bucks and it was not chilled. But as I frequently drink white wine at room temperature, I didn't really care.

Ocean sushi also has a full bar, where they were showing sports. Thankfully the sound on the TV was off. I don't mind watching sports but I don't like listening to them while eating, and I sure don't like listening to TV commercials while dining out. Thanks Ocean Sushi, for keeping the sound down.

We got a tempura vegetable appetizer. It was good, not fantastic but we enjoyed it.
Sushi is served on a big boat. The menu has a mixture of fancy rolls like dragon rolls and caterpillar rolls and all the regular rolls like california rolls and plain fish rolls.
One roll that was unique was the spring roll, sushi wrapped in a spring roll wrapper like Vietnamese cold rolls come in. It had sweet sauce on it.

For 2 glasses of warm chardonnay, a soft drink, tempura appetizer and sushi it was around 70 dollars. I felt we got good value for the money and I would return.

I would post a link to their menu or web page here, but as far as I can tell they do not have one online.

They do however, have a Facebook page. It's an example of how not to do a Facebook page for your restaurant.

Social media is about interaction. What they did was just put up a page and ignore it. It's got people asking questions, people posting photos of the food, people saying they like the place and it even has the CNY Menus guy asking for a menu to put on his site! Also, it's got spam.

We have been thinking of eating at this place for a while now. I actually joined their Facebook page back in April and asked them if they had a menu online! No answer. If they had answered, I would have been reminded of their restaurant and probably eaten there sooner.

Added July 1, 2011 Link to Ocean Sushi Liverpool NY Menu from CNY Menus -

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Giannis Bronx Style Pizza is Awesome.

I read about this restaurant in the Chus On Chow blog, and a couple of weeks ago I was driving down the Burnet Avenue in Eastwood feeling kind of hungry and I realized I was driving by the great pizza place I had been meaning to go to. So I stopped and got a couple of slices of cheese pizza.

I asked Gianni what Bronx pizza was, and he explained to me that in the NYC area there is a lot of competition for pizza, and people make their own sauce and dough, so that the pizzas have a unique flavor. Here in Syracuse, everything is called New York Pizza, so he decided to differentiate himself from the masses by calling it Bronx Pizza. Well, also he's from the Bronx.

Next Saturday I was driving around hungry again and pulled into his parking lot. Then I realized I had no cash! But that was ok, I rummaged around and found some change and had enough for a slice of vegetable pizza, ($2.76). He remembered me from the week before too. I came in at the same time as another customer, and he gave us both a free sample of tomato pie.

Now, I had never heard of tomato pie before coming to Syracuse. When I came here, I didn't feel inclined to try it. "tomato pie, that's just pizza without the cheese, why would I eat that?"

But as soon as I tried this, I forgot all about the cheese. The bottom of the crust was slightly crisp, yet chewy, and the inside of the pizza has a pleasing sponginess, nice and light. It's topped with a really wonderful sauce, slightly tangy, and not too much of it. Perfect.

The vegetable pizza was great, with a nice thin crust and thick layer of cheese. I loved the breaded eggplants and ricotta cheese.

I'd be tempted to eat there every day, but I'm on a fitness program right now. Every Saturday I get to eat whatever I want and I'm planning a visit.

The shop itself is hard to see at first, it faces out into the parking lot off of Burnet Avenue. It's right next to a golf shop, and down the street from Shifty's Bar and Grill and Domenic's Restaurant.

Google Maps page for Gianni's Bronx Style Pizza

Syracuse NY Pizza Blog and Reviews

Gianni's Pizza

1428 Burnet Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13206-3519(315) 425-7770

Trouble

Today I decided to tidy up my indoor gardening/plant area. I went in the kitchen for a while and when I came back the cats were "helping".

I've been on a diet and exercise program - I am following a plan where I eat six small healthy meals six days a week, and work out for six days a week, three interval cardio days and three weight lifting days. Plus I get a free day where I don't work out and I can eat whatever I want. So I went to one of my favorite restaurants, Smorals which is on Avery street near my house.

I took photos and made notes and will write a review later in the week. But I did want to say that it's a really great place because I have noticed a lot of people searching for it and ending up at my blog because they don't have a web page. So this isn't a review but a recommendation - if you want a totally old school, inexpensive steak/pasta/seafood/chicken dinner, go to Smorals. They are friendly and have a full bar.

Steve's or Beans - Tipp Hill's secret Mexican Restaurant - part one

Would you guess there was a Mexican Restaurant in there?

Last spring I went to a small get-together down the street from my house. We all lived in Tipp Hill and the talk turned to local eateries. Someone said there was a Mexican restaurant down the street. What? Yes, in a sports bar on Milton Street there is a secret Mexican restaurant and it's great. Wow.

So we went there the next Saturday. There's a bar and next to it is another door that looks more like a restaurant entrance. So we went in. Place was pretty deserted. "Can I help you?" says a man. We told him we were looking for the Mexican Restaurant. He is the owner and cook, named David. The restaurant is still there but only open on Thursday and Friday nights. He is nice enough to bring us a few samples of food while we have a drink at the sports bar.

Flash forward a couple of months and we go there with my friend Adina. First I called for reservations, as David recommended. We get there and sit down, the waitress is pleasant. We get our menus and order margaritas. They were good, not great on the rocks style margaritas. I'm not much of a margarita drinker so I just had one.

David (the cook) walks around the restaurant and he heard my friend Adina talking about vegetarian food. There's no vegetarian entrees on the menu except for quesadillas (grilled cheese sandwiches made with tortillas!) and he said he has a vegetarian special. So she got that. (Why is it not on the menu?) I can't remember what Dave and I had but it was good. Sorry, it's several months ago! But I did take some photos.Looking at these photos the food looks kind of terrible! But it was great.
You know you're in Syracuse when the Margarhitas come in Bud Light glasses!

My friend's vegetarian platter was tofu strips with tortillas, beans, rice etc. She really liked it.

Part 2

So it's August and we decide to try it again, just me and my husband. I called and asked if they had room for two people. Yes! Do we need to make a reservation? No! So we ambled on over there. We are seated right away. Then two large parties show up!

I'm a huge avocado fan, being a transplanted Califronian and all. I ws disapppointed they had just run out of guacamole. Oh well. I was super hungry so I ordered a quesadilla ($2.50) with just cheese, no meat. All the entrees come with your choice of pork or chicken or (secret) fried tofu which is not on the menu.

Since I'm not that into margaritas I got a glass of Pino Grigio and my husband got a glass of house red, which he said was exactly the kind of wine he wants as house red, not too sweet or dry.

The quesadillas came pretty quick. They were filled with a generous amount of mild cheddar and some type of spiciness- maybe a little chili powder. They came with a cup of salsa and a little scoop of sour cream, and they were pretty tasty. They disappeared pretty fast at any rate, and my husband doesn't eat cheese!

Steve's (Bean's) Mexican Cantina is in the back of a sports bar. The walls are fake wood panneling with numerous pictures - southweatern art, 1920s wedding photo, Mexican blanket, and photos of chili peppers. You basically know that you are in a New York State sportsbar from the Yankee game televised on the wall opposite, and the fact that everyone yells when the Yankees score or something happens in the game.

I got chicken enchilladas with a side of beans and corn. It comes with a salad bar too but the waitress didn't mention it to us and I forgot to ask until I was too full to have the salad bar so I guess we didn't need it anyway. It's not the greatest salad bar, lettuce, tomatoes and dressing in bottles from the supermarket. It would be easier just to do side salads.

Anyhow, back to our orders, my husband doesn't eat cheese or tomatoes. He asked for a burrito with only rice, beans, and pork, with a side order of salsa (yes I know salsa has tomatoes my husband is crazy). He asked for no sides or sauce. When his order came it was a regular burrito covered with red sauce and cheese. But it was no problem to send it back and his replacement came within a few minutes and the waitress could not have been nicer about it.

He was very happy and gave it high marks.

I enjoyed my enchiladas. I also liked the beans. But the corn and peppers side dish was canned corn, not my favorite. I still ate it though and enjoyed it.

The beans remind me of New Mexico Mexican food. They are pinto beans and have different spices than the beans I am used to from California.

I do miss Mexican food from California! This somewhat fills the need. The closest thing I have found to what I am used to is still Alto Cinco.

But I am really glad to have this place within walking distance to my house and will continue to go there.This is our dinner
(Quesadillas not available because I ate them before I remembered to take a photo!)

PS
I guess I should explain about BEANS. When I've told people about this place, some of them have corrected me. "Oh, you mean BEANS Mexican restaurant." And it does say BEANS on one of the walls. Several people have told me in no uncertain terms that the name of it is BEANS. But the menu says Steve's Cantina & Grill!

Syracuse Style Cut Pizza

Syracuse Style Cut Pizza, originally uploaded by Melsky.

It's popular to see pizza cut this way here. Supposedly it started at one place (Twin Trees pizza in Solvay) and other places started copying them. I like the triangular slices better because you get crust on all of them, it seems more even.

This pizza is from Gregorio's Pizza on Genessee. It's good, not the best pizza but worth getting again. It's a thinner flexible crust, which I like. A lot of people around here like Twin Trees Pizza but I'm not very keen on it as it's that bready kind of foccacia-like pizza and I don't care for that style.

Taste of Syracuse festival

Today I went to the Taste of Syracuse festival for lunch. This is a festival where a lot of restaurants and some community organizations have food. Most booths just have a few things, like they will have a smaller fair version of some typical food from their restaurant. Many places also have a tiny sample portion for one dollar. Mostly people will eat small amounts of food from several different places, kind of like eating at a tapas or small plates restaurant.

This is the scene as seen from the Chase Building, at lunchtime on Friday.

At first it is overwhelming because there's so many things to try. I was in the mood for Asian food so I went to the New May Lai booth which is in the area near the main stage. I had the Cold Rolls (3.50) which were ok. They are spring rolls with a dipping sauce. They tasted fine but were not wrapped tight enough so were hard to eat. They kind of fell apart. Luckily I had also gotten the Tofu Curry Noodles (3.50) which was excellent - pad Thai style rice noodles with big chunks of tofu and vegetables. The curry was mild and sweet and not overpowering. I recommend this one!

My husband got some red beans and rice from Ruby's Soul Food. He liked it but it was a bit too much food Then he got kielbasa from Eva's European Sweets, which he said was tender and succulent, despite not being the hugest fan of kielbasa. That was just a small dollar size sample which included a small slice of bread, several slices of kielbasa and sauteed onions and peppers.

One of the problems with taste of Syracuse is there's not that many places to sit. We did find a bench to sit on to eat at first but it's kind of hard to eat without a table. Then a space cleared at a nearby picnic table so we grabbed it. For the last leg of our meal we went in an enclosed eating space with tables.

This year, you need to have a special wrist band to get alcohol, and for most drinks you need to purchase drink tickets. The small wineries sell drinks for cash too. Of course you can still go to bars downtown if you wish - there's Wild Will's and Kitty Hoynes nearby.
There are a lot of non-food vendors and businesses, including phone and insurance companies, the New York State Lottery, jewelry, clothing and several radio stations.

You can get a map and a complete list of vendors and information at the official Taste of Syracuse site

The festival starts at lunchtime on Friday and continues on until it ends Saturday night. There's no festival on Sunday.

How to eat at Coleman's

Right when we moved to Syracuse, several people told us not to eat at Coleman's. Have a drink there, but don't eat anything, the food is awful, they said. We didn't listen, and had lunch there. It was a mixed bag - the fish and chips was great, my husband's chicken was dry as the Mohave desert and nearly burnt. The Irish Soda Bread was stale. We should probably have sent them back but my husband hates to make a fuss. I'm not much of a fusser either, even when it's warranted. The drinks were good though, and reasonably priced. I could see why people told us not to eat there though, and we didn't for a long time.

The second time we went back was when we were house hunting. I decided to get my tried and true fish and chips. They were very overcooked! at the edges the fish had the texture of dry chicken, very chewy. The coating managed to be dry and greasy at the same time. My husband got a shephard's pie and it was alright. But the drinks were still good.

Then we moved to Tipp Hill, and live only two blocks away from Coleman's. So it's tempting to go there for a few drinks. Occasionally the drinks turn to dinner. And surprisingly, we have had a few good dinners there. The first time, my husband ordered the Sea Bass special, though I told him it was probably going to be horrible. Actually it was exquisite and I wished I had ordered it. I got a steak and it was good, but not as good as the sea bass. Husband refused to trade.

We went the other night and had a steak from the specials menu, it was very good. My husband got the fried haddock special, and it was also very good. There I go again, very good. I should find some better adjectives or descriptions. The steak was tender and had a sort of garlic/herb butter on top that was very tasty. The colecannon potatoes I got as a side dish have cabbage in them and probably a lot of butter and cream because they were extra delicous and went very well with the steak.

The fried haddock was well prepared, moist and tender on the inside and crunchy on the outside without being too greasy. My husband enjoyed it.

So, I think that it is possible to have good food at Coleman's. But I only eat there during mealtimes, like right at lunch or for an early dinner. And at dinner, we have had a lot of luck ordering off the specials menu. I think these things are what the chef really wants to make and it shows.

Our bad experiences were both eating there in the mid-afternoon, not at a meal hour and I think they must have had someone inexperienced in the kitchen. So if you have to eat there at an off time, try getting so drunk that you can't taste how overcooked everything is, or order the Guiness Stew which I've heard is very good and probably hard to screw up.
Photographs:

The first one is the front of the building. It's a nice old building, very well kept up inside and out. Inside has lots of photos on the walls, a tin ceiling, and lots of interesting stuff and nick nacks. But you'll have to take my word for it as I didn't take any pictures of the inside decor.

The second photo is my husband's appetizer of Chicken Fingers. I didn't write about them in the main part of the review. He liked them. I'm not a big fan of chicken fingers, and these had black pepper in the batter which I don't like. I did eat most of the fries though. They are round fries, and sometimes a little thick. I like thinner fries. These were fine though.

Third photo is our table, with fresh flowers. Bonus points for fresh flowers!

Fourth photo is the tiny door at the entrance for leprechauns, and the fifth photo shows the tiny phone booth for leprechauns. I think they might be distracting the cooks during the off hours and burning the food.

Postcript - Coleman's gets very crowded. If you are eating dinner or seeing a band get there early.

One of the reasons Syracuse is a great place to live

Dining Room ceiling in new house, originally uploaded by Melsky.

You can buy a beautiful old house like this in good condition in a good area for 100K or so. Syracuse housing prices are much lower than other areas. This means that if you are a first time buyer and taking advantage of the 8 thousand dollar tax deduction for first time buyers, you are saving an even bigger chunk off your house.

You have to close on your house no later than NOVEMBER 31, 2009 to take advantage of this, so the time to get started looking is now.

You can call me at 315-317-2721 for more information and to find out how much of a loan you might qualify for. If you are thinking of putting your house on the market, it's a great time for this too with all those first time buyers out looking now.

Alto Cinco

I'm originally from California, and one of the things I miss is good Mexican food in the California Style. Alto Cinco is not specifically the type of food I miss, but it's so good it kind of fills that void. It's a restaurant which would not be out of place in California, with it's wide range of vegetarian and vegan menu items, it's wine list and the general ambiance of the place.

I've eaten there about 10 times. So that means I've sampled 10 of their dishes right? No, sorry, I'm a bad restaurant reviewer. Every time I have gotten the same thing because I like it so much. It is the Barbeque Tofu Burrito. Every time I go there I tell myself I'm going to try something new and every time I get the same thing.

I am not vegetarian, nor am I a big fan of Tofu. But somehow this one is so well done, with firm chunks of firm cooked tofu which you would never mistake for meat but do have a satisfying chewiness usually absent from these type of dishes. I love the small amount of chipotle BBQ sauce on top, just enough. It's got black beans, rice and salsa inside also.

It comes with a small salad, which I like, and cornbread, which I don't like. The cornbread is sweet and has jalapenos in it, not a good combination for me. However I have a friend who really likes it so don't let me discourage you.

You can see in the picture that I started eating before I took it. I meant to wait but when the waiter put the plate in front of me a primal instinct took over and I dug in.


Next time I go I will try something else, I swear!

Alto Cinco Restaurant

SCYTHIAN at Kitty Hoynes

SCYTHIAN at Kitty Hoynes, Syracuse, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I went to see this band at Kitty Hoynes last Wednesday. I liked the band, I think. I mean I couldn't hear them that well, what with all the people to the right and left of me having loud conversations. I guess to hear a band at Kitty Hoynes you have to stand right below them.

It's funny becuase the evening started out with a band that was much too loud. We were looking for a place to have dinner and my husband suggested the Syracuse Suds Factory, where he has lunch a lot. So we went in, and they had live music. It was a swing/jazz sort of band, and it was so loud I could not hear my husband talking at all.

You know that sort of snotty expression "if the music is too loud, you are too old"? Well, I think this may have been the opposite. The people in there seemed like they were a lot older than us. Perhaps they lost their hearing going to too many metal shows in the 70s and they've now mellowed to a point where they enjoy a little lite jazz LOUD. Everyone did seem to be having a good time.

We ended up eating sushi at Ambrosia. Good, but incredibly expensive. Their martinis are a great deal though, seven bucks for a big fat martini that you could almost take bath in. Memo to self: Go to Ambrosia for drinks only.

Back to Kitty Hoynes, I did enjoy the show but it was frustrating not to be able to hear it, and that place is just not set up for live music. There's just not enough room around the stage and at the other sides of the bar you can't hear them. I don't think I will go there for any more bands. I am going to try out the traditional Irish music they have on Saturday afternoons though. I think it's probably a much better venue for that sort of thing. These days I'm a lot more into the traditional music. I must be getting old!

Doc's Little Gem Diner

On Sunday my husband said he wanted to go to a diner for breakfast. I had seen photos of this sign on Flickr, so I wanted to go there. Even if the food was horrible, I knew I could at least get a photo of that beautiful sign.

The food wasn't horrible, but it wasn't that great either. It was truly average diner food. It's the kind of food I regret eating right after I eat it, just because it's so unhealthy. If I eat something unhealthy I want it to be amazing, not just average.

The best thing about eating there was the waitress. She was friendly and efficient. The prices were very reasonable too.

I don't think we will hurry back there, but I'm glad we went.

Snow, Snow, Snow and cold

It's minus 2 degrees! The snow is all powder, in fact this morning I swept it off the driveway and sidewalk instead of using a shovel. For the first time, I had to come in before I finished the driveway because my toes and hands were getting cold and started to hurt.

I think I'm almost over my cold and tomorrow I'm going skiing at the park. I would almost do it today, except I'm kind of busy. Tonight I'm going to an art opening - it's a Jackson Pollack exhibit that my husband's work is putting on. I'm excited that I get to go, that I'm not still sick and we are not having a giant blizzard or something.

Another Syracuse based item: wings. I had some great wings the other day, from OIP (which stands for Original Italian Pizza). We had pizza too. I'd actually tried their pizza when I attended the Christmas tree lighting for the Eastwood tree. They had a little party afterwards with pizza from OIP and coffee from Cafe Kubal. I had also smelled the wings cooking at the new Eastwood location while I was at the hardware store and was tempted to get them, but I had stuff in the crock pot at home.

The pizza is decent, thin crust the way I like it but nothing to write home about. The wings, on the other hand, you can write to home about them. They were great. When I was deciding where to order from, I did a search on OIP and a surprising amount of reviews from people popped up praising their char grilled wings. So I got a large cheese pizza and 18 char grilled wings. They were amazing, just the right amount of crispyness with a slight smoky flavor. My husband does not like wings much so I figured with 18 of them, I would be eating them for a few days. Wrong! They were gone that same night and Mr. Idon'tlikewings ate half of them.