VACATION (FOOD)

Friday through Tuesday I took a vacation from work. A few friends and I spent Friday at Six Flags Great Adventure in Lake George, NY. Not only did I get Dippin' Dots, but I got Dippin' Dots twice. Dippin' Dots are fucking incredible. It's these little balls of ice cream that are super frozen and then melt a little in your mouth. They get stuck to your lips and make anyone around you while eating them very uncomfortable. I forgot to mention, this is ice cream FROM THE FUTURE. I don't know if they have a flux capacitor in the stand or if it's like those ice pops from Duck Tales but there is something good for dessert in the years to come. I started the day with cookies and cream but just kind of dropped all the oreo pieces on the ground. Then on the way home I got banana split which is everyone knows is the superior flavor.


Saturday I packed up my shit and headed to Long Beach, NY where my parents and brother live. It was great to visit them. We ate so much great food while I was there. When I got in my parents took me and my brother out to a great BBQ spot in Seaford. It's called Smokin Al's. We started with a mountain (literally a mountain) of fried onions with some sweet and tangy sauce which I enjoyed. Then came the real meal: a half rack of baby back ribs and a plethora of pulled pork. For my sides I chose garlic mashed potatoes and mac and cheese, as did my mother and brother. I made short work of the ribs which were very tender and juicy. Their original BBQ sauce had a great flavor and I smothered the pulled pork with it. The amount of food that I had ordered turned out to be more than I could handle and I was not at my most gluttonous at this point. The meal also came with a piece of cornbread which was moist and tasty. A friend from work told me there is another location on Long Island but I can't remember which town she said.

[EDIT: OK Smokin Al's is in Bayshore, not Seaford, and I guess there is no other location. -J]


Fast forward to the next day, past my bagel breakfast and leftover lunch to dinner where my Dad fired up the grill. I started off with multiple handfulls of shrimp cocktail and a couple pickles. Then out came the chicken kebobs. Burnt a little on the outside and cooked perfectly on the inside with a sweet teriyaki glaze. Then my brother and I feasted on salmon filets, followed by london broil. The salmon was very fresh and tasted really good with some lemon drizzled on top. The steak was cooked medium-well and was very good. I usually use A1 steak sauce when I eat steak but there was some off-brand at the house so I ate it without sauce but the flavor of the steak more than made up for it.


Dinner the next night was LOBSTER. I love lobster. Jordan's lobster farm is a couple miles away from my parents house in the neighboring town of Island Park. They have lobsters of every size, a fish market, and prepared dishes. They even clean and cook the lobster there for you. We got three lobsters because my father was working late. We also got some baked clams and some lobster bisque for appetizers. Obviously it was good. There was a small dilemma though, we only had one cracker in the house. Luckily we were all able to share the cracker without too much of a hassle. My only real regret of the visit is that I didn't take a trip over to my favorite clamshack: Bigelow's. This place has the best fried clams and new england clam chowder outside of New England.


I drove back home Tuesday night. Since all my awesome meals throughout the trip were free I decided to spend some of my own money. My friend Jesse and I went out to the Taproom restaurant in Troy, NY. I started with some mussels in a hefeweizen cream sauce. These are the best mussels I have eaten in years. For my meal I got salmon with fruit salsa. It sounds kind of weird to mix fish and fruit together but they compliment each other very well. It is light yet full of flavor. It was a great meal to round out what otherwise was a perfect weekend foodwise.

Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal

This is kind of a mishmosh post about some stuff I ate this weekend, some stuff I'm going to eat today, and some stuff I wish I was eating. I don't really have anything specific I feel like focusing on beacuse its noon and I'm getting stoned and I'm not feeling too inspired on this Christmas day.

Today almost all the restaurants and grocery stores are closed but Chinese food takeout is still open. I plan on getting some sesame chicken, some wonton soup, and a pork eggroll. I wish I was down in NYC or Long Island so I could eat some decent Jewish deli, or eat better Chinese food but I'm in Albany where any good food is always worse than it should be. When I lived at my parents house in Long Beach, NY we would get Chinese food almost every Christmas and go to the movies, like the rest of the Jews.

Saturday was BBQ day. My friend Greg, who spends his days watching movies, playing video games, and most of all, cooking, came over. We decided to make some ribs and some coleslaw. He was the rib man and I was the slaw man for this endeavor. We went to the store and got the necessary ingredients which was mostly payed for by a gift certificate I got from the EVR secret santa (thanks Buddy).

The ribs were cooked with a dry rub and a sweet BBQ sauce. The coleslaw was my mother's recipe which is probably the best slaw I've ever eaten. I wouldn't normally say anything my mother made is the best anything because it's so cliche (though she is a wonderful cook) but her slaw is perfect. When the ribs came out of the oven about 4 hours later (after a viewing of Big Trouble in Little China) the smell of delicious pork filled my house and basically killed my vegan roommate.

Here's another cliche, the meat on the ribs was falling off the bone. I'm not just saying that to be cute. I put my knife in to cut a rib off and it sliced through like butter and then landed on my plate when I picked up the rib bone. The taste was perfect. We were afraid that the BBQ sauce we used (Jack Daniels Maple Brown Sugar I think) was too sweet but after cooking with the dry rub the sweetness got locked into the meat. Instead of overpowering the pork flavor it created a nice blend with the dry rub. My coleslaw was not as good as my mother's but it was the first time I made it. Next time I think I know what to do to make it better. That was a great meal.

Yesterday I went to Taco Bell to get some grub. It was the shitty TBell on Central Ave. but I figured all the shitty employees would have taken Christmas eve off and only people who were hard workers would be on call that day. I pulled up to the window, ordered a grilled stuft burrito and a christmas gordita crunch. The cute girl who took my order laughed. (Don't you think its weird when attractive people work in fast food?) I was correct in my assumption and my food was prepared correctly and it all tasted great. I was feeling a little sick at the end of my burrito so I threw it out the window of my moving car but luckily I didn't get into an Anchorman-esqe scuffle with a fat actor.



BACON! I made a bunch of bacon yesterday at my house. That was the other half of my gift for secret santa at EVR (thanks again Buddy). It was pretty good but not as good as the bacon that they make at Cafe 217 in Albany. Everything I have gotten at this fine establishment is incredible. You can tell by the presentation and consistency of the taste that they really care about food. Cafe 217 is owned by my friend Brendan's cousin, Susie, who also owns my favorite bar in that area, named Susie's.

I have got to say that this place cooks their bacon perfectly. Each strip is crisp and flavorful and not dried out in the least. I got my usual, a bacon egg and cheese (cheddar) on a hard roll. The homefries were well done, which I love, and the mozzarella sticks I split with my lovely friend Emily were incredible. Most places just buy frozen mozzarella sticks but you can tell that these overstuffed sticks are fresh mozzarella that are breaded and fried on the premesis. Even the tangy marinara sauce tastes fresh.

The food at 217 isn't going to kill your wallet either. Most of the items are between five and eight dollars and the portions are big enough that a normal human (aka not me) will be full. It is a late night/morning eatery and they hold strange hours but that shouldn't stop you from going there. I forgot to mention how nice this place looks inside. I almost feel too scummy when I go there, like I am sullying up the establishment. Anyways, please go there and give Susie your money.

12 1/2 Delaware Avenue (on the corner of Jefferson)
Albany, NY 12210

Phone: (518) 462-0050

Hours:
Closed Monday and Tuesday
Open Wednesday -Sunday
9 p.m. through 2 p.m.

(EDIT: To clear up some confusion, Cafe 217 opens at 9PM and closes the following day at 2PM. It's open all night.)