Update: Café Teria is reportedly closing on April 30, 2010.
One of my favorite restaurants in Guilderland has changed. Aromi d'Italia is now Café Teria. It looks like the ownership and staff are generally the same. There are substantial changes but one thing remains the same - the food is excellent. Oh, and they still have the same great gelato.
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Update (3/9/2010): Café Teria has returned to sit-down service with a wait staff. They've also restored some entrees to the menu (including a tantalizing garlic shrimp dish), and prices might be slightly lower. Food on our lunch visit yesterday was fantastic - the Butternut Bisque got even better, and the sandwich/soup combo I ordered came with a small salad as well.
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So what's different? Aromi was a sit-down restaurant where the wait staff would take your order and serve you. In the new format you order up front and wait for your food to be placed out on a counter. Then you can take your food and sit wherever you like. The entrees appear to be gone. One friend of mine was almost crying about that. The new menu is mostly soups, salads and sandwiches. I'm thrilled they have a Butternut Bisque as a regular soup choice. I've been there twice and had it both times. One of the best soups I've ever had, though it's probably not your cardiologist's first choice.
I'm not sure how the format will work in the long run. It looks roughly like Panera, but with better food at a slightly higher price. They have something very close to that place's "You Pick Two" combo, for $10. You can get two choices of a soup, a half-salad or a half-sandwich. I think that costs about $7 at Panera. Sandwiches at Café Teria are roughly $9-13. At Panera they're more like $7. The comparison ends there - Café Teria has much better quality. The soups are richer. The sandwich meats are more substantial - dare I say meatier? The salads are more interesting with higher quality ingredients. Even the bread is better, which is saying a lot because Panera has good bread.
They may have some hiccups in dealing with volume if they get a lot of customers. The soda fountain is behind the counter, which may slow down the cash register staff. But I'm not sure they have a better spot for it. Waiting for your food is a little awkward - maybe they should give people a pager which would buzz when the food is up. Or, like Juicy Burger, give you a number for your table and bring the food to you.
To sum up, Café Teria is basically a higher quality Panera - with great gelato. My wife and I might spend $17 on lunch for two at Panera, versus $25 at Café Teria. We used to spend closer to $40 at Aromi. I've read in the past that economic problems are hitting high-end restaurants hard. This is another example of it. I'll miss the Aromi entrees, but I'll be getting great soup on a regular basis now.
Note that they have a facebook page
Showing posts with label Panera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Panera. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Losing Weight: Nutrient Density (even while eating out)
For the first time in years, the scale this morning showed me weighing less than 200 lbs (198). I started a new "diet" back in September. I was up somewhere around 215 or 220, and my cholesterol numbers were persistently high (not awful, but too high). After losing some weight, I had my cholesterol checked and it had dropped a lot. Not all the way down, but very close to the "targets".
My new diet is based on a book on Calorie Restriction. They also use the term "optimal nutrition," and that's meaningful. I don't follow the book literally (and to their credit they encourage that), but I picked up some big concepts from it.
The optimal nutrition concept is key. I try to eat things that have a lot of nutrients in them. There's actually a list in the book of a variety of foods and their "nutrient density" - a measure of the nutritional value per calorie. Not surprisingly vegetables are great. One of the easiest things I do now is eat more vegetables. In restaurants I ask for vegetables on the side instead of fries, pasta, rice, and other things that are not great on nutrient density. Most restaurants will accommodate that. I also order a side of vegetables, maybe even two.
There's a few things I make at home now with some frequency that I like and are good on the nutrient density thing. One is a blueberry smoothie. 1 cup nonfat yogurt, 1 cup skim milk (maybe an extra 1/4 cup), and 2 cups of blueberries. Put it in a blender, add some brown sugar or other sweetener - not needed but not horrible either - and drink. Blueberries are loaded with nutrients. Sometimes I use other berries, bananas, or some combination of the bunch. Be careful when you buy blueberries. The first time I bought a tub from the freezer and didn't notice it was in syrup - which dramatically increased the calories without helping nutrition - and didn't really taste better either.
The other recipe I adopted was tuna-hummus salad. Instead of mixing tuna with mayonnaise, I mix it with hummus. I usually include some onion, maybe some spinach leaves, and maybe some peppers too. Honestly, I like this just as much as tuna salad made with mayonnaise, maybe a little better. I eat it open face on a slice of whole wheat bread (I like whole wheat better than white), usually with spinach and/or other salad greens over the top. Plus maybe olive salad and things like that.
I also eat healthier at breakfast. Kashi GoLean Waffles are pretty good. I also make a variety of things with Eggbeaters, usually scrambled with vegetables. I sometimes use veggie substitute things from Morningstar Farms, like their veggie sausages (better than real sausage) and a "Veggie Crumble" thing that they have at Target. You can have waffles, scrambled eggs and sausage - a very filling meal, with a lot fewer calories and a lot more nutrients.
I also just make vegetables sometimes at home. Last night I made asparagus with some onion, garlic, and a bit of soy sauce and sushi vinegar. It was pretty good. A couple months ago I bought frozen asparagus at the store (I wanted to try it - fresh does taste better). I checked the package label. The whole 10 ounce package had 60 calories. That's all. Just 60 calories. You can eat a lot of vegetables and really fill yourself up without getting too many calories.
If my wife makes spaghetti at home, I'll nuke a veggie Italian sausage or a veggie burger (there's a big variety of these nowadays) to go with it. I also buy some "healthy" frozen entrees - the Kashi ones are pretty good. The organic section has some others I like. They're usually 300-400 calories.
Another good thing about this approach is you can pig out once in a while and it's not really a problem. At first I did this about once a week, but now it's less often than that. If we go out to a really nice restaurant, then the diet is out the window - but I'll still get extra veggies. This isn't hard for me. I really do enjoy eating them.
I went to Via Fresca on Western Ave. the other day. They have a good selection of veggie side dishes. Plenty of other good things too, but it's important to have places you can go and eat healthy. Panera Bread usually has good soups and salads, and a half-sandwich once in a while isn't too bad for you. I pay extra for the fruit cup side.
My "sins" are not so bad. Dark chocolate is pretty good on nutrients, so I eat some of that. Camembert is one of the better cheeses so I have that on crackers sometimes.
I think one of the other keys to healthy eating is that when you're going to eat bad, don't soften the blow with "lite" versions. Don't get lite salad dressing. The olive oil and canola oil are good for you anyway. Get smaller portions of the bad stuff, not full portions of the lite version. The lite version isn't nearly as tasty and is ultimately unsatisfying.
My new diet is based on a book on Calorie Restriction. They also use the term "optimal nutrition," and that's meaningful. I don't follow the book literally (and to their credit they encourage that), but I picked up some big concepts from it.
The optimal nutrition concept is key. I try to eat things that have a lot of nutrients in them. There's actually a list in the book of a variety of foods and their "nutrient density" - a measure of the nutritional value per calorie. Not surprisingly vegetables are great. One of the easiest things I do now is eat more vegetables. In restaurants I ask for vegetables on the side instead of fries, pasta, rice, and other things that are not great on nutrient density. Most restaurants will accommodate that. I also order a side of vegetables, maybe even two.
There's a few things I make at home now with some frequency that I like and are good on the nutrient density thing. One is a blueberry smoothie. 1 cup nonfat yogurt, 1 cup skim milk (maybe an extra 1/4 cup), and 2 cups of blueberries. Put it in a blender, add some brown sugar or other sweetener - not needed but not horrible either - and drink. Blueberries are loaded with nutrients. Sometimes I use other berries, bananas, or some combination of the bunch. Be careful when you buy blueberries. The first time I bought a tub from the freezer and didn't notice it was in syrup - which dramatically increased the calories without helping nutrition - and didn't really taste better either.
The other recipe I adopted was tuna-hummus salad. Instead of mixing tuna with mayonnaise, I mix it with hummus. I usually include some onion, maybe some spinach leaves, and maybe some peppers too. Honestly, I like this just as much as tuna salad made with mayonnaise, maybe a little better. I eat it open face on a slice of whole wheat bread (I like whole wheat better than white), usually with spinach and/or other salad greens over the top. Plus maybe olive salad and things like that.
I also eat healthier at breakfast. Kashi GoLean Waffles are pretty good. I also make a variety of things with Eggbeaters, usually scrambled with vegetables. I sometimes use veggie substitute things from Morningstar Farms, like their veggie sausages (better than real sausage) and a "Veggie Crumble" thing that they have at Target. You can have waffles, scrambled eggs and sausage - a very filling meal, with a lot fewer calories and a lot more nutrients.
I also just make vegetables sometimes at home. Last night I made asparagus with some onion, garlic, and a bit of soy sauce and sushi vinegar. It was pretty good. A couple months ago I bought frozen asparagus at the store (I wanted to try it - fresh does taste better). I checked the package label. The whole 10 ounce package had 60 calories. That's all. Just 60 calories. You can eat a lot of vegetables and really fill yourself up without getting too many calories.
If my wife makes spaghetti at home, I'll nuke a veggie Italian sausage or a veggie burger (there's a big variety of these nowadays) to go with it. I also buy some "healthy" frozen entrees - the Kashi ones are pretty good. The organic section has some others I like. They're usually 300-400 calories.
Another good thing about this approach is you can pig out once in a while and it's not really a problem. At first I did this about once a week, but now it's less often than that. If we go out to a really nice restaurant, then the diet is out the window - but I'll still get extra veggies. This isn't hard for me. I really do enjoy eating them.
I went to Via Fresca on Western Ave. the other day. They have a good selection of veggie side dishes. Plenty of other good things too, but it's important to have places you can go and eat healthy. Panera Bread usually has good soups and salads, and a half-sandwich once in a while isn't too bad for you. I pay extra for the fruit cup side.
My "sins" are not so bad. Dark chocolate is pretty good on nutrients, so I eat some of that. Camembert is one of the better cheeses so I have that on crackers sometimes.
I think one of the other keys to healthy eating is that when you're going to eat bad, don't soften the blow with "lite" versions. Don't get lite salad dressing. The olive oil and canola oil are good for you anyway. Get smaller portions of the bad stuff, not full portions of the lite version. The lite version isn't nearly as tasty and is ultimately unsatisfying.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Restaurants on a recent trip
We just got back from a week in Florida with a stop in the Bahamas. I should be blogging about restaurants in Albany, but I just haven't been motivated to say much.
We had some interesting moments in our trip. First, we went to the Palm Beach area of Florida to visit family. The most notable restaurant experience was on the beach in Lake Worth (the beach is on the ocean, not on the lake - I don't even know if there is a lake in Lake Worth). We ate lunch at Benny's On The Beach. Benny's is actually on the pier. And the particular cuisine of note was ... hot dogs. Yes, I'm reviewing a place for its hot dogs. I'll move to the other end of the spectrum later in this post.
So anyway, Benny's has really good hot dogs. Great flavor, a touch of spicy without being too spicy. The whole family liked them. This includes certain family members who never seem to like anything. So if you're ever in the Lake Worth area and you're hankering for a hot dog, Benny's is the place.
I had nice chat with a guy there who I'm guessing is Benny. He's from Quebec, and is familiar with the Albany area. In the 1970s he would come down here to play hockey against some locals, I think as a part of a team from up there.
Next up, I just have to mention a new reason for liking Panera. We have a Panera practically next door to our office, and we go there maybe once a week, but I don't think I've ever blogged about it. I like the soups. The sandwiches are okay, but not great. They also have a cheese pastry that's damn good - my current sin of choice. But that's not why I'm writing about Panera. We were staying with relatives down there, and these relatives do not have internet access. While I could check my e-mail via my cell phone, I felt a need to get some real access with my laptop during the week. So I went to Panera there for breakfast three times, because Panera has free wifi (that is, free wireless internet access). While there I enjoyed the spinach and bacon quiche, which was, well, yummy.
But the more interesting part of the trip was a side trip I took with my wife. We went to the Bahamas, staying at Hotel Riu on Paradise Island. Riu is next door to Atlantis, a huge resort that has a reputation for being absurdly expensive. Riu cost about half as much, so it was only very expensive. Our stay was "all-inclusive" meaning you get to eat and drink without paying any extra. It seemed that most of the guests spent quite a bit of time in the various hotel bars, or sitting by the pool getting drinks from the poolside bar. I now understand the concept of all-inclusive from the hotel's perspective. If you keep up the flow of alcohol to the guests, they won't notice that the food isn't very good.
We arrived and had our first meal there, lunch. It was a buffet. There was absolutely nothing special about it. A salad bar without many choices. Some cold cuts and not much choice there either. A few hot items that were not exciting. Hot dogs too, but not nearly as good as at Benny's. And there was fresh melon, which was mostly bland. In addition to these buffets, they have three special restaurants. There's a steakhouse, a "gourmet", and a Japanese restaurant. If you know me, you know I had to try that, so we ate at the Japanese place - Tengoku (I believe it's the word for Heaven). Tengoku was weak. In the past I have been critical of Japanese restaurants run by Chinese people. I must now say that the Chinese do it much better than Bahamians. The food was not rancid or anything, but the flavors were all wrong, and I don't have much positive to say about that meal.
Breakfast the next day was a little better. A buffet again, but they seemed to do this better than lunch. Breakfast also included smoked salmon, which is one of my favorite foods. Oddly they had cream cheese next to it, but no bagels. We also had lunch at the buffet, which was no better. But this time I didn't eat much because I was saving up for dinner - and this is where the story gets good.
We had made reservations for a restaurant named Dune. Dune is considered one of the best restaurants in the Bahamas, and I have to agree. For starters it's in a fantastic location - in the "One and Only Ocean Club" resort. They really ought to drop the One and Only from the name, because it seems unclassy, even though it is rather accurate. The Ocean Club resort was the setting for part of the latest James Bond film. It looked pretty nice in the film, but that did not do justice to how stunning this place really is. While Atlantis and Riu have towers of rooms, Ocean Club has no more than two floors. It is quiet. Everything about it is tasteful, pleasant, relaxing, etc. I lack the words to convey the truly blissful feeling we had as we walked around after dinner.
Which brings me back to Dune. The food was excellent. I went a non-traditional route and had four different appetizers with no entree, while my wife had soup and a steak. My dishes included a raw tuna dish, a raw salmon dish, a chili shrimp with noodles dish and a salad. The tuna and salmon dishes were perfect. Among the best I've had, though not quite on par with Megu in NYC. The salad, with asparagus and avocado, was also quite nice, though it might be hard to screw that up. The chili shrimp dish was only very good, with the noodles in the dish being a bit too much like instant ramen noodles. My wife's soup and steak were also delicious. For dessert we had the sampler plate. The cheesecake on that plate was one of the best I've ever had - made with creme fraiche. All of the items were good, and a couple others were outstanding as well.
So as we're sitting there enjoying a quiet dinner, a table of ten sits down next to us. One guy at the table looks familiar but I can't quite place him at first. The group was mostly okay, but a little noisy. The one who looked familiar was the loudest, and I finally realized it was a moderately famous retired NFL quarterback. I don't want to name him, but let's just say his name (perhaps a nickname) would fit well with his volume. The volume might have bothered us, but it was pretty cool to be eating next to someone of his fame, so that offset the loss of quiet.
As we were leaving, my wife told me to look to my left, and I noticed yet another retired NFL quarterback sitting at another table in the same room. This one, arguably the greatest quarterback in the history of football (even though he never won a Superbowl), was eating quietly, and possibly looking over at the loud one in a bit of dismay - but I only caught a glimpse.
Those are the restaurant highlights from our trip. So if you ever win Lotto and can afford the $1000+/night for the Ocean Club, I strongly recommend it. If we ever go back to Paradise Island, that is where we'll stay, though we might have to go into debt to pull it off.
We had some interesting moments in our trip. First, we went to the Palm Beach area of Florida to visit family. The most notable restaurant experience was on the beach in Lake Worth (the beach is on the ocean, not on the lake - I don't even know if there is a lake in Lake Worth). We ate lunch at Benny's On The Beach. Benny's is actually on the pier. And the particular cuisine of note was ... hot dogs. Yes, I'm reviewing a place for its hot dogs. I'll move to the other end of the spectrum later in this post.
So anyway, Benny's has really good hot dogs. Great flavor, a touch of spicy without being too spicy. The whole family liked them. This includes certain family members who never seem to like anything. So if you're ever in the Lake Worth area and you're hankering for a hot dog, Benny's is the place.
I had nice chat with a guy there who I'm guessing is Benny. He's from Quebec, and is familiar with the Albany area. In the 1970s he would come down here to play hockey against some locals, I think as a part of a team from up there.
Next up, I just have to mention a new reason for liking Panera. We have a Panera practically next door to our office, and we go there maybe once a week, but I don't think I've ever blogged about it. I like the soups. The sandwiches are okay, but not great. They also have a cheese pastry that's damn good - my current sin of choice. But that's not why I'm writing about Panera. We were staying with relatives down there, and these relatives do not have internet access. While I could check my e-mail via my cell phone, I felt a need to get some real access with my laptop during the week. So I went to Panera there for breakfast three times, because Panera has free wifi (that is, free wireless internet access). While there I enjoyed the spinach and bacon quiche, which was, well, yummy.
But the more interesting part of the trip was a side trip I took with my wife. We went to the Bahamas, staying at Hotel Riu on Paradise Island. Riu is next door to Atlantis, a huge resort that has a reputation for being absurdly expensive. Riu cost about half as much, so it was only very expensive. Our stay was "all-inclusive" meaning you get to eat and drink without paying any extra. It seemed that most of the guests spent quite a bit of time in the various hotel bars, or sitting by the pool getting drinks from the poolside bar. I now understand the concept of all-inclusive from the hotel's perspective. If you keep up the flow of alcohol to the guests, they won't notice that the food isn't very good.
We arrived and had our first meal there, lunch. It was a buffet. There was absolutely nothing special about it. A salad bar without many choices. Some cold cuts and not much choice there either. A few hot items that were not exciting. Hot dogs too, but not nearly as good as at Benny's. And there was fresh melon, which was mostly bland. In addition to these buffets, they have three special restaurants. There's a steakhouse, a "gourmet", and a Japanese restaurant. If you know me, you know I had to try that, so we ate at the Japanese place - Tengoku (I believe it's the word for Heaven). Tengoku was weak. In the past I have been critical of Japanese restaurants run by Chinese people. I must now say that the Chinese do it much better than Bahamians. The food was not rancid or anything, but the flavors were all wrong, and I don't have much positive to say about that meal.
Breakfast the next day was a little better. A buffet again, but they seemed to do this better than lunch. Breakfast also included smoked salmon, which is one of my favorite foods. Oddly they had cream cheese next to it, but no bagels. We also had lunch at the buffet, which was no better. But this time I didn't eat much because I was saving up for dinner - and this is where the story gets good.
We had made reservations for a restaurant named Dune. Dune is considered one of the best restaurants in the Bahamas, and I have to agree. For starters it's in a fantastic location - in the "One and Only Ocean Club" resort. They really ought to drop the One and Only from the name, because it seems unclassy, even though it is rather accurate. The Ocean Club resort was the setting for part of the latest James Bond film. It looked pretty nice in the film, but that did not do justice to how stunning this place really is. While Atlantis and Riu have towers of rooms, Ocean Club has no more than two floors. It is quiet. Everything about it is tasteful, pleasant, relaxing, etc. I lack the words to convey the truly blissful feeling we had as we walked around after dinner.
Which brings me back to Dune. The food was excellent. I went a non-traditional route and had four different appetizers with no entree, while my wife had soup and a steak. My dishes included a raw tuna dish, a raw salmon dish, a chili shrimp with noodles dish and a salad. The tuna and salmon dishes were perfect. Among the best I've had, though not quite on par with Megu in NYC. The salad, with asparagus and avocado, was also quite nice, though it might be hard to screw that up. The chili shrimp dish was only very good, with the noodles in the dish being a bit too much like instant ramen noodles. My wife's soup and steak were also delicious. For dessert we had the sampler plate. The cheesecake on that plate was one of the best I've ever had - made with creme fraiche. All of the items were good, and a couple others were outstanding as well.
So as we're sitting there enjoying a quiet dinner, a table of ten sits down next to us. One guy at the table looks familiar but I can't quite place him at first. The group was mostly okay, but a little noisy. The one who looked familiar was the loudest, and I finally realized it was a moderately famous retired NFL quarterback. I don't want to name him, but let's just say his name (perhaps a nickname) would fit well with his volume. The volume might have bothered us, but it was pretty cool to be eating next to someone of his fame, so that offset the loss of quiet.
As we were leaving, my wife told me to look to my left, and I noticed yet another retired NFL quarterback sitting at another table in the same room. This one, arguably the greatest quarterback in the history of football (even though he never won a Superbowl), was eating quietly, and possibly looking over at the loud one in a bit of dismay - but I only caught a glimpse.
Those are the restaurant highlights from our trip. So if you ever win Lotto and can afford the $1000+/night for the Ocean Club, I strongly recommend it. If we ever go back to Paradise Island, that is where we'll stay, though we might have to go into debt to pull it off.
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