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.

Ocean Palace (and Amazing Wok and Pearl of the Orient)

Update: I'm pretty sure Ocean Palace is closed. Emperor's Palace on Wolf Road is not too far away and a great choice.
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We ate at Ocean Palace tonight. I loved it. My wife did not.

She had wonton soup and cashew chicken. She was not fond of the soup, but liked the cashew chicken better. I thought both were excellent. The chicken was just right and had a delicate flavor. The soup also had a delicate flavor. Neither dish was the way they are in most Chinese restaurants around here. I suspect OP is more "authentic". One hint that way is that there were two other families there while we were eating (a very early dinner on a Sunday) and both were Chinese and speaking Chinese. Also, they have menus on the walls or hanging that are written in Chinese only. That's a hint that their target market is not gringos like us.

I had a mix of tofu and minced pork. The version I had in Japan was spicier and had more pork. The one at Ocean Palace has a fairly small amount of pork, with a lot of tofu along with some Chinese mushrooms. This dish was good, but I remember liking it better in Japan. Maybe I was just looking for what I remembered. We also got noodles for our daughters, but they didn't eat much of them. It was ginger-scallion noodles. I thought it was also quite good.

This is one of those funny things about cultures. To Americans, tofu and pork together doesn't make sense. Americans think tofu is for vegetarians, so it doesn't make sense to have a dish with tofu and any kind of meat. Asians do not view tofu as a vegetarian thing. It's food. Similarly good hot-and-sour soup has both pork and tofu in it. Which reminds me -- I had hot-and-sour soup at Ocean Palace tonight. It was better than what you get at the buffet places, but I like it better at Amazing Wok.

Amazing Wok is a hole-in-the-wall (or mini-mall) place not too far from us. It's made for delivery and take-out mostly, though there are a few tables. We get delivery from them often. Their hot-and-sour soup my favorite, and their other dishes are good too. My wife likes Amazing Wok and usually does not like what she gets at any other Chinese place. I think Ocean Palace is better overall, but you have to want the authentic stuff.

I should also mention Pearl of the Orient, which we go to sometimes and like quite a bit. We used to go to a place called Dumpling House, but I think they closed.

My wife also had a comment about Chinese restaurants in general. They're not family-friendly, or at least not gringo-kid friendly. They don't have milk or apple juice. The interiors do not look fresh and clean - not dirty, but just not as nice. They don't have kids menus, crayons, or other items to distract the kids so parents can enjoy themselves.

There will be a new chain Chinese place coming into Colonie Center, called PF Chang. We hear good things, but we'll see.

A simple request

As you may know, I'm running for Congress in NY's 21st district. The media will not cover the campaign. There appears to be a deliberate policy of not covering challengers except in rare circumstances. What kind of a democracy do we have if the voters don't know who the choices are?

If you think newspapers and other media should cover challengers, please contact the appropriate people at the media outlet of your choice.

For the Albany Times Union: http://www.timesunion.com/forms/emaileditor.asp

For the Daily Gazette (Schenectady): opinion@dailygazette.com
or
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
c/o The Daily Gazette
P.O. Box 1090
Schenectady, N.Y. 12301-1090

For the Troy Record: newsroom@troyrecord.com

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For the Recorder (Amsterdam): news@recordernews.com

Thanks,
Warren

The Chariot in Guilderland

One of my old favorites is the Chariot Restaurant in Guilderland. It's been there since 1974. The Shinas family owns and runs it. Their son Andy was graduated with me and I think we even went to the same elementary school.

We had dinner there Sunday for my mom's birthday. The food was excellent. I haven't always liked everything at the Chariot, but I usually like most of what we get. Last night I got the Tuscany Toss (penne with white beans and spinach in olive oil). That was excellent. I also got a dolmadakia appetizer which was good. The main course also came with a salad which was fine - nothing to write home about (or blog about), but it was still a solid salad. Hmm. Solid Salad - might be a good name for a restaurant.

My wife got a beef dish (maybe tenderloin tips?) that came with sliced potatoes. Her dish was also quite good. My mother-in-law said something about the potatoes being like her mother used to make. I told her my friend Andy's mother still makes them like that. :-)

One particularly nice thing was the atmosphere. Our younger daughter (19 months) had not napped much and was cranky. I was able to take her outside repeatedly. They had a nice patio and we could actually see horses on the neighboring property - Hannah kept saying "neigh".

We brought home baklava and ate that at home. Not the best baklava ever, but they were good. Large pieces with a cream on the side that seemed heavier (and tastier) than whipped cream.

If you've never been to the Chariot, you should give it a try. If you've been, but it's been a while, you probably forgot that you miss it. Try it again.

Koto - Near Albany Airport

I'm a member of the Japanese Cultural Association of the Capital District. We meet at various restaurants. We used to go to Miyako in Guilderland, but the service was generally slow, and we had a really bad day when we had 30-40 people and it took over 3 hours, so the group stopped meeting there. I still go to Miyako a lot, probably more than twice a month.

Anyway, JCACD meets at Ichiban usually (it's cheap, but I'm not fond of it), but they've started going to other places. Tonight we went to Koto, which is on Old Wolf Road in Latham, not far from the airport.

The interior was very nice, though it seemed a little noisy. I'd like to give a full description of the food, but due to the circumstances of our dinner I didn't try as many things as I might usually. I decided to go for sushi. I had the "Sex on the Beach" roll along with the Chirashi.

As you might guess, the "Sex on the Beach" roll is not traditional Japanese cuisine. It had three different kinds of fish along with avocado and something else, maybe something with a little crunch to it (I'm guessing shrimp tempura, but that's a guess only). The roll was fine, but at $14 for that one roll, it didn't live up to my expectation.

Chirashi is a fairly common sushi dish in Japan. In my experience it's normally a bowl of rice with various pieces of fish on top. I ordered it because that gives you a chance to try a few different kinds of fish and you get to taste the fish itself, rather than the stuff loaded into a funky roll. It was not what I expected, but not terrible. It came out on a large plate with a larger than usual amount of rice. There was less fish than I would have thought (again, since it was a bit pricey), and it included crabsticks and tamago (like scrambled egg). I didn't think the fish was first-class. Don't get me wrong - it wasn't bad. But it didn't taste quite as fresh as what you'll get at Yoshi's or Miyako. Before I forget, Koto did a good job of presentation - the food was presented on nice plates in manner that's somewhat attractive, though not on the traditional types of dishes and bowls one might see in Japan.

I don't feel my experience was enough to give a thorough review. I will probably go again with my wife and/or others and order a few appetizers and a couple main courses so we can get a better sense of the place.

I should also mention that while dinner is a bit expensive, they appear to have a reasonable lunch menu that might make sense for those on a budget. It will probably never be a regular place for me due to location and my preference for other places, but I'll give it another shot.

Panera

I eat at Panera so often I forget to write about it. Our office is near Crossgates. Technically we're in the City of Albany, but we're really between Guilderland and Colonie. Anyway, there's a Panera in Crossgates Commons. Very easy for us to run over there and grab a quick bite, so we go there a lot.

For a chain, I have to say this is really quite good food. First of all, there are a lot of healthy choices, and they taste good. All their soups are healthy, but they always have two that are extra sanctified. My favorite is the vegetarian black bean soup, which they have available most of the time. Sometimes I get the asparagus-pea soup, and that's pretty good too.

There's a wide variety of sandwiches, including at least a couple vegetarian choices. Even though those are good, I usually get a sandwich that's not quite as healthy. You can also get fresh fruit as a side for 79 cents extra, and I always get that. It's usually melon, grapes and pineapple and it's always fresh and tasty.

They have a deal where you get soup and half a sandwich, called "You Pick Two". I don't actually know what it costs, but we usually seem to spend about $10 per person, including the extra for fruit and a coke or something like that.

They also have a pastry and bread section. There's a cheese danish that's so sweet it oughtta be illegal.

I'm not saying Panera is haute cuisine. But it's a darn good lunch. And while it's not cheap, I spend a lot less there than I do when I go to Miyako's for sushi.

The Cheesecake Factory in Colonie Center

-Update-
As I mention in the comments below, the Cheesecake Factory has become one of our favorite restaurants. We go about twice a month, usually for lunch. The menu offers great variety with some interesting options, and the food is always excellent. Comes with good breads at the start. Salads are great. Entrees are usually huge, with leftovers often too much for a single meal. It's a little pricey, but you get what you pay for. Original post below.
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We went to a charity event at the new Cheesecake Factory in Colonie Center. This was not a sit-down event, so we didn't get the experience one might get as a typical diner, but they did serve food that will be on the menu.

Despite the name, they do serve food beyond cheesecake. Staff squeezed through the packed crowd to serve appetizers, including quesadillas and some interesting "egg rolls" - one was a guacamole egg roll and the other was "tex-mex". All three of these were good.

There was a buffet with a few items, including a Hawaiian salad (called Luau, I think), a Cajun dish with shrimp and chicken, and a chicken dish with mushrooms (maybe marsala). It was all interesting and different from what you see in other places around here. These dishes were good. Nothing was "great", but keep in mind this was a buffet so we didn't have the usual atmosphere to really get the sense of the food.

The interior of the restaurant is, well, spectacular. An impossibly high ceiling (it's gotta be 30 feet or more) with well designed colors and features makes this a place you want to be.

Getting to the most important issue, the cheesecake was fantastic. I had a caramel cheesecake that was over the top delicious. My wife had a "vanilla bean" cheesecake that was delightful as well. I had been hoping to try a plain cheesecake, but they were not serving any. The caramel was so good I didn't mind.

I predict this place will do quite well.

Out of Albany - Moonbeam Cafe in Gorham NH

A brief and unrestful vacation in New Hampshire led us, on recommendation, to the Moonbeam Cafe in Gorham for breakfast. I had the special -- scrambled eggs with swiss cheese, roasted red peppers, and chorizo sausage. Before you say anything about cholesterol, you should know I had a slice of French Toast on the side and took some of my wife's bacon too. So I'll die a little younger ...

The food was fantastic. A spectacular breakfast. They have a wide variety of breads to choose from for your toast. My egg dish was done just right. Wife and older daughter enjoyed their meals as well.

And a non-food hint. The TU reviewed a science museum near White River Jct., VT. The Montshire Science Museum. This is a great place to take your kids, especially kids under 10 and even under 5. Our 4 1/2 year old and our 18 month old both had a blast. We liked it too.

Red Robin redux

We went to Red Robin in Latham yesterday. Since they brag about their burgers I should have tried that the first time. I had their Chili Chili Cheese Burger. Yeah, the one with a bit of cholesterol.

It was a really good burger. Still a great place to take kids. Your kid can scream (ours did), and it won't bother anyone because the place is so loud.

Apparently they were extra busy because there was some problem at the Clifton Park restaurant, so people came down.

The Italian Community Center

Some time ago I did a post on Italian restaurants in Albany. In that post I forgot to mention the Italian American Community Center (IACC) on Washington Avenue Extension. Now that it's next door to our new office, I go there at least twice a month. I also just joined as a "Friend of Italy" member. I have travelled in Italy and have Italian-American neighbors, so that seems fair.

The restaurant used to be called "Le Caravelle", but they've dropped that name and the restaurant is now run by Mallozzi's, which is a restaurant operation out of Rotterdam. I think Mallozzi's also runs the food at the Western Turnpike Golf Course (Town of Guilderland).

Anyway, I've been eating at the IACC a lot recently. One key thing to mention is the Greens & Beans. This is a very healthy dish (escarole, beans, and garlic, I'm guessing with olive oil), that happens to taste great. A number of places get this dish wrong, so it's nice to have it right.

They have a good variety on the menu. The lunch menu has less on it, but there's still a lot of choices. I've been getting the an eggplant dish lately (I forget the name, but it's something about rollatini or gondola). I'm also the kind of person who will sometimes order off-menu. If I'm in a particularly health-conscious mood, I'll order pasta with vegetables in olive oil. The IACC handles this without skipping a beat.

The thing about a place like this is their clientele is heavily Italian, so they have to get it right. They consistently deliver good food with the right flavors. And I keep going back.