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The best food I've had recently, anywhere. The appetizer was a white bean and pesto mix with a sesame seed cracker. The bread came with unsalted butter topped with Hawaiian sea salt. Flavorful.

The salads were superb. My wife had the Sunset Farms Buttercrunch Lettuce - the roasted slab bacon was to die for! The Fall Greens had a combination that I wouldn't have imagined would work - apple, dried cranberry, smoked gouda, cidar vinaigrette, and red onion on the field greens. Wow, what a combination! The cranberry and apple with the onion surprised me, intense flavors.

But the best was still on the way - the Maryland Crab Cakes were solid, huge, chunk crab, and the remoulade went fantastically well with it. Wait, still not at the best! Veal tenderloin Yankee potroast. Huge carrots, stalks of celery, green beans, onion, potato chunks, and fabulous gravy. And then there were the brussel sprouts quartered in the pot roast! Surprising, tasty, crunchy texture, just made the dish.

Dessert was a lemon dessert - cream cheese, condensed milk, and lemon in a graham cracker crust. I love the lemon flavors. My wife had the bread pudding which had apples and raisins, and was close to a combination of a coffee cake and bread pudding. Great textures and flavors.

Everything was presented beautifully, and the waitresses were fantastic. I'd come back to Saratoga Springs just to eat here again. We were staying in Lake George and drove down to try the restaurant scene in Saratoga Springs - found this one highest rated on Yelp so we gave it a try. Well worth it! The couple next to us introduced us to the chef, John La Posta. We told him we found it on Yelp and he noted they're on Yelp, FourSquare and other places. One of the waitresses told us he shares his recipes with anyone who asks, and online (haven't found that yet).

Yelp reviews: http://www.yelp.com/biz/maestros-a-fine-american-bistro-saratoga-springs

Maestro's website: http://www.saratogamaestros.com

P.S. We stopped for lunch two days later as the menu is quite different. While the lunch was excellent (try the Kobe burger with home made ketchup!), dinner was still better.

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• $5 entrée deal returning to Maestro's in November (timesunion.com)

Best NY Strip steak I've had in Syracuse. That's really all that needs to be written.

But I won't stop because the appetizers were fabulous too. I don't see any of them on their menu now, maybe they were the specials that night - a Kobe beef tartare was mouthwatering, various softshell crab dishes were gorgeous, and the rest I didn't try, but they looked excellent.

Back to the Ny Strip - dry aged, prepared without any of their sauces, and didn't need a thing - medium rare it tasted like a steak! The sauces were apparently terrific per all the rest of the folks at the table. The fries were perfect, skinny, tasted like pommes frites.

The coup de grâce was the dessert menu. The table ordered one of each (and there were ten!) Their dessert menu isn't on line, but it's also shared with Lemon Grass. From the Chocolate Can-Can, to the Banana Crème Brûlée, the warm chocolate cake, and the various fresh fruit desserts and sorbet, every one was fresh, flavorful, and the presentation of sorbet balloon frozen and expanded with liquid nitrogen was something. The whole place was fabulous, and service impeccable. Highly recommended.

bistroelephant.com

Just a quick post to recommend another two CNY food blogging sites - with a nod to one of them for their props for Dinosaur BBQ in NYC that mentioned the First Lady and daughters picking out this fine gem of a BBQ place. Anyway, recommended blogs, worth a read - Chus on Chow - http://chusonchow.com/ and Pulled into Syracuse at http://pulledintosyracuse.blogspot.com/

As most people know, Syracuse's food scene is not equivalent to NYC, Boston, DC, Philly, or even Albany. That's not to say there aren't some decent finds out there, but you have to work at it a little bit. There are also some great dives, good appetizers, and of course the one, true, amazing standout, Dinosaur BBQ.

Lauren Young, of youngeats.com, does a great job of profiling the places you don't want to miss in Syracuse and the surrounding area. She also travels and writes about the places she find. Her review of the Brickskeller in DC was right on. I think La Tasca's review could have been a bit better - while I agree places in the US don't do justice to tapas like Spain, La Tasca (at least the one in Old Town Alexandria I ate at last weekend) was pretty darn good. Especially the meat plate and cheese plate. The sangria didn't come close to sangria in Spain, but let's be honest, that has as much to do with being in Spain as the taste of the wine! (And I should know, I spent 2 1/2 years in Spain enjoying sangria AND tapas!)

But I digress, essentially I was recommending her food blog because she showcases good finds in Syracuse. And no one else I've seen has ever profiled Chuck's specials.

Last night I had great Hanger Steak-Frites at Jack's Oyster House in Albany. Jack's has a terrific seafood menu, as well as steaks, veal, chops, and more. A friend had the Clams Casino, and while I'm not a fan of clams usually, this was good! The rack of lamb looked delicious, as did the filet. For dessert the cheesecake was beautiful, and the creme brulee was pretty good.

Service was impeccable, with our waitress very attentive. She also took a special order from one of our party, and took it in stride. I'd recommend the place, good food, good atmosphere, pretty traditional power-broker steak house. And the pricing was reasonable, with the hanger steak just $25.

Flavorful food, well presented, by very good wait staff. We arrived at opening and were the second couple seated, and it filled up quickly over the next hour (a Saturday night).

Tableside guacamole en molcajete was very flavorful, we had them add juice from two extra lime slices and that really made it come alive. The sopa Azteca was very good, interesting tomato flavors in a Mexican soup was new to me - and the soup was poured into the bowl with the fresh ingredients at the table. The braised pork enchilada was served with Mexican rice that was seasoned very well, not to dry and not too wet and refried or mashed black beans.Topped with crema fresca and pico de gallo the dish was complete. I thought the enchilada shell was cooked very nicely, just on the edge of crisp. Another side was a corn tamale. It had great texture, but needed a sauce to go with it as it was dry otherwise, and a bit too bland.

We skipped dessert, though they looked good. I'd go back because everything was well prepared, with excellent flavors.

Jeannie and I were in Boston over the weekend and had the opportunity to have brunch at Miel in the Intercontinental Boston.

Brunch was about $32 per person, and included a fruit smoothie or a mimosa. Both were excellent. They also have a selection of eggs, bacon, sausages, pastries, mini desserts, cereals, and such, but the highlight was absolutely the fresh fruit. The berries (blackberries, cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries) were fresh, flavorful, and plentiful. There were assorted cheeses (soft and hard) as well.

The highlight, however, are the small plates. We had a leisurely brunch and tried several of them. Depending on your tastes some are outstanding, and all are well prepared, innovative dishes.

First up, the Bacon Wrapped Sea Scallops. They have endive but that's appearance as far as I'm concerned. The pine nuts were fine but the rosemary honey dressing was too sweet for me. The scallops though were fresh, well cooked, and very flavorful. Second was the Crab Cake Benedict - it's a traditional poached egg but that's where it stops. It has spinach, and shallots, and a roasted red pepper hollandaise. But the real innovation is that it rests not on an English muffin, but on a crabcake. A bit over the top, but interesting.

The best of the small plates was the Steak and Eggs - it was a nice slice of steak, well seasoned, resting on truffled hash Browns, spinach and on top was a sunny side up egg. It was innovative, flavorful, but still captured steak and eggs as a dish. It looked like an eggs benedict with steak but absent hollandaise at first.It was very pretty on the plate as well.

The Sausage Omelet is just that, but it was well done with sausage, onions and cheddar cheese. The Croque Monsieur had Béchamel, honey ham and Swiss cheese, nice enough. The Toasted Baguette with goat cheese and tomatoes was more similar to a bruschetta, but good. The Crêpe aux Fruits Rouge had sautéed mixed red and black berries and white chocolate shavings and the crêpe was nicely done. Very good flavors, great mix of berries and the white chocolate.

Service was very good, the view was nice (though winter is less exciting to look at on that segment of the river in winter than in summer). The manager stopped and chatted when we engaged with him, and remembered us the next day when we stopped for the regular hotel breakfast. Excellent food, good prices, excellent service, I'd recommend it.

A great little appetizer with goat cheese, some salsa, and other ingredients. Looks like it will go great with Sauvignon Blanc, highly recommend the 3 Brooms Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc from the Wine House at about $14.99. This wine has a great grapefruit nose, a lime and fresh mint mid-palate, and it has a crisp racy finish.

http://www.tastespotting.com/detail/67658/Crumbled-Goat-Cheese-Provencal-Mini-Tacos

I wonder if Spring is the death of many web sites as new authors get distracted and go outside to plant gardens, do landscaping, or do the hard work of painting? I know it was the distraction that kept me from writing. Well, that and catching up with friends on Facebook. I often note that when authors start to explain why they haven't been posting, that they end up posting even less! Hopefully that won't be the case here. I still have lots of wine to to taste and write about, but I've also given some thought to new things that could be useful.

First, I'm interested in cataloging local resource for food and wine, as well as travel related to these. So, sites that talk about the Finger Lakes wineries, restaurants on the wine trails, great places to visit while out in the area, and food, local markets, and points of interest in upstate are all going to be featured here as I come across them. I'm also going to make a concerted effort to gather information on wine tasting events in the upstate area that are open to the public - having opportunities to taste wine are is the key to learning to appreciate the breadth and depth of what's available and finding what you really enjoy.
 
So, on that note, one that I found that I thought worth posting was Cookin' in the 'Cuse. Her photography lends interest to the site, and possibly what hooked me was the photos of food and landscapes in Israel. When I was there in 2007 on three separate trips I found some of the local food to be incredible, including things like freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. Anyway, her writing is great, she covers a lot of things that I enjoy locally, and I recommend the site to you.

My wife received the book, What to Drink with what you Eat as a birthday gift at the beginning of our wine tasting classes. It's both an outstanding reference and an entertaining read. It has sections that list various foods and then recommend wines, both varietals and in some case specific wines, and then the complementary section that lists wines and suggests food pairings. It's visual style is intuitive, much like Web 2.0 tags - larger print selections pair better with the food or wine, and smaller print pair less well. Those foods that are absent are presumably not good pairings. There are notes throughout from chefs, wine enthusiasts, sommeliers, and others. They discuss their favorite pairings, reasons for matches, and how to make your own judgments. They cover a huge range of foods and wines. It's an excellent book for someone just learning to pair wines and food (and it includes some other beverages as well, primarily beers). It's quick to grab when deciding what to serve for an impromptu meal, or when planning meals and shopping. Highly recommended.

 

I tried a new Greek restaurant in Jamesville this weekend. Sotiris Taverna has been open about a month according to the waitress. I had the traditional gyro platter, with the roast potatoes and the Greek salad as sides. My wife had the chicken gyro platter with rice pilaf instead of potatoes as one of the sides. My sister-in-law had the Mousaka. My gyro was excellent. My wife's was pretty good. My sister-in-law was disappointed with hers. It was later afternoon on Saturday, and the Mousaka and potatoes may not have been fresh, so we'll have to give them a try again closer to expected dining hours. The restaurant was a nice place though, decor was welcoming, and I'd definitely go have a beer and a gyro there again.

I had a terrific brunch at Ivy's Bistro in NYC. Drove around looking for a place for breakfast/brunch, and this one was open, looked inviting, and while I was looking at the menu the waitress walked to the door and invited me in. Hey, that's service!

I highly recommend the traditional Egg's Benedict - it's exactly what I want, with the slight twist that it was a thin slice of ham rather than Canadian bacon. The hollandaise sauce had the lemon tang I expected. The brunch potatoes have peppers, onion, and great seasoning, a little bit of spice. The service was first rate, and they also have a prix fix menu for breakfast that's not a bad deal. They're in Tribeca, and the ambiance was also terrific - a corner table with a view of the river and New Jersey was nice. (Hey, even Jersey looks nice from across the river...) I also liked the photos on the wall - appeared to be mostly Paris, but I'm not certain. All black and white, nicely framed and matted. Classic bistro. Loved it!

Highly recommended, worth seeking out. Ivy's Bistro.

I'm a big fan of food and wine. I don't always get the pairings right, but when they're right, wow! Last night my wife had to be on the road most of the day and so we stayed home instead of going out. We decided on a platter of jamon iberico, jamon serrano, various Spanish cheeses, some peppercorn and parmesan bread, cibatta, peppered salami, and Manu wine, 2005. The peppercorn in the bread with the peppered salami was really picked up by the spiciness of the Manu (it is syrah, grenache, cabernet, merlot and tempranillo, about 40% each of the first two).



This was followed by Veuve Cliquot and the fruit tart later in the evening.