Clark’s Summit 100th Anniversary

On Friday, Nicolas Village in Clark’s summit played host to a wine and dinner event celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the city. Entitled, “Ragtime Roundup,” the theme of the even was to dress from the 1910’s decade. As many people do not have that kind of garb in their dressers and closets, many wore a standard cocktail evening outfit. Many restaurants in the local area were represented, as well as Maiolatesi Winery. Tickets were $20, which included 1 drink ticket.

The pool and the connected ball rooms were filled with guests and food. The local Weis grocery supplied the crab for the crab cakes as you entered. The cakes were deep fried and crispy on the outside without being greasy. The lump of the meat was not as big as you might find in Maryland, but there was not too much filler and the sweetness of the crab came through nicely. Next on the seafood lineup was seared tuna from Formosa. Encrusted wit white sesame seeds and cooked to order, the fish was fresh and clean. Served on a bed of mixed greens with an orange aioli, it was my favorite dish of the night. I preferred mine seared rare with only a dot of the aioli (my personal preference against mayonnaise and its derivative products).

Continuing down the line was sushi from Akita. Also featuring Edamame and seaweed salad, the sushi was one of the first items to go. I much preferred the diced tuna and the crab/avocado to the tempura vegetable. Tempura should be eaten hot from the fryer and crispy. Putting it in a sushi roll only makes the fried batter soft.

Cagiano’s had a fresh fruit tray and crudités platter, standard fare and nothing to speak of. Raganochi’s featured a meatball that was rich and succulent, clearly made with higher fat content beef, served with a tomato sauce and parmesan cheese. There were two pasta dishes, the first being a penne with vodka, heavy with cream and garlic, second was a tortellini in a cream sauce. Another Italian restaurant (I even get mixed up with how many there are) brought a seafood risotto with peas. The seafood was fresh and went well with the cheese (despite the common misconception that seafood and cheese should never go together) but there was not enough seafood for me to taste it.

The final table I tried as a skewer of grill-charred chicken with a balsamic glaze, bruchetta that was heavy with garlic and had chopped kalamata olives. Canolli that was filled and dusted at the table. There was also a beef wellington that came in a puff pastry, though the juices of the beef did not soak through. A chevre, peach and mango salsa was served in a mini martini cup (I say cup because they were plastic). The salsa,(which is what they called it) was good, but there was too much creaminess in it to identify the sweet yet tangy goat cheese. The same table also featured roasted pheasant gnocchi. I love pheasant, but my favorite preparation is smoked because the gaminess of the bird comes through. In with the gnocchi, it tasted more like chicken.

Overall the food was wonderful, but the one free drink ticket was a bit of a letdown. Then again, I’m mostly there for the food rather than the wine. My date and I did make friends and heard about the taste of the Abingtons, so more to come on that in late Sep.

Trattoria Bella - Montage Mountain

The quality team came by last week and graciously offered to take us to dinner at Trattoria Bella just down the street from the office. Having been to Italy, I am a bit of a snob when it comes to Italian food. If anything, Italian should be simple. The fewer and fresher the ingredients the better. Olive Garden is the bane and opposite of what I am describing. Bella had the standard array of both appetizers and entrees, with enough choices that made it hard for me to make up my mind. The night started with a round of appetizers.

Our side of the table ordered stuffed mushrooms, which were filled with crab meat and topped with cheese before being put under a salamander. They were slightly oily, but the cheese and seafood did not clash. Of course we had calamari, and of course it was deep fried. The rings were well coated but not greasy, but the rings themselves were not plump, so all you really tasted was the fried batter. My order was melon wrapped in prosciutto, a favorite of mine. The prosciutto was thicker than usual and had more meatyness to it than I am used to. The melon was honey, but was crunchy, hard, and not yet ripe. The entire dish was drizzled with a balsamic glaze, adding a sweetness to the finish. Finally there was the bruchetta. The bread was well toasted, and the tomato compote was heavily with garlic and onions. Again, the whole dish was drizzled with balsamic glaze, but the bread quickly became soggy as the tomato compote was saucy.

I ordered the special of the evening for my entrée. The shrimp and scallops came with sautéed zucchini, squash, and carrots and a tomato infused rice on the side. For how much I’m sure it cost, I did not receive much seafood. The scallops were slightly gritty, and tasted a little, well, old. The shrimp was tender and soft. Neither of them was heavy in butter or oil. The lasagna was ordered by the person to my left, and was a huge portion. It smelled savory and heavy with pomodoro sauce, the cheese completely melted in between each layer. Rice and pasta dishes were served to others, all of which were large in quantity and looked inundated with cream, butter, and cheese in their sauces. I was tempted by one of the house specials, veal with scallops, but that was ordered by another and regretfully, I was unable to taste it.

Overall, the ambiance and convenience of Bella was nice, especially if you were going to watch a Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees game over a nice dinner. The food was good, but not fantastic, and as I am not yet paid to eat and write about it, something that is not worth it on my budget.

I should comment, as a post script, that the waitresses seemed peeved when we had 23 in our party instead of 28, and the service was certainly not quicker because of it. They were often questioning who ordered what, and some dishes took much longer to come out than others. It seemed like we were bothering them whenever we needed something. Good for them I was not in charge of the tip.

Akita Sushi – Clarks Summit

I will admit that more often than not, I get to sample to food of fine dining via food and wine events rather than at the restaurant itself. Last weekend, after being thoroughly liquored up at the diminutive wine and art show in Clarks Summit, my date and I walked to Akita Sushi.

As to be expected with every sushi restaurant in the area (except Katana), the chefs were not Japanese. This is not an indicator of quality. The lunch special allowed for two rolls of my choosing with soup or salad. The ginger that came with the sushi was crisp, the wasabi pungent and powerful.

I chose the Tokyo roll and the Atlanta roll. The Tokyo came with tuna and salmon together, with a bit of masago (flying fish roe) on the outside. The fish was fresh and did not smell fishy nor taste slimy. The flavors were clean and genuine. The Atlanta roll was avocado, cucumber, and yellowtail. I know that it was poor form, but I actually ate part of insides out before consuming in one bite, I wanted to savor it longer (and sober up before I had to head out)

The entire lunch combo was only a little over $10, and for sit-down sushi, that’s pretty good. Nothing out of this world, but a nice stop.

Face Full of Pig

Last Saturday was beautiful. I drove from Scranton up 81 to Cortland New York, a quaint town and a beautiful drive. My destination was a roadside bbq restaurant called Smokin’ Joes. I was here to participate in their first annual Pulled Pork Eating Contest.

Contestants paid $25 up front to participate. The kitchen closed as friends and family gather around two tables set up in the middle of the dining room. Trays of pulled pork sandwiches, 11 on each were set down in front of the 15 competitors. All men, the $500 first place prize was a great incentive to stuff our faces. Even if we failed, we could take home the leftovers, so it was a great deal one way or the other. The rules were simple, 10 minutes, as much as you can eat, drink anything you want (non-alcoholic), and you can’t vomit for 15 minutes after the competition ended. Eat!

I sat at the end of the table. Another gentleman who humbly said that he had participated in a “couple bbq eating competitions” was clearly the ringer, as he had traveled four hours to compete. Aside from him and myself, everyone else was a local, just here to have a good time. Some competitors knew from the beginning that they had no chance of winning, but stepped up to the plate just for the fun of it. The sandwiches were simply pulled pork with bbq sauce on a bun not dissimilar from a happy meal. The meat had a wonderful smoky flavor, black, crunchy bark (which I usually adore, but the dry and flavorful ends were slower eating), and was soft and tender.

I immediately went for the meat, skipping the buns for later. Intermingling water and pork, I wolfed down sandwich after sandwich, carefully keeping my eye on the ringer to my left, and a local champ to my right. The local had friends cheering him on, while I had only my grit to continue. As the meat went down, it was difficult to tell who was leading, I had 11 buns to consume, and my opponents had about 2.5 sandwiches, this was dangerous.

With three water cups in front of me, I poured the water over the buns, and dunked them in between shoving them down my gullet. I was catching up, everything was looking good, ten minutes creeping up on all of us. Then, disaster struck. A balloon of air was stuck in my ribs, making another bite seem vomitous. I stood, shook, pounded my chest, try to free the air, unable to continue eating until it was freed. The crowd called for a bucket, thinking I would make a mess of myself, but all they got was a loud belch, and I threw myself back into the fray.

However, with the 15 seconds of pause, the New Yorker to my left was able to call for a second tray, and as the final seconds ticked down, he was able to chipmunk another half sandwich into his maw while I was left with a solemn empty (and wet) tray.

The $500 went to him, but I soon found out he was a former member of Major League Eating, a pro. My performance did not go unrewarded however, I left with a big tray of leftovers, a polo shirt, beer paraphernalia, and a 3.5 foot tall smoker. Though beaten, it was good to know I was bested by a professional, and only by a small degree. My eating adventure continues, with restaurants and challenges waiting to be bested.

Watermelon Cheesecake

My friend Jack recently sold his house, and once again, is hosting a dinner party Saturday night. Despite my enjoyment of regular cooking, I seen to be the only one who enjoys and is (I think) good at desserts. With the weather as ridiculously hot as it is, I was going to go with a cool, fruit dessert. I wasn’t in the mood to go shopping, despite the air conditioned grocery store. I looked in my fridge and found watermelon and cream cheese. Looking in my pantry revealed graham cracker crumbs and chocolate. I had an idea, watermelon cheesecake.

Disclaimer: I made up this recipe as I went along, so I have no measurements. I will try my best to estimate.

Start with the standard graham cracker crumb crust. Melt butter and mix it with the crumb, press into the bottom of a greased pie pan.

Cut up a fourth of a large watermelon. Take out the seeds, put into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Put through sifter, cheese cloth, etc. Put the juice in a pan, add a couple pinches of salt, and ¼ cup sugar, put on high heat and reduce until it becomes a syrup. Don’t worry if the liquid looks like its separating.

In a food processor or a mixer, put in 8oz of cream cheese, 2 eggs, pinch of salt. I added tequila rose (a strawberry cream liquor) and some melted strawberry jam, but some strawberry milk, or an extract would work as well. Add the watermelon syrup, but reserve about ¼ cup. Mix all ingredients and put in the pie crust.

Bake the pie at 350 for 1 hour or until center is solid. I put a bowl of water in the bottom to prevent cracking. After the cake has cooled, coat the top with the remaining syrup for a bright red finish. I added chocolate chips as ‘seeds’ for a fun look.

As of this writing, I have not presented it at the party, but it looks great and the ‘batter’ tasted wonderful. I will let you know how it goes.

Plumpy’s Pierogies @ Quinn’s

Last Saturday, Quinn’s market in Archibald had a weekend long event entitled “Come Sale Away.” This event included free samples from various vendors, performances by local children’s dance studios, local bands, and most pertinent to me, a pierogie eating contest.

            Worried that there would be a limit to the number of entrants, I arrived early on the warm, sunny, Saturday morning. The first one there, I was dismayed when I learned there had been a wing eating competition the night before sponsored by Quaker Steak and Lube. The challenge had consisted of eight wings and two minutes. The wings must be cleaned to the bone, including gristle. The owner a Plumpy’s pierogies was the winner, taking home a $25 Quinn’s gift card and another gift card for Quaker Steak and Lube.

            Saturday’s festivities were attended by 11 competitors. About three times as many spectators gathered around to watch us stuff our faces. For any of you who don’t know, a pierogie is a “boiled, baked or fried dumpling of unleavened dough traditionally stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, ground meat, cheese, or fruit. Of central and eastern European provenance, they are usually semicircular, but are rectangular or triangular in some cuisines” (Wikipedia). These happened to be filled with potato, as is most common in the Northeast PA area, and were deep fried. This presented a different challenge than the sautéed with butter and onion variety.

The crispy, deep fried kind requires a different strategy. They are dry, soaking up the saliva in your mouth, making you unable to swallow them. I address this issue two ways. The first was dumping water over them (they were served in a tray) just as I received them. This only partially worked, as I was eating them so fast, the pierogies did not have time to soak up the water. To combat this, I had to mash the dumplings with my hand before stuffing my face. This also reduced the amount I had to chew before I could swallow. As with all speed eating, I had extra water standing by, as my natural liquid was insufficient to choke (literally) down the potato and dough.

We had three minutes to consume as many as we could. Plates of eight were set in front of us, with additional plates of five were standing by. For a grueling three minutes, I soaked, mashed, chewed, choked, and swallowed 20.5 of the potato-filled dumplings, beating out the other 10 gluttons. With my gift card in hand, pictures were taken and are apparently up on the Toyota Scranton Facebook page, though I was unable to locate it.

Weekend in Long Island

A friend of mine, Dan, will be moving to Florida soon. We were watching a movie Thursday night when he, offhandedly, asked if I wanted to go to Long Island with him and his friend, Kim, for the weekend. Having little else planned, and knowing that a weekend away is always a good time, I took him up on the offer. Saturday was spent at the beach, but the feast that we cooked that night was glorious,

Dan and I are carnivores to the core, so the on sale t-bone steaks were our choices. Kim however, elected for the shrimp. However, since the steaks came in a 3 pack, it was surf and turf for us. A bunch of veggies and some drinks meant kabobs for all.

Now I realize that kabobs are by no means a culinary exploration, but the marinade and grilling expertise was what separated this from the usual. The veggies, prior to being skewered were put in a pot along with balsamic vinegar, sugar, olive oil, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic power, red pepper flakes, paprika, and sun dried tomato flakes. Mixing these by hand, Dan and I soon had a tray full of veggie kabobs. The shrimp was done simply being mixed with old bay prior to being impaled.

As for the steaks, it would have been a sin had we stripped away the meat from the flavorful bone prior to grilling. Both sides of the steak were seasoned with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powders, and sat, waiting for the grill.

First thing was first, veggies have to go on. Here is a little tip with any kabob making endeavor: mix and match any veggies on a skewer, and keep all the meet skewers separate. Chicken takes far longer to cook than steak or shrimp. Don’t turn your veggies into charcoal with just done chicken, or have pink-in-the-center chicken with perfect veggies.

With the veggie kabobs complete, chicken and shrimp went on. With nice and crispy ends, just slightly charred, they were removed and the lid went back down, re-heating for the steak. Another tip with grilling steak: Get your grill as hot as it will go BEFORE putting the steak on. We are talking 500 degrees here. Sufficiently hot, the steak went on. Five minutes for one side. Resist temptation to peak, flip, move, or touch the steaks. Keep the lid on and let them be. Fail to do this, and the steak will not develop those signature grill marks. Flipped once, and another four minutes on the grill. Steaks come off, and I let them rest for 5 min underneath tin foil. Why? When steaks come right off the grill, the protein molecules are still to jumbled and moving. Cutting into a steak now would make all of the juices run out, and the steak’s flavor with it. Let it rest for five minutes under foil, and you will be rewarded with juicy steak.

The next day, we headed to a party at Dan’s sister’s house. Wouldn’t you know it, they had kabobs! This time, we had no steak but instead had chicken and swordfish. Me being the foodie I am, I couldn’t wait to get into the kitchen and help. Showing my deftness, I soon was delegated head chef. As before, veggies went on medium heat first. After two whole grills full of vegetation, I turned to the chicken, again giving it a nice char on the end. This required flipping both top to bottom and side to side. The beauty though, was in the swordfish. As with any steak (or steak fish), cooking any further than medium is an insult to the ingredient. After removing all other items, I again let the grill re-heat. The cubes of skewered swordfish sat on one side for four minutes before their single flip. Another three minutes and seared medium swordfish were on the table.

I wonderful meal was enjoyed by all and for the three hour car ride home (most of which I slept through) I am sure I stand up the car with my masculine scent of the grill.

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!