Eat First

More Finger Lakes cheese, please!

On this Finger Lakes trail, there is no need for a designated driver. 

The Finger Lakes Cheese Trail spotlights about a dozen farmstead creameries that make hand-crafted, artisan cheeses and other dairy products. You’ll find everything from the familiar – like cheddar, gouda and Jack-style cheeses – to less familiar varieties, like chevre, a soft cheese made from goat’s milk. 

Hitting the cheese trail is a great way to taste new varieties and expand your knowledge base. Bring a cooler – and your sense of adventure. 

A sunny Saturday earlier in October brought me to the King Ferry Farmers Market and to Keeley’s Cheese Co. at McGarr Farms, on Route 34B just south of Route 90, near Cayuga Lake. 

There, Keeley McGarr takes milk from her family’s Holstein and Jersey cows and turns it into out-of-the-ordinary, Irish-style cheeses, including this lovely little wedge, called Across the Pond. 

Across the Pond is a washed-rind cheese made from raw milk, which gives the cheese depth of flavor. Its taste is slightly assertive and somewhat nutty – some might call it a stinky cheese – and its exterior is brown and nubby. The cheese is bathed in a salt brine as it ages in an underground cellar.

I’m sorry I didn’t pick up a couple wedges of Across the Pond at the Keeley’s self-serve cheese stand, because it didn’t last long at our house and I don’t know when my travels will take me back that way again.

Keeley’s Cheese Company is at 539 Route 34B, King Ferry. For hours and information on where to purchase Keeley’s cheeses, call 315-730-6872. 

The members of the Finger Lakes Cheese Trail hold open houses four times a year. The last one for this year will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 19. Find out more here.

Lastly, a group of food lovers, CNY Foodies Feast, plans a trip to Muranda Cheese Co., Waterloo, on Nov. 19. Click here for more information on the group and this cheesy-good outing.

 

McShane’s chicken: No improvements needed

Courtesy of McShane's

Update: The "Restaurant Impossible" episode featuring McShane's airs at 10 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011, on the Food Network.

Food Network’s “Restaurant Impossible’’ and host Robert Irvine came to Central New York in August to give McShane’s Restaurant and Pub, in DeWitt, a makeover.

A crew spent several days cleaning and decluttering the place, painting, removing carpeting, intalling new flooring and otherwise enhancing and improving the place – all in an effort to increase the restaurant’s visibility and boost dinner trade.

One thing they didn’t get their hands on, according to a reliable source (our waitress, Heather) is the restaurant’s signature seasoned half-chicken.

The chicken is deep fried without embellishments – no batter or breading -- then dressed with a dry rub of “secret” ingredients: salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika and maybe a little chili powder, if we were to venture a guess.

The chicken is crisp on the outside, moist and tender on the inside – and yes, a little bit greasy. That’s OK sometimes, right? At $9.95, the chicken is good bang for the buck. It’s served with fries and coleslaw, a house salad and basket of Italian bread with garlic-herb butter. 

I never set foot in McShane’s until recently, so I can’t really address improvements in dining room aesthetics (in its past, I’m told, it was dark, dreary and carpeted).

But I can tell you the house-special chicken is a winner, and worth checking out when you’re in the neighborhood.

McShane’s is at 6801 Kinne Street, DeWitt, about two miles from Carrier Circle. Information: 315-463-9950. The “Restaurant Impossible’’ segment featuring McShane’s will air in November – no set date yet.