Eat First

Sitting out Taste of Syracuse 2012

We have decided to “take a pass” on Taste of Syracuse this weekend.

While it is the official kick-off of the festival season in downtown Syracuse – and truly wonderful to see throngs of people lining the streets and sidewalks around Clinton and Hanover Squares – we have lost our taste for the Taste.

Why? Three reasons, really.

1. Chains like Arbys, Applebees, Bonefish and Pizza Hut do not belong at the Taste of Syracuse. What is local about these corporate entities, aside from the fact they have outlets in Central New York?

Unchain it!

2. Remember when reps of Finger Lakes and other New York wineries were on hand to pour tastes and answer questions about their products? No more. The wine segment of the Taste has been handed off to a marketing company offering international, California and a limited selection of New York State wines.

3. Taste of Syracuse has turned into a Taste of Advertising. A taste of Bath Fitter, GEICO, Supercuts, Dunkin’ Donuts  -- the list goes on.  The number of  “exhibitors,’’ many of them non-food, make the Taste feel like a taste of the State Fair Center of Progress Building, in June.

I will miss seeing my friend Joe Todisco, who owns and operates JJ’s stand (and JJ’s Miss Syracuse Diner, across from City Hall) and always makes me laugh. He makes an excellent pot roast sandwich. He also takes braciole from Ascioti’s in Solvay and swims it in red sauce until it’s so tender you can cut it with the tines of a plastic fork.

If you’re going to Taste of Syracuse Friday or Saturday, stop by and see Joe -- and/or any of the dozens of tasty, truly LOCAL vendors.

Taste of Syracuse: All in good taste!

Asti Caffe's elegant $1 calamari sample.

The great thing about Taste of Syracuse: The annual food-a-rama brings more than 40 restaurants and vendors, most of them local, to Clinton Square in Syracuse.

The downside, if there is one: Unless you’re a “competitive eater,’’ there’s no way you can sample EVERYTHING on the smorgasbord.

I went to the Taste June 3 with a pocket-full of 10 $1 bills and an adventurous appetite and food ‘tude. Samples that wowed my taste buds:

Good eats

• Sakana Ya’s thin, crispy and perfectly browned eggrolls, filled with crisp-tender veggies and a bit of pork, delivered delicious taste and good bang-for-the-buck (at full size or nearly that).

• The $1 sample of pulled pork from Hammi’s BBQ delivered three bites of nicely seasoned and cooked pulled pork that didn’t need the dab of sauce that came with it. The staff at the Hammi’s stand said they plan to open a full-service restaurant in Central New York by fall.

• Asti Caffe’s calamari Christiana had to be the Taste’s most elegantly presented sample: A small mound of deep-fried calamari on a bed of lettuce, topped with a drizzle of sauce that was both slightly sweet and spicy.

• Poutine (poo-TEN), a Canadian indulgence of French fries, gravy and cheese curds, was imported to the Taste by Friar Tuck’s. Their very savory version was built on fries they described as twice-cooked, rendering them deep-brown and crispy.

• Michael Angelo’s riggies with vodka sauce were an excellent find: riggies (rigatoni) bathed in a creamy tomato sauce with a hint of vodka. We’re looking forward to visiting the restaurant in Eastwood for a taste of other things Italia.

•  The crispy-crunchy falafel patties served by Clinton Street’s Byblos Mediterranean Cafe brought a taste of the Middle East – and a nice change of pace – to the Taste.

Decadent sweets

• A cheesecake calzone? Sounds strange, but Zonies  makes it work. Imagine a crispy calzone crust filled with a lightly sweetened cream cheese mixture, topped with a drizzle of icing and you have the picture.

Anything larger than the sample serving (left) might be overkill.

• A two-inch square of white chocolate-raspberry cheesecake was a just-the-right-size introduction to Big Mama’s Cheesecakes, Northern Lights Plaza. In a word: sublime. We’ll no doubt be seeing more of Big Mama.

 

• The Chocolate Bomb Cake sample at Yum Yum’s Gluten-Free Bakery was, well, the bomb! Erin Gridley’s choco-licious treat is a winner, whether you’re gluten intolerant or not (she also specializes in gluten-free pasta dishes).

Chocolate Bomb Cake, Yum-Yum's Gluten Free Bakery.

 

 

Taste of Syracuse: savoring the memories*

The tents are broken down and packed away, the towering ice cream cones deflated and you might not see the familiar purple fried dough stand again until state fair time: Taste of Syracuse, the delicious kickoff of the summer festival season in downtown Syracuse, has come and gone.

Here's a recap of six stands/samples that stood out at the Taste and are worth seeking out in their regular homes, followed by *a complaint about the event. But first, the good stuff: 

1. Fresh, organic carrot juice from Speedy Greens. Their hand-lettered ORGANIC FOOD sign might have been a Taste of Syracuse first, and their "shooter" of fresh carrot juice was by far the healthiest $1 sample.

The juice and more vegetarian-vegan-gluten free food can be had at Speedy Greens, a restaurant, store and holistic health center in Cicero.

 2. Jamaican jerk chicken sample from Caribbean King. Not for  those with timid taste buds, the chicken was rubbed with a blend of chiles and other seasonings, including garlic, and then grilled. I've had curry chicken for lunch at Caribbean King (109 E. Seneca Turnpike, corner of South Salina Street) and plan to stop in soon for seconds -- a meal-size portion -- of their jerk chicken.

3. Hot dog sample from Liehs & Steigerwald. No baloney! Hofmann hot dogs are the hometown favorite, there's no doubt about it, but the franks made at Liehs & Steigerwald, a family-owned butcher shop on Grant Boulevard, near Butternut Circle (and on Route 31, in Clay), are deserving of a wider following. Hopefully the Taste won the Liehs & Steigerwald dogs some new fans, who will seek them out (they're not sold in grocery stores) and also try Liehs & Steigerwald's signature sausages, bacon, etc.

4. Salad sample from DG's Family Restaurant in Brewerton. DG's shredded salad was tossed with house-made Italian dressing and stuffed inside a small cone, along with a small bread stick. It was one of several salads on menus at this year's Taste, along with a baby bleu salad sample from Diamond Catering and antipasto salad sample from Asti Caffe.

5. Wine sample trio from Americana Vineyards. Three petite pours of wine ($1) from the winery in Interlaken, on the Cayuga Wine Trail, introduced me to three nice, dry wines, two white and one red: Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay and Baco Noir. I would have left with a bottle of at least one of them, probably the Gewurztraminer, but bottles to-go can't be sold at the Taste. I see a trip to the winery and its restaurant, the Crystal Lake Cafe, in my future.

6. Baklava sample from the Turkish Cultural Center. Baklava, a multi-layered pastry made with phyllo dough, nuts and honey, is a sweet, sticky treat. The baklava served at the Turkish Cultural Center stand was made with pistachios instead of the usual walnuts, and seemed less honey-soaked than some versions. Besides that, who knew there's a Turkish Cultural Center in Syracuse? I didn't. The center offers cooking classes and Turkish coffee nights, among other events and activities.

*Complaint department: The number of chain restaurants at the Taste seems to be growing, with Arby's, Applebee's, Bonefish Grill, Jreck Subs, Panera, Pizza Hut and others in attendance this year.

I realize that chains are a fact of life and popular with a large segment of the dining public -- witness the long lines for a sample of Bonefish's bang-bang shrimp. Meanwhile, I enjoyed a zesty bite of shrimp with roasted red chile sauce from AppeThaizing, an independent restaurant on the Syracuse University hill.

Sorry to single out Arby's, but what place does a chain with thousands of outlets all over have in a festival with a focus on local restaurants and local flavor? Around the corner, my partner savored a bourbon beef sandwich from Diamond Catering, which he was still raving about on Saturday.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I hope the Taste doesn't lose the thing that makes it stand out from other festivals: its distinct Central New York accent.

What are your thoughts? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Try a taste of JJ's at Taste of Syracuse and the Miss Syracuse Diner

This is my friend Joe,  Joe Todisco.

This is Joe's restaurant, JJ's Miss Syracuse Diner.

On Friday, Joe will start his day at the diner, a fixture at the corner of East Washington and Montgomery Streets, across the street from City Hall in downtown Syracuse. Then he'll shift gears and head over to Clinton Square, where JJ's will have a presence, once again, at  Taste of Syracuse.

Joe is best known for JJ's, an Italian-American food stand at the New York State Fair. It used to be toward the far end of the Midway, a quick walk from the Native American Village. Then he moved to bigger digs along "Restaurant Row,'' near Baker's Chicken Coop.

Joe/JJ's took over the Miss Syracuse in March. The diner is a classic, a small, silver cylinder with an arched ceiling, a counter with six stools, a handful of tables and a row of booths along the Montgomery Street side. It's intimate and full of retro flavor. It has sat empty at times and had a succession of owners in recent years.

We settled into a booth and kept an eye on a side door of City Hall, hoping to catch a glimpse of Mayor Stephanie Miner, but no such luck. She's probably too busy to go out to lunch.

In addition to your usual diner fare, like eggs, omelets, pancakes, French toast, fretta, home fries and breakfast sandwiches, JJ's menu features club sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs and fish on Fridays (haddock, crab cakes and fried shrimp). It also includes some of Joe's regular  State Fair fare, like chicken Parm, fried bologna sandwiches and spicy chicken Riggies.

We give "forks up" to JJ's French toast with sausage patties (not pucks; $5)...

And chicken Caesar salad ($5.95). The coffee was decent, too.

I met Joe the year he opened his stand, while working on a food story at the fair. It was 98 degrees and about 150 percent humidity, and I wasn't in the mood for food, especially hot, heavy food. But I saw a sign that said "Braciole on a Stick'' and had to investigate. Joe and his partners were serving braciole from Ascioti's meat market in Solvay, swimming in "gravy" (red sauce) and yes, speared with a stick.

I stopped back to see him another day and tried the braciole. Not only was it incredibly delicious, it was so tender you could cut it with the side of a fork -- and a plastic fork at that. Last year, one of my first stops at the fair was at JJ's, for a pot roast sandwich.

What's Joe serving at Taste of Syracuse this year? I'm not sure, but whatever it is I know it will be tasty, so stop by and see him. Tell him Margaret sent you. The JJ's stand is No. C82 and you'll find it in front of the Atrium building.

JJ's at the Miss Syracuse, meanwhile, is open 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to Friday. The only thing it's lacking, in my opinion, is a neon sign with a blinking arrow that says "Eat at Joe's."

This week's 'field trips': Two days, two distinct markets

It's Saturday morning and the sun is out in Syracuse.

By now (9 a.m.) the Central New York Regional Market on Park Street  is awash in produce and plants, filled with the cinnamon-sugar aroma of just-fried donuts  and crowded with people.

It's always fun to grab a cup of coffee and check out the scene. But the Regional Market is also open Tuesdays (4 to 8 p.m.) and Thursdays (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.). The selection is good, and it's pleasantly uncrowded at those times.

Here's a look at what we found on Thursday:

Brilliant, beefy radishes, $1 a bunch.

Herbs for planting, including parsley, pineapple mint, chives and sweet basil.

Salt potatoes, $2.

Green squash and yellow squash, $1 to $2 for four.

On Wednesday, I finally got around to checking out the farmers market  held each week in the parking lot at Green Hills Farms Supermarket,  on South Salina Street in the Valley section of Syracuse.

The market draws four vendors each week, including Jamie Edelstein of Wyllie Fox Farm, in Cato, who offered scallions, red leaf lettuce, Swiss chard, collards and other greens.

Nothing tastes better than a salad made with freshly picked greens.

Here's a quick dressing recipe to try:

Caper-Tarragon Vinaigrette (from Gourmet magazine)

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon minced garlic

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon (or 1 teaspoon dried)

1 tablespoon drained bottled capers, chopped

Whisk together vinegar, mustard, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper. Gradually whisk in oil in a slow stream until emulsified, then whisk in tarragon and capers. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Taste of Syracuse: a little of this and that

Who can resist an annual foodie event that unfolds the first Friday and Saturday of June each year right outside your workplace door?

Taste of Syracuse features dozens of Central New York restaurants and food producers, each offering $1 samples (like a a miniature kielbasa sandwich from Eva's, in Solvay, above)  and  several other moderately priced menu items.

Getting a beer can be a bit of a hassle, and cruising the food stands with thousands of other people on a Friday evening when the weather gods smile on you can be a challenge, but definitely worth the effort.

We waded into the thick of the Taste following a TGIF pint at the world-famous Dinosaur Bar-B-Que 

and found the food pickings to be excellent and the people watching superb.

Syracuse has a reputation as a red-sauce Italian town in terms of its cuisine, but the Taste served as a good reminder of the melting pot of restaurants that the region has to offer. Three of us sampled foods from from Mexico, Latin America, Greece, Poland, Vietnam and Italy, plus delicious all-American comfort food in the form of a melt-in-your mouth pot roast sandwich from JJ's, a stand operated by our friend Joe Todisco.

The $1 sample from Mai Lan restaurant, a small spring roll stuffed with shrimp and vegetables and topped with grated carrots, crushed peanuts and a zippy sauce, reminded us that work is just blocks away from the North State Street restaurant and we should get ourselves there more often.

Mai Lan's slender, crispy fried eggrolls were a treat, too.

We're on a strict diet until next weekend, which brings the annual Greek Cultural Festival at St. Sophia's Church Church in DeWitt.

Time for Greek beer,  baklava, gyros and spanakopita. Not necessarily in that order.

Expect to see some more of this action.