Pipenta's Profile
New Dessert Spots in New Haven: cookies, cupcakes, frozen yoghurt and frozen MOOCHI
The Moochi places sells little balls of moochi filled with ice cream. Or maybe they are little balls of ice cream in a moochi skin. They're nice, but that is all there is to the place. You can get the similar confections at the grocery store next to Miso. You can get the exact same brand of moochi balls at Whole Foods.
Tacuba in Branford
My son kept trying to drag me out here.
"There's plenty of tasty tacos right here in New Haven hun. Why do we have to go dragging out to the hinterlands?"
He kept pestering me. Finally went this past week and it was very good. All kinds of nice uses of fruits, herbs and vegetables in sauces, salads and beverages. Son and his dad had meat tacos, about which they made enthusiastic noises.
I'm going to have to go back and try it again when I am wide awake and can get a clearer impression, but I liked it.
a little help for watermelon
Gin. Cut it into whatever size cubes you deem manageable, and then give it a good splash of gin. No too drippy, just enough that the gin gets on the melon. Then cover it and put it in the fridge for a couple hours. When you come back to try it, the flavor will have transformed, it won't taste like gin, just like amazing melon. Works with the green and orange melons too.
Will I hate campari?
I second the suggestion that you try it in a bar first. I was struggling with the decision to buy a bottle of absinthe, but after tasting it, I knew for sure it was not something I need to own.
But don't give up after one kind of cocktail with Campari. Go to a bar where they pride themselves on making delicious cocktails, not your garden-variety sports bars. Sit at the bar and explain your interest to the bartender. And have fun.
Rudy's in New Haven
There is the Elm Bar in Rudy's old location. It's not bad and it's a bit of a dive.
NEW HAVEN - any ideas
If you want to be a little more casual than Ibiza, try Caseus. And stop at 116 Crown for a cocktail.
Googa Mooga Food Festival in Prospect Park
I didn't go. But the photos of the Hamaggedon Pig roaster thing scares me. It's like the Brazen Bull!
Need a Recipe for a Coffee Cake to Travel
Thank you for the quick responses. They all sound great, but I have to have some room in my luggage for essentials like mask, fins and camera. I might even pack some clothes.
The leave-it-in-the-pan idea is good. But need to save weight so perhaps I'll use a disposable foil pan.
Need a Recipe for a Coffee Cake to Travel
I'm out-island bound. Need a recipe for a nice sturdy coffee cake that will travel and be WONDERFUL.
"Least Favorite Vegetable" Poll
Oh and I just saw this: http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/16/11719087-who-hates-cilantro-study-aims-to-find-out
"Least Favorite Vegetable" Poll
There is a taxonomic connection to the veggies people hate.
Carrots, parsley, celery, celery root, anise, fennel, parsnips, caraway (I'm sure there are more, that I am not remembering) are umbels all. So you have these flavor compounds that are very similar. Evolution conserves, after all. These veggies all have anise notes in their flavor, which is why they can layer so deliciously, if you are fond of that flavor and I am, when it comes from actual botanical sources instead of artificial flavoring, though I like it better in savory foods than sweet.
Cabbage, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, radishes, mustard, arugula, kale, collards, cauliflower, garlic mustard, broccoli, rutabaga, turnips, horseradish, bokchoy etc... are all crucifers, Brassicaceae. So you have that sweet-sharp skunky burn which some of us love and some of us do NOT.
The taxonomy might give you a clue about what you will or won't enjoy. But maybe not, because beets and amaranth are kin. And tomatoes and potatoes are cousins. Not everything that is related tastes much alike.
"Least Favorite Vegetable" Poll
Cilantro is intense. If you aren't brought up eating it, it is kind of a love/hate thing. Nowadays I adore it and would graze on it. But when I was pregnant, just a whiff would send me running for a bucket. Glurt!
"Least Favorite Vegetable" Poll
I can't stand sweet potatoes or yams. The very smell of them cooking makes my eyes water and my throat constrict. Why? When I was a wee tiny thing, they were my favorite. I can remember the day they turned on me. I was all of about three. My mom had made me dinner and I was seated at a low counter in our little kitchen. The counter top was a lurid and lovely green, glowing all the more under fluorescent lights. My mother had lovingly mashed the sweet potatoes, made a criss-cross on the top, much like you would for a peanut butter cookie, popped a pat of butter on the scoring to melt, and sprinkled the whole with brown sugar which had started to melt gloriously. I ate it with great enthusiasm. Then it came up violently. The memory is still vivid! It took me years before I would even eat white potatoes, and even then I had to work my way back to tolerating the texture. I started with potato chips and thin french fries, working to thicker fries and instant mashed potatoes and baked potatoes. Never did care for scalloped potatoes... And orange veggies became problematic. Carrots I could eat raw, then in chicken soup, and finally cooked plain, but never with any great enthusiasm. The same with the orange squashes.
And it is not like I didn't try. People LOVE sweet potatoes. They make freakin' desserts out of them which they are always anxious to have you sample. I often would, and then my eyes would water and, and, and...
But some day I might find a preparation that make them tolerable to me. For example, mostly brussel sprouts taste horrible to mediocre to me. The way my mother cooks them repels me to this day. She just boils them to mushy skunkiness. But roasted? With olive oil and salt and pepper and lemon juice and garlic and maybe a just a sprinkle of grated parm? OMG, wonderful!
Celery root can be sublime! And I have just discovered kohlrabi in the last couple of years and I adore them. I get the tiny ones and eat them like apples.
Pie for Breakfast...
As a nutmegger, I eat pie for breakfast when the opportunity presents itself, usually apple.
Being New Haven born and bred, I eat leftover pizza PIE for breakfast on a regular basis.
New Dessert Spots in New Haven: cookies, cupcakes, frozen yoghurt and frozen MOOCHI
There seem to be a plethora of sugar-loading options in Elm City that have opened up in the last year or so. There are two self-serve frozen yoghurt joints (I'm partial to the one under the British Art Gallery.) and a cupcake etc... sort of bakery with sit down tables next to Clark's Dairy and a cookie bakery on Chapel next door to where Superbooks used to be (back in the days of Ye Olde Heidelberg) and, most intriguing of all, a moochi ice cream spot on Crown Street tucked in between various of the, to my mind, less charming nightspots.
Has anyone tried any of these yet? Or should I do a scientific sampling and report back?
Far East Restaurant, New Haven, CT
Wow, that stuff is just a fuzzy memory to me. I remember, as a child, going out to a Chinese restaurant in the Amity Shopping Center and having egg rolls, spare ribs and chow mein. And, gah, shrimp toast! The cocktail menu looked fascinating, all pineapple juice and rum and rum and more rum. I was too young to officially drink, but if I was curious, my dad would often order a cocktail so that I could sample it. He put his foot down when it came to this exotic stuff, however. It was one thing for me to sip a grasshopper, quite another for me to drink a mai tai. I guess to his mind, the one was a lady drink and the other a pick-up bar drink.
My parents didn't know anything about Chinese food or culture and we rarely ate Chinese food until I was in high school and a boyfriend of mine turned us all on to Blessings. From there on out it was all dumplings and Peking Duck and Ants Crawling Up Trees.
I never much cared for chow mein, maybe because it was served to us in the school cafeteria. I remember seeing a picture in National Geographic of a boy in a market street in Hong Kong. The shot was taken at night against a backdrop of all kinds of colorful signs for restaurants and markets. He had a bowl lifted to his mouth and was using chopsticks to lift noodles to his mouth, what looked to be a sort of spaghetti. It looked delicious to me. When I finally tasted lo mein I figured I'd found the same thing the kid was eating. I loved it.
In my junior year of high school, my boyfriend and I would slip out for lunch every Friday and go to the House of Chao in Westville. Always always the dumplings and always always always I had the pork lo mein. The dumplings, sadly, were neither steamed nor done as pot stickers. They were deep fried, which was the way they were served at Blessings. It turns out to be my least favorite way to eat them.
Now I feel the urge to have pot stickers from Great Wall for lunch. And maybe I'll dash over to that new moochi ice cream place on Crown for dessert.
Rudy's in New Haven
For some reason Rudy's had fallen off my radar for a few months. I'd forgotten about it when I was trying to think of some fun casual place to eat.
It used to be a dive bar, my favorite dive bar and then it closed and then it reopened around the block. It's more upscale now, but I still like it. The bar is a nice place to sit and enjoy a drink. I wish they still had the cartoons playing instead of the sports, but I guess that's the price of moving up in the world. There's a good selection of beers and the like. And the food is quite good. They have always done Belgian-style frites and a half a hundred kinds of mayo, but now you can get mussels with them!
When they first reopened I went on a fried chicken kick, because it was scrumptious. But at my age I can only eat so much of that kind of thing. There's a very good endive salad and the little pizzas are lovely.
My latest favorite is the avocado sandwich. You order it and think you are being restrained. And then it arrives on a big beautiful glossy hamburger bun and it is all flavor and texture and yummy. And the damn thing is flanked by those frites, so screw the diet.
Has anyone else eaten here lately?
Proper method for enjoying Sanbitter- San Pellegrino's Apertif Soda
I adore this stuff. I have it chilled. I have it at room temperature. In a glass, out of the bottle, with ice, straight up, as a mixer. If my stomach is upset, this stuff is comforting and I'm not beyond throwing in a couple of drops of grapefruit seed extract to kick up the bitter.
My favorite local Italian market doesn't seem to be carrying it anymore, which FREAKS ME OUT!!!
North Haven-Wallingford-Meriden axis of eats
I recently went to Michael's in Wallingford and the service was nice, the food was decent, but the choices at the bar were budweiseresque mainstream yucky & dayglo martinis and the place itself, once you looked below eye level, just filthy. The walls are GRIMEY man! And the restroom walls had splatters of brown flecks and it was not at all appetizing.
Road Trip up East Coast
If you are driving up the coast, this would be an excellent time to compare CT-style hot buttered lobster rolls vs Maine's cold mayo version.
Stowes in West Haven also does an admirable lobster roll.
Road Trip up East Coast
Sally's for pizza in New Haven is an equally valid choice. (Some of us born and bred Elm City people prefer Sally's). And bar on Crown has great pizza and better hours. And there are those who opt for Modern on State Street, I don't agree with them, but there you go...
Cooking Classes in New Haven Area
I'm looking for a class or two to give as a gift to a twenty-something who is an enthusiastic and educated eater, but who does not cook. I'm thinking a class or two would really get the ball rolling with this individual.
Does anyone have any suggestions in the New Haven area?
Colchester, CT - a culinary wasteland?
Heya,
You have Cato Corners Farm!
Some Saturday morning, put some wine or beer in a cooler, get yourself some bread at that cute little Russian bakery in town, pop into Cato Corners Farm, go into the barn and pat the nice brown cows on their warm wet noses, and then buy yourself a piece of hooligan. Then find some nice spot outside and have a picnic. What more do you need?
What Food Trend are You So Sick Of?
I'm so with you on this. Last summer I was doing a lot of fieldwork on farms of various sizes in Connecticut and I got to eat some heirloom tomatoes that were fantastic. I love heirloom veggies. And because a lot of people working on farms are immigrants, there is often a chance to try some nifty veggies, fruits and herbs that you might never have tasted.
Macaroni and cheese
I don't think this was the place mentioned on the food channel, but if you happen to be in New Haven, Caseus on Trumbull Street does a mean mac & cheese. They offer it with lobster, but I've never had it like that. Their grilled cheese sandwiches are outstanding as well.
Sister Seeks Perfect Lobster Salad Roll in Connecticut.
Thanks for replying though. My fault. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have put COLD in the thread title.
Well, I was thinking, but what I was thinking was LOBSTER ROLL - YUMMY!
Sister Seeks Perfect Lobster Salad Roll in Connecticut.
Thank you everyone.
plien69, I have driven by Clam Castle many a time, but other than giggling at the name, it had not occurred to me to try it. I will certainly try it now.
juiceman2, I keep meaning to try that shack. We passed it on our way out to Lenny's, but Mom is getting up there and often needs indoorsy sorts of places.
Sister Seeks Perfect Lobster Salad Roll in Connecticut.
My sister, who now lives in the midwest, is visiting and wants a lobster roll. She prefers the cold kind, the lobster salad ones.
Last visit I took her to Stowe's in West Haven and she thought it was good, but the brand of mayo was not to her liking. This time we went to Lenny's in Branford and the consensus between her and mom was that the lobster meat was kind of shredded and that they preferred it more chunky.
And they would really like a bit of chopped celery in the salad too, thought this isn't essential.
Me, I like my lobster rolls hot w/butter or cold as salad and as long as the meat is fresh and sweet and as long as it isn't swimming in too much butter, I'm happy. But Sis is more particular.
Where do you suggest we go for a good lobster roll, nay a great one. We are starting from the New Haven area, but do not mind heading up the coast. We'll go as far as Stonington, but would like to stay in CT.
If I get responses soon enough, we will act on them this visit. But if you find this thread later, she comes back to visit every four or five months, and we will be trying again next time.
Thank you so much for any and all suggestions.
Foodie driving through CT....what are some MUST try's ??
For the New Haven born and bred, this is Hatfield and McCoy time.
Where else to get Pepe's outside of New Haven? Hmmmm, let's look at their website: http://www.pepespizzeria.com/?page=locations
Why you can even pick up some at the casino!
I admit I have only been to the one in New Haven, and it ain't bad, if you order carefully. If you dig a white clam pie, they can rock it. But bacon? Oh, just flip a slice on the side and watch that grease pool on your plate.
And what on earth happened with the staff at Sally's? They aren't going to kiss your backside, but if you are nice to them, they are nice to you. It's a small place, there's always a crowd, always a rush. They work hard. But rude? Not that I've experienced over the decades. I hear this about the wait staff at bar too, where I have never seen anything but professionalism.
I don't half so often run into rude servers as I see complaints about such things. And I'm not saying it doesn't happen. When it does, it fries me to a frizzle.
And when we have feelings for a place, good or bad, there is certainly a confirmation bias. But I've been in plenty of places where I was underwhelmed by the food, but the staff was still nice. And I've been in plenty of places where the staff hasn't been very competent (I tend to suspect the management.) but they still aren't rude.
The Sally's versus Pepe's thing might boil down to taste, to a lot of things. But I'm wondering about your experience with the staff. I am not questioning it. Please understand. If you had a crappy time, you had a crappy time. And waiting out on the sidewalk in miserable weather for 45 minutes can be harsh. But what happened? Were they flat out rude, or just rushed and you had a sucky long wait? I'm not always in the mood to wait, which is why bar is my fall back. I need ENERGY to go to Sally's. I get that. I get that it is not for everybody and not for all the time. But dude, what happened?
And yeah, Lenny and Joe's hasn't been stellar of late. Clam Castle has always scared me, but now I will try them. What's your fav there?
What's to EAT around New Britain?
Thank you so much one and all. So help me, we'll try all the suggestions. But I have a dangerous weakness for pierogi!
