hey all, my girlfriend and i will be in atl for 2-3 days and are looking for reccos. what's something we can't get anywhere else but atl? wheres the best fried chicken? is there an equivalent to the po boy or the cheesesteak that i should know about? any and all thoughts are more than welcome! thanks in advance

Urgent: I will be in Buffalo tomorrow!

I am coming from Toronto and will have 3 or 4 hours to kill before catching a flight to Chicago. My question in three parts:

1) Should I get some original wings at Anchor or (since I can get very good wings elsewhere) should I get a genuine Beef on Weck?

2) If I should get a Beef on Weck where should I go?

and

3) To either Anchor or the Beef-on-Weck joint to be named is there a fast and cheap way to get there and back from the airport?

Please let me know ASAP!

Hey all,

I am a very excited grad student and making my first ever trip to NOLA in January. It is also the first trip together with a special someone and I would love to go out someplace fancy where we can get all dressed up. Should I do Commander's Palace or are there other, less-well-known, places that might also be a bit lighter on the wallet?

Cheers!

-----
Commander's Palace Restaurant
1403 Washington Ave, New Orleans, LA 70130

Friends and I are looking to have a lunch celebrating our friend's wedding in early February. The wedding will be downtown, so preferably something in the loop or nearby. We are students so there are slight budget constraints, but we're looking for something festive and memorable as well. Any suggestions? We were thinking of the Atwood Cafe, but we're not sure if they'll have room for us. Thanks

Just got back from our yearly sojourn in North Wildwood:

* Maui's Doghouse on New Jersey Avenue in North Wildwood is as scrumptious as ever. Hurry over -- they close for the season in late September. I seldom crave hot dogs, but these have me in their thrall.

* Sharkey's Feeding Frenzy, just over the causeway from Wildwood to Cape May, in the Breeze-Zee-Lee marina, is also still amazingly scrumptious. The ribs are the best in the area, hands down, the chicken is also amazing -- and I had fried flounder that was the freshest I'd had around these parts. What is it with the Jersey Shore? Usually the only fresh seafood you can get is shellfish -- almost nothing for us fish lovers.

*For more upscale dining, and one of the few BYOB's left, I warmly recommend Gia's on Pacific Avenue in Wildwood. One night we had specials (pork chop, sea bass), the second we ordered off the menu (chicken parm, chicken Roberto)-- and both times we were delighted.

* Tried Quahog Seafood Hut in Stone Harbor. Some hut. Very fancy seafood, leaning to the preciously gourmet -- but the fish and chips special was quite good, if pricey.

* Woody's on New Jersey in north Wildwood has fine pub food -- hamburgers, oinion "petals" -- but don't be dumb like me and order the fish. I never order fish in a pub but figured hey, I'm at the Shore. Mistake.

That's all for now...

hey, I am moving to Chicago soon and was curious about good places to buy things like quality produce, cheese, meats and breads. I will be living on the east side of the UIC campus. If anyone is familiar with Toronto; then I am wondering if there is some equivalent to--or a group of things when taken together are equivalent to--Kensington Market. I am particularly interested in being able to buy good cheese on the cheap.

it is not drowning in mayo by any means. the mayo is more to keep the sushi on the fried rice patty and to add a bit of spice. it's probably closer to the former of your two options. Crisp on the outisde but still rice inside...think a piece of ngiri, but with the rice having a thin fried shell. but it is really delicious. also, on further thought, most places don't serve the 5 inch in diameter varity...closer to 2 or 3 inches in diameter, cut into 6 or so bite size "slices" about the size of ap iece of maki.

I have determined that sushi pizza is a signature toronto dish, and would invote anybody to go to toronto and try it. they have great (and affordable) traditional sushi in TO as well, but sushi pizza is worth trying.

hey y'all. i see JayT90 beat me to the punch but i will share my findings anyway. I have posted something about sushi pizza and its availability on all three of the california boards and all responses i have gotten seem to have two things in common: almost no one has ever heard of sushi pizza and, and everybody finds it gross at first. I have enjoyed my chowhound ambassadorship.

I think upon reflection, the sushi pizza is a great thing to have as TO's signature dish. As everybody has mentioned, the defining trait of TO cuisine is its eclectic and mulitcultural variety. with this, comes fusion and creation. taking the basic elements of a popular japanese dish, and arranging them as a popular italian-american standard...what could be more TO than that? besides, the rice cake kind of looks like a hockey puck. i for one am taking action, and will be here on out referring to Sushi Pizza as "Toronto Pizza" and will be encouraging my friends to do the same. it probably won't stick, but a man has to fight for what he believes in .

let me clarify another thing: it is absolutely delicious. It's a spice mayo, the type of mayo that finds its way into some types of maki...not overpoweing but enough to work to keep the sashimi on the rice patty. but this does clarify my suspicions that this is something unique to toronto sushi world. I would like to invite you to visit Toronto (an awesome city anyway) and eat at one of the many sushi restaurants and order a sushi pizza. i think you'd be happily surprised.

also, cgfan, someone might have said that about real pizza once upon a time as it morphed in north america to something extremely different than it's italian original, or any of a number of different foods that have changed when they became popular in different places. i think this is something to be embraced not deplored, even if the idea of sushi pizza sounds gross to you. there's nothing "low" about it.

Hi California Chowhounds:

I am an ambassador from the Ontario chowhound board where we had a question maybe you guys can answer. We were discussing whether Sushi Pizza was a delicassy native to Toronto sushi restaurants. Someone made the claim that it had originated in California. See the link here: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/52267...

Is anybody in a position to verify whether this is true or not?
In case there is any confusion this is what Toronto sushi pizza is as described by someone on the link above: It's a round rice patty, maybe 4-5" in diameter, deep fried (so that it gets nice and crispy/chewy and golden-brown on the outside), and topped with mayo, fish (usually salmon, but somtimes tuna and/or crab), and roe.

Anyone have that? If so, is it a standard on sushi menus?

Hi California Chowhounds:

I am an ambassador from the Ontario chowhound board where we had a question maybe you guys can answer. We were discussing whether Sushi Pizza was a delicassy native to Toronto sushi restaurants. Someone made the claim that it had originated in California. See the link here: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/52267...

Is anybody in a position to verify whether this is true or not?
In case there is any confusion this is what Toronto sushi pizza is as described by someone on the link above: It's a round rice patty, maybe 4-5" in diameter, deep fried (so that it gets nice and crispy/chewy and golden-brown on the outside), and topped with mayo, fish (usually salmon, but somtimes tuna and/or crab), and roe.

Anyone have that? If so, is it a standard on sushi menus?

Hi California Chowhounds:

I am an ambassador from the Ontario chowhound board where we had a question maybe you guys can answer. We were discussing whether Sushi Pizza was a delicassy native to Toronto sushi restaurants. Someone made the claim that it had originated in California. See the link here: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/52267...

Is anybody in a position to verify whether this is true or not?
In case there is any confusion this is what Toronto sushi pizza is as described by someone on the link above: It's a round rice patty, maybe 4-5" in diameter, deep fried (so that it gets nice and crispy/chewy and golden-brown on the outside), and topped with mayo, fish (usually salmon, but somtimes tuna and/or crab), and roe.

Anyone have that? If so, is it a standard on sushi menus?

i appreciate the advice. i know it's abit of the ways from uic, but theres also circumstances which will have me in the northern suburbs at times as well. that plus a really good housing opportunity in uptown makes it pretty enticing for me.

aye, gotta love peter tosh

I am not sure yet, but one of three places: on the UIC campus, in McKinley Park, or in Uptown. I am hoping for Uptown as it seems like an interesting neighborhood and I understand there are tons of cheap Vietnamese and Ghanaian restaurants nearby.

I'm getting hungry!

Hey all. I will be moving to Chicago this coming fall to attend UIC as a grad student. As a way to distract myself from other things I should be nervous about, I have been focusing on questions about food that I might encounter.

What should I know about Chicago food (in the grad student price range---that is, as close to free as possible) and what should I expect? Will I be starved for a real bagel? Should I reconcile myself to Chicago style pizza, and just accept it as a different, but legitimate, school of pizza thought, in spite of my native pizza sensibilities? What can I look forward to?

I know it's a broad question, but any thing to get me in tune would be very welcome.

not meant in a rude way at all, but can you tell me how you know it was started in california? Nobody I know from the left coast has ever heard of it, and the only people i know of who know about sushi pizza, and the only places I have really read about it, have been people referring to food they ate in Toronto.

I would go as far to say that even if what you say is true that sushi pizza originated in Cali, it is now, today, a Toronto dish. Like the cheesesteak (which you can get at most diners/delis/take-out spots in Philly) you can get sushi pizza at any Japanese, and most "pan-Asian" spot in Toronto. And you can't really walk a block without bumping into such a restaurant.

I don't know if anybody has mentioned this on this board yet. It's not Mexican, but might satiate your craving. Tacos El Asador, a Salvadorian little taco stop, though i do believe they have burritos. big fan of their pappousas (sp?). On Bloor, I think a block east of Christie Pits.

yeah, once upon a time parnasse was a legit diner (and looked more like Olympos does...I think they are owned by the same people). but they changed locations, now there's a bank, and they moved to where the Central Square Cafe (I believe) was. It has declined in quality for sure...though you can still get a decent egg sandwhich. Fountain Diner is of the same calibar as Mont Olympos though a bit cozier.

I lived in Toronto for four years, originally from New York. I love TO and think it has some of the best food, but had seeeerious pizza issues while living there. People can debate all they want about Coras/Papa Ceos...they're both pretty bad, though they hit the spot at 2am to be sure. The place that kept me going throughout my stay in TO was Massimo's on College. I haven't been there in a while, and a friend told me that they've gone downhill, but for a slice they were always the best I could find in the city.

I don't really have any comments on the upscale diner front...to me it's a contradiction in terms. But as for your standard comfort-oriented diner where you can count on things like good fries, eggs, etc. I concur with The Horseman in Tarrytown, as well as the El Dorado. The Mamaroneck Diner has fantastic burgers. I have a certain tendency towards the "monts" on Central (Parnasse and Olympos) but that might be only out of going there most of my life.

Most of those are your "Greek"-style (in quotation marks because there's nothing Greek about them, just the style of diners which tend to be Greek-owned) diners, and all hit the spot. But if you want an authentic pre-fab greasy spoon diner (basically a griddle, a counter and a couple of booths) the Star Diner on Post Rd in White Plains dominates.

its not the street hot dog that is uniquely Torontonian its the style of hot dog. Chicago has the Chicago Hot Dog...but thats the way its prepared (Vienna Beef, peppers, tomatos, poppy seed bun, etc.). New York has its own spin on the street dog. I think Toronto has a claim to a T Dot Dog (a T-Dog?!) which would be a large sausage, always grilled (In New york, the hot dogs are almost always boiled) with a standard array of toppings (specifically corn relish and bacon bits, which I've never seen anywhere else).

i don't know man, i've always had good burgers there. Never had anything that tasted frozen or less than fresh. Even so, don't let a subpar burger stop you from goin to the lazy boy! its worth it just for the beer, they're wings are good (if too small, and nothing compared to the candlelight) and most of the other things ont he menu hit the spot pretty well.

While the James Joyce can make a good burger and pull a good stout, it really doesn't have anythign on the lazy boy, especially at night when the joyce becomes super dude-bro and loud, while the lazy boy remains pretty casual (if louder and busier).

I've been frequenting Dunne's down Mamaroneck...good food and you can always get a table.

I just posted this on a similar thread but will repost here.
it is hard to specify a Toronto specialty, as everyone has said thus far, because toronto's culinary claim to fame is its diversity, culling the rest of the world's specialties and putting everything on the table (which, frankly, I love). So while I would want to say Trinidadian Doubles, or good cheap authentic chinese food, or a certain variety of Korean noodles, they are almost inherently not "Toronto" specialties (even if you can them better here than anywhere else).

Three things, however, I might venture to say are "Toronto specialties"
1) already mentioned, is Toronto street meat. I'm from New York and love my streetside Sabrett, but I think the Toronto Hot Dog (with the traditional array of toppings including Corn Relish) is my favorite hot dog....it is something I would see as distinctly Torontonian.
2) I could be off base with this but I associate it with Toronto and that is a Brie and Avacado sandwhich. It is pretty self-explanatory. I might only think this a Toronto-food because of the amount of time and money I've spent at the Green and Red Rooms.
3) I feel like there are types of maki or sushi that are unique to Toronto. Is sushi pizza unique to Toronto sushi restaurants? I can't say that I have ever seen it on a menu outside of Toronto. Then again, I can't really afford to eat sushi outside of Toronto.

it is hard to specify a Toronto specialty, as everyone has said thus far, because toronto's culinary claim to fame is its diversity. So while I would want to say Trinidadian Doubles or good cheap authentic chinese food, they are almost inherently not "Toronto" specialties.

Three things, however, I might venture to say are "Toronto specialties"
1) already mentioned, is Toronto street meat. I'm from New York and love my streetside Sabrett, but I think the Toronto Hot Dog (with the traditional array of toppings including Corn Relish) is my favorite hot dog....it is something I would see as distinctly Torontonian.
2) I could be off base with this but I associate it with Toronto and that is a Brie and Avacado sandwhich. It is pretty self-explanatory. I might only think this a Toronto-food because of the amount of time and money I've spent at the Green and Red Rooms.
3) I'm sure there are, but can't think of any, types of maki or sushi that are unique to Toronto. Is sushi pizza unique to Toronto sushi restaurants? I can't say that I have ever seen it on a menu outside of Toronto. Then again, I can't really afford to eat sushi outside of Toronto.

I respect the adventurer in you, but if you're getting it from Steeles/Bathhurst then I'm presuming you know about Me Va Me...I swear by their hummus, and frankly I make hummus all the time and have friends who do as well, ad I've never had homemade hummus that comes close to it.

I totally forgot to respond to this post to thank you for your advice! The hostel we ended up staying at (auberge de la paix) was right next to cafe temporel: the best croissants i've ever had ever! They had an exquisite table d'hote menu as well with one of the best values i've ever seen. Casse Crepe Breton was great as well as Ashtons. We had one spectacular dinner where we went to epicerie europeanne and got cheese and meat, stopped at a bakery for bread (can't remember what it was but it was close to EE) and had a feast!

One strong reccomendation; L'Ancienne Candienne has a rediculously good Table D'hote lunch. I believe it was $15 for soup, entree, dessert and wine: the menu included a lot of great traditional quebecois food to so it was great for the thrifty yet curious traveler.
Thanks again!

for my money its the best hummus in Toronto.

A bit less conventional in terms of a "breakfast spot" but I was still impressed: Shai's (or Shae's, but i think the former) in Kensington Market, I think on Augusta. You won't get crazy amounts of food which is what most people go to breakfast places for, but its one of the few places where you can get eggs with potato-stuffed naan, its good and quite cheap. i think it is a ma and pa place owned by an Indian couple. havent been there in a while so i can't remember more details. also, a nice little patio during the summertime. and across the street from patty king, so you can get a doubles or two if you're still hungry.
Also, the By the Way Cafe (Bloor and Brunswick) has great weekend brunch specials, including a fantastic zataar, goat cheese, and (i think) sundried tomato omelette and fantistic mexican breakfasts including eggs sunnyside with tomatillo sauce and other delights. decent prices too; make sure you try their house hot sauce which is tasty

I and 8 of my friends are road tripping it from Toronto to Quebec City for Reading Week.
I have been delegated the resonsibiliy of making sure we eat well, a task I understand not to be particularly hard in Quebec City. However, as the title suggests, we're all on student budgets. Any suggestions? Quaint places where we'll eat exceptionally well for exceptionally low. Or even places that are reasonably priced with great value. Im talkin anything: resaturants, cafes, creperies, notbable bakeries, great cheese stores, you name it! I will try anything, that gets vouched for. Plus we'll be there for close to a week so we have time. As much detail as you can muster! Thanks!!
PS. my friend from the Franco area of Northern Ontario swears that horse is served in French-Canadian places. Is this true in Quebec City or is this a Northern Ontario thing. If it is available in Quebec, is it worth trying and where?