So, as Friday is my 42nd birthday, my fellow woodland creatures and I are entering a sort of insane Carnivale period as I try to celebrate with as many people as possible. Tonight, the Roo, the Otter, the Tiger, and I all went out for some Italian food. As I'm half-Italian on my Mom's side, Italian food is kind of my soul food. (My Dad's side of the family is French, English, Scottish, and Irish...we never had a soul food through them, exactly.) So, especially with chances to have dinner with the Tiger rapidly dwindling as he prepares for deployment in Afghanistan, I wanted to take the opportunity to hit one of the few chains of restaurants I actually think is excellent food: Maggiano's Little Italy.
We discovered Maggiano's in Philadelphia originally, where we were attending a furry convention. The joy of family-style restaurant servings was well known to us, but the quality of food was new. We feasted well, and the memory of that meal stays with us and reminds us to visit our local Maggiano's now and then, when my ursine soul calls for pasta. Tonight, we ordered family-style again, and I do not regret it...though I might when I next stand on a scale.
Maggiano's is, to borrow a Patton Oswalt quote, "a gauntlet of angry food." The family-style menu lets you choose 2 appetizers, 2 salads, 4 entrees or pastas, and 2 desserts. There are tons of choices for each level, and we've never had anything we don't care for.
We started with the fried calamari and stuffed mushrooms. The mushrooms were decent...I've definitely had better. The calamari, however, is some of the best and most flavorful I've ever had. It was tender, light, and had a great tangy marinara on the side.
For salads, we chose the Caesar and the chopped salad. The Caesar was absolutely delicious, with a great dressing, crunchy croutons, and shreds of excellent parmigiana cheese. The chopped salad was definitely decent, but it was only decent. The bacon was too chewy, and the lettuce was a bit wilted (and not in a good way).
We tried to balance our entrees across various lines. For pasta dishes, we chose the veal and mushroom raviolis as well as the classic spaghetti and meatballs. The rich raviolis were dressed in a fantastic, creamy Forno sauce, garnished with basil and pimento. The spaghetti and meatballs was about the best spaghetti and meatballs I've had, in a restaurant or not. The sauce was thick and meaty, and the meatball was extremely flavorful.
As non-pasta entrees, we chose a chicken marsala and seared pork medallions. The chicken had a great, rich flavor, and it was complimented with mushrooms and onions in the wine sauce. The pork had a fabulous sear on it, and it was soaking in a very flavorful sauce. Every bite was dynamite and given a little kick by capers. If I had any complaint, it's that there weren't enough capers. I love the lil things, and I rarely get enough.
For desserts, we had an excellent tiramisu, creamy and rich, and a chocolate zucotta cake. This cake was incredibly dense, with a light flavor of anise that actually went very well with the chocolate. All in all, we walked out incredibly full and contented.
If you want a quick bite, this is probably not a great choice, and service can be a little slow. If you want a big meal to celebrate with friends and family, this is a great place to eat. Just be prepared to walk out stuffed.
Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The Rest of FurFright
So, normally, the Bear Squad is not a breakfast crowd, so we passed on breakfast, our plans for a lunch at Singo Sushi, which we had enjoyed immensely the year before.
Alas, the best laid plans of bears and mice...
We ended up gathering quite a large crowd to go for food. This is a somewhat natural thing, as furry cons tend to involve people you haven't seen for a while. So, our friends from New York wanted to get lunch, and a friend from New Jersey wanted to get lunch, and everyone invited friends, and...
Well, Singo Sushi wasn't able to accomodate our group of 11 immediately when we called them, but they promised us a spot about an hour later, at 2 PM. So we sort of dithered, then got there, slowly accumulated into a group, and...
And nothing. At 2 PM, Singo admitted that it would be another hour. Since none of us had eaten, we decided to forgo their sushi for the day, though we vowed to try and make it back later.
Instead, we ended up at the Manor Inn. This is a nice, somewhat divey little pub with a menu largely devoted to Italian food. The food was decent, not spectacular. A literal "nothing to write home about" sort of place, although I'll admit that the veal dish I had was pretty enjoyable. Even the odd little politcal conversation we had with our server was kind of interesting. Maybe I'm giving Manor Inn a bum rap...but, y'know, it was no Singo Sushi in terms of food quality.
After that, we cruised back to the hotel, butn ot before stopping at Rogers' Orchard. This place is really charming...they have cider served on a honro system...which I honorably paid to drink, while watching their huge rabbits cavort in their cage. They also had homemade fudge, awesome produce, and some of the tastiest cider donuts I've had in a long time. The Other Half was not impressed with their caramel apples, however, and this evolved into a coversation about the goodness, or lack thereof, of jimmies/sprinkles. Oh, well. Can't win 'em all.
Back at theh otel, we quickly changed and headed to the CoCoKey Water Park. The price for this attraction is a little steep...our con had whittled the price to $25.00 per person, and even that was pushing it. They do have 2 totally enclosed tube slides in the dark and a body slide...but that's about it for adult fare. There's also a large water playground for the kids, and there's a lazy river tube area. We ended up spending a large amount of time racing each other around this river. The other attraction we really wanted to use...an indoor/outdoor hot tub, was closed. We were promised it would be open later, so, after we had our fill, we decided to check back later as our tickets were for all day.
After drying off, we sort of flopped around the hotel room, eating the food we'd brought back from the Orchard. This more or less led to none of us wanting dinner, but it did ultimately make us want to swim more. We also snuck some Rock Band II in there, somewhere. Great game. I love wailing out some vocals while the others play the instruments, and I got several compliments on my singing, which was kind. Thank you, whoever you were.
We swam in the hotel pool, because we found out the hot tub was still closed, but I avoided the hotel hot tub, especially after several of our friends who didn't avoid it quickly ran off to take showers to wash off the protein foam that the previous guests had left in it. Very nasty. At the end of the day, we played a bit more Rock Band, then settled in to play a boardgame...the old Dungeon boardgame from the 80s.
The next morning, there was more Rock Band, and we introduced our New York friends to it. We soon realized that a lack of food the previous night had made us hungry. We decided to go out for an earlyish lunch, and the Other Half suggested we try to seek out the Turkish restaurant we had spotted from the highway on the way to the hotel on Friday. There ended up being only 7 of us, and the restaurant in question, Anatolia, was mostly empty.
Let me tell you friends, this was an excellent choice. Easily the best meal of the weekend, and maybe the best food I'd eaten in months.
For appetizers, we had hummus, baba ganoush, red lentil soup, and a host of other little salads and nibbles. We also had some hot appetizers, and we split them all up between the seven of us, so it wasn't *too* much food. Our main courses were various kebabs, from tradition lamb and chicken to swordfish! All of the meat I had was well-seasoned and tender, and it sat on a bed of well-seasoned rice pilaf.
For dessets, we said, what the heck, bring us one of each and plenty of Turkish coffee. The two standout desserts were definitely the baklava and the milk pudding. Both spectacular desserts.
Back at the con, we tried a board game with our friends called Touch of Evil. I highly recommend the game. We played the cooperative mode, which really helped us feel like we were banding together to fight a vampire. We were constantly aiding each other with cards and sort of "role playing" our way through the story. When we finally launched our climactic battle against the Vampire, it was gruelling, but we were victorious.
Finally, it was time to say goodbye. I left some business cards for the Happy Bear's Guide in a public spot, and the Bear Squad headed home, already looking forward to the following year.
Oh, yeah...and we stopped for McDonalds sweet teas on the way home. ;)
- The Happy Bear
Alas, the best laid plans of bears and mice...
We ended up gathering quite a large crowd to go for food. This is a somewhat natural thing, as furry cons tend to involve people you haven't seen for a while. So, our friends from New York wanted to get lunch, and a friend from New Jersey wanted to get lunch, and everyone invited friends, and...
Well, Singo Sushi wasn't able to accomodate our group of 11 immediately when we called them, but they promised us a spot about an hour later, at 2 PM. So we sort of dithered, then got there, slowly accumulated into a group, and...
And nothing. At 2 PM, Singo admitted that it would be another hour. Since none of us had eaten, we decided to forgo their sushi for the day, though we vowed to try and make it back later.
Instead, we ended up at the Manor Inn. This is a nice, somewhat divey little pub with a menu largely devoted to Italian food. The food was decent, not spectacular. A literal "nothing to write home about" sort of place, although I'll admit that the veal dish I had was pretty enjoyable. Even the odd little politcal conversation we had with our server was kind of interesting. Maybe I'm giving Manor Inn a bum rap...but, y'know, it was no Singo Sushi in terms of food quality.
After that, we cruised back to the hotel, butn ot before stopping at Rogers' Orchard. This place is really charming...they have cider served on a honro system...which I honorably paid to drink, while watching their huge rabbits cavort in their cage. They also had homemade fudge, awesome produce, and some of the tastiest cider donuts I've had in a long time. The Other Half was not impressed with their caramel apples, however, and this evolved into a coversation about the goodness, or lack thereof, of jimmies/sprinkles. Oh, well. Can't win 'em all.
Back at theh otel, we quickly changed and headed to the CoCoKey Water Park. The price for this attraction is a little steep...our con had whittled the price to $25.00 per person, and even that was pushing it. They do have 2 totally enclosed tube slides in the dark and a body slide...but that's about it for adult fare. There's also a large water playground for the kids, and there's a lazy river tube area. We ended up spending a large amount of time racing each other around this river. The other attraction we really wanted to use...an indoor/outdoor hot tub, was closed. We were promised it would be open later, so, after we had our fill, we decided to check back later as our tickets were for all day.
After drying off, we sort of flopped around the hotel room, eating the food we'd brought back from the Orchard. This more or less led to none of us wanting dinner, but it did ultimately make us want to swim more. We also snuck some Rock Band II in there, somewhere. Great game. I love wailing out some vocals while the others play the instruments, and I got several compliments on my singing, which was kind. Thank you, whoever you were.
We swam in the hotel pool, because we found out the hot tub was still closed, but I avoided the hotel hot tub, especially after several of our friends who didn't avoid it quickly ran off to take showers to wash off the protein foam that the previous guests had left in it. Very nasty. At the end of the day, we played a bit more Rock Band, then settled in to play a boardgame...the old Dungeon boardgame from the 80s.
The next morning, there was more Rock Band, and we introduced our New York friends to it. We soon realized that a lack of food the previous night had made us hungry. We decided to go out for an earlyish lunch, and the Other Half suggested we try to seek out the Turkish restaurant we had spotted from the highway on the way to the hotel on Friday. There ended up being only 7 of us, and the restaurant in question, Anatolia, was mostly empty.
Let me tell you friends, this was an excellent choice. Easily the best meal of the weekend, and maybe the best food I'd eaten in months.
For appetizers, we had hummus, baba ganoush, red lentil soup, and a host of other little salads and nibbles. We also had some hot appetizers, and we split them all up between the seven of us, so it wasn't *too* much food. Our main courses were various kebabs, from tradition lamb and chicken to swordfish! All of the meat I had was well-seasoned and tender, and it sat on a bed of well-seasoned rice pilaf.
For dessets, we said, what the heck, bring us one of each and plenty of Turkish coffee. The two standout desserts were definitely the baklava and the milk pudding. Both spectacular desserts.
Back at the con, we tried a board game with our friends called Touch of Evil. I highly recommend the game. We played the cooperative mode, which really helped us feel like we were banding together to fight a vampire. We were constantly aiding each other with cards and sort of "role playing" our way through the story. When we finally launched our climactic battle against the Vampire, it was gruelling, but we were victorious.
Finally, it was time to say goodbye. I left some business cards for the Happy Bear's Guide in a public spot, and the Bear Squad headed home, already looking forward to the following year.
Oh, yeah...and we stopped for McDonalds sweet teas on the way home. ;)
- The Happy Bear
Monday, August 25, 2008
Babbo. Bravo!
So, after a lovely walk around the West Village, we arrived at Babbo Ristorante, Mario Batali's restaurant that offers what they call simple, fantastic food. Well, it was pretty darned fantastic...I'm not so sure on the simple.
Although we were originally planning on enjoying the traditional tasting menu, the presence of our piscatorian otter caused our server to steer us towards developing our own tasting menu, and we agreed. While we munched an excellent little taste plate orf roasted chick peas in olive oil over crostini and thick Italian bread to dip in olive oil, we made our choices.
For appetizers, we ordered a plate of grilled vegetables with goat cheese on toast, lamb's tongue vinaigrette, and grilled octopus. All were quite nice, but the octopus was outstanding. It was more crunchy than chewy, and the flavor was incredible.
We were strongly steered towards the pastas, and we happily agreed. We had a black spaghetti, which had been colored with squid ink and covered in a sharp cheese. Then we followed with order of "mint love letters", which were a pillowy stuffed pasta with fresh mint and spicy lamb sausage. I thought this was outstanding, but it was too much mint for some of us. What do I know? I'm a bear; I chew mint right off the forest floor. ;) We also had a stuffed pasta called "Lune", which was filled with sweet potato. All in all, three fantastic offerings.
For the main course, we all chose individual items. I had veal with caper-berries and lemon, which was quite good, but pretty much like veal with capers and lemon I could've had anywhere. Our New York hosts enjoyed the braised beef, which was fantastically flavorful, and the rabbit, which was good, but a little plain. Our first-timer in New York ordered the Duck, which was al ittle dry, but quite flavorful. The otter ordered one of the specials - halibut in a rich broth, which he loved. My other half ordered the fennel dusted sweetbreads, which were completely outstanding.
For dessert, four of us tried the maple cheese cake, which was incredible and rich. My other half loves chocolate, so he chose the chocolate hazelnut cake, served with a canelle of hazelnut gelato and an orange sauce. One of our hosts had the chocolate and pistachio semifreddo. All of the desserts were really knock-outs, but that maple cheesecake. Yum.
All in all, a very good restaurant experience. Our server was very nice in helping us once it became clear that our original intentions weren't going to work. He also recommended wines for our various dishes, and his recommendations all seemed spot on, even when they initially sounded odd (such as a dry sherry to go with the sweetbreads).
If you're looking for excellent Italian cuisine made primarily with local ingrediants, you should give Babbo a try. Remember, though, that you need to make your arrangements well in advance. We called the day after reservations became available for our chosen date, and we were only able to get in at 10:30 PM.
- The Happpy Bear
Although we were originally planning on enjoying the traditional tasting menu, the presence of our piscatorian otter caused our server to steer us towards developing our own tasting menu, and we agreed. While we munched an excellent little taste plate orf roasted chick peas in olive oil over crostini and thick Italian bread to dip in olive oil, we made our choices.
For appetizers, we ordered a plate of grilled vegetables with goat cheese on toast, lamb's tongue vinaigrette, and grilled octopus. All were quite nice, but the octopus was outstanding. It was more crunchy than chewy, and the flavor was incredible.
We were strongly steered towards the pastas, and we happily agreed. We had a black spaghetti, which had been colored with squid ink and covered in a sharp cheese. Then we followed with order of "mint love letters", which were a pillowy stuffed pasta with fresh mint and spicy lamb sausage. I thought this was outstanding, but it was too much mint for some of us. What do I know? I'm a bear; I chew mint right off the forest floor. ;) We also had a stuffed pasta called "Lune", which was filled with sweet potato. All in all, three fantastic offerings.
For the main course, we all chose individual items. I had veal with caper-berries and lemon, which was quite good, but pretty much like veal with capers and lemon I could've had anywhere. Our New York hosts enjoyed the braised beef, which was fantastically flavorful, and the rabbit, which was good, but a little plain. Our first-timer in New York ordered the Duck, which was al ittle dry, but quite flavorful. The otter ordered one of the specials - halibut in a rich broth, which he loved. My other half ordered the fennel dusted sweetbreads, which were completely outstanding.
For dessert, four of us tried the maple cheese cake, which was incredible and rich. My other half loves chocolate, so he chose the chocolate hazelnut cake, served with a canelle of hazelnut gelato and an orange sauce. One of our hosts had the chocolate and pistachio semifreddo. All of the desserts were really knock-outs, but that maple cheesecake. Yum.
All in all, a very good restaurant experience. Our server was very nice in helping us once it became clear that our original intentions weren't going to work. He also recommended wines for our various dishes, and his recommendations all seemed spot on, even when they initially sounded odd (such as a dry sherry to go with the sweetbreads).
If you're looking for excellent Italian cuisine made primarily with local ingrediants, you should give Babbo a try. Remember, though, that you need to make your arrangements well in advance. We called the day after reservations became available for our chosen date, and we were only able to get in at 10:30 PM.
- The Happpy Bear
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