100 Posts

Wow... I've been playing around with this blog for years and I must say that I've come a long way. It's taken me a couple of years but I've finally hit 100 posts and I'm very excited.  I've written so many blogs about food in the past year and I'm very proud of everything I've written. I hope to keep up with this, to keep updating regularly.
In less than a week I'm moving to Rome, so I'll be doing a lot of Italy Restaurant Reviews, Food specialty blogs, some funny commentary and I'll definitely be coming up with new and easy recipes to cook while living in my new apartment in my new city.
It's a new adventure and a new chapter in my life and I want this blog to stay a part of me. I want to keep enjoying all sorts of food. I want to keep writing and sharing. For those of you, who've been reading and following, for those of you who have read one or two blogs, for those of you who got me to almost 3,000 views, Thank you so much. It means so much to me that you read all these thought-out-words. Thank you for sticking with me even though I'm terrible at updating regularly. I'll try to do better, to be better.
I'll try because I really do like writing these blogs. I love getting creative and silly with food. It relaxes. It excites. It troubles. It encourages.

So here's to 100 episodes.
Here's to remembering why I started this in the first place. To the Mangiables. To staying connected.

Mangiare: to eat 

Edible: good to eat 

MANGIABLE: to all things good for eating

100 episodes... Here's to another 100!

Chicago Restaurant Review: Haymarket Pub & Brewery

Sooo this particular post is very, very overdue.
I get very easily distracted... That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. :D

I was in Chicago on the last day of June and it was a great day full of walking and adventure. And at the end of the night, we missed the train. I'm kind of glad we did because it meant that we had an hour wait till the next train and therefore we could explore some more. That's how we found Haymarket Pub & Brewery. It was about 10 minutes from the train station and one of the few
places open late on a Sunday night.

The Brew House and Fermentation System

We had already missed the live entertainment but the restaurant was full of music and people. There was lots of great atmosphere and fun. It was on the dark side but there were lots of lights and plenty of things to look at, including their brewery.
It was pretty amazing to see their brewing system through a window. They brew a lot of beers on the premises.  I found out afterward that they actually give tours of their brewery on Sundays. The tours start at 12, 2 and 4. It also includes a 12 oz beer and a guided tasting of 4 4 oz beers.  For $15 a person I definitely would have gone on the guided tour. But that will have to wait till my next visit to the area.
I was impressed at how many kinds of beers they produced and I wish I had tried one of theirs, rather than the cider I decided to drink. I should have asked the waitress like my brother did. He had a great IPA while I had the most disgusting cider I've ever tried before. Normally, cider is my favorite drink in the world, but this one was bitter and an utter fail. Had I asked my waitress, she probably could have and would have told me all about it. But I didn't. As a result I'm going to write a whole review of ciders in another day or so. It was a Virtue Cider Red Streak 5.2% Proper English style Draft Cider. I drank it all like a trooper, but it was NOT good and I do not recommend it. That being said, I'm sure someone out there likes it. Next time I'm trying one of their brews and I'll actually ask the waitress for a recommendation. As my brother pointed out, servers at brewerys are generally trained on the different  types of beers offered.

Mac n' cheese and my cider

We weren't super hungry so we each got a drink and a little bit of bar food. I really liked looking through the menu and wished that I had been hungry enough to have a full meal. I would have tried one of their seasonal fresh options.
They had three signature items that really interested me. Their signature sandwich, The Riot looked quite appealing. It's house-made spicy Italian sausage patty, topped with smoked pulled pork, mozzarella, bbq sauce and a giardiniera spread on a brioche bun.  Then the Smokin' Hot Legs also looked really good. Chicken legs brined, smoked and then finished in the fryer and finally tossed in the house-made buffalo sauce. It certainly looks like an interesting twist on wings.

The sweet potato tots

We tried the mac n' cheese and the sweet potato tots. They were small plates for $5 each, so a little on the steep side considering the portion. However, the sweet potato tots were unique and quite delicious. There were mild, lightly fried and not too sweet so I really enjoyed them.
The mac n' cheese was also quite good. It wasn't too cheesy, nor too salty which was right up my
alley. I did wind up adding pepper, but I like a little bite of pepper or spice in my mac n' cheese.
If I ever have the opportunity to go back, I'll definitely try one of their home made brews and maybe one of their  half-pound angus burgers with their house-cured and smoke bacon, especially the one topped with a fried egg. It sounds utterly delicious.
If you're in the Chicago area looking for a Pub, beer and some bar food, I highly recommend the Haymarket Pub & Brewery.

Restaurant Review: Bruschetta Ristorante

My mother discovered Bruschetta's a couple of months ago and introduced it to me a month or so after when she realized that Monday there is a live pianist/performer who invites others to sing with him up front. Since I have been singing for fun for years my mother decided to drag me with her to make me sing in front of people.  I have not performed (besides karaoke) in years so the first time was nerve wracking but exciting too.
I love Monday nights at Bruschetta's. It's a lot of fun with an amazingly friendly crowd. The pianist, Al De Leon, is absolutely fantastic and a wonderful, supportive person who plays beautifully. I try to go every Monday now so I can sing. Al also plays there on Tuesday nights with Hunter Hayes, so I may try to go this Tuesday to hear them together. Every night there is different live music at the bar.
However, I also go for the food. We never sit in the main dining area but instead head straight over to the adorable bar area where the piano sits in the corner waiting to be played.
Oh my goodness, the food is original and quite delicious. The restaurant has been around for 16 years and specializes in Northern Italian cuisine including homemade pastas, beautiful steaks and fresh fish.
Since I go relatively often I've gotten to try quite a few dishes with my mom. We usually stick to the appetizers and split a couple of dishes. The staff is lovely and usually splits the various salads onto separate plates for us.  I'm always impressed that even the "half" portions are still styled beautifully for us.

Pear Fennel Salad

Mom and I usually order a salad to start with. We've tried a couple but my absolute favorite is the Pear Fennel salad on the regular dinner menu. It has poached pears, sliced fennel, candied walnuts, fresh strawberries, goat cheese and is served tossed lightly in a raspberry vinaigrette. There are a lot of great flavors in this salad. I wouldn't necessarily expect them altogehter but they mix beautifully nonetheless. I love the crispness of the fennel paired with the sweetness of the poached pears. Plus the strawberries and goat cheese are absolutely delightful.  Honestly, if my mother didn't stop me, I would probably order this every time. It has a lot of great flavor, and is a great portion at only $7. My mother likes it too, but she's been curious about other things on the menu too.

A half portion of the mozzarella salad

My other favorite salad is the mozzarella salad on the bar menu (also $7). It consists of roasted red peppers, red onions, mozzarella cubes, baby greens, tomatoes and olives dressed in a balsamic vinaigrette. The balsamic vinaigrette isn't terribly heavy and the mozzarella, and tomatoes are very fresh. It's a nice, refreshing salad.

yummy calamari

Some of my favorite dishes are right off the bar menu. The calamari is always fresh and coated in a light batter made with garlic and white wine and then it is fried lightly to perfection. It is served topped with thinly sliced, battered and fried leeks, which is a nice twist to the traditional calamari plates. A lot of restaurants do calamari but not all restaurants do calamari well. Although it is not my favorite place for calamari (my favorite calamari is in Italy), it is still very well done and I enjoy it immensely, especially given it is only $6 and the portion size is quite nice.

Delicious Eggplant rollatini

The eggplant rollatini is coated in a beautiful home made marinara sauce. I absolutely love the eggplant cutlets, crisp yet not tough. The whole dish has a lovely flavor and isn't too heavy even though it's fried. The cheese mixture in the middle is a great blend of fresh mozzarella, straight leaf parsley, and ricotta that really melts in your mouth. It was a small portion but only $5 and utterly delicious.

Tortellini alfredo

I also really enjoyed the tortellini alfredo off the bar menu. It's a rich tri-color three cheese tortellini in a creamy and delicious creamy alfredo sauce. I was a little hesitant since I know that alfredo is not an actual sauce that exists in Italy. It probably stems from your basic Northern cream based sauce but does not exist with that name in Italy. However, I did try it and it was quite good. It was a little too rich to have on a regular basis but it was very tasty and didn't have any harsh overtones.
At the bar they also have a specials menu that changes on, I believe, a weekly basis. Every now and then we try something from that small handwritten list.  My favorite so far was the coconut shrimp. The shrimp were very fresh and beautifully prepared. The coconut batter was very refreshing served over arugula salad and strawberries. The dipping sauce was also delicious and I believe had a light mango flavoring to it.

Coconut shrimp beautifully prepared

Mom and I have really enjoyed going to Bruschetta on a regular basis. The atmosphere is very relaxed and the staff is very nice who go out of their way to be helpful.  They are a family run restaurant with some wonderful family recipes.

Restaurant Review: Minado

I would just like to say that I absolutely love Japanese sushi buffets.
All you can eat sushi!
Ahh!  It sounds so delicious, and so long as the fish if fresh and high quality sushi buffets are an amazing idea! Unfortunately, it can be hard to find a high quality, decently priced place, but no worries, my friends and I have searched and searched and we've found some great options.
Tonight, we went to Minado in Little Ferry. It is my second favorite all you can eat sushi buffet (at some point I'm going to write a review for my absolute favorite some point soon... I meant to do it before but I suck at blogging in a timely fashion).
The fish is very fresh and there are so many different options of rolls, sashimi, vegetables, hot food and dessert.  I probably should have taken a picture of the general setup, but I was more concerned with filling my plate(s).
I had 3 full plates of food, a bowl of udon, plus a small dessert plate and my friends basically all did the same. It was kind of amazing. And honestly, I'm still in a semi food coma.


My first plate was filled with a lot of tuna sashimi, shrimp, lots of rolls (especially rolls with tuna) and a kind of Japanese beef tartar (it has a specific name but I can't remember what).  The beef was utterly delicious that melted in my mouth. The tuna was fantastic. It is my absolute favorite fish, especially when raw. It is one of the least fishy fish that I can think of and I absolutely adored the ode to tuna on my first dish of yumminess.

My second plate was equally
amazing. It was also quite possibly another ode to tuna.  I got more rolls.  They had a lot of traditional rolls like Philadelphia rolls, California rolls, spicy tuna rolls, so forth and so on. But there were some really delicious and unique options.  I'd never seen a roll utilizing tuna and sweet potato before but it was quite good. There was another roll that had bbq sauce on top. It was surprisingly good considering the unique combination of western ingredients. I also found the roe utterly delicious. There were 4 kinds there, the large orange roe, small orange roe, red roe and black roe.  I didn't try the large roe, honestly I'm always a little frightened of it, but I did try the other 3.  I had never tried the black or red, but they were quite delectable. I think the red was my favorite because it had a little tang to it.  There were rolls that used real crabmeat, and those that used the imitation, both were equally good.  I think my favorite roll overall was the spicy lovers roll. It had a combination of different fish with some crunch and lots of spice.  I was very pleased with everything I tried.

My last full plate was one filled with green.  By this point, I was starting to get full so I decided to lighten things up with lots and lots of green.  I got chinese broccoli, edamame and bakchoy. So amazing.  The edamame was not oversalted and perfectly cooked. The broccoli was quite delicious as well and very light.  I didn't love the bakchoy as much. It was well cooked, but seasoned lightly with sesame and slightly bitter (as often happens with bakchoy).  I also tried a pork shumai and a shrimp shumai. Both were delicious and not at all heavy.  I even tried some of the tempura. Mmmm. The shrimp was perfectly cooked as was the butternut squash (deliciously smooth) and renkon (lotus root).  This was a happy plate for me.  However, I did not try the last thing on my plate. It was a deep fried roll which looked quite good, but I couldn't make myself eat it for some reason. Another friend assured me it was quite delicious.
Then I got to try some Udon which was made right in front of me at my request. It had a tempura
shrimp and lots of fresh vegetables in the broth. It was full of flavor but a bit salty for me. However, the noodles were perfectly cooked and so were the other ingredients. At the same station you could also get buckwheat noodles or fresh ramen. I'm always so excited for the hot soup stations at Sushi Buffets.

I'm sad to say that I didn't have room for any other savory treats. I would have loved some king crab legs, maybe some of the fresh oysters that my friends were raving about, or even the hot teriyakis. Everything looked delicious but I simply ran out of room. I was trying to avoid food coma but simply failed.  In any case, I chose not to skip dessert.   I mean, full or not, who skips dessert?

I chose to get a small serving of swirled vanilla and green tea soft serve ice cream with chocolate sauce on top, a piece of red velvet cake, a piece of strawberry cake and a piece of cookies and cream cake. So many levels of happy. Each cake was tiny, so I didn't even have to feel guilty about it.  The red velvet was surprisingly good but the cookies was my favorite cake. The ice cream was my favorite and it was very refreshing paired after everything else.  I was realy tempted to get a crepe like my cousin. She loved hers and picked her own ingredients which a chef put together right in front of her. I wasn't in the mood for anything warm so I just looked on happily.

So that was my dinner. It will be my last sushi for a while so I was very pleased. Minado was a great choice and I highly recommend it for anyone in the North Jersey area.

P.S. For anyone who doesn't know yet, I'm moving back to Italy in 1 week!!
I'm very excited and can't wait to be in Rome. It will be a new city for me with many adventures to be had. However, I won't be having sushi or Asian food for a little bit (until I find the best places in the city) so I'm getting my fix this week.

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My relax food

So yesterday was my birthday!  I had a fabulous day with friends and family. We did dinner and karaoke and it was just an overall good day.

Today I spent recovering and relaxing.
Which means I chilled at home watching television and eating some of my childhood favorites.

One of my favorite snacks from when I was little are Keebler Rainbow Cookies. I don't know what it is about those cookies, but they are still my favorite. They are delicious and amazing.
There's something about the slightly soft bake finish and the m&m's that I absolutely love.

I always eat them with a glass of milk, and if I'm home, always in my Garfield mug.  I love Garfield and cookies and milk.  I'm such a child but I love it all.
I figured the day after my birthday would be a great time for such relaxing chill afternoon.