This and That

It occured to me that I have lots of snippets that have been languishing in my brain for some time so today I've just got a list of short musings.

-I went to Rochester to see Dom about a month ago and we went out for lunch. I had monkfish with spaetzle in a paprika sauce. Very unusual the sauce was, I can't even really describe it nor think of how to reproduce it. Monkfish is often called poor man's lobster and it really does have some of the same flavor and texture. Then for dinner, Cuca made the most delicious shrimp pastelillos. MMMMM, this is making me hungry for lunch.

-A few weeks ago, Dom and I went to Kleinhans to hear his friend, Cristina, sing. Afterwards, there was a little hobnobbing reception with some nasty, passed hors d'ouveres but surprisingly tasty schnitzel, red cabbage salad and spaetzle. I wasn't hungry but who am I to turn down free food?

-I went to dinner at my mother's boyfriend's house and he made this incredible turkey vindaloo. This being one of Greg's experiments, I can't really describe it except to say that the flavoring was full and intense, the meat melted off the bone and I think I had three helpings. We also had green beans with chanterelles and, get this, spaetzle. This is crazy, I've had spaetzle perhaps three times in my life and all of a sudden, I've had it three times in a week!

-I've been hearing about this 888 place, located at 888 Main Street. The best pizza in Buffalo, best pizza outside NYC, better than Bocce etc. The pizza was pretty standard, nothing special, I'm not really sure what all the hype is about. The wings were very good though, cooked to just the right degree of crispiness.

-We went to Mode yesterday for brunch. I ordered the same Tuna Nicoise that I shared with Dom& Co. a few weeks ago and, while it was perfectly fine, the tuna was not even close to the quality that it was a couple of weeks ago. The bread was also stale. N. had a steak sandwich and french fries that were the best fries I've ever had. However, Mode is getting increasingly spotty; the service was slooooow as molasses and they weren't busy. Ten minutes to bring over my coffee is a bit much. Stale items and varying degrees in quality annoy me.

-The "Best of Buffalo" edition of Artvoice came out last week and,Jesus Christ, where do they find these people? Who the hell voted Mighty Taco as the best Mexican in Buffalo? And Just Pizza is not good! Their cheese is rubbery and has the appearance of candlewax. My vote is for Mr. Pizza, although I will admit I have not tried a lot of old Buffalo old standards, Bocce included.

-I tried making pizza dough in my beautiful new food processor this weekend. Twice. Needless to say, it didn't work out so well. Help me out!

-I'm off to Portland and Seattle next week and I hope to return with lots of Lucy stories and NorthWest-tinged tales of culinary adventure!