Tag Archives: restaurant food

Best Meal So Far In Buffalo

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— post started yesterday because this week has been a little crazy —

I overslept this morning and tried to kill two birds with one stone by talking the dog out for a run.  It turned into a 1.2 mile drag.  What a waste of a sports bra!  Heading towards the house we were flying and heading away from the house I could barely get him to walk.  We did work up a sweat though.

It wasn’t the most exciting tour day, I had errands to run so I took my parents to the much-lauded visitors spots of BSC, Wegman’s, and and a long walk down Elmwood (actually those all kind of are visitor spots!).

Dopio espresso with tons of skim milk and vanilla sugar and campus.

Fruit at Wegmans.

Beyond delicious strawberry, watermelon, and mango.

In the afternoon we went to the outlet mall and I totally scored.  My parents bought me a wallet since my old one was disgusting and I purchased six fancy shirts, officially finishing my shopping prep for next semester’s internship.  Plus, I got to cash in my most exciting birthday month coupon.

Ben and Jerry’s, I love you.  Coconut Seven Layer Bar and Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz.

Dinner was fabulous.  We tried to go somewhere else on Hertel and when that was closed we were lucky enough to wander down to Mes Que.

It ended up being the best meal we’ve had in Buffalo!!

We got the cheese plate to start.

Manchego, Maytag Blue, Boucheron, Grana Padano.

My plates –

My favorite was the Grana Padano, an Italian hard cheese that had little bits of crackle.

My parents and I shared for our entrée and I got to try every single dish that sounded good to me!  First a salad course.  Mesclun, bacon, dried cranberries, goat cheese, avocado, and sherry vinaigrette.

Arugula, strawberries, feta, walnuts, blush wine vinaigrette, and a balsamic reduction.

My plate –

Fabulous.  The salads were perfectly dressed.

Then our final course, pizza.

Clockwise from the top left – (1) barbeque chicken, spinach, red onion, and cheddar jack.  (2) Goat cheese, asparagus pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, evoo, and pomegranate balsamic glaze.  (3) Chorizo, arugula pesto, roma tomatoes, and manchego cheese.

My plates –

And then I was stuffed and so happy I could die.  The end.

Today (now!) my parents and I are driving to Ohio to see my grandma.  We’ve got a long car trip ahead.  See you from another state.

New To Us

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Today was fun!  I love having visitors because it forces you to explore your own town.  We went to several new-to-us spots today and quite enjoyed them all.

Breakfast at Lake Effect Diner.

I’ve put off going for years but now we’ll be going back, soon.  I loved seeing this on the menu –

but I actually went with a vegan choice.

Vegan Burger – “house prepared veggie burger with blend of navy beans, barley, oats, vegetables, herbs, and accented with toasted sunflower seeds.”

I ate every bite, sans bun, topped with ketchup and red onion.

I also ate several bites from my dad’s turkey sausage.

I loved that menu was loaded with vegan, vegetarian, and poultry substitute options.

Lunch was consumed at the mall.  A piece of pretzel with tons of mustard.

Self-serve froyo, duh.

A little tart froyo, a lot of popping boba.

Plus an orange in the car.

Our main afternoon entertainment was wine tasting.

We went to Schulze, Niagara Landing, and A Gust of Sun and had many tasty pours.

We broke mid-tour to look at Lake Ontario.

Then finished up with a champagne toast.

Adam and I shared at several places so I think I drank a little less than last time.

We ate dinner at AcQua, which was good but not as good as it could/should have been.  Bread with butter to start.

x2.

I ordered the shrimp and scallop scampi for my meal.

I gave away 80% of my scallops and packed up 80% of my pasta for Adam’s lunch but adored the giant shrimp (dipped in cocktail sauce).

Dessert was the best thing going.

I ate half each of the last four macarons.

Pistachio, maple and apple, chocolate hazelnut caramel, and strawberry with marshmallow.  A delicious way to end the evening!

Macaron Mania

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My parents arrived safely last night and today we had a fantabulous first day of visiting.  I am crazy tired (those old folks will wear you out!) but I wanted to blog so I’d have all of my memories on record.

My mom and dad spent 5 days in Quebec before coming here and they came bearing all sorts of French Canadian goodies.  The best of which…

Macarons!  I’ve wanted try a real macaron for forever (real as in not my good but nontraditional coconut attempt) and I squealed with delight when I opened this box.

I managed not to eat any last night but I might have had two for breakfast.

Sea salt caramel and cassis violet.  Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  They were everything I had imagined and more.  I can’t wait to try the rest of them.

I actually didn’t start my morning with cookies, but with yoga.  60 minute hot yoga class.  It was led by my favorite instructor but the series was different than usual and it was a lot of fun.  We did about a million squats.  Then I spent the rest of the day walking around and my legs are about to fall off.

Adam and my parents went to breakfast at Pano’s while I yoga’d and then we met for a walk around the farmer’s market.  From there we headed to Nickel City Cheese & Mercantile.

We got bread and cheese to share.

The man at the counter kindly sliced both for us so we could picnic on the benches out front.

Tarentaise and sourdough.

Both were amazing.  The cheese was mild with a nutty aftertaste and the bread was loaded with crunchy seeds.

I also ate my Pad See U leftovers in the car.

I didn’t manage to leave much behind last night!

We drove to East Aurora to explore.  We walked right into a street festival.

Our main destinations were Vidler’s (a giant five and dime),

and Firefly Cupcakes.

I got the Tropical Pineapple and it was even better than the key lime pie cupcake.

Pineapple cake with coconut cream cheese buttercream.

The frosting was the best part.

Then we drove back to Buffalo to walk on the waterfront.

Our visitors were very impressed with how close you could get to the water.

Cocktail hour was spent at Mixology.  I had a Shock Top,

and a cherry lemonade vodka with club soda.

It’s possible no one in our party made it to dinner entirely sober.

For dinner we introduced my parents to Adam’s favorite, India Gate.  Paneer pakora to start.

I had 1.5 pieces with lots of tamarind sauce.

For our main meal my mom, dad, and I split three dishes so we could try lots of tastes.

Plate #1 – Naan, chicken makhani, curry chicken, jasmine rice (under the chickens), chana masala, and a pickled okra dish that they gave us on the side.

Plate #2 – More okra and chick peas.

The chana masala was my favorite by far; that is going to be my standing order for now on!

My parents drank tea with dinner and it sounded so good that I ended up getting a skim chai latte when we walked the dog down Elmwood at the end of the night.

I slept terribly last night (I think I got less than 4 hours of sleep all total!) and I’m hoping to pass out the minute this post is published.  Can’t wait for tomorrow!

Have you ever tried a macaron?

Sun Shine

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My parents didn’t actually come to visit, not yet anyway.  They will be here soon (hopefully!) and it was a good day nonetheless.

Breakfast bowl.

Plain yogurt, sliced plums, fat-free sweetened condensed milk, and cinnamon.

1 – Cinnamon on yogurt is awesome.  2 – Having an open thing of SCM in the fridge has also been awesome.

When visitors come to town Adam and I like to pretend that we don’t regularly live in squalor so we cleaned the house.  Or rather, Adam cleaned the entire house and I made the bed and put away my own laundry.

Whatever, that bedspread hasn’t been on straight since the last time my parents were here.

For lunch we split a Mike’s Sandwich from The Spot.

I ordered, and when Adam asked me what we got I told him “a bagel with cholesterol, topped with cholesterol.”  Basically it’s an everything bagel with 2 eggs, melted provolone, and cream cheese.

It’s as amazing as it sounds.

Also amazing, was my workout.  60 minutes of hot yoga.  My standing series was pretty wobbly today but I made it further in a few of the seated poses than I have before.  I always leave the hot yoga classes feeling really, really happy.

Around 5, my dad called with some news.  The good news was they were still paying for dinner.  The bad news was they wouldn’t be eating with us.  I’m pissed that we lost a whole evening of visiting and fingers are crossed that they’ll be here at 10.

But we did have a fantastic dinner.  I keep a running list of ‘places to try’ on my cell phone and today we crossed off Sun Restaurant.

Sun sells Burmese and Thai cuisine and we tried a bit of both.

We started by sharing La Peth Thoat.  Burmese-style pickled tea leaf salad combined with crispy chana dal pea, fried garlic, onion, tomato, cabbage, peanuts, and lime juice.

I strongly liked it, Adam loved it.  The tea leaves and cabbage were delicious with the lime and the fried chickpeas (crispy chana dal pea) were fun to try.

I got Pad See U – ordered “Thai spicy” – as my entrée. Thai-style stir-fried wide rice noodles with thick sweet soy sauce, egg, broccoli, Napa cabbage, and bell pepper.

This was the best Thai food we’ve had in Buffalo!  My noodles were cooked perfectly and the dish was actually spicy.  I loved it.  I ate 2/3 of my plate and only managed to stop because I am so looking forward to having leftovers.

We split a Taro Custard for dessert.  Thai-style taro custard cake with coconut milk.

We’ve had this dessert at a couple of restaurants now and I think it’s just not our thing.  We both love the bites of taro but we always end up leaving food behind.

Please cross your fingers for us that my parents get in on time so we can have fun tomorrow!

Days One And Two

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My first two days as a 27-year old have been busy/crazy/fun/carb-filled/fantastic.  And the third day brings a workout, a shift at work, and night-time plans with friends so I’ll try keep this recap short.

I started my birthday early in the morning with yoga.

60 minutes of hot yoga.

Adam’s birthday gift to me was a run (he is a million times faster than me so going at my pace is a gift), so I refueled in between workouts at home.  A Honey Stinger Waffle at home,

and a G2 consumed during our run.

We did 8 sets of 2:00 minutes running / 3:00 minutes walking; 40 minutes and 3.3 miles.

And then I opened my birthday present from my parents.

They sent a few things, the best of which was this little covered wagon.

Read this post if you don’t get it.

And then I painted birthday nails.

And Adam took me to the mall.  I bought underwear.  Apparently I’ve reached the age where I buy myself the lame gift.  But we also stopped at DQ.

Frozen peanut butter hot chocolate, you complete me.

And then I went to work.  On my birthday.  Because I’m old.  Actually it was no big deal; I was glad to have something to fill my day while all of my friends were working.  When I got done at 7:30 a friend picked me up at work at the fun began.

First we went to Starbucks where I spent the cost of a tall iced coffee with skim milk to learn that they no longer give free birthday drinks.

Then we headed to Mixology, a favorite bar.

And then I was drunk.  Really.  Drinking after a day of no solid food was a bad idea.  I had a cake vodka with club soda.

A root beer vodka with club soda.

And two mini drinks that the bartender kindly served us when he learned it was my birthday.

My friends and I had a great time and it was the perfect way to ring in a new year.

I made it to the apartment door before calling Adam to threaten bodily harm if I wasn’t fed immediately.  We got me this small bag of chips.

And I shoveled in 75% of this “garbage” calzone – macaroni, onions, mustard, hot sauce, cheddar, and chicken – in a matter of minutes.

It’s possible that I passed out – fully dressed, without retainers or brushing my teeth, snoring – minutes after that, but who can really say?

I got my Wednesday off to a much healthier start.

Green juice from Ashkers.  I customized my order and ended up with kale, spinach, cucumber and carrot.

It was delicious.

For a more conventional hangover cure, Adam and I split a bagel.

A toasted everything with lox cream cheese.

It was delicious as well.

For lunch we shared sushi.

Half each of a philly crab roll and a shrimp tempura roll.

He got an extra piece of the tempura roll and I got all of the wasabi.  He even shared his seaweed salad with me.

For our afternoon fun we took the dog to the park for a long walk and session of ball throwing.  He was ridiculously cute but I somehow deleted all of the photos I took (which might have made me cry a bit).

Dinner was a great salad.

Romaine topped with Jazz apple, sharp cheddar, buckwheat groats, and peanut sauce.

I ate extra cheese and apple in addition to what went on the salad.

Plus buttered toast.

And two biiig spoonfuls of chocolate hazelnut butter for dessert.

This post took so long to write that the 3rd day of 27 has begun.  Off to bed I go!

The Last Three Days I’ve Been…

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…all over the place!  Figuratively speaking.  I don’t know where my head is but my meals have been less than impressive; lots of junk food, not a lot of veggies, and I keep forgetting to eat breakfast.  Adam was preparing for an important exam and between that, getting used to working, and obsessing over some new books, I’ve felt a little crazy.  It is what it is.

Friday

This was a no breakfast day.  And I didn’t manage to pack lunch before work either.  I ended up grabbing a mix of co-op salad bar.

Cucumber salad, farro salad, vegan pasta salad, and a few dolmas.

Plus a Sweet Leaf Sweet Tea.

When I got home I had chip and dip leftovers.

Plain low-fat yogurt with banana slices and a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk.

And a giant bowl of frosted flakes with skim milk.

I guess I didn’t have it together for dinner either.

Saturday

I ate breakfast!  Cottage cheese stirred into a Liberte Coconut Yogurt.

But I packed the stupidest lunch of all time.

A Plum Kids Strawberry Lemonade Yogurt Mashup,

and a Fiber One cookie.

Supplemented with an iced Earl Grey with skim milk.

And the last of my chips and dip when I got home.

Saturday morning Adam took the biggest, 8+ hour, most important exam he’ll take in his entire life (seriously, he’s done nothing but study the past month) so we went out for a celebratory dinner with another couple that night.

I made a small plate from the communal cheese board.

And drank a (giant?!) glass of riesling.

For dinner I ordered the pesto spatzle.

I loved the idea of the innovative pesto (romaine! pistachio! mint!) but sadly didn’t enjoy the execution.  You know that I can throw down with some heavy food but this dish was missing some desperately needed acid to cut through the richness.  I ate a few bites and figured that my chip appetizer would keep me from starving 😉

Sunday

I started my morning with Harvest Bay Coconut Water,

and chicken salad.

Plus a shake shared with the husband.

(Thank you birthday freebie coupons!)

Mid-day I headed to yoga.  60 minute hot yoga class.  Love love loved it.  This was definitely the high point of the last few days.

Then we had more ice cream; I can’t resist the allure of birthday freebies.

That’s a kid’s size vanilla frozen yogurt with reeses pb cup and cookie dough.

Veggies, chicken, and macaroni were consumed on a shopping trip.

Plus a mug of cocoa at home.

It was delicious but unnecessary.  As I wrote up this recap I was fairly disgusted by the amount of sugar (and chips!) I ate over the past three days.

Around 7:00 we hunkered down in the kitchen for a mega cooking session.  Three dishes were on the agenda – tonight’s dinner, tomorrow’s dinner, and tuna casserole to freeze for Adam for the week I’m in Ohio.  Two out of three worked out.  After spending a lot of time making Janetha’s cauliflower crust pizza I covered it in marinara that turned out to be covered in mold.

Uggggh!  Adam threw out our dinner and I threw a fit on the floor.  I took a giant bite of marinara sauce before I spotted the mold so a lot of histrionic gagging went down.

Then a bunch of other shit happened and many hours later I ate nachos for dinner.

The end.

Sushi Date

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I had a bunch of errands to run and yesterday somehow felt really busy.  No post because I never actually ate any meals, mostly I took random spoonfuls of cookie butter and stole salt and vinegar chips from the husband.

Instead of a recap I’ll share a few of the highlights –

#1 – I met up with a few friends and over coffee we finally figured out our room situation for FNCE – the AND’s yearly conference.  Three (maybe four!) of us are going and we managed to find something safe and affordable.

#2 – My easy errand took me to the mall.  I am loving the “birthday month” deals that have been rolling in.  I’ve wanted this Sugar lip duo from Fresh for years and Sephora just gave it to me for free!

#3 – While I was at the mall (see #2) I drank something that has changed my life forever.  Peanut butter frozen hot chocolate from Dairy Queen.

Since the first sip it’s basically been all I’ve been able to think about.  I’ve already started trying to figure out how to recreate it at home.

Today was fairly lame on the food fruit.  The things I ate were all great but I didn’t eat all that much.  Quality over quantity?

A small bun with ~1 Tbsp evoo for dipping.

Juicy green pear.

Bottle of Classic Green Tea from Honest Tea.

Dinner was extra exciting because we made a quick turnaround on a recent Groupon purchase and headed out to eat.

We were both impressed with Sakura Sushi.  The service, speed, and food were all good.  The menu boasted a bunch of fun rolls (like the “Buffalo Roll” with spicy fried tuna!) but Adam and I both stuck with what we knew.

I got a green salad with ginger dressing to start.

And a Spicy Crunch Salmon Roll.

Deep fried salmon / mango / tempura flakes / spicy sauce.

Yum!  It wasn’t the easiest thing to eat like a lady, but the taste was worth the mess.  I obviously could have gotten something healthier but this was a nice compromise between a plain roll and the cream cheese stuffed, whole roll tempura options that I was eyeing.

We had to spend a little bit more money to use up our Groupon so the husband and I split a dessert.

Coppa Mascarpone – a chocolate cream, followed by a smooth mascarpone cream, topped with amaretto cookie crumbs and chocolate curls.

It was fun way to end the date.

Adam and I have skin checks across town tomorrow morning and I am determined to get in bed so that our wake-up isn’t brutal.  I’ll be dreaming of peanut butter frozen hot chocolate!

I Swallowed (A Wine Tasting Recap)

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What a fun day!  It included booze, friends, and cookies, so you know it was a winner.  I didn’t do the best job photographing but today was one of those days when it is more important to live it than blog it.  I guess that’s true for all days really!

I have no excuse for the past two days because I think blogging a recap would have been my most exciting event, sadly.  I was lazy not busy.  But I do have two new recipes to share this week.  Two recipes for two days seems fair.

We had to do a major cleaning job on the apartment this morning but we did find time for a dog walk.  Breakfast on the go.

Adam and I split this Mango Noosa Yoghurt (there are two servings per package) and we were both big fans.  So thick and creamy!

I read up on the company and I really like their policies.  I just wish the ‘gurt was available in low-fat.

Today my friends and I cashed in a big group Living Social deal and hopped in two town-cars for a winery tour.  We got picked up at my place so every one came up for some sweet treats first.

We had (unphotographed) “virgin mimosas” of oj and vanilla club soda and I baked two treats.  How Sweet Eats’ Chocolate Drenched Coconut Oatmeal Squares.

And cookie dough truffles (recipes is one of the two promised for this week).

Both were big hits!  HSE is basically a genius; I subbed in unsweetened coconut but otherwise I left her recipe alone.  Adam complained about helping me bake on Saturday night but after he tasted the goods he shot me death-eyes when I tried to send friends home with leftovers!  I ate two of each all total for the day.

Then we were off for three hours of wine tasting.

We hit up three wineries, all of which had a great selection.  Between the seven of us there was a large range of preferences.  Rachel likes super dry and I like super sweet so the two of us ended up swapping glasses a couple of times.  I don’t really drink wine so it was nice to have little tastes to see what I like; I even tried a couple of reds!  The craziest ones were Schulze Wines’ crackling sweets.

I especially liked Niagara Landing’s Rosebud line and even came home with a bottle.

And I paid $2.50 extra at one spot for this mini glass of ice wine.

All total I had 13 tastes and I didn’t spit once!  I probably should have though, it wasn’t an insane amount of alcohol but all 13 were sweet and I felt pretty sick by the time I got home.

I ate a mac and cheese muffin (the 2nd recipe),

and then crashed hard on the couch.

When I forced myself up two hours later I knew there was no way I would be cooking the soup on my meal plan.  Instead we went to Moe’s.

My vegetarian burrito had rice, black beans, sautéed mushrooms/peppers/onions, cheese, corn salsa, and guacamole.  It was just what I needed.

I’m feeling loads better now.  But I am hoping to turn in early because I’ve got a busy to-do list for tomorrow.

Have you ever been to a wine tasting?  Did you spit?