Food/Travel/Nature/Cooking/Culture
THE Ultimate Greek Festival in the metro-Detroit area is going on this weekend at St. George Greek Orthodox Church of Bloomfield Hills, MI. Stop by to view the worlds largest Saganaki, enjoy Greek delicacies, purchase some artifacts, or just listen to the Greek music September 7,8 and 9, 2012! The beautiful church grounds at 43816 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills, MI are set up for a Greek good time….not to be missed! Yassou!
Made a return trip to Virtue Feed & Grain on Union Street in Old Town Alexandria. Still haven’t ordered off the dinner menu because the pub grub is too interesting! This is now my favorite place to hang out early for unique eats. We sampled a dangerous cocktail that tasted like nothing more than ginger beer, but was going down way too easy to be safe. Loved it! The chef loves to fry and he does it well. Baskets of fried calamari and mushrooms are plentiful and well done. The crubeen is a fried lump of pork hock goodness that should not be missed. The ox tongue salad with a light vinaigrette, red onions and rocket greens was loaded with tender tongue worthy of the best New York deli. Soooo good! Oysters on the half shell were large and fresh. The bar staff is friendly and efficient, and food comes out of the kitchen quickly. The one misstep so far is the sad cheese plate…but that’s what you get when you order a cheese plate in a gastropub!? I am looking forward to my next adventure here…and hopefully the specials will last longer than 6:30 pm!
Although the roast lamb is the main attraction, for many of us the side dishes are just as important. When they are homemade, all the better! This year we are enjoying a typical Greek salad with all the trimmings, Yiayia’s recipe for green beans, roasted potatoes, spanakotyropita (spinach and cheese pie), tyropita (cheese pie), and of course tsoureki (Greek sweet bread). My mother’s recipe for tsoureki is quite unique, as she does not use the traditional mahlepi for its seasoning, but rather anise. It is an all day process which requires lots of kneading, two risings (proofing) of the dough, and braiding the dough before baking. The result is an airy, sweetness that is greatly anticipated and hugely appreciated.
Let me preface this review of Taverna Cretekou on King Street in Old Town, Alexandria by saying that I am of Greek descent, so it is pretty near impossible for a Greek restaurant not on the Mediterranean to please me. The ones that have like Molyvos in NYC, and Kellari in DC, and the now closed, George’s in Bethesda, are either totally authentic or upscale with a certain chef’s license on their authenticity. I want to like Taverna Cretekou because the owners are nice people and it is a taste of my childhood and very nearby. I do like the decor, and the fact that they bring in live entertainment on certain nights. On a recent visit, the lamb shank special was the largest I’ve ever seen in a restaurant; tender, falling off the bone and swathed in a very delicious avgolemono sauce. Yasou! Likewise, the combination platter ( moussaka, pastitsio, dolmathes, and spanikopita)was very well prepared and sported some of the same egg-lemon sauce. Yasou! The appetizer Imam Biyaldi was correctly prepared and delicious. Yasou! Taverna Cretekou could impress more if they would not dumb down the rest of their dishes for western tastes, especially the classics like tadziki, taramosalata, the pites, the calamari and others. At least they haven’t fallen into the tomato sauce trap, though. Sigh…..where’s my yiayia when I need her!
When you visit Columbia Firehouse on St. Asaph Street in wonderful Old Town do expect to have fun. Have fun with the chef’s playful bar menu offerings. Have fun with the mixologists interesting cocktails. Have fun with the people at the next table…..oops… Is that supposed to be fun? Yes, dear foodie, it is a good thing when fellow diners tell you about what they are enjoying. It is a good thing when a place makes you feel so relaxed that you feel ok commenting on your neighbor table’s conversation. It is a good thing when you visit a restaurant four times and don’t get turned away at the door (all on Friday and Saturday by the way) because the host staff tries hard to find a place for you. And it is a GREAT thing when you cannot find a bad dish on the menu! That being said, here are my standouts: house made corn dogs, steak tartare tacos and steak tartare, Reuben egg roll, Bison short ribs, cookies and confections (the dessert a la hostess) wink, wink 😉
We visited Fontaine Cafe and Creperie twice this week, once for lunch and once for dinner. Although the menu did not change, the ambience did. In the evening there’s much more a French feel to the local eatery. The lights are dimmer, but the food is not. We were not disappointed in either visit by the Sultan, the Alexandrian, the Tuscan, the bruschettas or the onion tartlet. The wine prices are reasonable and OMG .the dessert crepes! All I can say is they’re the “sweetest thing”!
I feel slightly cheated that we did not venture in sooner for fear that there would be nothing that my celiac diseased hubby could eat…o nay,nay… All crepes may be ordered made with gluten free buckwheat flour!
Visit soon…or not…I’d like to keep this little secret to myself it is sooooo close to home….
In an area with so many Asian food choices, it is often hard to choose which cuisine you are actually having a hankering for. Vietnamese cuisine is probably the hardest to pin down culturally, since it is a mix of Chinese, French, and a little Cambodian influence. It seems to be my go-to comfort cuisine, which is really something for a Greek-American girl to say. But there…..I’ve said it! I have found a little jewel of a place right in Old Town; Caphe Ban Mi on Cameron Street. What you get here is one of the best, homemade, non-MSG laden, Phos I have ever eaten. A friendly staff makes the food taste even better. I mean it! Visit this small restaurant when you need some comfort….you will instantly feel better, I promise!
The hubby and I ventured out today to witness the Chinese New Year celebration in DC’s Chinatown. Having been to Chinatown in both San Francisco and New York, I was expecting a similar experience. However, the Chinatown here is a refurbished skeleton of what it once was, with very few of the original businesses still operating. We were able to find a couple of gems here. The first, which smelled of all things wonderful, but had a line snaking out the front door was the tiny but proud, Chinatown Express. Anytime I find a restaurant with Peking duck and a noodle-making chef in the front window, I know I’ve hit nirvana. I only hope that the young people peering in the window and making fun of the noodle man and the “dead rubber ducks” grasp the greatness of their culture before it disappears completely from assimilation.
Sadly, we did not eat here..
We did however have the good fortune of choosing another local gem, the Jackey Cafe. Our meal was quite good and very authentic. These establishments are cultural antiques that should be cherished by the community, not ridiculed for their obsolescence.
Betzabroad...My personal recipe for tasting our big, fat, wonderful world 