Ask the Profussor – Ballots and BBQ

The past few weeks have seemed like a blur. AOA celebrated its third birthday. I bought butter by the case from Adventures in Food Trading for the Jewish Food Festival. Ryan from Caffé Vero sat down with me and talked about what they do so I could write up their macchiato for All Over Albany. Flying Pigs Farm was inspired to open a Capital Region location for their CSA. And the FLB hit a milestone of 600 posts, which even for me seems like a lot of fussiness.

Now we are in the middle of FUSSYlittleBALLOT season. Luckily for everyone the voting is over on April 22, so you have fewer than two weeks to endure my constant droning on about asking all your friends and relations to vote for the full slate.

On top of it all, the Tour de Soft Serve was completed yesterday, and I’m tabulating all the scores. There was one clear winner, so now the battle seems to be for second place. But I’ll have the full report in the days to come. And if that weren’t enough I had an illuminating discussion with John Stage, owner of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, and one of his chief lieutenants about a lot of things, including their sausage.

All of this is to say that a few of your questions got lost in the shuffle. But they are very important to me, so here are your answers.

thelaststandmixer has to deal with a lot of judgemental moms:
Guess I should start drinking wine at 10 a.m. just to deal with those parents that want to say to my face what that mom does. Any suggestions on wine? (or ports?)

I’d stay away from port in the morning. But no soccer mom worth her salt will look askance at a morning sip of Champagne. In fact, one of the more glamorous moms I know out here swears by her cute little pink cans of Sofia sparkling wine, with its matching bendy straw.

Ed L. wondered about the seasonality of a regional food:
Is there a fish fry season? I would think the case could be made that it’s a summer food, except that Lent causes a lot of folks in Albany (and elsewhere) to start their Friday fish fry ritual in February.

Yes, Lent observers begin to eat their fish fry on February Fridays. They are getting a head start on the season, priming the pump for summer. Because while we do have some great year round establishments, there are a few notables that only open in the spring and summer.

Plus to me summer conjures up thoughts of beaches. And being the food-obsessed guy I am, beaches conjure up thoughts of snack bars and clam shacks. These seasonal institutions have fried fish as part of their stock and trade. Why fried foods and the beach go hand in hand is beyond me. But it’s delicious, so who am I to argue.

James the chemist is always trying to keep me honest:
So yesterday, browning and caramelization is a good thing and today it is the spawn of Satan? What gives?

CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson was quoted as saying in regards to ammonia sulfite process caramel, “It’s a concentrated dark brown mixture of chemicals that simply does not occur in nature. Regular caramel isn’t healthful, but at least it is not tainted with carcinogens.”

Now, I’m not entirely sure about the science behind his claims. You are the chemist. I do believe there are carcinogens in my favorite foods, like grilled hamburgers and pastrami. But for the most part, I’m opposed to having things that were made in a lab in my food. Maybe from a scientific perspective that’s irrational, but I’m okay being a food luddite.

r. as an aside mentioned something that I couldn’t forget:
Remember Tang, the drink of the astronauts?

Remember it? It’s a critical ingredient in one of the signature cocktails at The Standard. Tang has not gone away. It’s alive and well, and being appropriated by bartenders.

Ewan must have me confused with some kind of party planner:
when are you organising a meetup at Caffe Vero?

Part of me wanted to do a Tour de Espresso, but it didn’t take too long to rule that out. Maybe I’ve just been thinking about it wrong. Perhaps the espresso event is just a stroll down Lark street with the Daily Grind, Caffé Vero and then hiking down to Ultraviolet. You know, something hyper-local and focused on one neighborhood.

I’ll keep you posted. But in the meantime, you shouldn’t wait for me to get to Caffé Vero.

kater muses aloud about donuts:
So I don’t know why I occasionally eat a DD doughnut. Temporary insanity?

Truth be told, I do eat an occasional Dunkin’ Donut too. Mostly it is because someone brings a dozen around, and sometimes even a bad donut is better than no donut at all. Other times it’s because Young Master Fussy has done something incredibly generous on a Saturday morning. On those occasions I reward him by driving him to Dunkin’ in his pajamas, and ordering Boston Kreme donuts in the drive-through.

Irisiria disagreed with just one point of the Dunkin’ Donuts rant:
The gas station? If it’s anytime other than morning rush, it’s burnt yuck-o.

In my defense, when I said convenience store, I was thinking of Stewarts. And there are also a lot of gas stations nationally that are trying to make a better name for themselves on the strength of their coffee. Green Mountain is appearing in a lot of unexpected locations. But you are spot on with your commendation of McDonald’s coffee over that of Dunkin’ Donuts. I totally missed that in my post, but I heartily agree.

Wendalicious went to the Jewish Food Festival and was left contemplating:
So, how much butter and challah were consumed today?

Not nearly enough.

mr.dave called me out on a FUSSYlittleBALLOT compromise:
Cardona’s? Really?

Surely you do not disagree that Cardona’s is a gem. If this were my ballot, I would likely have voted the Asian Supermarket for Best Ethnic Market. But this is not my ballot. As I’ve said many times before, and I’m not sure people believe me, the businesses on here are a cross reference of multiple sources.

When I cross-referenced the top vote recipients in last year’s poll and Yelp, Cardona’s rose to the top.

Ellen Whitby who knows I’m not fan of non-edible pets wrote:
I’m curious, Profusser, how you came up with a pick for best pet store. What, exactly, is your experience in this category?

I have no experience in the category, but I do believe in the collective wisdom of the local Yelp community (and the site’s ability to filter out the noise).

Edison rightfully wondered:
Why should be people write-in an art gallery that closed two years ago?

Perhaps if they win, they will consider reopening.

Karin D. is new here, so I’m not going to give her a hard time:
I am new to the area and have fallen in love with many restaurants up here (thank you yelp for helping me find them). If I don’t get the Times Union, is there a place online to fill out the poll?

You are welcome. The very reason I do this is for people just like you. The Times Union poll can be found online here.

But I do encourage you to have the FUSSYlittleBALLOT 2.0 available in another tab so you can flip back and forth.

Irisira, who has been on fire recently, had this to say:
Yeah, I kinda don’t get the whole Tim Horton’s craze. The coffee is OK, but not outstanding. Better than DD, maybe that’s why people love it?

Or because it’s Canadian.

Leah@Noshing Confessions was contemplating the Tour de Soft Serve:
Will cone vs. cup change the ice cream experience?

Early reports seem to indicate that the participants’ experience with the ice cream was similar regardless of their chosen delivery device.

Jess is apparently still isn’t feeling the love for Trader Joe’s:
So what is it? What am I missing? I think I need to go on a Trader Joe’s field trip one with a fan one of these days. Anyone care to explain? Bueller?

I write a lot of stuff on here, so it is perfectly reasonable that you missed this unfortunately titled post that I believe contains the answers you seek.

Whereas Scott Lemieux dosen’t get the appeal of Trader Joe’s for wine:
But I can see a case for citing it in the grocery store category. But in wine store? I don’t get that at all. I really don’t understand voting for a national chain that is substantially inferior by any standard to the local independents, where you can also get drinkable cheap wine but in the context of much better selection.

Trader Joe’s is not a great wine store, but it is a fun wine store. I’m not talking about Two-Buck Chuck. I’m talking about some amazing deals on solid wine. They may not be apparent to everyone who browses through the aisles, but if you know a bit about wine labels, you can occasionally find some great things at great prices. Mostly this is done through closeouts. But when there is a wine glut in progress, it’s madness to be paying retail.

irisira has another idea about improving the Best of the Capital Region results:
I think the TU should take Olive Garden off the ballot and make people write it in. Sure, of course, many will, but maybe it will be a deterrent? Maybe?

The problem isn’t that the Olive Garden is on the Times Union ballot. The problem is that there is a line out the door there every Friday and Saturday night. Sometime I have to get down there myself and try to do a quick ethnography of their customer base. I think it would be enlightening.