White Hot
One of the things I’ve learned from almost a decade of food blogging is that nobody wants to read about cocktails on Monday. So even though I’m burning to tell you all the details from Saturday’s cocktail competition, you’re just going to have to wait until Friday.
Today we’re going to talk about a related topic, which is all about food, but centers around a local bar named The Excelsior Pub.
In part that has to do with my recent outing there for their take on Rochester’s famous garbage plate. The other was the observation that after a night on the town, I’m likely to make this bar my last stop. And the proprietor’s love of New York’s regional foods is definitely part of the mix. Just recently, I upgraded my Yelp review of the spot to five stars.
My most recent visit there on Saturday night after the cocktail judging, only confirmed this assessment. And it gave me the chance to dig a little deeper into the menu. What I discovered was a sure fire way to improve upon the garbage plate.
The Final Four
Wait a minute, it’s April. Does that mean March Madness is over? Can I no longer use sportsball metaphors from the tournament? And who won the big dance anyhow? This is the big dance, isn’t it? Or is that something else?
So many questions.
No, the final four I’m talking about are the four bartenders who have won the Albany Distilling Company’s Cocktail Competition in their respective cities. These are the champions of Troy, Saratoga Springs, Schenectady, and Albany. And on Saturday, they are going head to head to head to head in two rounds of battle, so that one of them can be named the best bartender in the Capital Region!
Last year I attended the finals at ADCo’s brand new bar and bottle shop, and watched as Sonia Castellani took the win for Hamlet & Ghost. This year, she will return as one of the judges for the finals. But everyone who attends gets to be a judge for the people’s choice award.
Will the official blind judges line up with the people’s choice in 2019? We’ll have to wait and see. But until then, just in case you haven’t been following along these past few weeks, or even if you have, I thought it would be helpful to give a little summary of who these champions are, and how they found their way into the finals.
They do stuff like this before the sportsball too, right? Okay, here we go.
Pregaming the Jewish Food Festival
Three hours. Sunday’s Jewish Food Festival in Schenectady lasts for three hours. Depending on who you are, that is either the blink of an eye, or an eternity. This smorgasbord of the foods I grew up eating, runs from noon until 3pm. Which makes it perfect for a long, leisurely, grazing lunch.
But the food of my people is also quite heavy, so it makes sense to pace yourself. I hesitate to share my pro-tips for navigating the event, but for FLB readers, I’ll let you in on my secrets.
Go to the fish room first.
It’s in the back of the building, all the way down the hall. And most people tend to line up for the hot sliced pastrami first. However, if you grab a piece of bagel, schmear it with cream cheese, and top it with a slice of salmon, you’ll have a pleasantly satisfied feeling while you wait in line for pastrami. Or heck, you can even eat it in line while you wait.
The pastrami line is no joke. But it’s totally worth it. However, this year, as I got myself psyched up for the Jewish Food Festival, I tried something new.
Tossing the Turnips
Betcha thought it was spring. Heck, I thought it was spring. The weather will play tricks with your mind, which is why I’m happy to know that this is all just part of the unlocking. So it’s cold. That’s just a great excuse to make a pot of beans. Or you know, another giant batch of chicken stock.
There are some people who go through their clothes and get ready for the change of seasons. I do that, but with food. For the record, food includes beer, wine, and spirits. Actually, our wine cabinet has been almost empty for what feels like months. With my diet of caloric reduction, and Mrs. Fussy’s dabbling in temperance, our wine consumption has slowed to a crawl. I can’t recall the last case of wine I bought. It may have been at the beginning of the fall.
Speaking of which, do you remember my post from last month about the remains of the fall? We talked about the winter storage crops in my fridge and the delicious plans I had for them. If you look up at the headline of today’s post, you might get a clue where this is going.
Craving Popcorn
Cravings happen.
Sometimes thoughts of specific foods will get in your head, and they won’t come out until you’ve gorged yourself senseless on whatever craving needs to be satisfied. For me, right now, that’s popcorn. But not just any popcorn.
As I obsess over my ideal version of popcorn, let’s take this moment to talk about popcorn in general. Because popcorn comes in all kinds of forms. And while all of them are loved by many, there is one that I love most of all.
How Wrong Can 24,000 People Be?
Last week the Times Union’s Best of the Capital Region results came out for 2019. There were a few summaries of some top categories available online, but some of the things I was most curious about were kept off the interwebs.
Or maybe they were online. We actually pay for a digital subscription to the paper. Hey! You’ve got to support journalism, otherwise it will go away. Even still, I couldn’t quickly find the juicy details. Part of the problem is that I can’t find my password, or maybe that it’s only on one computer. Who knows. I don’t have time to figure it out. It was easier to run down to Price Chopper and buy a hard copy for my records.
And I’m glad I did.
The results ran in the April / May 2019 edition of Upstate magazine, which starts with an Editor’s Note from Gary Hahn. He tried to address the perpetual problem of people not finding their own personal favorites in the top spots from the survey. The gist is that one person’s excellent experience may not be shared by everyone in this “big, spread-out region.”
A few pages further in, we get to some of the numbers.
More Notable Cocktails in Albany
In case you missed it, the qualifying round of Albany Distilling Company’s 3rd Annual Cocktail Competition has come to a close. Monday, this ambitious roadshow rolled into the back bar at The Hollow. It featured five Albany restaurants and bars, who were all brave enough to put their top cocktail makers to the test.
It should be noted there were a few who had to drop out at the last moment. This is important, and I’ll come back to it later.
But big props to The Hollow, Savoy Taproom, Loch & Quay, 677 Prime, and New World Bistro Bar for bringing the passion and their most creative applications for ADCo’s Fort Orange Vodka and Ironweed Rye.
We’ve talked in the past about how the judging for these events goes down. This round we were joined by guest judge Emmanuel Treski who has been back at Speakeasy 518 for some time now. And once again I was surprised to find the orange vodka cocktails were some of my favorite of the night.
It would take too long to give the full play by play of the night. You should have been there. But today, I’m pleased to present the highlight reel, and sing the praises of the Albany champion.
The Tyranny of Low Expectations
Even though the FLB has been published for more years than I care to think about, one of the things I’m trying to figure out is how to work Instagram back into the mix. People like pictures. And while I take lots of pictures of the food I eat, most of them aren’t really good enough for public exposure.
This morning, I think I shared the wrong thing.
Instead of posting a picture from one of my favorite inexpensive Indian food spots, like the Keema Naan at Karam in Schenectady or the Dahi Puri at Parivar in Albany, I shared a shot of the Nacho Fries at Taco Bell.
Yep. I actually walked into a Taco Bell, looked at the menu, saw the Nacho Fries, ordered the nacho fries, took a picture of the tray, ate the product, and still somehow thought it was a good idea to share all of this on the Internet. Probably the best course of action would have been to chalk it up as a poor judgement call made in the throws of a sugar crash. But instead, I decided to publicize my bad decision and yet again pollute my IG feed with some less than optimal content.
But there is a story here, so maybe I can salvage at least a little something from the misstep.
Schenectady’s Jewish Food Festival
Everything is okay. Last night Little Miss Fussy had a minor dental crisis in the form of a broken tooth. It was more gross and upsetting than anything else. This morning we took her to the dentist, and everything is fine. It’s just a baby tooth weakened by an emerging adult tooth. There’s no infection. No decay. No extractions required.
That said, it was pretty tense for awhile. And she was incredibly brave. So, both as comfort and a reward we went to Stewart’s for an extra-thick milkshake. Actually, it was a chocolate malted, which is what my grandfather used to make.
I only had a sip or two, but it’s comfort food in the truest sense. Just a taste and I’m back in my grandparents’ kitchen in Long Island with my Pop Pop, and all is well with the world.
Speaking of comfort food, the 16th Annual Jewish Food Festival is coming up in Schenectady on Sunday, April 7, and you’ll never guess who is giving away a free pair of tickets.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 