The North Tonawanda Farmers Market offers a wide array of fruit and vegetables sold by the farmers themselves.
Aiming to get more locally-produced food into Western New York restaurants and stores, local advocacy group Buffalo First is sponsoring a meeting between produces, sellers, eaters, and other interested parties.
It's set for April 1, but this is no joke.
"There have been few opportunities for those in the food service industry to work with the producers of their food," said Buffalo First Director Amy Kedron. The session will be "hopefully the first of many dialogs between those who put seeds in the earth and those who help us put forks in our mouths," Kedron said.
The session promises to be well-attended, with more than 40 people already sending in RSVPs, Kedron said. Among the agenda items are examining some of the area's "best green sourcing options, green buyer's collectives," and establishing a "local/sustainable wish list."
It's Tuesday, April 1, at 6 p.m. in the Market Arcade Building, 617 Main St. Parking on Washington Street between Chippewa and Tupper. Buffalo First members free, others $10 suggested donation. For more information, call Kedron at 913-1990.
It's difficult to find a coffee-drinker who doesn't have a strong preference for one brand of coffee. Whether it's a brew that's chic, cheap or convenient, every coffee fan has a favorite, and it's totally personal and individual.
For the blind taste test held at The News, I assembled a group of coffee-drinkers who have some java credentials. Janice Okun has a discriminating palate, loves hearty coffee and is in the office at 7 a.m. Mike Polino works nights and has been long known as a coffee aficionado, dating back to the days when he'd settle at a Your Host with his cup. Both Susan Rose, co-host of Buffalo's Early News on WBEN 930 AM, and Victoria Hong, of WIVB Channel 4's"Wake Up" and the noon news, start work at 5 a.m.
For coffees, I chose the most popular brews served in this area: Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, Spot Coffee, Tim Hortons, Caffe Aroma and McDonald's. Some people love Wilson Farms' coffee, but I limited this test to places that brewed and poured the coffee themselves, rather than self-serve.
What do you think of the panel's findings? What's your favorite coffee, and whose brew do you dislike and why?
-- Anne Neville
March 19, 2008 - 10:35 AM | Comment
The charmingly surly leather-clad ex-chef Anthony Bourdain has made a television career of searching for authentic eating experiences around the globe. For an upcoming episode of Bourdain's "No Reservations," on the Travel Channel, his producers are looking for invitations he might like. (Here's Bourdain's blog.)
Buffalo rocker Nelson Starr took him up on the challenge, producing a short but slick video outlining why Buffalo is Bourdain's kind of burg. It hits Ted's Hot Dogs, the Anchor Bar, and Ulrich's for a beef on weck. Though why Starr didn't mention the bars are open till 4 a.m. is beyond me.
If you dig it, go to the Travel Channel site, register, and vote it up. (Via BuffaloPundit.)
- Andrew Z. Galarneau
March 17, 2008 - 12:21 PM | Comment
What a great surprise. After enduring a full thirty minutes of watching guys tossing pizza in the air for a world record on the Food Network Sunday night -- the culinary equivalent of "Stupid Pet Tricks" -- I watched local chef Liz Morath on the Ultimate Recipe Showdown win $25,000 for her Summer Eggplant Lasagna recipe.
She had entered the contest with best friend Jackie Gurney and taped it in L.A. last summer. But the women were sworn to secrecy about the outcome.
Even after I wrote about them in The News they would not say if they won or not. Photographer Sharon Cantillon thought the women had won the big bucks, but I was not so sure. Anyway, it's a big victory. And deserved.
Wanna see the recipe? Look up my story. Or if you want to taste it, visit TGIF Friday's, which will put it on the menu.
How can you pack all the ingredients of a traditional Reuben sandwich into a smaller package that might have even more calories?
Why, a Reuben spring roll, of course, recently found at Cole's on Elmwood. Pack egg roll wrappers with corned beef, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut, and voila. Serve them up with a basin of Russian dressing, because you just know everyone will want to get their dunk on. (At $7.99 for a pair, they cost pretty much what you’d pay for that sandwich, too.)
- Andrew Z. Galarneau
I love soup.
I especially love it in cold weather, but I'll eat soup any time of year. I grew up in Albany, and on my family's visits to Saratoga Race Track every August, our first stop would always be the soup bar, where they make delicious clam chowder. (Manhattan, of course!)
There's nothing like standing hunched over a cup of blazing hot Manhattan clam chowder while standing at a tall table next to the soup bar, listening to the announcer read the scratches, with sweat running down your face. Last year I think a bowl of the soup (two packets of crackers included) cost more than $6.
I had a fantastic bowl of soup (included with a dinner that cost about a quarter more than a lonely bowl of soup at Saratoga!) at the Apollo Family Restaurant in Lackawanna a few weeks ago. Ham and cabbage soup might sound iffy to some and when it arrived I briefly flashed back to the water in the huge pot my grandmother had used to boil ham and cabbage for Sunday dinner. But once I plunged my spoon into the bowl at Apollo, I was a convert. This soup had a complex broth, perhaps including a bit of tomato base, and was neither too salty nor greasy. It was rich with chopped cabbage and ham, and deeply satisfying.
I've had some other unusual soups, too -- cheeseburger soup at Jade's Restaurant in Depew, turkey dinner soup at Fables Cafe in the Central Library (of all places!).
What is your favorite soup, and where do they make it right? What unusual soups have you tried? What soups do you wish you could find locally?
-- Anne Neville
Above: Native Offerings members pick up their weekly vegetables in Amherst.
With spring just around the corner, some Western New Yorkers who are interested in eating locally raised organic vegetables are signing up for farm shares.
It’s called community supported agriculture, or CSA. Subscribers share in the risk and rewards of the farming season. If the Japanese eggplant gets wiped out by beetles, there’ll be none in the share. But if the beets go great guns you’ll see more of the purple darlings.
There are two CSA farms we know of in Western New York, both welcoming members this spring. Both provide weekly selections of vegetables to distribution sites in Amherst, Buffalo and other area sites. (The Porter Farms share requires members to drive to Elma and do the pickup for their site once or twice a season.)
To be sure, it’s not for everybody. If getting better food is something you’re not comfortable expending more effort on, you might get frustrated. People who re-subscribe think it’s worth the investment for the high-quality food (like tatsoi, a versatile Asian green, at left), and the chance to support a local farmer.
First off, you need to make your weekly pickup in a window of a few hours, or make sure someone else does for you. In a land of 24-hour supermarkets, that seems wrong to some people. But people manage to keep appointments for all sorts of things, so an appointment to get much of your week’s food doesn’t have to sound nuts.
The second hurdle for many is unfamiliar vegetables. If you’re not used to cracking open cookbooks and consulting the Internet to find ways to use items, you will be after you’re faced with the diversity of vegetables you get. Or, you form relationships with people who do, and hand off your kohlrabi.
One of the rewards is discovering vegetables you never knew you could love. Personally, I can’t wait for the local arugula crop to come in, but that’s me.
Porter Farms
Elma N.Y.
585-757-6823
Porterfarms.org
Buffalo-area share $310 for a 22-week share, $20 off for registering before April 15.
Native Offerings Farm
Little Valley, N.Y.
716-257-3006
Nativeofferings.com
Shares available from $220 to $550 for a 22-week summer share. A summer fruit share ($220 for 20 weeks) is also available. Pigs and beef cattle, raised humanely without artificial hormones, available as well.
- Andrew Z. Galarneau
Entries for The News' Great Burger Hunt are coming in fast and furious. We'll take your suggestions for the best area burger through Monday, March 10, at agalarneau@buffnews.com - and please don't skimp on the details.
We'd like to know where you find your favorite burger, including restaurant name and address if possible, and what it is exactly you like about it. Burgers of tofu, turkey and other proteins need not apply.
Hi everyone.
I'm down in rainy Florida right now but wanted to apprise you of some big excitement in the restaurant world.
On posh St. Armand's Circle in Sarasota there's a brand new food outlet called Miami Rice Pudding Co. It sells, among other goodies, rice pudding in 20 flavors -- including tiramisu, coconut, peanut butter, pumpkin, and key lime.
AND - it's said to have half the fat and two-thirds of the calories of ice cream. Sounds pretty good to me. Does Towne Restaurant know about this?
