Tasty Links #3

1) A take on taxing soda - what the impact would be.
2) Make your own girl scout cookies - thin mints, samoas, and tagalongs (apologies to Jadyn, my girl scout cookie supplier).
3) March 10th - lobbying for local foods.
4) A couple opportunities for learning/engagement about local foods issues in SW Ohio below:

The Southwest chapter OEFFA is presenting a series of programs this spring, all held at the Civic Garden Center, 2715 Reading Road. The programs begin at 2:00 p.m. and are open to the public. The discussion
on Sunday, March 21, will focus on "How to Eat Seasonally," featuring local OEFFA members who will share good places to find fresh food as well as ways to plan for the seasons when fresh food is not as
plentiful. The April 25th topic is "Factory Foods and You". The May 16th topic is "How to Buy Locally". For
further information and to RSVP, email swoeffa@gmail.com

Please mark April 21 on your calendars for the SW Ohio Local Food Summit- Local Food System Development in Ohio: Background, Resources, Actions. This day long workshop will introduce participants to the history and development of the local food movement in Ohio. Participants will learn about resources and tools to support local food system development.  This session welcomes educators, community organizers, policy makers, local food advocates, gardeners, farmers and eaters from Ohio and beyond.
The event is from 9 a.m. until 2:30 on April 21 and will take place at the OSU Extension office at 1802 Princeton Rd, Hamilton Ohio 45044. Registration fee is $10 (includes light lunch). Call 513-887-3722.  Go to www.butler.osu.edu for more info.

Head to Head: Gyros (Chicago Gyros vs. Areti's Gyros)

I had just gone to Chicago Gyros in Clifton when the next day wine me, dine reviewed Areti's Gyros in OTR at Findlay Market.  So, rather than put up a single review, why not introduce a new concept on the blog: Head to Head.  A lot of what we all do as eater's is try to figure out who has the best of something, so when I think there's reason for a match-up, let's get ready to rumble!

The Battle: Chicago Gyros (CG) has long been my favorite gyros (yes, that's singular) place in town (see photo on the left).  Areti's Gyros (AG) got a "freakin' great gyro" review from Julie at wine me, dine me (see photo below on left).  Could we compare 10 more gyros?  Sure.  But, the heavyweight division needs a champ to wear the belt to start.

The Food:  This is all about the gyros itself.  Sure, both places offer other options, but more on that below.  Chicago and Areti's both make a solid gyros, but in my opinion, Chicago Gyros takes the trophy hands down.  And the defining characteristic that sets CG apart - a better tzatziki.  At AG, the tzatziki consistency is a bit off, almost like mayonnaise.  The tzatziki is so important in balancing the savoriness of the seasoned lamb, and CG's got the best balance.  And on top of balance, CG's got a full-on taste explosion happening - great meat, the onion's acidity, and a cucumbery garlicly tzatiki that pulls it all together.  AG's pita is a bit thinner than CG's - I prefer Chicago Gyros here as well.  On both sandwiches I'd agree with wine me, dine me - leave off the tomatoes until they're in season, they're forgettable at best.  The only "problem" at CG is not a problem at all - too much meat!  Neither place skimps though. At Areti's, it wasn't that the gyros was bad, it was just pretty boring.

In other news, Chicago Gyros also has great fries - crispy on the outside, soft on the inside (unless you get them for take out, at which point they're all soft).  They're using some sort of seasoning salt for added flavor, I think it's Lowry's.  I've also been known to snag a baklava on the way out the door - honey goodness.  Areti's looks to have plenty of other options too (see the slideshow below for more pics), but I can't speak to the quality.

The Ingredients:  I'm not aware of either place using anything notable (seasonal, organic, local, etc.).  Summer is surely welcome though to improve the tomatoes - I'm very, very close to a seasonal ban.

The Setting, Story, and Service:  I grew up on gyros.  The place is closed now (and it was going downhill for many years), but when I was a baby my mom would stop there on the way from our place to Lake Michigan or the Lincoln Park Zoo.  Then, when we'd do return visits, Sparta Gyros was always a big treat.

In terms of setting and service, Areti's has a leg up on Chicago Gyros.  The woman behind the counter was very nice, and it was a quick stop.  Findlay Market was surprisingly busy on a weekday at lunch, so the atmosphere was nice for a mid-day pick-me-up.  At CG, service is brusque, they don't answer the phone around lunch for pickup orders, and parking can be a bit of a pain.  But, they remodeled this past year, have a few TVs with ESPN/games playing, and once you're on McMillan you have plenty of options.  They should rename it Sandwich Street now that they have Penn Station, Jersey Mikes, Quizno's, Chipotle, Jimmy John's and more within 1 block.

The Winner:  Chicago Gyros - your new champion!

Chicago Gyros Slideshow


Areti's Gyros Slideshow

Dinner In @ Adriatico's

When Sarah and I want to make ourselves feel better we want comfort food. Pizza is comfort food. And in Cincinnati, if you want top notch, comforting pizza, you get Adriatico's.

The Food:  Let's keep this simple - Adriatico's is the best not-gourmet, fancy ingredient pizza in town.  When I call in an order they ask me if I want "thick or thin" crust, but with the thick being so delectable, I've never been able to bring myself to mess with a good thing.  If you've had Sicilian slices in New York, that's the closest equivalent I can think of to thick crust Adriatico's.  The sauce is a bit spicy and definitely not bland, and they are not shy with the cheese.  We always get green olives and pepperoni - they pile on the olives (as you can see from the picture) and the pepperoni adds a nice extra kick to the meal.

Note: The Bearcat, the largest pizza they offer is listed after personal (8"), medium (12"), and large (16"), as simply "Huge."  See below for a picture.  It is indeed huge.  $5 off on Monday and Tuesday nights, so mark those down as good days for pizza parties.

The Ingredients:  Nothing special here.  It tastes good.  Pretty sure they've got a Sysco truck pulling up on the regular.


The Story:  Unfortunately, they don't deliver to our home area of Northside.  When we lived in OTR, they wouldn't deliver there either, although they would go to Milton's bar in Mt. Auburn - a stone's throw from our old place.

Now, a story I must tell:  About 6 or 7 years ago now, my friend Megan drove me to pick up my order from Adriatico's.  She stayed in the car, I went in, grabbed the pie, and got back in the car.  The pizza was on my lap, and she set her purse on top of the pizza.  It was a hot summer day, the windows were down.  We were about to drive away when a young kid - probably 15 or 16 - came up and asked for a slice of pizza.  I said no, it was my dinner.  He then asked for a dollar, to which I also replied no.  Then, he put a gun to my chest and asked for the pizza.  I kindly set the purse on the floor and handed him the pizza as he ran off.

There are, of course, 2 ways to read this story:  1) That Adriatico's is in a bad neighborhood and shouldn't be trusted as a place to pick up a pizza (I do not believe this to be the case whatsoever).  Or 2) that Adriatico's pizza is so good it is worth risking jail time over if you can't scrounge for the dough.  I like to believe it is the latter.

We went back in, told the staff, they made us another pizza.  While we waited we walked down to the Cactus Pear, got a couple shots, and shook the whole thing off.

Lunch Out @ La Mexicana

A quick review to go with a quick lunch.  La Mexicana has some of the best true Mexican tacos around, and thankfully, the service was great too!  Oh, and if you are looking for a market with authentic ingredients, they've got a small grocery in the back.

The Food: Quality chips and a tasty salsa greet you quickly when you come for lunch at La Mexicana.  The green salsa has chiles and avocado - not very spicy at all.  You can see the menu below in the slideshow.  I've had a few things, but the only items I've found worth writing home about are the tacos.

I got 3 tacos - al pastor, carne asada, and barbacoa.  All the tacos come in 2 tortillas with cilantro, onion, and lime on the side - as you can see in the photo on the left.  The carne asada - which I knew to be good - is lively with plenty of salt and seasoning.  The barbacoa was a bit dry for my taste, and the flavor didn't jump out at me, but wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination.  And the al pastor - which Ryan had 3 of - was somewhere in the middle in terms of my preference.  The al pastor is pork shoulder cooked with guajillo sauce - the waitress called it chorizo when she brought it - and had a smoky flavor something akin to chipotle.  They bring you a green and a red salsa/hot sauce to put on top of the tacos.  Every time I go the sauces have different levels of spiciness, which tells me they're using fresh ingredients to make them, which is a plus.

All 3 tacos could use a bit more meat to really stand out and pack a punch, but all 3 were still as good as any tacos I've had in town.

The Ingredients: Nothing to note here unfortunately.  They have a lot of different kinds of meats - from brains to tongue - if you're into that sort of thing.

The Story, Setting, & Service: La Mexicana was a go to spot for me as a pickup lunch option a year or two ago.  But, salty service led me to let them go.  Amateur Foodies co-founder Ryan and I were planning to hit Riverside Korean (I've still never been) for lunch, but when we arrived to realize they aren't open Mondays, La Mexicana was the quick, close option.  It was also a good time to note that I need to have some more Northern Kentucky options in my list of possibilities.  The place was full when we arrived a little after 12:30, but was empty by the time we left.

Tasty Links #2

1) How something gets to the McDonald's menu.
2) How to make compound gin.
3) Fun with seed catalogs.
4) Epiventures has a couple of hilarious videos of Gordon Ramsey as a child - one of them is at the bottom.

Ezra Klein is a great commentator, primarily on what's happening in Congress, but he is also a foodie and consistently posts cool videos on his "Lunch Break" - here is one of them: how to make snocream...

Dinner Out @ Cilantro Vietnamese Bistro

We've got a take out rotation.  I suppose it's strongly influenced by proximity to Northside - but even when we lived in OTR, Clifton was the main location for said rotation.  And in particular, Cilantro Vietnamese Bistro has been a regular stop for quite some time.

The Food: My regular order is the vermicelli noodle bowl, or Bun.  It's a bed of lettuce, followed by vermicelli rice noodles, then stir-fried onions and lemongrass and your choice of meat (I get chicken).  It's topped with bean sprouts, cilantro, carrots, and crushed peanuts.  I dare say, it is a taste explosion waiting to happen!  Adding to the goodness, the house dressing (nuoc man) - what seems to be a light vinegary concoction that approaches the pungence of fish sauce with a sweetness - and red chili paste make for an excellent personalized kick.  Awesome textures and flavors make this a well-balanced delight.  It's particularly comforting when I'm feeling a bit under the weather and want to zap my senses a bit.

Sarah's usual is beef pho (pronounced fuh).  A traditional Vietnamese soup that we most often eaten at home - if you order it on the go, here's what to expect: 1) a large bowl of rice noodles layered with very thinly-sliced raw beef, topped with scallions, 2) a Big Gulp-sized styrofoam cup full of beef stock, and 3) a small box of always fresh bean sprouts, lime wedge, basil and cilantro leaves, and a small to go ramekin of 1/2 sriracha and 1/2 hoisin (creating a brown and red yin yang of taste).  Pour the broth in the bowl, and it cooks the beef on the spot!  If you're Sarah you eat it right away while it's darn near raw.  I stir it furiously for a minute or two until I feel more comfortable with the whole thing.  Sarah uses a fork and a spoon to consume this soul warming dish.  A note to the home cook, pho bouillon cubes are available at about any Asian store in town for cheap cheap and you can have a respectable home version of pho in no time.  We haven't taken the time to figure out how to recreate the beef yet because why, oh why, should we mess with such a good and affordable thing?

The starter that I'll finish with is what we usually call the veggie cold wrap, they call the veggie soft roll, and I'm sure everyone calls a treat.  Every once and a while the vermicelli noodles that fill the dry, yet sticky, clear wrap - along with lettuce, tofu, and bean sprouts - get a bit stale.  But, it doesn't even matter because when you dip the roll into the brown mystery sauce (sweeter and thinner than hoisin we think, and filled with chopped peanuts and maybe carrots - now we have a side bet), all is happily forgotten.

Overall, Cilantro is consistently a winner.  At $6 a meal, this has got to be near the top of the list of best bang for your buck options in the city.  The only thing we'd like is if they'd stop pouring piping hot beef stock into styrofoam and covering it with a plastic top that inevitably melts around the edges by the time we get it home.  New good idea in the meantime - we'll bring a thermos!

The Ingredients: Nothing notable here unfortunately that we're aware of.  For regular Amateur Foodies readers (can that exist in week two?), you'll note we look for local, seasonal, organic or other honorable mention ingredients that might make this a standout.

The Setting & Story:  Cilantro has been open for almost 6 years in this somewhat odd spot across from Hughes High School.  I've certainly done my fair share of U turns to illegally park outside Cilantro.  And I should say, almost every single time I've arrived in the inevitable 10-15 minutes that my order should be ready - it is.  That's notable unfortunately - there are more than a few places around that aren't ready when you arrive.

When I said I was taking pictures for a blog (see more below), the owner suggested I come back in a couple days because they were putting on a fresh coat of paint.  So, these photos are hot off the press!  The inside of Cilantro is cozy.  Several bar seats for a quick lunch, and a few 2 tops if you're coupled up.  The food comes fast and hot from no-nonsense servers (sometimes /cooks), and there's hoisin and sriracha to add a bit of sweet or a bit of spicy to anything on the menu.

In the most recent Cincinnati Magazine that has their 2010 top 10 restaurants list, my favorite meal (pictured above) was noted by Chef Joanne Drilling (just leaving Slim's for Murphin Ridge Inn) as her favorite dish in the city!  I was happy to be able to share that news with the owner just after the magazine hit our mailbox.

Dinner Out @ Suzie Wong's on Madison

The top "talk of the town" on Urbanspoon Cincinnati is Suzie Wong's on Madison, and that was enough to get us out tonight to try more of the menu.  We'd gone the first week it was open, before it even had the "Grand Opening" sign, but that was take out and we weren't really paying close attention.

The Food: We started with 2 appetizers - crab rangoon and calamari. There's a calamari on the "Starters" menu and another on the "Garden Salads" and we're pretty sure they brought us the salad, but its hard to tell which was which (forgot to look at the receipt). The rangoon were par for the course - not much to say.  They came with a tangy sauce that was somewhere between sweet and sour and duck, as well as some hot mustard.  I'd never put mustard on a rangoon - not too shabby.  I generally find that calamari can either be great or just blah.  This was definitely elevated above blah by the basil, green chili pepper, pomegranate, onion, and scallion mixture and sweet and (not so) spicy dressing - but it wasn't great either.

For entrees, we split the Bangkok Coconut Curry and the Bi Bim Bap.  The Bap (I'll call it that for short) was the clear highlight - it's a Korean dish made in a clay pot.  This was a great dish - and a big one too!  Rice gets crispy and yummy on the bottom as its cooked, while a perfect fried egg that oozed as its poked, kimchi with a nice kick, and sprouts hold down the top. Tender beef was quite tasty, and there's a sweet and spicy sauce on the side for added flavor and to bring balance to the whole dish.  As for the curry, it's put right into a real coconut, so you can scrape off the sides if you want. It's got a good full flavor, but I would have liked it to be a bit thicker.  The chicken was in the coconut, while the broccoli (a bit overcooked - no snap), peppers, and onions were in a small bowl on the side.  It also comes with white or brown rice.  If you're going out just for curry, I think there are better options in the city, but its still worth ordering and wasn't bad by any measure.

The Ingredients:A special shout out to anyone who offers brown rice!  There are only a few places in town that do.  Other than that, nothing notable here - no local or seasonal ingredients mentioned.

The Story & Setting: It's a bit odd eating on what is basically a pass through intersection that has no other life in the evening. I have to imagine this was the main reason that Seny, which was in the space previously, didn't make it.  A weekend when Manifest art gallery is open would be a good time to try out Suzie's.  On a Monday at 7:30 the place was about half full.

The service was very friendly, and except for the fact that we asked for tofu and got chicken in the curry (which we didn't care enough about to ask for a change), everything was nice and easy.

Overall - solid experience, we'll definitely be heading back. See the slideshow below for more pics.