Rocha-chatter

My husband and I are from Pennsylvania, so this week we will be driving down for Thanksgiving. The drive is always the same.. 390 to Route 15. Route 15 is the main road for anyone heading south through PA... and it has strange places along it... like Clyde Peelings Reptileland.

One spot that has always intrigued me is the Fry Brother's Turkey Ranch.


They serve all turkey all the time.


Turkey and Waffles, Turkey and Bisquits, Hot Turkey Sandwich. A whole lotta turkey.


Here's the thing... most people driving along Rt. 15 are on a road trip... making their way south through PA. And as delicious as it all is... tryptophan laden turkey is the last thing you want to be eating when you are driving for 6 hours. Yes, we were dumb enough to do it once, but we learned our lesson.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving (don't eat too much turkey before getting behind the wheel).

Labels: food, holiday, restaurant

Thanksgiving is around the corner. Time to start planning your turkey dinner. And while you're at it, why cook a plain ol' regular turkey? Consider having an EXTREME TURKEY!

Probably the craziest turkey out there is the TURDUCKEN. A turducken is a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey. Yep. Meat with a side of meat. I say why stop there? Stick a cornish hen inside the chicken and then stuff the whole thing inside a roast pig. Perhaps that should then be placed inside a cow. Yum.

BBQ grills are not just for burgers and hot dogs anymore. You could have a GRILLED TURKEY for Thanksgiving. Grilling your turkey will give it a nice brown skin and that yummy grilled flavor. It doesn't take as long as you would think... about 3 hours. You may want to make sure the neighbor dogs can't get in your yard.

Get your turkey and your alcohol in one fell swoop with a BEER CAN TURKEY. Placing a can of beer inside a chicken provides flavored steam to the inside of the chicken as it cooks. Sounds tasty... *hiccup*

And lastly we have the DEEP FRIED TURKEY. I actually know quite a bit about these. We have deep fried turkeys in our backyard in the snow and on the beach in the summer. There is no bad time for deep fried turkey.

You gotta have the custom deep fryer and a whole lot of peanut oil.

The turkey gets injected with marinade and then rubbed down with a spice mixture.

After about 45 minutes of oil sizzling and splattering to kingdom come, you've got yourself a delicious, moist, flavorful turkey.

No matter how you cook your turkey, you will be comatose approximately 15 minutes after consuming it.

Labels: food, holiday

Some of my favorite foods are in season right now.

Pumpkin soup at the Coal Tower Restaurant in Shoehn Place. Sounds weird but sooo good.

Snack Jack pumpkins can be found at some pumpkin patches. The seeds are delicous roasted because they have no hull!

Really, doesn't pumpkin anything taste good? These are from Richport Bakery.

Abbotts has their pumpkin and grape custards, but you have to hurry. They will be closing for the season soon. Corn Hill Creamery is offering sweet corn ice cream. Sounds odd... but quite yummy.

'Tis the season for caramel and candy apples. If you look hard you can even find grape candy apples!

Grape juice and grape pies are a fall favorite too.

Forget about gaining weight over the holidays... I think it starts as soon as summer is over.

Labels: bakery, fall, food, restaurant

Seven years ago I got up at 4 am on a cold December morning to stand in line at the opening day of Krispy Kreme. I collected my free t-shirt, ate a bunch of doughnuts, then went home and back to bed before going to work. That was how much I loved Krispy Kreme.

Last week, the Henrietta Krispy Kreme, the last remaining Krispy Kreme in Rochester, closed it's doors. I am crushed.

Where will I goafter a late night movie to satisfy a sugar craving? How will I explain to my mom I won't be bringing home a dozen when I come to visit?

Really if this was going to happen, I would have expected it during the big Atkin's diet rage. What went wrong that they couldn't stay open in Rochester? How come Buffalo got to keep a Krispy Kreme? How many times will I find myself driving to Buffalo to satisfy a Krispy Kreme craving?

My husband says it's because Rochestarians are picky about their doughnuts. They like cakey doughnuts. Just like they are particular about their ice cream... prefering frozen custard. Apparently that's why we only have one Ben & Jerry's in the area.

I don't know... it just seems like there is enough doughnut love to go around.

Labels: closing, doughnuts, food, restaurant

Summer in Rochester means festivals and festivals mean festival food. There's funnel cake, butterfly fries and cups of lemonade the size of your head.

But one of my favorite summer festival foods is more basic. Salt potatoes. Little potatoes boiled in salt and served drenched in melted butter. Oh yum!

I never had salt potatoes until I moved to Rochester, and goodness knows I'd had a lot of potatoes up until that point. A little googling and it turns out that salt potatoes are a regional dish of Central New York.

Wikipedia says.... "The Syracuse, New York area has a long history of salt production. Salt springs located around Onondaga lake were used to create consumable salt that was distributed through out the north-east via the Erie Canal. The salinated water was laid out to dry on large trays, the salt residue was then scraped up, ground, and packaged. Salt potatoes were created in the nineteenth century by Irish immigrants who worked the springs. The first packaged salt potatoes were sold in the 1960s."

I have bought the bags of potatoes that come packaged with a little bag of salt at Wegmans and made my very own salt potatoes at home... but somehow it's not the same as eating them on the street in front of a local band.

Labels: food

Sometimes I get really hungry for a specific food... like the perfect cheeseburger or a really good fried egg. A couple years ago I was craving a super thin pizza. And so the search began. I was finding all sizes of pizza other than super thin... Chester Cab = super thick, Piatza's= all around super huge. Pontillo's, Cobbs Hill, Captain Tony's, Mark's, Guida's ... all good but not SUPER THIN. The closest I found was Pizza Stop by my office.

Moderately thin.

I went unsatiated.

This weekend I was wandering around the Jazz Festival enjoying the music when I spotted two women walking by with slices of pizza.

Hmmm... where did that come from? I drug my companions down the street until I found the only pizza place the specimens could have come from at the corner of East and Main. We went in and ordered slices. They came out and Halleluiah! SUPER THIN! The thinnest pizza I have ever seen! Paper thin! I am estimating a quarter inch! So thin I couldn't pick it up... I had to slide it to the edge of the plate and take bites. My pizza folding husband could fold it three times and it still equaled the thinnest pizza I have found thus far! Heaven!

When we left I declared "I must know the name of this thin pizza establishment!" I looked above the door and it said "Pizzaria". Uh... okay. A look at the pizza boxes revealed their real name... Stromboli Express. Stromboli? What about the super thin pizza? Ah well, never mind... I am happy.

Labels: food

I just helped put Rochester on the map. Well... in the world of soup swaps that is.

What's a soup swap? You and your friends each make a big batch of soup, freeze it into six one quart containers, get together, SWAP, and everyone one goes home with six containers of different kinds of soup.

I first read about this on a blog I read. Her post led me to this soup swap post and then on to soupswap.com. Turns out there is a National Soup Swap day. I missed this day by a few months, but really... when isn't soup a good idea?

So I had my own soup swap and it was a great sucess. I didn't have to cook dinner all the following week. Jealous, hungry co-workers watched me consume tasty soup at lunch day after day.

I highly recommend having your own soup swap and perhaps Rochester can become the soup capital of the US. And as this comment from my blog when I wrote about my soup swap indicates...

"Right on for Swapping Soup! YOU FOLKS IN UPSTATE NY ARE WAY SEXY!!!!" - Knox Gardner of soupswap.com

Labels: food

1. snowshoeing
Typically, once it snows I think.... time for snowboarding. But I am starting to enjoy snowshoeing... it's great exercise, gets you outside... and it's not as life threatening. Mendon Ponds has some great showshoe trails.

2. ice skating

This year I discovered that Ellison Park turned one of their parking lots into an outdoor skating rink.

Ellison Park also has a sledding hill... I need a sled... any suggestions? Inner tube? Saucer? Flexible Flyer?

3. crepe making

For Rochester Cold Rush you can take crepe making lessons at the Simply Crepes located in the City Library.

I highly recommend this because you get to eat the crepes you make.

Labels: food, sports, winter

There seemed to be an inordinate amount of road construction in Rochester last year. I heard it was because it was an election year. Route 65 got a roundabout that some people love and some hate.

A little closer to me in the city, Atlantic Avenue was shut down for a complete overhaul. Yay for a new road with nice brick sidewalk inlays. Boo for several businesses that moved out because their accessablity went down the tubes while the work took place. The Elite Bakery and Leo's Bakery left and I no longer had readily available baked goods.

Atlantic is finished now and I just noticed that there is a new business moving in. The Lobster Trap in Fairport is opening up another shop right on Atlantic in the city. Most people I know swear by The Lobster Trap as THE place to get seafood in the area as they regularly go up to Maine to get fresh lobsters. There have been a couple times we were driving east of Rochester and spotted The Lobster Trap truck making it's rounds.

The cardboard sign in their window says they open on February 20th. So now instead of swinging by and picking up cookies I will be picking up lobsters.

(I, however, will still have no part in the cooking of the lobsters... I don't care if that squealing noise is just steam escaping and not the lobster wailing about his impending doom)

Labels: food

After spouting off ideas for Valentine's Day, I thought I would divulge what I did for the holiday.

My husband took me to the Simply Crepes dinner, where I consumed crepes til I thought I would pop. Savory crepe appetizers, thai beef stuffed crepe and crepes suzette made by the owner himself.


We had such a good time we are taking their crepe making class this Saturday! (more on that later)

Then we went to see Music and Lyrics. It was good. Not as good as the last romantic comedy I saw, The Holiday, but just okay.

It was really strange to see/hear Hugh Grant sing. Some actors do really well singing in movies. Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge... Katherine Zeta Jones in Chicago. Hugh Grant.... welllllll.

Not that he was a bad singer.... he even sang seven of the songs on the soundtrack. Only I couldn't look at him when he was singing. Look at him singing... "Eh!? Wha?!"... look away... "Oh hey, that's not bad". Very strange... I can't explain it.

Labels: food, movies

Have you made your Valentine's Day plans yet? If not, there are a couple places I have noticed around Rochester that look good for dinner.

Tastings is having a special Valentine's dinner... four courses with champagne.


Simply Crepes also offers a Valentine's dinner... five courses of crepes.

Unfortunately, we don't have a White Castle in Rochester. But if we did, you could treat your sweetie to a special dinner at this fast food restaurant. Yes, that is right. For one day a year, you can reserve a table at White Castle with hostess seating, candlelight and a server to bring you your sliders and fries. Fancy! Harold and Kumar would be proud.

Labels: food, holiday