Peggy Haine on Finger Lakes Food & Wine

Regional Chefs Star at NYC's James Beard House

2009-01-30T12:19:00.000-08:00

Dano Hutnik of Dano’s on Seneca and Hans Butler of Watercress just returned from producing an invitational dinner at Manhattan’s prestigious James Beard House. Titled “A Taste of the Finger Lakes,” it featured the exciting produce and wines of our region. The menu included collard greens with homemade tasso, as well as a bean spread, and Bergere Bleu cheese on artisanal breads, along with Dr. Frank’s sparkling wine; Dano’s wonderful sweet-and-tart to-die-for heirloom-tomato soup; his charcuterie board of house-made sausages, rillettes with foie gras, and pork belly, served with his own homemade mustard and pickles, accompanied by Shalestone Rose’; and for dessert, chocolate pumpernickel cake with blackcurrant sauce and pickled fruit, buoyed by Sheldrake Vineyards’ Cab Franc Ice Wine, and, of course, Gimme! Coffee. We wish we had been there, but, fortunately, we have both wonderful chefs much closer to home. Hoorah!

Dinner at Banfi's

2009-01-30T12:14:00.000-08:00

Hotel dining facilities are notoriously middle-of-the-road, but when the hotel is also part of an Ivy League school of hotel administration, one expects better. And, we are happy to say, dining at Taverna Banfi pans out as a delightful experience, one befitting the “world’s premier hotel management school.” We’ve enjoyed several dinners here on our own dime, and happily report that it is, indeed a first-class white-linen restaurant, with comfortable furnishings, long views of the city twinkling below, careful and just-friendly-enough service, and the luxury of seating spaced for conversational privacy. As we perused the menu, our waiter set before us a basket of foccaccia, little flasks of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and a plate of appeteasers – pitted Kalamata olives, a bit of grated asiago cheese, red pepper flakes, and a sprinkling of fresh dill. For starters, the Taverna Caesar salad was all that it should have been – crisp and lemony, topped with a blizzard of cheese shaved into airy wisps. A frito misto of calamari, shrimp, scallops, and tender-fleshed white fish, was light and crisp, its limoncello aioli dip creamy; crisp strips of marinated red pepper, celery, and onion provided a zingy counterpoint to all that richness. The pasta di giorno of linguini in a cream sauce was made interesting by a contrast: the tartness of cherry tomatoes with the sweetness of green peas, all topped with one meaty roasted shrimp. Another, a dusky sage butter sauce – more cream here -- enveloped triangular house-made ravioli which gave way to a smoothe sweet potato filling, which, had It been chocolate, might have been better than sex. All the same, it was pretty darned good. For main courses, a duck breast was well seasoned and sauteed to tender rareness, and apples, raisins, and sherry provided a pleasant acidic balance to the richness of an accompanying duck confit. A meaty braised lamb shank, with a red wine and veal demi-glace, was architectural in its presentation, and though we were told it had braised for six hours, rendering it fork-tender, it had a pleasing dark, caramelized coating. Gremolata, a dash of the lemon peel, garlic, and parsley seasoning, added further dimension to the dish’s flavor palette. Both entrees topped roasted asparagus and a sweet, comforting wintry mash of potatoes and parsnips. Other main-course options included salmon with a Cornell apple cider reduction; crab-stuffed polenta-crusted trout with red pepper stew and olive tapenade; and mushroom cannelloni with a white wine mushroom sauce. For those with lighter appetites, or those who fear drifting off during a post-prandial concert, Taverna Banfi also offers a selection of individual pizzas -- grilled vegetables, pesto, pine nuts, and New York State ricotta; pear, prosciutto, walnuts, Lively Run goat cheese among them -- colorful antipasti, and a hearty Tuscan soup, as well as a selection of salads. Since the Taverna is part of the School of Hotel Administration’s teaching program, a feature of the menu is a prix-fixe three-course menu created by students in the restaurant management course – a trio of crostini with a variety of colorful toppings, beef tenderloin with grilled asparagus and basil risotto, and a dessert of espresso cheesecake with Chantilly cream and honey pine-nut brittle ran $35. A vegetarian entrée is an option, as is a wine paired with each of the three courses for an additional $15. A comprehensive and well chosen wine list includes a good selection of half bottles. We chose Keuka Lake’s Ravines Cabernet Franc and a Willamette Valley Whole Cluster Pinot Noir from a wines-by-the-glass menu featuring more than two dozen wines from Italy, the West Coast, Australia, and the Finger Lakes among others, including both sparklers and dessert wines. For dessert, a large portion of chocolate tiramisu, enough for two, and a toffee cake with plump white raisins, a toffee sauce, vanilla gelato, and a buttery cookie with almonds and sesame seeds coupled with Taverna Banfi’s good coffee, had us thoroughly warmed up as we toddled – or should we say “waddled” – back out into the wintry, star-lit night. Yes, the staff pulled out all the stops for us as reviewers (we welcomed the opportunity to chat with Banfi’s management, to happily discover that Courtnay Paperna, most recently of Dijon, is the restaurant manager, and to glean cooking tips from gifted Chef Anthony Jordan), and our meals were top quality, but both food and service were equally sterling when we, as members of the general public, dashed in unannounced for a rushed dinner a few weeks before, and were probably our waiter’s nightly nightmare. It’s better to set aside the time to enjoy Banfi’s menu, wine list, and ambiance, and it’s definitely worth a hike up East Hill for same. Free valet parking for restaurant patrons (have your ticket stamped by your server) add to the pleasure of an evening of dinner and Cornell theater, or a music or sporting event. Taverna Banfi is located at 130 Statler Drive on the Cornell University campus. It is also open for breakfast, lunch, and a sumptuous Sunday brunch. For information and reservations, which are recommended for concert nights and parent-type weekends, call 607.254.2565. For menu and additional information, check out their Web site at www.statlerhotel.cornell.edu/dining/banfis_menus.html.

Got the Midnight Munchies?

2008-07-01T03:12:00.000-07:00

If you’re driving around in the wee hours, the munchies strike, and your fevered mind can’t abide the thought of fluorescent diner lights, what can you do? If school’s in session, you can head to one of the food trucks – the Hot Truck or Louie’s Lunch parked near Cornell’s dormitories, place your order, then drive it home for peaceful, private consumption. Students stop by the trucks on study breaks, on late-night dates, returning from the library, or any time hunger pangs strike. But the pleasures of stand-up al fresco dining aren’t limited to students. Staffers, passers-by, townies and out-of-townies of every stripe follow their noses to the places whose sometimes-long lines have become campus traditions. You’ll find more than a cure for your hunger; in any weather, it’s a scene, with hungry folks clad in anything from formal wear to pajamas, from parkas to bikinis, waiting to fill at least one type of late-night emptiness. You’ll find the famous Hot Truck parked just below the new west campus dorms along Stewart Avenue, where the cognoscenti line up to order such treats as Suis, PMPs, MBCs, Shaggy – Hot and Heavies, and Guinea Pigs. Or try a HaHa, HeHe, or HoHo. With a brief visit to the Hot Truck’s Web site [http://people.cornell.edu/pages/smo9/hottruck], you, too, can become a cognoscentum in a matter of moments. Owner Albert Smith, a Cornell grad with a degree in agricultural economics, and proprietor of Ithaca’s Short Stop Deli, acquired the Hot Truck in the summer of 2000 when Bob and Sharon Petrillose, who had run it since 1960, retired. It had originally been the brainstorm of Petrillose’s father, John Petrillose, who’s landmark Collegetown bar, Johnny’s Big Red, closed at night, when all good bars close; but he knew there were still hungers out there to be addressed. Originally the truck served burgers, dogs, and pizza, but when the younger Petrillose realized that pizzas sold by the slice grew less appetizing as the evening wore on, he hit on the idea of slicing open loaves of French bread, loading them up with pizza ingredients, and popping them into the oven on demand. Voila! The PMP, or “poor man’s pizza” was born, soon to be poached (figuratively) by the folks from Stouffers for their frozen French bread pizzas. The Hot Truck menu evolved over the course of 40 years, and it continues to evolve today. Its menu credits sandwich inventors, the most recent additions being the Big Willie, created by Will Devine ’03, and the Super Slacker, co-authored by Brian Frankel and David MacLeon ’04. As an evening draws to a close, the red sauce and the acronyms begin to fly, along with orders for WGCs (wet garlic with cheese), MBCs (meatballs and mozzarella cheese), RBCs (roast beef with cheese), Ra-Ra’s (an RBC with pepperoni), Re-re’s (with sausage), and Ro-Ro’s (with mushrooms). Ravaging appetites might opt for the Little Sicilian, its French bread piled high with meatballs, sausage, cheese, and sauce, and topped with potato chips, or the ever popular Triple Suicide, or T-Sui, pronounced Tee Sooey, its garlic-doused bread loaded up with tomato sauce, mushrooms, sausage, pepperoni, mozzarella, and a trio of homemade meatballs. Why “suicide?” We’ve heard it posited that the darned things have so much garlic, they’re a surefire recipe for social suicide, not to mention indigestion and peculiar dreams. But delicious they are, and a personal favorite of this writer. Albert Smith’s son, Mike, runs the truck, parked on Stewart Avenue’s 600-block from 10p.m. to 2a.m. during the week and from 11p.m. to 3a.m. and later on weekends. But that’s only half the business. The Smith’s own the Shortstop Deli on Seneca Street, and serve a partial Hot Truck menu there during the day, and the truck can meander about town, catering to teary-or-bleary-eyed alumni on Cornell’s Arts Quad during reunion weekends, where, according to Albert Smith, “Doctors, and lawyers, and educators from 25 to 85 wait in line, some for as long as 45 minutes,” to fill up on subs and relive Hot Truck memories, some recalling having met their spouses for the first time on a Hot Truck line. The truck also serves fraternities and sororities on their chefs’ nights off, and is available for parties and celebrations, which is how the business recently achieved national fame. Last year food writers Jane and Michael Stern, who write a much-beloved, down-to-earth “road food” column for Gourmet Magazine, have published a small library of food books, and have an NPR program on – what else? -- food, discovered the Hot Truck at a wedding they attended in Ithaca, where it showed up outside La Tourelle to provide after-hours subs for the entire wedding party and their guests. The Sterns loved it, and the rest is history. A segment on the truck has been aired on their radio show and they’ve asked us to look for an article on the Hot Truck in Gourmet this fall. But even without the formal publicity, thousands of Cornellians and former Ithacans carry late-night Hot Truck memories with them all over the world. A campus food truck with an even longer history is Louie’s Lunch, whose provenance dates back to sometime between 1916 and the early 1920s, when Louie Zounakos established his stand on Cornell’s North Campus. Louie, who was born in Sparta, Greece in 1885, originally emigrated to Brooklyn where, according to the Louie’s Lunch Web page [www.louieslunch.com], he made a living selling his mama’s bathtub gin during Prohibition. He eventually moved to Ithaca and is rumored to have begun his business peddling snacks at fraternities from a pushcart, eventually graduating to an old Ford truck and his spot in front of Risley. Zounakos, who was known for his generosity to starving students, retired in 1955, selling the business to Arthur and Thelma Machen, whose family ran it until 1997, when current owner Ron Beck took it on. In this writer’s day, in the early 60’s (yes, yes, I know, if you were there, you can’t remember them, but I do remember them) we called the truck Louie’s Lunch and Country Club, and its dogs and burgers held us through those winter nights when we could steal out of the dorms after curfew past our eagle-eyed housemothers. But this is another, and a better, day, and students can now call in orders from their cell phones (257-4649 is the number) on their walks back from the library, and find their Buffalo chicken wing wrap or Tully burger hot and waiting for them when they arrive. Cornell staff members take advantage of the phone service as well to order quick lunches to go. But on weekend nights the cooks are too frantic to take phone orders, and folks gather at the truck to give their orders and bask in the mobile kitchen’s friendly light and warm, foody fragrance. Beck came to the food truck business in 1991, in his days as a welder. He welded up his own rig and used it “to chase construction projects and do weekend jobs at auctions, horse shows, rabbit shows, fundraisers, and all kinds of parties,” he explains. “We’d cater backyard barbecues and company picnics.” When the owners were ready to sell Louie’s, he was ready to buy it. It’s hard work seven days a week for him, but with help from students, many of whom live in Risley, he seems to enjoy it and them, and is grateful that on a busy night students are willing to wait as long as half an hour for an order of Louie’s most popular side dish, Cajun fries. “People tell us we have the best fries anywhere,” Beck says. Other favorites are their chicken parm, Buffalo chicken wing, and Philly cheese steak subs, but variety is the watchword here, and there are chicken Caesar wraps, monster pizza subs with their six toppings, and a selection of breakfast sandwiches. For the indigent, grilled cheese sandwiches, egg and cheese sandwiches, burgers (ham- or veggie-) and dogs with a variety of toppings are among the items selling for two dollars or less, and there’s an entire page of vegetarian items on the Louie’s Lunch menu. The truck itself is a rugged 1965 rescue vehicle with plenty of little compartments, high ceilings, and ceiling fans, with only 16,000 original miles on the engine. While it spends most of its life parked at its own NYSEG utility pole on the corner of Thurston and Wait Avenues, Beck generally drives it home over winter break to repair it, and to take a well-deserved rest himself. The hours are long (weekdays from 11a.m. to 3a.m., Saturdays from noon to 3a.m., and Sundays from 6p.m. to midnight), but the rewards are many, and Beck realizes he is making his place in history. Waiting at Louie’s is “a social event with some lifelong friendships being formed.”

Breaking News: Latest Medical Word On Wine

2008-06-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

ALCOHOL USE DISORDER (AUD), which essentially means drinking too much, may be significantly reduced when wine is more than 35% of total alcohol consumption, according to a recent Danish study. The research found that wine consumers were less likely to develop AUD than consumers of beer or spirits, which could be related to lifestyle differences or non-alcoholic substances in wine like polyphenols that may have some effect. Reacting to the study’s results, one prominent scientist suggested that the acids in wine, and especially tannins in red wine, make it difficult to consume a lot of wine by itself; and also make it more pleasant to have wine with food. When any alcoholic beverage is consumed with food, the blood alcohol leve l is much lower than without food, often by half. In other words, the inherent nature of wine does not lend itself to abuse. (Stolen unabashedly from the newsletter of the New York State Wine and Grape Foundation -- thanks, Jim.)

Fabulous Red Newt Winemakers’ Dinner

2008-06-14T04:11:00.000-07:00

One of the things we enjoy most about our food and wine work is a meal in the company of other foodies and winefolk, and, presented with the opportunity to brown-bag it with winemakers at one of Red Newt Bistro’s winemaker’s dinners, we grab it. Winemaker Dave Whiting pairs the wines (everybody brings a bottle or two from their own cellars, recent production, or any interesting place in the world) with the courses, then bags and numbers them. As the evening unfolds, even he forgets what’s in those bags, and the guesses flow. It’s amazing what perceptive variation there is even in these well-schooled palates and sniffers. A recent dinner at the Newt began with an ooze of Brie en croute with apricots and pecans paired with a fruity Atwater Pinot Gris, the ghostliest of pinks and wonderfully refreshing, and Bellwether Cider’s bubbly, crisp King Baldwin, both new releases from those houses. Atwater’s Katy Marks beamed as the compliments flowed on the Pinot Gris, and the pairing worked well. A spicy arugula salad with lentils, breakfast radishes, and feta with a warmed orange vinaigrette (Chef Deb Whiting is a master of wine-friendly salad dressings) was perfectly paired with a brut Hosmer bubbly that elicited guesses of “France?” and a well balanced Plano (Texas!) Muscat Canelli. A 2006 Bedell Gallery – a blend – was most noteworthy for its long cork and bottle’s deep punt – but the wine didn’t live up to its sexy packaging. Unfortunately, winemaking fortunes have been built on less. A sushi-grade tuna with a hoisin-lime sauce was served suitably rare, with a side of locally grown asparagus, followed by a course of duck breast with a blueberry-red wine sauce and the creamiest of polentas, and at this point, the wine pairings begin to blur in my memory. I do remember a terrific Sauvignon Blanc from Morten and Lisa Halgren’s Ravines Wine Cellars on Keuka Lake, a slightly sweet, full-bodied, and rather rough Ca del Sola (56% Freisa, 44% Barbera, from raisined grapes) another experiment from the creative but not always on-target Randall Grahm’s Bonny Doon Vineyards, a delicious 2000 Pasa Robles Cabernet, and a disappointing Syrah Port from the Yakima Valley. A vanilla-y rhubarb dessert with vanilla ice cream was paired with the surprisingly dee-lish rhubarb equivalent of a late-harvest wine from Montezuma Winery, a small swig of brandy, and a gulp of coffee, and we called it a night – another night of good company, good conversation, good food, and good wine. We thank Dave and Deb for bringing the Finger Lakes wine community together for these dinners. From time to time they sponsor similar dinners for the public (Nine Wines Blind). To find out more about them, contact Red Newt Wine Cellars and Bistro at 607 546-4100. We salute the Newt. Cheers!

Sushi O Sake

2008-06-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

Knowing little about Japanese food (except that Wegman’s sushi take-out is closest to the cashier, and a good, quick dinner), we brought along Nanci Trapani, who has spent time in Japan and knows lots more about the food and customs than we. She, of a librarianish persuasion, researched and printed for us a guide to Japanese foods that included basashi (horse sashimi), which had us wondering why we’d taken this assignment. Blessings multiply. We did not find basashi anywhere on the menu, and Sushi O Sake’s veteran head waiter, Sean, quickly set our qualms aside, suggesting we share a bottle of chilled sake and several selections of sushi before ordering our main courses. Delicate, tender slices of octopus, smoked eel, and a sweet, omelette-y egg custard arrived, elegantly draped over ovals of vinegared sushi rice, the custard secured with a girdle of nori, a paper-thin seaweed. The Japanese vegetable roll -- nori and rice wrapped around avocado, pickled radish, cucumber, squash, and pickled burdock -- combined the sweet creaminess of ripe avocado with the crunch of burdock and the sweetness and acidity of the pickled vegetables. An order of the futomaki roll combined many of the Japanese roll’s contents with egg, crabmeat, and shiitake mushroom. A dip in soy sauce spiked with hot wasabi, and extraordinarily crisp pickled ginger added zing to it all. Does the prospect of eating with chopsticks send you into an ohgoddon’tletmelooklikeajerk panic? Fear not – it’s perfectly acceptable to eat these with your fingers. For our first main course, we ordered shrimp and vegetable tempura, which was everything tempura should be – light, fresh, and nongreasy – and how do they get those shrimps to stand up so straight? A beef teriyaki bento box brought a tasting-menu selection including tempura, California roll, gyoza (fried pork dumplings), shumai (steamed shrimp dumplings), and chicken tatsuta age (small pieces of fried chicken), with two very different kinds of seaweed salad. Both entrees were served with delicate miso soup, soy in another of its amazing variations. Our third main was a pair of special rolls, the “Fashion,” a roll of crabmeat, avocado, and cucumber draped with creamy raw tuna, and the “Mermaid,” another study in textures: crunchy shrimp tempura and fresh asparagus, which protruded as the mermaid’s tailfins, and unctuous smoked eel, and an exquisitely laid-out wrapping of mosaic-ed strips of avocado. Among the most popular rolls, we were told, is the “007” – spicy tuna and avocado, the entirety deep-fried and served with two sauces and smelt roe. We are eager to try some of the other special rolls, many of them tuned to the Western palate, with names like Scooby Doo, American Dream, Philadelphia (it’s made with cream cheese and smoked salmon), and Out of Control. But there are so many unusual and delicious-sounding offerings on the menu, from appetizers and salads to dessert (do try the tempura-ed green-tea ice cream with chocolate sauce), as well as a tempting lunch menu, that we look forward to exploring it in future visits. Well lighted by a sparkling of intense little red-glass hanging lamps, Sushi O Sake is a lively place on a weekend night, with friendly service, and while the weather holds, plenty of seating outside as well as in. Inside, there’s always a show at the sushi bar, where two deft chefs ply their craft with enviable concentration, their focus and artistry demonstrated in platter after exquisite platter. The restaurant carries a small but good selection of beer and wine (including two Finger Lakes Rieslings, which would pair well with the delicate flavors of Japanese food), but the restaurant’s beverage focus is on a broad selection of chilled sakes, rated from sweet to dry. We tried a middle-of-the-road selection, found it refreshing, and hope to become better acquainted with chilled sakes. To refresh our memories, we also tried a warm sake, and it was as medicinal and yucky as we remember warm sake being. An offshoot of Collegetown’s popular Plum Tree restaurant, Sushi O Sake is located at 107 North Aurora Street. They don’t take reservations, but you can call 272-1200 for information.

Best Local Italian Restaurant

2008-06-04T01:39:00.000-07:00

The Lucatelli’s facility has been an Ithaca culinary fixture since 1967, when it was founded as the Char Pit. These days, Giuliano Lucatelli holds forth cheerfully in the kitchen of Lucatelli’s Ristorante, as did his father for years before him, with his son, Carmen, working alongside him, producing heaping platters of fine, classic southern Italian food. It’s one of our favorite too-tired/hassled/crabby-to-cook, comfort food restaurants in the area. Low lighting, pervasive bonhomie, and a gracious host welcome guests. Tables are far enough apart to encourage private conversation, and a wall of windows faces out on a small fountain garden, taking guests’ minds away from the commercial clutter of old Route 13. While we usually eat in the main dining room, on review night we had the bar/lounge tables to ourselves. A painted mural depicting Roman architectural highlights covers most of one wall, along with portraits of the founders, and posters and photos of Italian-American heroes – crooner Frank Sinatra, and boxer Primo Carnera among them. An attractive young woman tended bar that night, to the apparent delight of three gentlemen enjoying dinner and a brandy at the bar in good company. Our waitress, professional and knowledgeable, proffered a wine list featuring a good selection of Italian potables, as well as some from California, Australia, and the Finger Lakes. We chose a Montepulciano from an offering of four Italian reds available by the glass, and were delighted with the choice. A loaf of warm bread and a small vat of butter made its way to our table before we made our way to the salad bar, one of the most interesting in the area, with freshly made soup, pickled vegetables and mushrooms, plenty of Gorgonzola to sprinkle on salads, and lots of other goodies. Back at our table, slices of fresh mozzarella flanked a platter of sweet, just-roasted peppers; a bowl of white beans and greens swam in a stock laced with plenty of garlic (begone, winter colds!); steamed mussels danced in a chunky tomato sauce. We looked longingly at the hot antipasto appetizer choice – clams, mussels, shrimp, peppers, and eggplant parmigiana – but realized we’d have to end the meal right there, and there were so many other dishes we wanted to try. On an ordinary night out, we generally opt for Giulli’s spiced-just-right eggplant parmigiana with homemade tomato sauce and his homemade gnocchi lunghi with Italian sausage. Gnocchi lunghi are nothing like the standard dumplingy potato gnocchi, which are also made right there in Lucatellis’ kitchen, but more like spaghetti on steroids. Abandon your Atkins diet, all ye who enter there! He makes his own ravioli and fettuccini as well. We’ve also enjoyed the restaurant’s homemade lasagna, manicotti, and cannelloni Florentine, the latter stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese, and absolutely delicious swimming in a well flavored white sauce. For the more Atkins-minded, there are three choices of prime rib portion, as well as New York strip and filet mignon, a good selection of veal, chicken, and pork chop dishes, shrimp, lobster, sole, and the house special, linguini a la peschatora, with fresh clams, mussels, shrimp, and scallops cooked in marinara sauce. This evening, however, we feasted upon veal rollatini, with prosciutto and fontina cheese, tender and nicely spiced, served with a full-meal-sized bowl of pasta in Lucatelli’s own tomato sauce. (The sides at Lucatelli’s are more than generous.) Pasta con quattro formaggio’s rigatoni swam in a bowl of cream sauce enriched with fontina, gruyere, gorgonzola and Romano – the Italian take on mac and cheese, satisfying to the nth degree. Its side dish was a veritable vat of just-cooked peas and portabella mushrooms. We paced ourselves, but the food seemed to be getting ahead of us, and we hadn’t begun to think of dessert. Our waitress, sensing our distress, offered to doggy-bag the leftovers and we took her up on it. A dessert cart featured a lemon-almond cake, and a dense chocolate confection. We were also offered the homemade tiramisu and spumoni, but opted instead for the over-the-top Tartuffo, a baseball-sized hunk of ice cream dipped in hardened dark chocolate and served with whipped cream and a cherry, and one of Lucatelli’s homemade cannolis. Perfect! Lucatelli’s also offers an after-dinner menu of espressos and cappuccinos. The restaurant, located at 205 Elmira Road, serves dinners from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. seven days a week. For reservations and information, call 273-0777.

Ithaca's Fast & Cheap Eats

2008-05-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

Since the mid-nineteenth century, Ithaca has been overrun by students hungry for cheap eats. Boarding houses provided those first greasy meals. My own student-day recollections (I lived through the sixties, and – strangely – I do remember them) include the long-gone, long mourned UniDeli, which dispensed thick provolone sandwiches on rye, dripping with cole slaw and a wet stalk of pickle for around a buck. In my days as a cafeteria worker, students, having run out of money before they ran out of month, ordered scoops of mashed potatoes with gravy for dinner and made soup out of ketchup and tea-water. Options have improved considerably. Ithaca, Central New York’s Exotic Restaurant Capital (we’re just missing an Ethiopian restaurant), offers plenty of wholesome dining adventures that’ll provide a day’s worth of topflight nutrition in the five-to-ten-buck range. Here are just a few of your options: See and be seen in the hall of plenty. Wegmans Julie Jordan Wings of Life Salad Bar will fill you up in a way your body will appreciate. For $5.49 for a meal-sized salad, $7.49 for enough for two, order up a pile of fresh baby greens, three kinds of cheeses, two of olives, shocked broccoli, brown rice, chickpeas, spicy tofu cubes, cashews, almonds, and sunflower seeds, a hunk of bread, and your choice of Julie’s own dressings. Mine is the lemon-sesame. Get it to go, or dine right there at Wegmans. A note of caution: it’s surprisingly easy to buy $80 worth of imported cheese, $20 worth of olives, a fresh bouquet of flowers, and a fruit tart on your way through the store. Across the plaza, King Buffet is tucked in amongst neighboring Pier 1, Eastern Mountain Sports, and a strip-mall MRI facility. For $5.49 at lunch, $7.99 at dinner (a dollar off with a coupon from one of the local weeklies) you can dine royally, if not regally on truly fast food. Locate your table, then hit the salad, steam, and dessert tables. Start with mostly vegetarian sushi with pickled ginger and fiery wasabi. The salad bar includes the usual fixings, but also chilled shrimp (you’ve gotta peel ‘em), plump mussels, and spicy squid, as well as a tasty seaweed salad. There’s a raft of vegetarian dishes, including garlicky eggplant and steamed bok choy, and an odd collection of “American” dishes for the less adventuresome, including the old cocktail favorite pigs in blankets, stuffed clams, and a good Cajun chicken. The Chinese offerings are vast, colorful, and varied, and include wonton, egg drop, and hot and sour soups; dumplings both steamed and fried; sweet-and-sour whatever; wings; barbecued chicken on a stick; and all manner of stir-fries and noodle dishes. For dessert there’s fresh melon, pastries, puddings, and Jell-o. When was the last time you had Jell-o? The check comes with fortune cookies all around. My last fortune told me my life was about to get less harried. I’m waiting. We’ve long been a fan of Viva Taqueria, whose Super Burrito is about the size and shape of a large stomach. For $5.65 you get your choice of chicken, beef, spicy Mexican sausage chorizo, tofu, or the calabacitas vegetable blend, plus rice, beans, sour cream, cheese, guacamole, and salsa, wrapped in a huge, soft, warm flour tortilla – comfort food at its loveliest, and enough for two people with normal appetites. If you’ve reached the end of your month, a basic burrito, nutritiously stuffed with rice, beans, and salsa, is only $2.50, a soft taco $1.99, and a hard taco only $1.60. There’s a choice of hot sauces made with burn-your-tongue, fruity habaneros, smoked red chiles, or jalapenos, three choices of beans, and four of salsas. Fiber challenged? Opt for a side of escabeche, a fresh pickled vegetable mixture, for a buck. On the run? Call ahead (277-1752) for takeout. The Indian luncheon buffet at Diamonds, at $6.99 is one of the best deals in town. Rice and naan, a bread baked on the inside wall of a tandoor oven and served warm, provide a base for an ever-changing roster of vegetarian curries, including a kofta curry of vegetarian “meatballs,” the sweet cabbage curry of my dreams, and rich spinach-y sag paneer; several daals crafted from chickpeas, kidney or other more exotic beans; red tandoori chicken with crisp onion slices, chicken curry, a refreshing iceberg salad, yogurt-and-cucumber raita to cool things off (not that they’re very hot), onion chutney to heat them up, a minty relish, and a sweet-and-sour tamarind sauce. Finish it off with a little bowl of satisfying kheer, a sweetened rice dessert delicately flavored with cardamom. The new Garcia’s on Route 13’s fast-food strip, an offshoot of a popular Cortland restaurant, was bustling on a recent Saturday night, and there were plenty of combination plates for under $10, and a good handful in the $6 range. Most lunch specials are $5.00 or less. Tortilla chips and two very good salsas, one hot, one not, hearty chile verde – pork in a tomatillo sauce – served with cheese-topped beans, rice, a smear of guacamole, and a green salad in a lop-sided bowl for $8.50, and a “Coktel de Camarones,” a spicy, salsa-based cold soup, which came in a tub-sized cocktail glass stuffed with chilled shrimp, hunks of avocado, raw onions, fresh cilantro, and a little too much balsamic vinegar, which isn’t high on our list of Mexican ingredients, but we could probably be happy with that for dinner five nights a week. That just about broke the bank at $9.50, but it was Weight Watcher heaven – no fat and plenty of vitamins, protein, roughage, and flavor. We’ve run out of space, but not out of ideas. Before the students come back, and while there’s parking in Collegetown, try Aladdin’s or Sindbad’s. Elsewhere, there’s Taste of Thai Express, Wok Village, Jade Garden, Chinese Buffet, Glenwood Pines, and the salad bar at the CTB on the corner of Aurora and Seneca Streets. Cheaper than cooking at home.

Stonecat Cafe

2008-05-23T16:52:00.000-07:00

Whether it was the effect of a rare hot-orange sunset falling over Seneca Lake vineyards, or the fact that we were finally playing on a full deck – that is to say, we snagged the last couple of seats on the Café’s popular shaded dining area – at the Stonecat Café we recently enjoyed one of the most memorable and delicious meals of our food critiquing careers. Our evening began with a bottle of Finger Lakes bubbly, not our regular Bagley’s, which we love not only for its toasty flavors and fine bubbles, but also because the label letters drift down the bottle in the ice bath, giving us word games to play between courses, but with Swedish Hill’s good semi-dry Riesling, a fitting match for our first course: a green salad with still-pliant dried sour cherries and caramelized walnuts in a roasted garlic vinaigrette, and a plate of crisp crostini to be spread with sweet roasted garlic cloves and a cloud of fluffy chevre. The kitchen sent out a tasting plate of wild mushroom ravioli in a lemon Pecorino cream sauce, redolent of the scent of local woods after rains. Lighter appetites might have let it go at that, but, gourmands that we are, we charged on gamely. At the Stonecat we tend to fall back on the smoked pulled-pork barbecue in its vinegary Carolina-style barbecue sauce, which is probably the best pulled pork you can get in these parts. We’re also fond of the cornmeal-crusted catfish with its smoked tomato coulis. In fact, Chef Scott Signori is a sort of genius at the smoker, producing his own smoked sausages, wild Alaskan salmon, shrimp, trout, and whatever else he can get his hands on. He smokes tomatoes for his tomato sauces and chilies for his throat-searing “Scooter’s hot sauce.” He has a deep understanding of the smoker’s capabilities, and he uses it imaginatively and judiciously. Nevertheless, in the interest of giving you a fuller picture, we eschewed the pulled pork and catfish. On one platter, silver-dollar-sized, tender scallops strutted their stuff in a jazzy red Thai curry sauce. Bedded down on a pouf of steamed white rice, the scallops were fresh, sweet, and clearly free of the supermarket additives that pump up weight at the expense of texture and flavor. The curry sauce was spicy enough to bring taste buds to attention, but restrained enough to give those exquisite scallops their rightful stage, front and center. “Hector pepper molé,” a symphony of smoked chicken, shrimp, and Signori’s own maple-juniper sausages, bathed in a rich molé sauce, played over a pair of herb-flecked polenta pillows. He combines ground almonds and pecans, a warming, fruity medley of ground chilies, and the requisite chocolate for his molé, and it is, as you might expect, dark, complex, and plate-licking good. We were tempted by the Indian-flavored peas and paneer, a mild, fresh cheese, simmered in a tomato-yogurt sauce, and served over jasmine rice with fresh peach chutney; we’ll have to return to sample it soon. An evening chill moving in, we migrated to the Stonecat’s cozy dining room for finishers, a whipped cream-topped apple crisp and a dish of espresso gelato, to help keep us awake for the drive home over the ridge. We applaud Stonecat’s loyalty to Finger Lakes wines and to locally grown, seasonal, organic foods, which make up more than seventy-five per cent of their menu, and contribute to the freshness and focus of Scott Signori’s cuisine. The café’s service, under the watchful eye of Jessica Signori, is good-humored, well informed, and attentive, the servers unusually attractive and appealing. That doesn’t hurt. The Stonecat serves lunch on Fridays and Saturdays from 11a.m. to 4:30, and is known for its Sunday jazz brunches featuring Signori’s homemade sausages, corned beef hash, and pulled-pork barbecue, as well as a good selection of vegetarian and vegan options. Dinners are served Friday through Sunday, from 5 to 9. Wednesdays are Pub Nights at the Stonecat, featuring lower-priced sandwiches, platters, pizzettes with a variety of toppings, “nibbles,” (what, exactly, is a catfish finger, we wondered), and sides of their homemade spicy dilly beans and cornbread. Patrons belly up to their ample bar to sample local brews and wines, and gentle musical duos and trios hold forth. Thursday is “Big Night,” where pasta reigns, compatible wines are available by the glass, and prices are pasta-low. Thursday favorites include bison alla Bolognese, and Signori’s spiced-up take on linguini putanesca. The Stonecat Café is located in the midst of the Hector winery scene, at 5315 Route 414, approximately seven miles north of Watkins Glen, and just a short hop, over Searsburg Road, from Trumansburg. Check out their Web site at www.stonecatcafe.com. It’s a good idea to make reservations, especially on weekend nights. Call them at 607 546-5000.

Danos On Seneca

2008-05-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

Driving over the ridge that separates Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, preoccupations and concerns of the day evaporate as painterly views of farms, lake, and vineyards unfold। It’s a little vacation heading to Daño’s Heuriger in Lodi for a leisurely dinner. What is a heuriger (pronounced hoy-rigger)? Born in the vineyards surrounding Vienna, it’s an informal place for drinking new wine in mugs, and dining on hearty, satisfying local foods—spreads, salads, smoked or roasted meats, fresh fish, and—hey, this is about Vienna—fabulous desserts with plenty of schlag (whipped cream)। Daño Hutnik and Karen Gilman, with Cornell architect Andrea Simmitch, have constructed a bright, airy place with a large dining patio and spectacular vineyard and lake views। Displaying Gilman’s large, colorful landscape paintings, it fills with a lively crowd of couples out for a romantic evening; tourists from as far away as Ukraine and as near as Rochester; extended families (Hutnik and Gilman make special provision for serving meals family style); and vineyard workers, winemakers, and cellar rats from nearby wineries. We’re always surprised at the number of Ithacans we run into. This particular area around Seneca Lake, locally called “the banana belt” for its uncharacteristically mild climates, grows some of the finest vinifera grapes and makes some of the most highly acclaimed wines in the Finger Lakes, and has attracted its more than its share of international press and Governor’s Cup wine awards. If you’re wondering which wine goes with Wiener schnitzel, start with a bottle of Lamoreaux Landing Blanc de Blanc bubbly, which goes with just about anything, and is bound to put you in a cheery mood. We also began our meal with a salad of mixed organic field greens, with the first fresh dill of the season, culled from the restaurant’s herb garden, and served with red wine–roasted peaches, shaved sheep’s milk black peppercorn cheese, endive slivers, and caramelized walnuts. A bowl of steamed Prince Edward Island mussels festooned with “seed pearls” of garlic, and minced parsley and fresh tarragon was the best we’ve tasted since a breakfast of mussels on Cape Breton Island years ago. A basket of mixed artisanal breads served to sop up the juices. On a hot June day, this might have served as dinner. But eager for this culinary adventure, we forged ahead, testing the spreads that are a Daño’s specialty: Liptauer, reddened with sweet paprika; Hotel Sacher, punctuated with bits of pickle and capers; and our favorite, a pumpkin seed oil spread. On other occasions we’ve also enjoyed the gorgonzola, bacon, horseradish walnut, and artichoke-lemon spreads. This night the kitchen sent out a sampler of salads, too: a mustardy celery-root; a creamy, mild salsify; a tangy/vinegary cucumber salad; and our all-time favorite, Daño’s magenta-colored, sinus-clearing horseradish beet salad. We won’t reveal the secret ingredient that makes Daño’s red cabbage the best we’ve ever tasted, but you really ought to try it. The farmer’s plate is a satisfying meal, with its smoked pork, bratwurst, pork shank, seasoned sauerkraut, and a huge, honking dumpling called a knödel. The aforementioned Wiener schnitzel, a boneless veal chop pounded thin, then breaded and fried golden crisp and served, simply, with a lemon wedge, was lovely. Our desserts were a kugelhopf, a vanilla-and-chocolate pound cake served with brandied cherries, and Rigo Jancsi (pronounced Ree-go Yanchee), an Austrian take on Tiramisu, with layers of flourless chocolate cake surrounding a layer of chocolate mousse and another of apricot jam, both with the ubiquitous schlag. A good dessert comes with a good story, and this one tells of Mr. Jancsi, a violinist who scandalized Viennese society with his unmitigated promiscuity. We washed away his sins with a small glass of almost unbearably delicious Standing Stone Vidal ice wine. Don’t miss the delicious Linzer Torte, which Gilman occasionally fills with tart currant jam instead of the expected raspberry. The wine list focuses on nearby wineries with the occasional Austrian addition. Wagner Valley beers go well with smoked meats and wursts. The house wine, served in mugs, is a Standing Stone Vidal Blanc heuriger wine, crafted especially for Daño’s. With these long days, it’s not difficult to get there in time to watch the day dissolve into a magnificent sunset over Seneca Lake, and linger over a leisurely and delightful meal. Daño’s Heuriger is open from noon until 9 p.m. at 9564 Route 414 in Lodi, New York. For reservations and information, call 607 582-7555.

Locavores Strike it Rich in Ithaca

2008-05-18T06:09:00.000-07:00

For years local chefs searched in vain for home-grown center-of-the-plate goods, and now there’s no shortage of same, thanks to McDonald Farms, Northland Sheep Dairy, Green Man Farm, and others, many of them Ithaca Farmers Market regulars. Blue Stone Bar and Grill’s chef/owner Doug Gruen, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, veteran of many Big Apple top restaurants, and one of Ithaca’s burgeoning mob of talented “buy local, cook local” chefs, purchases vegetables and salad greens in their season from Nathaniel Thompson’s Remembrance Farm in T-burg, a member of the area’s Full Plate Farm Collective. “The less traveling it has to do makes a big impression on the flavor of produce,” Gruen said. “And to sell [to restaurants], local farmers have to be better than average; they put a lot more effort into making their product more flavorful and tasty.” For winter, though, he has found a good source for goat meat in John Wertis, whose Searsburg BWW Farm produces a variety of goat cuts available year round, from leg of goat (think leg of lamb without the fragrance of Persian lamb coat) to goatburger, great for a warming chili, and even goat summer sausage. Goat meat is also known as chevon or, in the Southwest, cabrito (always makes me think of “cabrito ergo sum”: which translates to “therefore I am a young goat,” which doesn’t make any sense at all, but gives me the giggles). Low in cholesterol and fat (143 calories per 100 grams; chicken has 223, beef 305), and high in flavor, but without venison’s gaminess, goat cooks best at a slow braise, and Gruen’s recipe for goat curry is sure to fill a kitchen with lovely aromas as it cooks, and to elicit a chorus of yums around your table. Doug Gruen’s Indonesian-style Goat Curry (serves 6) 2 Tbsp canola oil 2 lbs goat meat cubes with bones 1 cup diced onion ½ cup diced carrots ½ cup diced celery 1 tsp chopped garlic 1 Tbsp curry powder (Gruen prefers yellow curry powder, but curry paste can be used, or any other kind of curry powder) ½ tsp dried thyme ¼ tsp freshly ground pepper 1 bay leaf 1 Tbsp tomato paste 1 cup chicken stock ½ cup coconut milk ½ cup low sodium soy sauce ½ cup soy milk 1 Tbsp brown sugar 1 Tbsp lemon juice ½ cup peanut butter, smooth or chunky In a hot skillet, brown pieces of goat in canola oil. When meat is browned, add diced onion and sauté until onions take on a little color. Toss in carrots; cook for three minutes. Add celery. Make a place for the garlic in the middle of the sauté pan, and sauté the garlic until it has some color. At highest heat, add curry powder, thyme, black pepper and bay leaf and sauté for a minute or two. Then add all other ingredients except peanut butter, and lower flame to medium. Cover and cook until meat is tender and falling off the bone (start checking after an hour or so). Remove meat from pan; de-bone, and discard bones. Add peanut butter to sauce in pan, whisk in well, then return goat to pan. Taste for seasoning, and serve piping hot with white steamed jasmine rice and the following garnishes: chopped scallions, chopped peanuts, chopped fresh coconut (roasted in a small pan in the oven for a short time), chopped bacon, and mango chutney. Gruen likes to serve all the garnishes in small bowls on a lazy susan in the middle of the table so diners can help themselves. You, too, can order goat from Wertis’ BWW Farm at 387-4331; check out his Web site, http://goatmeatsny.com/, for additional recipes. You can find even more recipes at http://www.greatgoats.com/cooking.html. Should you have time, space, and inclination, there’s information on growing your own on the Web site of Cornell’s Sheep and Goat Marketing Program, where Trumansburg’s Dr. tatiana [the “T” is lower case] Stanton, a goat expert who got her start running a Peace Corps goat program in Jamaica, holds forth with good information and a few warnings. This year T-burg’s Sweetland Farm is running a winter CSA, offering such hardy foods as potatoes, carrots, onions, leeks, beets, cabbage, celeriac, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, winter radishes, and greens. Maybe some dried beans as well. Call Paul Martin and Evangeline Sarat at 387-3702 for more information. We dined recently at Blue Stone Bar and Grill, (110 North Aurora Street, Ithaca) and enjoyed immensely Gruen’s creations, (especially his braised pork shank with brandy-glazed apples and his wasabi-glazed salmon), the restaurant’s atmosphere, and selections from their imaginative drinks menu. Call 272-2371 for information and reservations. You’re in for a treat if there’s curried goat on the menu.

Blue Stone Bar and Grill

2008-05-18T05:59:00.000-07:00

Ambling down Aurora Street, it’s hard to miss the Blue Stone Bar and Grill, with its startling blue-lighted façade. Douglas Gruen, a Culinary Institute of America graduate who’s knocked about starred restaurants in New York City and, more recently, in Santa Cruz, and his wife, pastry chef Nancy Gruen, came to Ithaca in search of a sensible place to raise a family and run a business. Since arriving here, they have kept the local quarry and neon sign makers busy. The focus of Blue Stone’s dining room, accented by its quirky beaded lighting fixtures, is an impressive looking bluestone-topped bar. Bluestone is the local limestone – called Llenroc. Taking our cue from the bar’s smartly stocked shelves, we started our evening with a pair of topflight cocktails: a surprising Magellan martini, its blue blush a product of an iris infusion, and the freshest, fruitiest, summeriest margarita we’ve sipped in ages. We blissfully kissed our diets goodbye – at least for an evening. Not that they don’t have an excellent selection of salads, but. . . The Gruens sent out a dazzling and tastebud-boggling parade of appetizers. A warm baby artichoke soufflé with little chunks of pecorino romano took the chill off the evening. Chunky-wonderful black bean crab cakes, served on a whoopee cushion of beans with a cap of chipotle tartar sauce, had a delicate flavor followed by a warm and tingly after-burn – nearly better than sex. Char-grilled strips of chicken breast floated in a Thai-esque peanut sesame sauce with a side of cilantro-laced cucumber and red pepper salad, an adventure in freshness. Bacon-wrapped scallops, tender and sweet, were served up in their shells – well, in somebody’s shells -- laced with a creamy Green Goddess sauce. And as we wondered how we’d ever have room for the entrees, a final affront to our diets arrived: rich puff pastry beggars’ purses stuffed with warm brie, pistachios, and dried cranberries, in a pool of raspberry coulis. Aaaaaaahhhhh! Arghhhh! Onward! We determined gourmands eschewed the beef entrees – Kentucky Bourbon Black Angus sirloin, and grilled filet of beef – to sample a couple of the menu’s more unusual offerings. Jamaican jerk catfish was cooked perfectly, subtly spiced, served over bright, wilted spinach, its flavors brought to life with a sauce of cilantro and lime, with sides of a heavenly sweet potato and caramelized onion hash and meringue-light fried plantains. Across the table, a grilled eggplant half, stuffed with tomatoes and topped with creamy baked goat cheese, had the look of an oversized lobster tail, and a delicious flavor and tenderness. Its side was a homey conglomerate of couscous, lentils, and roasted red peppers. At some future date we look forward to sampling the roasted wasabi salmon with hoisin sriracha chili sauce, and the garlic chicken with a sherry-lemon pan drippings reduction. Bluestone’s chef has a great gift for combining unusual flavors. We were happy to find all presentations blessedly horizontal. The challenge is not in deconstruction, but in cessation. Though we could barely open our mouths to it, we dutifully report that the carrot cake is moist and satisfying, and the flourless chocolate torte is everything one should be. Either would be delightful with an after-theater nightcap, say a warming brandy, or one of those goofy chocolate things that calls itself a martini. Next morning we shunned the tyrannical bathroom scale. The day after, we were missing two pounds. We’ll never understand how that happened, but we’d love to fantasize that the Blue Stone diet is the wave of the future. Prices are reasonaable. We were lured into writing this review by reports of great hamburgers at lunch. We’ll be back to sample those – and the salads. The place is cozy enough for the waitstaff to monitor patrons’ needs, but large enough to permit privacy – if that’s what you seek. Three cheers for Blue Stone’s friendly, attentive service. The wine selection, though reasonably priced, was a little disappointing, with only one Finger Lakes offering, but we were pleased to see a good number of wines offered by the glass. Blue Stone Bar & Grill, 110 North Aurora Street, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. For information, reservations, and catering, call 272-2371.

Hot, Hot, Hot: Thai Cuisine

2007-06-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

Thai Cuisine, Ithaca, NY We keep returning to Thai Cuisine, not only because the food is superb, but because there’s a joyousness about the place. Thai food is meant to be fun. On a chill, rainy Friday evening, we settled into the area behind a parade of wide port holes inhabited by etched-glass elephants, north of the bar, with its orange-and-purple signature gecko mural. As ever, the staff was welcoming and our waiter knowledgeable and well versed in the intricacies of Thai Cuisine’s extensive and complex menu, a true professional, and also fun. Conversation bubbled around us – a group of contradancers at a nearby table was celebrating a birthday, and the restaurant staff gathered around to serenade him. At another table, diners were engaged in an impassioned discussion of faculty contracts – or lack thereof – at a local community college. A formally dressed crowd of international graduate students and scholars exchanged relaxed witticisms at a third table. There’s plenty of privacy, if one wants it, but for old marrieds like us, eavesdropping is just another form of conversation, and we were seated in the large-table room where we could indulge ourselves. For starters on this will-spring-ever-come evening, a comforting tom kha gai (chicken coconut soup) was mild, creamy, and sweet, while a bowl of tom yum goong (spicy shrimp soup) was loaded with large straw mushrooms and juicy shrimp. Thai Cuisine has a rotating super-menu of specials, one of which, the appetizer of sat oowa issan, a fine-textured pork and lemongrass sausage with a delicate accompaniment of quartered cherry tomato, fresh ginger, softly sautéed garlic slivers, and fried chilis, was a rare treat. The sauce of our other appetizer, hoi prig pow (clams in spicy garlic shrimp paste), was red, hot, sweet, laced with garlic, and just this side of addictive, bathing tender Little Neck clams. For our main course we indulged in the pla kun tor, a fried whole fish, which, on that evening’s menu, was striped bass, simmered in a mild ginger-shitake mushroom sauce. The fish was tender, and the presentation spectacular: it arrived in a large, fish-shaped platter, decked out in a confetti of fresh carrot strands. Our waiter boned the fish at our table, apologizing for scattering a bit of mushroom here and there. He actually made us feel better for having made our own mess on the restaurant’s crisp white linens, saying that if you didn’t overshoot the plate occasionally, you weren’t enjoying yourself. The fish was superb. Thai Cuisine specializes in duck dishes, so we ordered another special, ped grob lad prig, duck in a tamarind-chili sauce. The boneless duck was fried to crispness, then bathed in a sauce of sweet, sour, and spicy tamarind sauce with fresh chilis, baby corn, straw mushrooms, pineapple, green onion, and fresh coriander. Yum! On the fun side, it came in a duck-shaped dish. Covered bowls of steamed jasmine rice helped us absorb as much of the chef’s exquisite sauces as we could hold. Save room for dessert! A fresh strawberry-and-custard Napoleon on a bed of strawberry coulis laced with white chocolate heart-shaped swirls, was architectural, and we thoroughly enjoyed demolishing it. A chocolate lava cake was set off by a scoop of mango ice cream, a little heap of fresh fruit, and a puddle of warm raspberry coulis – another artful, delicious presentation. Though we didn’t avail ourselves of it (working -- had to keep our minds clear) the restaurant has a well thought-out wine list including a varied spectrum of Reislings and Gewurtztraminers, which pair so well with this cuisine, and a good selection of beers as well. Thai Cuisine has it all –well prepared, inventive dishes, presented beautifully, lively atmosphere, and great service. We look forward to returning. Thai Cuisine is located at 507 South Meadow Street (Route 13), just across from the entrance to Wegmans. Their phone number is 273-2031. They also have a carry-out menu, but why would you want to deprive yourself of the fun of dining there?