Chaostic Dining Odyssey

China in a box

2008-09-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

The better half of CDO is away this week, so I figured I would post a bit about our diner from the other night.
We spent some time driving around looking for a place to eat , thanks mostly to the fact I had no idea where I was trying to go.
we ended up at the Kingston China Gourmet.
I had wanted to try the place for a while simply because it may be the last sit down, non hibachi, non all you can eat, Chinese place in the city..

CDO NOTE: My favorite sit down Chinese place having been the Kingston Tea Garden , which much to my chagrin , and in the name of endless humor had been shut done by the NY board of Health and its building condemned by the city. Proving once again I can truly eat just about anything.

First thing, if anyone reading this is thinking about opening a restaurant please take this humble advise. Have a separate entrance for "diners" and "pick up". because we were standing in line for a few minutes with the pick up folks not knowing who was going where. with a Chinese man shouting on the phone and back to the kitchen right basically in the entrance. As you Can imagine that kills the ambiance of a restaurant instantly.

As for the interior it is nice, the building was renovated a few years ago and a large vaulted ceiling dining area added which is decorated in all the cheap goodness we have come to expect from small Chinese restaurants. i do wish that the contractors had taken the time to shave the "Georgia Pacific" logo from the timbers they left so lovingly exposed. Yeah I mean that is cheesy to me , I guess I am a lumber snob.
I also noted allot of the china ketch sprawled along the walls was, for sale. So sweet, I can get a Praying Budah with my hot and spicy beef? Awesome!
P.F. Chang's this was obviously not.

Now the Food..
I ordered Pork Dim Sum
and
Hot and Spicy Beef.

Kate ordered
Tuna roll Sushi
and
Orange Chicken

First came a small pickled vegi salad and the lil chips that every Chinese place gives you , they were good I enjoyed the salad, the one thing we did not get was a pot of tea, which most places just bring, so normal is the practice I forgot to ask for one and to tell you the truth I missed having it. (Even the tea garden did that... proving they did have hot running watter)

The 6 Dim Sum came in traditional steaming basket in which they had not been steamed, along with brown sauce. Excellent dim sum. I could have ate a dozen. Well cooked and well spiced. The brown sauce sweet and a bit salty, best when mixed with soy sauce to tell the truth.

The main event..
My Hot and spicy beef was good, don't get me wrong, but not excellent, I was eating it and thinking about the Dim sum. The spice was moderate, the veg well cooked but not killed. I did feel the beef was a bit over done, and probably not the best quality meat I had eaten recently. There were also a number of spice bean looking things in the sauce that mostly fell to the bottom of the bowl. They were very strong in flavor and semi spicy. When I got a spoon full of them they killed any thing else in the dish.
It came with pork Fried Rice which was pretty good. Again a good average,
You have to understand, I was hungry so if they had set a shoe in front of me I would have been just as likely to dribble some soy on it and dig in.

Kate's Chicken was better. The nuggets of chicken were white meat, generous in number, and the breading was nice and crisp.
The nice thing was her veg was cooked but nice and crisp to teh bite. Like good Chinese stir fri veg should be.
The one gripe I have about the excellent chicken is that there were these odd lil dry mushrooms in the bottom of the bowl that were so dehydrated and so weird looking that they were impossible to eat. I mean I tried..I am brave like that, I could not bite through it.. so I have to ask , What the hell were those things?

As for the Tuna roll, we will never know.. it never came. Id did however make an appearance on our bill, we had it removed with no argument from the waitress.

All in all it was not a bad meal, in fact it was pretty good just a bit average.
It adds to my theory that if someone could build and maintain a really good, hing quality, sit down Chinese restaurant in Kingston NY.. they would make a killing
Mark

Food on the web: example 1

2008-06-07T15:24:00.001-07:00

Chowhound . com
A food site with a ton of content, regional message boards, restaurant reviews, and topical listings.
What more could you ask for?
Chow.com
Even more information on the cooking end of things..even has a top chef pod cast...
and
THIS! (ummmm berries...)

Enjoy!

Savona's Plaza Pizza

2008-06-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

I have a theory:
very scientific now,
The amount you will bitch about your pizza is directly related to how hungry you are when you get it vs how angry you are when you finally see your dinner.
How hungry you are when you get it is directly related to how long you wait for it.

Hunger = Time you wait
bitching = anger / hunger

Flowing this logic your bitching will have an inverse relation ship to the time it takes to get the pizza.

This universal truth must be known to Savona's Plaza Pizza, because they have re-calibrated their clocks so that 40 minutes is now equal to the time passing between 6:35PM and 8:15PM! (our wait for a pizza on Thursday.)
Fancy that!

This was the result:
As you can see even though the pizza was cold, and late, we ate it.

Frankly in the state of hunger I was in when the pizza arrived, I would have eaten the box if thats all that had shown up.

The driver even got a tip.

I believe that is therory proven to fact
Mr. Pythagoras.

To be fair Savona's has an excellent reputation in the local area, and are great givers to the community. I will also say they make a hell of a pie. (No really I'm not kidding pizza shown above is not indicative of the species.)

Further more I really like their new restaurant,(Savonas Trattoria & Pizza) which I will write about at some latter date.(been there twice ..liked it)

Last night however, goes to show that even with years (30 plus) of pizza luv under ones belt and a loyal following of crust snarfers in your corner. A very good pizza place can drop the ball now and again.

So heres to you Savonas in the plaza!
I will likely call you again next time I need a pie.
No harm no foul
though the pizza was sorta foul

The Historic Red Hook Diner

2008-06-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Red Hook Diner:

In the spirit of transparency I have to state that I have eaten in the Red Hook diner roughly 112 thousand times in my life. If I ever have a hear attack it may very well be traced to the heaps of their hash, piles of home fries and chicken coop's worth of eggs I have devoured in the place. Further more I just may have put one of the owners children through college on my own dime. With all that said I will attempt to open the humble CDO with a few words about our recent trip the the “historic” Red Hook diner. (RHD)

Kate and I are honest altruistic souls, and we really thought that taking my parents to the Red Hook Diner on a Saturday would be a nice thing to do. Despite the over-crowding, which is a problem with ever train car style diner out there, it was a good idea.

You see, the RHD is small. Yes it has an addition that adds just enough room for 2 more tables, 10 more chairs, 2 Barbie dolls and a raisin-et. And yes it has about 6 booths and I think 9 counter seats. On a Saturday those seating statistics are just not enough to satisfy the hordes of city folk who ooze northward into the valley and are just dying to eat a breakfast wrap in a quaint historic diner. The seating limitations at times mean long waits, but we were fortunate and got a seat in the aforementioned addition. I did get unusually close to the man sitting behind me, as in every time he moved his legs his chair whacked mine pretty solidly, and I got to smell his food. If you decide to go to the RHD, go during the week, its just easier that way.

The Food:

When I was young the joke around town went a bit like this, “The only thing historic about the Red hook Diner is the grease on the walls.” I think in retrospect that was not exactly fair, and it was something like 15 years ago. The food at the RHD is much improved from when I used to walk there for breakfast.

I had the same thing I always get, and have always gotten at the RHD. (2 eggs over medium, home fries, coffee, rye toast.) That my friends is my “go to” diner meal. I could eat that exact meal every morning for the rest of my life and die a happy, happy man from a massive coronary at the age of 50.

My eggs were perfect soft but with non-slimy yolks, home fries chunky style done very well, and a good solid glass of 8-o'clock coffee. The portion was generous and the plate was nicely warmed. Back in 1992 this exact plate of food was $2.00 now as listed on their web site menu it is a whopping $2.95. Thats a nice inflation beater. It's a traditional meal of mine and i loved it.

Kate had a Belgian waffle with blueberries ($4.25). This thing was killer. You see the RHD does not fake the blueberry funk. The Waffle arrived with a gratuitous heap of real blueberries on top. Yes if you are wondering real berries make a difference. A big difference. Beyond the simple goodness of berries, you get warm maple syrup brought to you. As if thats not good enough you can purchase the “Syrup upgrade” that turns your warm syrup into a little bottle of local produced Russel farms syrup. Now if you like syrup, like I like syrup (something akin to how sheiks feel about oil) then you will know good syrup is a golden experience. Kate's waffle became a gooey, berry coated, sponge of pure maple goodnesses. Fresh berries, quality syrup, warmed and brought to your table; I challenge you to tell me any thing better than that.

Over all I enjoyed the RHD. The food is better than I remember, and despite the Saturday Throng we carried on a good conversation over a good breakfast. It's a diner what more can you ask for?

Oh yeah did I mention the fresh berries?