Village Restaurant Rocks!

It was a late night last night. I'm not talking "last call at The Banshee" late, I'm talking "catch a Burlesque show in NYC's East Village and drive home afterward" late.  Four AM late. Wow, you must be saying to yourself, the East Village... boobs.... 4 AM? WTF, who ARE these people? Before you start thinking that Cuba and I are Lackawanna county's answer to Charlie Sheen and Lindsey Lohan, let me just say that we are not. This was a rare occasion, but we do enjoy this type of performance art from time to time. Scranton needs a Burlesque troupe. But that is a topic for a future post.

Needless to say, neither one of us was in any mood to do something as complicated as operate our coffee maker or, god forbid, the toaster. We opted instead to check out The Village Restaurant in Peckville. I have had a few people sing its praises to me recently, and this morning seemed like a really good time to see what all the fuss was about.

Because of a late morning commitment at a nearby business, we only had a half hour or so for our much needed breakfast. Going into a restaurant, even for a simple breakfast, with such a short window of time, can sometimes be a huge mistake. We were very aware that this might mess up our schedule, but we were willing to take the chance. We have been tricked before, 15 minutes for an egg sandwich, 20 for an omelet...  but not at the Village, these ladies are pros. It was not a problem. 

The menu was impressive and we both have decided that an evening visit during which we will sample some of the tempting Italian dishes offered up is definitely in order. Today, however, was all about breakfast. Cuba, always a big fan of the traditional bacon and egg with homefries, was delighted with her meal. I also went for my perennial favorite and enjoyed a sandwich consisting of 2 fried eggs, and a pile of delicious ham and cheese, all nestled inside a toasted, buttered hardroll.  This beauty also came with a mound of perfectly prepared homefries. With both of these meals and a round of coffee, the check was just over 12 bucks. Awesome.

The best part of our visit though was our waitress, Carla. She was fantastic and had a lovely singing voice. The toasted hardroll... her suggestion ... the Franks Red Hot for the potatoes...her again. Honestly, some of the best service we have had anywhere. It is also worth mentioning that they were setting up for a party in the adjacent "Sunroom," and we saw some amazingly appetizing trays of chicken, pasta, and roasted potatoes go sailing by our table. It may well be worth checking out for your next catered event. Oh, and by the way... they have a liquor license.

Village Restaurant
1546 Main Street
Peckville, PA 18452
(570) 383-1931

Want to be a Valentine Hero? Make This Stuff

With Valentine's Day coming up, some of you guys out there might be looking for some ideas that you can use to impress your sweetheart with your skills in the kitchen.  I am going to give you a secret weapon from my short list of sure fire pleasers. When you taste it, you are going to have a hard time believing that this recipe is so simple to make, and calls for so few ingredients.

For Sauce:
At Least 1/4 cup Locatelli Cheese - more if you like it
1 1/2 cups Heavy Cream
4 oz. Prosciutto di Parma Sliced 1/8th Inch Crossways
1 Bunch Fresh Asparagus, tough ends removed, and cut into 1 inch pieces
Freshly Ground Black Pepper to Taste

For Garnish:
A Few Sprigs of Italian Parsley (totally optional)

1 Box Penne Pasta

First, put some salted water on to boil for the pasta. Now, get to work sauteing the prosciutto in a teaspoon of butter until it begins to just get a little crispy, then pour in the heavy cream, grind in as much black pepper as you like, and stir up the browned bits that may be stuck to the pan. This will give the sauce a lovely color and flavor. When it begins to boil, lower the heat to a simmer and let it reduce, stirring often while you prepare the pasta.

Once the pasta water boils, put the pasta in at once. About 5 minutes before the pasta is done cooking, according to the instructions on the pasta box, stir the Locatelli Cheese in to the sauce and then put in the asparagus pieces and stir occasionally for the 4 or 5 minutes left until the pasta is done.  Strain the cooked pasta, place in a serving bowl and pour the sauce over it. Serve with more Locatelli and some Shiraz or a Cabernet Sauvignon. Feel free to take all the credit.

Kyoto Delivers

Our story begins in Wilkes-Barre at 8 PM last Friday. We were in town to run an errand, too boring to mention, when I realized how close we were to Katana, our favorite sushi place in...well...the state. Katana is really good and will be the subject of a future post to be sure. Anyhow, I pointed the Cuba-mobile in the direction of Public Square and was thwarted, literally at every turn, by Wilkes-Barre's finest who were restricting access to the area for some reason. I think it is tragic how everything anymore it seems, is a reason for heavy handed security measures. Some politician is in town? Block off six blocks. Who cares that struggling retail venues depend on traffic for business? Want to park anywhere near a courthouse or public building? Nothin' doing dirt bag. And don't ask why? Don't you know? We are under threat! Want to feel like a real criminal? Take a domestic flight. I got better treatment at the Army induction center when I enlisted after high school. Nothing like shuffling along in a line, shoes and ID in hand, to be scrutinized and gruffly ordered about by people who seem to barely have command of the language. Enough...I digress. I very quickly tired of this road block nonsense and rocketed up 81 towards home.

With sushi still deeply entrenched in our little minds, we tossed around a few ideas to fulfill our craving as we cruised northward to Scranton. Osaka was right out. We weren't feeling adventurous enough to try the new place in Dunmore. Kabuki didn't excite us for some reason. We thought about going to Atami for a few seconds, but then decided upon Kyoto. We weren't disappointed...for the most part.

We were seated at the sushi bar by the hostess who, for some reason, gets on Cuba's nerves. She is a lovely woman, but Cuba feels she has an air of disdain about her. I can see what she means, but I don't read it quite the same way and would only say that she comes off as slightly aloof, at worst.

Our waitress appeared promptly and took our drink order. We got some green tea, which was wonderful and some sake, which sucked. It tasted like solvent or fuel of some kind. I have had a lot of sake, and it can be lovely. Don't ever be afraid to drink sake, but do not get the house sake at Kyoto.

We ordered some miso soup, which was very tasty, and a few rolls, along with two types of nigiri and a baked scallop special. We got our usual nigiri; hamachi, or yellowtail, and saba, which is pickled mackerel. In both cases, the nigiri was wonderful. The texture, particularly of the hamachi was perfect and the rice was expertly prepared. The rolls we selected were the real stars of the meal. We had scallop roll which was unremarkable, futomaki, which is a large roll, full of vegetable, egg, and crab stick, which was quite good, and black pearl roll, which was exquisite. The black pearl roll contains tuna, avocado, and crunchy tempura, topped with spicy scallops and black tobiko. It really must be tasted to be believed. It was so good in fact that I think it may have skewed my opinion of the rest of the dishes which seemed ordinary by comparison. By the time we got to the baked scallop special, we were quite full and happy as the result of the dishes I have just described. We did, however, manage to eat it. We both found it to be excessively rich and a bit too spicy for our liking. The scallops themselves, while perfectly prepared and cooked, were lost in the overly done sauce.

Both Cuba and I really enjoyed our trip to Kyoto that evening and were, as we usually are, fully satisfied with our visit. Kyoto is always a good time. The staff are friendly and animated, for the most part, and it is always fun to see the habachi chefs in action. The next time you find yourself in The Abingtons at dinner time, skip the chains and visit Kyoto.

Kyoto
1000 South State Street
Clarks Summit, PA 18411
(570) 587-3236

Hop The Tandoor Palace Train

Okay, the Tandoor Palace isn't exactly in Scranton, or even the Lackawanna Valley, but it is close enough. I mean we have spoken to people who have driven an hour from Binghamton, NY to Moosic just to satisfy their craving for Indian food at the New Amber Indian Restaurant so I feel completely justified in suggesting the forty five minute drive to Tannersville to sample Tandoor's Northern Indian bill of fare.

Cuba and I were traveling (hungrily) home from New Jersey and she was fiddling with the UrbanSpoon app on my iPhone as we drove along I-80 on our way back to The Electric City. All of a sudden she happily exclaimed that there was a well rated Indian place just a few minutes away. She tapped for directions and just like that we were on our way to the first of what will likely be many visits to the Tandoor Palace.

The Tandoor Palace is an interesting place. It is located adjacent to the Days Inn motel and believe it or not, one of the dining rooms is a converted train car. The photo I have included with this review is accurate folks. Once you enter the door, you will walk through a huge lounge room that seems to serve no purpose whatsoever and into one of the at least two dining rooms this labyrinthine restaurant has. I recommend sitting in the dining car for atmosphere. You will understand if you visit, because the other rooms are just...blah. If however it is a hot day and you are the type who doesn't like their dining room on the warm side, do not sit in the train car as the air conditioning doesn't really cool it off too well. The menu is extensive and has vegetarian, fish, and meat dishes as well as many varieties of Indian bread and soups. There are plenty of appetizers to tempt you as well.

After taking a bit of time, Cuba and I decided. I opted for the Palak Paneer, which is a rich ground spinach sauce with Paneer cheese cubes, and Cuba ordered Paneer Tikka Masala, again the Paneer cheese cubes, only her's was simmered in a special tomatoey sauce with onions, peppers, and delightful spices. The Palak Paneer was good, but Cuba, who always orders well it seems, was rewarded with an amazing meal in her Paneer Tikka Masala.

Two people can actually get away with sharing one meal in this place. The meals come with a generous bowl of rice to help sop up all that delicious sauce and as soon as you are seated, each table receives a nice, and refillable, portion of papadum, crisp wafers similar to flatbread, accompanied by wonderful chili sauce and tamarind sauce for dipping. We did, in fact, leave with a substantial doggie bag. Not only did we have two entrees, we also ordered some Keema Naan, which is a white pita-like bread stuffed with minced ground lamb. This naan had a distinctive lamb taste and was heavily spiced, so know what you are getting into if you order it. I personally love lamb, but I know it isn't for everyone.

The service at this place was fine, the waiters attentive, and the food served promptly ...piping hot. We felt as though the entrees, particularly considering the quality, were fairly priced in the ten to sixteen dollar range. I feel that it is worth mentioning that the restaurant was quite busy and I think it says a lot for the food that over half of the patrons I saw were Indian. The atmosphere is a little weird, with the exception of the cool train car room, but all in all it was a good experience.

We both really enjoyed the Tandoor Palace and would encourage anyone to go there. It is a short drive from Scranton and a convenient quick stop off of I-80 if you find yourself going to New Jersey, NYC or on the way to or from the Newark Airport. All aboard!

Tandoor Palace
Next to Days Inn
I-80 at Exit 299
Route 715
Tannersville, PA 18372
(570) 619-0068

It Happened at Osaka

It all started out with the best of intentions. Cuba and I were going to take a walk around Lake Scranton. We try to do this as often as we can. We have been on a roll too. Today was the first day we missed this week...but I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, the big plan was to walk the lake, then grab a quick bite, then grocery shopping, then home. Well, I came up with the bright idea of picking up our other car, which was in the shop, before the walk and the mere act of doing that, coupled with the prospect of driving two cars to the restaurant, then having to pick one of them up again later after shopping, and driving home separately at the end of the night...well it was all too much for Cuba to bear. She looked at me with those big green eyes and said "Let's just go for sushi and then to see Julie and Julia." How could I refuse her?

I have to be honest, neither of us were too excited about it, but we decided to give Osaka in downtown Scranton another shot. We used to really like this place. They used to run a half price sushi special on Sunday nights that we would go to once in a while. Then that became a little too popular with the college student crowd for our tastes. We never really loved the place, but we went there because it was consistent. Then they closed for renovations...for months. I must say that the place looks really lovely now. It hadn't changed much since the Robata days of the 80's and 90's prior to this recent update, so it was long overdue.

The new decor seems to have really brought in a young, hip, and attractive clientele. Both Cuba and I were struck by the amount of 20 and 30-something young women populating the bar and restaurant, and on a Thursday no less. These were not boozy barflies either mind you, and except for the ham-handed advances of the three aging and married Lotharios next to us at the bar, the ladies had the place more or less to themselves. Granite bar, chic decor, and eye candy aside, the food, and the sushi in particular, is lackluster at best.

We started off with some sake, and I had miso soup. The sake was hot, but the miso was cold. Strike one. We followed this up with some nigiri and three rolls. The nigiri we chose was saba, which is pickled mackerel, and hamachi, or yellowtail. We had spicy scallop roll, New York roll, and Lackawanna roll. I have to say that the scallop roll was okay, if not a bit too spicy. Scallop rolls are some of Cuba's favorite things to order at sushi bars, and this one fell squarely in the middle. We have had better and we have had much worse. The New York roll was a spicy broiled roll with Salmon over (fake) crab stick and tempura flakes. It was unremarkable but again okay. The Lackawanna roll is a deep fried creation containing eel, white fish, crab (real), salmon, scallion, and tobiko. Again, this heavily spiced roll was nothing special, but fine nonetheless. By this point you may be saying to yourself that this meal sounds perfectly fine if not a little ordinary. Well, the horror show is about to begin. Enter the nigiri. Strikes two and three.

The word "sushi" as you probably know refers not to the fish, but to the rice upon which these potentially delightful little packages are built. "Sushi" is a high quality, short grain rice that is dressed in rice wine vinegar and either formed into little balls for nigiri or pressed into sheets to enclose the rolls that we all love so much. The rice should be flavorful and of a consistency that binds it together so that it holds up to being transported from plate to mouth while remaining beautiful and intact. Osaka's rice was neither flavorful nor of the correct consistency. Our rolls and nigiri literally fell apart in our hands. The fish that topped our nigiri was no treat either. The hamachi had a waterlogged consistency and was full of connective tissue, which made it impossible to bite through. This stuff should be of an almost buttery consistency and a good portion of both my and Cuba's hamachi wound up spit out into our napkins. The last item that we had was the saba. Saba should be a beautifully colored, slightly oily, lightly pickled slice of heaven. Osaka's was not. It was gray and reminded me of pickled herring out of a jar, you know the one, ...way in the back of the fridge. I will not be having that again, ever.

In spite of the shortcomings, we did enjoy sitting at the bar, having a couple of beers to wash away the sins of the meal, conversing with each other, and people watching. I am sure we will go to Osaka for drinks again one day, but we will leave the sushi to places more qualified for the job, like Katana in Wilkes Barre for example. I want to love this place, I really do. It is close to home, and easy on the eyes. Maybe tonight was just a bad night. Was it? Please let me know what you think.

Osaka
224 Adams Avenue
Scranton, PA 18503
(570) 341-9600

Good Eats on the Cheap

Cuba and I had only been home for one day. We spent the last week on a "vacation" that left us more exhausted than refreshed and were having difficulty reconciling ourselves to having to run off to Wegman's to stock up the kitchen and (God forbid) cook up something for dinner. Seeing the trip as unavoidable, we jumped in the car and headed off to Dickson City. Then, as we rocketed past TGI Fridays we saw it... the answer... the perfect solution... Five Guys Burgers and Fries!

This was not our first visit to Five Guys, nor will it be our last. The burgers at this place are great. Now I do not want to give anyone the impression that these beauties are going to be anything on the level of a Kobe burger from Coopers, but Five Guys burgers are delicious, fresh, quickly prepared, and they start at $3.29. That, frugal reader, is worth a few bonus points. Judging by the wall hangings in the restaurant, Five Guys has received their share of accolades. This is a chain restaurant and its walls are festooned with laminated newspapers from such exotic locales as Columbia, South Carolina and Wilmington, Delaware declaring Five Guys as "Fine Dining of Hamburgers" and "Best Burger in Delaware" among other achievements.

The menu is simple and satisfying. The burgers come in basically two varieties, the regular size which comes with two fresh, never frozen patties, and the "little", with a single patty. Having chosen a size, one can add bacon and or cheese for an additional cost , and from there on out, it is all about customization with fifteen additional toppings available at no charge. The toppings include the usual suspects plus A-1 sauce, Bar-B-Q Sauce, hot sauce, grilled mushrooms or onions, and jalapeno peppers, to name a few. Rounding out the menu are hot dogs, veggie or grilled cheese sandwiches, and most importantly, wonderfully good french fries. The fries are skin on, cut on site, Idaho potatoes, deep fried in peanut oil and served Cajun style or liberally salted. I am usually a fan of a thick cut, steak fry sort of spud, but these are very good and they come in ridiculously large portions. There are barrels full of roasted peanuts available for snacking while you wait for your order and the soft drinks are refillable. In all honesty, I must report that on a few of our visits to this place, and I do mean just a few, we got overcooked burgers or fries. Also, the service, though usually fine, can be spotty. I do not mean to characterize this as the norm, but I would be remiss not to mention it. I believe that when a person pays less than $4.00 for a sandwich in a place operated by teenagers, that person must have a flexible set of expectations.

I will state clearly that I am not a fan of chain restaurants generally, but Five Guys manages to live up to the hype. Pass McDonalds and Burger King and satisfy your next burger craving at Five Guys.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries
735 Scranton-Carbondale Highway
Dickson City, PA 18519
(570) 941-0113

I Have Returned...

OK... I will offer no explanation whatsoever, but for better or worse, we are back. Thank you for the few emails we received wondering where the heck we went. They really meant a lot to us. All this time we assumed we were just whistling in the dark.

It has been an interesting year (almost) since my last post and I am brimming with experiences that I just absolutely must relate here. Cuba and I have had some great times at some new and old local spots and we will be reviewing those worth mentioning or, in a few cases, those so bad that we feel it is our duty to warn you of them. Strap yourselves in Scranton...