I am convinced that any restaurant connected to a market has got to have great food. Case in point: Parivar Spice and Market and La Mexicana Grocery and Restaurant. Now we can add Off Shore Pier Restaurant and Fish Market to that list. I've been shopping at the Target store in East Greenbush for years and never really bothered to stop by any of the restaurants along Route 4. On a whim, we stopped by Off Shore Pier and have been hooked ever since. It's a gem of place amongst a sea of fast food chains.
The seafood market right next door is small but purveyor to some of the freshest seafood around. The quality ingredients translates to some amazing flavors when fried to order next door. There's the classic fish fry sandwiched on a hot dog bun and the seafood platter with succulent pieces of fried scallops and shrimp. But what you really want is the fried clam bellies. Each briny bite brings back great memories of our honeymoon in Maine.
Not everything is encased in a golden cornmeal crust. Sure you can get your seafood broiled but we all know everything is better fried, including your vegetables. Little nuggets of cauliflower are not only fried but enrobed in a layer of cheese for good measure. For a true taste of the oceanside, it doesn't get any better than fresh clams on the half shell. You can usually find us slurping back dollar oysters at The Beer Belly but these puppies are just as addicting. Just because the Capital Region is landlocked doesn't mean you can't find great seafood. Until we can get out those little New England clam shacks, you can find us at Off Shore Pier.
All Over Albany's blog post inspired me to try the cronut craze that has plagued NYC. Fans wait hours in line for the original version at Dominique Ansel's in the city. I was overjoyed to find this half-doughnut, half-croissant concoction at The Crisp Cannoli in East Greenbush, and no crazy long lines around the block...yet. I forget whose Twittter feed I saw this amazing news on but once you bite into one of these puppies, you'll understand the hype.
It took us three drive-bys to finally locate The Crisp Cannoli. It's located on the corner of a very unassuming building but inside are cases of wonderful pastries and sweets including the coveted cronuts. J and I hold very high standards when it comes to a good croissant. We use to get these amazing chocolate ones from TC Bakery when they were on Colvin Ave (now relocated to Saratoga) and haven't had a great croissant since until now. I can't compare this cronut to other cronuts, or crodo as it's called here since "cronut" seems to have been trademarked, but the magic is in the croissant dough. It's got to be buttery, flaky, and crispy on the outside yet chewy on the inside and this crodo hits all the above. It's as much fun taking a whole bite out of a crodo as
it is to pick apart those beautiful layers of sugared dough. It's no dainty pastry, be ready to be covered in lots of sugar. The Crisp Cannoli makes three wonderful versions of the crodo: glazed, vanilla custard-filled, and nutella filled. Try all three, you won't be disappointed; but I gotta say my favorite was the nutella filled one.
The filled-to-order cannolis looked pretty damn good too but the lovely woman at the counter talked us into trying their other croissant invention: The Crodoli. Made to order, we were sold at freshly fried croissant dough filled with their homemade cannoli cream, dusted with sugar and drizzled with chocolate for good measure. This was best enjoyed right out of the fryer and boy did we enjoy it. I was expecting the crodo and crodoli to be heavy and greasy, but both versions were surprising light and crispy. With a name like Crisp Cannoli, the cannoli cream in the crodoli definitely lived up to its name; not too sweet and melt in your mouth creamy. We can't wait to come back for more crodos, crodolis, and of course cannolis. -R
