While most people celebrate with a traditional birthday cake, I celebrated a milestone with a sushi cake from Sushi Tei. The big 3-0 was ushered in with a lovely layered surprise of my favorites--salmon, yellowtail, and tuna. The monstrosity is made up of layers of sushi rice, avocado, nori, and your choice of fish. Who needs frosting when you can have spicy tuna and sashimi roses? The hubby knows exactly what to get this birthday girl.
I've had my share of NYC bagels when I spent a semester in New York, and even a few Montreal bagels from home. Each has its own unique style and now I get to add Albany bagels to that list. What's an Albany bagel? Just stop by Bread and Honey on Madison Avenue and taste for yourself. Bagels here are made fresh on premise but it's not just about the bagels. It's a mecca for all your carb-related needs--from loaves of fresh bread to pretzels, scones and sandwiches, and on occasion bread pudding made with Bake For You cookies! But the bagels here are the stars of the bakery.
Get to Bread and Honey early though, favorites run out fast. Lucky for us late sleepers, a couple of Everything bagels were still waiting for us. You're going to want a schmear of bacon scallion or smoked salmon cream cheese to accompany these jewels. No need for toasting, they shine own their own especially if you can get one still warm from the oven . It's not as thick and dense as the New York bagels I've come across but still sizable. There is a nice toothy bite to this Albany bagel with an unbelievable crunchy, crusty exterior and chewy soft innard that isn't too fluffy or doughy. It also has a great balance of toppings for an everything bagel, including chunks of salt which I haven't found as prominent on other everything bagels, if any really. The bagels from the chains just don't hold a candle to the ones at Bread and Honey. Even the cream cheese tastes better. You can actually taste the smokiness from the bacon one and the there's plenty of briny salmon bits in the lox one. One of each cream cheese is the way to go.
You can also add a cup of homemade soup for a light lunch. We happen to come on a day when turkey barley was on the menu. It was a cold, grey day and a cup of soup was just what we needed. I've never come across this combo before but this stew-like soup was so comforting with chunks of carrots, potatoes, and ground turkey. I never cook with tarragon and am not familiar with its flavor but a touch of this herb added a different and welcomed dimension of flavor. All it was missing was a touch of salt and pepper.
We also got a sample of sourdough bread too and knew we had to take a loaf home. It had a beautiful crust and lovely chew. We knew it would be great bread to make grilled cheeses for dinner. It's refreshing to see so much thought go into a well-made, simple product and you can taste the love and care. We've stopped by at least three times now. Albany is so lucky to have a new bakery like Bread and Honey. Cheers to more Albany bagels!
Our one and only visit to Reel Seafood Co. was more than three years ago. Our meals weren't terrible; they were just forgettable. Ever since J mastered the art of shucking oysters, our outings for seafood has been limited to trips to fin-your fishmonger for our own stay-at-home feasts. But with recent news of renovations, new chef and owner, and renewed efforts to source sustainable seafood and local seasonal ingredients, we were willing to jump back on board Reel Seafood Co. We don't typically go out on Friday nights but it was a chance for us to observe a busy dinner service.
Although it felt a bit like being inside an alien spaceship, neon glow aside, the "new" Reel Seafood Co. certainly looks sleek and modern with updated furniture, a wall of aquariums, and bright blue lighting. We were excited to try the "new and improved" menu. We're more than capable of prepping our own raw bar and escargots has been on J's culinary bucket list for awhile now, so in we dove with snails as an appetizer. This was our first time trying escargots and we didn't quite know what to expect. What we got were underseasoned, butter-soaked bites. The little rounds of puff pastry didn't add much flavor or texture, and I didn't really care for them. A few shakes of salt helped a bit but the herbed-butter was overwhelming. As for the escargots, J liked them more than I did. They were a bit too earthy-flavored for my taste but the texture wasn't as bad as I was expecting; it's almost like eating a chewy mussel or clam. I would try escargots again but prepared differently.
I cannot begin to tell you how well we ate in Maine. Our vacation culinary adventures began in Portland, Maine. This coastal city is foodie bliss. We've written about our weekly sushi cravings and being right by the sea coast, we couldn't resist taking advantage of some of the best and freshest seafood in town. What I really wanted to try was Miyake, mainly because Alex Guarnashelli declared their mushroom miso soup The Best Thing I Ever Ate and I remember seeing Andrew Zimmern making a Bizzare Foods stop, but being on a limited budget and because J hates mushrooms (one of these days he'll be a convert), we decided to go on a Yelp sushi search.
Our findings led us to the best sushi meal we've ever had at Benkay Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar. We consider this our #1 all-time sushi spot now. Too bad it's now 4hrs away from Albany. We might very well consider a weekend trip just to eat this sushi again.
The pressure of the inaugural blog post... Let's preface our first blog post with a disclaimer/introduction: J. and I are by no means culinary experts. We are merely foodies who enjoy tasty treats, love to dine out (even though we have a terrible streak of getting awful service), and we are fanatics of Food Network's Chopped and Restaurant Impossible.
80% of our culinary escapades are to sushi joints. We crave it on a weekly basis and it's only a matter of time before we get mercury poisoning. Sushi isn't hard to find in Albany; the Capital Region is saturated with mediocre places. Hell, even Wal-Mart carries it, *cringe*. Amazing and quality sushi on the hand, can only be found at a handful of places. Here are our regular and favorite sushi spots:
1. Sushi Tei (Guilderland): Blink and you can easily miss this small and pleasantly quiet and quaint place. It is hands down one of our favorite spaces for authentic and delicious Japanese food without the frills of loud weird techno music and glowing gaudiness (*cough* Sushi X, cough cough). Our go to here is a dinner box: your choice of two rolls, fruit, chef's choice of an appetizer (we've had gyoza or seaweed salad) and one of the reasons why we love the dinner box so much is a side of crab salad (crabmeat, panko crumbs, tobiko, and cucumber). Salmon here is top notch when at its peak of the season and one of our favorite appetizers is the tuna dumpling (crab salad wrapped with tuna sashimi) and the raw scallop sashimi, which comes with lemon slices and really elevates the flavor and sweetness of the scallops. Also, try the udon noodle soup at least once. All Over Albany has all the udon details here.
2. Mr. Fuji Sushi (Stuyvesant Plaza): We're always greeted with a smile and have never had bad service here. Our go to is the boat for two. That's right, a boat of sushi. Once in awhile we'll deviate and some stellar standouts include specials like the naruto roll (mixed fish rolled with cucumber instead of seaweed and rice); raw scallop sashimi; and jalapeno yellowtail. J is a fan of the salmon and I think Mr. Fuji hands down has the best white tuna sashimi. Mr. Fuji, whoever he is, also makes spicy rolls that are actually spicy and not too heavy on the sesame oil and breadcrumbs.
3. Sake Cafe (Albany): We come here solely for the Crazy Couple Roll (a spicy tuna and spicy yellowtail roll) that no one else seems to make. Another favorite is an appetizer called Treasure Island (mixed fish in an avocado half with spicy and eel sauces).
Honorable mentions: Sushi Thai Garden (Saratoga & Clifton Park) and Sushi Na Ra (Latham)
On the flop side, one of our worst sushi experiences have been at Sushi X (Latham). At first we were jaded by the "all you can eat" aspect of it. Each time we went back, service was worse and worse (i.e. took 15-20 mins for first round of food to come, long time to get our check, waiter forgetting our drink order) and so was the quality of the fish. It lacked flavor and full of fillers like breadcrumbs and too much rice to fish ratio. We kept going back hoping things would get better but the last time we went, the waft of stinky fish odor that greeted us as we walked in the door was a definite sign for us to never come back.
So we're curious, what are some of your favorite Capital Region sushi joints?
Happy sushi eatings,
J & R
