The Mighty Meatloaf

What is it about meatloaf, that when you make and eat it, everything seems a little more just place?  I have to say Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and some type of veggie, normally lima beans, is the quintessential comfort food.  The king of comfort food, in my opinion. 
I was turned onto this, what seemed like simple peasant food, at a very young age.  Who else, but my mother, like so many others around the word makes "THE BEST" meatloaf.  I can hear everyone out there right now, "No way, I guarantee, MY moms is better".  It’s almost comical, there should be a meatloaf cook off somewhere, if there already isn't.  I have yet to replicate her take on the dish, even with the exact recipe at my fingertips.  I guess it's the "love" that goes into it or maybe it's the different oven, whichever works for you.  However, I have stumbled across many different variations of what my mother cooked, by messing her recipe up, or just by playing around with it.  Changing simple things can make a totally different meat loaf, instead of what I call a traditional meat loaf, I have made it with mozzarella cheese, oregano and basil, for an Italian flare.  I have added manchego along with chile powder and smoked Spanish paprika for a, well, it’s a really big molded taco style meat loaf.  Anyway you have it, whether is smothered in brown gravy, dripping with tomato sauce or dipped in ketchup, they are all good.  The ends being the best part of course, crispy almost burnt ends, mmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.  I can’t say enough about my favorite dinner of all time, but please feel free to share your favorite meatloaf recipe, I am always on the lookout for a new better Mightier Meat Loaf.  I will even dig up my mom's recipe and post it here in the future.  But I doubt anyone needs a meat loaf recipe.

The Old Homestead - New York, NY - Review

I will try to keep this as short as possible, but there it a lot to get out when it comes to reviewing this steakhouse.  We went for a night out on the town, limo, and reservations the whole shebang.  We entered the Old Homestead and were seated promptly at 8:00.  We are greeted by our waiter and a round of drinks are ordered, Johnny Blue, Patron Silver and a French Martini - Not long after we would tear through 2 bottles of Toscana wine (cant remember the name, but it was damn good) a cognac and a port.  The "main waiter" was not to my liking, he screws up as you will read, and the other attendants were excellent though.

We start off with some apps and oysters, now the oysters were very very good, we chose Malpeque, Royal Myagi and Emerald Cove, leaving out the ever boring blue point.  Now I know there is no preparation in oysters that reflect the chef or anyone in the kitchen other than the guys shucking them and not getting any shell in the oyster itself, but I must say, the Emerald Cove Oyster is probably one of the tastiest oysters around...anyway, back to the food they make.

Bang Bang Shrimp, nicely done EXTRA LARGE JUMBO deep fried with a spicy sauce drizzled on top.  Crab Cakes, these were tasty, more crab than cake and not over seasoned, the crab really took center stage, I have a nice sear on it which leads me to believe its pan fried not deep fried.  Beet Salad, apparently good, as far as beet salads go, I don’t know I didn’t have any.  The Caesar salad was simply O.K  I always get a Caesar when I go out, and I knda judge or gauge, if you will, the experience off the salad, why?  Well, I guess when you get it right the salad is delightful and chances are the rest of the meal will be as well, but when you get it wrong, man oh man.  This one - sorry to say, they got it wrong, WAY too much dressing, the romaine was drenched, it was very heavy, but kind bland, tough when you have ingredients like, anchovies and parmegiano reggiano in the bowl.

The steaks, ah the steaks, here’s where I get  a little annoyed at this high caliber steakhouse, my wife and I had the 22 oz. Gotham Rib Steak on the bone, my favorite cut.  I order mine Pittsburgh Style, (charred outside rare inside, sorta like a black and blue but cooked a tad more), the waiters asks "How would you like the inside?"  Hmm, what did you just ask?  I have been to many steakhouses and never asked this question, Pittsburgh is Pittsburgh correct me if I am wrong please.  My wife orders her medium.  The come out, mine is cooked but not "charred on the outside" my wife's is flat out rare, not medium rare and certainly not medium.   Obviously something went awry.  The other two steaks were a New York strip and a T-bone, the strip was cooked rare and asked for medium and the T-bone was cooked the specified rare.  Two strikes on the steaks, they had to be sent back.  Once corrected they were very good, not the best I have had but very good.

We had mushrooms - tasty typical, creamed spinach-good as far as creamed spinach goes, onion rings-had some cayenne in the batter not a kick I was looking for, truffle mac and cheese-tasty but no truffles, obviously just mac and cheese with truffle oil,  garlic mashed-tasty and just the right amount of garlic.

Deserts - crème brule - wife said it was good, cheesecake-very good, it was heavier than the average, but I really liked it, chocolate cake-very good as well, big chocolate goodness.

$1080.00 with tip, I know that sounds crazy and it is but this was a spare no expense meal as payment for some lawyering done on my behalf.  It was slightly pricier than you average steak house in Jersey, but not more than I expected from the city.  I think most would probably be at least half of that for a party of 4.  Give it a shot, I would go back, but would probably try another steakhouse in the city first.

Website to tempt you

http://www.theoldhomesteadsteakhouse.com/

Oceano's Fair Lawn, NJ - Review

I have been coming here since it opened many years ago and have always loved the food.  We decided to have a 40th birthday party here for a group of 12 so we made the reservations for 7:00 and received a confirmation call the day of and off we went.  The service was good as I would have expected, but I was a little disappointed when we were sat in the main dining area as opposed the small out-cove to the back, which I asked for.  Everyone had a great time, lots of food and drink going around with a bill of $1090.00 with tip I was not shocked at all.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the food which ranged from salads and calamari for apps and scallops to crab claws for dinner.  I can only truly comment on what my wife and I had.

Apps we had the sampler, grilled octopus and a Caesar salad. The sampler was good, a nice light hummus, a hearty cheese spread, eggplant spread and a feta with roasted peppers.  The octopus was good, but prepared differently from the way I remember it not a few months ago and same goes for the Caesar, a little too much dressing and it didn’t have the usual "bite" I am used to.  My wife had the lavraki whole fish filleted and de-boned, but this time it had a lemon butter sauce drizzled on it as opposed to the usual olive oil.  I had the grilled lobster for the first time and it was cooked very well, soft delicate texture, not rubbery at all.  My only complaint is that I didn’t get it steamed, since I like the sweet meat from the smaller legs, having been grille they were mostly dried out. 

All in all yet another delightful experience at Oceano's, there were a couple hiccups with missing drinks, missing deserts and an extra app but I tend to give a little leniency to large parties.  I also can’t help feel that maybe there was a chef change here in accordance to some of the dishes we had and I also noticed a "slower" than usual business than in the past, but maybe it was due to school being out in the area and people skipped town for a vacation.   I would definitely recommend Oceano's for a nice night out.

Finnegan's Riverside Miami, FL - Review

Great waterside boat up bar. My buddy took us here on his boat. We had se good wings and I had an excellent fried mahi mahi fish sandwich. Crunchy and flavorful with a nice tartar sauce to top it off. He had the chicken quesadilla and said it was good as well. Typical bar atmosphere table games and dj. Good bars ode device but then again they weren't very busy at 11:30 am. Of you have access to a bout and are looking for a quick pull up spot check it out.

Mortaranos - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Review

Ok so supposedly this is a celebrity chefs restaurant. It definatly was over the top with extremely loud music, but it turns into a club after hours so this is to be expected. The service was exceptional from start to finish.
The food - the four of us had a Tom of food ordered:
Apps
Caesar salad - fresh crisp homemade dressing and croutons- very good, AirTran to much dressing for me
Broccoli rabe and meatball - again homemade meatball, delicious and the rave very tender and the roc rabe not bitter at all. Probably par blanched then sautéed.
Meatball with fresh ricotta and green salad, just as good as above.
Grilled octopus - very tender with red onion and very good Sicilian olive oil.
I had the fresh spaghetti puntanesca which was cooked perfectly aldente and the sauce was extremely tasty with the capers, olives and pieces of tuna, a variation. It well executed.
The other had fresh pappardelle Bolognese, fresh fusilli with breaded chicken and veal Milanese. Everyone commented on how excellent their dinners were and we all left very full.
1 bottle of wine, 2 bottles of Perrier and a bill of 300 before tip, Pricey one would say, but worth it in my opinion. I would recommend this for a nice fun night out.

Pashas South Beach, Fl - Review

Everyone seamed to enjoy the meal, the falafel Claiming to be the best in Miami were not, in fact I have had way better in jersey. I think the reason is this place is a fast Mediterranean restaurant, never been to one of these before. The service was very good though.
The sampler spread came with hummus, baba ganoush, yogurt spread and a walnut spread. All were tasty but I particularly liked the walnut spread since it was different and refreshing. Web though that is a wired description of walnuts.
I had the Gyro wrap, eh, meat was tasty but the onion was tough, large slivers for some reason the fresh squeezed pineapple apple juice was awesome though.
All in all it was a nice lunch on Lincoln street in South Beach, which Is an open air mall, of you will. Can't say I would ever come back though, if I ever travel here again.
100$ before tip with 3 apps and 4 entres not the cheapest but not the most expensive either.

Silver Pond Chinese Restaurant - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Review

So this is some of the best Chinese food I have had, authentic "check", there were 6 adults and 1 child and we got a ton of food. We started with hot an sour soup which I don't normally eat but this soup was delightful, then seafood rolls with real fish in them, extremely delicate with a nice sweet and sour sauce to dip. I went for the sautéed conch and squid which was perfectly cooked with a nice light sauce, the other entries were beef with eggplant with a sweet and tangy sauce, shrimp and garlic sauce and chicken with bean curd which was not that spicy, and I really can't handle the spice. I can't tell you the price because my buddy picked up the check but all in all the food was awesome, I kept this at four stars because the place looks a little dated to me, other than that great food, great service, a must try if your in the area.

Aruba Beach Cafe Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Review

Went here for lunch with a friend who lives in the area. I had the Lobster salad club which was very tasty. The lobster was tender, cooked perfectly with just a little kick of heat. My only gripe was that the honey wheat bread was not toasted so the sandwich got a little mushy. My wife had the texican burger, which must have been good since by the time I asked how it was she had already devoured it. Price point was consistent with being right on the beach 46$ for three people with 2 lobster clubs. Check it out of you r ever in ft. Lauderdale

Arturo's Restaurant Midland Park, NJ - Review

Anyone who says this restaurant is good or better is off their rocker.  This place is eh at best.  I have been there more times than I like to admit and each time was equally bad.  The two stars are simply because the place looks nice and the ambience is very nice as well, but the nice stops there. 

Although the wait staff is prompt and courteous they just can't make up for the bad food.   I can’t remember anything that was good, Caesar salad - bland, sausage broccoli rabe special - greasy and let me not forget the "fresh made” fettuccine alfredo, the worst!  Anytime you get fresh pasta that is essentially a bowl of mush you would send it back as we did, what you don't expect is it to come back with a comment from the chef saying that “fresh pasta is supposed to be that way and if we give you another plate it would probably be the same”,  really? Gimme a break!  I don’t know if the chef actually said that, but that statement was conveyed by the waitress.  Either way, whoever said it, some idiot in the kitchen or the chef himself, they should be embarrassed.  And the desserts, well let’s just say they were more than likely of the frozen defrosted variety. 

One last thing, the prices, what are they thinking? They should have never bought this location and stayed in the original spot 2 doors down the food was much better then,  but that was a long, long time ago, my have things changed.

Do I need to go on? I think I have wasted enough of my time in this poor review, which I hate giving to be honest.

Holy Guacomole!

This is a simple guacamole guide.
What you will need:
2 avocados
2 limes juiced
2 tbsp. fresh cilantro rough chop
1 med sized tomato - cored and seeds removed chopped
1/4 red onion diced
1 large clove garlic diced
Salt and black pepper
1 jalapeno for some kick if you like, diced
Chef's knife
Pestle and mortar - or a large bowl to mash the avocado in if you done have a pestle and mortar
Chili powder - optional
Ground Cumin - optional

Real simple, just mash the avocado with the pestle and mortar then add everything else and stir to combine.  You can leave out the jalapeno, chili powder and cumin.  If you add them put the jalapeno in with everything else and combine.  Then season with salt, black pepper, cumin and chili powder.  Easy with the cumin and chili powder, they are there just to add a little depth of flavor.

Server with your favorite chips, over chili, with tacos, you can go on and on with what guac goes with, so mix it up.

Just remember to get a good mix with the lime juice to coat the avocado or they will start to turn brown after a day, so keep it in an air tight container.  If you didn’t eat it all, just stir it up the day after and it will be just as good. 

 Enjoy!

Tutta Pasta Review - Hoboken, NJ

My in-laws go here quite a bit and they finally wrangled me into going down for a bite.  Nice atmosphere, but couldn't help thinking to myself that the decor was not your traditional Italian restaurant ambiance.  With that said I finally saw a sign on the wall that stated it turns into a lounge at night....ding ding ding, there you go.  Not that it’s bad, it’s actually quite nice and hip.
They brought us bread and water upon seating along with this awesome "garlic knot" thin crust pizza, for lack of a better description that was very tasty.  Service was very good and the prices were fair.  Six people with 7 apps, 5 entree’s, 4 deserts, 2 glasses of wine (they have a bar) and 2 cups of coffee about 200 bucks, I didn’t pay so I don’t know the exact amount.
Anyways on to the food we got a bunch of apps - Fried calamari - decent, nice crunch and had some flavor to the batter, Zuppa Di Clams - these were good, the sauce was light while having a hint cream to it, with a nice garlic accent, Bruschetta- these also had nice flavor without being mushy as many bruschetta tend to be, Caesar Salad - I think this was homemade, but wasn’t very good in my opinion, bland with almost no parmegiano region cheese, let’s just say it needed some help, Scallops al Fresche, hmmm how do I describe this......kind of a scallop oregonato but grilled?  There was breading of some sort but instead of searing them or putting them in the broiler they put them on a grill, which made them chewy and burnt...not good eats, they were plated over prosciutto and blanched asparagus, kind of a weird deconstructed bacon wrapped scallops and asparagus if you will.
Entrees were Chicken Marsala, which apparently is very good, though I didn’t taste any, Pasta Primavera which my mother in-law enjoys and only orders there, Fettuccine with sausage and broccoli rabe, which my wife had and although a little bland, I thought the sausage at least had flavor.  I had the special, Gnocchi Della Nona, gnocchi with ricotta, mozzarella with a meat sauce.   This was not very good, the place boasts homemade pasta, which I can see and taste from both the gnocchi and the fettuccine, and the homemade pastas WERE good, but then they go and put processed mozzarella over the gnocchi????? Why not fresh??? This I really didn’t understand and the sauce just wasn’t good which I had high hope for since the sauce in the calms was so flavorful.
Deserts were eh, what claimed to be Chocolate Soufflé was simply chocolate cake, the chocolate mousse was good and rich, the crème brule was the wrong consistency, lumpy instead of smooth and the crystalized sugar was not crunchy but had a honey like texture.

All in all, not terrible but not excellent either, I guess I give it a solid O.K
here is the link if interested:
http://www.tuttapastanj.com/

Bamboo House - Ridgewood, NJ

We always go to this little place when it comes to Chinese food dining.  Dining? Well, it’s really a takeout joint with a few tables in it, but the food is good at the tables, can’t say I have ever ordered take out from here.
We start off with duck sauce and "Chinese chips" if you will, I have no idea what the fried deliciousness's are called.  The homemade duck sauce is awesome, the more Sherry brings the more I eat.
On to the pork and scallion dumplings, good god these are good.  In fact they are all good, whatever dumplings she has that night.  A light ginger soy sauce gives them just the right amount of bite. 
Next are the homemade egg rolls, larger than you average take out place and way tastier.  Unfortunately, the past few time they have been on the greasy side.
My wife has her staple, shrimp with garlic sauce, which she always says is the best around.  I, tonight, opt for the Lovers Star - chicken and steak, battered and deep fried with straw mushrooms, green peppers and baby corn in a sweet but tangy brown sauce.  It was quite tasty and the chicken and steak were crispy goodness, even under the sauce.  Normally a dish like this tend to make the fried part becomes a soggy, pasty mess, but not here.  $44.00 before tip may seem a little high for eat in takeout Chinese food, but you leave very full with half your meal in tow.  I would recommend this place to anyone for a quick dine in takeout Chinese food joint, even if there are only 3 tables.