Going out to eat!

[slipbob]

Okay when it's time to say honey let's not cook, but go out for dinner.  What's your first pick on cuisine assuming your town has multiple quality dining options?  I am a new convert to Indian food and can't get enough of chicken cooked with spinach.  It's so good but varies restaurant to restaurant.  There are about 8 Indian restaurants within a half hour of my house and most are kinda lame but 2 are great.  I also am a sucker for great northern Italian.  The Americanized Chinese food is okay but not one of my top picks.  I just love the spices and flavoring of Indian cuisine.  How about you, and what's your first pick on cuisine?

[camo_fish]

The best italian restaurant I know is in TROY, "Verdiles".   mmmmm and the portions are big and you diffently get your moneys worth. Its on the other side of the river from Cohoes.

Verdile's Restaurant
115 2nd Avenue
Troy, NY  12180
518-235-8879

[Polar]

If you ever get a chance to try it go for Spicey Orange Beef. Excellent blend of spice with a orange zing. (Spicey Hot)

[Cider]

Tandoori chicken from our local Indian restaurant is out of this world!

I like to go to French Bistros for fine dining.  We have one that recently opened that has three chefs (including an excellent pastry chef).  The owner worked his first job in restaurant in NYC for a guy that mentored Emeril Lagasse!  This is a place with a small menu but variety as well as an excellent wine list.  Due to the Emeril connection, there is a bit of Portugese/Louisiana culture incorporated into the menu.

They do a mixed grill entree of grilled pork and anduille sausage with fresh asparagus, rosemary bread, mashed redskin garlic potatoes, and three mustard sauce that is scrumptious!  Match it with a spicy glass of Shiraz and you are in pork-fat heaven!  I started the meal off with a garden salad of mixed greens, crumbled blue cheese, almond slices, onion and dried cranberries in a light vinagrette.  I am salivating just thinking about it again!

When in Montreal, I go to a place called Au Bistro Gourmet.  It is a hole in the wall place below street level.  Small menu, tiny dining area.  But, you get a three or four course meal including soup/appetizer, salad, entree, dessert, coffee, and wine for $25!  The food is heavenly too! 

I got hooked on Greek cuisine when overseas in the Army.  Liver and onions was fantastic from this place in Germany that I used to go to.  Their lamb kebabs were great for the metro ride home after a long night in the pubs!

I live in an Ivy League college community, so our selection for dining is pretty good.  For quick and painless, I go to our standby Italian restaurant.  I have never had a bad experience there and the food is fantastic at a reasonable price.  Or, we will go to a local Chinese restaurant which is surpisingly cheaper than most Chinese take-out joints.  The food is much better and the service is fast.  Choice number three would be the local "Brick and Brew" with a wood-fired oven for pizzas and a good assortment of bottled and draught beer.  Last but not least is my favorite Irish brew pub with sports always running on the tube and a good selection of grill food to go with their well stocked bar!

[peple of the perch]

my family owns a backery /restraunt in cleveland

[kerosenecounty17]

Personally for me, it's Chinese food of any kind.  I know it's not "real" Chinese food over here, but man that stuff's just good (Bamboo Garden off Velp in G.B. is the best).  General Tso's chicken, fried rice, and pork Lo Mein.  Add a couple egg rolls and a half dozen ragoons (sp?)  and I'm in heaven.  Only problem, eat like a pig for a half hour, and a half hour later you could do it again.  I've heard so many good things about Indian food, but we still don't have an Indian restaurant in the area.  Can't wait to try it once we do.  Sounds like it's pretty spicey though.  Don't know if my Polish/German stomach will tolerate it, but I'll dang sure try.

If anybody's ever in the Green Bay (WI) area, make sure you check out Victorio's.  Take I-43 south and watch for the signs.  Best Italian I've ever had.  There seafood alfreado is so good you practically need a condom.  Like alot of Italian places, the portions are huge, so expect to take home a doggy bag for later.  If you're in Crivitz (WI) definately make plans for a trip to DeSchmidt's.  Best prime rib you will ever have.  They've got 18 (or is it 27 now?) holes of golf (mediocre course) if that's of interest to you.  The menu is kind of limited, but the rib is so good you don't need no stinkin menu anyway.  Get there before 4p and you get $2 off your meal.  When you're there, make sure you get a salad and a mountain of onion rings.  There salads are the best I've ever had, and I've been trying to copy there onion rings for 5 years without success.  Can't figure out how they make them so good. 

I should know better than to come to this section.  Now I'm hungry again.  I think there's some left-over keilbasa in the fridge.  So much for the diet.

kero

[Cider]

Sounds like it's pretty spicey though.  Don't know if my Polish/German stomach will tolerate it, but I'll dang sure try.

Hey kero, give it a try.  You'll be pleasantly surprised.  It is spicey food, but not in the heat sense of the word.  They do use a little cayenne every now and then, but not to the point of you becoming a flame thrower after eating!  They cook with mostly paprika and curry.  Tandoori chicken is really quite simple and has a nice complex flavor to it.

All they do to make it is marinate the chicken in yogurt with paprika, curry, ginger, corriander, onion, and a couple other spices overnight and then cook it over extremely high heat.

The key to Indian cooking is speed and temperature.  The faster and hotter you cook meat or poultry, the more the flavor and juices are locked into the meat.  It is best to do it over wood or charcoal fire so that you also get a slight smoking effect too.

A tandoor is actually a type of oven which is usually brick or clay and is designed to operate at extremely high temps.

You can prepare it in the oven if you wish.  Just bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes then place it on the broiler, kick the heat up as high as it will go and broil until it turns the nice bright red color!

The flavor is mild and yet complex with different hints of flavors from the meat itself, the yogurt, the paprika, the curry etc.  It is really hard to describe the flavor.  You'll just have to try it for yourself! 

[slipbob]

The best italian restaurant I know is in TROY, "Verdiles".   mmmmm and the portions are big and you diffently get your moneys worth. Its on the other side of the river from Cohoes.

Verdile's Restaurant
115 2nd Avenue
Troy, NY  12180
518-235-8879

Cfish you gotta try Cafe Capricio at 49 Grand St in Albany.  It's my top pick, and the food is supreme as well as the service.  It's the real deal on Italian cooking in the area.

[bayonne]

i like spanish or ilaliano their a spanish rest. in bayonne nj that is tremundous and they  make their own sengria its calld recon it on broadway if your ever in this neck of the woods and olive garden is great for italiano

[fozsey]

How bout just a plain ol' ribeye and baked tater. Thats my pick. I could give you the address, but you would ask me where Nebraska was. 

[bushbunny]

Ice cold Kokanee beer(s), Alberta Prime Rib (rare), baked potato, horseradish(strong), Yorkshire pudding with dark gravy, asparagus, topped off with blueberry cheesecake and a Hennessey.  Hard to beat, even with an Alberta Tenderloin!!

[TroutFishingBear]

There is this cafe type place in glenwood with all-mexican workers. (I bet some are illegal, they don't speak english!)
Anyway, they make the best mexican food in the world. It is authentic, and unless you have been to mexico or anywhere in the deep southwest like where I live, there is no food that compares. It is the greatest food made by man.

I wish you could all try it!

[OTIS]

SUSHI!  Sushi Blues in Hamilton or New Hartford, out of this world.

[vancouvercanuck]

In order:

Supper/Dinner:

Thai
Italian
Greek
Seafood
P.F. Chang's (don't have em' in Canada, gotta eat there every time in the U.S.)

Lunch:

Vietnemese Noodle Bowls
Pub Food ie:shepards pie, fish n' chips
Fast Food

O.K., I'm hungry now 

[buzzbomb]

I'm with Canuck on the Thai and Viet food;  BBQpork on skewer w/ spring rolls and vermicelli!  And the vietnamese subs are great........and a good thing for packing along when I'm going fishing.