Happy V-Day

Whether you celebrate Van Halen-tine's Day or Gal-entines Day, the 14th of February is either a dreaded or anticipated day. And there's no better choice for emotional eating than chocolate! Whether you're lonely, loved, empowered, romantic, bitter, cornball, Marxist, or materialist you probably should be stuffing your face with some pink M&Ms (or locally made truffles) right about now. At our casa, we have much love for Thomas Keller (or TK as he is affectionately known both here and everywhere). My parents gifted me with Ad Hoc at Home, a cookbook that is both the most useful cookbook I've ever owned and the most ridiculously cumbersome and unwieldy 10 pound book that takes up all my countertop or coffee table space. So as we work our way through TK's exhaustive tome on all things family friendly, the Boy focused in on the roast chicken and while all I could envision were the lush, lush, lush brownies. We took both TK challenges on in one night -- and to great success (though with a downright nocturnal dining time).

Here is the brownie recipe which is really quite easy and delightful, though way too cakey to fall under the traditional definition of a brownie. (I think increasing brown sugar would make it chewier, probably knock down the flour amount too). Best served with ice cream, because it is hella rich. A great lesson in changing up your usual style with TK's advice on combining melted and room temperature butter instead of using softened. And I can't overemphasize how happy the purchase of dutch press cocoa has made me. Worth seeking out, chocoholics! Gonna try out Alton Brown's chocolate syrup recipe using it as soon as we re-up on the granulated sugar. Till then -- brownie sundaes with cherries on top for me and the Boy until we die! Happy V-Day!

King Cake

Usually, I can't really post on a holiday-centric recipe until after said holiday has passed. But this time, the fortunes of fate allowed the Saints to be in the Super Bowl (and win the Super Bowl). So we (and everyone who enjoys cooking football-watching snacks) decided to a Cajun-centric assortment of munchies. Anything to sway the football gods away from Peyton's cement block head. And what did Indianapolis ever give us anyway? I can't make 8 versions of breaded pork.

We really maximized our commitment to New Orleans by having Zapp's potato chips (in various flavors including Crawtator -- my fav), Abita and Dixie beers, andouille po' boys with homemade remoulade, muffulettas, Cajun wings (hey, we're still in Upstate NY), shrimp etouffee, pralines and King Cake. Quite a lot of food, most of which I'm still eating for lunch almost a week later. I may post recipes on some of the rest later, but the killer is shrimp etouffee, which is a secret family recipe from Alabama (or at least John's recipe to which I don't have access). The one good secret-y part is that you have to make your own shrimp broth with the shells. Making your own ingredients is always the secret to making things better (or at least take a lot longer).

So, back to Le Roi. It comes from Emeril but not from the Food Network (his own that site is very different and does the fruit and nut filling rather than cream cheese). I was thrilled with the results chiefly because yeast + any dessert + me = 98% chance of plutonium-grade failure. So you can make a cake that rises twice and has to be shaped and stuffed with a filling and even make the icing and color your own sugar too! Because if I can do it, so can you. And maybe you can top me by actually finding a tiny plastic baby. If you can't, use a pecan half like I did. Of course, then you may run the risk of cutting right through the pecan-- thus making a king and queen of Mardi Gras from one cake. Better than dissecting an icon of the baby Jesus I suppose. If you're not in the loop as to how or why a plastic baby is a necessary ingredient for your Mardi Gras celebrations, I suggest you go here and New Orleansify yourself.

Laissez les bons temps rouler and all o' that.

Unseasonable Eating

Hi folks! I know you've missed me. I'm going to jump over all the apologies and explanations and just say I'm going to make a concerted effort to post more around here. If for no other reason than it gives me a reason to be excited about cooking and dining out and arranging things artfully on a plate.

So winter is a little boring in the cooking department. For some reason I get tired of all the heavy stuff -- the stews, the chilis, the roasted vegetables, the red meat. So while I think seasonal eating is awesome when the market is stuffed full of fresh local fruit and vegetables, when it's just kale and parsnips I get a little bored. I was missing the lighter side of the palate so we fudged a little bit and used unseasonal (at least in this hemisphere) mangos and plantains to do a little Caribbean dinner. Pan seared haddock, rubbed in a Cajun blend of spices, atop cilantro brown rice, topped with mango salsa, with a side of fried plantain slices. I feel like a waitress in the Bahamas for just writing that out. I know, I know, it was extremely unfoodie and possibly unethical to construct a meal chiefly of things that were flown in 1,000 of miles but there is only so much "comfort food" one person can take.

I at least went enviromentally conscious on the wild haddock (red snapper would have been more in keeping with the theme but also more expensive since he doesn't live around here). Honestly I think tilapia would have worked better, but this worked well, despite a few bones that made me paranoid of choking to death.

Anyways, the mango salsa was my job mostly because it's super easy. Here's what I did: chop up 1 mango, half an onion, a big handful of fresh cilantro, half a tomato, and a 1/3rd of an anaheim pepper. Add olive oil, lime juice, and salt to taste, along with Sriracha for some heat. Some jicama and red onion and jalapenos are all good substitutions. And anything citrus is in season (in FL or CA anyway) so you can make your concessions there if your ethical code requires it.

The fish was rubbed with a blend of cayenne, cumin, black pepper, red pepper, whatever you want pepper, on the side that doesn't have the skin on it. Then pan seared about 4 minutes per side. You can finish it in the oven or broiler if you have a thicker fillet and don't want to dry it out.

Plantains: you get the almost black ones, slice them in half and remove the peel, and then slice them and fry them. That's it. Although I would probably have slice ours thinner because they can be dry and a little mealy (potato-like) if the chunks are too big.

The rice was cooked like rice is cooked (honestly that's not my field of expertise but you boil it in water, or so I've heard). Then when it was close to being done, the Boy drained the rice, dumped the water and finished cooking it in butter and chicken stock. He promises me that he only used 1 tablespoon of butter. I guess I believe him. So it's kinda like a risotto but kinda not. And then more cilantro was added in there because no meal can have too much cilantro especially when it's the middle of winter and it feels like centuries since you've seen sunlight or guacamole or your own forearms.

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you're like me, you're full just thinking about Thanksgiving right now. But then again, you probably haven't been trolling tastespotting.com all day either. So many starchy pumpkin-y things in the world!

Before we part to pursue our various Turkey Day preparations, let me share one piece of advice I learned the hard way last night. Sometimes convenience foods are bad and not worth it, i.e. Easy Mac, Lean Cuisine, frozen pizza. Sometimes convience foods are so very, very worth it. This is a short list since I like to take the long route and time is not a factor in my meal preparations whatsoever. The only thing I don't have the patience to try to figure out, as I mentioned before, is pastry, and I'll probably break down and try that out soon enough. And breadmaking as well, though I do make occasional forays there.


But as of last night, there's a new shortcut to the list. Whatever you do, do not buy a pound of whole pecans and attempt to shell them yourself out of a desire to make a truly "from scratch" praline cheesecake. You see, they make these little packets, and even bigger 2-cup bags, of shelled nuts. And you can buy them halved, or chopped, or slivered. Any which way but loose. I had ascribed to that form many Thanksgivings previous, but this time....oh, this time.... I figured I'd take the hard route. And my thumbs paid dearly. You see, despite my kindergarten memories of cracking pecans in the playground, pecans are not that easy to crack. Hence the expression. They aren't edamame, let's just say. And a nutcracker isn't something a person of my age and income bracket has just sitting around. So last night, much to my neighbor's pleasure I'm sure, I was forced to whack each and every pecan with a hammer two or three times until they cracked. I think one split well enough to get two halves out. The rest were little bits. And lots and lots of nut dust.


So, you're welcome. I did it so you don't have to. And I hope my nut cracking adventures have made your holiday season a little easier!

Apple Pie

I know, I know. You missed me! Well ,'tis the season now, so I've gotta get on the ball with my food blogging. This one I made right before Halloween, but apple pie is appropriate for at least two months after that. So here you go.

I used the good old frozen pie crusts, mostly because I didn't make time to figure out whole pie crust bit (nor did I own a pie plate at the time). Pastry is one area where I am totally fine with cutting corners. Plus, I took one of the pies down to our buddies in Brooklyn, and so the fact that the pie came in an alumnium pan they could dispose of without having to ship it back to Rochester seemed make ready-made pie crusts the obvious solution! Of course in reality, I left a bunch of stuff at their apartment that had to be shipped back anyway, but let's not worry with that.

So you take a bunch of apples, Macouns here, probably 8 or so. I still believe in leaving the skin on, but of course the core doesn't party very well, so you want to remove it and the seeds. I don't slice these too finely either. I think apple pies should be hearty fare.

Take your apple slices and mix them with brown sugar and a little flour, until coated. Use your hands for that one. Add in cinnamon, nutmeg, all those fall spices. And just a little lemon juice. Since the hard part was already done in some bakery-factory somewhere, all you have to do is dump the apple mixture into that defrosted pie crust and bake it according to the crust maker's instructions. If you want to do the old Grandma-style double crust, you should have two crusts and the directions there. So you don't need me to hold your hand through that.

Myself, I went for a little streusel topping. First I cooked the apple pie for about half the time, topless, shall we say. During that time, I melted some butter, added oatmeal and brown sugar to it, and then took the pie out and spread it on top. It needs to just get toasty colored and it's good to go. You can cover your pie crust with foil if you have a problem with the crusts burning. I forgot that but my crusts didn't burn. As with everything cooking-related, it's all about the watchful eye...

Biaggi's

Sunday was a shopping day, or at least an attempted shopping day. After a visit to both the Waterloo outlets and Eastview mall, I only walked away with a sweater. Still no closer to getting our Halloween costumes together.

Anyway, anytime we find ourselves in the Victor vicinity (what's our vector, Victor?) we home in on Bellini's. Something about all the big box stores must create a craving for semi-fancy, heavily Americanized chain Italian. Apparently this is not a desire just limited to myself. Besides Bellini's, there is Biaggi's and an Olive Garden (the grandmother of this food genre) within a 2 block radius of the Eastview mall. Perhaps this flood on the market could explain why there were dumpsters in front of Bellini's, surrounded by caution tape and various bits of disassembled metal. Apparantly Bellini's is now out of business. Or doing a serious remodel. Or something. Anyway, not open to us. (Benucci's in the Pittsford Plaza, which also fills the same purpose, is also in a remodel. Is this the start of a horrific trend?).

This left us no further recourse but to try Biaggi's Casual Italian Eatery, which appears to be the more chain-y, jacked up on Cheesecake Factory/Las Vegas/Disney architecture juice. (You know what? I'm gonna start calling that the Cheesecake Factor. Feel free to spread the phrase into your everyday parlance). Despite the imposing 15 foot ceilings, the food was pretty decent. I would have preferred a pannini, but that just wasn't in the cards (or the menu). Strangely, most of their dishes come with cream sauce. Even chicken parmesan and lasagna. But thankfully, you can ask to switch to marinara for something more traditional/non-crazy.

The soup special (mushroom barley) was very good, though 5 or 6 bucks, which is even more extortive when they ask you if you want soup or salad after you order your entree, such that it sounds as if you have a choice between the two included in the cost of your entree. I didn't fall for it but I don't appreciate when places do it either. The soft drinks were also almost 3 dollars. I can put away a lot of Diet Coke in the course of a meal, but the amount of Diet Coke necessary to make a $3 price tag justifiable equals the entire volume of Biaggi's itself. Flooded up to its faux stucco vaulted ceilings.

The Boy had the chicken parmesan (substituting marinara for cream sauce) as is his long-established Italian dining custom. Bonus points for the spring of actual, fresh basil on the top. I mixed it up with Penne Sardi. Penne in a too-thin sun dried tomato cream sauce (surprise, surprise) with chicken, onions, and mushrooms. Topped with bread crumbs. Kind of a casserole, but better. I was pleased, but not overwhelmed. The onions were cut too large and I really wanted more mushrooms. But the penne was cooked well (as was the Boy's angel hair) and there was lots of chicken. So even though our minds weren't blown, and it was a little on the pricey side, we did leave decadently full and slumberous. Just the condition you want to be in when going shopping.

Feliz Cumpleano, John!

I have been obsessed with the idea of chocolate stout cake for weeks. I can't seem to shake it out of my head -- not too chocolatey, and perfectly moist. And since today is John's birthday, I can't think of anyone who would appreciate beer in birthday cake form more.

This is a luscious photo from Annie's Eats recipe for Irish Car Bomb cupcakes. They've been on my to-do list for awhile. (And they still are, John, so don't expect to see them at your party tonight).

Chocolate stout cake with Bailey's ganache filling and frosting (probably should sneak some Jameson's in there to be perfectly legit). Talk about the right way to amp up the celebration factor!

Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

It is most definitely soup season. And though I haven't started making daily visits to Panera yet, I have started to make a superlong list of soup recipes to try. Ginger carrot, cashew chili, African peanut stew, sausage bean chowder, broccoli cheddar ale, etc., etc.

Also on my to-do list (because I love, love, love to-do lists) was to make my own pumpkin puree. Why should Libbys, Libbys, Libbys think they know everything around this time of year? You roast a pumpkin, like any kind of squash, and then you puree the insides. Done and done. Look for sugar pumpkins (smaller than a jack-o-lantern, but bigger than those little tabletop centerpieces). It should be easy to figure out the right size because it's all that will fit on most pans. When in doubt, ask for ones used for baking pies. Halve the pumpkin with a great big knife. Don't worry about the stem, it can stay. Clean out the gunk and the seeds (don't forget you can roast the seeds later). Place the two halves cut-side down on the pan. Roast on high heat (400 or more) for 20 minutes or so. Just keep an eye on it and you can see when the outside starts to look leathery and brown like a basktball. You'll also start to smell a lovely pumpkin fragrance. Fall is up in your kitchen!

So once the pumpkin's cool (or not if you're like me and enjoy charred fingertips) you can just peel off the skin, with the stem, and pop all the good parts in your food processor. Blend until baby food. Now you've got pumpkin puree to do whatever you please.

As for me, I used this recipe as the basis to make pumpkin black bean soup. Yes, I know it's Rachel Ray but so many other recipes had sherry and cream and ham hocks and a bunch of other stuff I wasn't into. My approach was sweat some onions and garlic, add Rohrbach's Oktoberfest beer, dump in some black beans (and black bean puree) and the pumpkin puree, then thin it down with chicken stock. Spice it up with cumin, cinnamon, Adobo, etc.

We did a lot of finagling with our soup to try to keep in thinner and we used green bell peppers with the onions to start, and then added serranos instead of chipotles later. Why? Because that's what the pepper lady at the Farmers Market had that we liked. We also added in some hickory smoked bacon because we were using it that night for another dish. And what could possibly be wrong with adding a little bacon? Am I right? I thought so.

Compost Cookies

Confession Time: For the past three weeks or so, the Boy and I keep buying break and bake chocolate chip cookies. I'm blaming him because if I was the culprit I would have been mixing all the ingredients together to make my own dough and eating that with the wooden spoon. Breaking and baking is a little too boring (unless your stove isn't working and you figure out that you can break and semi-saute in a pan or break and microwave). Anyway, it's a disturbingly bad habit we've found ourselves in, but it has done much to really elevate in my mind what is great about the chocolate chip cookie (coupled occasionally with Ben and Jerry's Fair Trade Vanilla ice cream).

So when I saw the compost cookie at Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC, all my cookielust got stirred up to full tilt. Sugar Plum says the cookie was dominated by butterscotch, which is a little sad. Because the thing has POTATO CHIPS in it. Genius! And pretzels, and coffee, and just awesomeness.

Since we're going to NYC for Halloween, this has just become the requisite sweet treat stop! I've just got to talk someone else into getting the Crack Pie (Brady? I know you're down for that!) and the Caramel Apple soft serve...

Chocolate Tasting at Hedonist

Those of you not scared away by the freezing temperatures should venture to South Ave on Saturday for a chocolate tasting at Hedonist.

K-ster and I were able to taste this dark chocolate truffle collection, designed by Hedonist's intern Cody Whaley, at a beer and chocolate pairing at Tap and Mallet Wednesday. So I can say with authority that the collection is amazing! My favorite is probably the cardamom but the imperial stout was so smooth you could imagine eating an entire box no problem! And typically I'm very averse to anise but that truffle had a nice spice that made me question my anti-anise stance immediately. They were all phenomenal (especially with the beers expertly paired by the Tap staff). And the ginger truffle (with Pop Rocks -- how awesome?!?) wasn't at the tasting so I definitely can't wait to visit and try that one myself.

I personally love how it's dark chocolate, which tends to be the ladies' favorite, but these truffles aren't overly sweet at all. Something for people (i.e. guys) who get sick over too many Snickers fun sizes. They're super sophisticated and I'm excited for Cody, for the Hedonist, and for Rochester to have such a talented chocolatier!

All about Macouns

Macoun apples have been a regular Farmers Market must-have for us this past month or so, since they work for both baking and snacking. The Boy's mother also had to get a few on their recent visit, but when I mentioned them to my mom at a farmer's stand in South Carolina last week, she'd never heard of them. Down there it was all about the Honey Crisps. Considering that Honey Crisp sounds like a cereal and macoun sounds like...I don't know what since no one pronounces it correctly (ma-cown).

So the explanation for this is the Macouns were created in upstate NY! Yay Cornell mad scientists! They're a hybrid of Macintosh and Jersey Black (which I've never heard of but which sound hilarious). If you'd like to learn even more about my favorite workday snack, check out this huge run-down on the Grub Street blog feature: "Farm to Restaurant."

Cutting Down on Food Waste

Because I have 4 pears that I simply forgot we owned last week, and a half of a loaf of bread that will be molding any minute, and I'm sure you do too:

Planet Green's 50 Ways to Never Waste Food Again.

Storing the edges of onions and peppers and corn cobs for vegetable broth sounds good. Not so sure about fruit leather. I definitely need to figure out the whole canning thing, but simply using the freezer more often has already saved a lot.

Best of Rochester

Time to vote for City Newspaper's Best of Rochester 2009.

Share your love for your favorite Roch restaurants, bars, venues, shows, parks, personalities, bartenders, and politicians.

Attention Beer Geeks

October of course also means Oktober. And for those of you who've been waiting patiently for beer's most celebrated month -- there are a few events you want to put on the calendar.

Today marks the start of the Sample NY Beer Festival in Canandaigua. Suspiciously held at the New York Wine and Culinary Center. So don't let German beers take all the credit -- give some love to NY State craft beers.

Tap and Mallet is also putting together a Beer Advocate evening. Beer Advocate is the most amazingly dense website of beer conoisseurship the world has ever seen. Some of the website's contributors will be there and Oktoberfest brews will be discounted! Go and speak the language of beerlove: Saturday October 17th starting at 5.

Feeling Autumnal

Ladies and Gentlemen: it is time to get down with Fall.

After much rain, high winds, and 40 degree mornings, even a stalwart Champion of Summer like myself cannot deny the reality we are all presented with: It is Fall. We must bundle up and begin to cope -- preferably with Pumpkin Spice Lattes and apple pies!

Here are a few of my favorite fall recipes floating around the blogosphere this week:

Cauliflower Soup from The Dabble.

Polenta Sandwich with Greens and Cheese from Serious Eats. (Man, I have much love for polenta, along with her sister Grits, and I can never figure out a way to use them. I can see frying them on a griddle and putting some portabellos in there too. Or the old Thanksgiving Leftover scenario).

Mushroom Risotto from What's Gaby Cooking. (speaking of mushrooms...)

Caramel Corn Doughnuts from Playing with Fire and Water. (despite not loving caramel corn or doughnuts, these look fantastic. I think it's the close proximity to my fall favorite -- caramel apples).

Time for a crunchy-leafy walk to Stever's for caramel apples. Or a trip to Hilton for the Apple Fest this weekend!

Plantains

Plantains are a new favorite at our house. You can buy 6 for $1 at the Farmers Market. The trick is to make sure the skins turn totally black -- that's when they're ripe. If you try to use them too early, thinking they're like a banana, boy do you have a chore on your hands. Those skins do NOT come off easily and the fruit itself can be rock hard. This has tripped me up several times, and I still probably don't wait long enough for them to get fully ripe (and sweet). Thus, the not-quite-ripe ones I use tend to taste more like a potato than a banana. Just a hint of sweetness.

Previously I've tried to use plantains to make mofongo -- or some approximation thereof. It's close to the mashed potato/plantain combo they serve at John's Tex Mex.

This past weekend I used plantains to make a pastelon. That's basically a lasagna with fried plantains instead of lasagna noodles. The Noshery's website is very helpful in making this, though I just sort of dumped fried plantain strips, seasoned with cumin, then Sazon seasoned ground beef, then whatever cheese we had on top of each other. And even that turned out awesome.

The next day I used the rest of our plantains in a curry. Phenomenal as well. You can not go wrong with the plantain, I'm tellin' ya.

Crazy or Crazy-Awesome?

Basil, tomato, and mozzarella ice cream?

Frozen Caprese salad. Found in Hong Kong.

Fall Dinner

Sorry for the week-long blogvacay, but I had the swine flu, believe or not (the Boy chooses not to). Anyway, before I languished away on milkshakes and daytime television last week, I was feeling very flush with fall spirit. With all the crispness in the air, we hit the farmer's market and got to work in the kitchen. I made French Onion Soup, and the Boy grilled some pork tenderloin. For dessert, tarte aux pommes (apple tart).

The French Onion Soup was from our old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Pure nostalgia. Start with 3 large sweet onions, finely chopped. Then add 1/2 stick of butter. Let the onions sweat it out about 20 to 25 minutes, until transluscent. Add in around 4 cans of beef stock. And a few squirts of Worchestershire sauce. Around 1/4 tsp. Salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer, around 30 minutes or more.

Cut slices of a baguette, toast with shredded Gruyere (or Swiss) cheese atop. Then place "croutons" on the soup once poured into bowls or crocks. Add more cheese and broil the whole thing for a few minutes until cheese is melted and browned.

Once the soup and pork were ready, we headed out to the front porch. A little pinot noir, some sliced local Macoun apple, some Vermont sharp white cheddar, some baguette slices from Little Bakery, and the sliced pork. Quite a crudite platter. Then the soup, with toasted baguette slices acting as croutons for the Gruyere cheese. Very fall and very yum.

So yum, in fact, we didn't even make it to the apple tart. But now that I'm back to solid foods, I discovered the tart, when toasted a bit, drizzled with local raw honey and sprinkled with ground cinnamon, is a fantastic breakfast too.

Tarte Aux Pommes

2 large baking apples (like Macoun) cored, then very, very thinly sliced

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry (they usually come 2 to a box)

1/4 cup of butter

1/4 cup of brown sugar

Defrost the puff pastry and prepare according to the box directions (I know, I know, you can make your own pastry too). For mine, you just unrolled the pastry, let it defrost, pierced it all over with a fork, and let it sit in the fridge for 20 minutes or so.

Then you can cut the dough into a circle the size of your pie plate if you'd like. I just left mine as a sheet on a cookie sheet since it seemed like it wanted to tear and I wanted to make a big tart anyway (overzealous apple slicing). I placed the apple sliced decoratively on the pastry, then topped with little shavings of the cold butter and sprinkled the brown sugar. You can add your own spices too. Then cooked at 375 for 15 minutes or until the edges of pastry begin to brown. Very very simple and it retains the apple flavor unlike sugary, syrupy apple pies.

Pink Bakery Boxes

This article on Serious Eats answers a question I didn't even know I had.

You know how in the movies, people always have pink boxes for birthday cakes or pastries? Yet, growing up in the South, I never once saw a pink box from a bakery. No matter how much I wished for one, because it just seemed more sophisticated, or at least frivolous. I always just assumed there were some fancy schmancy bakeries out there that I never frequented (and there are, to be sure).

Anyway, Serious Eats enlightened me that pink bakery boxes actually came from Winchell's, which is a not-so-nice-actually-sort-of-divey SoCal doughnut chain. Heh. Apparently, a bunch of transplanted Cambodians went to work there fleeing the Khmer Rouge and somehow got the boxes changed from white because white is the color of mourning. Also, in a moment of sad reality about corporations and the creation of an air of desiriability about a product: they went with pink because it was cheaper and because grease stains don't show as well. Sigh. Such is the way of all vestiges of hauteur fed to us by Hollywood.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Largely due to the fact that Bentucci's is renovating their restaurant, the Boy and I found ourselves in Pittsford Plaza on a quest for dinner. On our way to dropping $20 a piece on our glutfest at the Wegmans buffet, I was confronted with a fact that had escaped my memory: Five Guys Burgers and Fries had opened in the PP about a month ago. So we headed over to check it out.

First thought, I love a place with so few options. Really. I hate when places try to anticipate nearly every type of diner inclination and serve nachos next to pasta next to steak next to Chinese (yes, it happens). A jack-of-all-trades is a master of none. In My Perfect Dining World, places would limit themselves to ten items or less. Do them well and people will either be open to the singular experience the chef/cook is crafting or know to skip out because they're not into it. This is really the whole philosophy behind prix fixe meals.

The Boy's first thought was the boldness of having so many boxes of peanuts in their shells lying around, considering the dangers of peanut allergy reactions (how is he the one thinking like a lawyer?).

I ordered the cheeseburger with everything, plus jalapenos. My norm when confronting any new burger is to order it "all the way." The Boy got the bacon cheeseburger with grilled mushrooms and grilled onions and barbeque sauce. We got an order of the cajun fries too. (Sidenote: someone ordered right before us and left to go run an errand before picking up their food. This apparently confounded the staff, which quickly went from a friendly "Order Up" to a Gestapo-like: "You there, what's your number? Are you sure? Are we sure it's 86 instead of 88? How can this be?" I almost ate the woman's food out of fear and guilt for it not being mine.)

So this place definitely trades in nostalgia (a la Johnny Rocket's or Steak and Shake or even Sonic). Once you order, you get a number, you get your fountain drink, and you wait for your food to come packed in a bag, regardless if you're just taking over to the tables on the other end of the room. The tables were a little littered when we were there, which reminded me of eating off picnic tables. They definitely wanted to bare bones in the decor and set up. Really commited to the idea of fast food and no frills and all that. Except with a nice long list of toppings to make up for only having burgers, hot dogs (and one grilled cheese which I'm sure is American cheese in a hamburger bun).

Five Guys has quite the reputation of being the best burger around. They make sure you're aware of this fact by plastering the walls with articles and quotes from The Washingtonian and the Long Island local paper, etc.

I have to say the meat quality was excellent. The bun could have better and could have been toasted. There definitely could have been less raw onions (coarsely chopped) involved -- but then again, I really shouldn't have ordered both raw and grilled onions (probably best not to go "all the way" here). The cheese was just American cheese. Basically everything here was good in the most basic sense of what a fast food cheeseburger is. Like a particularly good Wendy's, minus the drive-through. Except the medium-cut, skin-on fries, with Cajun spices, where much much better than Wendy's (which always mysteriously need salt, despite the fact that I don't add salt to anything else ever).

Oh, also of note: the regular is a double. I guess the little burgers are human-sized. Still, I ate the whole thing. And will probably skip all meals today because of it.

All in all, it reminded me of In and Out (a place I was never rabid about unlike most other Southern Californians). Of course, In and Out also has the gimmick of a secret menu, and milkshakes. And the burger's flavor also kept reminding of something I couldn't quite put my finger on, something that was buried so far deep that it was almost subconscious -- until this morning. It really tasted a lot like Rush's in Columbia, South Carolina (which used to be my favorite restaurant of all time). Of course, Rush's burgers are even better with their milkshakes. Moral of the story: start making shakes, Five Guys.

Not even close to Steak and Shake. But then again, Steak and Shake isn't even close to Rochester.


ADDENDUM: Just minutes after I posted this, Village Voice's food blog named Five Guys #6 in the ranking of the Best Fries in New York City.