Jolt Country

If there's one thing that makes me homesick for Rochester NY, it's the food situation here. So far, almost everything related to eating or eating out has been a disappointment:

- Waterfront dining: The first night here we ate at a seafood restaurant on the Seattle waterfront, Ivar's house of clams. If the service wasn't bad enough, the food was worse. The fish and chips was like out of a box and the girlfriend's salmon was dried out. I worked in restaurants years ago and as such have tolerance and try not to return entrees. For the first time in my life I sent both entrees back and asked them to be taken off the bill.

- Neighborhood bistros: We tried a fine dining bistro around the corner from our house. I hate these pretentious restaurants with only six things on the menu with no sides and no substitutions. Her scampi was good if expensive but I could have made pasta better than mine at home. Add salads that are too small for their prices and overly expensive wines, that makes for a big waste of almost a hundred bucks.

- Fish frys: Man, how I miss Rochester's fish frys. A full piece of fish lightly breaded. Here, there seems to be nothing like that anywhere. Every place I've tried here has the fish cut up in pieces and breading that is too heavy or too seasoned.

- Submarine Sandwiches: I had no idea how nice it was to have sub places all over the city like in Rochester. There's nothing like that here. I guess subs are kind of an East coast thing so that's their excuse. What I wouldn't give for a dibellas sub right now. . .

- Late night: I can't figure out what's going on on with a city that has bars and clubs all over but almost no late night restaurants. I knew there wouldn't be garbage plates here but I thought there would be somewhere like marks or gitsis to get some late night drunk food. Everything seems to close early here.

- Chinese food: How come this city is crawling with asians but the chinese food situation is so bad? There's a neighborhood with what must be 50 or more chinese restaurants so I've obviously not tried them all. Out of the ten I've tried, none are as good as the worst I tried in Rochester.

- Supermarkets: I really took Wegmans for granted. It takes trips to Safeway, Albertsons, QFC, and others to equal the selection at Wegmans. Still, no supermarket has a deli with nearly as many choices as wegmans. To find real deli selection, I have to go to the downtown pikes place market, pay for parking, walk a couple of blocks, walk upstairs, and pay way too much at the boutique italian deli.

- Prices in general: I expected prices higher than rochester but it still pisses me off to pay 1.5X to 2X for some of the same things as in Rochester. I'm so glad I paid for a sams club membership, otherwise I'd never eat meat here.

It's kind of sad that people here don't even seem to know how bad the food situation is. I've had people thrilled to recommend their favorite place only to find that it completely sucks.

I've felt the exact same way out here, brother. I agree with absolutely everything you said. The best pizza place out here would be like #15 or so in Rochester. The seafood sucks (although I expect that out here, it doesn't need to be as bad as it is) ... Christ, it all sucks compared to western New York. The only good fish dinners I end up experiencing are those that Dayna cooks.

i'd mail you a sub if i knew it wouldn't sog up. i already offered to send robB a plate but you know that would turn out nasty after the trip.

Nastier, natch.

Three years ago, my brother and I finished poorly in his fantasy football league. He has a keeper league going (keep two guys) so he picked #2 and I picked #3.

The first guy selected Carson Palmer, who was not kept. I was gonna grab Reggie Bush... why not.

Well, my brother deduces this and holds me hostage. HMMMM, he says, I SHOULD DRAFT HIM. We work out a trade. Which was:

Robb gives Mike 8th round pick
Robb gives Mike 1st round pick (#3 overall)

Mike gives Robb 1st round pick (#2 overall)
Mike sends Robb a pepperoni pizza from the Pizza Shack in Hamlin, NY.

Long story short... the owner of Pizza Shack Hamlin gets wind of this and refuses to do it. He said it would be a health hazard. Great - where was he on draft day????

Hey, I sent two (2) entire garbage plates to Hoboken, NY. My friend was a roadie for the Grateful Dead and he was just getting off an East coast tour (this was back in '86) I made up a Tupperware package of two cheeseburg plates with everything, enclosed a nickel bag of (something or other) and packed ten pounds of dry ice in the shipping carton. Then sent it next day air. I figured by the time the food became unfrozen it would have reached it's destination. Viola! It almost worked to perfection. As my friend was so whipped from three weeks of being on the road he came home and fell fast asleep. the package sat on his door stoop for about 15 hours. He later called to tell me that there were three things in this world that he truly loved, he woke up and two of them were sitting just outside his front door and he had beer in the 'fridge. I guess the moral is: 'old Nick's is better than no Nick's'

THE
ANECDOTAL HOTSAUCE
AARDVARK

Seattle?

There's only one place that matters.

The Zig Zag bar, on the stairway halfway between the fish market and the waterfront.

They make classic cocktails. Well, really, Murray the bartender does but the younguns are OK too.

It and the Cafe Don Diego in Madrid are tied as my two favorite bars ever.

Bruce

Yes, living in a new part of the country means no Wegmans and no decent pizza, subs or fish fries. But find what the area does have to offer and embrace it. For instance, we have found any given BBQ down here is way better than the hodgepodge that Dinosaur offers.

Also, if you are hankering for a taste of home, seek out places owned and run by people from Western New York. I guarantee they're there. We have found a few bars/restaurants run by people either from Buffalo or Rochester, and they offer pretty decent wings, pizza and even plates with Zweigles.

Well, you can easily fry up your own wings, and how you like them - not how the bar decides to throw them at you.

But you'd be hard pressed to make a Pontillo's pie at home.

bruce wrote:Seattle?

There's only one place that matters.

The Zig Zag bar, on the stairway halfway between the fish market and the waterfront.

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out shortly.

bugs wrote:Yes, living in a new part of the country means no Wegmans and no decent pizza, subs or fish fries. But find what the area does have to offer and embrace it. For instance, we have found any given BBQ down here is way better than the hodgepodge that Dinosaur offers.

You're right about that, probably here it would be fresh seafood, salmon in particular. I did buy some salmon at the downtown public market and grilled it - I swear it was the freshest tasting that I've ever had.

bugs wrote:Also, if you are hankering for a taste of home, seek out places owned and run by people from Western New York. I guarantee they're there. We have found a few bars/restaurants run by people either from Buffalo or Rochester, and they offer pretty decent wings, pizza and even plates with Zweigles.

I've read about a sub place started by a couple of NYC guys so I'll have to check it out. I'm not picky about my wings and wasn't overwhelmed by any of the pizzas in Rochester so that's not too big an issue for me. I actually found a pizza place here that when you say extra cheese and pepperoni then you actually get an entire extra layer of cheese and pepperoni - so that was a nice surprise.

I used to love the bbq when I lived in South Carolina. Even the supermarkets there seem to have great pulled pork bbq in their deli sections.