Pittsburgh Eat and Greet: Max's Allegheny Tavern, May 20

Boy, Al, you could be in big trouble suggesting that lleechef looks like a Cowboys cheerleader. She's one of those Terrible Towel, Steeler Nation nuts. Heck, she probably has a signed photo of Myron Cope under her pillow.

Mr. Mayor is in trouble now.  I knew this photo would surface sooner or later.  But as Al, Janet and Instigator Bushie (who wasn't even there) have admitted, this was done with smoke and mirrors.  McDuff on the other hand was his usual charming doggie self.   

Come On Lisa... The posted photo is NOT the one that remains buried in the vault !  hehehe.  And No , I promised not to post it years ago, and that remains in force.
  BTW i thought the Steelers had natural turf on their playing field to give their cheerleaders something to graze on during the week.

It did look as though the group had a good time at your meet-n-greet !

Good to see you again, llechef. Always loved to follow your adventures. Hope to see more of you.

I saw the original photo and I still have it but I will never ever post it but Lleechef sure did look good as she does now.
 
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

It's been a bad week for writing, so here's just a smattering of unedited food pictures:
 
Lori and I ordered the sausage and cheese plate for the table:
IMG_2557 by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
 
GeoNit ordered the calamari:
IMG_2558 by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
  
The bread basket, with Max's relish.
IMG_2559 by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
 
buffetbuster's einlauf soup.
IMG_2560 by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
 
My hassenpfeffer. I haven't had hassenpfeffer for many years. I quite liked the flavor, particularly the flavor of the red wine sauce. I did not care for the many small bones, though.
IMG_2561 by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
 
Lori's roast pork with peas and a potato pancake. Sadly, we forgot our leftovers.
IMG_2563 by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
 
lleechef's sausage platter:
IMG_2565 by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
 
Kenny Joe's weisswurst, spaetzle, applesauce:
IMG_2566 by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
 
Mariton's shrimp and scallops, German potato salad and potato pancake.
IMG_2567 by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
 
Mariton and buffetbuster shared the Black Forest Cake:
IMG_2568 by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
 
Lori and I each had a piece of the lemon cream cheese pie. It was luscious and not cloyingly sweet, with an excellent shortbread crust. We should have shared a piece instead of each having our own.
IMG_2569 by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
 
IMG_2571 by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
 
From the conversation, I particularly remembered Kenny Joe telling us of his son's efforts to conquer a Man vs. Food-style challenge to eat fifteen dozen oysters at Acme Oyster House. It reminded me of this anecdote from Brillat-Savarin's The Physiology of Taste, which I've been reading recently:
 
ANECDOTE
 
In 1798 I was at Versailles as a commissary of the Directory, and frequently met M. Laperte, greffier of the count of the department. He was very fond of oysters, and used to complain that he had never had enough.
 
I resolved to procure him this satisfaction, and invited him to dine with me on the next day.
 
He came. I kept company with him to the tenth dozen, after which I let him go on alone. He managed to eat thirty-two dozen within an hour for the person who opened them was not very skilful.
 
In the interim, I was idle, and as that is always a painful state at the table, I stopped him at the moment when he was in full swing. "Mon cher," said I, "you will not to-day eat as many oysters as you meant—let us dine." We did so, and he acted as if he had fasted for a week.

Quite frankly, Lleechef's order looked the best.  Too bad you did not include pics of the folks that enjoyed that visit.
 
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Yeah. Like he said.

To be perfectly honest, neither Mariton or I liked our food.  The German potato salad was good and the black forest cake was fine, but I didn't like anything else on my plate.  The samples I had of the sausage from Ralph's appetizer and lleechef's entree were much better.

Well, lleechef is a chef, so they had to give her something good.

I just noticed that a photo of my food wasn't posted.

That is some seriously dried out, thin sauerbraten.

Ouch! That does not look really good.

I can't help but compare these photos with the food we have enjoyed in Wisconsin on previous trips...Mader's Lunch was as beautiful as it was delicious.  I wish I could remember the name of the place my daughter has taken us to several time NW of Madison, on the way out to Baraboo. it is also outstanding.

Thats a shame, bb.The menu looked so promisng.

I didn't post a picture of bb's food because my picture came out fuzzy.
 
I used to like Max's sauerbraten 10-15 years ago, but something changed about eight years ago and I haven't enjoyed it since. My current preferred choices are the wursts or the leberkase.

I wish I could have responded sooner. But as some of you know I couldn't look at anything remotely related to food without a completely out of control binge on almonds and cheese, (thankfully that's all coming to an end.)
 
Great report. And I'm glad to see that Lleechef is back! Now I have someone to defend my quest for Iowa Chops in Iowa!
 

WAIT A MINUTE
 
Buffetbuster had only ONE dessert???
 
Were you feeling ill that night Cliff?