My girlfriend and I just spent a week in Central NY for the holidays. A couple of days in Rome, NY and the rest in the Syracuse area. I took some sweet food pics (with more to come). I didn't get to any diners or get to sample as much Roadfood as I wanted to, but I did get to spend a lot of time with my family and my 2 1/2 year old niece. so I think I got a good deal. Enjoy!!
We took Amtrak from NYC to Rome, NY and our first stop was dinner at Teddy's, one of my favorite restaurants (and one I reviewed here). I was able to take a bigger variety of shots than I did last time. This is one of the Hot Caramel Apple Pie S I had for dessert. It was so incredibly good with lots of hot caramel sauce, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream and the apple crumb pie underneath is homemade.
Donna, the wife of one of the owners (I think), is in charge of the desserts and makes them all herself from scratch. The Tollhouse Pie is pretty great too. It's like a big, warm, chewy Toll House Cookie with ice cream. One bite and it's obvious that someone put a lot of care into making it.
Another shot of the Hot Caramel Apple Pie.
My Steak and Greens sandwich. Sauteed greens (escarole) are a Rome, NY tradition. Served as a side dish, for breakfast with toast or as in this case, on a sandwich. This consists of a grilled garlic roll, piled with shaved steak, sauteed greens and melted provolone cheese. You can't really see the steak under the provolone and greens, but it's there. I don't think this is the best shot ever of some greens, but they are very garlicky and very tasty. The fries are some of my favorites too. Not shoestring and not thick cut, these crinkled babies are crispy and not at all greasy with a good potato flavor. I don't know if they are hand cut or from a bag, but they are delicious! This was a fork and knife affair for me.
Sausage Riggies-a variation of Chicken Riggies, a central NY classic . Riggies are basically sweet peppers, mushrooms, onions, black olives and chicken with rigatoni in a light wine, tomato and cream sauce. Although, every restaurant had their own variation and there is even enough interest that a "Riggiefest" is held each year in Utica, NY. The sausage riggies are not on the menu, but they'll make it if you ask. I'm not sure if it was sweet or hot sausage, although I think they usually have both available.
Broccoli and Red Pepper Garlic Pasta. Another one of my favorites. It's (broccoli and red peppers sauteed in garlic and olive oil, tossed in linguine with Romano, red pepper flakes & spices)-directly from their menu. I didn't like it when I was younger as I had found it to be too oily for my taste, but they changed it in the past few years and it's not oily at all. However, the flavors of the oil, garlic, Romano, pepper flakes, along with the broccoli and red peppers really are a wonderful marriage. This version has shrimp in it. It can also be ordered with chicken.
A shot of some Shrimp Riggies.
For me, the shot of the day. I love there onion rings. I wish I could have eaten these side by side with the ones from 99 Miles To Philly just so I could compare them. This is a half order!! They come with a sweet mustard dipping sauce, but it's best to eat them unadorned at first to get the flavor pure flavor first. These are definitely heavy on the batter (the batter does have a nice "beery" undercurrent running through it) and the onion does tend to slide out, so I know they wouldn't be for everyone, but I just love 'em!
A shot of the menu. As you can tell, they have a thing for "Teddy" and for teddy bears. They have tons of photos and old news stories of the original Rough Rider as well as stuffed teddy bears throughout the restaurant.
The sign out in front of Teddy's. I like the rendering of Teddy R.
A shot of some of the teddy bears on the wall at Teddy's.
After dinner, we stopped at Price Chopper, a Schenectady based chain that's been in Rome since I can remember. I worked there after college for a bit. Big store with a really great selection of just about everything. Not on the level of a Wegman's for me, but still a really good store. I saw this tomato sheet pie in the bakery section and just had to shoot it. This is the pie I grew up on at almost every kid's birthday party when a mom didn't want to make something. She'd go to the store or the local Italian bakery (Ferlos. DiBeradinos. etc...) and pick up one of these.
A shot outside Price Chopper.
For the past 4 years, my girlfriend has been begging me to take her to Denny's (why, hey when you find out, you tell me!). Anyway, I finally gave in and we went on this trip. This is the location in Rome, NY where the former Liberty Lane formerly Candyland used to be. Now that was a place to get a great breakfast!
The pancakes with butter that came with my breakfast. These were actually quite good and had a nice spongy chew to them that I liked.
My Smoked Sausage Scramble-Two eggs scrambled with smoked sausage, chopped green onion, diced red bell pepper, country-fried potatoes and topped with a blend of Swiss and American cheese. Served with two strips of bacon, two sausage links, hash browns and three fluffy buttermilk pancakes (taken from the menu). It was okay, but nothing special. I could have sworn there were hot dogs cut up in there.
A shot of the hash browns. They were alright, but I'm just a home fries person by nature.
My girlfriend's apple pancakes (with ham and scrambled eggs). I think she liked them, but the filling looked canned to me (like the one's at Keye's Pancakes House in Old Forge, NY). All in all, it wasn't a bad meal and I really was expecting the worst as I had been here before and never once had a good meal. It wasn't that the food had been improperly prepared, but there was little to no taste. The best way I can describe it is that the food was about as excited to be on my plate as the workers were to be working there. The hardest thing for me at Denny's, this one in particular is that I know many of the people in Rome don't travel outside of the area much and don't experiment with unfamiliar foods. When I tell them I live in NYC, it's as though I'm telling them of a foreign exotic land. I just want to say, "Get out and travel, see the country and what is has to offer! Hie thee to a Roadfood Tour, quickly!" I know it isn't true of everyone in the area, but it was the overwhelming feeling I had when eating there and I didn't stay any longer than had to.
That's it for Rome. Up next: Syracuse and some shots of regional foods I found in Wal-Mart and Wegmans as well.
