Chopbiscuit Dining Review: Orange Cat Cafe - Glens Falls, NY

Welcome (again) to another delightful ad hoc Chopbiscuit inspection of some of the USA's most frequented saloons, dining halls, dive bars, food trucks, in-room dining and high end bistro's. At least one of your humble contributors is on the road virtually every week and luckily have the opportunity to dine at some of the finest institutions and loathsome watering holes known to man. Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, some deity would permit us to be pirates and savage our nutriment.

We like eating. It fascinates us. We sit and look at the food for hours. We often eat while laying down in my hotel room with a bib in my lap and my outlook calendar open. Eating is our tweeting, except it's much cooler. Food is often made into the celebrity of carnage, which makes us appear to be pompous and scarce in regards to the act of eating itself. You eat because you fuel. We eat because we're hungry. We eat because it's our job. We go out to these establishments to consume their lineups with arrogance.

I then judge it. (Mark Mcdonough style)

Orange Cat Cafe
21 Elm Street
Glens Falls, NY 12801

So it's Monday morning and I'm sitting at the Orange Cat Cafe getting some work done. I'm feeling giddy, yet at the same time a little embarrassed. My close friends know that this is not an unusual predicament for me to be in, but, be that as it may I am. Here's why: I spend countless hours reading, researching and learning about cities and the food they consume. Ironically, this little gem is a bike ride away from mi casa. I'm embarrassed because I continue to search high and low in my neighborhood for grass-fed, locally raised beef outside of my house and it's often difficult to find. Max London's isn't open for lunch, it's a seasonal thang.

But PONCHO hooked me up with a text recently, letting me know that his brother-in-law was running GFB's as a chalkboard special at his watering hole The Local Pub and Teahouse. So, several times in the last couple of months I've been able to get my fix Luckily now I have Orange Cat Cafe. My very own local joint that I can call home.

We live in a beautiful little community, but lets face it until very recently the culinary adventures in Northern NY have been just that; an adventure. An adventure to find, an adventure to get to because it usually involved pretty long drive and search. My wife Sharon and I had a Sunday afternoon lunch at the Orange Cat Cafe and was pleasantly suprised because the food was killer! A very large portion of the menu is organic, even down to the condiments.  I was able to order a half pound grass-fed burger with romaine, shaved white onions and buns from Ezekiel. The fries alone are worth the visit. As soon as the order is placed they place the potato's into the fancy fry cutter then they drop them into the hot oil. A few minutes later these golden rods appear at the table and when you place their organic ketchup on them....Bam, amazing flavor. These fries are some of the best I've ever had. Period. They remind of my buddy Chef Vito's place that he had in St Louis a couple of years ago called Big V's Burgers.  Vito has always done local humanely raised beef and his fries and burgers were amazing.

So, I'm sure that you will see many more articles from me about the food or unknowingly to you, I'll be working, writing or hanging out in my new local joint.

Be Well Eat Well & Live Well
~Mark

*Oh, and the big bonus: They recycle, compost and save scraps for the hogs. I'm right at home!

Chopbiscuit Recipes: Jerk Wangs

My wife and I were in Albany, NY yesterday grocery shopping with our son at the Honest Weight CO-OP  - what a great little store. I laugh and tell people that out of all of the cities I travel to, eat in, attend farmers markets, judge cooking competitions or conduct cooking demo's,  I know my current city the least. (7 years and counting) So now that our son has moved to Albany it seems that we have unconsciously decided to get to know the city of Albany a little better.

We bought some great healthy local food and as a parent you hope that your eighteen year old son/daughter carries on the healthy lifestyle that they've grown up with once they fly the nest and we can hopefully check that off the list. 

I noticed a large refrigerated case filled with one of my favorite local poultry farm, Misty Knolls Farm. We purchased a couple of pounds of chicken wings and below is the rest of the story.

I have to add one more thing,  two weeks ago on one of the first "let's get to know Albany better" trips we took Paden to New World Bistro (what an incredible restaurant & and a review is in the near future. Anytime I can get quinoa or seitian and the waiter or waitress knows what the hell it is and the chef knows how to hook a brother up, I'm EXCITED. I bought some of their jerk seasoning because Sharon ordered one of the best Jerk Chickens I have eaten since my last trip to Jamaica. I bought it knowing there would be a perfect moment that I could pull out that jar of goodness and slap it on some great meat and dine with the gods. Now I have just that moment and the perfect meat, read on.

Jerk Wang Recipe (and if you are not from Memphis like me ~Jerk Wings)

Wings ~washed pat dry

Canola oil ~just enough to help the seasoning stick

Jerk seasoning ~liberal amount applied to wangs

Chopped onions ~three big ones or five little ones just make sure you have tons because you are going to cook these the puppies until they melt into the cast iron

LARD ~ lard the original, no trans fats low cholesterol kick ass shit your grandparents used before scientist fucked it up (one of my dear friends from Niman Ranch made me a big jar and shipped it to me)

Equipment needed:

Kick Ass Charcoal grill or wood oven, your grandmothers cast iron and tongs

Make sure you wash your wangs really well in cold water, pat dry, rub with oil, coat with jerk seasoning and set aside while you make the fire. Fire is made charcoal is ready, place your cast iron on the grill let it get sizzling hot and then coat the cast iron with about a tablespoon of lard. Patience... let the lard begin to smoke... patience... now place the wangs on the cast iron making sure each wang has plenty of surface space for proper sizzle and brownness. let the wangs cook on both sides until dark, don't turn them too much let them cook. Now that both sides are gorgeously dark add a little more lard and the onions. This cast iron should be dancing with jumping onions and the wangs should be smiling at this point and now stir a little more often but let the onions caramelize.

Once everything is a dark rich Carmel color, lower the heat and let everything melt together in the harmonious world of all things good for 10 min. Make a broccoli slaw with Bolthouse Farms Yogurt Dressing.  I like the Chunky Blue Cheese for my broccoli slaw and eat with the gods.

Researching 'round Brooklyn part deux

Tuesday morning started out like most of my Tuesday mornings, drinking some of the best coffee in the world and not being at home. But, this was one of those work trips that I was really looking forward to. We began our day meeting up at Blue Bottle Coffee on Berry St in Brooklyn - this is an incredibly simple space where folks true to their craft share their joy of coffee. They buy the bean, roast the bean, sometimes blend the beans, grind the beans and thank god they deliver the beans. They use the art of pour over to deliver an amazing cup of Joe in the Williamsburg neighborhood that is truly world class. I really like to drink single-origin coffee mainly because I love to learn how different folks roast the same beans to different levels and then guessing what I'm drinking (currently I suck at this but I'm on the verge of breaking down the wall that keeps me from seeing the wizard) No matter your skill level or knowledge the folks at Blue Bottle will help you select the right morning adult beverage and even teach you a thing or two about coffee if you are willing to ask a few questions. Blue Bottle is not about teaching you new words (real or fake) for your SIZE of coffee or a feeble attempt to create a new coffee culture. Nope, it just an honestly great cup of coffee done in an environment that quietly reminds you that the simple things in life are the most important.

We also ate some tasty little baked goods that included a several savory shortbread's. One had toasted fennel seeds, cracked salt and some kind of really flavorful cheese crumbles on top. And the next one was made, my guess here - with a rosemary infused fat in this case butter and baked to perfection.

Before breakfast I wanted to hit Mast Brothers Chocolate since we were only a few blocks from their little shop. Unfortunately they were closed but they had propped the door open to let the cool air in which is all the invite I needed .  I opened the door a little more peeked in to see 7-8 young people working and seemly having the time of their lives.  One young man said "sorry we are closed" and he must have seen the devaluation on my faced because he then asked if I wanted to step in and watch them work. Little did he know that I had five other people with me. We jumped in watched a few minutes and bought lots of chocolate bars to keep our energy up between stops.  I don't think I can do justice to what these Brothers do to chocolate. But for starters they don't just do chocolate, they are artisans in every meaning of the word. And, to really understand what I'm trying to say click on this video below. I love these guys not because they seriously make the best chocolate I have EVER eaten, but because they are changing us back to the way that we made food a long time ago... http://vimeo.com/13664547

Later in the morning we walked to Egg for more sustainable grub. The theme so far for Brooklyn is simple environment meets truly honest food because spot #2 was incredibly simple in design, menu, ingredients and a simple mission statement: to expand the availability of good food to people that don't have access to it. I'll get to the food in a minute but I want to share the most important piece, THESE GUYS AND GALS GET IT!

They connect to their community, their local school and they even have a small 6 acre farm close by in the Catskill Mountains. They have sold pies to help with the local soup kitchen, helped Jenny Kessler sustain her Organic Gardening program at Automotive High School just to name a few.  OK now back to the food piece. I ordered the Country Ham Biscuit with Col. Bill Newsom's country ham, house made fig jam, Vermont Grafton Cheddar and served with cheese grits. Not just any cheese grits but Anson Mills Grits. The whole reason I ordered my selection was for the Col. Bill ham and the Grits.  Good thing cause the biscuit less than great, but hey, we all have bad baking days and pretty damn sure that given all of the incredible food on that table for 6 that morning that this was not the normal gold standard biscuit that Egg strives for.
My side choice was a Caramelized Grapefruit with mint and let me tell ya out of everything great on that table this was by far the coolest.  Don't think I've ever had a caramelized grapefruit?

 Not sure exactly how they did it but here is my guess: remove the top portion of the grapefruit, soak it in mint simple syrup and low roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes and eat it. This will be attempted all weekend until I have perfection.

Now for Pie. Yep, pie after breakfast.  Doesn't everyone eat pie at noon just after breakfast? So to get our Pie fix we headed to Four & Twenty Blackbirds  and they do have  some of my favorite coffee from Irving Farm in upstate NY.  Like the coffee, the ingredients they use for their pies are local & fresh including Battenkill Creamery (less than an hour from my house) and it's some of the best cream and milk I have ever had.

Simple great pie using a simple space so it was all about the pie. For example the welcoming sign, the only sign, was a small white board with the words "fresh pies" hand painted on it, that's it. I guess a lot of these new hip places watched Field of Dreams when they were little kids because these folks are just building the dream and if you show up they would love to share with you their passion and if not then they will eat the pie without you.  Over the cash register there was a small black board and hand written on that board was the following: Salty Honey ~Buttermilk Chess ~Salted Carmel Apple and not to worry cause we ordered all three. My favorite was the Salty Honey. It was this soft melt in your month kind of pie that was truly a new flavor for me and one that I will not soon to forget.  Now lucky for me I'm a professionally trained eater and I know just when to have one bite or just two for good measure and I know when it's time for a walk.

Now it's time for a walk to the next spot that's just a 25 minutes away,  Frankies 457 on Court St. Frankies' is not just another story of: two friends, both named Frank (stop me here if you have heard this one a thousand times before) from childhood that decided to open a restaurant.  Yeah, they grew up together, and yeah, they have a restaurant, actually they have four but who's counting? They live and eat and play and drink in the same neighborhood. Their restaurant Prime Meats is a Farm to Table restaurant (.01 blocks from Frankies) that goes so far to even be a CSA pickup for members Lancaster Farm CO-OP. Yeah I say they get it,  and they work with a lot of other folks that get it as well, like Jim & Andy -third generation vegetable cart peddlers from the streets of South Brooklyn, Saxelby Cheesemongers, & Six Point Craft Ales just to name a few locals.

We damn near ordered everything on the lunch menu but the braised octopus salad & the BLT on the crispiest flat ciabatta was the stars of the table. But if you asked everyone at the table I think the options would vary because everything was really amazing. The pastas were hand made, the sauces made to perfection & the salads (all 4 of them) had this lightness full flavor that we all reach for when making salads. You know the food is incredible when at the beginning of the meal everyone was saying "Oh my God I can't eat anything else" & things like "Please don't order everything" and one by one as we began to read the menu we were all adding menu items that read so well we all started adding things that just could be passed on.  

Here's what I'm seeing and feeling all across this incredible country - Keep it simple, lead with your heart, what ever you do keep it honest and be your true self!

TO BE CONTINUED....