Archive for June, 2011

BBQ alert: Firefighters ‘throw down’ at Fairway this weekend

Monday, June 20, 2011 by:Chris Preovolos
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Join me and a host of other panelists, including Bobby Valentine, at Fairway Saturday as local professional and volunteer firefighters face-off in a bbq “throw down” to kick off the summer grilling season.

Considering the saga that is the Stamford fire task force, this throw down may be a no-holds-barred grudge match.

FAIRWAY: In lieu of helmets, hoses, and axes, Fairfield County’s bravest will instead don aprons, barbecue tongs, and basting brushes when they compete in Fairway’s Firefighters Food Face-Off, a grilling “throw down” that will pit firefighters from Stamford, Darien and Ridgefield against one another to prove whose barbecue is best on Saturday.

The firefighters will compete to cook their tastiest ribs, beef burgers and turkey burgers.  A panel of judges, Jodi Heilman, of the Stamford Patch, Chris Preovolos of the Stamford Advocate, Lou Gorfain of CTBites, Ray Venezia, Fairway’s Master Butcher,  Steve Jenkins, Fairway’s Cheesemonger, and Bobby Valentine, baseball great, ESPN analyst and Public Safety Director for Stamford, will determine the first place finisher basing their decisions on taste and originality.

The winning team will not only receive bragging rights but also a $500 gift card to shop for groceries for their firehouse and the opportunity to name the charity of their choice to benefit from a Fairway “Shopping Night” which the Stamford store will host on their behalf.

All other firehouses will win a $100 gift card to the store. Participating Firehouses are: Stamford Professional Fire Fighters Association IAFF Local 786, Stamford Volunteer Fire Departments, Darien Fire Department, Noroton Heights Fire Department and Ridgefield Fire Department, Local 1739.

Fairway has a long-standing commitment to firefighters.  Its history of supporting fire departments in New York and New Jersey was exemplified in the months following September 11, 2001, when Fairway supplied food for local firehouses throughout the search and clean-up process.  Fairway also offers firefighters in uniform a special shopping discount at each of its seven locations to show its support and thanks.

WHERE: Fairway Market – 699 Canal Street in Stamford

WHEN: Saturday, June 25, 2011 – noon

The Peruvian take on Chinese fried rice

Thursday, June 9, 2011 by:Lee Steele
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I ordered food from the place advertising Spanish cuisine, and got Chinese food instead. This was not an error.

A brightly colored food truck, Lomo En Ruedas, has been stationed in front of the People’s Bank headquarters and alongside St. Vincent’s hospital. These days it’s on Broad Street behind the Superior Court.  Whenever I walk by, I can see they are busy.

The side of the truck invokes “The Art of Spanish Cuisine,” and a closer look at the menu reflects a Peruvian bias. The first time I went there, I got a pork taco — not something that tells me much about Peruvian food in particular. So this time I told myself I would get one of their “Peruvian Specialties.” The Arroz Chaufa, or Peruvian fried rice, seemed interesting.

The menu ticked off the ingredients, which were identical to the Chinese variation until I got to for “our delicious hot sauce.” One small twist is all I need to get interested, so I took a container of it back to the office.

Visually, it looks like Chinese takeout. The only difference, besides the small container of green sauce, was the foam container. Put it in a square cardboard takeout box, and I’d have thought it came from Hunan Pavilion. The rice has lots of salty soy sauce tastes just like Chinese fried rice, but the chunks of chicken, as I had hoped, had been seasoned in their own spices, holding up well with the rice. I craved more of the green sauce, but it was delicious, creating a bridge between the rice, scrambled eggs, green onions  and chicken. (The dish is also available with beef or shrimp.)

The item on the food truck that is probably star is their rotisserie chicken. You can buy a quarter, half or whole chicken and take home sides like rice, Spanish rice, beans, fries or plantains. That’s the kind of thing I’d like to bring home in the evening when I don’t feel like cooking. Unfortunately, the food truck is only there for lunch. But fortunately, they do have a brick-and-mortar restaurant on North and Park, open until 10.

ReNapoli brings three types of pizza to Old Greenwich

Wednesday, June 8, 2011 by:Brett Mickelson
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ReNapoli

RENAPOLI: 216 SOUND BEACH AVENUE, OLD GREENWICH

If you’re looking for a place to grab lunch in Old Greenwich, things just got a little more interesting.

As first reported in Lincoln’s Log, ReNapoli opened its doors in early April, offering Chicago Italian beef alongside Napolitana, Romana, and New York pizza options. Since then, I’ve been able to return several times to solidify my opinions.

Maintaining consistency in the pizza industry must be difficult. When it first opened, I thought Tappo was one of the best non-New Haven pizzas I’d ever had. Over the last several months, however, something about their pies has changed, and not for the better. For what it’s worth, several other food bloggers I know have expressed similar thoughts, and Chris Preovolos says he has confirmed they changed something about their dough.

In combination with this, I was thrilled by my first visit to ReNapoli. While not as good as Tappo at its prime, the margherita was better than the last few times I had been. The crust was perfectly chewy, the sauce was both simple and flavorful, and the mozzarella (while not quite up to the buffalo mozz at Tappo) and basil were in perfect proportion. Add to that the big New York style slices and unique sides (can you say “calzoncini”?), and we had found a winner.  Whole pies are pricey, but slices are reasonable and big enough for lunch.

Over time, however, I’ve noticed ReNapoli following a similar trend as Tappo. The sauce is a little more bland, the dough isn’t as tender, and the end result isn’t quite as good. Don’t get me wrong, the pizza, like Tappo, is still great, but it’s not AS great.

But don’t take my word for it. Head down to Old Greenwich and give ReNapoli a try for yourself.

Sunny Daes for those Sunny Days

Monday, June 6, 2011 by:Maggie Gordon
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Sunny Daes, 633 Shippan Ave., Stamford

Holy heatwave, Stamford. I’m all for super steamy summer days, but every once in a while, a girl’s gotta take a minute and cool off.

There was one sure-fire cure for blistering heat when I was growing up; my mom would roll into the driveway on the sweatiest days of the summer, and upon stepping into our kitchen would hold her pointer finger to her lips and coax me back outside and into her passenger’s seat for our secret ice cream missions. Her MG only fit two, so we’d keep it a secret from my dad and older sister. When we reached my favorite ice cream stop, we’d scan  the sundae board for our favorite flavors before settling on our perennial picks. She’d have the mint-chocolate chip in a cone, and I’d go for the moosetracks in a sugar cone.

When the heat began to peak here last week, I became antsy as I tried to find the perfect place to sate my sweet tooth and cool down my body temperature at the same time. I tried the Dairy Queen on Summer Street. Don’t get me wrong, I was pleased with my vanilla soft-serve coated in rainbow sprinkles, but the line was freakishly long, and at the end of the day Dairy Queen seems like more of a mall treat than a sidewalk stop. So I was a little let down after my first cone of 2011.

Then last week, a friend of mine suggested Sunny Daes on Shippan Avenue. I’m so glad he did.

I pulled up to Sunny Daes at about 2 p.m. Monday, and spotted a mother-daughter pair on what looked like a secret mission, licking away at their cones beneath one of the eight umbrella-covered tables outside the ice cream stand, and several other customers milling around. But when I went inside, the only one there was the owner’s brother Jeff Keskin, who used the lull to guide me through their selection.

The ice cream stand, which opened in 1999, is the first of five Sunny Daes in Fairfield County — there are two in Fairfield, one in Trumbull and one in Westport — and boasts coolers of home-made gelato as well as home-made ice cream. Yeah. I said homemade.

Jeff Keskin serves up two scoops of moosetracks.

The Gelato: They have about a dozen flavors of gelato, including several fruit flavors, but I’m a die-hard sucker for the chocolate, which is both rich and creamy — way creamier than the hand-packed pints of gelato I buy at Whole Foods. But enough about the gelato, let’s get to the real stuff.

The cone: Before I had a chance to inspect the contents of the hard ice cream cooler, I noticed the lineup of cones at my eye level. They have the classic cake cones, as well as sugar cones and (my personal favorite) sugar cones dipped in chocolate and coated with rainbow sprinkles.

The ice cream: I obviously opted for moosetracks ice cream to see how Sunny Daes stacks up to my hometown favorites. They more than met my high expectations. Their hard ice cream isn’t really hard at all. It’s been whipped into a texture somewhere between the traditional scoopable ice cream and soft-serve. It’s still firm enough to stay on the cone, but way more lickable than traditional hard ice cream.

Sunny Dae’s, located at 633 Shippan Ave., is open all year round. Hours: Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Friday, Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Got a favorite summer snack stop you want to recommend for the LBC? Leave your suggestions below.