Sunday, September 26, 2010

Those Wonderous Weiners!

While shopping at Sprouts a few weeks ago with my engineer, I was passing through the deli area when Benji spotted Sabrett's hot dogs in the cold case. He and another native New Yorker went on and on, telling me about the pushcarts, and how good the dogs were. So after several weeks of thinking about it, we decided to give them a try. I bought the hog dogs and the Sabrett's saurkraut yesterday, and we decided to give them a head-on taste test with Hebrew National, our currrent nitrite-laden favorite.

 I fixed one dog of each brand exactly the same, and tried the dogs naked first, to get the true flavor, then with the bun and condiments. The HN were good, not too salty. The Sabrett's have natural casing, and the 'snap' of biting into the dog was fab, reminding me more of a sausage than a weiner. Also not too salty, the Sabrett's had a glorious flavor, smooth and tasty. The Sabrett's kraut was good, altho being a fan of sweet and sour German kraut, I did find the seasoning odd, and even after rinsing the kraut it was still very salty.

 I have to say that yes, my NYC friends were correct, the Sabrett's hot dogs were, indeed, the best I've ever tasted, edging out the Hebrew Nationals by a hair. The Sabrett's had more flavor, and the casing snap sealed the deal. The kraut, however, I would pass on, not my cup of tea. If you can't get Sabrett's where you live, you can order them online. I give Sabrett's two thumbs up, a very good dog indeed!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Hello after a hiatus, and Manny's Uptown Kitchen

It's been way, way too long since I posted a food blog! I have a new career as a recording studio owner, and for a little while even had my own chef, but that's gone by the wayside, and I'm back to cooking myself, and actually enjoying it again. Once I get something yummy prepared, I will post it with pics.

 On another note, I have a new fav place; Manny's Uptown Kitchen. While it is a chain, the food was really, really good. The menu is a combo of baby haute cuisine and old Jewish deli favs like chopped liver, knishes and latkes. I highly reccommend the loaded potato cakes. Our first time a friend and I ordered them for an appetizer. The server brought a long rectangular plate with three perfectly brown potato cakes swimming in a sea of delish cheese sauce, sprinkled with chopped green onions, crisp bacon bits, and a dollop of sour cream on each one. Let me just say the next time, I'm getting that as my entree! The cakes were crisp and tasty on their own, and the cheese sauce was most excellent. Had I been at home, I would have licked the plate, it was so good!

 The beef and blue pasta bowl, however, not so good. I was expecting a blue cheese sauce similar to the potato cakes, and what I got was a watery drippy au jus with an overpowering bitter blue cheese taste. The beef was a slab of rare strip steak indifferently slapped on top, and I was not offered a steak knife, so had to cut it with my butter knife. The pasta itself was fresh and would have been good I think, if I could have tasted it through the horrible bitterness.

 The prices were about what you would expect, similar to Chili's or any other chain. Other things I tasted were good, so stay away from the beef and blue, and you'll probably be ok.