Tag: italian

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italian tio wally travel

Tio Wally Eats America: Olive Garden’s Dinner Today & Dinner Tomorrow

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Lima, Ohio.

Greetings from Lima, Ohio
N 40° 43.592’  W 084° 04.433’  Elev. 848 ft.

I’ve mentioned before that I think the lowly Lima bean is the most underrated and oft-ignored bean there is. It’s nice, then, that the good people of Ohio had the decency to name a city after it.

As Chrissie Hynde might sing: “Eh. Oh. Way to go, Ohio.” NOT!

(According to the InterTubes, the origin of Lima’s moniker is much more romantic. The town was actually named after Lima, Peru, the source of the “quinine bark” used for the treatment of “swamp fever” aka malaria in pioneer days. Malaria was prevalent in Lima, Ohio at the time.)

A few days before I arrived here I’d seen an ad on the TeeBee for a special Olive Garden was running. In the ad they showed these hunger-inducing cheese raviolis.

At the time I didn’t pay all that much attention to it. But evidently the ad worked on my subconscious or, rather, my submerged consciousness, and I ended up at the OG.

The special they’re running, until about December, is called “Dinner today & Dinner tomorrow” ($12.95; prices may vary in NYC, Alaska and Canada). It consists of two entrees  — there are five to choose from — one that you eat in the restaurant and another to take home.

The entree you eat in the restaurant is served with unlimited soup or salad and their buttery, slightly salty breadsticks. The one you take home is only an entree, but if you’re nice they’ll throw a couple of breadsticks at you, figuratively speaking.

Although the OG has really great fresh, crisp salad, I chose a new soup they were offering: Chicken & Potato Florentine. This stuff is great! Nice chunks of perfectly cooked potato in a creamy zuppa that’s the perfect consistency. But I couldn’t really detect any chunks of chicken. I guess they were in there. Perhaps they were hidden by the Florentine; Florentine just means it’s made with spinach. But the soup had something else in it that tasted kind of like sausage or something. Regardless, it was so good that I ate two bowls of it. This soup is a real keeper.

For the in-house entree I ordered the as-seen-on-TV Mezzaluna Ravioli with Five Cheese Marinara. The fairly generous portion of half-moon shaped raviolis were generously stuffed with cheese that tasted slightly smoky, as in smoked-cheese smoky. I thought the sauce was a little misnamed as it’s actually more of a tomato-cream sauce.

I kept thinking the dish would be really good with the addition of thin slices of portobello mushroom, but it was fantastic nonetheless — both hot and cold. Truly another keeper.

I ordered the Lasagna Rollatini with Meat Sauce for the to-go portion of the meal. Rollatini is usually made with eggplant, but this was just cheese lasagna covered in meat sauce, with a generous dollop of really creamy ricotta cheese on top. It’s good, and Olive Garden makes a really decent meat sauce, but it wasn’t nearly as heavenly as the Half-moon Cheese Pillows.

I’ve been to Olive Gardens all over the place over the years, and they are consistently good from location to location. But I’ve learned one thing about them: Always order the specials. The reason is that this is how OG tests new menu items and, more often than not, they’re usually really, really good and fairly cheap.

One of my favorites, which they introduced a few years ago and ended up keeping as a regular menu item, is the Braised Beef & Tortelloni, “tender sliced short ribs and portobello mushrooms tossed with asiago-filled tortelloni in a basil-marsala sauce” ($14.95). It is unbelievably good.

This “Dinner today & Dinner tomorrow” special is a real value at essentially $6.50 a meal. Truly a sweet deal. So sweet, in fact, that it even comes with an after-dinner (Andy’s) chocolate mint.

And so we roll.

Olive Garden, nationwide

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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tio wally travel

Tio Wally Eats America: Nona Mia Italian Kitchen (Revisited)

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Asheville, North Carolina.

Greetings from West Asheville, North Carolina
N 35° 34.936’  W 082° 36.237’  Elev. 2208 ft.

After getting sandwiches at a Jersey Mike’s Subs recently — covered in an upcoming post — I walked across the street to deliver a really cool prairie dog postcard to a friend at his workplace. It being a Sunday he wasn’t at work, so I just dropped it in the business’ mailbox and began sauntering back to the yacht.

As I was about to cross the street I noticed that Nona Mia Italian Kitchen’s “OPEN” sign was lit. I figured it was an oversight on their part but decided to walk by anyway. As it turned out they were open.

The last time I’d talked to Yolie Affatato, one of the owners, she’d said they weren’t going to be open on Sundays anymore. Or so I thought. Evidently, I had misunderstood her. To my knowledge, this was the first time I’ve ever “misunderstood” anyone or anything in my entire life!

What she’d actually said was that they weren’t going to be doing the Sunday Brunch through the winter.

So I went in and ordered one of the day’s specials: Pesce Stufato (Nona’s seafood stew with clams, shrimp, calamari, grouper, fennel, green chili, tomato, onion, calamata olives and potato in a saffron broth) for $17.

When the waiter brought out the giant bowl and set it before me he said, “This is heaven in a bowl.” He did not lie. Or exaggerate even slightly.

Chef/owner Peter Affatato is an extremely talented, inventive artisan in the kitchen. And this stew was just more proof of his spectacular skills. Not that I needed any.

All of the sea foods — hell, everything! — was perfectly cooked, as usual. Even the rings of calamari were tender as could be. And the saffron broth was simply bursting with flavor. I thought the addition of green (jalapeño) chili, which kind of threw me when I read the description, was a particularly brilliant flourish, adding just enough zing to seriously perk up the taste buds.

I’ve written about Nona Mia before and my two major complaints remain: No raviolis and I simply can’t eat all that I want and/or see, although I’d sure like to.

Actually, I’ll add a third complaint: They didn’t have any of the heavenly ricotta rolls that they regularly made for Sunday Brunch.

Waaaaaaah! I’m sorry, what I really meant to say was: WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I hope that one day the food gods will bless me with the good fortune to show up when Peter does one of his tasting menus. I understand he’s going to be doing a wine and food pairing menu sometime in the near(?) future. If only I were lucky enough to be there for it.

By the way, Wednesday, October 17th is the Pastafarian version of Xmas: National Pasta Day. Endeavor to suck some noodles in celebration!

And so we roll.

Nona Mia Italian Kitchen, 1050 Haywood Road West, Asheville, North Carolina

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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fast food italian

Tio Wally Eats America: Fazoli’s

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Edwardsville, Illinois.

Fazoli’s is a chain of fast-food Italian restaurants scattered nationwide. I’ve eaten at a few of them over the years and the food has been good but it’s not going to win any Michelin stars.

Because it’s yet another chain designed to appeal to the widest possible audience the food is fairly bland. So much so that even a generous treatment of hot pepper flakes will do little of change it. But the food at Fazoli’s isn’t bad per se, it just lacks discernible character.

This is no surprise, of course. As my brother, a bona fide chef, has told me many times: “The more regions a place serves the blander the food is going to be because it’s trying to appeal to the most people possible.” He has also pointed out, accurately, that “the more menu items any (fast food) place offers the worse the food will be.” He would know this little cooking-for-the-masses fact as he started his culinary career aboard an aircraft carrier feeding 5,000 hungry sailors three meals-a-day. This also may explain why he’s a big fan of In-N-Out® Burger, whose menu I once took a full two seconds to memorize.

Fazoli’s most recent promotion has been baked spaghetti for $3.99, which can be topped with chicken, meatballs or sausage and peppers for an additional $1.49. As always I got the sausage and peppers.

It’s a decent-size dish of baked spaghetti covered with a generous amount of mozzarella cheese. It wasn’t bad although the Italian sausage can always be spicier for me. It’s served with a couple of fresh-baked, buttery garlic breadsticks that are pretty good. If you dine in they’ll give you as many breadsticks as you want.

The beauty of Fazoli’s is that it’s fast, reasonably priced and consistant. It’s actually a great value for the price, and you don’t have to spend an hour or more in an Italian eatery to get a pasta fix. Plus, you can often park a land yacht nearby. Accessibility can be quite important, you know, especially if you’re hungry.

And so we roll.

Fazoli’s, nationwide

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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italian restauranting

Bamonte’s Restaurant

Rusty left town and went into hiding during his birthday. So I decided to throw a party for him while he was gone. We started off at Harefield Road for drinks. Then Todd at the grand idea to eat at Bamonte’s.

This place is awesome. Opened in 1900, according to their parking lot sign (a restaurant parking lot is super rare in these parts).  Bamonte’s is fancy American-Italian (fancy as in mid-20th Century fancy), with chandeliers on the ceiling, older waiters in tuxedos who made me wait for the ladies to order first –a place where Don Draper would take a date to (like when he had the Chicken Kiev). It looks like the decor hasn’t changed much probably since the 60’s.

It also feels like a total mobster restaurant …I’m not saying it is or isn’t. But I made the the mistake of sitting facing the wall. You’re supposed to sit with your back against the wall in case someone comes in to whack you. It’s a sign that you are the most important person at the table. Instead, no one sat against the wall. None of us felt they were assassinate-able.

I followed Todd into the restroom and was going to make a joke about whacking him. I didn’t because there were other people in there. That would have been awkward, since I was going to use the actual term “whacking” in the men’s room.

The food was good. Kind of reminds me of Carmine’s back room, with fancier decor. My Veal Scaloppine Marsala (mushrooms and white wine sauce) was tender. Todd’s Veal Cutlet Parmigiana was huge. The entrees came with potatoes and green beans on the side to share. The Blueberry Cream Pie is a must get. If you go, you can say I said that after someone looking up Yelp said that someone else said that.

I saw Spaghetti and Meatballs at the table next to me. Those balls were monstrous. I might get that next time, hopefully with a date. I want to feel like Don Draper. I’ll bring a proper camera next time.

Bamonte’s Restaurant – 32 Withers St (btwn the BQE & Lorimer St) Brooklyn, NY 11211

It was Rusty’s best birthday dinner. Todd did a magic trick.

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italian tio wally travel

Tio Wally Eats America: Alfredo’s Pizza & Pasta

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Lewisville, Texas.

Some people are so unique, so special that they’re hard to describe. Such is Freida, the gregarious owner (along with her ultra-low key husband, Richard) of Alfredo’s Pizza & Pasta in Lewisville, Texas.

I was introduced to Alfredo’s by a woman I went to high school with and her beau; I believe they’re possibly the handsomest Hog-straddling couple in Texas. I stop and visit them whenever I pass through the Dallas area if time permits.

On the way to the restaurant she described Freida as “one of those people who calls everyone ‘sweetie.’ You’re going to love her,” she said. She then told me an anecdote that turned out to exemplify Freida to a T: The first time she went to Alfredo’s she wasn’t able to finish all of her food. So she got a to-go box and asked Freida, How do I reheat this? “I can’t tell you. It would put me out of business,” Freida snapped, and walked away. A short time later Freida returned and said, “I like you, so I’ll tell you.”

It being my first time there, I was really looking forward to meeting — or should I say “experiencing” — Freida. Unfortunately she wasn’t there.

The next visit, however, I had the good fortune of meeting her. And she was everything my friend said. Alternately warm and no-nonsense, it was obvious she didn’t take crap from anybody. In fact, when I gave her some good-natured lip she was quick to let me know that her sons, who work in the restaurant, knew karate. It was hard to tell if she was serious about what seemed to be a not-so veiled insinuation that, on her orders, they’d happily take me out back for a good thrashing and probably toss me in a dumpster, but I got the message. Truth is, though, that Freida is a genuine sweetheart who not only seems to remember every customer who’s ever come in, she treats everyone like family.

On my third visit to Alfredo’s Freida demanded to know what I’d done with the pictures of her I’d taken previously (which she was none too happy about. And as you can see by the photo of Richard, he too was excited to have his picture taken. “Thanks,” he deadpanned.). I detected a complete lack of trust in my propriety in the use of her image. Evidently, in addition to being a motherly type, Freida is also an excellent judge of character.

The food at Alfredo’s is great tasting and a great value. Every time I’ve been there I’ve ordered either Veal Parmigiana ($10.25) or Eggplant Parmigiana ($8.50). The entrees are served with a side salad and a side of spaghetti, along with really, really great homemade bread (rolls).

I also usually get to-go orders of either Meat or Cheese Ravioli ($7.50 and $6.50, respectively), or an order of each. The raviolis are huge, about 3-inches around, and very generously stuffed.

My friends always order pizza when we go. I haven’t tried it but they say it’s great. The thin-crust pies sure look tasty though.

In addition to pizzas and pastas, Alfredo’s also makes hot and cold Subs, as well as a handful of both appetizers and desserts. (Damn, I just noticed they have a Sausage and Green Pepper Sub on the menu — my favorite! I guess I know what I’ll be ordering next time.)

Alfredo’s, which is open seven days a week, is tucked away in the corner of a little shopping mall. Although you have to look to find it, once you do you will be back.

By the way, I would’ve taken more pictures the last time I was there but I was sort of afraid … of Freida. Without reason, of course.

And so we roll.

Alfredo’s Pizza & Pasta, 2305 State Hwy 121, Ste 225, Lewisville, Texas

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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italian travel

Spring Garden’s Meatball Stromboli (Philadelphia, PA)

We came down to Philly last night to play our friend, Paul’s show at the PhilaMOCA (Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art). I walked in next door to Spring Garden Pizza & Restaurant and ordered a small Meatball Stromboli ($8.95). I asked the sweet old lady if I could get a beer. She told me go a block away to the bar (where you can get beer to go) and also bring her one back. I brought back two Coors Lights. She wasn’t joking. She took one. That was pretty cool.

Meatball Stromboli was huge. This is a small? What’s the large? Really good. Sliced meatballs, onions, peppers and lot of cheese! I texted my bandmates to come help eat it. We couldn’t finish it. Left a whole quarter. So stuffed …like that Stromboli.

Look how huge this small Stromboli is!

Photo by Shonali

This place felt like an old traditional family establishment. Customers came in and knew the sweet lady and the staff. A real feel-good restaurant.

Spring Garden Pizza & Restaurant – 1139 Spring Garden St (btwn N 11th & N 12th St)Philadelphia 19123

The PhilaMOCA (Zoodada) show was a lot of fun. A variety show of poetry, comedy and bands. I liked the bands —Tutlie and Break it Up. There were sandwiches, but I was too stuffed to eat. Somehow I still managed to put a whole lot of beer in my stomach. I even made eye contact with a pretty cute girl and missed my mouth, pouring half a can down my shirt. It was pretty smooth though. It went right down my collar and no one wouldn’t have ever known.

I took this picture in Philly. I kept thinking it was a place to wash your hands. I just got it.

We’re playing again tomorrow (Sunday April 1st) at Littlefield in Brooklyn. Come out! Not an April Fool’s joke.

Categories
italian sandwich

Lorimer Market’s Meatball Hero

On my way to yesterday’s Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival, I stopped by Lorimer Market for lunch. Todd’s been raving about their sandwiches. Even goes so boldly to say it’s WAAAAY better than Graham Ave Meats. I’m thinking of ordering a Party Sub from Lorimer Market for next week’s party, so I figured I’d try it out first.

First impression: nice and clean place. The meat section looks really good and clean. I’m definitely going try my next steak there. Sorry, Mario.

I ordered Todd’s favorite, the meatball hero (named filomena on the menu). Yeah, great big meatballs! You can see the herbs.

$6.95 exactly for the sandwich. I would have been satisfied with half, but I stuffed myself all the way. Way to get fat.

Lorimer Market - 620 Lorimer St (btwn Skillman & Jackson St) Brooklyn, NY 11211

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italian

Tommy Lasagna

There’s a real restaurant opening up called Tommy Lasagna. For real? That’s the best name ever. I was invited to the opening party for cocktails and a tasting. Fancier and smaller than I thought it would be. I was thinking it was going to be like a P.F. Chang’s or Buffalo Wild Wings, but with Italian food. I guess that’s good for them.

I really liked the Fusilli with Sausage and Chard. Spicy and nice flavor. I’d get that again.

I really can’t get over the name, Tommy Lasagna. I think it’s so good. It’s like Stanford’s Christmas Tree mascot …I wish I thought of it. Maybe Jimmy LoMein?

Tommy Lasagna - 119 E 18th St (btwn Park Ave & Irving) NYC 1000