Mofongo

I adore Cuban food, and while I like living in the greater Syracuse area, there is no Cuban food to be found. Sigh.

We are always on the lookout for interesting places to eat and somehow James stumbled upon a mention of Las Delicias, a Puerto Rican restaurant on Westcott Street. Although we are not familiar with Puerto Rican food specifically, they had us at empañadas and fried plantains! We went there for lunch yesterday and had a delicious visit.

It is a small, hole-in-the-wall kind of place. The woman working the counter was friendly and happy to answer our questions, and we had quite a few. The first question we asked was, "What is mofongo?" which figured prominently in the online reviews we read and on the menu. Mofongo is fried green plantains that are mashed with broth, garlic, olive oil, and pork cracklings or bits of bacon. The description intrigued me so I ordered it served with onions and fried pork chunks. Aidan also ordered mofongo (to our surprise), but with shrimp creole. James chose stewed oxtail with yellow rice. We also ordered fried sweet plantains and three empañadas.

The empañadas were hot, delicious and disappeared in record time. The fried sweet plantains were also very tasty, although Aidan decided that he doesn't not care for them. More for James and me! Then our meals arrived and I got so wrapped up in eating that I forgot to snap photos before we started. James was clearly pleased with his stewed oxtail:

Here is my plate of mofongo and pork, with the plate of plantains barely visible in the upper left corner:

I cannot even begin to describe the taste of mofongo; it is unlike anything I have ever eaten. It was good but very dense, and while I am glad that I tried it, I would not order it again. (I will, however, say "mofongo" whenever I please, because it is quite fun to say.) I liked creating a bite that included the pork, onion and mofongo together.

Aidan really enjoyed eating his shrimp but did not like the mofongo at all. He helped me out by eating some of my pork and enthusiastically ate oxtail, which was delicious. We put together a leftover box of yellow rice, oxtail and plantains, which James will enjoy for lunch tomorrow.

There were several dishes on the menu that we want to try and will do so in a future visit. So while it isn't a Cuban restaurant, Las Delicias delivers many of the flavors we enjoy. Happy sigh.

Our food, goat cheese and spirits trail

After working twelve straight days that included four days of MacKenzie-Childs' famous Barn Sale, James needed some serious rest and relaxation this past weekend. Saturday was fairly lazy, with only a few quick errands, and ended with the 2nd Annual James Survived the Barn Sale celebratory dinner. We grilled ribeyes and fresh corn, and roasted red potatoes with a little rosemary, fresh from our garden.

On Sunday we decided to go on a little adventure down the western side of Cayuga Lake, which is one of New York's Finger Lakes. The lakes are beautiful, deep and clear, and the landscape around the lakes is lush, rolling hills. The region is New York's largest wine producing area with over 100 wineries and vineyards, and following "wine trails" is a very popular pastime. Not so for us; we learned very quickly that we don't like most New York wines - they are too sweet for us. We did a wine tasting tour just once, with two other couples, and it was a long, tedious day that we vowed never to repeat.

So when we headed south of the Thruway yesterday morning, we had different goals in mind: delicious food and goat cheese. Our destination for lunch, ironically, was a cafe at a winery, one that we visited on that infamous day of wine. We arrived at Crystal Lake Cafe at Americana Vineyards a few minutes after noon and found that we had a thirty minute wait for a table. We were invited to go into the tasting room and gift shop but having tasted their wine previously, we chose pass the time sitting under a shaded pavilion.

The wait was well worth it. There were so many tempting choices on the menu that we had a hard time choosing. James selected the eggs Benedict:

Aidan was delighted by the pulled pork sandwich and fries:

I was a very happy camper with sausage gravy served over a cheddar scallion biscuit with eggs and home fries:

And to my friends in the south who think someone up north can't possibly make delicious biscuits and gravy, you are wrong. Very wrong.

The ketchup that was served with Aidan's fries was unlike any ketchup we have ever tasted. It was sweet, spicy, and so incredibly unctuous that we bought some as a side dish and brought it home in our cooler. In my humble opinion, the Americana should bottle the ketchup and not wine!

Our second destination was back up the road, just outside the village of Interlaken: Lively Run Goat Dairy. Goats! And cheese! We arrived just a few minutes after the farm tour started; too bad we weren't about a half hour later. The "tour" was a look at the milking room while the farmer told us about goat diseases, milking problems, pathogens in goat milk, and the idiocy of the FDA before moving on to the barn where he shared his opinions on the stupid corn ethanol program, explained how the kids' horns are cauterized, and...well, I don't what else because I stopped listening and started visiting with the goats:

The kids were, of course, adorable. There was a large rock in their pen and one little lady decided that it was her turn to stand on it:

 She chased away the other kid and started to climb up:

Success! Now I am Queen of the Rock!

We then herded into the tasting room and sampled cheese. In retrospect, we would have skipped the tour, sampled and bought, then visited the goats on our own. We paid $5 each for the tour and tasting; had we just sampled, it was have been $3 per person. I don't have an issue with farmers or vintners or distillers charging to taste their products, but I have an issue with paying to listen to a farmer's personal opinion and walking through two rooms.

Anyway, back to the cheese. Delicious cheese. The woman conducting the sampling told us about each type of cheese offered and, once again, we had difficulty making our selections. We finally decided on chevre with Herbes de Provence, gouda, and a blue. We plan on having a simple dinner on Friday night of smoked meats, fresh bread, dipping oil and cheese, and the eating will be exceptional.

While on our way home, we saw a sign for Myers Farm Distillers. A distillery? Yes, please! Inside, we could look through a window at the 650 liter still:

Rather than farm-to-table, Myers Farm is field-to-flask, growing the grains they use to distill the spirits. James and I sampled three items each; James tasted the ginger vodka, the gin, and the blueberry orange vodka, and I also tasted the ginger vodka in addition to the corn whiskey and the bourbon whiskey. Tasty stuff and since the ginger vodka was a hit with both of us,  we left with a small bottle.

We had a fun day exploring around Cayuga Lake, without one drop of wine!