Thursday, June 12, 2014

Taste of Syracuse and a contest

We had the chance to make her way to the taste of Syracuse for lunch on Friday. We had a mixed bag of experiences with tips from around the world. Since we are fortunately without our kids we actually had the chance to walk around a little bit to see what one might want to taste. After a quick walk through and selling their states and some good things I settled on to the new Chicken Bandit truck.


 Like many people I watched the Restaurant Impossible episode with McShanes and was really interested in trying their chicken. Well prepared chicken is one of my favorite things. The sampling was Chicken Tikka Masala which I wasn't really interested in. They did have a seasoned chicken drumstick that looked appealing so I gave it a whirl. The chicken was perfectly cooked and the seasoning was good, though for my palate it could have used some more salt. I'm interested enough to track them down and try the original "McShanes" chicken. 
Up next for me was a sampling of the much talked about  Oumpas Loompyas. It resembled a small fried dumpling or eggroll. The offered up hot sauce or Thai sweet chili sauce to dip them in so I took a bit of both. Aside from being almost too fresh and hot  they were wonderful. Crispy outer shell, well seasoned meat filling and both sauces were an excellent complement. I will be looking for those again for sure.
We worked our way around, I had hoped to finally try Small Plates Detroit's, offering but unfortunately they didn't have their sample available yet so they remain on my list of places I should try at some point.
Right around the corner from Small Plates was Bailey's Buffalough Nutz. What is a Buffalough Nut you ask? It's a doughnut covered in chicken wing dip. Sweet and Salty is a popular idea and when it's done right it can be excellent. These didn't work for me at all. The doughnut was too sweet and the chicken wing dip didn't have a ton of flavor.
My last sampling before moving on to lunch proper was at the Syracuse Polish Community for their take on Bigos. This was delicious. Rich and hearty with a great blend of meaty flavor and the earthiness of cabbage. I could have happily eaten a whole bowl.
I finished my journey with the Columbus Bakery meatballs in a heel. 

The heel of a loaf of bread is my favorite part so this just makes me a happy man. The bread is the star for me. The meatballs and sauce are tasty as well, though they are hard to eat while standing up.


All in all it was fun afternoon at one of my favorite Syracuse events. which leads me to the contest. Thanks to the wonderful Rene Benda over at Bendiful Blog I have two tickets to give away to this years Parade of Homes, I've made it as simple as possible to sign up.

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