Forking Tasty

Sauce Makes Me Happy

I have been working a lot of long hours lately promoting the New Windows 8 in Times Square and toward the end of the event the southerner and I found some time to go to an Italian restaurant in Astoria called Via Trenta. We have passed by it a hundred times and always say “We need to go there”. We finally did it. I was starving, I mean starving. I think I had a bowel of cheerios that morning and it was about 8pm when we sat in the restaurant. After looking over the menu I wanted 2 mains. The Gnocchi di BarBaBietola al GorGonzola which is handmade potato-beet gnocchi, in a gorgonzola- walnut sauce (I’m a sucker for walnut sauce) and the Veal in a a truffle cream sauce. On a typical day I’d get both and over eat myself into a food coma but something told me to just get one so I ordered the Veal.

RECAP-REEL TASTY: A Bronx Tale

photo credit: Kun Kim

You talkin’ to me?

The season 4 opener of REEL TASTY was quite the oasis of an evening. It may have taken us a while to get going this year but we kicked off with a bang. The night itself was an unexpected 84 degree evening complete with a slight breeze. Sandwiched between two blistering hot weeks in July, we lucked out is an understatement.

For those who are unfamiliar with our dinners, Reel Tasty is Forking Tasty’s summer supper club where we screen a movie on a 2 story building while our guests sample some of our latest and tastiest gourmet creations. This year we twisted it up a little by…

Brooklyn Cupcakes

This past Sunday was NYC’s annual Puerto Rican day parade. Arguably the biggest and best parade of the summer in my opinion. Interestingly, all the flags and Boriquan pride reminded me it was a good time to eat some cupcakes. There has been a fantastic new comer to the overexposed, uber trendy cupcake market and this Sunday there was no better day to celebrate it. You see, this little shop doesn’t host a duo of pink checkered, puffy sleeved, laced fronted, A-line, above the knee, dress wearing hipsters. You won’t find the staff with thick framed colored glasses delicately icing and stacking their toy cakes like fresh baked jewels. On the contrary, behind the counter you’ll find a troop of hard working woman (and men) multiplying cupcakes faster than a wet mogwai. Every time I’ve visited the shop it’s been engulfed with fresh cakes in various states of completion. Boxes, trays and cake displays have pushed out of the kitchen hoping to find an empty front of house table to temporarily rest on before being escorted outside into the delivery truck. I’ve often wanted to ask if every little Brooklyn girl with a birthday placed an order simultaneously. Needless to say they are busy. They must be doing something right.

The power behind this miniature cake making madness are…

Italian Woman Shows Me The Ropes

Forking Tasty – On a Farm Outside Rome from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

I took a tour and explored the catacombs just outside the city of Rome and after they brought us to a farm for some cooking lessons. We were making Gnocchi that day and the eatin was good. I had a lot of fun watching this Italian women make Gnocchi for us all. She eventually had a few of the guests come up to help out. I wanted to join but there was no more room at the table. When it was asked who would like to help make Gnocchi (she didn’t ask because she did not speak a lick of english) I was busy stuffing my face and missed out. Maybe next time.

Booked Solid

One of the things that is great when you’re a crew member on a ship is when you stay at a port overnight. This will allow some of the crew to go out to dinner, which is rare on cruises. We had an overnight in Quebec City, which has a lot of restaurants. I walked around town a little early that day, around 3pm, to scout out and ask some local shop owners about there favorite restaurants in town and the most authentic restaurants. I had a few places that were mentioned a couple of times and they were not to far from the ship. I rounded up a couple people and off we went.

Finally Good Italian Food After 4 Months

Forking Tasty – Philippe’s, San Diego from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

It has been a while since I have had some good italian food. When we port in San Diego there is an information booth across the street and I went in to get a map to Little Italy and asked for some recommendations. I really needed a Chicken Parm sandwich in my life, you know what I’m talking about. The lady at the front desk recommended Philippe’s. Yes, it is the touristy attraction but this place has been around since the 50′s. Little Italy is on India St and you can find Philippe’s at:
1742 India St
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 234-1684

When In Doubt… Go With The Specials

Diabetic Blood Sugar Count
Pre-meal: 88 | Post-meal (1 hour): 109 | Insulin: 5 Units

Port Angeles Washington was my next American port. It is also where they filmed the Twilight movies. There is a scene in one of the movies where Bella and Edward go to a restaurant and Bella ordered the Ravioli’s. We needed to get those Ravioli’s. The restaurant is conveniently named Bella Italia

First Day Off The Ship

Casa Tua – Aruba from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

Diabetic Blood Sugar Count
Pre-meal: 119 | Post-meal (1 hour): 95 | Insulin: 5 Units

My first time getting off the ship since I arrived was Aruba. We were there from the afternoon to late night so it gave me some time to go to the beach and get some dinner.

The beach was nice and the water was warm. The beach we stayed at for the day was behind Hotel Riu and the Westin. I did a little tanning with some friends before headed back to the ship to get ready for dinner. We ended up going to an Italian/Spanish Restaurant called Casa Tua. Casa Tua has 3 different restaurants, Pizzeria, Barcelona, and Mediterranean. We went to the Pizzeria. It was good, as you will see in the video. We had a table for 12 and we were celebrating a birthday, however the birthday boy left before he got his special flaming birthday dessert. We took care of that for him.

Bravo, Bravo!

Jay and I headed out to Huntington Long Island to meet our family on the night of the past big storm. Driving was not the safest that night. The wind was blowing the truck all over the place and the rain was coming from all directions. However, we knew when we finally made it to Huntington we were in for a treat. Bravo Nader is a small restaurant that our family loves to go to. The food is always outstanding. We never order our entrée’s off the menu, EVER. Their specials are just that, special. We call ahead usually to make sure they have the Ossobuco special, seen above, because someone at the table has to have one so we can all try it. It’s Killer!! This table had the entire special list that night including two gigantic Prime Rib’s that Mr. Nader himself told us about on the down low. Here is a rundown of the special specials. There are so many I had to put them in a slideshow.

Special apps, dinner, and dessert

After we left the rain was still coming from all directions. Long Island was starting to flood and was loosing their power left and right. We spent the rest of the night in the dark playing a board game. No, I didn’t win but had fun playing one of the games I haven’t played since I was a kid. I wasn’t on my game. My mind was probably still focused on the delicious meal we ate at Bravo Nader.

Frankly, All I Want is a Polpettone

When you spend 3 years aimed at one goal it is extremely important to recognize the milestones you reach while on your journey to that end. There is arguably no better way to celebrate these events with a great meal. The memory recall of a delicious meal can be savored for years. You know what I mean right? Remember your college graduation steak dinner, that first bite of your wedding cake or the final meal on your road trip across the country? Yeah, I knew you did. Adding taste into the sensory equation has an interesting effect on positive recall.

Last week just such a milestone was reached by one of my favorite, frequent eating companions. Preethi, who you have seen a lot of on the blog lately, landed herself a J-O-B. Being the caring boyfriend I am and a sucker for an excuse to indulge in a decadent meal I congratulated her and asked her to pick any restaurant in New York, my treat, to celebrate. Without hesitation she replied…