Amani's BYOB

Our little burg is gaining somewhat of a reputation as a foodie destination. Well, OK maybe you're not going to leave West Chester to come here, but I'm thinking that I have fewer reasons to venture out of town when I want a special dining experience.

So the Friday before New Years, Mr. DS and I find ourselves facing the same Friday dilemma we face every week: where to eat? On this particular Friday, I had been contemplating the novel, so I suggested that if we arrived before 5:30, we should not have trouble getting into Amani's on a Friday night.

Tramp that I am, I get too hungry for dinner at 8:00pm especially after working all day. So we grabbed a bottle of table wine and showed up at Amani's just a hair after 5:00...another uncool couple beat us to the place.

Mr. DS started with the soup of the day which was a creamy chicken chorizo soup. As dismayed as I am by the ubiquity of chorizo these days, I have to admit, the soup had a subtle, smoky flavor that was just right.

I started with the exotic mushroom terrine. Which is locally sourced fromagina cheese, truffle balsamic glaze sauteed Swiss shard in puff pastry. The cheese is a goat cheese, but if you are not a fan of the gaminess that is typical of goat cheese, this is a pleasant surprise. The cheese is very light, very creamy and has a hint of goat-ness which was the perfect foil to the earthy mushrooms. If I had one complaint, it would be that the bottom of the puff pastry was a little soggy. That did not stop me from cleaning the plate.

There was a goat cheese amuse bouche served between courses...another stunning goat cheese concoction if I must say so myself!

Mr. DS enjoyed his wasabi encrusted grilled sirloin with a soy demi-glace. I don't recall tasting any of the wasabi, but the steak was cooked well, tender and flavorful.

Continuing the gamey theme, I ordered the duck breast with balsamic glaze. It was outstanding; crispy on the outside, pink fleshed, tender and gamey on the inside. I was in duck heaven and I will need to drink hundreds of green smoothies to balance out the terrible sin of ordering and enjoying the flesh of that lovely duck. I wish I could kiss that duck on the bill for being so tasty.

For afters, Mr. DS ordered the maple cheese cake, which was lovely and light as air and hinted of maple. I ordered the poached pear tart, which was good. The weakest part of the dinner, were the afters...just not as strong as say the desserts at the Parc Bistro in Skippack. The coffee was wanting as well, it tasted a little burnt. HOWEVER, we did receive complimentary homemade limoncello, which packed a cool, lemony wallop. Next time I will skip the coffee and go straight for the limoncello. It was buzz at the base of your skull out of this world.

By the time we left, which was close to 7pm, the place was packed and you know why, they are serious about the food here and much of it is locally sourced, which is a really great thing to know when you think of all the wonderful farms we have here in Chester county. Overall opinion, this is a lovely place to eat. I'm looking forward to the next incarnation of the menu.

The Pub at Wegmans Collegeville, PA: Rethink your lunch Strategy

So who goes to a grocery store to eat lunch? You’re thinking “I might go to buy lunch, but I’m not hanging around.” If that grocery store is Wegmans, then you might consider grocery store as lunch hot spot.

The Pub at Wegmans is a new concept in what a grocery store can be. With the demise of Barnes & Noble as a place where people can go and hang out, I predict a new role for the grocery store – community hub. Wegmans already has a reputation for providing a place where folks can gather, from the celebrity chef events to family movie night, to meeting space to community rooms where folks can hang out and play Bridge. Wegmans understands that if they can get you to come to the store, you’ll find something to like and you’ll come back.

The Pub is just such a place. It has seating, just like a café; it has wait-staff just like a café; it has a seasonal menu, just like a café. The prices are on par with what you might pay in a high end café, this isn’t diner food. If you choose bar seating, you will be able to watch your food as it is prepared, which I like for many reasons. It is a little noisier than a traditional café, since you are in a grocery store, you’re aware of foot traffic.

On my first lunch visit, I ordered a slider plate consisting of a turkey burger, pulled pork and a lobster roll. I admit, I ordered this plate so I could try the lobster roll. Your choice of side is either the vegetable of the day or a Greek style salad. On my last two visits, I stuck with the lobster roll. Just enough lobster, just enough crunch, not too mayonnaise-y, served on a buttered, toasted roll. I also ordered the Greek style salad each time. I am looking forward to trying the naan pizza and the pasta features when the lobster roll goes off menu. While you may opt for a glass of wine or beer with your meal, I opted for desert, which features Wegmans desert products. They have a rotating seasonal pie, ice cream deserts, cake, and “adult” coffee drinks.

On the first visit, I opted for the chocolate cake. The cake was dense, moist and chocolaty. The frosting was creamy, not grainy and chocolaty. It was about the most perfect chocolate cake I have had in a long time, better than what I’ve tasted from stand-alone bakeries. On my next visit, I opted for the white cake. Again, the cake was dense, moist and flavored with vanilla. Not too sweet, as though it were trying to make up for being plain old white cake. The frosting was a white frosting, sweet and creamy, not grainy. All cake is served with a side of seasonal berries and a dollop of fresh whipped cream. On my last visit, I convinced my companion to go for the white cake, while I enjoyed a sundae. The sundae features Wegmans soft serve vanilla ice cream, which I believe is limited to certain stores. The only complaint I had is that there wasn’t enough fudge sauce…in my opinion, there is never enough fudge sauce…but that is the worst thing I could say about it.

The portion sizes are generous without being over-sized. The Pub menu also has calorie counts on its offerings, which is a blessing and a curse. If you’re watching your diet, it’s very helpful; if you’re eating because lunch the best thing that is going to happen to you that day, you may wish to ignore the calorie count or make an appropriate adjustment at the next meal time.

One awkward thing about the pub is the no-tipping policy. I’m so programmed to tip, that it does feel a little strange not to do so. My understanding is that if you feel compelled to tip, it goes into a pool and all the servers share it.

So rethink your lunch strategy. The Pub at Wegmans offers a set menu, plus seasonal dishes and adult beverages. There is a Pub in Collegeville and Malvern, PA. Check your Wegmans website for additional locations.

A paean to Saratoga

Classy and racetrack are two words that you don’t normally associate with one another. But there was a time when, if you were going to Saratoga, you would put on your seersucker sport-jacket, don your wide brim hat and dig out your gloves.

What made Saratoga so special, you may ask? Opened in 1863, Saratoga is the oldest thoroughbred racetrack in the United States. The Travers, the jewel in Saratoga’s racing crown, is the oldest stakes race for thoroughbreds in the United States. So it’s got a lot of history on its side.

Brevity is the soul of charm…the meet at Saratoga happens once a year, in the heart of the summer. At its founding, the meet only lasted 4 days. It was gradually extended and lasted 4 weeks for decades. In the 1990’s the meet was extended an extra week and currently runs 6 weeks, ending on Labor Day weekend. But it is still like a summer vacation, packed full anticipation and over before you realize it happened.

The story tells itself. Mention the Kentucky Derby and everyone knows Churchill Downs. Mention the “graveyard of favorites” and you can only mean Saratoga because so many famous racehorses met defeat here. Man O’War suffered his only loss at Saratoga, Secretariat was beaten there after winning the Triple Crown, and Gallant Fox lost to a 100-1 shot named Jim Dandy in the Travers. Of note, Jim Dandy is now the name of a Grade II stakes race at Saratoga.

It’s a playground for the horse degenerate. For horse people, Saratoga is the place where you hope to see Triple Crown potential foreshadowed in the Hopeful and the Spinaway stakes. The finest 3 year olds in the world will usually make at least a pit-stop at this meet. “So what’s next, the Travers?” is the inevitable question asked of every Belmont Stakes winner. The Whitney is one of the stepping stones for the Breeders Cup fall classic racing series; win it and you’re in it. And the over 3 crowd is not to be ignored at Saratoga, with the Woodward, the Sword Dancer and the Vanderbilt stakes races all for 3 year olds and up. You would be hard pressed to find a Horse of the Year who did not race at least one time at Saratoga.

It’s a playground for the jet set. For people watchers, there is nothing like Saratoga. Aside from members of the Saudi royal family, old money and the professionally rich, as you cue up to place your bet, you may be rubbing elbows with various members of organized crime (whom I shall not name), tabloid bon-vivants such as Marla Maples, the TV actresses Susan Lucci, sports notables like Bill Parcels, rock and roll musicians like Rod Stewart. I once met David Cassidy, who owns racehorses and is way shorter than I ever imagined. My personal wish would be to run into any one of the Top Gear presenters (Stig included). Fortunately, no Kardashian has ever been spotted here…let’s hope it remains that way.

Go right to the source and ask the horse. It used to be that before each race, horses were walked on the grounds behind the race track. Grooms would stop traffic to cross Union Avenue and lead their horses around a tree until it was time to head to the paddock to saddle up. Under the trees, you could get so near to the horse, you might feel his hot breath on you. You could see the nervous foam between the hind legs; get an up close and personal look at the hooves. You could look into the eyes of the magnificent beast and discern all the secrets of the universe…or at least if he was is going to win. They don’t do that anymore, but the horses still stop traffic to cross Union Avenue and must walk among the common folk to get to the paddock. At the very least, you risk stepping into horse pie. At worst, a security guard will yell at you to get out of the way. After all, the horse is probably worth more than you will ever make in a lifetime. You should also mind the jockeys who must navigate the hoi-polloi while travelling from the scale to the jockeys lounge. Saratoga pulls back the curtain just enough so you can catch a glimpse of backstage magic, but then lets it fall, before you can lose the sense of mystery.

But there’s more to Saratoga than the race track. Saratoga Springs is located in upstate New York, near the site of the crucial Revolutionary War battle of Saratoga. The town of Saratoga Springs is famous for its mineral spas and springs in addition to its stunning examples of high Victorian architecture. These are best exemplified by the Adelphi Hotel and Congress Park, where you can sample the mineral water gratis. Interested yet?

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) is housed in the heart of Spa State Park and is the summer home of the New York City Ballet Company and the Philadelphia Orchestra. It is also home to the National Museum of Dance. SPAC’s “Lawn” as it is affectionately known, is one of the finest locations on the planet to hear a musical performance. Saratoga is also home to the Yaddo Gardens, a free public garden located on the grounds of the Yaddo Artists Community. This garden is notable for its rose garden and rock garden that are in continual bloom from about June to September. It’s a cultural hub away from the hustle and bustle of “that city”, some 225 miles south.

The town proper has a main street Broadway Avenue, where most of the shops and restaurants are located. You will find all the hallmarks of hegemony here, Starbucks, Talbots, Dunkin Donuts. There are also a number local establishments that feature live music year round. Wonder what Lisa Loeb is doing has been doing since the ‘90’s? In July, she performed at the Universal Preservation Hall. Jazz and Scotch enthusiasts will love 9 Maple Ave.; hep cats old and young will gather at the oldest coffee house in the United States, Café Lena, where you can still hear the echoes of Pete Seeger, Emmylou Harris, and Ani DiFranco who have all played there. Sure you can patronize the bars with horsey-themed names - some are quite respectable. For a more subdued experience, there’s Gaffney’s. If you’re looking to create some personal folklore, there’s the Tin N’Lint, Desperate Annie’s or the Parting Glass.

Mostly Saratoga is the place that provided some rare opportunities for my father and me to bond. It was at Saratoga where he introduced me to the dubious art of parimutual wagering. Placing that first wager, I had my first lesson in risk taking – sometimes you have to extend yourself without being assured of any payoff. It was with him that I learned how a discreet and generous tip could open closed doors; that not all gossip is idle and small talk can lead to big opportunities; that everyone, from the fellow selling newspapers to the guy with the Steward’s pin on his lapel, is worth getting to know; that people remember small gestures of good will and repay you when you least expect it; that you should be wary of anyone who seem too eager to give you a “hot tip”; and that sometimes losing means you need a new strategy, but walking away is also a strategy. Most important, he taught me an underlying optimism that anyone who plays horses has to cling to – on any given day, any given horse can win any given race. You just have to put yourself in a place where it can happen...like Saratoga.

Take back the drugs...

OK so here is where I put on my Nanny Helmet and wag my finger. Old scripts, we all have them and we’re all guilty of not finishing them. There they sit in the medicine cabinet, in a drawer or in a box you packed 5 years ago and haven’t unpacked in the last 3 moves. I get it. You and I know we shouldn’t hang on to old medications, but heaven knows I have my own personal stability study happening in my linen closet. Assuming you’ve decided to be a good citizen and dispose of the old meds, what do you do with them?

Many medications are labeled with disposal instructions. Your first step should be to read the instructions and find out how to dispose of the stuff. Barring that, you could call the customer service number of the manufacturer and ask them how to dispose of it (that’s something that I would do). In many cases, the instructions will recommend throwing the medication down the sink or flushing it in the toilet. (Insert deep sigh of disappointment here.) Now, the FDA’s web site provides a list of drugs that they say are OK to flush down the sink or toilet. Their rationale for this is that no study has shown a risk to the water supply (even though I just read about increased iodine levels in the local water supply ). I’m really iffy on blindly trusting the FDA these days. Act according to your own consciences.

Please don’t just throw them out in the trash. We’ve all seen the havoc a neighborly raccoon can inflict on your trash on a summer night…your old penicillin is not good for the raccoons or the seagulls at the landfill.

I think one of the best and least publicized solutions has been the National Prescription Drug Take Back program sponsored by the Drug Enforcement Agency and local law enforcement. This is where you can show up at your local police station (if you can find them, you know who you are Downingtown), and simply drop them off. Some communities have even extended this to illegal or “street drugs” with no questions asked. Unfortunately, this program only takes place once a year, in the spring time. If you can gather your meds and wait a few months, that is a safe solution.

Your local public health authority should recommend best practices for the disposal of medication. For example, my county health department recommends removing the medications from their original containers and mixing them with something disgusting like used coffee grounds or kitty litter and putting them in impermeable, nondescript containers, such as empty cans or sealable bags, and throwing the containers in the trash. These practices are based on FDA guidelines that you can read for yourself here: http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm101653.htm

Some pharmacies are now offering to take back prescriptions. I know of at least one local pharmacy that does take back medications for disposal, you can ask at your local pharmacy counter. So that’s the end of my public service announcement. Nanny helmet is off.

On not attending a class reunion...

My 25th high school reunion occurred last May. I did not attend, I had no intention of attending and then a family event occurred that ensured I could not change my mind. Like everyone, my high school years were fraught with angst real and imagined. I am in touch with a handful of people from that time in my life, but with a few exceptions, I have more in common with them than where we spent a particular set of 4 years.

If any of the teachers who helped me survive high school were going to be there, I might have entertained the idea of going, if for no other reason than to say thank you for helping me turn out OK. But those folks are long gone and some of them are beyond my reach – so I hope they know, somehow, how grateful I am for what they did for me.

But I did not feel compelled to compare life-notes with strangers over chicken salad. I had always felt like an outsider in high school and now I understand the reasons why I really am estranged from that community. And that’s OK. While I owe much of my later academic success to the preparation I received in high school, I never did entirely get over the alienation I experienced there. So thanks but no thanks – my life is pretty full without having to dig up the bones of ancient history. Besides, I’m on Facebook, like everyone else on the planet.

I've got the power...

For the record, the last few months haven’t been me just wallowing in my first-world problems. I learned a few things that I will share with you:
1. Power of Attorney
2. Power of Attorney
3. Power of Attorney

It doesn’t matter that you’re married or that you are a blood relative – it’s all crap in the eyes of the law. If your spouse or your partner or your parent or the other party in whatever arrangement you’ve got becomes unable to handle their business, you need power of attorney for that person. If you become sick and can’t handle your business anymore, you need to pick someone to make decisions for you and pay your bills so your car doesn’t get repossessed while you’re in the hospital.

What is power of attorney?
It’s a piece of paper (you should notarize it if you’re too cheap for LegalZoom.com) that allows you to appoint someone to handle your business if you can’t. By business, I mean: handling bank transactions and filing your tax returns, handling real estate, entering into contracts, exercising stock rights, settling claims. You may say to yourself, “Self, I cash my paychecks at the bodega. I don’t own anything except this Sizzli, which I’m going to eat while I read this. When I do file taxes, I file 1040-EZ. I don’t need this fancy power of attorney piece of paper any more than I need a passport!”

Point taken, Gentle Reader; but what happens if your SEPTA bus gets shot up, you take a bullet in the base of the skull, and you wind up in my ventilator unit at the Bower of Bliss nursing home? You know you told your niece a million times that you don’t want to be hooked up to a machine, but here you are and here I am, turning you every two hours so you don’t get bed sores.

It doesn’t matter what you told your niece. If you didn’t write it down anywhere and get someone with a seal to notarize it, Bower of Bliss is going to get $80.00/day from the State until your heart gives out. You need a Health Care Power of Attorney. It’s what allows your niece to tell the nice people at Hahnemann Hospital or Bower of Bliss Nursing Home that you don’t want to be hooked up to a machine to live, when you can’t do it for yourself. Get it?

How do I get one of these Powers of Attorney?
I’m not a lawyer and this is not legal advice but you can go to a lawyer, Google for Power of Attorney and get referrals, go to a web site like Legal Zoom, or go to the library and ask the reference librarian for Nolo books that will help you create a Power of Attorney. At the very least, write something up yourself, take it to the bodega and ask them to notarize it. It will be harder to challenge your wishes if the document is notarized. And don’t forget to tell your niece what you’re doing. No one likes to be surprised about these things.

But it’s depressing to think about getting shot and being on a ventilator…
I agree with you entirely.

But doesn’t Power of Attorney mean that my bastard children can take my stuff and put me in a nursing home?
The Power of Attorney only takes effect can’t make your own decisions. It’s up to you: let your bastard kids carry out your wishes or leave it up to some nursing home employee. When you don’t make a decision, you’re still making a choice.

But we’ve been married for 50 years…
Let me be the first to assure you that it doesn’t matter.

But I told my son what I wanted.
It’s nothing personal but…no one will believe him.

Nobody should be released from junior high school without understanding this. Pick a person, write up what you want them to be responsible for and get it notarized. I learned this the hard way…let my example serve as a warning. Class dismissed.

It's been a long, long time...

In between postings, I have been coping with significant personal loss, starting and failing at a new job, getting tattooed, volunteering, attempting to resolve persistent and mysterious feline dermatology issues, considering a bathroom remodel, accepting that I have a field mouse issue in the basement, trying to understand what the hell is going on in the world, wondering what the hell is going on in my country, working at not being the worst…spouse…ever…, and keeping the faith – in whatever form I can.

Now that the year is mostly gone (and I will be doing a goodbye jig on December 31) I return, hat in hand, to beg forgiveness and hope that we can, like good friends, resume where we left off.