The Lumber Yard restaurant offers an artistic dining experience

When the charcuterie board was placed on our table at the Lumber Yard, one of Amherst’s newest restaurants, I knew it was all over for me.

The rustic cutting board was covered with nuggets and slices of cheese, a small cup of olives, an orange-colored chutney and something made from figs. This came shortly after the hazelnut molasses bread had arrived, a totally new spin on restaurant bread. I am a sucker for cheese and this was some of the best.

Lumber Yard, located in a former art gallery (and a former lumber yard if you go way back) at 383 Main St., opened the weekend everyone seems to call the one with the big snow (Oct. 29). Luckily they didn’t lose power long enough to lose all their food.

(No Web site yet, but you can check them out on Facebook. 413-253-4200. Open Tuesday-Sunday at 4:30 p.m., with the kitchen closing around 9 p.m. on weekdays and 10 on weekends. Closed on Monday. The restaurant liquor license allows the bar to be open until 11:30 p.m.)

The Lumber Yard is the dream come true of Cindy and Rolf Nelson, who have lived in Amherst for 12 years and have two children in Amherst schools. They also own a restaurant called ‘Sconset on Nantucket which is only open seasonally. In the women’s bathroom, there is an article in a frame on the wall that tells you the couple met there in 1983.

The restaurant space itself is unique, with a bar section, a formal seating area and a lounge area with couches in front. There is a porch with benches out front and when the weather gets better, it will be a great spot for outdoor dining or just waiting for a table.

I was amazed when I walked in with my children at 5:45 p.m. on a Saturday, the place was really busy. I was lucky to get a reservation, I guess. Very quickly Cindy welcomed us at our table and gave us a quick history lesson about the location and its surroundings (stuff I didn’t even know and I’ve been here since 1968.)

One way I judge the quality of a restaurant is how the leftovers taste after a day or two in the refrigerator. In this way, the Lumber Yard is rock star great. That charcuterie board’s left-overs, even with slightly stale bread, were amazing. I don’t know where that blue cheese came from, but matched with the slight sweetness of the bread it was still terrific when it was several days old.

I wanted to try as many things as possible, so I ordered no main course. The offers include a bar menu with smaller items and a main menu with the appetizers and main courses. So you can get a simple burger, fancy mac and cheese or fried calamari, but there are also many unique items to try.

The Moroccan chicken pasty came between two crisp and buttery layers of filo dough and spiced with apricots, figs, preserved lemon and cilantro. It was melt-in-your mouth tender with an exotic taste. I noted my son, Elliot, 15, ate many shared bites, a high compliment from one who usually doesn’t go for unusual dishes.

“It’s got a lot of spices and it’s almost tangy,’’ Elliot said.
I ordered butternut squash tartar ($7) after asking the wait staff just what that meant. I thought of steak tartar and couldn’t figure out if that meant the squash would be uncooked. I was assured it just has to do with the shape of the food.

It arrived shaped like a small cylinder with a blend of the pinenuts, apples, sage and pine nuts stopped with crispy shallots. A dollop of ricotta was next to it. (I have to mention that each meal came looking like a little art work, the food composed beautifully. Photos on the Facebook page illustrate that.) The flavors blended together smoothly and there was a hint of sweet vinegar that was slightly reminiscent of sushi (not the raw fish part.)

While we waited for the main courses, we noticed that the plates and especially the bowls were not ordinary. Even the glass wine carafe had a shape I’ve never seen before with a hole in the middle so wine comes through two tubes to a center tube to the spout.

Livvy ordered the pan-roasted chicken breast with gnocchi, mushrooms, wilted greens and cream ($22). The meat was crisp on the outside, tender on the inside and the sauce was very subtle and not overly rich. This was my favorite leftover. Elliot had a burger ($13) with fries and a delicious fresh and crunchy cabbage slaw. He loved that burger.

Fortunately, we saved room for dessert because it may have been the highlight. I’m not a fan of chocolate, but that chocolate volcano ($10) that Elliot ordered was amazing. A sort-of upside down chocolate cake with a warm inside of smooth chocolate and caramel sauce was not-too-sweet and merged perfectly with the ice cream and whipped cream on the side. I honored it with the “best chocolate dessert” I had ever had.

My plum cake ($9) with almond streusel, lemon honey and mascarpone cheese on the side was sublime. I considered whether the plum cake was just a vehicle to eat the mascarpone cheese which is so buttery and creamy. Livvy had the simpler local pumpkin ice cream with caramel topping.

Overall, the Lumber Yard is an excellent addition to Amherst’s high-end eating scene.

A potpourri of recent eating experiences: bubble tea, crusty sandwiches, new Asian food coming

A few notes on recent food experiences!

After a hard day of school, I knew I needed something to cheer me up on Friday afternoon. A dose of bubble tea, green tea with milk and pearl-sized, tapioca-like “boba” at the bottom, was called for.

The Red Lime Tea House, located in Amherst across from Town Hall at 50 Main St., opened last year and has been serving the drink which originated in Taiwan. After my recent visit, I decided they’ve really improved things.

I’ve always had my tea on the rocks, but today they offered it hot and it was amazing. The boba, which are slightly gelatinous and are sucked up with a fat straw, did not dissolve as I feared. They still had their gooey tenderness I love.

Red Lime has made some changes since it first started. They stopped table service and instead rely on counter service, a wise decision that speeds up service. The kitchen has been improved and the tea comes out much faster. There is also beautiful photography on display on the walls, taken by one of the owners.

The business is run by a group of young business entrepreneurs. Check it out!
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For the second year in a row, the Greenfield-based Real Pickles has been named finalists in the San Francisco-based 2012 Good Food Awards.

Last year, Real Pickles was a finalist and won the Good Food Award for its garlic dill pickles in a ceremony hosted by nationally-known restaurateur and cookbook author Alice Waters.

This year, Real Pickles got two of the four spots in the pickle category for the east region for their organic garlic dill pickles and their organic red cabbage. (Other categories include beer, coffee, cheese and chocolate.) The company will learn in January whether or not they have won a second time.

Other regional finalists include Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, George Howell Coffee Company in Acton and Vermont Smoke and Cure in Barre, Vermont.

The best part about the sandwiches at the Black Sheep at 79 Main St. (just down the street from Town Hall in Amherst) is the crusty breads they offer. To me, nothing makes a sandwich worse than soggy bread.

(Disclosure: The Black Sheep catered my wedding in 1996 and it was fabulous. I still remember the salmon and how reasonable the prices were. www.blacksheepdeli.com. The catering business is still in operation.)

I always order the half sandwiches at the Black Sheep. They are large enough to be a meal for me and they are just over half the price. They have a lot of specialty sandwiches, but my favorite is still the smoked turkey with the garlic/herb mayonnaise, cheese and roasted red peppers on some kind of crusty roll.

I also credit the Black Sheep with having the best hot chocolate in Amherst. They use the real cocoa powder and whole milk and that first sip when you get out into the cold is a peak experience.

Before heading to a recent High School of Commerce football game in Springfield, my son and I randomly stopped into Cal’s Wood-Fired Grill and Wine Bar at 1068 Riverdale St., West Springfield.

Geography was everything for us in our choice. It’s on Route 5 south just after you get off Interstate 91 south at the exit for the massive Riverdale Shops where Home Depot is located.

(www.calswoodfiredgrill.com, 1068 Riverdale St., West Springfield.) Plenty of parking and easy to get back on the highway.

Despite a drab exterior, the place is beautiful inside and the menu is varied, including fish, chops etc. I admit I was feeling cheap that night so we went with the pizza ($9.95-$11.95). I soon realized I could actually see into the wood-fired stove where our pizza was being prepared.

And for a Hampden County pizza place, the pizza was unexpectedly tasted with a rustic, not-perfectly round thin crust and tasty toppings. Cal’s is a good choice if you are going to that area and want to avoid the massive number of high-end chain restaurants that surround the shopping areas.
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Ginger Garden, the long-awaited restaurant in the location of the former China Dynasty restaurant on Route 9 near the Amherst/Hadley line, has finally re-opened.

The parking lot looked pretty business on a recent Friday night and I hope to check it out soon and have a full report. I expect the concept will be much different than China Dynasty which was a favorite place to bring the kids because they could get the buffet for cheap. The price for kids was 50 cents time how old they were (i.e. $5 for a 10-year-old.)

Max's Tavern offers elegant dining next to Springfield's Basketball Hall of Fame

One of my earliest restaurant memories (other than Friendly’s with my family) was going to the Yankee Pedlar in Holyoke for a fancy birthday dinner. I remember the dark paneled walls and the dim lighting. It was mysterious and delicious.

Max’s Tavern located at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield brought back those memories. The lighting is not quite dim, but it is subdued and indirect. The booths are upholstered in burgundy fake leather. There are wine and liquor bottles on display and pictures of basketball players on the wall.

The décor, and the hustle and bustle of the large and attentive wait staff, made me think there must be a bunch of guys who wear trench coats smoking cigars in the bar, ready to eat a thick slab of beef after a whiskey.

But that’s not what's happening at Max’s, only an image brought on by the ambiance. To the contrary, Max’s has an open, brightly lit kitchen were a deep-voiced chef called out orders to his staff. When you walk to the bathroom, you can see the slabs of meat (filet mignon especially) glistening on the grill.

(www.maxrestaurantgroup.com/tavern, 1000 Columbus Ave., Springfield, 413-746-6299)

I went to Max’s with my teenage children, Elliot and Olivia, and my oldest friend Margaret (Gawienowski) Briskin, who shares my love for good eating. My miscalculation was thinking that we could start dinner at Max’s at 6 p.m. and make it to a show in Hartford by 8 p.m. Not so.

Max’s is conveniently located right off Interstate 91 (take the Union Street exit) and there is plenty of parking. The menu features “chop house classics,’’ “Tavern Specialties,’’ pasta, seafood and appetizers. Salads don’t come with the meal, they must be ordered separately.

We liked how the water came served in an old milk jug with a small pitcher of ice cubes and a plate of lemon slices on the side. My daughter doesn’t like ice in her water and she was able to have her water just the way she liked it.

The basket of rolls and bread sticks were nice and warm and I liked the little extra touch of a circle of paper with Max’s Tavern written on it that came with our little cup of butter.

I have a theory in which I say the three major food groups that humans crave are salt, sugar and fat (usually butter). Max’s clearly subscribes to my theory. Each of our entrees relied on one or more of those food groups.

We agreed to start by sharing the flatbread of the day which included a roasted garlic puree, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese ($7.95). The flatbread, which I presume to mean a pizza without a puffy crust, was small and overpowering in its garlicky flavor. The roasted garlic was missing some of the sweetness I expect in roasted garlic, but it went well with the cheese and mushrooms.

I chose the “Pan-pressed Murray’s chicken” with sweet potato rosti, shaved Brussels sprouts, pancetta and pan jus. It was delightful, especially for me because my favorite part of the chicken is the skin. The chicken was very crispy, deeply-flavors from the pressing I assume, and tender/falling off the bone. It was sitting atop sweet potatoes that I think had been roasted with olive oil and butter and a small pile of thin-slivered Brussels sports. The flavor of each part of the meal was co-mingled with the others and it made for a rich meal (read I took half of it home and ate it the next day.)

Margaret chose the Nantucket bay scallops with chorizo (Portuguese sausage) polenta, white asparagus and pork belly port wine glaze, a special on the day we visited. Her immediate reaction to the meal was that she was “slightly distressed” there wasn’t more greenery (i.e. vegetables) on her plate. Of course, the white asparagus did look a lot like those tiny bay scallops.

Fortunately, I was able to give her some of the still-crisp but well cooked green beans from my son’s plate. What was most striking about her meal was the port-wine glaze which had a lovely burgundy color but tasted a bit like some sort of berry jam.

My son had the meatloaf and mashed potatoes and other than wanting to ditch the green stuff on his plate, he was perfectly happy. My daughter Livvy’s choice, baked macaroni with prosciutto, broccoli rabe, smoked cheddar and peas, was our least favorite dish.

Something about the cheese being a bit chalky and lacking in flavor left everything else in the dish not very interesting. I admit I threw out the leftovers after trying on the next day.

We ordered desserts mostly just to have a chance to try them and not because we were hungry. I had the apple crisp which had a topping that resembled sugar cookie dough than the brown-sugary crisp I am used to, but it was great with the vanilla ice cream. Livvy’s pumpkin cake came with a tower of cream cheese frosting on it that looked like the swirled top of a soft ice cream cone. Elliot’s chocolate cake was a hit too, with a ganache between the layers of dark chocolate cake.

Frigo's, an Italian take-out spot in Springfield's south end, offers a taste of Italy

Hidden on a side street in the South end of Springfield, not far from buildings torn apart by the tornado earlier this year, Frigo’s is a slice of Italy right in our own back yard.

(www.frigofoods.com, 90 Williams St., Springfield, also at 159 Shaker Road, East Longmeadow)

Frigo’s is not a tiny place, but it is so jam-packed with different kinds of Italian food it feels cozy. There are refrigerator cases full of prepared foods and desserts, shelves filled with olives and more kinds of pasta than I knew existed.

There’s some kind of traditional Italian music playing and smell is all olive oil and garlic. Above the largest refrigerator case, there’s a chalk board covered with descriptions of more Italian sandwiches (and some downright American) than I could keep track of.

I stopped into Frigo’s almost by accident when I had to stay in Springfield into the evening for an open house at the school where I work. Frigo’s is the perfect place to find something quick to go. There are no tables so all food is take out. I also thought it would be a great place to pick up some already-prepared food to bring home to Amherst for dinner.

I ordered the easiest meal possible: a chicken parmesan sandwich on a water roll and a baby arugula salad. (It cost $4.75 for the sandwich. An 8-inch grinder would have been $5.50 and what the menu describes as a “1/2 Vienna” is $6.25. I’m assuming that means a sandwich on a half a loaf of bread!)

The arugula salad was $4.99 and didn’t have salad dressing on it. I must have missed the choice of salad dressings on the way out.
The sandwich was great. Simple chicken parm but real chicken underneath the breading, an excellent tomato sauce and not too much cheese.

I wish I had tried one of the many other sandwich combinations which range from “Joe’s Favorite” which is fresh-cooked veal with roasted peppers ($5.25-$6.75) or the Dante (King) which is turkey breast, prosciutto, roasted red peppers, asiago cheese and choice of dressing (8-inch grinder $6.95).

I have a feeling I’ll be picking up dinner for me and the kids at Frigo’s soon.

Hillside Pizza offers organic pizza in Hadley

When Hillside Pizza opened in Hadley in April 2009 in a formerly ugly building transformed by Wright Builders, I remember driving by and thinking that it was a funny spot for a pizza restaurant.

But then I began to hear the buzz. Good pizza. Organic pizza. Healthy pizza? Pizza for the good of mankind? When my neighbor was hired to work there last weekend, I knew it was time to get the kids down there and give it a try.

(www.hillsidepizza.com, 413-585-0003)

Wow, was I impressed. The pizza was the best I’ve had in this area, second only to the pizza I make myself. (I admit I haven’t eaten pizza every place it is available in the Pioneer Valley.) Hillside Pizza is not your typical pizza place.

For example, I had the special pizza of the night which included a sauce called “asiago (cheese) and almond pesto” topped with local butternut squash, fresh sage and red onions. I was initially hesitant to try it because I’m not a huge fan of butternut squash and I wondered how it could be atop a pizza crust without creating soggy mush.

I was glad I took the risk. The pizza was slightly sweet from the squash and red onions, but it was set off by the salty buttery taste of the cheeses. The fresh sage was especially delightful, a subtle taste below the surface. And, nothing was soggy. I have to admit I ate the whole pizza myself, half at the restaurant and half when I got home!

A little background on Hillside Pizza. It started as a fund-raising operation in 2001 in a community kitchen in Greenfield run by the Franklin County Community Development Corp. They made pizzas that were sold by non-profit groups that wanted to raise money.

In 2006, their first restaurant was opened in South Deerfield, followed by the Hadley location on Route 9 in the building that was once an old car garage and onion storage barn. The building was turned into a modern barn style by Wright Builders and also houses Valley Bike and Ski Werks and Energia Yoga & Spin Studio. (Shameless plug for Wright Builders which is responsible for the beautiful addition to my house that my mom lived in.)

The Hadley location space is a bit funky, with a high-ceiling and a huge kitchen that allows the preparation of the “take and bake” pizzas used for fundraising and for personal consumption. Most of the booths have playing cards and little bulletin boards covered with a quirky mix of business cards and brochures on them.

My kids loved that they got to go pick out their own sodas and enjoyed admiring the selection of cupcakes, pumpkin whoopee pies, cookies and other treats in the bakery case.

The pizzas are “build your own style” with different sauces, fresh vegetables and “free-range, chemical-free” meats. You can get slices or a whole pizza. (A 13 inch pizza starts at $9.50 and a 16-inch pizza at $12.50; toppings range from 75 cents to $3 each.)

Hillside also offers gluten-free pizzas and sandwich rolls as well as vegan, dairy-free cheese and meat substitutes.
I also ordered a simple salad ($4.95) that tasted like it had come fresh from a local farmer’s market. The salad included baby greens, peppery arugula, chick peas, purple cabbage, carrot curls and cherry tomatoes. The balsamic vinaigrette was delicious with a slight apple aftertaste.

My daughter, Livvy, 13, ordered a pizza slice with basil pesto sauce with turkey sausage. She immediately signaled her approval. “Oh my God, it’s soooooo good,’’ she said. (Slices are $2.50-$3.00)

Elliot, 15, got pepperoni and feta cheese on his pizza and was a little overwhelmed by the salami-sized pepperoni slices. He ordered two slices that came out separately and rated the first an 8.5 (out of a scale of 10), but gave the second one a 7, saying it was a bit too greasy.

The menu also includes “hot-wichs” which are panini sandwiches ($6.50-$7.50), wraps ($.695-$7.95) and more traditional sandwiches ($7.50).

The food aside, I like the way Hillside Pizza helps non-profit groups raise money. On a chalkboard in the restaurant, it is noted that more than $200,000 has been raised by these groups since 2001. Most recently, the Frontier Regional (High School) after-school program raised $594 and the South Hadley Ski Club raised $580.

School Street Bistro is tucked away on a side street in downtown Westfield

The night we had dinner at the School Street Bistro in downtown Westfield was the first time I have ever heard my boyfriend, Rob, say that he really, really liked a meal. Especially after paying $26 for it.

Rob’s the type of person who is usually happy with a meal if it’s plentiful, reasonably tasty and cheap. But on this night, we had gone to a not-so-cheap place at my request because I have wanted to write about the School Street Bistro for a while.

(www.schoolstreetbistro.com, 23 School St., Westfield, 413-562-8700)

It’s not the kind of place you are just going to drive by one day and decide to eat there. It’s buried in downtown Westfield and it’s not even on the main drag which is practically a ghost town. It’s on a side street in an old factory building.

Even the entrance on the rear of the building is inauspicious. The awning is covered with damp lichen. But once you are inside the building’s history as a factory is clear. There are high ceilings, exposed pipes and refinished factory floors. (And, there is plenty of parking nearby.)

We got there at 5:30 p.m. on a Saturday and it seemed like we were lucky to get a seat although the space was still pretty empty. There is an extensive menu and one part I like is called “Simply Yours” in which you pick your protein product (like shrimp, tuna, pork, Black Angus rib eye, chicken breast, etc.) and then add the sauce of your choice (gorgonzola, demiglace, roasted garlic, teriyaki and others.)

Add to that your pick of side dishes such as twice-baked sweet potatoes, grilled asparagus or wild mushrooms and caramelized mushrooms and you have your meal ranging from $19 to $24 depending on what you pick. You must pay an extra $2 for a side salad.

We didn’t go that route. I picked something unusual for me, something off the specials menu. It was veal short ribs (I almost never touch veal) roasted in a Pumpkin beer sauce with root vegetables. It was the root vegetables that got me. It’s fall and we should be eating root vegetables. The veal came served with a big fresh sprig of rosemary on top and it was amazing, not only that night but the next two days afterward.

The sauce was the key. Someone must have had a pot of stock boiling on the back of the stove for hours or days to get this flavorful and sweet sauce that the veal and veggies were soaking in. The veal was tender but still falling off the bone. The sauce was infused with the rosemary and there was just a hint of pumpkin in the background. I ate half and brought home half.

The huge hit of the night was the applewood-smoked, bacon-wrapped around a filet mignon ($26) that my usually stoic (about food) that my boyfriend ordered. He couldn’t stop raving about it. The meat was tender (not sure he cut it with a fork like my mom once told me you should be able to), but the flavor mixed with the saltiness of the bacon was perfect ( I was allowed to sample it).

The filet, which was in a wild mushroom, gorgonzola demiglace, came with a huge heaping pile of mashed potatoes that went well with my doggie bag food the next day too. And, it came with carrots in a creamy dill sauce.

There were some nice extra touches. Several of the meals were served with a magenta orchid on the plate. The bread was warm and crusty and we asked for extra. It was great for sopping up the sauce with my meal.

The penne Bolognese ($16) my boyfriend’s father ordered was a hit too. The penne was covered with a hearty meat sauce with garlic and fresh herbs. There was a glop of green basil pesto on top. The portion was huge and he took home half as well. My boyfriend’s mother got the chicken Francaise ($18), lemon-marinated chicken sautéed and served in a sauce of lemon, fresh tomato, capers and sweet butter.

We asked about desserts and were brought a tray with assorted desserts, but we were stuffed and it was hard to appreciate the display because it looked rather stale. Although we don’t want to judge a dessert by its tray appearance, I’m afraid it was unavoidable in this case.
It’s worth a drive to Westfield to check out the School Street Bistro.

Spoleto restaurant has been offering Italian fare for more than 25 year.

With only about an hour to eat on a Thursday night in Northampton and with only minor appetites, my 15-year-old son Elliot and I decided to stop in at Spoleto, a longtime dining venue in the heart of downtown.

Spoleto, located at 50 Main St., is part of the dining empire of Claudio Guerra which also includes Pizza Paradisio and Mama Iguana’s in the same downtown, has long been a reliable and sometimes even stellar place to get dinner.

(spoletorestaurants.com, 413-586-6313. The Web site says more than 25 years in business. Is it possible it has been that long?)

Typically, I go with my adult friends and sit at the bar. Spoleto has some fabulous bartenders and the bar is a great spot for people watching. If it’s not a weekend night and filled with out-of-towners, I often run into people I know there.

Some of the things I love about the Spoleto bar:
--Lots of fresh squeezed lime juice in the Margaritas.
--The bowls of roasted olives.
--The crusty sourdough bread served warm in baskets.
--Good selection of wines by the glass.

But coming into Spoleto with a 15-year-old is different experience. The manager firmly told us that my son would not be allowed at the bar under any circumstances. So even though we were just planning to order appetizers, we sat at a very nice table. (In warmer weather, the tables outside are some of the best seats in town.)

I picked crab cakes ($8.95) and a house salad ($4.95) with the balsamic vinaigrette. Spoleto has always put chick peas on their salads creating dueling textures with the greens. The crab cakes, with a light remoulade sauce on top, were less inspired. While there was a sweet and interesting red, carrot and orange zest slaw in the middle, the crab cakes did not appear to be made on site.

They were crispy on the outside with a fish-stick style coating which didn’t impress me, but the inside was typical of a decent crab cake. A delicate crab taste, but nothing that would knock your socks off. They were small, fat and tall, if it’s possible for a crab cake to be all three of those things.

The bread was impressive as always, but my son also ordered the mozzarella-stuffed bread ($6.95) as his appetizer. I was a bit surprised to find the bread was very different (and frankly not as tasty) from the bread served plain. It was more of a store-bought bland baguette instead of the crusty sourdough. It wasn’t overly garlicky and it had generous portions of cheese between each slice. Still, the bread was missing something.

I was sorry I didn’t have the appetite for my favorite Spoleto main dish, the chicken rollatini ($17.95), which is chicken breasts pounded thin and rolled around cheese, sweet Italian sausage and asparagus in a sweet mushroom and shallot Marsala wine sauce. It comes with penne pasta and sautéed vegetables.

Another favorite appetizer, the Gorgonzola garlic bread ($6.95), has long been my favorite and I remember it was always the best deal at the now-gone Taste of Northampton because the price was right and it was easy to eat standing up. I haven’t had it lately, but I noticed on the menu they have added roasted red peppers on top. It sounds like a great addition to an already pungently cheesy and garlicky treat.

Chili's vs. Applebee's: which has the better food?

There are so many similarities between the Applebee’s and Chili’s restaurants, located not far apart from each other but on opposite sides of Route 9 in Hadley, that I suspected they were owned by the same parent company.

They both have multiple glossy, color menus; red-lettered signs; and sort of standardized kitsch décor on the walls. My 15-year-old son Elliot and I got into the routine of going to Applebee’s lured by the sports on television and the chicken quesadilla grande for Elliot.

But I wondered, what was over there at Chili’s? (Chilis.com.) My kids said they had gone there once, but argued about how many years ago it had been. (It wasn’t with me.) So on a recent evening, we found the entrance (sort of tricky to find on the road that leads to Stop & Shop) and decided to give it a try.

The first thing we noticed that no one paid attention to us when we got inside. At Applebee’s, they must have a policy that someone must be at the door to greet patrons at all times and there is unfailingly a pleasant welcome when you walk in.

I was threatening to leave Chili’s (with no back-up plan at hand) when we were finally seated. (I could count seven televisions that I could see from our table, but none were in my direct line of vision. I think my son could watch however. Applebee's also has an epic number of televisions.)

The biggest contrast between Applebee’s and Chili’s is the emphasis on flavor. “Welcome to Bolder” read one special menu. “4 new bold flavors’’ the Web site states. However, I was assured that the items I asked questions about were not too spicy.

Both Applebee’s and Chili’s are offering the exact same special. For $20, you get an appetizer and two entrees. Only a few of the appetizers are included. I should do a cost analysis to see which restaurant is offering the better deal in terms of dollars and cents, but I’m not much of a mathematician.

I told my daughter, Olivia, 13, that she had to pick something from the menu that fit into the special and that we were getting the tostada chips and fire-grilled corn guacamole (which I hoped was a healthier choice that the cheese fries or the fried cheese. There was some grumbling about the addition to corn (which as a vegetable is reviled in my home), but we all like guacamole.

With it, I ordered the chicken fajitas and Livvy got a bacon burger. Elliot opted for one of the “Big Mouth Burgers” known as the Shiner Bock (a sauce brand name) BBQ burger. The name Big Mouth reminded me that Chili’s is not the ideal place for someone counting calories and I remember the now-gone burger joint in downtown called Fatso’s.)

The guacamole was disappointing, with little taste of the avocado remaining and the corn making it too sweet for even me. The guacamole served with the fajitas was only slightly better because it lacked the corn. Livvy liked the chips because they are really thin, easier to eat than thicker chips which can hurt your gums.

Reading about both Applebee’s and Chili’s on the internet, I learned that both restaurants rely on frozen food which is reheated. That’s how you can get the same quality standard at every Chili’s or Applebee’s in the United States. So I should have set my expectations accordingly.

Livvy pronounced the bacon burger “too greasy,’’ although I think greasiness is just part of any bacon burger experience. However, she loved the French fires she said were “fluffy and plump with perfect amount of salt and pepper.’’

Elliot didn’t say much about his burger except that it barbecue sauce was a little sweet and that it was tall. I liked my fajitas, which arrived sizzling hot (just as they do at Applebee’s and most other chain restaurants I’ve been to.) I jammed the warm tortillas with chicken, sautéed onions and peppers, cheese, sour cream and guacamole and was reasonably pleased. (I think I wanted beans.)

In the end, I’d rate the service at Applebee’s to be superior to Chili’s but the food was about the same. I like how the manager at Applebee’s often checks in to make sure you liked your meal.

Zen: fusion Asian cooking in downtown Northampton

From the moment it opened about five years ago, there was something special about Zen, an Asian fusion restaurant in downtown Northampton.

There were the amazing, tall windows at the front of the dining area that can open almost completely to create the sensation of open air dining. The décor was and still is downright cosmopolitan, with sleek lighting and an expansive sushi bar on one side.

The food was a cut above our already pretty-good Asian restaurants in downtown. The sushi the freshest and tastiest and the traditional Chinese dishes somehow more gourmet than other places. The presentation of all the food was artful.

(www.zenorthampton.com, 41 Main St., (413-582-6888)

On the recent Thursday evening when my kids and I stopped in, it was unseasonably warm and wet so we were worried we’d be freezing in the overly air-conditioned air that most restaurants have. It was a busy night and we were seated in the balcony area, a spot I’d never visited before. It felt a little isolated up there and I found myself asking them to turn the air conditioning on.

At Zen, you get a menu and a separate ordering sheet for sushi from which you can choose from dozens of a la chat sushi, sushi rolls and vegetarian roll. You get a pencil to mark which ones you want. There are also more specialty sushi rolls in the menu.

All of us picked out some sushi, with 13-year-old Livvy going for the cucumber roll (nothing squishy in it) and 15-year-old Elliot going for the decorative caterpillar roll. I stayed with my old favorite the Unagi roll, the delicious combination of fresh-water eel, avocado and cucumber. We were not disappointed.

We agreed it was the best sushi we’ve had in Hampshire County. The caterpillar roll was very creative, truly looking like its name especially with the carrot antenna on one end. Besides the beautiful presentation, each piece of sushi had intense and delicious flavor.

We all love General Tso’s chicken and Zen makes my favorite version around here. (They call it General Tao’s chicken and it costs $14.) Elliot pointed out it was “smothered” in the slightly spicy sauce (he meant that as a compliment), while Livvy said it tasted like there was more chicken and less breading. “It tastes healthier,’’ she said.

Because we weren’t being very adventurous with our dining choices – and Zen has a lot more choices than most restaurants around here – I ordered the Zen sampler ($10), which the menu said includes steamed vegetable dumplings, friend chicken dumplings, shrimp shumai, curry fries and a wonton basket of Asian slaw.

The sampler was beautifully presented, but taste-wise it was disappointing. There were three sauces, one being the orange and sweet duck sauce and two which looked like what we typically dunk our egg rolls in.

The chicken dumplings were the highlight, with both kids saying they were plumper and meatier than any we had before. The veggie dumpling was downright bland and neither kid would even try it. The shrimp shumai (which are also dumplings according to my Google search) were pretty mushy, but had shrimp-cocktail strength flavor.

The curry fries were more like fried egg rolls with an interesting mix of vegetables inside with a very light curry flavor and a wrapper on the outside. I tried them in both types of sauce and neither enhanced the flavor to my liking. The Asian slaw was also bland and I didn’t even notice if there was a wonton basket.

Overall, we were happy with our meal. I’m not sure Zen still has that sparkling, better-than-everywhere else feel it had when it opened in 2006. But it certainly has the most unusual menu around in this era off Chinese-Japanese restaurants.

Remembering to appreciate being able to satisfy our food cravings

There is nothing sweeter than making someone happy with food. Before I had children, I would spent an entire day or more just reading recipes, doing shopping at specialty shops and finally preparing what I hoped was a perfectly satisfying meal.

(I do remember preparing a meal involving spanikopita, those spinach and feta pastries layered with filo dough for someone I wanted to impress who turned out to hate spinach.)

Now, my standards are lowered. I don’t feel so bad if my son Elliot begs for and delights in fast food hamburgers, especially if I know he’s eating right most of the time.

But if you really want to bring pleasure to someone with food, find someone in a nursing home who has a craving after weeks of eating bland food and you will find someone who will delight in what you bring.

I’m not saying that the food for the Center for Extended Care in Amherst is something to complain about. They’re just trying to provide healthy food to people with a lot of dietary restrictions and that means not too much salt, not too much fat and not too much spice. That generally doesn’t lead to something too yummy.

Both my parents have spent time at the Center for Extended Care on University Drive. My dad, Robert Gonter, was never a picky eater and he would chow down on the chicken patty sandwich with creamed spinach like it was the greatest thing he ever ate. Both foods he would have never touched a home. (He did tell them never to serve him stewed tomatoes again.)

My mother, Marilyn Gonter, at one time was picky about having tea with her meals and it was hard to get them to move away from coffee during her last stay at the Center. Now that we got it straight, she no longer seems to care and drinks coffee each morning. Now, mom is just happy that she doesn’t have to eat her food blenderized.

Our long-time family friend, Clotilda Gawienowski, who also is staying at the Center, has made her preferences clear in the nursing home world. She wants to listen to John Denver music and videos much of the time and she wants bacon cheeseburgers from Wendy’s with fries a small chocolate Frostee.

In my mind, when you reach a certain age and you’ve spent a certain amount of time in a nursing home, no one should question what you crave. If it’s filet mignon with Bernaise sauce, fine, and if it’s a fast food meal, it’s just easier to provide.

So a bit hungry ourselves and knowing we were heading to the Center for a visit recently, my daughter and I picked up Ms. Gaw’s favorite meal, checking with her daughter and son-in-law about her preferences with her daughter before we got there.

At first, Ms. Gaw was occupied with the church service and I worried that her Frostee would not stay chilled and her burger would be hot enough. I need not have worried. She seemed delighted with both.
When someone you know and love is in a nursing home, it can be a struggle to find ways to make them happy. But watching my old neighbor eat that cheeseburger was a real lesson about living in the moment and appreciating the small things in life.

And also a lesson about how moving it is to make someone happy so easily. I’m thrilled to be able to provide the occasional bacon cheeseburger for a friend of the family. I wish I knew what would make my mom equally happy.

When I have a craving, I often just go get whatever I want. I don’t think much about this privilege, but I want to remind myself not to take it for granted. There are two things I like to indulge myself in these days: tiramisu at Whole Foods market and a burrito from Mission Cantina in South Amherst. I must remember to appreciate them as much as Mrs. Gawienowski appreciated her burger.