The Blog of Jason “Jayce” Olshefsky

I did get one question about the Macaroni and Cheese Off I hosted on Sunday, but otherwise, it was just a few friends. A friend of Ali’s who I see around once in a while is a great local chef; every year I’ve mentioned having some kind of best mac-and-cheese contest with him during the winter. And every year, January, February, and March slip by before I remember to organize it. I finally got to it this year in February … just before it ended.

We had four entries including my own. Every one was significantly different: mine was a pretty by-the-book cheddar/parmesan baked number, our chef friend brought one with prosciutto, another included condensed milk, and the final entry was chilled like macaroni salad. Amusingly enough, everyone picked different shaped pasta, too. We also had a couple people bring vegetables to counteract the starch/fat/salt wonderland. As it turned out, prosciutto (and expert cooking, presumably) wins but nothing loses.

Spell check has its own opinion

Ali and I went to Rocco (165 Monroe Ave., formerly The Olive Tree) for dinner and it was fantastic. We dropped in without a reservation and were happy to eat at the bar. Ali got the ziti with a side of meatballs which she loved — if I remember right: I was overwhelmed by the quality of my thick-cut pork chop special with parmesan cheese and a chili-spiced red sauce. Drinks, too, were excellent: the Stormy Monday was a great choice.  Ali even liked it despite that she otherwise hates the taste of bourbon. As it ended up, we were too full for dessert.

As regular readers know, I am often compelled to rant vociferously on one inane topic or another — particularly if there are other, more productive ways to address my grievances. This time it’s the Café at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) — and in two parts.

First, why the absence of regional treats? The inventory of the refrigerated case was recently changed to exclude Saranac or Stewart’s soft drinks, end even the milk is inexplicably not from Byrne dairy, Pittsford Dairy, nor even Upstate Farms. Heck, The Little (240 East Ave.) offers treats from both Stever’s Candies, Inc. (623 Park Ave.) and The Nut House (1520 Monroe Ave.) — a welcome respite from the chemical sludge inside colorful corporate wrappers. At least the gelato comes from The Royal Café (15 North Main St., Fairport) and the cookies are baked in-house (and, if I recall correctly, locally made as well).

Second, what’s up with these Best of Rochester bars they sell? They are chocolate bars — and I am emphatically surrounding chocolate with sarcastic air-quotes … er, I guess then I mean they are “chocolate” bars whose label features a suitably bland image of the city skyline. It takes some audacity indeed to claim these as the best Rochester has to offer — I mean, what of Stever’s Candies, Inc. (623 Park Ave.), Hedonist Artisan Chocolates (674 South Ave.), or even the sweet old Peter’s Sweet Shop (880 S. Clinton Ave.); each of those are not only better, they offer some real excellence. Attempting to affect bizarre upstate city rivalry, I’ll say it must be made by someone in Buffalo or Syracuse (where, perhaps, this might be considered “best”). More likely [and a more bizarre attempt to affect Monroe county township rivalry] is that they were made by some ignorant suburbanite who sees Rochester not as a vibrant, muti-cultured mini-metropolis, but the root of problems their leeching ways have caused.

They are sold by a company doing business as Made in Rochester in this area: a storefront for distributing locally sold products. Why the presumably identical candy bar (which is definitively not made in every city on their site, and “best” of none of them) is also sold is a mystery. Then again, I possess equal measures of congratulations and disgust: for this site caters to people with more money than, at best, desire to stay — five 6-packs of Zweigles hots sells for $65 for instance. There must be a word for the financial abuse of a population all too glad to pay: usury? good business? — it’s hard to say anything but both.

Ali and Christina each made a dish for the “Ramen-Off” at Monty’s Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) I tagged along although I didn’t make anything — but, heck, a tasting and a couple beers was just a few bucks. All the dishes were surprisingly creative, although most were based on substituting ramen noodles for other kinds of pasta. Nonetheless, the Thai-peanut dish that Jeff brought was the crowd favorite among the 14 entries. Judges, however, chose Ali’s “Lucky Sombreros”: baked spicy ramen wafers topped with chicken, guacamole, and sour cream (not that Ali’s weren’t popular: her dish was the first to be emptied). So congratulations, Ali and Jeff! We’ll look forward to next year’s competition.

Since I’m trying to lose the weight I gained last week getting stuffed (perhaps just in time for Thanksgiving when I’ll put it back on again) I peeked at the Chocolate Mousse [flavored] Peeps label to see what I was getting into:

Very small cats, indeed.

I guess the label copy writers got the last laugh on that one. In case you’re wondering, they weren’t half bad. They actually had a chocolaty flavor over the regular mushy dust flavor you expect of Peeps. Of course, I think I didn’t read the whole label so I might have made a terrible mistake:

Let's hope it's also food.

The other day, I met the drummer for The Beaumonts. He mentioned playing in Hypnotic Clambake and I knew that JoAnn Vaccaro also played with them (among a cast of thousands, I guess) so I had seen him again at the show last weekend. Well, we got to talking about The Beaumonts and Rochester people, and he mentioned that Marianne Buckley would be in town and would be playing with them today. I had known Marianne (and Steve from The Beaumonts) for years — they were among the first people I ever met in Rochester in the “music scene”.

So today I’m at Village Gate Square (274 N. Goodman St.) to see the band. I discovered it was an event called Taste of the Gate by a group called Rochester A-List. Their deal is that if you sign up for the mailing list of the “best” events in Rochester and had RSVPed for the Taste of the Gate event, it would have been $10 instead of $15. I gathered that some or all of the money collected went to an adoption service which was there and had a raffle as well.

The event was — I guess — a way for restaurants at Village Gate to showcase their food. California Rollin’ at Village Gate Square (274 N. Goodman St.) took it seriously and produced a great number of sushi rolls. Salena’s (274 N. Goodman St., at Village Gate), I believe, provided a chicken wing tray with a kind of salsa sauce that was quite good. And although I only hovered near their table for part of the time, as best I can tell, The Gate House (274 N. Goodman St., in the Village Gate; formerly Salena’s location) put out two sandwiches and (possibly) a pizza. Nonetheless, the $15 “buffet” wasn’t much of a deal for the 200 or so people who were there.

Well anyway, The Beaumonts were excellent. They play a sort of rock with a ska-ish fluidity. Steve’s influence in the band is at the forefront, and their CD is (so far) fantastic. Plus, I got to chat with my old pal Marianne — formerly of White Cotton Panties. I wore the T-shirt for the band that I had autographed at Norton’s Pub (1730 Goodman St.) or some such place. It’s sure been a while …

Ali and I stopped by Paola’s Burrito Place (1921 South Ave., formerly Big Dog’s Hots) for dinner. There’s only two weeks left before they close to move back home for personal reasons. The good news, though, is that the owners plan to return to Rochester and open a new restaurant by next year. The new place will have a slightly different theme and — hopefully — more hired staff so they don’t have to spend every waking hour doing all the work.

Ali and I took the 50-mile drive to Chimney Bluffs State Park (7700 Garner Rd., Wolcott) for the afternoon with our dog, Lucy. The park is really nice and interesting: a moderately challenging [and, at this time, incredibly muddy], 1-mile trail that climbs to the top of alien-looking “earthen spires”. It’s a peculiar treasure around here: I have yet to mention it to someone who already knew about it.

On the way back, we stopped for dinner at Orbaker’s Drive-In (4793 State Route 104, Williamson) which is this great burger joint that’s been there forever. Ali knew of it — being an aficionado of sauce-laden burgers — and rates it very highly. While not quite worth a trip from anywhere, it’s not that far if you’re already out 104 on the east side.

Today is the day Ali and I first met three years ago … who can believe it? Huh? You?

Anyway, we went to the new Italian place Rocco (165 Monroe Ave., formerly The Olive Tree). I saw some notes on RocWiki on challenges in getting reservations [yeah, I know — in Rochester] so we set up ours two days earlier. As it turned out, the relatively small establishment was not completely full at any time while we were there.

The food was very good. Both of us were more impressed with the lasagne that Ali got than with the penne with pepper and spinach that I got. The tomato sauce on the former was the best Rochester has to offer. We had a nice bottle of wine (off the slightly confusing page of “everything is $25″).

We decided to try 3 desserts, expecting them to be quite modest in size. My favorite was the maple and almond dish, sort of like a crème brûlée, minus the crisp top. The hazelnut gellato was great too. Although the canoli’s were merely tasted (before being stored at my house, and consumed before they lost their freshness on Sunday), the nice lemon zest flavor was perfect.

I headed to the Rundel Auditorium in The Rochester Public Library (115 South Ave.) a little late for Thursday Thinkers. Elizabeth Henderson had already started speaking on the topic, Locally Grown: Green and Economically Viable? She farms at Peacework Organic Farm (2218 Welcher Rd., Newark).

The farm itself is owned by The Genesee Land Trust, Inc. (500 East Ave.) and leased to the farm for long-term use necessary to maintain organic methods. The farm offers people the opportunity to experience farming and to get 7 to 11 items of fresh vegetables for a full 6-month season from May 21 through November 15. The monetary cost is small, but it also requires 12 hours of farming in 3 4-hour morning shifts.

The farm is certified organic, meaning they use techniques of replenishing and recycling rather than using chemical pesticides and commercial fertilizers. They use cover crops like buckwheat to keep weeds down and to keep the soil healthy and nutrient-rich. They also maintain a “microherd” of microorganisms that work the soil year-round. In addition, they monitor reports from other farms and agricultural organizations to prepare for particular kinds of pests. Once, for instance, they sprayed their potato plants with copper to block a late blight — one of a few chemical-oriented approaches they take. More often, though, it’s a matter of understanding the balance of flora and fauna to keep pest populations at bay.

They offer a Mayday Celebration on May 2 this year including a potluck dinner. In addition to Peacework Organic Farm (2218 Welcher Rd., Newark), check out The Genesee Valley Organic Community-Supported Agriculture (GVOCSA) for a similar program.