Garlic Festival

Hudson Valley Garlic Festival
Saugerties, NY

A Garlic Festival certainly counts as a flavor of NY, right? I heard about the annual Garlic Festival in Saugerties NY, last weekend of Sept, and knew immediately we had to go. Huge festival with endless samples and tastes of garlic flavors, plus an excuse to drive upstate a bit? Only $7 to boot? Awesome. I think I read that 50,000 people attended over the two days. It was huge!

A gorgeous day, bright blue skies, crisp fall air, tons of families and others, and TONS of food and garlic. The primary areas are the "Garlic Farmer's Market", featuring hundreds of booths with samples of different types of fresh garlic, as well as garlic-related or garlic-inspired foods. And you could TASTE so many things for your seven bucks worth! Cheeses, hot sauces, pesto, salad dressings, jams, olive oils, you name it. We of course left that day with many jars and flavors of our own, including a few different varieties of garlic. And yes, you could definitely taste the differences! We particularly liked the White German garlic, which had a pretty strong kick. Hubby used it for his chili which was delicious. Then there was the garlic food court area, with full meals for purchase. Pulled pork sandwich with roasted cloves of garlic, can't beat it. And had to try the infamous garlic ice cream! Not bad, was basically vanilla with little bits of caramelized garlic in it. Highly recommend this day out next time! And the surrounding areas were great to visit in the fall.

12th St Grill, the Slope

12th St Grill
1123 8th Ave
(718) 965-9526
Park Slope, Brooklyn

We've lived literally a couple of blocks from the 12th St Grill for 2 years, but had never made it there. Possibly because we are such Magnolia addicts. But looking for somewhere to go on a "date night", we finally made the commitment to stop and eat there.

It's definitely in the market to compete with a Magnolia-type offering, and has fairly nice ambiance with candles at night, there were a few other couples there, as well as a few with kids. The windows are huge, which makes for a different feel than Magnolia somehow--Magnolia feels a bit cozier, 12th St feels almost like you are sitting on the sidewalk even when inside--great for a sunny day, wasn't quite so cozy at night.

The menu definitely tempted our tastebuds with many flavors, though it was slightly higher than we'd like to pay on a regular basis. I started off with a Tuscan tomato bread soup which was hearty & tasty. My butternut squash ravioli was extremely rich and delicious, BUT as often is the case with ravioli, it was a very small dish, 4 small ravioli, not nearly enough for the price. Hubby got the pork tenderloin which was alright, but not super memorable. All in all it was good to have as an option in the neighborhood, but will not make me salivate in the future....

Olive Vine pizza & houmous

Olive Vine
362 15th St
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Phone: (718) 499-0555

We got Olive Vine last night, which is a very local spot featuring delicious Greek food. Their breads, pizza & pita are so fresh and delicious, great quality. For such an un-assuming place, the food is always great. Reminds me of spreads of turksish and greek snacks we used to get at a lot of great places in London. We had a plate with fresh houmous, tabouleh, black bean, and grape leaves, with fresh warm pita. And we shared the "olive vine pizza" which was to-die-for. Deliciously fresh veggies, a touch of mozzerella, fresh herbs and hints of cilantro; and great sauce. All must try the Olive Vine pizza. And very reasonable prices too. They have gyros and such that we haven't tried. Again, atmosphere is so-so; BYOB; but great flavors. It's all about the flavors.

Belgian Beer at Petite Abeille

Petite Abeille
401 East 20th St, NY NY
212-727-1505

Someone recently asked me, what's Belgian food like??? Well it's hard for me to imagine life before Belgian food ;), but oh yes, I do remember that point in time, probably about 7 years ago, before I had experienced Belgian beer, mussels, & chocolate on several various trips to Belgium. Sigh! We enjoyed a tasty meal at Petite Abeille; felt like a bit of a random location, but once inside plenty of character. Great specials on different nights of the week (1/2 price belgian beer on Mondays; 1/2 price wine on Tues; all-you-can-eat mussels on Wed; lobster night on Thurs), plenty of good beers on tap. The crew had some nice Leffe beer, and deals on big pots of mussels. I had those with bacon & beer, in a creamy sauce with celery. All you can eat, apparently! And of course, Belgian waffles for dessert. And yes, they serve their fries with mayonnaise, a la the real-deal, and yes I quite enjoyed it.

Blogsoop reviews of Petite Abeille