DeVeaux

Stay on the Canadian side. Niagara Falls, NY is my hometown, but it is a dump. Do go over to the American side to eat at Fortuna's Italian Restaurant, though - it's hard to find, but just go ask some one along Pine Avenue. The same Family has owned it for about 40 years, and I went to school with the current owner.

We had a Pop Shoppe in Niagara Falls, NY - I really liked it, because my sister, brother and I could each pick out the type of pop we wanted. My favourite Canadian food was the Chip Wagon on Queen Street in Niagara Falls, ON. In the summer, thsi guy had a wagon with deep fat fryers that would be parked on Queen Street, selling cones of chips made from scratch - you could smell the chips from blocks away, and just HAD to go over and get some - no ketchup, only vinegar & salt, and a little wooden two-tine fork to eat the chips out of the paper cone as you walked along. I can still taste them.

We had a Red barn across from Campus in East Lansing, too, and it was open really late. I rememer we went over there from Abbott Hall one Saturday night in 1971 and took the following poll: "Do you think there was any speed in what you took tonight?"

I can remember Red Barn, Carrol's and Henry's Hamburgers in Niagara Falls, NY when I was a kid. I remember when they opened the first McDonald's, too - hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, shakes and soda, sold at the outside counter to go.

I think that the next season of Hell's Kitchen should feature Gordon running a new McDonalds in an inner-city location, where surly teenagers who don't want to work get to bitch-slap Gordon when he screams and insults them. Sample dialogue: "At least I didn't get cut by Rangers, beeatch" and "Yo - Scottish boy! My knife is bigger than your knife". The winner will get to shoot Gordon in the ass in a drive-by.

Thanks. It looks like Channelside is just a short walk from the Marriott, so I'll have to check out Tina's Tapas Sunday night. I just found out that we're having out Board of Directors' dinner in Ybor at the Columbia Tuesday night, and they said we're taking the trolley there, so I'm looking forward to that.

Thanks. I read that there was a trolley to Ybor City from the Waterfront area - does it run on weekday evenings? Is the Columbia Restaurant any good there? Their web site looked interesting. The sushi sounds good, but I doubt the rest of the gang from Kansas will want to go there. They nearly had a stroke a couple of years ago when I ordered cabrito in San Antonio. Bern's might be right up their alley.

Thanks all for the underwhelming response.

It happened at the Holiday Inn Restaurant in Niagara Falls, NY back when I was in college. Believe me, we did not get any wine connaisseurs there wanting to "carafer" their wine. We got dumb-ass tourists who couldn't pronounce big fancy words.

I'm going to Tampa for the first time from 7/21 to 8/2 for a conference. Does anyone know anywhere good to eat around the Marriott Waterside? We won't have cars, so we'll be looking to walk or ride public transport.

My fave was a guy who ordered a "car-fay" ( we assumed he meant carafe) of our best wine to impress his date. Such ignorance is not limited to foodies - I once asked a clerk in a large record shop if they had Bruce Cockburn's new record in yet - he looked at me like I was a cretin and said, Actually, it's pronounced "COCK-BURN". I replied that actually, in Canada where Bruce is from, it's pronounced "CO-BURN" - ans asked if he grew up on the Canadian border like I did.

Ty-Phoo is my regular morning tea. I make a pot to drink with breakfast every morning. I get it at Brit's in Lawrence, KS.

I liked the old guy in Seattle who claimed that he knew what pressure in a kitchen was because he cooked for friends at home. Whadda Maroon. Also enjoyed the snotty woman who went to the CIA but never worked as a chef and wanted to be a food critic - talk about clueless with an attitude. I also saw several that should not be allowed to play with sharp knives. I think that Trump would be a good addition to the Judges panel - "Make me the most fabulous, most expensive, most luxurious food in the whole world - we can call it Whatever a la Trump and it'll sell a million units. As for you - George says you can't get along with the dishwashers - I need team players in my kitchen - you're 86'd"

I can just hear Bourdain: "Yeah Rachael - I got your YUMMO right here".

Phaelon- Your Father sounds familiar. My Irish Mother pitched a fit whenever my Italian Step-Father made his homemade red sauce, because she refused to eat sauce with "green crap" (basil, italian parsley, oregano, etc.) floating in it. She felt that sauce should be poured out of a Ragu jar and served. Needless to say, my sauce is homemade, with lots of green crap in it.

Sacre- Oh, yeah, Michaels Restaurant. They used to be open after the bars closed, and it was THE place to go eat after drinking all night for good, inexpensive Italian food. I remember La Hac, too, mostly because my parents and their friends thought it was a great place back in the '50's.

Philadining- That was always one of the high points of going to Elmira - my Great Aunt Alice always had all the cousins over for a pizza party at her house - it was across the street from St. Casimir's - we'd sit on her front porch and pig out on Pudgy's.

Pahelon- Well, we've got Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's. All bland chain pizza. I ate Pudgy's as a kid, when any pizza you got was good, so my memory might be hazy, but I've always prefered locally owned pizza to chains. Sacre- No, I think that's Mom's Coffee Shop. Mom's Pizza was on 56th Street, off Buffalo Avenue, in a house where the family lived upstairs - it may not be there anymore.

Upstate NY pizza might not be considered great, but even the pizza we got from Pudgy's when visiting my Grandma in Elmira beat the hell out of chain pizza here in Kansas. Gordon- Pizza in the Falls differs depending on where you go - the pizza at Mom's in LaSalle was thick, square and had very sweet sauce, much different from the thin, crispy pizza at Buzzy's. I remember Bocce Club had the best pizza in Buffalo, but since we moved away in 1978, I have no idea what is still in business.

Can you get those nasty Rochester white hots in NYC?

As a native Western New Yorker, I thought I'd see how posting about other parts of the State went over. Anyway, I nominate Buzzy's Pizza in my hometown, Niagara Falls. Thin crust pizza that I loved since I was a kid.

I worked summers as a cook in a hotel restaurant in Niagara Falls while in high school - we were an Italian/steakhouse sort of place. The Chef left a huge pot of his red sauce simmering for the evening's service, and went home. Some one said they must have bumped the controls on the range while we were working, and turned the fire up to to high. When we finally smelled somthing and turned it down, black flakes came up when we stirred it, and it tasted really nasty. The night cook asked the front desk who we had in the house that night, and the front desk said "two busloads of Japanese tourists". So we were directed to strain out the black stuff, put it in a new pot and use it. All the Japanese guests ordered "Italian spaghetti and Budweiser" for dinner, and they loved it! The waiters kept coming into the kitchen to tell us they all were thrilled with how "zesty" the sauce was.

A friend of mine and I had dinner at his Aunt & Uncle's house in Circleville, Kansas. She made "lasagna". It was made with cottage cheese rather than ricotta, which she had never heard of. Layers of lasagna noodles, cottage cheese and Hunt's "Eye-talian" sauce. I was, needless to say, "too full" for seconds, and my Italian Step-Father back in New York was aghast when I described this to him.

I don't see any mention of an Irish breakfast for tomorrow. Anyone ever had one? I tried an Irish breakfast in Chicago once - I could live with the potatos and fried tomatos, but have never eaten anything as ghastly as the black pudding and white pudding. I'll be putting granola in me Irish tummy come tomorrow mornin' instead of that shite.

Diet Vernor's. The best, hands down.