When Kevin and I were back in Pittsburgh two weeks ago, we made our rounds to check out all of the "Pittsburgh" food that we miss so much. Primanti Bros, Eat' N Park, Tokyo Sushi and Buffet (I know, this isn't exactly Pittsburgh food but I love the sushi there!)...you get the idea. Another thing that I really really miss from Western PA is pierogies! Boy, I used to look forward to "Pierogies Night" every Wednesday at the dining hall, back when we were still in college. It was so so so gooooooood! If there is a type of food that you MUST try while you are in Pittsburgh (apart from Primantis, of course!), it has to be pierogies! You can be sure that people from da Burgh take their pierogies seriously. They even have pierogie races during inning breaks at the Pirates games!! Sooooo, naturally we must not leave Pittsburgh before getting our hands on some yummy pierogies.
Pierogies Plus is probably one of the more popular pierogie shops in Pittsburgh, known for their authentic, made from scratch pierogies. Kevin wasn't really in the mood to drive all the way to McKees Rocks just for pierogies so I tried to google for somewhere nearer. I then found Forgotten Taste. They claim to have the best pierogies in all of Southern PA, so we decided to give it a try. They have three outlets around the greater Pittsburgh area and we went to the one in Wexford. Since it was located at the strip mall at the Village at Pine, there were ample free parking right at it's doorstep. Please note that the signboard of their shop doesn't say "Forgotten Taste" but just plain "Pierogies" in bold red. I guess they know what they are famous for!
The store isn't really all that large. You just have to walk up to the counter and order whatever that you want. Then, you can either grab a table (there are not that many though) and wait for them to bring up your food to you or you can just wait (if you are getting it to go). Most of the food are pre cooked, so it doesn't take long at all. What I like about the place is how they have pictures of everything on their menu, hanging up on the wall. This way, you know exactly what you will be getting. Since Kevin's mom was back home and we needed to get lunch for her too, we ordered our food to go.
Both Kevin and his mom each got the Meal #6 ($6.69). One Stuffed Pepper with Tomato Sauce, Haluski and four pieces of Potato & Cheese Pierogies with butter and onions. The Smoked Polish Keilbasa ($3.49) that you see in the picture is actually half of what we ordered from the a la carte menu. As you can see from the menu, most of the food from Pittsburgh has Polish/Czech/Eastern European influence. You might be wondering why. Well, in the later half of the 1800s, large numbers of Polish immigrants settled in Pittsburgh due to the steel industry. I am guessing that it must have started from then. In case you didn't know, Kevin's ancestors (from his dad's side) probably came to America right about then too.
I ordered the Meal #3 ($6.99) which was one Stuffed Cabbage with Tomato Sauce, Haluski and four pieces of Potato & Cheese Pierogies with butter and onions. Also, you can see the other half of the Polish Keilbasa that I was sharing with Kevin in the picture. I must say that I really enjoyed my meal. The stuffed cabbage was really good and so was the Haluski. Oh, for those of you who don't know, Haluski is actually thick soft noodles made from flour, egg and water. It is then boiled, rolled in oil or butter and then served with vegetables or meat. The Haluski that we had was served with cabbage.
Since this was a pierogies place, we HAD to order more pierogies. Four pieces each just wasn't enough! So, we ordered an extra half dozen of Beef and Mushroom Pierogies ($5.90). You could either get it with the traditional butter and onions, with tomato sauce or you could get it deep fried. Also, if you are planning to keep it for another day, you could buy them frozen. Apart from Beef and Mushroom, they also have a whole lot of other different fillings. You can check it out here. I must say that the pierogies from Forgotten Taste is really really good. We must remember to head out there again the next time we are back in Pittsburgh. Oh, and if you are planning to do so, you might want to head out there on Mondays and Wednesdays. They are currently having a promotion where all meals are just $4.99 on Mon and Wed!!
Pierogies Plus is probably one of the more popular pierogie shops in Pittsburgh, known for their authentic, made from scratch pierogies. Kevin wasn't really in the mood to drive all the way to McKees Rocks just for pierogies so I tried to google for somewhere nearer. I then found Forgotten Taste. They claim to have the best pierogies in all of Southern PA, so we decided to give it a try. They have three outlets around the greater Pittsburgh area and we went to the one in Wexford. Since it was located at the strip mall at the Village at Pine, there were ample free parking right at it's doorstep. Please note that the signboard of their shop doesn't say "Forgotten Taste" but just plain "Pierogies" in bold red. I guess they know what they are famous for!
The store isn't really all that large. You just have to walk up to the counter and order whatever that you want. Then, you can either grab a table (there are not that many though) and wait for them to bring up your food to you or you can just wait (if you are getting it to go). Most of the food are pre cooked, so it doesn't take long at all. What I like about the place is how they have pictures of everything on their menu, hanging up on the wall. This way, you know exactly what you will be getting. Since Kevin's mom was back home and we needed to get lunch for her too, we ordered our food to go.
Both Kevin and his mom each got the Meal #6 ($6.69). One Stuffed Pepper with Tomato Sauce, Haluski and four pieces of Potato & Cheese Pierogies with butter and onions. The Smoked Polish Keilbasa ($3.49) that you see in the picture is actually half of what we ordered from the a la carte menu. As you can see from the menu, most of the food from Pittsburgh has Polish/Czech/Eastern European influence. You might be wondering why. Well, in the later half of the 1800s, large numbers of Polish immigrants settled in Pittsburgh due to the steel industry. I am guessing that it must have started from then. In case you didn't know, Kevin's ancestors (from his dad's side) probably came to America right about then too.
I ordered the Meal #3 ($6.99) which was one Stuffed Cabbage with Tomato Sauce, Haluski and four pieces of Potato & Cheese Pierogies with butter and onions. Also, you can see the other half of the Polish Keilbasa that I was sharing with Kevin in the picture. I must say that I really enjoyed my meal. The stuffed cabbage was really good and so was the Haluski. Oh, for those of you who don't know, Haluski is actually thick soft noodles made from flour, egg and water. It is then boiled, rolled in oil or butter and then served with vegetables or meat. The Haluski that we had was served with cabbage.
Since this was a pierogies place, we HAD to order more pierogies. Four pieces each just wasn't enough! So, we ordered an extra half dozen of Beef and Mushroom Pierogies ($5.90). You could either get it with the traditional butter and onions, with tomato sauce or you could get it deep fried. Also, if you are planning to keep it for another day, you could buy them frozen. Apart from Beef and Mushroom, they also have a whole lot of other different fillings. You can check it out here. I must say that the pierogies from Forgotten Taste is really really good. We must remember to head out there again the next time we are back in Pittsburgh. Oh, and if you are planning to do so, you might want to head out there on Mondays and Wednesdays. They are currently having a promotion where all meals are just $4.99 on Mon and Wed!!
Forgotten Taste Famous Pierogies
11978 Route 19 Village at Pine,
Wexford, PA, 15090
Tel: (724)940 2277
Web: http://forgottentaste.com/
The rest of the buffet was split up into various cuisines. There is the Italian -where you can try out many different types of pasta and pizzas, the Asian - a selection of dim sum, sushis, makis and quite a number of different Chinese dishes, the Bar-B-Que - there were all kinds of roasted meats and a carving station and the American - some good ol American comfort food like mashed sweet potato, green bean casseroles, creamed spinach, basically all the popular traditional American Christmas food :D There is also a huge Dessert bar with all kinds of Christmas goodies.
Oh, there is also a Mongolian section. You just pick the type of noodles and vegetables that you want, choose the sauce that you like and the type of meat ( you get to choice of beef, chicken, pork, shrimp and/or scallops). I chose yellow noodles, some mushrooms, a few different kinds of vegetables, teriyaki sauce with scallops and shrimps. Then the guy will fry it up for you on the traditional Mongolian hot plate. Pretty cool eh? The guy was so liberal on the scallops, I swear, he dumped in more than 30 pieces of bay scallops! Don't get me wrong, I love scallops...but this is wayyyyyyyy too much :P
After filling up on the buffet, we just walked around (to digest all those food) and took photos of the nice decorations. We could also enjoy the amazing view from various parts of the casino. We then headed down to the the casino floor to check it out. It's not really that interesting, since there were only machine games (PA doesn't allow table games). After losing 10 buckaroos on the slots, we decided to call it a night and headed home. We had a great Christmas dinner and my mother in law even said " Hmmm, maybe this can be a new Christmas tradition..." :D
This is a very backdated restaurant review. I initially didn't want to write about this anymore but I enjoyed the food there so much that I just had to write this review. We were on our way to Pittsburgh for Nick's confirmation when we decided to stop at Cracker Barrel in Fogelsville, Pennsylvania (somewhere off the Interstate, near Allentown) for dinner. We have always seen many Cracker Barrels along the way whenever we drive to home to Pittsburgh but this is the first time we are actually stopping at one.
Our server handed us the menu and boy! it was a hugeee menu. There were so many yummy country style dishes to choose from. It took us quite a while to decide what to order :P
We finally placed our order and our server brought out some country biscuits as well as some home made corn muffin. It was served with real butter and a whole bowl filled with all kinds of jam and honey. The muffin wasn't really the best, it was just alright. The biscuit however was the bomb! Really buttery and nice, very very good! We tried the biscuits with all the different types of jam..mmm mmm mmm.
They even have games on each table for the customers to keep themselves busy while waiting for the food. We of course were keeping ourselves busy by stuffing our faces with the biscuits and muffin, so we didn't really have time to check out the games.
It didn't take too long for our dinner to arrive. Kevin ordered the Meatloaf Dinner, which comes with a thick cut of Meatloaf made with tomatoes, green peppers and onions. He had a choice of three country sides and he chose the Whole Kernel Corn, Country Green Beans and Fried Apples. He said that they were all really good and he enjoyed the whole dinner lots.
Since everything looked so good on the menu, I ordered the Cracker Barrel Sampler. A small selection of their three most famous dishes. Half a slice of Meatloaf, half a slice of Sugar Cured Ham and some of their famous Chicken n Dumplins. I just love their Chicken n Dumplins. Pieces of chicken tenderloin and dumplins that were hand made from scratch, slowly simmered in country chicken stock. Reallllly hearty and good. I also had a choice of three sides and I chose the Fried Apples (bad choice, I didn't really like it), Country Green Beans and Breaded Fried Okra. The fried apples tasted like commercial apple pie filling, so I didn't really like it that much. However, the green beans and okra rocked my world! It's really good, especially the okra.
After dinner, we took a walk in their gift shop. The whole place oozes of country charm. They had all kinds of apparel, boots and cowboy hats, Paula Deans cookbooks, old fashioned baked goods as well as old time candy! I felt like buying everything! At last we bought some chocolate covered walnuts and Dad's Root Beer hard candy to eat along the way to Pittsburgh.
As we left the restaurant, we noticed that they even had hand made rocking chairs on sale at their verandah. Man, if we had a southern style ranch house with a big verandah, we would definitely get a few rocking chairs. It would be so cool to just sit outside on the rocking chair, sipping ice tea and watching the sunset :P Overall, I'm glad we stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner. It was a pleasant break from the long journey and it's always good to eat some hearty 'home cooked' country style food. If only there was a Cracker Barrel somewhere nearer to our apartment. I should bring this franchise to Malaysia, anybody want to invest and be my partner? :P
The first story is pretty funny actually. Well, funny if you know the guy that had the ghostly experience. He is Malaysian (my fellow Penang lang) and he used to share an apartment with Kevin and another guy. Let's just call him J. This happened the semester before J moved in with Kevin. This happened in one of the apartments above the 700 Shop at the corner of Philly and 7th St. It was pretty late at night when J got home. When he opened his room door, he saw a solid apparition of a man, dressed in braces, staring out of the window. It took him a few seconds to register that it was not human and without thinking twice, he dashed out of his apartment and onto the rooftop of his building. He then went to knock on the window of another fellow Malaysian who was living a few apartments away from him (scared the living daylights out of that boy) to let him in. My other friend said that J was like totally white in shock. J is the kind of guy that is afraid to even talk about ghost stories, let alone experience it! He of course stayed the night at the other friends apartment. The funny thing is, after that night, he never saw it ever again. He also said that the apartment doesn't really have a creepy feeling or anything of that sort. Maybe it was a passing spirit? Who knows.... 