Zenon Taverna Greek Restaurant, Zum Stammtisch German Restaurant, and Smokin' Al's BBQ Restaurant Reviews.. along with MORE CAKES!

My cousin's been talking about this Greek Restaurant in Astoria that her friend's family owns. They have this thing on their menu where it's $22.95 per person and it's like a fish sampler. I must say, it was quite good! It's called "Psaromezedes - Fish Meze" and it includes ALL this:

Scordalia - Garlic Dip (Mashed potatoes with fresh garlic, extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice),
Taramosalada - Red Caviar Dip (Mashed potatoes with red caviar, extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice),
Pantzarosalada - Beet Salad (Freshly sliced beets and fresh garlic with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar),
Thalassinosalada - Seafood Salad (Kalamari, crab meat, shrimp and celery with extra virgin olive oil and white vinegar),
Octapodaki Salada - Octopus Salad (Fresh baby octopus with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar) and
Patatosalada - Potato Salad (Boiled sliced potatoes, green peppers and onions with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar)




Diganito Kalamari - Fried Squid (Fried tender fresh calamari seasoned with oregano, extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon zest)



Octapodaki - Octopus (Char-grilled tender octopus topped with oregano extra virgin olive oil and vinegar)
Kalamari - Squid (Char-grilled tender fresh calamari seasoned with oregano, extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon zest. It can be deep-fried in vegetable oil)
Garides sta Karvouna - Shrimp Char-grilled (Char-grilled large shrimp seasoned with oregano, extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon zest. It can be deep-fried in vegetable oil)




Manitaria Yemista - Stuffed Mushrooms (Broiled mushrooms stuffed with crabmeat)
Solomos - Salmon Filet (Broiled salmon seasoned with oregano and extra virgin olive oil)
Psari Fileto - Filet of Fish (Broiled filet of fish with scampi sauce.)



Here is their info:
Zenon Taverna
3410 31st Ave
Astoria, NY 11106
(718) 956-0133
www.zenontaverna.com

THEN, our friend has been talking about this AWESOME German Restaurant in Glendale called Zum Stammtisch O..M...G... was the food GOOD...

We started with freshly baked hot bread..




For my main entree, I ordered the Jagerschnitzel, which is breaded veal cutlet topped with a sauce made from fresh mushrooms and veal stock. SO GOOD. (Cost $21.95 and worth every penny.)



My husband got the "3 Sausages - which were grilled and served with sauerkraut and potato salad (Cost $18.95) Also VERY good.



And our friend got the slow cooked pork leg I think? It's not on the daily menu - was a special of the day but it was SOOoo tender and fell off the bone.



Then for dessert we got the American Cheesecake and hand made apple strudel ala mode. VERY good...




Needless to say, I will DEFINITELY be going back..

Here is their info:
Zum Stammtisch
6946 Myrtle Ave
Glendale, NY 11385
(718) 386-3014
www.zumstammtisch.com

Last but not least, my husband was craving bbq so I googled "good bbq" and found that there was a bbq place out in Massapequa called "Smokin' Al's."




For appetizer we ordered the burnt ends.. REALLY good. It sat on fried onion peels.



Then for entrees, we got half a rack of the St. Louis bbq ribs and pulled pork with sides: mac & cheese, baked beans and cole slaw. Sides were all very good. I got nauseous from all the bbq sauce by the time I had a rib and mouthful of pulled pork so my husband ate the rest. I would give it two thumbs up if I got the sauce on the side. All in all - very good. Service was excellent and the price was decent.






Here is their info:
Smokin' Al's
4847 Merrick Road
Massapequa Park, NY
516-799-4900
http://www.smokinals.com

And now... time for CAKES..

Made a wine bottle cake for my girl Tracy ( : I wanted to make something that resembled what she liked - and it was a toss up between a wine bottle and a suitcase (since she loves to travel..) And since I made a suitcase before, I thought I'd give a wine bottle a shot.







Not bad for a first try eh?

And then of course we have all the 1st birthdays cakes. ( :








I love them all ( :

VACATION OVER... ) :

Hi Everyone! Christine is back in NY! It was a long needed vacation, considering I Haven't been away with the hubs in over 5 years but it was also extremely tiring. Although I wasn't the one driving, even just sitting there for THREE whole days without a night's rest was tiring and aggravating. I'm glad I did it but I don't think I'll be doing it ever again. Thank GOD we flew back home. So here's the jist of where I was headed, where I actually went to and where we didn't make it - along with all the yummy spots as well as all the not so yummies...

We first went to Thurmond, NC to visit my hub's aunt and uncle. Ever watch a scary movie where sisters marry brothers, people are dressed in jean overalls, straw hats and carry gun around, houses are located in cow fields - without an ASIAN in sight? This was the place! We stayed for a couple of hours and left before the sun went down. Then we were off to Georgia. Took us about 5 hours to reach the Vortex Bar and Grill in Georgia. We did NOT eat here b/c when we got there, the server told us that he JUST called last call 2 min. ago. Can I just say that I almost attacked the man?? I felt like telling him that I DROVE over 10 hours to get there! ARGH! We skipped Tom's BBQ in TN b/c we figured we'd get there at 2AM and they wouldn't be open so we skipped that place and headed straight for New Orleans Acme Oyster House.


We ordered the andouille sausage, which I could've done without but Boobserella loved it...


The baked oysters were AWESOME... Could've ate JUST this X10.



Then we ordered the mixed fried seafood po boy, which... wasn't so good. The roll was old and cold.. and they didn't put enough sauce so it was all dry and bleh...




The fried catfish was good at best. Boobserella loved it.


Walked straight back to the car and headed for Salt Lick in TX. Anyone who is looking to visit this place, I'm sorry but DON'T. Man Vs. Food and Guy Fieri doesn't mention that this place is a hike and a half to get to - not to mention that it's hard to find. And another tip - go in the daytime b/c there are NO lights during nightfall... The food was... good.. I suppose. Definitely not worth the drive. They also didn't have pulled pork or mac and cheese so I was a little disappointed.

When we left New Orleans and entered TX, it looked somewhat like this...



which turned to THIS...



When we FINALLY got there, they were about to close but were nice enough to let us sit and have a meal when we told them we drove all the way from NY..



We ordered the brisket, which was fairly tender, the beef ribs, which were very good and the sausage - VERY good but a bit salty. We ordered a side of bbq beans, cole slaw and potato salad - sides were all good. The dishes also came with 2 sauces, which the waiter poured all over my crotch.. -_-






We IMMEDIATELY scarfed the food down and skipped New Mexico and headed straight for the Heart Attack Grill in AZ.

Menu was fairly small - you order from different bypasses - single, double, triple, etc.


And yes, they forced everyone to wear hospital wristbands and clothing...






Of course I had to take a picture of the famous nurse waitresses.



I ordered the single bypass and Boobserella ordered the double. Fries were unlimited and yes, EVERYTHING was cooked in LARD...




Since we were so close to Las Vegas, we decided to leave Muscle Beach for another day and head straight to SIN CITY...

The first place we ate at on our list was BURGER BAR in MANDALAY BAY. The chef was Hubert Keller so the food had to be good.. and GOOD it was! They had a list of different types of meat and condiments you can put on your burger and then a list of different buns. I got the angus beef with provolone (I think) and portabello mushrooms on a toasted onion bun. SO good.



We ordered a side of onion rings and sweet potato fries. Sweet Potato Fries were as good as it would get and onio rings were yummy. ( :




For our first fancy dinner, we've always wanted to try Mesa Grill (Bobby Flay's Restaurant)
Lord knows I adore Bobby Flay but I was a bit disappointed... Sorry Bobby.

Decor was lovely..


We ordered the grilled octopus salad for an appetizer. Octopus was very tender but not enough of it...




Boobserella had the tuna steak. Tuna was cooked perfectly, although there were a total of 5 bites - and it sat on 3 tablespoons of cous cous...



I ordered the grouper, which was bland... and small. It sat on a couple of cherry tomatoes. I think the best part of my dish was the crispy squash blossom, which was deep fried and filled with some kind of cream cheese.



We went to see KA afterwards (which was AWESOME) and then went to the diner...

The next morning, we decided to try Hash House a Go Go. Rachael Ray, Guy Fieri and Adam from Man vs. Food all raved about this place and good it was! HUGE portions and the quality of - - even the eggs were awesome.

I got the belgium waffles and Boobserella got ONE pancake that was bigger than a medium pizza.






We later went another time and got the french toast, which automatically came with grilled bananas.



We also ate at Pink Taco in the Hard Rock Hotel, which was very good and fairly priced.

Boobserella decided he wanted to be "healthy" and got the salmon, which came with mashed potatoes and some vegies. It was good ( :




*I* on the other hand wanted the STEAK. That came with an enchilada filled with cheese and shredded chicken and some guacamole. Yummm...




Me and the hubs were walking around on the strip when I noticed this amazing cake shop! It's called the Amore Pattiserie by the Mandarin Oriental. It almost looks like a jewelry store. Something on the lines of what I'd like my future store to look like. Since it was so late, the store was closed - so I went again in the morning but didn't want to bother the pastry chef. Would've loved to meet him.










For our last dinner, I wanted to try Firefly Tapas. We were quickly seated and given menus and bread but no one came to take our order! 30 min. went by and the final straw was when 5 others were seated and we saw THEIR order taken immediately! We were so mad, we just got our stuff and left. We were both pondering where we could eat at such a late hour when we saw RUTH CHRIS - OPENED UNTIL 3AM. We quickly ran over and boyyyy was it the best steak I've had! So glad we went there...

We had fried calamari with a thai sauce as an appetizer...





Then Boobserella got the strip steak and I had the filet mignon which were both cooked to a perfect medium rare and OH SO TENDER...





And that's a wrap! We FLEW back to NY thank god... and I'm back to making cakes! ^_^