Bistro 135 Restaurant Review

135 West Commercial St.
East Rochester, NY
(585) 662-5555

Bistro 135 is back! We used to like this restaurant a lot, but with various changes in ownership and the kitchen, it seemed a bit off the last few times we dined there. But after reading that a new chef had recently joined the staff, we gave it another try.

The verdict? The food was great, the service was a little lax. But it is definitely a place we will visit again.

We ate in a side dining room away from the jazz band, which has in the past been too loud for the venue. There is a nice courtyard for outdoor dining, and a number of people were enjoying the rare sunny summer weather outside.

Even though we sampled the tasty fresh bread, served with a dish of spiced olive oil, we couldn't pass up trying an appetizer. Three of us split an order of the Parmesan and herbes pommes frites- French fries to us English-speakers. But these were not your typical fast-food French fries. Thin strips of potato were coated with a delicious, crunchy Parmesan coating. The accompanying spiked ketchup was too spicy for me, but the garlic aioli was the perfect - if high-calorie- accompaniment. It was a huge plate - plenty even for three to share.

Meals also come with salad, which was the only not-so-good course. The sizable plates included a mass of field greens, tomato wedges, cucumbers and croutons. Next time I will order dressing on the side, as even the balsamic dressing was on the thick side, and definitely over-abundant.

Our favorite college student ordered the pecan chicken, a choice that has been on the menu through various staff and ownership changes. It is served with a bourbon cream sauce over a bed of spinach, and a castle of crispy French-fried onion strings. The substitution of garlic smashed potatoes for the usual sweet potato mash was easily accommodated.

Tim ordered the strip steak, which the menu describes as being served with "crispy onion rings and garlic smashed potatoes and vegetables." He was expecting the same onion rings that accompanied Laura's dish, but alas, two rather ordinary battered and fried onion rings topped his plate. The steak was seared, flavorful and cooked as ordered, but perhaps could have used a little more trimming.

I had the drunken pork kebabs - tender morsels of pork tenderloin alternating with onions over a delicous corn and bacon creamy mixture. (Good thing they don't post calorie counts on the menu!) I also substituted the garlic smashed for the sweet potato mash. A few tastes of our meals and we were ready to wrap everything for lunch the next day.

But not without sampling a dessert - in the interest of all our faithful blog readers, of course. We sampled what I think was called an "apple roll-up" -- pastry wrapped over a chunky apple filling, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon and served with ice cream and whipped cream. How can you go wrong with a combination like that?

More visits are in our future, if only to try out the Parmesancrusted oven roasted Chilean sea bass and the Kobe burger smothered in Montery Jack and caramelized onions. Mmmm!

Bamba Bistro Restaurant Review

282 Alexander St.
Rochester, NY
(585) 244-8680

We recently dined at Bamba Bistro to celebrate our anniversary, and had a great experience. The valet parking initially turned me off, as it seemed a leftover from its previous incarnation as the very high-end, formal Rio Bamba. But inside, the atmosphere is casually elegant, with efficient and professional service. It can be a bit noisy - too many hard surfaces and high ceilings. But great food!

Make no mistake, in spite of its name, the Bamba Bistro is still a fine dining establishment, where you can order, if you so desire, a $170 bottle of wine, and entrees well into the $30 range. But there are also less expensive entree choices like the Bistro burger for $12, and veggie fettuccini for $16. The decor is classy with dark wood trim, arched ceiling and large, dramatic floral arrangements. And best of all, it's bright enough to read a menu, a plus for us middle-aged, visually challenged diners!

This being a special occasion, we went all out. Tim ordered the Artichokes Bamba appetizer, similar to the ubiquitous Artichokes French in many Rochester restaurants, but prepared with a subtle blend of lemon and garlic, and a light touch to the breading. Perfectly cooked, lovely presentation. I ordered the pineapple almond salad, which was served as a block of watercress and frisee greens. It was a nice mix of sweet, salty, and tangy, with a light touch to the dressing as well.

For entrees, I chose the Australian rack of lamb over spring vegetables, which this night included Brussels sprouts, carrots, beans and spinach. The four small chops were perfectly cooked and aromatic. Tim had his usual filet, which was also cooked to perfection (medium-rare, as ordered), served with a very tasty Bearnaise sauce - not too much or too heavy - along with potato puree.

We had to sample dessert - it was a special occasion after all. Tim, the lemon fan, tried the lemon curd tartlet, which was served with lavender chantilly cream (whatever that is!). It was pronounced delicious. I tried a sampling of the ice creams and sorbets, with two little scoops of peppermint ice cream and two of chocolate sorbet. They were truly yummy.

The meal was nicely paced for a special night out, although the multitude of waiters for different courses was disconcerting. We will definitely return for other special occasions - like perhaps, Friday night!

Label 7 Restaurant Review

50 State St.
Pittsford, NY
(585) 267-7500

Label 7 has become one of our favorite restaurants. Not too noisy, not too dim, good food, nicely presented. And with its pretty location on the canal in Pittsford, it is a great spot for outdoor summer dining, if summer ever comes! What more could you want?

The decor is casually elegant, with rattan chairs, white butcher paper over white tablecloths, and artsy flower arrangements and lighting fixtures. Vines, greenery, trellises, wicker, and wood floors give the dining area an open, airy feel. There are a few spots that are dimmer than others; if you're visually challenged by the combination of restaurant menus and dim light, avoid the area that is noticeably darker.

Service is leisurely but efficient. The waiter was able to easily answer all our questions about the menu, and did not write anything down when he took our order, which to me is an unnecessary and risky policy, but there were no fumbled orders.

We have tried a number of appetizers. Most of them are somewhat pricey. Note that there is no bread served with meals, although there is a choice of an artisan bread "small plate" for $4, served with tapenade and herb butter. On one occasion, my dining companion and I split the whole roasted garlic, which was indeed a whole bulb of surprisingly mild roasted garlic, served with caramelized brie and a massive plate of bread. It was enough for four people to split, really, but the two of us managed.

Another favorite "small plate" has been the beggar's purse pasta, which are small pouches of pasta filled with a cheese and pear mixture, and served with Gorgonzola cream, caramelized onions and pancetta. For $12, and the probably extraordinary calorie count, you're better off splitting that one too!

The menu also lists a number of "green plates," i.e. salads. We've sampled the Caesar ($6) , a mix of nice, crisp greens, a reasonable, that is, not too heavy, dose of garlicky dressing, served with a Parmesan crisp - I love that. On one recent visit, the grilled salad ($8) included fennel and Granny Smith apples, dressed lightly with a honey balsamic dressing. It was tasty and different. The wheat berry salad ($10) was a mound of wheat berries, vegetables and pancetta served along side a heaping pile of lightly dressed greens.

One of our favorites entrees is the lobster mac and cheese ($24), chunks of lobster meat baked with creamy tortiglioni - decadent. The last time I ordered it, someone at a nearby table saw it, and said, I want that! Another winner is the filet sampler ($29), tenderloin medallions served three ways: au piovre, Oscar (with asparagus and crab) , and Wellington (with pastry). We have also tried various specials that have been well-prepared, imaginative, and tasty.

Desserts are all made in-house, and they seem to change regularly. I thought the baked chocolate moussse served warm with a crusty edge and covered with whipped cream was great; my companion thought it missed the mark. We've also had an awesome (and generously-sized) pumpkin cheesecake served with cinnamon-sprinkled whipped cream and an almond creme brulee served with biscotti and whipped cream.

The economic times don't seem to have lessened the crowds at Label7. It continues to be a busy place, at least on weekend nights.

Creating a personalized cookbook

In our house, we love to eat, and we love to cook.

As the kids have grown up and moved off on their own, I frequently get requests for recipes. About a year ago, I started thinking that I should put together a cookbook for them, with all their favorites. So whenever I made one of the cookbook-worthy recipes, I tried to remember to take a picture of the finished dish, thinking that someday I would get my act together and create a recipe book for them.

It turns out there are several options besides a laser-printer, a 3-hole punch and a binder. The first website I discovered is lulu.com which enables you to self-publish virtually anything. There is a specialized cookbook option, which allows you to choose from three different layouts. There are also pictures available to use at a small charge (for example, $.30 to use as an interior image). There was a lot of flexibility in this approach, and the price was good - $25.95 for a hardcover book of up to 120 pages or $15.95 for a softcover book of up to 250 pages. But with flexibility comes complexity, and I was looking for simplicity.

When I discovered tastebook.com I found simplicity.

Tastebook.com allows you to select a cover, customize the title and dedication page, and to easily upload recipes from various partner sites like Cooking Light and Better Homes & Gardens. You can also create recipe pages of your own by typing into the interface provided, or cutting-and-pasting the ingredients and directions from a word document. Each recipe can include a title, description, yield, prep time, total time, and a note. It’s easy to load your own imagery and the images are resized appropriately. Pricing starts at $19.95 for 25 recipes, which includes a hardcover binder that holds up to 100 pages.For $29.95 you get up to 50 recipes. The pages are punched to fit the binder, and you can order additional pages for your cookbook later. If, for example, you create a book with 30 recipes (which I did), you have to purchase the 50-recipe option, but you get credits for 20 recipes to use later.

The easiest option is to find recipes from various companion websites, import them to your tastebook, and voila, you have a perfectly formatted cookbook, with imagery included. I never do anything that easy! I spent more time than I should have deciding which of my own recipes were book-worthy, endlessly editing, cropping and re-touching photos, and proofreading. In the end I submitted the order on December 6th, well before the December 12 deadline to use UPS ground shipping and still get the order by Christmas Eve. Everything went perfectly, and the order arrived December 18th. The only slight wrinkle wss that the recipe pages are all inserted at the end of the book, and I had to organize them myself into the various tabbed sections. The book also arrived gift-wrapped, which was a surprise.

All in all, it was worth the effort. And all those recipe credits? Guess what's in the works for next Christmas?

Losing Weight and Keeping It Off

Ten years ago, I weighed 60 pounds more than I do today. Two years ago, I decided to lose 25 of those pounds. And today, I am at the one-year mark for being at my goal weight and staying within 2 pounds of that weight.

How did I do it?

It was surprisingly simple. No weekly meetings, no fees, no fad diet, no forbidden foods, no rules about grams of carbs and fat and protein. Not even any calorie counting.

My number one strategy was motivation. I was tired of weight being an issue, of being self-conscious whenever I met someone for the first time, of dreading shopping for clothes, of lacking confidence. Was my excess weight the root cause of these problems? I wanted to take my weight out of the equation once and for all. Once you're motivated, truly motivated, the rest is easy.

Now for the tactics. I needed an eating plan for life, not a diet for the short-term. I had some good habits that I had developed over the years - a healthy breakfast, a healthy lunch 5 days a week, regular exercise - but some bad ones too. Eating at night, or really, a dinner that didn't really end until I went to bed. Dessert that often consisted of a big bowl of ice cream. Snacking on things like cheese and crackers, and popcorn (and not the low-fat, low-salt version). Derailing my progress during the week with blow-out weekends.

Here's what I did, and continue to do:

1. Eat dinner and then stop eating, ideally by 7 PM. Find something else to occupy your time. In good weather, I take a walk after dinner every night. It seems to turn off my appetite.
2. Eat a healthy breakfast. If you're one of those people who isn't hungry at breakfast, you may find that if you stop eating by 7:00 the night before, you are hungry for breakfast.
   
3. Exercise, and plan on making exercise a part of your life. Once you adjust, you'll find that you won't want to miss a day. If you don't exercise at all, start walking. Get a pedometer so you can track your progress. If you already exercise, ramp it up. Start lifting weights, or increase your time or your intensity. I started working out on an arc trainer , which according to the calorie readout, burns calories at a rate of 600+ per hour. I also consulted a personal trainer at my gym (Kevin Glor at Midtown Athletic Club), which gave me some added motivation. But you can easily do this on your own without a trainer.
   
4. Fit movement in whenever you can. I never take elevators if I can take stairs. Take a spot at the back of every parking lot.
   
5. Be conscious of how many calories you are REALLY consuming. If you're not losing weight it's because you are consuming as many calories as you are burning. I never got into the regular habit of counting calories, but I was conscious of the fact that thick, multigrain "healthy" bread can have 120 calories per slice - that's 240 calories for a sandwich before you've added anything else!
6. Drink lots of water. Really, it helps.
7. Eat like a naturally slender person. That means you can go out to eat, you can have dessert, you can have things like chocolate and butter and real mayonnaise. Just not all the time, and in small quantities. Be aware of your body's signals that you have had enough to eat.
   
8. Enjoy meals out - occasionally. Plan on bringing half your dinner home from a restaurant meal. Order something you like that is still a treat, but steer towards the healthier options - broiled instead of fried, salad dressing on the side. During my weight loss phase, I ate out every Friday night.
   
9. Enjoy the foods you love - in moderation. There is a place in life for dark chocolate, brown butter sauce, and ice cream. You don't have to turn into a food Nazi or the diet police. Thee's nothing more boring than talking to a person on a diet about what they eat and don't eat.
10. Go for the healthy eating option. I started eating whole wheat pasta instead of regular, and gourmet sorbet (I highly recommend Wegman's premium pink grapefruit) instead of full-fat ice cream.
11. If there is something you just can't resist, don't bring it into the house. For me, I can't eat just one piece of dark chocolate. So my husband would buy a bag of Hershey's kisses and hide them from me!
    
12. Be patient. It took me about a year to lose 25 pounds, but it hasn't really been difficult to keep it off.
    
13. Be vigilant. I weigh myself almost every day. It is natural to go up and down 2 or maybe even 3 pounds on a daily basis, depending on what you've eaten, when you've exercised, how much water you've had. If you weigh yourself once a week, you may not see the general downward trend. If you start to see an upward trend, it's time to take a look at your calories in vs. your calories out or whether the special occasion treats are turning into daily events.
14. Get support. It's a lot easier to avoid eating at night if everyone in the family buys into it. If you can motivate other family members to change their habits too, it will be a lot easier to stick with the plan. At the time we embarked on this plan, my husband was trying to lose weight too, and we were enjoying an empty nest.
    
15. Forgive yourself. If you blow it, and eat 3 slices of pizza, or overindulge at the office goodie day - or both - it's not the end of the world. Just forgive yourself and go back to being the naturally slender person that you are.