More Than Just Soup! - Soup Spoon Cafe, Lansing Michigan

After trying Trip Advisor's number two breakfast place in Lansing a couple of weeks back, Rebbel asked why we had not tried the number one place.  It seemed like a good question. Maybe the name wasa little misleading. The Soup Spoon Cafe did not sound like a breakfast place. One look at the breakfast/brunch menu proved me wrong!  The menu is filled with so much tasty foods, Ihad a hard time choosing.  Everything from egg Benedict's,  to hotcakes with real maple syrup,deli sandwiches, and omelets.  We decided to choose the omelets.  Rebbel chose the Black Forest omlet. This omlelet is made wi three eggs, koudemade Canadien bacon, mushrooms,onions, tomatoes, and gruywew cheese.  It was drizzled with hollandaise. I gave it highmarks,  I chose the Northeastern omelet. It has crab, green onions, tomatoes.  It was topped off by  a basil cream sauce. It was also athree egg omelet and was huge and the crab made me feel like I was indeed out east. Ialso took the choice of a brunch sald for a side dish, which actually went very well with my order.

The service the day we went was a little slow, but the waitress kept the coffee coming, You can tell just by the menu offerrings that this is not your typical restaurant.  They go a step or two further.  If you would like to go try the Soup Spoon Cafe, you can find them at 1419 E Michigan in Lansing.  They are on the web at https://soupspooncafe.com .

Beef On Weck Take Two - Eckl's Orchard Park.New York

We are always ]ooking for a better way to do food.  After trying our first Beef on Wexck the previous day, Rebbel got a hold of her friend who grew up in the Buffalo area for some tips on where to get a better Beef on Weck.  Her friend had been a wealth of information. She had told us about a suburb of Buffalo called East Aurora. This town is the home of gift shops, gourmet popcorn shop, Vidler's 5 and 10 and Fisher Price. Vidler's took me back in time, with an old time candy counter and other merchandise that seemed to come right out of the Woolworth store of the seventies. The place she told us about was called Eckl's, They are located in another city close to Buffalo called Orchard Park.
The building they are in is one of the oldest in Orchard Park,dating back to 1816.  The restaurant has been around since the 1930's. It closed for a bit when the owner retired, but reopened again when it was bought by oneof the loyal customer's.

The Beef on Weck was delicous, By this time, we had become more savvy and had added some horse radish that not only cleared my sinuses' but added another layer of flavor that complemented  the medium rare roast beef, that had been carved at the station by hand, close to where we were seated,  They had other food on the menu too. For instance, the table close to us had ordered the yellow pike. I learned that yellow pike is actually what we know in Michigan as Walleye.  Must be a western New York thing, because I never heard it called that anywhere else.  Eckl's is located at 4936 Ellicott Rd, Orchard Park, Bew York. Find them on the web at : http://www.eckls.com/

Home of the Chicken Wing - Anchor Bar,Buffalo, NewYork

It was the middle of the day as we drove through Buffalo, That time between lunch and dinner when there is supposed to be a lull at restaurants and there is  no wait time at .  Rebbel and I were trying to wait for our next meal because lunch was not that long ago.  She decided to gopast our next location, The Anchor Bar,  We are usually not big fans of Wings. We have always looked down on wings passing them up for the meatier parts of the chicken, but we were in Buffalo, and when in Buffalo, you have to have wings and if you are going to have wings, you shoulf try the original Buffalo wing st theAnchor Bar!! Sad to say everybody else that was vixiting Buffalo had the same idea!  We decided to by pass the wait and get our 6 mild wings to go,  We wnded up waiting almost an hour as we waited for our tiny order. The wings were good, Very mild in a buttery sauce,  Celery was served on the side with cool ranch dressing,  Not sure if it was worth the wait, but yu have to do the original home to the Buffalo Wing.  There is a classic motorcycle collection and a gift shop to look at as you are waiting. Not sure if they turned me into a wing fan, but at least I can day I've been to the home othe original, abd that's good enough. The Anchor Bar is located at 1047 Main St in Buffalo,  You can find them online at https://www.anchorbar.com/. You can make reservations, get wings shipped o you and order from the gift shop and avoid the wait.

Backyard Charcoal Taste - Ted's Hot Dogs, Buffalo,New York

First off let me say,we weren't very impressed with the chilli dog at Ted's.  The hot dog is charcoal
broiled which you can smell the charcoal the minute you get out of your vehicle.  That is a great smell that takes me back to grills in neighbors backyards when I was growing up. Truly a great smell of summer, but for us, this cooking method robs the hot dog of juiciness. We prefer a boiled hotdog that preserves that,  We had the chilli dog that held another surprise.  Here in Michigan the chili is of a spicy variety of chili. At Ted's the chili is actually on the sweet side, which we gave a thumbs down.
They did use a natural casing hot dog that I give a big thumbs up.  A friend at my work calls these dogs snappy dogs, I call them delicious.  We understand other people seem to feel different about Ted's hot dogs, because they have been around for 90 years and have locations in and around Buffalo and even one in Arizona. We visited the downtown location at 124W Chipewa St.

They also offer onion rings,hamburgers and fries. Undecided on fries and rings ?  You can get a half and half order. You can find them on the web at https://www.tedshotdogs.com/

Coffee A Must!! Peanut Stick - Paula's Donuts Buffalo, New York

 On our recent trip to Buffalo New York,  w
e tried a Buffalo specialty called a peanut stick.The doughnut is a log shaped bulky cake doughnut surrounded by a massive amount of chopped peanuts,  We only bough two that day, but that was plenty, as each doughnut was more like two. We bought ours at Paula's Donuts,which has several locations in and around Buffalo, and was also featured on Bizzarre Foods Delicous Destinations  We have the peanut doughnut and a dunking stick  in my home state of Michigan, but putting them together is sheer genius!  I am glad we don't have thes doughnuts here because this diabetic would not be able to practice any self control!  If yo end up buying these just make sure you have a big steaming cup of your favorite coffee!.

Beef On Weck? Take A Step Back In Time! Schwabl's Restarant, West Seneca,New York

After watching an episode of Bizarre Foods  Delicious Destinations with Andrew Zimmern,  we just had to go to Buffalo and try all that luscious food that was featured.  The one that really caught Rebbel's eye was a meaty looking sandwich called beef on weck.   The restaurant featured  n the show is a place that has been around since 1837. Stepping through the door transports you back through time. On the walls of this immaculately kept older house type restaurant are pictures of dats gone by.  The staff is very knowledgeable and processional.
   The beef on weck is made from your choice of doneness from the in house roasted,hand carved, beef. We chose medium, which we thought was a little over done for our tastes. It is put on a kummeleck roll that is a very salty roll made by a German back in the 1820.'s, The top of the cut roll is dipped in the juices of the meat. My take after the first bite, was that it took me back to my younger days when we had leftover beef on Sundays. I would make a sandwich out of beef with butter on the bread and salt on the meat. You get all of that with this sandwich. although it was a way bit too salty for our tastes.  I also got the house pickled beets that took me back to the ones that my Mom used to pickle herself. Except for the fact that a got a week's worth of salt in one bite of sandwich, I thought the beef was very good and so was the beets. Rebbel go the house nade german potato sandwich that was also very good. If you plan to go,
they are located at 789 Center Rd, West Seneca, NY.

Golden Harvest Restaurant, Lansing,Michigan - Just Don't Be In A Hurry!

• As we drove up to the restaurant, I immediately thought that this is not going to be your typical Denny's type breakfast joint, Everything but the kitchen sink adorns the roof.  That might be up there too, for all I know!  If you decide to try this place.you might be able to find the sink because you will be standing in line for awhile.  We stood in line for over an hour waiting for a table for two. The people in front of us were saying they had waited in the winter for up to two hours but felt the food was worth it,  As the door opened to let another party in,. I could hear the customers belting out Sweet Caroline with the stereo. Not your typical place. Once inside it took another half hour or so to place our order and get our food.  We started to inderstand the reason for line outside.  There is room inside for only about 30 customers or so and that is utilizing the front counter space. The orders are cooked as they are taken moving down the line at the grill.It seems like a very slow process for people that have already stood in line,  I decided on the Polish Scrambled Omelette . Advertised on the menu to be,"As big as my head", it was made from 4 eggs, Kowalski Kiebasa slices,peppers, onions, homefries and onions.  The top was garnished with cheddar cheese,scallions,and tomatoes. Served with toast and a slice of watermelon that turned out to be the sweetest I've had all year,  I found it to be very good! Rebbel on the other hand, was not pleased with her order, She ordered the Meatmen, which was supposed to be,meat,meat,neat,cheese, cheese, cheese andw gravy.The neat had been overcooked ruining the whole thing. Was it a place I was happy trying out? I say yes, but I would not want to invest that much time again, You might feel otherwis, just like the countless others that are real fans of this one of a kind Lansing Michigan, breakfast joint. Just don't be in a hurry! They take only cash.  Open at 7 am weekdays and 8 on weekenfds. Located at 1625 Turner St.