[Smorgasbord at Shady Maple] Endless supply of delicious food and desserts~

Over the Thanksgiving long weekend, we drove down to Amish country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for the second time. As we had such a great time there two years ago, I've always wanted to go back there once again. You can see our last trip in the posts below:

[Amish Country] Counter-modernized civilization

[Train motel] The Red Caboose, Strasburg, PA

[The Amish Village] Visit to the 19th century style living

In 2011, it was wonderful to see how the daily life of Amish people different from mine which is formed of all the convenience of the 21st century. It really felt different, and I wanted to see if the second time will do the same charm. That being said, there was another reason we went down to Lancaster for the second time. Having had only(?) three Lancaster's Pennsylvania Dutch Smörgåsbord last time, Mr. D and I wanted to try lots of, if not all, their Smörgåsbords available. There must be more than two dozens of Smörgåsbord restaurants in Lancaster, we only picked the finest, or rather the most recommended ones! 

Oh, if you don't already know what the smörgåsbord is, here I refer to Merriam-Webster's definition:

Full Definition of SMORGASBORD (Merriam-Webster)

1. a luncheon or supper buffet offering a variety of foods and dishes (as hors d'oeuvres, hot and cold meats, smoked and pickled fish, cheeses, salads, and relishes)

2. an often large heterogeneous mixture :  mélange

We crossed the border on Thursday, and stayed a night in Binghamton where we had a simple breakfast, to save enough space in our stomach, for our first smörgåsbord of our trip, at Shady Maple. We had a breakfast smörgåsbord last time, but their lunch and dinner Smörgåsbords were praised the most. I am not a big fan of big buffet, at least any more, since I can't really eat more than two normal servings. Therefore, it's a torture to see so much delicious food offered at once. 

Nonetheless, it's a very unique and attractive meal, as you can have all the great local & traditional local specialties at a fixed price.

Shady Maple is the largest smorgasbord restaurant in Lancaster county. I remembered that we had been truly awed by the queue waiting for tables two years ago. There were at least a hundred people, if not more, filled up the spacious lobby of the restaurant. 

I was worrying about the length of the waiting list before we arrived. But, it was not so bad as it was for a weekday, Friday, lunch. 

Shady Maple's featured menu for the lunch smorgasbord includes, according to their website, 46 salad bar items, 3 soups, 8 homemade breads & rolls, 4 cheeses, 8 meats, 14 vegetables, 10 cold desserts, 3 hot desserts, 8 pies, 6 cakes, sundae bar & many beverages. Daily Grill Features (Monday thru Friday) Angus Burgers, Beef Brisket, Grilled Hot Dogs, Marinated Chicken Breasts, Real Homemade Corn Fritters, Potato Cakes, Pizza and Keilbasa.

Overall it was an awesome smorgasbord with endless food. Well, you don't eat this kind of smorgasbord every day, do you? 

Exactly that is why, for once, I had to eat all the rich food without thinking about the calories. I must have consumed a couple of thousand calories, if not more. Did I feel guilty afterward? Yes, like hell. :( But, I still don't regret that I tasted as much food as possible. 

I wish I could taste all the food I wanted, but the capacity of my stomach was not as big as I thought. I only(?) had three full servings.

If I pick Lancaster's one traditional food you must try, it is the famous "fried chicken." Any Pennsylvania Dutch meal includes fried chicken. We tried fried chicken at a few different restaurants, but I must say Shady Maple's fried chicken was the most crispy and scrumptious one of all!! They have tons of other delicious food as well. You will not be disappointed. 

Their hamball is a-must-item, too.

Oh You might want to know this one thing: Pennsylvania Dutch food doesn't care about calories. 

They uses abundant butter and sugar. 

So, don't expect you will find some good fresh green leaves or low calorie food, even though there are some greens, if you search hard. :)

But, as I said above~, it's something you don't have often. Once in a while is okay, isn't it? :)

(200 feet long food bars)

Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive (7 miles East of Ephrata off Rt. 322), East Earl, PA 17519. Their phone number is 717-354-8222.

I'll talk about some nice places we visited in Amish country in my next post.

Also, I may post about the several smorgasbords we had during our 4-day-stay.

Smorgasbord

[Suzy Q Doughnuts] Dangerously Delicious and Unconventional Doughnuts (Donuts), maybe better stay away!

Yes, now I can finally say that I had this "fameux" doughnuts on a cold summer Sunday! When everybody, especially after it was on CBC in 2012, Suzy Q's doughnuts became so hot, or rather even hotter! But, you know, "Bacon maple" doughnut wasn't appealing enough for me to go there to buy (relatively) expensive doughnuts. It is $2 each, or $10 for half-dozen, and $20 for a dozen. It's expensive for a fried bread, isn't it?  And also, I was not sure how I would like "sweet and salty" taste together on the context of a doughnut, even though I liked "sweet & salty" granola bars. Then, a few weeks ago, Mr. D had a chance to eat that famous doughnut at work, and said it was "oddly" very very good. That's when I got suddenly so curious about this unconventional doughnut place. So, on a sunny, but chilly Sunday morning, we drove to Westboro to buy some "so-called" exceptional doughnuts. 


I heard it's really busy and you have to line up for at least quarter an hour to order your doughnuts, but luckily for us, it was not bad at all. It's surprisingly small, and looked like a snack bar around the corner. 


The showcase was not so big, but with full of doughnuts of all kinds I've never heard of:  Maple Bacon, Wundercrunch (Chocolate and peanut crunch)
                              Go-Nut (Chocolate and Espresso),  Salted Caramel, Raspberry Cassis, Cookies ‘n’ Cream, Dirty Chocolate, etc... They all looked delicious and warm. It was really hard to choose. 

But, maple-bacon must be there best sellers since the tray was being refilled constantly.
I put some extra effort to pick a dozen doughnuts. 


As we couldn't have anything with nuts because of  Pablo who is allergic to nuts, I picked a half-dozen maple-bacon, three cookies 'n' cream, and three Dirty chocolates. Go-Nut was very tempting, but next time. I heard that they sell only 50 dozens and call it a day. 600 doughnuts~ Wow. It wouldn't look too much for a Tim Horton's, but it sounded a lot for a small family business between Suzy(Sue Hamer), husband, and brother-in-law. 


It's a very small shop and there wasn't any eating area in the shop. I didn't want to eat at a picnic table on the parking lot. So!, we drove for 3 minutes and went to the small food court next to Tim Horton's at the lobby of Civic hospital. 

We bought a large double-double for Mr. D, two hot cholocates for kids, and extra-large steep tea for me.

(This mister refused to eat SuzyQ's and picked a glazed cinnamon roll at Timmy's.)

And~~~~
I had my first bite of maple bacon doughnut~!
and
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OMG, this doughnut is PHENOMENAL!!!


Delicious and warm with a perfect balance between salt & sugar(maple syrup)
It's so spongy and soft. Gosh~  How can doughnut be this good??? (This is bad news. I have to stay away from it, otherwise, I'll never be able to lose weight!) I had decided to have only one doughnut. But, guess what, I just couldn't stop at one. I had a dirty chocolate, too. It was chocolaty with a sense of salt. Again, it was very very good. But, definitely their flagship is Maple-Bacon. I must admit that I loved SuzyQ's maple-bacon doughnut. That being said, doughnuts are not the exactly healthiest food in the world. Sigh... But, well, we all need an occasional treat for ourselves, especially after a hard working week, don't we? :)

When you need a fabulous, fresh and caloric treat, I strongly recommend SuzyQ. You will not be disappointed!


SuzyQ
(613) 724-2451
991 Wellington Street West, Ottawa, ON K1Y2Y1


Maple-Bacon Doughnut

[Anchor Bar vs. Duff's] Comparison between the birthplace of Buffalo wings and the arguably biggest chain restaurant

To get to Waterloo, Ontario, we drove down to cross the U.S. border via 1000 islands bridge and stayed a night in Rochester, NY before heading to Buffalo, NY the next day. 

Before crossing the Canadian border back, we bought a couple of bottles of wine, and had  a famous Buffalo wing lunch at Duff's. 

If you were wondering which routes we took, it's as you see above. We left Ottawa, stayed a night in Rochester, dropped by Buffalo, before we arrived at our destination, i.e. Waterloo, ON.

(Boys at the entrance of the Premier Wine, Buffalo, NY)

We had been both Anchor bar and Duff's before, but opted the latter this time mainly because it was closer to the wine shop where we bought wines. :)

We ordered fried pickles for the appetizer and 30 chicken wings, half medium and half mild, for Mr. D, Remi and me. 

(I'll post Fried pickles recipe soon) 

Pablo had his own kids' plain chicken fingers. He could have had one of their dipping sauces. But, I just asked for plain wings since I was so well aware of Pablo's intolerance even to the slightest pungency. There are about 7 degrees of hotness of their sauce: Mild, Mild-Medium, Medium, Medium-Hot, Hot, Superhot, Death, and Armageddon. As Duff's catch phrase gives you a warning, Medium is hot, Medium hot is very hot, Hot is very, very hot. We didn't dare to order Armageddon, or even Superhot, since we know how hot it is. 

That's the equivalent to the "suicidal" sauce of the Anchor bar. I can assure you that it's seriously lethal. We were ashamed, but still couldn't finish all the Suicidal wings we had ordered. 

Our saviour of the day was the Anchor bar's famous soup and the half of the wings with mild sauce. Their soup was delicious. It was when we went to the Anchor bar for the first time. We don't make such a mistake once again.

(Half hot/ half suicidal at Anchor bar)

Both Duff's and Anchor bar serves their wings with celery & blue cheese dip which soothe your palate that became very sensitive after you eat spicy chicken wings. Don't get me wrong, those sauce are good and addictive. However, I can't deny that the sauces of the both restaurants have (pleasing but) sharp taste.

'Medium' was already very hot for Mr.D and I who are not big fans of acridity. Remi only had chicken wings with mild sauce.  They were very crispy and not overly soaked in the sauce.

Anchor bar has an edge in the sense that they invented Buffalo wings for the first time. Their wings are covered with a bit more-than-necessary sauce. It's not a big deal if you like abundant sauce. The only thing about excessive sauce is that your wings become not so crispy anymore. You need a balance between crispness and piquancy.

(If you want to see my healthier Buffalo wing recipe, see here: 

[Crispy chicken wings for less calories] Oven-baked chicken wings )

Anchor bar seems maintaining the atmosphere of 1960s when the Buffalo wings were born. it's nostalgic and antique. It's nice for adults, but not so much recommendable for a family with young kids since it's slightly dark. 

To be honest, I like the Anchor bar's atmosphere very much since it's unique. Still do I think that Duff's would be better with kids.

(According to the most popular story about how the Buffalo wings were invented, "Buffalo wings were first prepared at the Anchor Bar by Teressa Bellissimo, who owned the bar along with her husband Frank. 

Upon the unannounced, late-night arrival of their son, Dominic, with several of his friends from college, Teressa needed a fast and easy snack to present to her hungry guests. It was then that she came up with the idea of deep frying chicken wings (normally thrown away or reserved for stock) and tossing them in cayenne hot sauce." (Source: The Atlas of Popular Culture in the Northeastern United States)

It was nice to have deep-fried Buffalo wings after a long time. For sure, we will come back. Probably, we'd be at Anchor bar next time, to be fair ;-) Can’t wait!

Meanwhile, if you want to see my oven-baked Buffalo wing recipe, see here: 

[Crispy chicken wings for less calories] Oven-baked chicken wings

Anchor Bar vs. Duff's Buffalo wings

[2013 Mother's Day] Brunch at Cordon Bleu Bistro @ Signatures

Remi didn't make breakfast-in-bed this year, for Mother's day. As he had a piano lesson on Sunday morning, he was busy finishing his piano homework from 7:30 in the morning.

(You can see Remi's version of breakfast-in-bed of 2012 here). 

 He made me a very nice card though.

This is the card Remi gave me this year. As you imagine easily, I am planning to keep this card forever. 

 Hopefully my kids will consider me such a mom for a long time. 

 Pablo gave me a card too. 

His colouring sense sometimes is quite questionable, but as he was proud of his work of art, I decide to like it as well. :)

Pablo's teacher is a talented crafty teacher who always had original ideas to make wonderful art work. We know it very well since this is Pablo's second year with the madame. 

The bottom of the plant is made with empty tuna cans, and side of the plant is made with clothespins. Isn't this a great idea? As these flowers will never droop, I will be able to keep this plant forever :)

After Remi's piano lesson and some work at the backyard, we headed to Signatures by Cordon Bleu Bistro where I had reserved a table for Mother's day brunch. 

This was a good occasion for the kids to learn the table manner at a fine (especially French) restaurant. Remi and Pablo behave at a restaurant, in general. But we've always tried to keep our meal time at a restaurant between one hour and one and half hours maximum.

The brunch took almost 2 hours, and my little 'messieurs' conducted themselves, which was quite impressive.

However, Pablo's manner was not exactly 100%. :(, but maybe quite acceptable considering he is only 6.

I was offered a rose of my choice. Well all the moms were offered roses by the restaurant indeed :)

We started with a glass of mimosa which was included in the brunch.

The food was amazing. Each and all of the dishes were so beautifully presented that I was afraid of messing it up. 

Duck confit wrapped in crêpe was simply delicious.

Kids liked it, too, even though Pablo hesitated to taste duck confit for the first time.

The next one, or second appetizer, was poached egg with mushroom sauce.

A poached egg lover like me cannot resist this dish. mushroom cream sauce was wonderfully smooth and creamy.

I chose salmon with corn chowder while Mr.D chose Boeuf Wellington.

This was the best pan-fried salmon I've ever had. I should learn how to pan-fry salmon perfectly.

Mr.D's Boeuf Wellington was juicy and tender while puff pastry wrap was crispy.

I had a glass of Pinot grigio and Mr. D had a glass of Côtes du Rhône, which were not exactly the best matches, but they were alright.

Kids had chicken breast with French fries. I had some of Pablo's chicken breast, and it was very nicely cooked.

Remi finished a whole chicken breast. He was too full to eat much of french fries though.

For the dessert, we had an assorted sweets of chocolate tuile, vanilla ice cream, maple syrup dumpling, and blueberry compote. They were so good. I don't even want to think about the calories of that dessert plate. :(

It took about two hours from start to finish. And kids were cooperative.

I think now these guys reached the age of cooperation or civilization, to conduct a mannerly behaviour at a fine restaurant~

 It was a nice lengthy lunch, after which we had to rush to the kids' swimming lessons.

Already half of May flew away.

Ottawa's May doesn't come and go without tulips.

I planted about 100 tulip bulbs in our front yard last September. They (probably) survived the attack of squirrels to bloom so beautifully. I admire my tulips every morning before I leave home. How do you like my tulips? :)

It's Thursday which is my favorite day of the week. It's not yet Friday, but you already feel that Friday is surely coming! Happy Thursday!

2013 Mother's Day