Robby's Cafe

Portage has a new cafe! Located at the Shoppes of Romance Village.  I love little diners and cafes, and our little town needed more.  I tried Robby's breakfast menu.  I was a little surprised to see some of the options that were offered like Gyro omelet and crepes.  Robby's gourmet pancake menu was ample with options, I tried their malted pancakes which came as a side to my eggs Benedict.  I have always believed that a breakfast joint can only be great if they have good eggs Benedict and good biscuits and gravy, so when I try a new breakfast place that's the first thing I try.  Like I said before, I ordered eggs Benedict with a side of malted pancakes, a half order of biscuits and gravy and pork sausage links.  I also ordered blueberry crepes for my daughter which came as three crepes filled and topped with a blueberry relish. I say relish because they weren't fresh blueberries or a blueberry sauce, but kind of a chunky blueberry gelatin or a jam.   The

crepes were a little thick and a bit on the bland side, but the blueberry relish filled in where the crepes themselves were lacking in flavor.  My daughter seemed to like them just fine, but I thought they could have used more butter, it is a French dish after all.  I wouldn't order the crepes on a regular basis but I do want to try their cherry crepes, so I will give them another chance.  The eggs Benedict was great. The English muffin was not tough at all, which seems to be a reoccurring problem at breakfast joints. The ham was thinly sliced and had great flavor. The eggs where not poached but still cooked perfectly with a nice runny yoke and tender whites. The hollandaise sauce was good and I hope it was made in house, otherwise I need to tell GFS "Good job!" on their hollandaise.  The potatoes served on the side where under seasoned but not a big deal, they were kind enough to put salt and pepper on the table.  The malted pancakes

that I got on the side didn't have enough malt flavor but were cooked perfectly.  The biscuits and gravy had a great creaminess and a good flavor with a little bit of a sweetness on the finish with plenty of crumbled sausage. The biscuits were nothing too special and neither were the sausage links.
Overall, I would say that with a little work, Robby's could be a main stay cafe in Portage. I am willing to try them again, because they have a lot of potential.  I definitely want to try their lunch and dinner menu and when I do, it will be blogged.

Pizza!

Pizza is a hard thing to blog about.  Everybody has a difference of opinion on what kind of pizza is better.  Bringing up the pizza argument in some circles is equal to bringing up politics or religion, I have been in some pretty heated conversations involving pizza.  The pizza pie squabble isn't limited to New York style or Chicago style anymore, now a days you have to be ready to defend your choice against gourmet, California style and even in some unfortunate circumstances "fast food" pizza.  I, myself am more of a pizza traditionalist, East Coast style all the way.  Chicago style is good but it's not pizza in the traditional sense, but if I am ever in the mood for a pizza casserole I will go the way of Chicago style.  I'm not much for gourmet pizza either. Some people use too much seasoning, although Erbelli's makes an awesome pizza. When it comes to gourmet pizza they got it right. I always go for a hand tossed pizza with capicola, pepperoni and feta.  Erbelli's pizza sauce is awesome and it has a good black pepper taste with garlic and a nice basil and oregano finish.   The thing I really can't stand about gourmet pizza is white sauce. Why people put white sauce on some dough and call it pizza I will never know.  California Style pizza, to me, some what falls into the same category as gourmet pizza but in the last ten years or so has really put itself in a league of it's own. However, I still don't think BBQ chicken pizza is pizza.  I refuse to delve in to the "fast food" pizza department. I hope you understand.

Kalamazoo, just like any other city, has a ton of pizza joints and I have had most of them.  There are a few that I frequent. Pizza King and Big Joe's are the most similar to the east coast style and I have always had a hard time deciding who is the best between the two.  I have no problem saying that Big Joe's  and Pizza King have the best pizza in town.  Big Joe's sauce is awesome. It's very traditional and does not over power the rest of the ingredients at all, leaving plenty of room for the flavor of the fresh mozzarella and great toppings to shine through.  Their dough is cooked perfectly every time with a good crispy but chewy texture, not too thin but not too thick, and easy to fold the way it should be.  Big Joe's isn't afraid to have bubbles in their pizza unlike pretty much every other place in town.  There is nothing wrong with a bubble or two on your pizza.  Pizza King also has a great dough that they cover with a great sauce.  Their sauce has a wonderful sweetness to it. Someone really thought about the seasonings enough to let the real flavor of the tomato stand tall on your pallet.  Pizza Kings toppings are pretty unique. Not that they put weird stuff on their pizzas, just unique in how they prep their toppings.  Pizza King uses actual strips of bacon and not chunks. They also dice all of their veggies.  Pizza King only does pizza, and nothing else. They don't even make bread sticks, just pizza. They have been doing it a long time and it shows.   One of the things I love most about Big Joe's and Pizza King is that they have not fallen the way of the conveyor pizza oven, which means the chefs actually have to have some skill when it comes to cooking pizza.  Anyone can put a pizza on a belt and let the machine do all the work.  I could give you my thoughts on other pizza proprietors around town but it would take forever and this blog would be a novel. Even though their are other good pizza joints in Kalamazoo, there are a lot of sub par places as well and the point of this blog is not to talk bad about businesses, but to give people an idea of where they should go.  The pizza dispute will always boil down to regional taste buds. No region will ever be right.
http://www.erbellis.com/menu/fresh-wraps
http://www.bigjoeskalamazoo.com/

Wedding Cake

I made my first wedding cake this week and it was more of a pain than I thought it would be.  Actually it was stressful.  Cake, fillings, frosting, fondant, stand and decorations, a lot of work.  I am really glad I agreed to make it though.  The experience was well worth it.  I made a three tier cake. Baking a 14 in. round has a bit of a learning curve. That bottom tier was the most work of the whole cake. It was a 14 in. chocolate with
 French vanilla chocolate chip custard and a super sweet vanilla butter cream frosting.  The chocolate cake recipe I use is a little harder to make than a traditional recipe, it's almost like a brownie cake hybrid.  The cake turned out awesome, dense but not too dense with a bitter but sweet cocoa flavor. It took six hours to bake but the outcome was worth it.  The cake has a great texture and it holds fillings perfect.  The filling I made was

a French vanilla custard with a hint of nutmeg and semi sweet chocolate chips.  Then I finished the tier off with a sweet sugary white butter cream frosting and ivory marshmallow fondant.  The top two tiers one of which was a 10 in. and the other was a 6 in..  Both tiers where identical, very dense yellow cake and the best yellow cake recipe I have ever come across.  When you eat a slice of my yellow cake it brings up memories of being a kid at birthday parties and it even has a slight butter milk pancake taste.  It's absolutely wonderful.  I filled the tiers with chocolate butter cream and fresh raspberry crush.  I decorated the cake with a 3D cherry blossom tree and pink flowers.  I had to buy flowers. I haven't quite gotten the hang of making good flowers.  Over all I think the cake turned out great and I hope the bride and groom enjoyed it on their very special day.

Mitchell's Fish Market

My wife and her parents took me out to dinner for my birthday.  It was a wonderful night, my in-laws are a lot of fun to go out with .  We drove up to Mitchell's Fish Market in Lansing, I know it's not a restaurant in Kalamazoo, but  Mitchell's is blog worthy for sure.  There aren't too many chain restaurants that I am willing to blog about but Mitchell's Fish Market is for sure a fantastic sea food place. I have had my fare share of fresh sea food, and shrimp is my favorite food of all time. Lobster, crab, mussels and scallops round out my top five.  This place has some really nice fresh sea food. You get an eye full of their fish fillets when
 you walk in, everything from Yellow Fin Tuna to Atlantic Cod.  They had a small but good looking oyster bar, and if I had the time I could spend all day putting `em back at that bar!  I started with lobster bisque. I can never pass up lobster bisque.  The bisque was smooth like velvet with a delicate balance of tomato, cream and a slight cheesiness.  The little bits of lobster were a nice touch.  I hope they don't buy their bisque pre-made, I would feel like a fake foodie if so.   For my entrée which was a real hard decision I went with the jumbo lump crab cake and broiled shrimp.  The crab cake was good. Because I'm from the East Coast I am picky about seafood, but the crab cake impressed me.  I'm pretty sure it was blue crab. There were good sized lumps of crab with pretty much no filler. There was a nice brininess with a slight sweetness from what I assume is dry mustard bringing out the full flavor of the crab.  The garlic broiled shrimp was cooked absolutely perfect, tender with a snap, the way shrimp should be. Too many people over cook and over season their shrimp. Mitchell's chef's know what they are doing.  The dish came with a sweet corn sauté which was basically a corn salsa. It was a nice compliment and added a little acid to the sweetness of the seafood.  I finished with a triple chocolate mousse cake which was obviously not made in house, but was still good, like a big slice of chocolate truffle.  I have been to Mitchell's Fish Market twice and both times I loved what I got. It's nice having a seafood place in southwest Michigan even if it's an hour away.  So far, it has been worth the trip.