Caruso’s Candy Kitchen

4 05 2008
  • 1982 Grand River AveCaruso's Candy
  • Suite 712
  • Okemos, MI 48864
  • (517) 347-0200
  • Website
  • Menu

Everyone loves chocolate and my family is no different.  My parents were in town recently and we went to Meridian Mall to do a little shopping.  On our way to Younkers, we went by a little candy shop where a choclatier was hand dipping chocolate in the window.  My mom and girlfriend went in to see what the store was all about and not long after, I followed after seeing a soda fountain the back of the store.

The shop is pretty tiny.  Like I said, there’s a place off to the right when you walk in where you can watch the employees hand dipping just about anything into chocolate.  To the left, there’s a couple big display cases where they show off their hard work.  To the back of the store, there’s an old timey soda fountain where they serve a full menu on sandwiches, soups, and salads.

This isn’t your normal chocolate shop.  Instead of seeing a lot of fudge and homemade peanut butter cups, what you actually see is a lot of things dipped in chocolate.  They do some of the traditional favorites.  My mom got some peanut brittle along with chocolate covered cashews for my dad.  My girlfriend got chocolate covered gummy bears or “muddy bears” as they’re called.   I got a chocolate covered Twinkie.  Everyone loved their selection….except me.  I don’t know if it was a Twinkie knockoff, if it got stale, or if the chocolate changes the flavor, but it really wasn’t that good.  The muddy bears were so good, I had to melt some chocolate when I got home and we made our own because what she got at the mall wasn’t enough.

I sorta wished I had gotten a soda, but maybe next time.  That was the part of the store that I really gravitated towards.  Just seeing a working soda fountain brought back a few memories.  I’m not old enough to know of soda fountains in there time, but there were a few leftovers in the early mid-80’s when I was growing.  I have memories of going grocery shopping then going to the drugstore for a soda.  Not sure why I passed up this opportunity, but I’m looking forward to going back again.  Caruso’s has been in business since 1922 in their oringal location in Dowagiac, MI.  They’ve opened this second store in Okemos, but have brought along the 70+years of experience.


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Categories : Candy, Local Flavor, Michigan, Okemos, Reviews

Submarina

3 05 2008
  • 438 Edgewood Blvd.Submarina
  • Suite B116
  • Lansing, MI 48911
  • (517) 882-7707
  • Website
  • Menu

It’s weird how we come across new places to eat.  My girlfriend needed to make a quick stop at National City.  While inside the lobby, I saw a take out menu for Submarina.  We get back in the car and she says she’s hungry and suggests Steak ‘N Shake.  I happen to have that take out menu in my back pocket and I take it out and show it to her.  Now, I know both places are chains.  Steak ‘N Shake actually got it’s start in Normal, IL which is close to where I used to live, so I’ve eaten at Steak ‘N Shake’s many times.  We decide to give the new place a try.  Usually, I hate anything related to California (Submarina is marketed as California Subs), but Submarina is new to town and it’s the only location in Michigan.  The majority of the chain is located in San Diego County with just a few locations outside of that…again, mostly in California.

The shop is in a strip mall and it’s pretty tiny.  There are only a few booths, but they do have two flat screen TV’s.  It’s like most sub shops where you order at the counter then watch them make your sandwich in front of you.  Nothing out of the ordinary there, but the menu is anything but.

I got a six inch East Coast sub.  Proscuitto, cappocola, ham, salami, and pepperoni are sliced fresh on a deli slicer right in front of you.  It’s not like the sub standard place that has the portions already packaged out between sheets of butcher paper.  They cut the meat right in front of you.  The sandwich starts with a bed of provolone then the fresh sliced meats are piled on top.  After that, you have a choice of a few toppings.  Not as many as the other place, but they do have a couple items that make them “California.”  I passed on all those and went just with lettuce, Italian dressing, and mustard.  The sandwich was good and the meat was really piled on there.  Unforunately, the flavors all kind of ran together.  I love the taste of proscuitto and I couldn’t really taste it.  I do prefer this sandwich over Subway, but let’s face it, it’s a cold meat sandwich.

My girlfriend got the Peppered Garden sandwich on Squaw bread.  Again, the peppered turkey was sliced fresh right in front of us.  The sandwich is supposed to come with Havarati, but they must have been out as they asked if Provolone was alright.  On top of the turkey was a balsamic vinagrette and sprouts.  She really liked the sandwich and actually took some of the turkey off because there was just too much there for her to eat.  Good thing is, I get a little bit extra meat for my sandwich. 🙂

Submarina is a chain and normaly I hate chains.  I don’t hate Submarina.  The service was a little slow, but that’s because they were cutting their own meat (have I mentioned that already).  There are a lot of sub shops popping up and each one needs to do something different to make it.  Submarina offers unique ingredients like avocado, pepperocinni’s, and sprouts.  The combination of meats and fresh ingredients make all the difference.  For a little over $11, we had a quick, delicious and somewhat healthy lunch…..better than the hamburgers I probably would have cooked.


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Categories : Chains, Lansing, Michigan, Reviews, Sandwiches

Whiskey Barrel Saloon

3 05 2008
  • 410 S. Clippert St.Whiskey Barrel Saloon
  • Lansing, MI 48912
  • (517) 351-5690
  • Website
  • Limited Menu

I grew up in a a really rural area.  Line dancing and country music were pretty popular.  I graduated high school and moved to the city and things changed. I started going to night clubs with a DJ friend of mine and starting listening to Euro and Progressive music.  I got older and started to gravitate back towards Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson.  I was thrilled when I heard commercials for The Whiskey Barrel Saloon on WITL.  I’ve been wanting to go for a few weeks, so Friday night, we decided to check it out when my girlfriend got off work.

The parking lot was pretty full when we got there, but from the outside, the building looks huge so we weren’t too worried.  There was a $5 cover at the door and we didn’t even get there until midnight.  That kinda sucks, but I’ve paid worse.  There was a live band (more on them later), so at least the cover made sense.

The bar is really cool.  The whole building is one big open room.  The main bar is in front of you when you walk in.  To the left is a bunch of tables next to the dance floor which is surrounded by a drink bar so you can stand around and watch the regulars boot scoot or you can sit down, relax and watch a little racing on their big screen TV’s. In the far corner of the room, there’s a mechanical bull.  Yeah, a mechanical bull.  We didn’t wander over that way, but next time…. 

In front of the dance floor they have a pretty good sized stage and a DJ booth.  When we got there, a DJ was playing country music and the dance floor was packed with dancers.  After about three songs, a band took over and they weren’t playing country.  I hate when that happens. I want to hear country music….they were playing Keith Urban-esque country which isn’t country at all.  There wasn’t an accoustic guitar on stage until the fourth song and there were no fiddles and no steal guitars.  That was pretty disappointing…I wish they would have just kept the DJ….it really looked like everyone was having more fun when the he was playing.  It would be a great place if there was a country act in town….and there is this week.  Eric Church is playing Thursday, May 8.

As far as food goes, there’s not much.  I did notice a case of pizza slices at the bar, but other than that, The Whiskey Barrel is just honkey tonk.  Prices were pretty reasonable.  Beer was $3 and my girlfriend’s cocktails wer $4.  Good beer….good music…interesting people….can’t wait to go back on a night when I can hear a little Taylor Swift. 


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Categories : Bar, Lansing, Live Entertainment, Local Flavor, Michigan, Reviews

Michigan Recipes

2 05 2008

Accidently came across this site today on the Department of Agriculture homepage.  There’s a whole bunch of recipes for Michigan grown ingredients.  I found a handful that I can’t wait to try.

MDA Recipes


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Categories : Agriculture, Food News, Michigan

ABC 3 and Oprah’s Big Give

30 04 2008

Today was the final day to donate to ABC 3’s Big Give.  The project was a spin off of Oprah’s Big Give who donated $10,000 to the Greater Lansing Food Bank for milk vouchers.  Tonight on ABC 3 News at 6, they ran a story on some grade school kids at Donley Elementary School in East Lansing who raised money for the cause.

Oprah’s give inspired school kids to collect money to help others and today that money was collected. 

“We need each other and I think it’s important to teach children to give back and to pay it forward and just to take care of people in their own community.  Teach them young that what we have we need to share” said an unidentified woman at Donley Elementary.

Tomorrow, there will be a press conference at Bethleham Lutheran Church where representatives from Oprah’s Big Give will officially hand over a $10,000 check.  More on that story tomorrow……


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Categories : Food News, Lansing, Michigan

Coney Island Hot Dogs

30 04 2008

I love regional food.  I love that each city has it’s own trademark.  There are some things I miss now that I live in Michigan.  I get cravings Giordanno’s stuffed pizza every now and then.  There are places that claim to be “Chicago Style” pizzerias, but none of them are.  A deep dish pizza is not Chicago Style.  It’s the stuffed deep dish that makes it Chicago style.

While living in Central Illinois, I was introduced to the Horseshoe sandwich.  Man, do I really miss these.  A typical horseshoe took two pieces of toasted Texas toast laid out on a plate.  On top of that would be two hamburger patties.  On top of that, would be french fries and the whole thing was smothered in a cheddar cheese sauce.  There are variations on the concept.  Really, you can use any meat.  Most menus offer ham, turkey, pork, or chicken in place of the hamburger.  They also usually offer smaller sandwiches called Pony Shoes.  Recently, Charlie Parker’s was featured on the Food Network show Diner’s, Drive-Ins and Dives where they showed off a Breakfast shoe.  They replaced the traditional ingredients with sausage patties, hash browns and gravy.

I really miss yelling at people when they put ketchup on a Chicago Style Hotdog…..big no-no.  I haven’t been able to find a real Italian Beef sandwich around here either.  You never realize just how regional food can be until you move.

So with all that said, I keep seeing “Coney Island” restaurants around here.  Of course, that piqued my interest and I had to figure out what was going on.  Another blogger really caught my attetnion with this post.

It’s been quite some time since I’d had the competing Detroit-style coney with its chili sauce. This sauce is wetter than that of the Flint-style sauce and seems to be quite a bit milder. However, no one else in the house had ever had the Detroit-style coney, a situation I felt needed to be rectified. So when I realized GFS Marketplace stores are now offering a package of the Detroit-style sauce, I decided my family needed to see what it was like.

Wait!  There are different styles of Coney Dogs?  This is something that’s unique to Detroit?  I’m not a real big hot dog guy, but just the fact that this is something unique to this area is enough to make me suck it up for one dog just so I can say I did.  Road trip to Detroit!

So what else does Mid-Michigan have to offer as far as unique food goes?  Anything else I shoud be looking forward to?


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Categories : Food News, Local Flavor, Michigan

Heinz Top This 2 TV Challenge

29 04 2008

Matt Cozza and Erika Warren from Chicago took the top prize in Heinz’s Top This 2 TV challenge.  The challenge was to make a commercial for Heinz Ketchup.  According to the Jackson Citizen Patriot, Cozza drew on experience at a Benton Harbor restaurant to make the commercial.

In the ad, a couple is seated at a table without a ketchup bottle. They look around the restaurant anxiously as other customers pour ketchup on their food and hoard their bottles. Finally a waiter brings a bottle, and the text, “Now we can eat,” appears on the screen.

For the effort, Cozza and his girlfriend Erika Warren (who is a Jackson native) recieved a $57,000 grand prize and their commercial will be played on Food Network, Fine Living Television, and on closed-circuit TV’s at Six Flags.


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Categories : Food News, Jackson, Michigan

Facing Hunger. Feeding America

29 04 2008

Saw this on WLNS’s noon show today then found information in their website

Please join us as The Early Show kicks off a 12 day food drive Facing Hunger Feeding America. We are collecting non-perishable foods until May 10th, when the nation’s largest single-day food drive ‘Stamp Out Hunger’ will take place.

A growing number of people are using food banks to feed their families and because of this food supplies are now running short. Please help support this cause. You can participate at home by donating non-perishable items to your local food bank or to our station lobby. We are located at 2820 E. Saginaw in Lansing. 

 


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Categories : Michigan

Fruitport High School Second in National Competition

28 04 2008

Congratulations to Fruitport High School‘s Culinary Arts program for finishing second in the National ProStart Invitational this past weekend in San Diego,

The Culinary Arts Team represented Fruitport Community Schools very well with a second place showing at the Pro-Start National Invitation in San Diego this past weekend.  They were competeing against the thirty eight best teams in the nation and clearly demonstrated that their skill and technique is remarkable. 

The ProStart Invitational is divided into two competitions.  There’s a culinary competition and a management competition.  In the culinary competition, teams prepare a three course meal in sixty minutes using just two butane burners.  Judging is also done of knife skills, appearance, and cleanliness of food preperation.  The Fruitport team was beat by just a fraction of a point.

“It’s just crazy — we’re second in the nation,” said team member and FHS junior Karly Krentz. “It’s hard to put it into words because it’s so cool. We just worked so well together.”

For their accomplishments, each of the five team members received full-ride scholarships to the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vt. They also received cash prizes from Coca-Cola and the National Restaurant Association.

The team is coached by Amway Grand Plaza Executive Pastry Chef Scott Hunter, 1913 Room Chef de Cuisine Christian Madsen, and FHS teacher Michael Wheeler.

“The kids did probably the best we could have ever, ever asked for,” said FHS teacher and coach Michal Wheeler. “Everybody did everything they needed to do at 110 percent, and they received tons of compliments from the judges. Most importantly, the kids feel really great about what they did.

“Of course, you go for first (place), so there was a little disappointment,” Wheeler added. “But second in the nation — wow! It’s just amazing.”

That’s a great accomplishment anyway you look at it.

 


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Categories : Food News, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Don’s Windmill Truckstop

27 04 2008
  • 7262 Lansing Rd.Don's Windmill Truckstop
  • Dimondale, MI 48821
  • (517) 646-6752
  • Website
  • No Menu Online
  • Don’s Windmill is now closed.  To see the place that replaced it,
    CLICK HERE

Don’s was a suggestion of one of my girlfriend’s co-workers.  We both like greasy spoons anyway and both have fond memories of truckstops from our pasts, so on our way to Horrock’s one Sunday, we took a little detour to Don’s.

The truckstop is exactly what you expect.  It’s kind of run down and not at all fine dining.  There’s a lunch counter with little coin operated TV’s then booths spread throughout the remaining space.  We just missed the breakfast buffet, so we showed ourselves to a booth in the non-smoking section and started looking over the menu while we waited for the waitress.

Don's Windmill TruckstopWe both got pop’s while we looked over the huge menu.  They do breakfast all day and offer some unique items like veal parmigana while making sure not to stray too far from what makes truck stop food great.  I ordered the Pepper Jack Cheeseburger.  The burger is a 1/3 lb frozen patty topped with a slice of pepper jack cheese served with coleslaw on the side and crinkle cut fries.  I don’t expect a whole lot when it comes to these types of places and I got exactly what I expected.  The meal was not great by any standard, but it was comforting and brought back memories of late night drunkeness in college.  There’s just something about a greasy diner burger and salt that’s comforting to me.

My girlfriend ordered the Gigantic Grilled Cheese sandwich.  Here’s a situation where Don’s went a little bit above expectations and served a grilled cheese with Texas Toast.  Like me, the memories of truck stops out west came rushing back.  She said her grilled cheese was delicious and appreciated the Texas Toast over regular bread.  Neither one of us really ate the cole slaw that came with the meal. It’s just one of those things your taught in the restaurant business….you never know when it was made.  She tried one bite just to see if it’d knock her socks off and it didn’t. The fries were a little soggy, but alright.  I salted them up pretty good.  Again, it’s truck stop food.  I wasn’t expecting anything great, but it was filling.

Our bill was just under $20 before tip.  Really, the food was good and exceeded expectations, but not worth that much.  The diner is open 24 hours and that’s what makes it appealing to me.  I love 24 hour places and will most likely be back to settle a late night craving.


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Categories : Dimondale, Diner, Local Flavor, Michigan, Restaurant, Reviews, Truck Stop

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