I'm back...

I apologize for not posting anything in a long time, but I must admit I've been pretty busy. Fortunately, in the meantime, I have come up with a rating system for beer, food, snacks, bars, restaurants, etc. From now on, I will try to rate things on a scale of 1 to 5 crabcakes, since a good jumbo lump Maryland crabcake is my most favorite "snack" of all.

Hopefully over the next few days I will be able to catch up on these missed posts and relive all the good eats and drinks I've experienced over the past few weeks...

24 beers in a case; 24 years old

Tuesday I celebrated my 24th birthday at Mad Mex. The best part about celebrating your birthday here is that if you're on their mailing list, they send you a coupon for a free entree valid the week before and after your birthday. Not only can you use it at Mad Mex, but at any of their sister restaurants - for any entree up to 30 bucks. Sure, I could have picked one of the fancier, pricier restaurants to get the most out of my coupon, but I'd rather go to Mad Mex and have a wide range of good beer at my disposal. Fall/Octoberfest/Pumpkin beers were plentiful, and if that's not your fancy, their tequila selection ain't bad either...

Moral of the story: go go sign up for the Big Burrito mailing list, get a free entree, and save your cash for some good beer (or tequila).

Pumpkinfest at Bocktown

Bocktown Beer & Grill featured "Pumpkinfest" for their weekly Wednesday beer tasting this past week. Up for (free) sampling were various pumpkin ales and Oktoberfest lagers. My favorite by far was the Screaming Pumpkin Spiced Ale from Michigan Brewing Co. It is pretty much pumpkin pie in a bottle: very aromatic, very rich, with a strong, spiced pumpkin flavor. My next favorite was Weyerbacher's Imperial Pumpkin Ale, which was a bit stronger, but still tasty. We also sampled Buffalo Bill's "Original" Pumpkin Ale and Dogfish Head's Punkin' Ale - both of which are good, solid beers, but not as impressive as the Screaming or Imperial. We didn't try any of the Oktoberfest beers (since we had most of them before), except for the August Schell Oktoberfest. It had a strange - almost skunky - aroma, but had a malty taste that I liked quite a bit.

With over 400 different bottled beers, a solid draft list, and some of the best food you'll find at a beer bar or pub, Bocktown has quickly become one of my favorite watering holes in Pittsburgh. Too bad it is way out in Robinson, but beggars can't be choosers...

6th Annual Pig Roast

Since 2002, some friends of mine at Penn State have held a pig roast each September. It's such an awesome event that Tyler has an entire website dedicated to it. The past four roasts have been held at the Stimely cabin, tucked away in the heart of Rothrock State Forest. This year's roast was last weekend and while the turnout was a bit lower than usual, the food, fun, and beer was on par with (if not better than) years past.

Along with the requisite pig and roaster from the PSU Meat Labs, we acquired several kegs of good beer from local breweries: 1/6 barrel of East End Big Hop Harvest Ale, 1/2 barrel of Penn Oktoberfest, 1/2 barrel of Otto's Oktoberfest, and 1/2 barrel of Otto's Red Mo. Plus a 1/2 barrel of PBR to - inevitably - wash down our Sunday morning breakfast. I think this was by far the best selection of beer I'd seen in my 4 years of attending the roast. Both Oktoberfest brews were good, but my nod goes to the Otto's, which was a bit more flavorful.

I'm not sure exactly how many people we show up for these shindigs, but judging from the amount of beer consumed, we get a pretty good-sized crowd. Another indicator is the size of the beer pong tournament, which is always a lot of fun. 2005's pong tourney was one of the biggest and best ever, as seen in this video (click on "media keg").

Oh yeah, and the pig was especially good this year. Maybe it was the Scherba & Jamie signature homemade BBQ sauce, but I thought it was some of the best pork we've had in awhile. Next year we vow to get kaiser rolls, instead of the cheap hamburger rolls, since there is always room for improvement.

Only 359 days (don't forget, it's a leap year) 'til next year's roast...

Candy capers?

The PG's #1 most emailed story for the past two days: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07263/819111-100.stm

23 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? Hot damn, those things are good! Hell, if I lost that many PBCs, I'd probably call the state cops, too!

Luckily Clarion County is far enough away that I don't have to worry too much about the snack shelf in my kitchen...

Zeno's

My favorite State College bar - Zeno's - has finally put together a nice website. Check it out.

Steel City Big Pour

Yesterday was the much anticipated 1st annual Steel City Big Pour at Construction Junction, located in Pittsburgh's North Point Breeze neighborhood. With your choice of two sessions (12-3pm and 5-8pm), it was an incredible festival of beer, food, music, and art. And if you ask me, it was worth every cent of the $30 entry fee. The second one had sold out, so we were lucky we got tickets in advance.

Adam, Leslie, and myself arrived at 5:30, having just gotten back late from a mountain bike ride. Construction Junction is basically a big warehouse, but the beer fest was confined to a small portion of the building. This festival was just as crowded as the State College Beer Expo, but at least the lines were considerably shorter. Inside the building was beer, food, and music; outside was porta-johns and hotmetalhappening, where they were making cool stuff out of molten iron.

Some of the highlights and favorites:

• We started off at Sprague Farm Brew Works, where they had a full-size working fire engine with a kegerator built in and four taps on the back of it to serve their brew. They even cranked up the siren and lights a few times during the night.
  
• Bocktown Beer & Grill - one of the few places in Pittsburgh with excellent beer AND food - was featuring their She Crab Soup. Having been born and raised in Maryland, I normally don't trust anything involving crab outside of my home state, but this rich and creamy soup was exceptionally good.
• Great Lakes Brewing Company - this brewery has a solid portfolio of beer, and Edmund Fitzgerald Porter is no exception. It's a dark, rich, smoky porter.
  
• Flame Barbeque - this seems like a Clem's-esque roadside BBQ pit, apparently located up the road in Shaler. Their pulled pork sandwich - albeit a bit salty - was one of the best I've ever had. Definitely try this place if you like BBQ pork.
• East End Brewing Company - local brewer Scott Smith only had to travel a few blocks to get here, and he brought a nice selection of beer. The Big Hop Harvest Ale (a variety of the Big Hop, but with fresh hops added) was on tap, as well as a cask-conditioned Black Strap Stout. The Harvest Ale seemed like "it wasn't quite done," said Adam, but I still thought it was pretty decent. The Black Strap on cask was delicious.
• Point Brugge Cafe - I noticed this cafe for the first time as I was riding to the Big Pour, and they had a really tasty roasted tomato/spinach dip for sampling. I think I will be paying them a visit sometime soon...
  
• Legacy Brewing Company - just like Great Lakes, they have a great lineup of beer, and their Hoptimus Prime is a hophead's delight (pardon the cliche). But stay away from it if you hate hoppy beers - like Leslie.
• Sharp Edge - this place is like Zeno's (yes, another State College reference), but roomier, smoke-free, and better food. And it's located within stumbling distance my apartment. They had some good cheddar/beer dip with pitas that kept us coming back all night.
• The Taste of New Orleans Cafe - they claim to be authentic, but regardless, they had some kickass jambalaya. "We ain't playin', we cookin!" was their motto. I need to familiarize myself with East Pittsburgh so I can pay these folks a visit.
• Last but certainly not least: Black & Tan ice cream from Oh Yeah! on Highland Avenue. These two scoops (one a Guinness-flavored ice cream and one a Bass-flavored, both made with the real thing) were the best I have ever tasted. Yes, even better than Penn State's University Creamery.

Plus, the kegerator art was pretty cool, and the band was decent. We were able to stay until about 8:30 before they started to kick us out. It was only the second beer fest I've been to, but it was (surprisingly) much more enjoyable than the State College one. It was the unique local food vendors who really made the difference. I can hardly wait for next year's Steel City Big Pour...

Colorado + Liquor = No Snacks!

My brother got me one of those page-a-day calendars last year for me. The theme is beer, and each day features - surprise - a beer from around the world along with a "Beer Fact". Here is yesterday's beer fact:

"Customers desiring beer nuts with their brew are out of luck in Colorado. Sales of snacks are forbidden in the state's liquor establishments."

Blasphemy!

Kennywood

At 11pm Sunday, I got a surprise call from Justin saying that he and Alyssa were coming to Pittsburgh that night and we were going to Kennywood on Monday. They got in at 2am and a few hours later we were on our way to the park, but not before stopping at Whole Foods to get food for lunch. We originally figured it would be cheaper to not get food in Kennywood, but I spent 8 bucks on a make-your-own salad by the pound and Justin spent 11. Still, it was worth it for a healthy, filling, and rather delicious salad. Our good friend Corey calls it "Whole Paycheck" instead of Whole Foods, but I say it beats the hell out of McDonald's.

Late in the afternoon we were getting hungry again and decided to go for the famous Kennywood Potato Patch Fries, totally negating any health benefits of the salad. Apparently the potatoes are freshly cut on-site, fried to perfection, and topped with things like "sharp cheddar cheese" (looks like cheese whiz to me), bacon bits, vinegar, etc. We chose vinegar and "seasoning salt", which is basically generic Old Bay seasoning. Unfortunately, nothing compares to the real thing, but the fries were still awesome. There is nothing quite like boardwalk-style fries with Old Bay and vinegar. Of course, just across from the Potato Patch stand is the corn dog and funnel cake stand, completing the trifecta of triple-bypass-inducing amusement park food. No corn dogs for us, but we did split a slightly overdone funnel cake that was quite satisfying.

Penn Brewery

Since Adam and Leslie were without water last night, we decided to venture over to Penn Brewery for dinner and drinks. This was the first trip to Penn for all three of us, and we had high hopes after a couple of bad experiences at PGH's other main brewpub - Church Brew Works. Luckily, Penn came through.

The brewery's building is pretty cool, with a cobblestone outdoor seating area in a back corner of the lot. It reminded me of Schnitzel's Tavern in Bellefonte, which burned down last year and happened to be one of my favorites. Inside, we found mostly older folk partying with a Dixieland jazz band. A large sign reminded us that Oktoberfest is only 22 days away.

Adam and I started off with the Tomato Bisque soup, which was pretty good but nothing spectacular. As for the beer: Adam went for the Dark and Leslie had the Weizen. Unfortunately their Oktoberfest beer is not quite ready, so I tried the Kaizer Pils, which was light, crisp, and refreshing. Other beer on tap includes their "standard" Pilsner as well as their Gold.

For the main course, I had the Chicken Cordon Brew, and I'm still not sure where the "brew" comes from since I didn't see anything about it containing beer on the menu. Nonetheless, it was delicious. Crispy chicken breasts stuffed with ham and swiss cheese, a creamy wine sauce on top, with mini baked potatoes and mixed veggies on the side. At $16 it sounds pricey, but it is a big meal and I ate half of it for lunch today. This is a key Snacky D strategy, because I am often too lazy to prepare lunch ahead of time, and I feel too guilty if I eat out for lunch all the time.

Penn has good food, good beer, and a warm atmosphere that makes me really want to go back for their Oktoberfest celebration. Great place overall, I highly recommend it. Too bad it isn't within easier riding distance from where I live, but I guess beggars can't be choosers...

Northwest PA

I spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and most of Thursday in Edinboro, PA for training at my company's manufacturing facility. We stayed overnight in Erie (20 minutes away), and we ate out for every single meal. Keep in mind - just a few days ago my stomach was working off of nothing but veggie broth and ginger ale; now I was eating breakfast buffets and pub grub non-stop - what a huge difference! Luckily my stomach adjusted quite well, so here are some of the highlights:

• $2 Yuengling pints at Quaker Steak & Lube. This place was a hop, skip, and jump away from our hotel, and we spent the better part of both nights here. Not exactly my favorite bar, but this deal can't be beat because your other choices at Quaker Steak are Coors Light, Miller Lite, Keystone Light (yuk!) and maybe Sam Adams or Blue Moon. The latter two are probably twice as expensive, and the first three just plain suck. Yuengling carves a niche for people who want a good value but don't believe in drinking shitty beer.
• Good beer at Molly Brannigan's in downtown Erie. We visited this Irish pub/restaurant Wednesday night and enjoyed some good food and some Snake Bites - a half pint of Strongbow cider topped with a half pint of Guinness - mmmm! As far as mixed beers go, stout and cider is my favorite combo. They also had both Boddington's Pub Ale and Smithwick's (one of my favorites) on tap.
• More good beer at Plymouth Tavern, just a few blocks down State Street from our dinner venue. While the selection was fairly respectable, they did not have Young's Double Chocolate Stout (instead, only their Oatmeal Stout). I have been trying to share this beer with my co-workers for awhile now but have had trouble finding it other than at D's Six Pax & Dogs in PGH. It is a really tasty chocolate stout that can be appreciated by both hardcore beer drinkers and non-beer drinkers alike, and *should* be easy to find at a place like Plymouth. Instead, we settled for one of my old standbys: Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout.
  

While my stomach has been working overtime this week, the food (and beer) was good, so I think I could enjoy traveling for work more often...

B&J's

Monday night I went over to the Ben & Jerry's scoop shop in Squirrel Hill with Adam and Leslie. This one shares a storefront with the Bagel Factory, which was closed, but had a huge tray full of wrapped up pastries. Leslie, being a tad more curious than myself, asked the man behind the counter if they were giving them away. After all, they were next to a trash bag full of bagels and it looked like they were all going to get tossed (Justin would have grabbed all of these in a blink of an eye). The man told her yes, we could have some, and our eyes lit up. Since I was traveling to Erie for work the following morning, I knew these pastries would become a key part of my trip, so I grabbed a blueberry scone and a frosted cinnamon roll (for the record, both were delicious).

Now for Ben & Jerry's... I ordered a Jamaican Me Bananas smoothie for $5. I love going to ice cream shops, but I rarely get just a simple bowl or cone of ice cream. Usually when I eat more than a small scoop or two of ice cream, I feel really tired. So instead I tend to go for the smoothies or milkshakes. They generally cost more, but getting fresh fruit, ice cream, yogurt, milk, etc. all blended together into cup is worth it to me. Less mess, easier to consume, easier to carry around. Unfortunately on this occasion, they were out of bananas so the man behind the counter offered to substitute Bananas on the Rum ice cream instead. While fresh bananas would have been perfect, this still ended up being a damn good smoothie. It was rather heavy on the pineapple, which got to be a little too much near the end, but overall I definitely recommend this smoothie. I am all about value, and for $5 you get a lot of smoothie in this one.

The other funny thing we noticed at the shop was that they sold bags of potato pancake "chips". Curiously, I picked up the bag and read the motto - "thou shall snack" - and had a good laugh with Leslie and Adam. Such a good motto, in fact, that I decided to steal it...

Intro

Hello everyone! I've tried blogging before, but gave up because I had no purpose. This time I have a purpose, and that is to review/write about snacks, food, and beer that I enjoy.

I earned the nickname "Snacky D" while working at Mt. Nittany Wheelworks last summer. Apparently, I hoarded enough snacks underneath my shop bench to make Frank, Jim, and Harry both jealous and hungry. Frank probably stole enough of my snacks to deserve a "snacky" nickname himself but I guess I just happened to get tagged first.

Ironically, I begin this blog just as I am fighting off a nasty case of viral gastro-enteritis (aka stomach flu). This hit me rather suddenly on Friday morning and hit its peak with a trip to the UPMC Shadyside E.R. on Friday evening. I ate very little over the weekend, and spent much of the time on the couch watching fine films such as American Flyers. Luckily, I feel much better now and today I began to eat more "normal" foods. Hopefully my body will recover in time for the 24-hour mountain bike race at Seven Springs this weekend; fortunately, I'm on a 5-person team.