Do you ever get that "corner of your eye" catch when you're out driving? I was heading up Rt. 2 one day when that happened. M had told me about it last summer, and I was reminded again after Celinabean did her review. But it wasn't until that drive up Rt. 2 that I finally decided that I had to try it out. M had been there before and didn't like it, but I made him go anyway.
On the outside, the restaurant looks like it takes up three storefronts. On the inside, however, it looks like a small house that was converted into a restaurant. As you walk in, to the left is a small room that looks more like a sitting area than a dining one. As you walk through on the right, you pass up the kitchen, and into a somewhat larger dining area with stairs leading up to another dining level. More like half a level. We chose to eat upstairs, where it was nice and empty.
I didn't really look through the menu because I already knew what I wanted- golompkies and pierogies. I picked the Polish sampler that had those two plus potato pancakes. M went with the croquettes, and we split another order of pierogies.
Croquette (as per Wikipedia):
A croquette is a small fried food roll containing usually as main ingredients mashed potatoes, and/or minced meat (veal, beef, chicken, or turkey), shellfish, fish, vegetables, and soaked white bread, egg, onion, spices and herbs, wine, milk, or any of the combination thereof, sometimes with a filling, often encased in breadcrumbs.[1] The croquette is usually shaped into a cylinder or disk, and then deep-fried.And the Japanese version (once again Wikipedia):
That is the version I am familiar with. A mass of food in the shape of a patty, breaded and deep fried. So when our croquette came out, I was a bit confused. M had to point it out to me, that yes it was the croquette, and not some mistake. Actually, they had given us the wrong type of croquette, but M ate it anyways. It was alright, but nothing spectacular. And it was a bit greasy.
Generally patty-shaped, it is mainly made of potatoes with some other ingredients such as vegetables (e.g. onions and carrots) and maybe less than 5% meat (e.g. pork or beef).
Since when is a potato pancake supposed to be flattened mush? What happened to shredded potatoes held together with a binder and fried to golden brown? Isn't that what a potato pancake is supposed to be? The consistency was such a turn off that I gave it to M to finish. The pirogies were good. It's a good thing I got another order of them.
The glompkies were... fine. Perhaps too meaty. I really had to force myself to finish it. If I didn't have so many pirogies, I may have thought differently.
