Restaurant: Pusadee Garden, Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh, PA

Outside at Pusadee Garden
Originally uploaded by LugerLA

Pusadee Garden
5321 Butler St.
Lawrenceville
Pittsburgh, PA

I heard about Pusadee Garden from China Millman's effusive review in the Post-Gazette. And China Millman does not do effusive reviews, so this was on the list of restaurants to go to.

The first thing to note was the outdoor garden seating. And in the urban environment of Pittsburgh, this is not common. The vines and trellis make this work, in an otherwise drab cityscape of Lawrenceville. The second thing I noticed was this was a family restaurant, meaning there is a family on the premises. Rare for a nice restaurant in the U.S. (although more common in neighborhood restaurants where everyone is family).

I had spring roll (and shared crab rolls) with plum sauce for appetizer.



Crispy Tilapia with "famous 3 flavor sauce" for the appetizer.



It is spicy and sweet, and the third flavor was somewhat overwhelmed.

A friend of mine had the spicy duck



How good is it? It is decent food. The flavors were not well balanced, but that may be the sign of a very new (< 2 months) restaurant. Atmosphere, especially if you can get outdoor seating, was wonderful. And I like the casual feel of a family restaurant (clearly they live nearby as I was noting their comings and goings.)

Restaurant Review: Tamari, Lawrenceville

Tamari
3519 Butler St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15201




We arrived around 6:30 and they were busy. We hung out at the bar and had a fun conversation with the bar staff as well as the owner's father (of China Palace) At first, they tried to seat our group outside, and we were eventually seated, but we eventually were chased in by the rain. So we ended up at the sushi bar, where we had front row seats of the chef at the stove. So we had a treat watching a hopping kitchen as the orders came through with head chef Roger Li keeping an eye on things from the side (it was a narrow kitchen).

I had the 16 spice rubbed in pork tenderloin and I was able to taste wrapped shrimp (pictured). The confidence of the kitchen showed when their medium rare was done like it should have been (i.e. not overcooked). The purpose of this restaurant is not feeding volume, in fact the portions are nicely sized. The focus is providing good food. Seasoned uniquely and intended to be savored. And I did so, one bite at a time.

Following lessons learned from his father, owner Allen Chen was wondering the floor chatting with customers. At our front row seat we watched Roger Li manage his kitchen, mentoring younger staff and even exchanging a few words with us watching. A wonderful eating experience, and something creating that makes eating in Pittsburgh fun.

Recommend this review

The Clover at 21st Street Coffee

I've been wanting to try coffee made on The Clover ever since I first heard of this. Of course, there is only one in Pittsburgh, 21st Street Coffee in the Strip. Which I don't go to all that often. So a few weeks ago, my wife and I made the decision, we will go to 21st Street Coffee sometime. And today was sometime.

What is the big deal? Well, the Clover fixes the quantity of beans, the water temperature, and the time steeped for a single cup serving of coffee. That means the coffee is fresh (ground just before being added to the Clover) and the barista and coffee place can experiment with those three settings to get the best coffee given the bean and the roast.

S, C (who we conned into coming) and I had three cups of coffee: Kenya, Costa Rica, and Honduras (all roasted at Chicago's very own Intelligencia). My Kenya was a bit mild for my taste. We liked the Costa Rica. Honduras was not bad. But at the end of the day, we bought a bag of the Costa Rica.

The benefit of the Clover? The taste that is there comes through more then normal and the coffee is smooth, more than drip or the french press, or even vacuum press. S and I were tasting the coffees like they were wines. Now, I'm not going to pay wine prices for this, but it is quite good.

Art in the City - Pittsburgh April 25, 2008

Friday night was the first Pittsburgh Cultural District Gallery Crawl of the summer.  And I had tickets for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for that night.  Ingredients that promised a fun evening.  

One of the fun things about the Gallery Crawl is the sheer variety of exhibits.  There are the usual film projects, photo projects of various kinds.  A few musical acts (I think if anyone can sit through a steel drum performance without smiling they should be checked for a pulse.)  But I really remember the cross media pieces.  At Trombino Piano they had sculptures up, made of piano parts! 

Over at the Pittsburgh Culinary Institute they had some food.  I was so happy that they gave the chili a bit of kick to it, like chili should have.  And they had a centerpiece that our local chef's in training do for fun.

 

All this followed by a concert with the PSO.  And even here the variety continued.  From the strident brass of Hindemith's Concert Music, to Chee Yun's violin singing with the orchestra on Mozart's Concert No. 3, the sheer range and variety of the night was something to be enjoyed.

Raccoon Creek State Park in the snow

The weather forcast for western PA this weekend was for about a foot of snow, 50 mph winds, flooding and all sorts of other fun things. Of course, now that school is out, S was worried about getting bored. So she thought it would be a great idea to go backpacking. Preferably someplace far enough away to be interesting. Somehow, all of S's friends neglected to tell me how dangerous it was when S got bored. Furious negotiation over the following week reduced this to a mere hike, in a park that was in the county that S lived in. Much safer (for a saner L. Not that L has not done crazy things like this is the past, mind you).

So, this morning, we made our way to Raccoon Creek State Park, through the falling snow, rain, and forbidding clouds that were above during the drive there. We arrived at the parking lot off PA-18, the parking lot was empty. We picked up our packs. Checked our maps. Looked up at the gray sky, and headed up the Lake Trail (to Forest trail)



Raccoon Creek features some nice trails, up hills, through evergreen conifers. One of the early ominous signs we saw were the sign notifying us that we were in No Hunting zones, which brings to mind the question, why was that important?



The answer, of course, is obvious.



One other highlight of this hike were the creek crossings. I don't know how things are the rest of the year but on weekends of rainfall, the creeks are high enough so that they cover any rocks. So we went wading through the creeks. Fortunately, S had recently purchased a pair of Gore-tex (TM) lined REI Monarch boots, with the assistance of an expert consultant. So her feet were nice and dry after wading through streams twice. After going through mud and now being dunked in a flowing creek, her Monarchs seem very happy that they found a worthy home.



Around now it started snowing in earnest. And eventually we came to point in the trail that was blocked by fallen trees. So we turned around and head back.



But, we also stopped to eat. S was thinking that lunch would be energy bars or sandwiches. But L thought that Pad Thai was a better choice. KL can say if this counted as an L cooked meal or not.







The return hike was smooth (after all, we had been there before). It was different, as the trees now had a highlighting dusting of snow, making for a Currier and Ives type scene.



We returned to the parking lot, with dirty, snow covered, muddy, wet boots.



And happy.