Pizza My Heart

There is something special about pizza. It comes in many shapes, sizes, and flavors, making it a nearly universally satisfying meal. Living in New York, even Upstate, means that we’ve been blessed in the pizza department. It’s well known that New York pizza is the best pizza in the world, but we’ve been taught that the best slices come from New York City. If you’re reading this from Upstate New York you know that we’re very different from the Big Apple, but one similarity remains– we have great pizza, too.
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Under The Sea For Saratoga Restaurant Week

Eating out is not economical. I realize this each and every time I check my bank statement. Yet this expensive hobby of mine is one I will not kick. That being said, I do try to experience restaurants in the cheapest way possible, getting little tastes here and there at food festivals and events like Chowderfest and Wing Walk.  On December 1st Saratoga Restaurant Week started, so I took this opportunity to take a bite out of Fish at 30 Lake.
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Getting Fired Up! In Saratoga

On Thursday afternoon I unlocked my phone for my usual afternoon scroll through Instagram. I opened to a post from The Alt, a weekly newspaper I pick up whenever I see it out and about. The post was promoting a contest– free tickets to select events at the Saratoga Wine and Food Festival. I’ve entered Instagram contests before, liking posts and tagging friends with no real chance of winning, but I never give up hope that someday I will win, and so I once again commented below to enter.

On Friday, pre-occupied with work and life, I had already forgotten about the contest I had entered not even 24 hours prior. I quickly recalled when I received a direct message from The Alt letting me know that I had won 2 tickets to the Fired Up! Event at the Saratoga Wine and Food Festival. No time to go home and change, I hoped that the weather would hold up as I rushed from work to Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Upon arrival I found my way to the box office to pick up my tickets, got my wristband and followed the path of guests leading to a beautiful tent full of music, food, and fun.

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My eyes were immediately drawn to the Stella Artois area. Adirondack chairs lined fire pits while white lights and big red umbrellas covered the tables alongside a large silver trailer that doubled as the bar. Beside the bar, a Stella Artois photo backdrop was calling my name. With a sip of Cidre and a picture with my new Stella chalice, I was ready to take on the food.

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There were 8 participants, competing for crowd approval and serving their small plates to a panel of judges. The theme of the evening was barbecue, and each of the participants were serving up dishes from tri-tip steak to grilled pork shoulder. First, I visited [Forged], and took on the harissa tri-tip with duck fat fingerling potato. I’ve never heard of [Forged] and I would consider visiting their Hudson Falls restaurant, but their steak was by far my least favorite for one reason. At food tastings like this, it’s important for the dishes to be easy to eat. Often times it’s crowded and tables are limited, combine this atmosphere with only a plastic fork as a utensil, and you get a very difficult eating situation. While the dish was probably great, it was very hard to eat the steak this way, making the first tasting one of my least favorite of the evening.

Next stop was the Lunazul Tequila tent for an Apple Cider Margarita that I sipped alongside plate number two, Ama Cocina’s stuffed summer sopes with grilled deconstructed street corn. On top sat flavorful grilled tri-tip with pico de gallo, queso fresco, lime aioli and cotija cheese. Let me tell you, the fried corn masa dough was everything, but the small cup of grilled street corn was the icing on the cake.

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We wasted no time as we closed in on the last sip of the margarita and moved straight across the tent to the Woodford Reserve bar. They were serving up a mixed drink with berries and bourbon. I’m not a bourbon kind of girl, but I drank it nonetheless. Ready for something more to munch on, I visited the 677 Prime table to taste their Korean bbq tri-tip taco with jicama slaw. Jicama is one of those ingredients i’ve heard about many times on shows like Chopped but never tried in real life. The taco included many different ingredients including sesame garlic aioli, jalapeno, sweet chili vinaigrette, jicama, sweet corn, cabbage, and chicharrones. I decided that this taco was worth sitting down for and I was right. Flavorful yet not overwhelming, and significantly easier to eat, the 677 Prime taco was only my third plate of the night but I had already determined it was definitely a contender for top dish.

After a stroll around the tent, scoping out the Tito’s bar, and taking a second to check out the Maserati’s parked on the lawn I moved on to the next tasting. The pulled pork from Salt and Char was tasty though the summer vegetables it was served with weren’t my favorite. My biggest complaint though– the fact that this tasting required two separate dishes. One plate hosted the chili charred shishito peppers and pimento cheese while another hosted the pulled pork and corn succotash. If my hands are full of dishes how am I supposed to eat? More importantly, how am I supposed to take a picture?!

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Next up was a Capital Region favorite, Druthers Brewing! While the Druthers Brewing plating was an A+ it was the bourbon ketchup and pickle brined french fries that gave the dish life. Right next door, Max London’s char grilled Brazilian sirloin piri piri with black bean croquettes was next level in terms of spice. Yes, I had to Google piri piri, and yes it was really, really good. Of course anything fried is delicious so the croquette was the perfect touch.

Morrissey’s Lounge was at the end of the tent and by this time I had eaten my fill, but I grabbed a glass of red blend and took my plate of grilled hangar steak with bone marrow chimichurri, peruvian potato salad, and smoked baby corn. The hangar steak was by far the most well cooked of the evening and had I known this previously, I may have opted to stop here before filling up on some of the other dishes.

The night was coming to a close and voting was about to start so we moved quickly towards a final stop to taste what Brown’s Brewing Company had to offer. Brown’s had it tough.  They too had a taco that didn’t quite live up to it’s predecessors from Ama Cocina and 677 Prime. Though they added an extra element with roasted corn and tomato salad, it was the other brewery, Druthers, that brought home the official win of the night.

The evening wasn’t just food and drink, it was music as well. Inside the food tent there was a DJ entertaining a crowd of dancers while outside another crowd was jamming out at the silent disco. If you’ve never been to a silent disco, it involves headphones and a few different station choices. In this case, the headphones with the green lights were playing 80’s hits and the headphones with the blue lights played today’s pop hits. I am a terrible dancer, with no rhythm and no ability to carry a tune, but I found myself dancing (slightly and without much coordination) to the music inside my headphones.

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I’ve never won an Instagram contest and I’ve never been to Saratoga Wine and Food Festival, two things I can now check off my bucket list. Tastings like these are what foodie dreams are made of and I am beyond grateful I got to attend!

Keep up with my food adventures on Facebook & Instagram. Have any food festivals you think I should go to? Let me know in the comments!

Taking On Troy: Sunhee's Farm and Kitchen

When it comes to deciding what’s for dinner, it’s always a challenge. “What are you in the mood for?” “I don’t know, what are you in the mood for?” is the consistent without fail back and forth that I encounter. The pressure is always on me as the resident “foodie” to make the call and it’s not always the best position to be in, especially when everyone is getting hangryContinue reading “Taking On Troy: Sunhee's Farm and Kitchen”

Taking On Troy: Sunhee’s Farm and Kitchen

When it comes to deciding what’s for dinner, it’s always a challenge. “What are you in the mood for?” “I don’t know, what are you in the mood for?” is the consistent without fail back and forth that I encounter. The pressure is always on me as the resident “foodie” to make the call and it’s not always the best position to be in, especially when everyone is getting hangryContinue reading “Taking On Troy: Sunhee’s Farm and Kitchen”

Barcelona on Broadway: Tapas At Boca Bistro

Summer 2014 was a life changing summer. On a spontaneous whim at midnight in my twin xl dorm bed  I applied for an international marketing course for 6 weeks in Spain. Although a little rusty on my high school Spanish, I got on a plane at John F. Kennedy airport, closed my eyes, and woke up in Barcelona, Spain.

There are many beautiful things about Barcelona- the architecture, the beaches, the fashion. But to know Barcelona, and to truly love Barcelona, is to appreciate the food.

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Before my arrival in Spain, I researched the people, the culture, and the language. When I saw main dishes like arros negre, a dish in which the main ingredients included rice with squid ink, I knew I was in for an adventure. Before I left I declared to my mom that I would try as many things as possible, but I would not eat squid ink. As fate would have it, on our first full day in Spain the restaurant where our professors took us to lunch had arros negre on their menu del dia, and I went for it. Screen Shot 2017-05-08 at 9.37.00 PM.png

There are so many different things I could tell you about the food in Spain, from menu del dia 3 course lunch specials to the amazing Tapas crawl in which I got small plates and a glass of wine for 2 euro each, but this blog is called Erin Eats Upstate.

After my summer in Spain I’ve attempted to find Spanish food here in Upstate New York but the options have always been few and far between. You’re sure to find some paella dishes around, and certainly a carafe or two of Sangria, but the traditional tapas like pan con tomate, patatas bravas, croquettes, and tortilla de patatas are rare, hard to find treats.


I found out about Boca Bistro when I first came home from Barcelona in 2014 but it has taken me 3 years to finally set foot inside the restaurant. The delay was primarily caused by location, I live in Albany and spend far more time there, as well as exploring Schenectady and Troy. When I found myself hungry, and on a casual stroll in Saratoga, I knew exactly where to go.


The restaurant itself is beautiful, albeit a bit smaller than I anticipated. We were seated by the window at a small table aside a beautiful brick wall. I don’t know what it is about a brick wall, but for whatever reason I’m instantly drawn to them. As we sat down we were given a food and drink menu, with a full selection of beer and wine. Despite my best judgement I didn’t order a drink, partly because it was the middle of the afternoon, but mostly to spend more money on food. On the drive home all I could think about was how much better the meal would’ve been with a nice red wine.

While the menu included salads, sandwiches, burgers, and paella, I didn’t even give them more than a glance. After munching on some freshly baked bread dipped in olive oil (and eating some of the olives too) we ordered a selection of tapas including pan con tomate with manchego cheese, ham croquettes, and patatas bravas.

Pan con tomate is literally bread with tomatoes mashed across the top when you order it in Spain. At Boca Bistro there were a few more components. They used cherry tomatoes cut in half, with olive oil, a tomato spread, and some sprouts for garnish. We added manchego cheese to the order, because why not, and the bread came with more olives (which I LOVE).


You don’t need to speak Spanish to understand what patatas bravas are. You probably already guessed it, potatoes. Patatas bravas are traditionally fried potatoes cut into cubes with spices, and served with a garlic aioli and these did not disappoint. For an additional cost we could’ve added a fried egg or chorizo but I decided to keep the dish classic as I remember it. There’s always next time.


The meal wouldn’t be complete without ham croquettes, although it probably would’ve been a bit healthier without these delicious fried ham and cheese fritters. Stuffed with manchego cheese and serrano ham, the plate came with 5 of these tasty croquettes. This is often a pet peeve of mine at restaurants. Why not serve an even number? Especially when it comes to tapas when you know people are going to share… But I digress, overall if that was my only complaint, I’d say it was a pretty good meal.


I was pretty full after these small plates and entertained myself by looking at the dessert menu, but ultimately had to decline. Although I didn’t get to try, if you are a dessert person I can only assume that the churros and chocolate is a worthwhile choice.

With relatively inexpensive flights to Europe these days the goal is to save some money and return to Spain, revisiting Barcelona and exploring other cities like Madrid or Sevilla. But for the time being I will continue to find local options and reminisce about Summer ’14.

Do you have any recommendations for Spanish food in New York? Let me know in the comments and as always, I’ll see you on Instagram