Black & Blue Steakhouse

Black and Blue is still one of the "newer" upscale steak houses in Albany. It's modern, sleek, and on the formal side, but without airs. 

And they have pretzel bread. HELLO.

Service was attentive, polite, and efficient - my ideal for an upscale steakhouse. 

 Steak Tartare ($18.00): diced tenderloin with onion, garlic, capers, horseradish aioli, truffle oil, and a panko-crusted ‘5 minute’ egg. 

Steak tartare is one of those dishes I *have* to get when I see it on a menu. I prefer my tartare as more of a rough mince than a thicker dice, and the generous amount of cheese made absolutely no sense to me (do people like tartare with cheese?). I'd probably also dial back on some of the aioli, as I want more of the raw meat flavors to come though. If the meat's good, you don't need to dress it up with so many accessories. All of these opinions make me sound like I didn't like it, but it was quite good. Just some minor tweaks, or personal preferences.
That said, the truffle oil and 5 minute poached egg were phenomenal additions. Holy smokes - great combination.

Pair this with some fries and you've got yourself a great bar dinner. And let's be honest, I probably could have just stopped right here and had a perfectly content night out, except...

Oh right they have steak. Ridiculously well cooked steak.

The 14 oz Ribeye ($48) was cooked exactly to temp as requested (medium rare, thanks!). I find it so hard for most restaurants to nail medium rare through and through that I usually order rare and wind up getting something a little over medium rare. But not at Black & Blue. Medium rare is medium rare. 

Black & Blue's house rub is mainly salt, pepper, and some rosemary notes, which go very well with the steak. I gilded the fatty lily with some truffle butter, because we all know ribeye steaks don't have nearly enough fat on their own. Amirite?

Filet Mignon ($44) au poivre ($12), which adds a black peppercorn and brandy sauce, haricots verts, and hash brown rosti cake.

The pepper sauce was a bit of overkill, as Black & Blue does a beautiful job with the meats on their own. 

A side of wild mushrooms ($8) with tarragon, onion, and shallot because I simply cannot resist any dish that includes tarragon or shallots. Combine the two? I'm in.

Great firm texture on the mushrooms. A solid side.

Truffle butter shot!

I'll likely give their crab a try next time, though it'll be hard to stray away from the excellently prepared steaks. 

Black & Blue Steak & Crab

https://blackandbluesteakandcrab.com/albany

1740 Western Ave

Albany, NY 12203

(518) 313-7388

Pad Thai Noodle

Went to Pad Thai Noodle on Everett Road with my best buddy, Fussy Little Blog proprietor Daniel B. to grab some face melting spicy hot Thai food for lunch. Pad Thai has a teeny tiny shared parking lot in the front, and a slightly larger place to park in the back. There are a few tables inside to seat about 15 or so people.

We started off with Papaya Salad ($9) because I freaking love papaya salad and will order it any time I see it on the menu. This was a little on the small side - the plate was small, and almost half of it was iceberg lettuce. We ordered this at the hottest level, and it did not disappoint.

Next up was an order of Soft Shell Crab ($10.00), which was fried to perfection and a great foil to the heat from the papaya salad. I could eat a basket of these.

The Boat Noodle Soup caught Dan's eye, and I'd been getting over the Cold from Heck and had been jonesing for a bowl of comfort, and this provided just that. Well, until we got about 2/3rds of the way through and the hottest spice level became too much for me and all I could feel was burning and pain. But before that I tasted a wonderfully rich broth, and some of the most tender slices of pork I'd ever had before. I'd order this again a touch less spicy to enjoy it more. Oh, and rice noodles (aka the best kind of noodles)!

Pad Thai Noodle

113 Everett Rd

Albany, NY 12205

518-599-0211

Innovo Kitchen - Brunch

If you've ever gone out to brunch, you know the sky's the limit and you can really set yourself back a pretty penny.

I've been trying to get out more and socialize when I don't have the kiddo. That might sound kind of lame to some people, but I've been trying to socialize since I first moved to Albany 356 years ago, so now that I've got some solid friends and continue to add more to the pile, it's less "Find cool people to hang out with, oh god why don't I have any friends???" and more "Man, I know so many cool people. I gotta try and hang out with them."

Where were we? Right. Brunch. Some of my friends like going out for brunch on the weekends. It's nice. I can't do it all of the time because single mom budget, but still.

I've also been kind of meh about my random weekly meals. Brunch and lunch out is a nice way to try something a little different, and maybe use it for inspiration for the week. Nine times out of ten I wind up thinking of how many steps and dishes it would take, but sometimes I get a inspiration on how to incorporate something into every day life.

I recently went out to Innovo Kitchen in Latham and got the Power 4 salad ($8), which is red kale, watercress, arugala, spinach, golden raisins, roasted grapes, and toasty pistachios tossed in caesar vinaigrette. 

I wasn't sure what roasted grapes meant, but they were lightly roasted and then chilled before being tossed with the salad, so they still had a bunch of texture and weren't just big squishy gobs of sad grapes (which was what I was mentally preparing myself for). They added a nice contrast to all of the greenery. Also adding textural contrast were the crunchy pistachios - nicely minced and easy to get a tiny bit of pistachio in every bite. 
Great conservative amount of dressing to keep it all together and add flavor but not overwhelm. 

My coffee consumption is now at comical records, so of course I had to get a cup of coffee ($3.75), which comes in a French press. I'm not a huge French press fan, but everyone else is a fan of me drinking coffee before noon and becoming less of an exhausted gremlin.

Service is polite and friendly. Open kitchen in the back you can see. Gets busy around noon for brunch, but they're open at 10 am, so if you go before there's no wait. 

http://www.innovokitchen.com/

Innovo Kitchen
1214 Troy Schenectady Road
Latham, NY 12110
518-608-1466

Namu Korean BBQ.

Namu Korean BBQ is located on Central Ave in Albany. It has a modern interior with grills inside to cook your own BBQ. 

They have $11 lunch specials which were quite substantial - I got the spicy squid. It had a hearty amount of squid and veggies, plus rice and banchan sides. 

It was great to pop in on a chilly lunch and eat some warming food, and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of squid - dontcha just feel sad when it's a plate of veggies and like, 3 pieces of squid?
Nicely spicy, too!

www.namukoreanbbq.com/

Namu Korean BBQ
1770 Central Ave 
Albany NY 12205
Tel: 518-591-0800

Sushi Tei

Some things never change, like Sushi Tei's $1 nigiri special for the entire month of July. Or ordering $50 of food for myself.

There was a special! Okonomiyaki! $7.95 for a pancake sized for two people (but easily shared between 4). This was very kewpie mayo heavy, and oh man the shrimpy bits were great. 

But let's get to the star of the show, the sushi:

Hello, gorgeous! Octopus, mackerel, white tuna/escolar, salmon, tuna, and a few rolls.

Oh, I also forgot to take a photo of the mini udon noodle soup I got ($6.95), which was fantastic as always. I think they're my favorite place for both sushi and udon noodle soups. 

Any way, go check them out - this is a great deal, and they're so nice there!