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Syracuse is no stranger to the cuisine of Thailand. Unlike other Asian food brought to the US, Thai food feels authentic (I’m looking right at you “Chinese food”). However, I’m no expert on Thai cuisine, but I’m assuming it’s similar to all other nations local food, there are probably distinct different from North Thailand and South Thailand, peasant food, noble food, etc.

For me, Thai food consists of something spicy, something sweet, something sour and something salty. Thai food uses assorted curries, coconut milk, turemic, lime, chillies, rice noodles, white rice, prawns and lots of basil to achieve one pot wonder meals. It somehow manages to be spicy and sweet all at the same time, it manages to be filling yet light and it manages to be extremely aromatic yet mild.

Here in Syracuse, we have a few options when it comes to Thai food. There are three main Thai restaurants that I’ve been to quite often and I’ll give you a brief tour of each.

First we have Erawan Thai Restaurant at 2724 Erie Blvd. East. The building was remodeled since I’ve been away from Syracuse, and I can’t remember if Erawan was always there, or if it was a Mexican restaurant years ago. Today, Erawan is very affordable, good Thai food. It’s very simple inside, no glamour, no glitz. Many of the servers wear jeans, there’s usually no linen on the tables, water is served out of plastic jugs. But, the food is really good and I’ve never had a bad meal, whether it’s out with my parents, with friends, or on a date, it’s a perfectly simple meal.

Another great restaurant down the road is Little Thai Restaurant at 2863Erie Blvd. East. Kathryn, my parents and I went there last night to celebrate my new job. While I was a little disappointed last night, I still really like Little Thai for its ambiance and delicious food. The menu is enormous, so be prepared to have a tough time ordering. One big difference between Erawan and Little Thai is their curries. I rarely order a curry dish at Erawan because it’s so watery and soupy, just doesn’t taste that great. To contrast, Little Thai’s curries are wonderful, rich, spicy, thick and flavorful.

Finally, Syracuse has the behemoth of Thai restaurants with Lemon Grass in downtown Armory Square. I’m extremely biased for one good reason. Many years ago, like 10-15, my father sold paintings to Lemon Grass when it first opened, and as a result, my family was permitted to eat whenever we wanted in order for the owner to pay my dad. I was young when I first went to Lemon Grass, but I specifically remember it offering my first true fine dining experience. I’ve only been to Lemon Grass once recently and was a bit frustrated. What Lemon Grass offers is consistent award winning modern Thai food, at a price. It’s fine dining, and therefore is more expensive than both Erawanand Little Thai, but to me, it’s worth the price for a special occasion. Also, a word on their desserts – they are incredible and are worth stopping by the bistro just for an after meal sweat.

Below are links to all three restaurants. Try them out, let me know what you think. I’m sure there are more Thai restaurants in Syracuse, and I look forward to exploring them as I devour my city.

Lemon Grass

Little Thai House

Erawan

Anyway, it was a good time. Lots of food, rides, games, wasting money, but all in good fun. We went with Adam’s friend Tom. First off was food and boy is there a lot of it. Rows and rows of vendors as far as the eye can see. You want a pulled pork Dinosaur Barbeque sandwich? You got it. Fried dough, of course, even alligator on a stick! Adam went for pulled pork and I picked falafel, yum. 

Then we walked alot, all around the fair, through the midway and the rides (which Adam and Tom didn’t want to go on). We found the wine tent which serves the much talked about wine slushies, which are delicious and depending on which booth you go to, come in a variety of flavors. 

We checked out the cows, some of which are huge! There were also some calves there which were so cute it made me ponder how anyone could even contemplate eating veal. We passed on the chicken coop though as Adam said it smells and is a bit depressing to see the chickens confined to small cages.

After that Adam and Tom had to find the Banana Derby. What, you may ask, is a Banana Derby? Well, it’s a race, with monkeys riding on dogs, like jockeys on horses. Impossible you say, well apparently its not, because after asking at least five people we finally found it in a back corner of the fair lot. And it was cool, for about a minute, to see a little monkey astride a dog. Then they “race” (the dogs walk around a track except one got confused and went the wrong way) and it gets a little dull. I guess this one you’ll just have to see to believe when I get the pictures up. 

Next up we went to a cooking demonstration at the playhouse. This one featured salmon in a Concord grape juice glaze and Chicken in a maple teriyaki glaze. While we couldn’t taste them, they sure smelled good and got up our appetites again. So we hit the food vendors again (mmmm grilled corn) and got some more wine slushies.

Then we checked, what we called the “As-Seen-On-TV” building which featured a sand sculpture of a sinking ship and many many products you’ve probably seen on those late night informercials. This was our chance to see them in action and spend our hard earned cash on a handy-dandy vegetable slicer/peeler, but we decided to pass. 

Finally we checked out the dairy barn, with a quite impressive sculpture of “Hey Diddle Diddle” (You know “…the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon, the little dog laughed to see such a site and the dish ran away with the spoon…”). It had everything but the cat and the fiddle and was a bright perfect butter yellow (of course).

All in all it was a fun, but somewhat tiring day. We didn’t win anything at the midway (well Tom did, twice!) but we had a good time anyway. You can bet next year I’ll be back to the Great New York State fair, and not just for the wine slushies.

On our way to the Gorges city we stopped in Cortland. As a teenager, a trip to Cortland – a day of bowling, record stores, and thrift shops was not complete without a stop at A&W Root Beer Drive-In. OK, this is not gourmet food, at all. In fact, the food leaves quite a bit to be desired. However, you can walk away fulfilled if you order a cheeseburger with a root beer float. The menu said the root beer is made on site, and it is some of the best root beer around, that’s for sure.

root beer float!

The restaurant was really crowded. It is a true Drive-In, meaning you can park your car outside, and your server brings your food to your car.

Onward to Ithaca. It was our two year anniversary so we decided to celebrate - the way two young people would when they get a random week night off together, and haven’t really saved any money for the occasion. I took Kathryn to Moosewood Restaurant, what is to me, the perfect vegetarian restaurant around. As a kid, my parents took me to Moosewood, we had one of its original cookbooks, and did our best to emulate the vegetarian style. The restaurant opened more than 20 years ago, and has published several cookbooks. In fact, I bought Kathryn Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home a long time ago.

Our meal was pretty good. She had stuffed peppers and I had cheese raviolis with a nice shallot cream sauce. We started with bread – which, we had to purchase (a bit odd), followed by salad/soup and a small plate of olives. I was a bit upset that the food came too fast, that there was no pause in between courses, and sometimes the courses were brought out while we were still finishing a previous one. I know that’s not a big deal to some people, but it is to me. For dessert we had a vegan chocolate cake. it was pretty good for not having any animal loving, but I swear the cake tasted like it was from a box. However, I don’t mean to sound like I didn’t like the meal. It was a long drive to Ithaca for a meal would could of had in Syracuse, or I could have cooked. We wanted to go because I’d been talking about it so much, the restaurant and Ithaca.

My advice for those who are travelling to Ithaca, check out Moosewood, it’s good food, relatively affordable, but most of all, it’s survived a long time and created a brand for vegetarians.

We started with a walk/hike down to Buttermilk falls. Ithaca is famous for its gorges (you’ve seen those shirts right?) and it’s easy to see why. They are gorges (sorry couldn’t resist).

Adam on the trail

We followed the Gorges trail along the stream and periodically stopped to gape at the beautiful pools created by years of water wearing away the rock (maybe slate, maybe shale, I’m not a geologist).

A stream created pool

It was a lovely walk down to the falls, which if you like has a natural pool where you can swim at the end (swimming and wading are not allowed along the rest of the trail).

End of the trail

Going back up was considerably harder as there were a lot of stairs, but after a lot of breaks we made it and headed into the city.

We hung out in the commons for a while, which was full of college students as well as cute and fun shops like used book stores and vintage clothing shops. We did a little browsing before heading over to Moosewood for dinner. Adam will write about dinner, but as a former vegetarian I thought it was all pretty yummy.

The fair runs for 12 days and features, food, rides, games, and farm animals. I’ve never been so I can’t offer any nostalgic memories of fair days gone by, but I am excited about my first trip next week. I’m sure I’ll be eating fried food, wasting my money on Midway games, seeing some huge cows, and I’ll  definitely drinking those wine slushies I’ve heard so much about. Anyone who visits, leave a comment and let us know what you think and what parts of the fair this newbie definitely has to see.