Chicken Stick Pitas

We took the bus back from Paradise Beach and it was a stressful, motion sickness inducing ride. We were so happy to have our feet back on the ground at the bus station and that the bus hadn't gone up in flames before we got there. Our stomachs felt so upset that we needed to settle them with a snack. We could have gone anywhere but we decided to go back to το πηγαδάκι (To Pigadaki) where we had the souvlaki the day before.

Love the delivery bike
Instead of getting the souvlaki snack, we each got the pita with chicken stick:


Each pita came stuffed with the chicken stick, tomato, onion, tzatziki and french fries. It was so good. The grilled chicken stick was just as flavorful and tasty as the day before. Add to that the refreshing tomato, onion and tzatziki, and the starchy (and stomach-calming) fries, and you've got a good sandwich. Adding all of this to the chicken stick only cost 1 additional euro! What a bargain!

We didn't try the other souvlaki places in the Fabrika Square area of Mykonos (by the bus station) so we can't compare, but we would definitely recommend a visit to To Pigadaki/The Little Wishing Well!

Green Beans and Spaetzle

For dinner a couple of weeks ago, we raided the freezer. We had bought a lot of frozen food over Thanksgiving weekend and the freezer was stuffed. Since we were both home for dinner, we decided to eat some of the "older" items. One of these was a microwavable dish of green beans and spaetzle in a Bavarian style sauce (with bacon, green onions and garlic) from Birds Eye.


It was easy to make - microwave, stir, microwave again. It didn't look very much like the photo on the packaging, so how did it taste?

M's take: I was pleasantly surprised. When I took it out in the middle of the microwaving, it didn't look very appetizing and was still very frozen. When it was finished, it was better, but very watery and smelled to us like baked/mashed potatoes. The green beans tasted fine, the sauce was better than I thought it would be and the herbs were good. The spaetzle was odd and like a skinny piece of half noodle (not like other spaetzle I've had). I'm not sure I would get this again but it was decent as a side dish.

A's take: M picked and cooked this without telling me what it was. At first I thought she had cooked some twice baked potatoes or something because it certainly smelled like it. The green beans came out watery, and that was probably because we had left them frozen in there for so long so additional ice crystals developed. The green beans themselves were nothing overly special. The spaetzle was sort of like a dry, half broken noodle. The sauce might have been the best part. It was full of herbs and tasted a little buttery. The bacon also added a little saltiness and texture to the dish.

Tropicana Club

We decided to visit Paradise Beach on our last full day in Mykonos. Unfortunately that was the one day in Mykonos that the weather decided not to cooperate. Dark clouds, cool temperatures, strong winds - not the ideal day at the beach. Since there isn't much else to do at the beach when the weather isn't great, we stopped in at the Tropicana Club, usually the site of late night beach parties, for lunch.

We each started out with a Mythos (of course) as we relaxed, tried to stay warm and looked at the beach landscape, thinking how beautiful it would be on a nice, sunny, warm day.


We decided to split two dishes for lunch. The first was moussaka.


Moussaka usually consists of eggplant, ground meat, some potatoes and a topping of bechamel sauce and, in this case, grated cheese. It is exactly the type of warm, hearty dish that you want on a cold day. We hadn't gotten it before in Greece, opting instead for lighter salads, but sitting on the beach in the cold wind was the perfect time to get it. This moussaka was really tasty, full of flavor and perfectly cooked. It was creamy but not heavy, and it was very hearty. We were quite happy with it.

We also got the saganaki, which we've mentioned in other posts.


This version of saganaki was more reminiscent of the saganaki we get at home, but not lit on fire. The cheese, of course, is better in Greece, but, like the ones we get here, the saganaki had that nice crusty outer edge and the chewy griddled inside that we love. This was good saganaki.

Generally our trip to Paradise Beach wasn't very fulfilling. We didn't get to walk along the beach or go in the water. We didn't get any sun. We left on the first bus out after lunch with a lot of other visitors who had come to the beach looking for fun and instead found cold. But lunch was good and the scenery was pretty. If only the weather had been better!

Second Rochari Breakfast

Our second breakfast at the Rochari was very similar to the first. There were a few hot options, yogurt and a bunch of cold options.

A's breakfast:

My breakfast was basically the same as my breakfast from the first day. I didn't get a croissant, and I got less scrambled egg, but I think that was because they were running out of it by the time we got there. I got another egg over easy, bacon, ham, and another giant bowl of yogurt with honey.





M's breakfast:

Similar to the first breakfast, I didn't find a ton of things to eat at breakfast. I longed for the hot dog pieces, grape leaves and Greek salad from our breakfast in Athens. But, considering breakfast comes complimentary with the hotel stay, I can't complain too much about it! I got another bowl of Greek yogurt with fruit (more apples and bananas), which was good.


I also picked up a piece of wheat toast (nothing special), marbled bread (fine) and about 2 bites of scrambled eggs, as there wasn't much left. I also got 2 of the fruit jams - I think raspberry and apricot - which were really sweet. Once again, the yogurt and fruit was my favorite part of breakfast.


We had one more breakfast at the Rochari before it was on to our next stop. Would tomorrow's breakfast have different options?

Christmas Cookie

The Shake Shack custard we were most looking forward to this month was Christmas Cookie, the Wednesday custard. Since the new month started on a Thursday, we were counting the days until we could finally get this.


In our earlier preview of the custard calendar, M was wondering (and hoping) this would taste like a Potbelly sugar cookie. It didn't taste exactly like that, but it was really, really good. Somehow they managed to make the custard taste exactly like Christmas cookies like these:

One of our desserts from Christmas 2008
The custard was amazing. At first it just looked like a simple vanilla custard topped with an astounding amount of red and green crunchy sugar. However, when A took his first couple of bites, he discovered that there were actual butter cookies broken up into the custard. In essence, they created an actual Christmas cookie. It was fantastic.

Christmas Cookie:
A's rating: 9/10
M's rating: 9/10

(These are real 9's unlike our inflated pumpkin pie scores from the beginning of our custard project.)

Roma for Free

Today brought another free lunch opportunity thanks to LevelUp. Just like last month's free lunch from Bian Dang, there was a $10 credit for lunch and all you had to do was pay with the app at any one of the Guy & Gallard outlets. I have passed Guy & Gallard many times, but never tried it since I had always thought they were expensive.


I got a panini ($6.50) and a cranberry lemonade ($2.75), so after tax, I ended up paying 7 cents for lunch. That works for me! $6.50 for a panini actually isn't that bad either. Much more reasonable than I thought their prices were. The branch of G&G that I went to for lunch didn't have the pasta stations or other options like the one A went to, so I think I would go to that one next time.


I got the Roma panini, which was a panini stuffed with grilled chicken, fresh mozzarella, red onions and fresh cilantro chipotle sauce. Unlike Europa, which sticks their paninis (sorry, pressatas) into a quick-baking oven, G&G put the panini on an actual panini grill for awhile before giving it to me.


The panini was really good. There were a lot of onions and they were a little sharp, so if you don't like onions, you might want to avoid the Roma. I, however, love onions, cilantro and chipotle sauces, so I really liked the flavor of the panini. I would get this again. I would not get a drink though. $2.75 for drinks is too much!

Very thankful for the LevelUp app as I have now gotten 2 lunches for free (7 cents, but basically free). Awesome deal!

Tzatziki

After our taramosalata snack on the first day, we knew we wanted to try the Rochari snack bar's tzatziki snack as well. Before hitting the pool, we stopped by the snack bar for some tzatziki (which came with a bread basket again) and a Mythos.


The tzatziki, yogurt with cucumber mixed in, was smooth, creamy and refreshing. You could definitely taste the yogurt. Unlike some other spreads, tzatziki is so light and the perfect snack for a hot day.


Later that night, we learned that the snack bar could also do a half-and-half of taramosalata and tzatziki. Even better!


We loved the taramosalata and tzatziki at the Rochari. Unfortunately we didn't have the opportunity to return for more. They were the perfect snacks for our Greek vacation!

το πηγαδάκι

Souvlaki (grilled skewered meat) was one thing we definitely wanted to eat on our Greek vacation. There were a bunch of places in the square near our hotel that had souvlaki so we stopped by after our day trip to Delos. We decided on this place - To Pigadaki (aka The Little Wishing Well) - because it looked (relatively) busy and friendly.


We settled in at one of the tables (with neon green chairs) with an iced tea to wait for our souvlaki.


Souvlaki is a really inexpensive popular fast food in Greece. These were only €1.50 each.


They grilled our chicken souvlaki snack quickly and soon we had this plate of awesome meat:


This chicken souvlaki was so juicy and flavorful. It wasn't dry or chewy at all. It was a great snack for the price. We definitely wanted to return for more!

Strawberry Cookies

We didn't have lunch during our day trip to Delos (hiking all afternoon, big breakfast, more thirsty than hungry), so we had some snacks once we got on the ferry back to Mykonos. We had picked these up at the Bus Station Supermarket near our hotel before going to Delos.


In addition to the pirouline cookies, we had picked up some cookies (seemed like butter cookies, soft and starchy) with strawberry cream filling.


The cookies were rich and the filling was sweet. Kind of like golden oreos with strawberry filling, except much richer. There were so many snacks in Greece that we couldn't try them all, but we were glad to try something like these cookies that we can't get at home!

First Rochari Breakfast

We got an early start on our first full day in Mykonos since we were planning to head out on a day trip to the neighboring island of Delos. We were greeted by a fantastic view from the dining room of the Rochari (our hotel) as we had our complimentary breakfast.

The views from the Rochari are stunning!
M's breakfast:

While there were a lot of options at the Rochari for breakfast, most of them weren't hot or savory options, unlike our breakfast at the Parthenon in Athens.


I ended up choosing a small piece of brown bread (toasted) and scrambled eggs (which were mixed with red peppers). There were a couple of other savory options (ham and other types of eggs) but I'm not a big breakfast eater so the scrambled eggs were the only thing that really interested me from the hot buffet. I also went for our usual Greek yogurt and topped it with a fruit salad made up of green apples, red apples, bananas and strawberries. My favorite part of this breakfast was definitely the yogurt and fruit salad.

A's breakfast:




I got a hearty breakfast with a croissant, some of the aforementioned scrambled eggs, a slice of ham, and an egg over easy. I also got a heaping bowl of yogurt with honey just like every other breakfast I had in Greece. OJ and coffee finished off the meal and got me ready for lots of hiking.

After a big breakfast we were ready for our Delos adventure!

Sea Satin Market

Our first dinner in Mykonos was at Sea Satin Market, located just off the water in a quiet area of the harbor. There were only a few tables there when we arrived for our late dinner so it was a peaceful and relaxing meal.

Welcome to Sea Satin Market
The restaurant's dining area was outside under some canopies. We loved sitting outside and could hear the waves crashing against the shore.

View of dining room from our table
The first thing to arrive at our table was a plate of bread, olives and peppers. The bread was slightly toasted with olive oil. It was pretty good. We don't remember much about the olives or peppers, but we did finish all of the bread.

Bread, not complimentary
A got a glass of retsina, a type of Greek wine we had seen around Mykonos. This style of wine is different because of the resin used to seal wine bottles, which gives it its flavor (according to what we've read). It was good.

Retsina
After the giant bowl of taramosalata, we were having dinner relatively late and decided to just get a few mezedes. We started off with a Greek salad. We figured this would be healthy since it had a lot of fresh vegetables, and would also be our first "Greek salad" in Greece to compare with what we get at home. The ingredients were fairly similar (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, olives, red onions, capers, feta cheese) and it was light and tasty. The cheese was, of course, better than what we have here.

Greek salad
We also got fava puree, which came topped with slivers of red onions and lemon. This was really good, especially with our bread basket.

Fava
We were less thrilled with our last selection of grilled octopus. We were looking forward to all the fish and seafood in Greece, but so many places (like Sea Satin) had really expensive fish dishes, even though they were just simply grilled. Unlike a lot of the fish selections, some of the seafood (like octopus) was less expensive because it starts out frozen instead of fresh. The octopus was a little chewy and seemed a little overdone, so we felt like you could definitely tell the difference between fresh and frozen. We would not get this dish again.

Chewy octopus
The location of Sea Satin Market is fantastic. Not only is it on the water and quiet like I mentioned above, but it's right beneath the famous windmills of Mykonos. Supposedly the end of the Bourne Identity was filmed here (haven't seen it, so don't really know). Really great atmosphere and location.

View from our table
It was a good meal. Not the best meal we had during our stay in Mykonos, but it was a good start.

Taramosalata

We arrived in Mykonos in the afternoon, a bit tired from traveling and getting up so early in the morning. The solution? A nice long nap, from which we woke up around sunset. We decided to check out the snack bar at our hotel, the Rochari, which we saw advertised in the hotel guidebook. They supposedly had a rotating menu of Greek dishes with dairy products and vegetables from their own farm. They also had an amazing view of the sunset.

Isn't that view incredible? I love the Greek islands!
When we got to the snack bar, we learned that there wasn't really a menu, but you could tell the bartender/snack bar person what you wanted and he would whip something up for you. When we heard that one of the options was taramosalata (a spread made from fish roe), we jumped at the chance to try "real" Greek taramosalata to see how it compared to all the ones we had before.

Relaxing and having a snack on the outdoor patio
The taramosalata came in a generous portion with a basket full of sliced bread and breadsticks on the side. Both breads were good but we liked the sliced bread much better with our spread. I don't recall the price of the snack, but I remember that we thought it was fairly inexpensive for such a large portion.

Bowl full of taramosalata at golden hour
The taramosalata was great. It had a mild fish flavor and was really creamy and smooth. A was hoping for a little more fish flavor since that's what it's made from, but I was happy that it wasn't overly fishy like some other taramosalatas I've tried. We were really happy with our snack and couldn't wait to see what else they had!

Red Ribbon Concrete

Today, to observe World AIDS Day, Shake Shack Theater District offered a special concrete with proceeds to be donated to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS - the Red Ribbon concrete.

Clockwise from left: Specials board, concrete after it arrived at home, concrete on the counter at SS (a much brighter pink)
The Red Ribbon concrete consists of vanilla custard blended with strawberry sauce, marshmallow sauce, and crispy Nilla wafers, and topped with cinnamon sugar. The strawberry sauce gave it a nice pink/red color for the special day.

We liked it. The strawberry sauce was really good and dominated the flavor of the concrete. Our least favorite part was probably the Nilla wafers, as they were hard cookies in an otherwise creamy concrete. We didn't really taste the marshmallow sauce or cinnamon sugar, but it was still good.

We really love when Shake Shack runs specials and try to catch them all. I wonder what will be next!

The Goody's Restaurant Is Now Open

As our boat ride from Athens to Mykonos continued we got a little hungrier. We kept hearing chimes about the Goody's restaurant being open so we decided to get a snack. Goody's is a Greek fast food chain that has expanded to some of its neighboring countries as well. The choice of food was up to me so I got a burger combo.

Golden Burger Combo
One thing I like about Europe is that, not only do they have Diet Coke (Coke Light), but they also serve Coke Zero pretty much everywhere. It's pretty nice since they have options for diet drinkers unlike here in the US.

Fries
From what I recall, the fries were nothing special. It could have been the fact that they were made on a boat, but who knows. Overall, they were just uninspiring.

Golden Burger
The Golden Burger is a burger patty with lettuce, tomato, mayo, bacon, and two types of cheese. I don't remember what kind of cheese was the sliced cheese, but it was grated parmesan on top as well along with a soft wheat roll. I remember the burger being very soft as well, but I can't recall much else. It was a decent fast food burger but not much to write home about. I would get another one if we went back to Greece, though.

Milk n' Honey

The next stop on my block by block challenge was Milk n' Honey. On the block, you hit that before Karam, but since I went on a Friday and they were already closing for the weekend, I skipped that last time and knew I had to go back. Knowing it was next up, I was, however, having some trouble figuring out what I would get there. Milk n' Honey has a lot of the same things as the other generic midtown delis that I don't frequent very often - breakfast, sandwiches, make your own salad bar, pizza, sushi, etc - except that it's a kosher (dairy) place. Their prices are also higher than most generic midtown delis (I'm guessing this is because they're kosher and that either increases expense or pushes price up because there is less competition).


One thing I did notice is that they had "handrolled bagels" (which seemed to get good reviews) and those were only $1.25 (same price or cheaper than a lot of the generic delis). This morning, I got an early start (and did not eat an appropriately larger breakfast) so it seemed like a good day for a mid-morning snack/second breakfast bagel. I went for a toasted onion bagel (with no cream cheese or toppings, since I know I'm having Italian food for lunch in a few hours).

Handrolled bagel
Look at all those yummy onions!
Thumbs up! My first impression was that the bagel was a nice size and very generously covered with onions on BOTH sides. Usually onion bagels will have less onions on the bottom but this was like having two top halves in one bagel (unless they "messed up" and gave me 2 top halves, which I would not complain about). The bagel was soft and doughy on the inside and the outside was chewy and crispy, all like a good bagel should be. I don't know if I would go back for sandwiches or salads (since they still seem too expensive to me unless I used the groupon or google offer there), but I would definitely go back for a bagel (and maybe next time with cream cheese or fish)!

December Custard Calendar

The December custard calendar at Shake Shack is up!


A lot of these flavors look familiar to us from last year. Here are our thoughts on the lineup:

Egg nog (Monday) - While we haven't blogged about it, we tried this last December. A remembers liking it but he likes egg nog. I remember not liking it very much but I don't like egg nog.

Figgy pudding (Tuesday) - This was also on last December's calendar but we never got around to blogging about it either. I don't even remember it but my gmail chat history tells me we tried it and that it was gray. No idea if we liked it. We may have to try it again.

Christmas cookie (Wednesday) - Not sure if this is new to Shake Shack but it's new to us. I hope it tastes like a Potbelly sugar cookie. If it does, it might be my favorite custard ever. (Edit, 12/7: We have tried the Christmas Cookie custard and it is great! The review is here.)

Chocolate orange chestnut (Thursday) - Does this differ at all from chocolate orange chestnut swirl, which we tried last December and thought tasted like plain chocolate custard?

Gingerbread (Friday) - Another repeat custard from last December's custard calendar. We didn't really think it tasted like gingerbread last year.

Candy cane crunch (Saturday) - We're pretty sure we tried this last time. I don't remember much about it but A doesn't think we liked it very much and that it was just vanilla with candy cane bits mixed in.

Apple spice cake (Sunday) - A repeat from this past October. We thought it was OK but we were disappointed that there wasn't real cake mixed in.

What flavor most interests you? I can't wait for Christmas cookie. I hope my expectations aren't too high.

Casablanca

Crisp has been running a bunch of specials lately and this week's special was a sandwich and a drink for $7. That's less than the price of the sandwich alone so I definitely wanted to take advantage of it. I got the Casablanca sandwich with a mint iced tea. This time I got the iced tea semi-sweet (instead of unsweetened) and it was much better than the last Crisp tea experience that I had.


The Casablanca sandwich is the newest handbag sandwich on the menu. Inside the wheat pita pocket there's falafel, babaghanoush, crispy eggplant, mixed greens and Moroccan carrot salad.


The sandwich was good, but it won't be replacing the Africa sandwich as my favorite. The carrot salad was the best part of the toppings but outside of that, I didn't find the flavor combination that extraordinary. It was a good solid sandwich if you like those toppings as ingredients, but I'm going to stick with the Africa (or the Mexican). Those are really, really good.