Delaware Ave. & Niagara Sq., Buffalo, NY 14202
Web: Taste of Buffalo 2009
Phone: 716.983.0978
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Buffalo Caribbean Chinese Favorites Festivals Indian Latin Thai
With over 220 items on offer at the 2009 Taste of Buffalo, it's easy for even hard-core foodies to find items that they mightn't have tried before. In this second part of a three-part series on some of the many noteworthy items at the Taste, we highlight more exotic items - ethnic foods from the Caribbean, India, Latin America, Singapore and Thailand. Part one discusses American and Italian offerings, part three talks about desserts and drinks, and our 2009 Golden Fork Awards highlight the best items on our list.
Kabab & Curry. The wonderfully rich, tomato-based sauce we tasted in the Chicken Makhani with Basmati Rice is just one of the many great flavors at this restaurant; this particular item was on the mild side, allowing the richness of the Indian "butter" sauce to stand out, along with the surprisingly good chicken - hard to maintain in tender form at a food festival.
Niagara Cafe. The Pastelillios fried dough pockets - empanadas, meat puffs or meat turnovers in the Latin world - were filled with zesty beef, and delicious enough to win one of our Golden Fork Awards. We tried a similar version at Papi's - the Empanadilla - but loved the beef in these.
Caribbean Experience. While the Jerked Chicken was the best we tried at the Taste - strong jerk sauce, utterly tender and perfectly cooked chicken, nice rice on the side, all worthy of a Golden Fork Award, the Tropical Style Curried Chicken was also very good, with similar tenderness and a nice mildly spicy, bright yellow curry sauce that was only a little less distinctive.
Mobay's. We found the Jerk Chicken here to be too light on the jerk flavoring, but were really impressed by the Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding, which might have sounded simple, yet possessed a surprisingly complex and interesting flavor that kept changing in our mouths - a very, very good dessert. It won a Golden Fork Award, and at only one ticket was one of the least expensive items at the Taste, easy for anyone to try.
Papi's Family Restaurant. Far more moist than we'd have imagined, the Roasted Pork was a bit salty, and full of natural pork flavor; when we saw it, we didn't think it would be anything special, but it was the best pork item we sampled at the Taste, and won an Award. By comparison, the Chicken Empanadillas were good, but not as impressive as Niagara Cafe's beef version.
Spicy Thai. We were interested in sampling the offerings from this Amherst/Tonawanda area Thai place, operated by the former owner of Cheektowaga's Jasmine II and the later Mango Bob's. The Steamed Dumplings were unfortunately really forgettable, and the Banana Coin dessert - one of our favorites elsewhere, with sliced bananas wrapped in rice paper, fried, and drizzled with honey - tasted bland and like it had been sitting out too long, even though we'd tried it very soon after the Taste started. Keeping fried and steamed foods fresh might be tough for vendors here.
Torches. We came to Torches expecting that an award would be likely, but nothing was quite right to our tastes. The Cubano Smoked Pork was good, not great, with too much cilantro and mushy rice; the Triple Cooked Jamaican Jerk Wings were forgettable, and the Grilled Tomatillo Gazpacho with Shrimp Scallop Ceviche was a nice soup with mediocre seafood that actually took away from its overall quality.
May Jen Chinese Restaurant. The super-thin, bright yellow-colored, curry-flavored Singapore Noodles were rice noodles mixed with some shrimp and chopped vegetables. While we're fans of the dish, and it would be worthy of sampling if you've never tried it before, it wasn't especially memorable here.
Other ethnic food vendors at the Taste of Buffalo have been profiled in more extended Buffalo Chow reviews, including Gramma Mora's, Palace of Dosas, Polish Villa, and Tandoori's. Read more on this event in our Taste of Buffalo 2009 Golden Fork Awards roundup and basic show guide.
See also: Part 1 on Ameritalian foods and Part 3 on drinks and desserts.
