How many times have you passed a deli or a clothing store or a restaurant and thought to your self, "I need to go in there one day and check it out". I have said that to myself many times over the course of the past 20 odd years about Cliff's Elbow Room in Jamesport. I finally took the time to stop in and once dinner was all done, I smacked myself in the head for waiting so many years to eat at Cliff's Elbow Room.

In a classic example of "If you blink, you'll miss it", Cliff's Elbow Room makes no effort to catch your eye with some flashy window dressing or a facade that calls at you to stop and take notice. It looks more like the front of a small town bar and grill, and sometimes those are the best places to eat. Oh, and don't think they saved all their money for decorating the inside of the restaurant because you will be disappointed. It's very plain and kind of looks like your friends basement circa 1977. Short on decor but long on taste, I have no problem with that.

Four of us dined here and we went for all different types of cuisine. Seafood, chicken and of course, steak are all on the menu and they all found their way to our table. The chicken scampi was really good, with the chicken being very moist and that's not easy to do with a thick chicken cutlet. The dish was very flavorful, with no particular ingredient overpowering another. They all came together very nicely.

The broiled seafood plate was also very good. A nice mix of flounder filet, shrimp, sweet scallops and a lobster tail is enough seafood to satisfy any craving. All broiled to perfection, with nothing being dried out or overcooked. The side dish of sweet potato fries (my choice) was expertly cooked. Too often a restaurant will toss some sloppy, wilting strips of sweet potato at you and call them "fries". This is not the case at Cliff's Elbow Room. The sweet potato fries are nice and crisp and not too thick or thin.

While the chicken and fish were both very good, Cliff's Elbow Room is known for their steaks and that's been the case for the past 51 years. If you like steak, you need to travel to Cliff's Elbow Room and try the marinated New York shell steak. While you can't go wrong with any of the other offerings, which include porter house and filet mignon, my favorite was the shell steak. It comes to the table nicely crusted and extremely tender, juicy and thick. The shell steak was a good inch and a half to 2 inches thick after cooking, and took up the entire plate. The baked potato, while a nice touch, doesn't need to be included in this meal. There is more than enough steak for the hungriest patron to enjoy. Let me tell you right now, the steaks at Cliff's Elbow Room are as tasty as any steak in any of the more well known steak houses anywhere in the country, but doesn't cost anywhere near what other places will charge you. It's easily the tastiest and most reasonably priced steak dinner anywhere on Long Island.

Cliff's Elbow Room is located at 1549 Main Road in Jamesport, NY. Do yourself a favor and don't drive by it for 20 years like I did before deciding to eat there. The friendly bartenders and servers are waiting to see you.

Mid summer on Long Island means a lot of things to a lot of people. For some it means that it's time to hit the beach or relax by the pool. The backyard BBQ season is in full swing and the smell of charcoal and sizzling beef and pork is in the air on just about every block in every town. Summer means getting together with friends in the most informal settings over some very informal food. Summer also means that the local farm stands have an abundance of locally grown produce that you can enjoy during those lazy days and nights by the BBQ, and Krupski's Farm Stand is a good place to pick up some very fresh local produce.

I won't get into politics or name names here but over the past decade or so the definition of "local farm stand" has been stretched thin by some of the farm stand operators on the East End. Krupski's Farm Stand is the real deal. They have a large farm where they have been growing their delicious produce for decades. Sweet local corn, juicy ripe red tomatoes, farm fresh green and yellow squash and luscious local cantaloupes are just a few of the items available for the hungry passerby to enjoy.

But fruit and vegetables aren't the only items available at Krupski's Farm Stand. They also make their own spreads and preserves. I am a big fan of apple butter since having been introduced to it as a kid on a family trip to Amish Country in Pennsylvania over 30 years ago. When I see apple butter for sale I always buy it hoping that I will find something closer to home that will save me the trip to Amish Country just to satisfy my apple butter cravings. Well I just may have found it at Krupski's. Along with their preserves and jams (they had Damson Plum jam which is a favorite of mine!); they also had pumpkin butter and apple butter. I purchased the apple butter and I've been happy since Saturday. I like it on a thick slice of toasted raisin bread. I also mix it into pancakes (Sshhh! I don't want everyone doing it), and I mix it with some other ingredients and use it as a sauce/glaze for pork loins and chicken. Now I'm getting hungry.

So on your next trip out to the North Fork of Long Island, stop at Krupski's and pick up some of the fresh, delicious and nutritious fruit and vegetables they have for sale. You will be doing a favor for your taste buds and at the same time, you'll be supporting a real local farmer. Krupki's is located on Route 25 in Peconic, across the street from the Pindar Vineyards tasting room.

Goat cheese. Those two words can bring about several different reactions depending on who you say it to. Some people curl their noses up at the thought of eating anything that comes from a goat. Others wish they were as "adventurous" as you are when it comes to trying "new" things. And then there are those of us who appreciate the creamy texture and the rich, tangy flavor of fromage de chevre.

Whether you are a fan of goat cheese or not you should make the trip to Peconic, NY and visit Catapano Dairy Farms. Along side of the traditional chevre, you will find feta, gouda and ricotta all made from goats milk. My favorite is the chevre, which comes in several different flavors including garlic, herbed crusted and the newest addition to the chevre family, honey lavender. All of these cheeses are made right on the premises so freshness and quality are never an issue. While you are shopping for cheese, your kids can interact with the goats, which are located right next to the barn where they sell their cheeses and other products. One last thing about the cheese, it is award winning. The American Cheese Society awarded Catapano Dairy Farm first place in 2005 for their chevre cheese and in 2008 their Peconic Mist blue cheese took home the blue ribbon for best blue cheese.

If you're not a big fan of cheese, you might be interested in their goats' milk yogurt or goat's milk fudge. Rich, creamy and chocolaty, goats milk fudge is a great way to satisfy your sweet tooth. Catapano Dairy Farms also sells a complete line of goats milk skin and facial products for both men and women. I won't get into the benefits of using these products, but if you make use of your favorite internet search engine you will see just how good for your skin all natural goats milk products can be.

If you can't make it to Catapano Dairy Farms, you can also pick up their cheeses at the Village Cheese Shop in Mattituck and at Lucy's Whey in East Hampton. You can also place orders via their website or by telephone.

I am one of those people who think they have a pretty good sense of humor. I joke around a lot, probably more than I should. However, one thing I never joke about is ice cream. When someone places a frozen treat in front of me, I get real serious really fast. If any of you feel the same way I do about ice cream, that it should be its own food group and you should have at least 3 servings a day, I suggest you make the very worthwhile trip to Mattituck and visit Magic Fountain Ice Cream.
 
   No offense to Ben and Jerry, or to any of the big chain ice cream shops that use frozen slabs to fashion their treats. They have kept me happily munching away on their ice cold creations for years, but they don't have anything on the folks at Magic Fountain. Located at 9825 Main Road, Magic Fountain has been serving some of the best home made ice cream you'll find anywhere since 1977. With more flavors than Baskin Robbins, plus seasonal specialties like pumpkin ice cream in the fall, cantaloupe ice cream in the summer and cranberry ice cream in the winter, you will never run out of choices or options at Magic Fountain.

I'm always up for trying something new and at Magic Fountain I had several chances to do so. After surveying the myriad of flavors they offer, I asked about, and was given a sample of a flavor called kulfi. As it was explained to me, kulfi is vanilla ice cream with pistachio nuts, cardamom and infused with rose water. The sample wasn't enough for me. I had to have a waffle cone filled with the stuff. It was very creamy and you could taste the rose water without losing the vanilla flavor and the cardamom was there at the very end to leave you wanting more, not to mention the crunch of the pistachio nuts. My wife opted for the Kauai Pie and wants to take the 70 minute drive back out there just to get some more.
 
 Cones, sundaes, cakes, pies, Italian ices, no-fat ice creams, no-sugar ice creams, sorbets, smoothies, shakes and sorbets, you can get them all at Magic Fountain... and I suggest that you do.

Stopped by Albertson's Farm Stand in Riverhead on Old Country Road just west of the traffic circle and just east of the Tanger Mall for some of the best strawberries I've ever tasted. The sugary sweet red treats smelled as good as they tasted and it didn't take long until the car was filled with the sweet smell of fresh berries. Needless to say, not all of the berries we purchased made it home.

The ladies working the farm stand told me that if I was interested I could travel just a little further down the road to their farm and pick my own, which is a great activity for the kids and also allows you to enjoy the weather. Since it was late in the day I opted to take the lazy way out and just purchase some of the delicious strawberries they had for sale at the stand. The ladies also told me that the rhubarb they had for sale was in season so I made sure to pick up a few stalks which will find their way into a strawberry-rhubarb pie or crisp, depending on how lazy I am this week. One thing is for sure, I will be visiting Albertson's Farm Stand again for more berries and I might even pick my own this time around.

Went with my wife and another couple to the Babylon Carriage House. If you're looking for good food and a casual atmosphere, I suggest you try this restaurant out. The food we had was very good and we ran into no problems when we asked if certain items on the menu could be altered to better appeal to our individual tastes. For example, I'll start with our choice for dessert:

The Dessert Quartet (pictured here). Normally this plate includes a choice of ice creams/sorbets, a piece of cheesecake, an apple tart and a molten chocolate cake served with green tea ice cream (a flavor I like more each time I have it). The couple that we were with wanted to swap out the ice cream/sorbets for a creme brulee. No problem, even though the creme brulee was a bit more expensive, and as you can see by the picture, they made it fit into the presentation. As for my personal favorite of the four, I thought the cheesecake was the best. I really enjoy and good cheesecake and I've made all sorts of them over the years, and sometimes I end up disappointed when I order cheesecake in a restaurant. Not this time. Light, creamy and most of all, satisfying. Everything you want a cheesecake to be.

As good as the desserts were, and they were all very good, I want to talk more about the rest of the fare we sampled that evening. For appetizers, we ordered Appetizer Tasting Plate (pictured below) that includes a gorgonzola chopped salad, yellowfin tuna tartare tacos, pork dumplings and what seemed to be everyone's favorite, the Thai calamari. We also ordered a crab cake because if there is one on a menu, my wife has to have it (it also helps when the crab cake is good, as this one was).

All of the appetizers were wonderful. I could have made a meal of the yellowfin tartare tacos if I was able to order about 6 or 8 of them as a main course. They were flavorful and crunchy and the sweetness of the rare tuna was able to cut through herbs, spices and sauce that comes on the taco. The pork dumplings were good. Sometimes dumplings can be chewy or the filling can be dry or they can be too doughy. These were perfectly cooked and did not need the dipping sauces at all. The pork was juicy and seasoned just right. These dumplings can stand toe-to-toe with the best dumplings in some of the better Asian restaurants. And now, the Thai calamari. Clearly it was a favorite not just of our table, but of some of the other patrons that night as well as I saw bowl after bowl being delivered to tables across the restaurant. The calamari was fried to perfection, crisp and juicy and not chewy at all. We've all had that "rubber band" experience when it comes to calamari, but you won't find that at the Babylon Carriage House. And the compliment of sweet honey that melds with the Thai spices puts this calamari over the top. I'd go back just for a giant bowl of the Thai calamari and 4 of 5 glasses of wine.

Now the main course. We ordered 3 surfs and a turf. Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass which was light and flaky and served with a lobster risotto that was fantastic (risotto is one of those side dishes that sometimes gets overcooked, but that was not the case here). The Sesame Crusted Yellowfin Tuna (surf number 2) was cooked to the diners liking (I would have ordered it more rare but to each his own). Served with mandarin oranges and jasmine rice and drizzled with an orange-soy sauce, this dish (pictured below) smelled as good as it looked. They say you eat with your eyes first, but in this case it was our noses then our eyes.

Surf number three was a special that night, stuff lobster served with mashed potatoes. Lobster lovers like me will fiercely defend our choice of lobster over steak, and the arguments can become quite heated when we are with our steak loving friends.

One taste of this stuffed lobster would be enough to convert all but the most diehard backers of beef. The stuffing was not dried out like most stuffings tend to be, and the lobster underneath was sweet, flaky and filled with lobstery goodnees.

Last, but certainly not least was our "turf" choice (pictured below). The Oven Roasted Chicken Breast. As any cook at any level knows, getting flavor out of a chicken breast is no easy feat. With its complete lack of fat and skin, the breast can be pretty bland. The Babylon Carriage House solves this problem by serving the chicken breast in a balsamic cream sauce and with a side order of ricotta gnocchi and a sprinkle of pancetta (Italian bacon). It's an outstanding combination that gives flavor to the chicken breast without overpowering it. Sometimes with a rich sauce like a balsamic cream sauce, you could be eating anything with it because the sauce becomes the star. Here, the chicken breast is still the star and the sauce gives it room to shine, and also works well with the gnocchi.

Yes, this was a long review, but I wanted to say a little something about all of the foods we sampled that day and to hopefully convince you to head to Babylon and find yourself a seat at the Babylon Carriage House. And after you've finished eating, walk on over to the Babylon Theater and catch a movie! If you're like me and my wife, with kids and everything else, you don't get out as often as you'd like to, so treat yourself.

Spent some time at Mr. Sausage in Melville today. They actually have two other stores, one in Huntington and a new one in East Northport. There are a lot of stores on Long Island where you can get quality Italian foods. You probably have one in or near your neighborhood, but if you haven't been to Mr. Sausage you are missing out on one of the best places to get traditional home made Italian foods. All of the sausage is hand made and they are outstanding. Whether it's pork or chicken or even lamb sausage, you can't go wrong at Mr. Sausage. Their homemade mozzarella is one of the best I have ever sampled, smooth, rich and with a hint of butter at the very end. I could go on forever about their homemade salami as well, but it's safe to say that if you like salami then run, don't walk to Mr. Sausage and pick up as much as you can eat... and then some for later, as well.

There are all kinds of Italian foods available for your consumption at Mr. Sausage, hot, cold and even frozen. They also have a great lunch and dinner menu as well. When the store was located in Hicksville, I was a regular there for lunch. I am happy to announce that the change in location had no effect on the quality of the food at Mr. Sausage. Buon Appetito!