Nickelodeon Punta Cana Restaurants

Nickelodeon invited me to stay at their resort in Punta Cana from August 26th through 29th to experience everything they have to offer.   At first I thought all the restaurants would be focusing on chicken tenders and pizza with a little Spongebob on the side.  Was I surprised at the offerings they had.

Our first night we ate at Verdello which is Nickelodeon's Italian restaurant. At most other all inclusives, the Italian is low on my priority list to try since I find their offerings are mostly generic pastas and other entrees.  Wow was I surprised.   It was one of the best Italian meals I have ever had.  Only surpassed by a meal I actually had in Narano Italy back in 2016.  That will have to be a blog for another day.

Here is part of the menu.

We started off with a well baked, crispy focaccia with pepperoni.  The fresh grated parmesan cheese was a great addition if you wanted a bit more salt.

Let the appetizers begin!!   The standout dish was a tuna carpaccio.  Such delicate, thin sliced tuna that melted in your mouth.  Simply seasoned with arugula, olive oil, black pepper and sauteed shallots.    The server accidentally brought out an extra plate of this to our table.  What would you have done?  We of course felt the kitchen was using us as testing to confirm the consistency.  We couldn't let them down.  That serving was just as excellent.  It was only a few years ago that the sourcing at Mexican, Jamaican and Dominican Republic all inclusives (and probably all of the island restaurants) was not reliable.  Somehow, they are now able to source some really great ingredients.  And it showed with this dish.

Next up was arancini (also known as fried risotto balls).  These were well fried and I appreciated that they were still moist.  I have had so many of these where they use to many breadcrumbs or eggs and the balls are crumbly and dry.  Not in this case.  What I didn't like so much was the red sauce which tasted like the can I assume it came from only a few minutes before.    The sauce was unnecessary in this case but would have been greatly improved if it had been warmed up, had a sprinkle of oregano and salt then finished with some minced basil.  

We next tried the burrata.  This is not found on many Italian menus I have seen in the United States so was excited to try it here.  If you haven't had it, I would describe it as if camembert and mozzarella had a child.  True burrata has a soft shell exterior wrapped around a buttery cheese texture in the middle.    When cut it should ooze - like the middle of a well cooked flourless chocolate lava cake.    This burrata didn't live up to what I was hoping for.  While it had good taste, it was more like a standard buffalo mozzarella just slightly softer.  Not a bad dish under a different name - but not a burrata.

Next up was my second favorite dish which was a beef carpaccio.    As with the tuna, this was thin sliced goodness on a plate simply garnished with delicate pieces of parmesan cheese, arugula, black pepper and sea salt.  It also melted in your mouth like the tuna.  Sadly there was not an accidental delivery of an extra plate of this to our table. 

I am very adventurous when dining and always looking to try something new.  But if I have a staple "go to" menu item which I will always order it is mushroom soup.  I just love a great preparation of any mushroom - soup or otherwise.  They can have a meaty flavor without meat.  And in a broth, that flavor seems to get extenuated.   Needs little else except butter and time.  This was a very good rendition of a mushroom soup.  I liked the addition of the rosemary sprig since the warm broth brought out some of that rosemary aroma when it hit the table.  The soup itself didn't have any rosemary in it so I at first thought it was a strange addition.  But it was a brilliant move by the chef.

The first entree we tried was the seafood risotto.  Go on the internet and there will be many chefs telling you what makes the best risotto.  Should it slide across the plate, as says Chef Tom Collichio?     Do you have to stir it on a stove constantly for hours?  Or can it be made in a pressure cooker using some recipe's from Oprah's chef Art Smith?  Do you have to use Arborio rice?  I don't claim to know about any of those things.  Bring me risotto thick or thin.  Pan cooked or baked.   I only look for flavor and doneness of the rice.  If those two things are spot on, then it is a good risotto.  And this one was delicious.  They had used a bright seafood broth to make it and then added in perfectly cooked shrimp and scallops.  The rice was still had a toothy bite which I like.    Chef Tom would not have liked that it would have held up to the Blizzard test at your local Dairy Queen.  But to me, it met my expectations of a good risotto. 

Next was a seared tuna steak with sesame crust and thermidor sauce.  This brings me back to how the sourcing of ingredients is so important and is one of the biggest changes all inclusives have made to have their restaurants be as close as possible to something you would find in your local town.  The tuna was of exceptional restaurant quality.  Cooked perfectly rare and simply seasoned with some salt.  The sauce while good, was not really necessary and would have been better if it was drizzled onto the potatoes which were under seasoned.   At this point in the meal I also took note of all the fresh herbs being used.  I think on our dishes alone must have been at least one bunch of rosemary and 10 leaves of basil.  I will have to do more investigation on where they source the herbs.  Are they growing them since shipping all these herbs would seem to be problematic.  

"First" breakfast was a stop at Doppio the coffee shop.  They made these great tasting donuts.  Somewhere between a raised and plain donut and iced with a thin glaze.  Delicious with the double espresso I had.  And the picture isn't a whole order.  ;-)   I promise I only had one.

Proper breakfast was at the buffet restaurant Sugarcane.  What you will find at most all inclusives in DR and Mexico is they have access to terrific fruit.  I love mango but it is one of the hardest fruits to cut.  You always feel like you are wasting it since the large pit gets in the way.  Somehow, the prep chefs at these resorts have mastered the art of slicing mangos - or it feels that way.  It is the best mango you will ever have.  Juicy and slightly tart, perfect with the vanilla yogurt.  I also made my version of a McGriddle.  It is a waffle with bacon and over easy eggs.  Runny eggs make anything better.   I might consider eating parsnip if it had a runny egg on it.

Lunch unexpectedly started at the pool.  We had a great pool waiter Orlando who saw us getting some chairs and asked if we wanted a pizza.  Well, can you really say no to someone who will get you a pizza?  No - you can't.  Was it the greatest pizza I have ever eaten?  No.  Needed some help with the crust which was a bit soggy.  But this is one of those moments where you have to make sure you have your situational taste buds at the ready.   You are at the pool.  With a great view.  A waiter was gracious enough to ask you if you wanted a pizza.  It was amazing.

Second lunch was at Fresca which is a restaurant next to the second swim up bar.  

We had just had the pizza so we didn't need much more for lunch,  We order crispy noodle asian salad, beef tacos and miraflores ceviche.  The tacos were my favorite.   Well seasoned beef  (I think it was flank steak which always has great flavor) and an asian slaw.  The sweet chili sauce served as the dressing for the cole slaw since it was naked.  

Lots of fresh fish in the ceviche which I loved.  There was simply too much lime juice so any fresh fish flavor was lost.  And the more you ate, the more acid you got.  

My least favorite was the asian slaw.  I loved the fresh, crispy veggies but the asian flavor was not as pronounced as I would like.

And did I mention they make great passion fruit mojitos?  I never order a mojito but these looked so good and were delicious.  Passion fruit is usually on the tart side.  I don't like sweet drinks (unless an Old Fashioned counts!!).   So the passion fruit really toned down the sweetness. 

Dinner tonight was at Sugarcane which was a buffet.  They had many freshly prepared items including whole fried fish which is one of my favorites.  It is another mushroom soup. If it is on the menu, I will order it.  This was talapia and perfectly cooked so it was still moist.  I know many people are turned off by seeing the whole fish and would never get it.  If you love fish, you have to try this.  If you are a steak lover, you know how a T-Bone steak tastes so much better because the meat gets additional flavor from the bone.  It is similar for a whole fish where I think cooking the fish intact really seals in the flavors.   I also had a burger since I wanted to try the "slime" sauce (this is Nickelodeon after all).  Slime sauce is nothing more than ketchup.  Some of you will remember about 20 years ago Parkay started selling colored margarine so more kids would try it.   Terrible idea. I think this is Nickelodeon's take on this.  It tasted fine and I see where it could be fun for some kids.  Just don't let them bring the bottle to the table or they might get an inkling to slime you!!

We had lunch the last day at BRGRSPH which is their burger bar.  It is set up like a food truck but is inside and air conditioned.  You have to believe me - even though I have not a single picture of them - the burgers were outstanding!!  Well seasoned and cooked to order (you can get medium rare if you want!!).

We did manage to try a few appetizers as well.  A very nicely prepared wedge salad.  Would have been better with blue cheese (aren't most things?) but I liked the ranch they used.   Crunchy bacon on the top.

A trio of beef tacos.  The green chili salsa was quite excellent with great balance of acid and heat.  Loved the presentation of the guacamole.

They serve the fries in little shopping baskets!!   And they were crispy and hot when they came on the table.  I so wanted to take one of these baskets home.  How great to use these at home for serving almost anything.  

I tried two desserts.  Both were decent but needed some help.  The cheese cake sundae had great presentation in that fun cone.  Had nice pieces of soft cheesecake and crispy meringue.  Loved that part.  They were on a large bed of vanilla cookie crumbs - way to many to be edible.  I didn't care for either the chocolate or berry sauces.  Would have liked some kind of fresh berries in a sugar syrup.  I know they had raspberries on the buffet so it could happen.  I only ordered the apple fries since they came with a side of cheddar cheese ice cream.  Now who has ever heard of that?  Well, I hope we start hearing more about it.  Growing up as a kid, my mother always served sharp white cheddar cheese with apple pie and I loved it.  As I grew up to adulthood, I learned not many people had ever heard of this.  So how great to see the chef had paired these together.  A flashback to childhood!!  While the apple fries were a bushel or two from having enough apple flavor, the cheddar ice cream was so good!!  It was a mild vanilla ice cream with grated cheddar mixed in.  Perhaps not great by itself, but terrific as a complement to apples.

Our last dinner was at the asian restaurant Wok Wok.  It started with a very creative and tasty presentation of sushi.  My favorite was the spicy tuna.  There was also a mango and salmon.    Not pictured was a great seared tuna that had oyster sauce.  We ordered more of that.

Seafood stir fry which I thought had great flavor.  Reminded me a bit of the great risotto I had at the Italian restaurant on the first night.

The chicken pad thai was my least favorite.  I guess they really like fish sauce in their interpretation since that is all you could taste.  No peanut, thai chili or chicken flavors.  If that is the chef's choice to use that much fish sauce, I think this item will be returned mostly uneaten most nights.

The evening ended with a great presentation of small desserts.  The white truffles were really good.  The others were also quite good although none of them were inspired by asian flavors.  I would have greatly preferred a dish of ginger or green tea ice cream. 

TOP TIPS:

1.  Favorite restaurant was the BRGRSPH bar.  It shouldn't be hard to make a great burger but so many placed fail.  They know how to do it here.    We were lucky since they opened it one day for lunch since they had closed the beach restaurants due to Hurricane Dorian.   It is normally only a dinner place.    Ask when you check in what the hours are.

2.  In hindsight I would have tried to have a progressive dinner.  You could start with some sushi at Wok Wok.  I don't think their entrees are great so can be skipped.  Then jump to Verdello for either of the carpaccios (or both!!) at Verdello.  Then pick a risotto.    If you are a meat eater, the server highly recommended one of the steak dishes. We didn't order that since we thought we already had enough with  the other items.

3.  With the hurricane pending, they cancelled the characters breakfast they have.  I would recommend you do that one day.  Check the schedule for the days.

QUICK BITE: Domestic First Class Meal

Are you curious what the airlines are serving these days in domestic first class?  I had the opportunity to fly on Delta first class from Atlanta to Punta Cana Dominican Republic and found out for you.

The choices were a chicken parmesan sandwich or an antipasto salad.  As luck would have it, I had also flown on Delta in the first class cabin a few weeks prior - also to Punta Cana  - and ordered the chicken parm.  It was nothing like a chicken parm sandwich you would want. Instead of a breaded cutlet with melted mozzarella and sauce, it was strangely sliced deli chicken in an off-tasting sauce.  Let's just say I knew not to order that this time.

The antipasto was exactly the opposite of the chicken parm.  It had everything you would expect to be in an antipasto.  Slightly spicy smoked salami, marinated artichoke, briny kalamata olives, fresh buffalo mozzarella, charred peppers,  asparagus and what I think was a wedge of manchego cheese (one of my favorites).  It also came with buttery, crunchy toasts which were great by themselves and also provided some texture to the salad.  The dessert was a wonderfully soft and rich molasses cookie.  The kind you need a large, cold glass of milk with - but I ate it anyway!!  Well done meal for our 3+ hour flight from Atlanta.

QUICK BITE: Banana Preserves?

On a recent trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic at the Casa de Campo resort I came across this at the breakfast buffet.  The typical jellies and preserves you see near the toast. bagels and pastries are strawberry, raspberry or maybe guava.   I have occasionally seen a lemon curd which has been very tart and tasty.  Had never seen banana until this resort.

The consistency was custardy and smooth - almost like a lip balm.  The taste was extremely sweet and masked the little banana flavor there was.  I wouldn't recommend this on toast.  Maybe it would be good as an ice cream topping if it was heated and made to be sauce-like.  Even then, you would have to supplement it with some fresh bananas.

A Day At The Minnesota State Fair

A Day At the Minnesota State Fair

I attended the Minnesota State Fair on Saturday August 24th.  This was the second visit I had made in my life having also visited four years ago.  I always love a good state fair and Minnesota is one of the best in the country in my opinion.  There are 322 acres to cover including almost 300 food booths (you know for me it is all about the food and beverage).  This year it was slated to set an attendance record given the seasonally mild weather in August.  In 2018, over 2 million people visited.   It runs for the 12 days before (and including) Labor Day. Through Saturday 8/31, they had already set four daily attendance records. 

So where to start?  Our group arrived at the turnstiles at 9AM so we were ready to start with a breakfast item.  As with my prior visit, that meant mini donuts.  These are best right from the fryer which is not hard to find since they are constantly making them.   I love a great plain donut (or some would call it old fashioned).  Growing up I remember getting fresh ones at Dunkin Donuts.  This was the 1970's when DD actually did make all the donuts in house instead of using regional bakeries.  These mini donuts reminder me of those treats.  Pillowy, soft inside with a slight crunch outside. All that was missing was a great cup of black coffee. They added powdered at the fair which wasn't required for my taste, but when you are at the fair you just need to have powdered sugar on anything fried.  Seems to be part of some federal mandate.

After a sweet start, I needed something salty.  What caught my eye was a Spam food stand.  I was in 5th grade in the mid 1970's and Spam was a staple item in our house.   My mother would make what she called "Chopped Ham and Pickle" as a sandwich spread.  It was not ham at all but mashed up Spam.  I loved it - much to the shock of my brother and sister.  It was a great sandwich on what my mother called Puff O Wind bread - or some will know it as Wonder Bread.  The kind of bread you could mash together into a ball of dough.  Also great for peanut butter and jelly.

The item that I decided to try was the Spam Curds.  Now if you have ever been to a state fair (especially in the mid-west), cheese curds are a staple item and a must have.  Having not known Spam to come in a "curd" I was intrigued.    What I received was a well fried basket of salty and flavorful Spam morsels.  Not 100% sure how they achieved the "curd" form.  Maybe the Spam was mashed and then put into an extruder?  In hindsight I should have investigated more.  It certainly helped that these were fresh from the fryer otherwise they would have suffered from being soggy.      They had a ranch dressing which I drizzled in the corner of the basket.  The ranch really did nothing to enhance the flavor.  I would have gone with a horseradish sauce (Horsey sauce at Arby's) which would have helped a little with the fattiness of the Spam.  One thing to know about Spam if you have never tried it:  Don't read the ingredients or you will never try it. 

Next up was more breakfast at the Blue Barn!  This was one of the new fair offerings called a Breakfast Potato Skin.  It has a meat preparation I had never heard of called chislic.  I had to go to Wikipedia to find out what this was.  Simple stated, it is deep fried cubed meat - which made perfect sense at a state fair!!    Traditionally it is lamb or mutton but I guess to meet the tastes of fair-goers, they used beef at the Blue Barn.   I got a cream ale to accompany the skin which was also new to the fair.  It was called a Great Minnesota Handshake which was supposed to be akin to a strawberry milkshake.  It definitely had the slight sourness you get from strawberries but I got none of the creaminess I have found in previous cream ales.  If you have ever had Abita's Purple Haze it was very similar to how this tasted.  

Back to the chislic potato skin.  This item had lots of potential but had an execution error.  There was simply too much potato for it to be called a "skin" and this made it too dry  It was more like a split baked potato topped with beef and a very well-made creamy bearnise sauce.  Sounds good but there was not enough sauce or beef to complement the dry potato.  It did make me want just an order or chislic and bearnise - but sadly that was not on the menu.  

Another fair staple is fried pickles.    Preferred Pickle didn't disappoint with crispy, salty nuggets ot pickily goodness.  I think they use cornmeal for added crunch which was so welcome.  And of course some cool ranch dressing for dunking.   So well done!!  I wouldn't change a thing.

I next tried something I have never had from the Potato Man and Sweety Churro both.  Of course you will look at the picture and ask how I've never had a churro.  Well, I had never had a sweet potato churro before.  I give them some points for trying something different.  The biggest issue with these is they had a flavor that I think was caused by the higher sugar content found in sweet potatoes.  I call that flavor "Burned".  They came with a traditional chocolate sauce but these screamed out for that icing Pillsbury has at the end of the cinnamon roll package.  Would have improved them - if only slightly.

Next up was an item I was anxiously awaiting for.  This was a new item at the fair this year called the Deep-Fried Dilly Dog.  It was perfectly executed item which they kept cleverly simple.  A dill pickle was hollowed out, large enough for a bratwurst to be stuffed into the pickle.  Then coated in corn dog batter and fried.  That's it.  Optional mustard or ketchup (the horror!!!) but it needed nothing else.  The pickle was salty enough to season the brat and the crispy corn dog batter.  Hard to tell from the picture, but this was definitely big enough for 2 or three people to share as a snack. 

Next up was the signature item at Turkey to Go.    They call it the Juicy Turkey Sandwich and it is well named.  Perfectly cooked, moist turkey on a soft roll.  The turkey juices "melted" into the roll which only added to the deliciousness.  They had additional toppings (at extra cost) and I went to the cranberry and brie.  There are a few perfect combinations of foods  - and turkey and cranberry is one of them.  The brie also added a nice sharpness to the sandwich.  

Up next, I tried two other items new to the fair this year.  Hot Hen was essentially Cape Cod Nachos.  It was homemade kettle potato chips with pulled buffalo chicken, blue cheese drizzle, jalapenos, tomatoes and blue cheese crumble.  Our whole group said we would eat these again and again.  Such a perfectly thought out dish.  It was made to order so the chips remained crisp, the chicken was hot and the blue cheese crumbles hadn't quite melted yet.  With each chip you could grab a bit of everything for that perfect bite.   Many items at the fair are hard to duplicate at home unless you have a fryer.  This one I will definitely make for an upcoming football Sunday!!

The Jammin's Brisket Grilled Cheese at RC's was crispy sourdough sliced chock full of well smoked brisket and gooey pepper jack cheese.  Nothing wrong with any of those ingredients by themselves of together.  What brought them all together was the smear of savory and slight sweet onion jam.  The brisket and cheese both needed something to cut their richness and it was the perfect job for the jam.  Two of my top three items at the fair!!!

Also tried their smoke sausage with grain mustard.  It was still juicy and the skin had that snap I love in a good sausage or hot dog. 

All the food tastings made we thirsty!!  Good thing they have a section of the fair where they have many local flights of beers to try.    I always love a good sour beer so not surprisingly my favorites were the Saison, Raspberry Honey Ale and Watermelon Sour.  The Peanut Butter Stout was also tasty.

One of the most popular stands at the fair is Sweet Martha's where you can get freshly made chocolate chip cookies.  Being honest, the cookies themselves are no better than a supermarket brand of ""slice and bake" cookies.  The real draw is the Instagram moments that people want to create since you can get a bucket of 4 dozen cookies.  You see so many people with the buckets literally dripping with cookies that you want to find where they sell them.  I will also say they are best when fresh from the stand and don't hold up too well afterwards. 

That is it for this year's fair.  What were my favorites?  Number one was the Deep Fried Dilly Dog.  It lived up (and exceeded) the hype.  I suspect to see this at future state fairs across the country.  Next was the Hot Hen.  And third (maybe surprisingly) were the Spam curds.  They get a mention because of the excellent execution.

TOP TIPS:

1. Plan you day.  You will not be able to get to everything. All state fairs will have website and/or apps where you can see what is new.  The Minnesota State Fair let you make a list of our favorites and it showed you the location.    Prioritize and you'll have a much better day.
2. Get there early,  We arrived at 9AM and were able to get to a majority of the booths before we really noticed the crowds around 12:30PM.
3. Bring a water bottle and hydrate frequently.  There were places (although not enough) to fill up bottles.