If you're going to the Garden Bloggers' meet-up in Buffalo in July — officially known as Buffa10 — you're probably already wondering about the food. We had some great meals at the last Spring Fling in Chicago, including the city's famous deep-dish pizza. But I think Buffalo will be able to meet the dining challenge.
You are likely already familiar with one of the area's signature dishes, Buffalo wings: Chicken wings spiced up with cayenne pepper and served with celery and blue cheese dressing. While I've enjoyed that particular treat, it was created long after I'd left town. It isn't actually a regional specialty, but rather a smart marketing ploy as far as I'm concerned.
When I hit Buffalo in July, there are two culinary pilgrimages I plan to make: one to Parkside Candy and the other to Schwabl's.
Parkside Candy (pictured below) is home to my dad's favorite sweet treat, sponge candy. He loved this airy confection tasting of butter and molasses (though it contains neither), especially the version dipped in dark chocolate. I'm sure this is where my affair with dark chocolate began. He had such a sweet tooth for this candy, that my mom actually learned how to make her own. It is hard to describe because it is melt-in-the-mouth fragile and yet makes a definite squeeky sound if you chew it. Suffice it say that it is still a favorite in our family.
But before our childish palates were sophisticated enough for sponge candy, my dad would buy an assortment of Parkside's suckers (lollipops) for my sisters and me to share. These were not round balls, but discs about a quarter of an inch thick and came in flavors ranging from toasted cocoanut to peppermint. They were actually just as popular with grown-ups as with us kids, and you had to grab your favorite flavor fast or lose out.
PHOTO: BUFFALO FOOD AND OTHER DELIGHTS
Schwabl's Beef on Weck sandwich is the meal that says "home" to me, and I can't imagine coming to the city without enjoying one. It's a roast beef sandwich raised to an art by the skill of the cook who roasts the beef, the person who slices the beef and the roll on which it's served: kummelweck. "Weck" or "wick" — the locals say it both ways — is a German hard roll with big chunks of salt and caraway seeds on top. The freshness of the roll is critical so beef on weck has stayed a local favorite, as weck doesn't travel well and weck from a freezer case is downright unthinkable.
Don't take my word that this a great sandwich. Jane and Michael Stern praised it in their column in Gourmet magazine; more recently Michael declared that beef on weck at Schwabl's was "worth driving anyplace from" on the Roadfood blog. Then of course there's the incredible warm German potato salad, the coleslaw without mayo, the hot ham sandwich, the birch beer ...
When I used to fly home from Wisconsin to visit my parents, my dad and I would stop at Schwabl's on the drive from the airport for some shared dad and daughter time. Beef on weck at Schwabl's was also one of the last meals my husband and I had with my parents before my dad's Alzheimers put a stop to such outings. It was the meal my sisters and I planned to partake of after our mothers' memorial service, but a freak October snowstorm put paid to that plan. So this trip will most definitely find me at Schwabl's, filling myself with food and family memories.
Though this image of a beef on weck sandwich is from Charlie the Butcher, not Schwabl's, it gives you a sense of what it's all about.
