Bridgeway Family Restaurant - Breakfast Sandwich

     After having to wait in the waiting room at LabCorp for three hours while Christine had her glucose test done, we were starving. I could have eaten something before we went but because she couldn't have anything to eat I didn't think it was fair. In order to keep us from buying out the entire grocery store, we decided to grab some breakfast before shopping. The Bridgeway Family Restaurant is a diner in Smyrna that we pass everyday on the way to the school, a place we've been a handful of time. We like it for a variety of reasons, the food is decent, the portions are huge, and the prices are great. We've often escaped with a bill under $20. As you probably know by now, I’m a sucker for sandwiches especially breakfast sandwiches. Seeing as I hadn't tried theirs’ yet I figured this would be a great opportunity for a review. For $6.25 you get a big sandwich and half of a plate of crispy home fries.

     We both ordered the exact same sandwich. Our options for bread were white, wheat, or rye. We both went with rye but you can also get it on an English muffin, hard roll, or bagel for an additional charge. For cheese we got American and as our meat we chose bacon. Sausage or scrapple are also available. We both agreed that these were some of the best breakfast sandwiches we've ever had. My only issue was the bread could have been toasted a bit longer. But that didn't detract from the deliciousness of this sandwich. The bacon was thick and crispy and not too greasy. Instead of one fried egg there were two which really “beefed” up the sandwich. A couple slices of melted American cheese kept everything together after each bite. The fact that it didn't need any seasoning was a huge plus. It probably wasn't the healthiest thing to order but it sure was great. The home fries are wonderful as well. Thinly slices potatoes are cooked on a flat top grill until crispy. A lot of times when ordering these at diners or other breakfast places the potatoes are soft or uncooked. If you look close, you can see their crispy outsides in the picture.

Rating: Delectable – Great. Just Great.

Meatball Subs

     While grocery shopping this weekend we came across some very appetizing sub rolls with cheese baked in and on top of them. Christine said they looked perfect for meatball subs, I agreed. Once we got home I looked up a recipe for meatballs. I have a pretty good recipe that I normally use but for the sake of the blog, I wanted to try something new. I found this meatball  recipe on Allrecipes.com, one of my favorite websites for finding new things to try.

     I followed the recipe exactly as listed even though I prefer to caramelize the onions before adding them to the meatball mixture. After putting the meatballs in the oven, I warmed up some left over pizza sauce because I didn't have any homemade sauce in the freezer. Once the meatballs were done cooking, I cut open the rolls and put them under the broiler for a few minutes to toast them a bit to prevent the sauce from making them soggy. Next, I spread some sauce on each roll, put three meatballs on each one, topped with more sauce and some Italian blend cheese. You could start eating them at this point but I put them back under the broiled until the cheese bubbled and browned a little.

1 pound extra lean ground beef

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 small onion, diced

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

3/4 teaspoon dried oregano

3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 dash hot pepper sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup skim milk

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1. Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Place the beef into a mixing bowl, and season with salt, onion, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, oregano, red pepper flakes, hot pepper sauce, and Worcestershire sauce; mix well. Add the milk, Parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs. Mix until evenly blended, then form into 1 1/2-inch meatballs, and place onto a baking sheet.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, 20 to 25 minutes

     These came out really good but I think the meatballs need a little work. For one, there was way too much onion. If the amount of onion was cut in half or if they were cooked down, I think they would have been better. I put the leftover meatballs in the freezer for later use. The left over pizza sauce I used was good but homemade sauce would have taken these to the next level. The star of the show was definitely the roll. I’ve never come across a loaf of bread or a roll that has cheese baked into it that wasn’t good. The ones we bought came four to a package and we liked them so much that we ate the other two toasted with butter and garlic salt.

Rating: Yummy – Meatballs need work but a decent recipe

SportZone - Crabby Fries and Beef on Weck

     The first out to eat meal I’m reviewing for this blog will be formatted differently than I did them on Syracuse Sandwich. Instead of giving you the who, what, where, and other information I’m only going to list the name of the place and a link to their menu. 

     After picking Christine up for school, we were on the way home when I asked her what she wanted for dinner. “It’s your day to pick,” she responded. Yes, we've split up the days to decide what’s for dinner, but that’s another story for another time. I've been craving crab fries for a few weeks and the best ones we've had are from SportZone, a sports bar near our house. SportZone reminds me a lot of Tully's from back home. They don’t have delicious Tully's tenders, but they've got a decent menu full of sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, and a few regular entrees. Their appetizer menu is rather large and the best thing we've had off of it are the Crabby Fries.

     A mixture of blue crab meat and J.R.’s queso cheese dip is poured over a plate of Zone fries. Zone fries are their double fried seasoned French fries. As you can see from the picture there is a ton of crab meat topping the fries. I really appreciate that you can actually see the crab, something that isn't always possible when you order crab dips. Old bay seasoning finds its way into the mix which compliments the crab. Between the seasoned fries, the Old Bay, and the salty cheese sauce, there’s no lack of flavor. The blue crab meat is rich and sweet, its sweetness helps balance the saltiness of the fries and cheese sauce. It is the perfect sized appetizer, not so big that’ll you’ll be full before finishing your entree but not so small that you’re left wanting more.

     For my dinner I order the Beef on Weck, which is listed as an Upstate NY Favorite on the menu. If you read my Syracuse Sandwich blog, you’d know that this is one of, if not my favorite sandwich. Hafner's in North Syracuse makes a wonderful version of this sandwich that they call Beef on a Wick. Both sandwiches are the same; the only difference is the spelling of the roll. A Kimmelweck roll is a white roll topped with coarse grain salt and caraway seeds. Inside this tasty roll is roast beef that has been soaked au jus. On the side they serve horseradish and more au jus for dipping. Because we already had the Crabby Fries, I opted for the homemade Zone chips that come standard with all of their sandwiches. They make their own potato chips which I think is a nice touch. For a little extra you can order Zone fries or sweet potato fries. The roast beef was cooked to medium well which was good but I prefer my meat to be cooked to more of a medium rare to medium for more flavor. Between the salt and caraway topped roll and the au jus I was dunking it in, this is a very salty sandwich. I slathered horseradish on it to give it some kick, and also to cut the salty flavor. It’s a simple sandwich with great flavor but I’d have to give the nod to Hafner's if I was comparing the two. Not to take anything away from SportZone, because this is the third time I've ordered it there.

Ratings: Crabby Fries – Delectable         Beef on Weck - Yummy