Mother India has opened a grocery store on Chestnut Ridge Road in the plaza that also houses Peppebroni's Pizza - just all the way at the opposite end.

Ganpati Indian Grocery carries lots of mixes, some frozen items, and even their own Masala sauce they have at the restaurant.

They are open Tuesday - Thursday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Sunday noon to 6 p.m. Closed on Monday.


They are located at 918 Chestnut Ridge Road, Suite 1, Morgantown, WV. (304) 241-1517.

The last stop on my DiCarlo's pizza tour - for now - was Glen Dale. And, it was by far the most different of any DiCarlo's location. They have packaged pepperoni rolls, a giant "Home of the Original Big Box" rug - not sure what that is, but apparently they also have big boxes AND AND AND they have booze. See that cooler of beer off to the bottom left? You can buy beer. Beer and pizza, what's better?

The main waiting area is large, and there is a dining space off to the right side. Since this was the last trip of the day, I wanted to take home some pieces, so I got 8. Two to eat immediately, six to take home and eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner the next day.

The first thing I noticed was that the pepperoni is UNDER the blanket of shredded cheese. Odd. The crust is very crisp on this one and thicker. The sauce, though, was the biggest difference. Instead of the slight spice and tomato flavor, it was very heavy on the pepper. And there may have been actual peppers or hunks of tomato in the sauce - not sure which. Not that it was bad - it just wasn't what I was necessarily used to. And it could be because I had literally just had another location's pizza. Not sure I would notice the stark difference had I not just eaten them back to back.

Overall, it was a good bit different. And if you like a peppery, stronger sauce, this is your pizza. But still great.

 


Grade: A

This health store, Sunflowers, is located in Chelsea Square on VanVoorhis. I had never noticed it before, but they do carry health- and diet-related items, as well as some food. It is different.

While still searching for a new location for a restaurant, Chef Ohlinger has scheduled his Appalachian Global Dinner Series in a collection of area restaurants where he will be serving as a guest chef for the upcoming year.

Three Cities has a nice little piece on him, as well as a tentative schedule for the upcoming year. I don't know about you, but I want to attend all of these. But there are about six that I MUST go to. They are reservation only, and if you want to keep up with what he's doing, like his page on Facebook. He'll have more details on when/where these dinners will be later on.

Ohlinger was the owner/chef at Richwood Grill (formerly Solera), and he's probably made the biggest impact on me of all my time learning about the West Virginia food culture. He schooled me really quickly on why he didn't serve ketchup or pop. And also that meat should not be crazy tender because that means they lived in a box their whole lives, as he would say, instead of out roaming around like happy cows. I think the most important thing I learned from him is that not everything has to, on the surface, just taste great. He wants to give you an experience and make you try things you haven't and push you out of your comfort zone and open you up to new flavors. Anyway, crazy amazing chef. And here's an opportunity to have some of his food while he continues the hunt for a new restaurant.

January / 10th Anniversary Rum and Chocolate Dinner–Single-Origin Heirloom Chocolate Dishes Paired with Small-Batch Rums

February / The Maritimes–Cuisine of Newfoundland, Labrador, and Nova Scotia

March / The Cuisine of Yemen–Portuguese and Indostani Influences in the Coastal Middle East

March / West Virginia Craft Beer and Global Artisan Cheese–Pairing Local Craft Beers with Rare Handmade Cheeses of the World

April / Appalachian Ramp Lollapalooza–Ramps Thirty Ways: This Ain’t Your Grandma’s ‘Church Social Ramp Dinner Pot Luck Fundraiser’

May / Scottish Keiseki–Japanese-Scots Fusion Featuring a Scottish and Japanese Whisky Pairing

June / Pre-Colonial Appalachia–The Native Cuisine of the Seneca, Shawnee, and Cherokee

June / Edible Music–Twelve Iconic Food Songs Re-imagined as Small Plates Paired with Libations from Twelve Classic Drinking Songs

July / Bolivia: Where the Pampas Meets the Andes–Traditional Bolivian Cuisine Featuring a Pit-Roasted Alpaca and a Spit-Roasted Rhea

July / Highway 61 Revisited–Mississippi River Soul Food: Cool Beer and Haute Tamales

August / Before Myanmar–Historic Cuisine of British Burma

August / One Mile Meal–Pop-Kitchen on a Local Farm: Preparing an Entire Meal Using Only Ingredients From Within One Square Mile

September / Flogging a Dead Horse–The 7th and Absolutely Last Ever Appalachian Deconstruction and Molecular Gastronomy Dinner

October / Wild Appalachia–Modern and Traditional Cuisine Prepared Using Only Wild Fish & Game and Foraged Ingredients

October / 10th Annual Day of the Dead Celebration–Traditional Oaxacan Cuisine Paired with Single-Village Mescals

November / Georgia Meets Georgia–The Cuisine of Asiatic Georgia’s Caucasus Mountains Crossed with the Southern Appalachian Mountain Cuisine of American Georgia

November / Bourbon and Beef–The Terroir of Appalachian Beef: Grass-Fed Beef from Diverse Regions of West Virginia Paired with Single-Barrel Bourbons

December / Sugar and Spice–Following the Global Foodpath of Sugarcane and The Spice Islands Through History

To round out the DiCarlo's tour, I dragged Lisa to the Wheeling area for two DiCarlo's locations I had never been to: Sherrard and Glen Dale.

The Sherrard DiCarlo's is located on Fairmont Pike. I had a little trouble finding it at first, but once we just drove a little further back the road, it was right there. We walked in and ordered our slices -- they actually call them "cuts" here. "1 cut pizza," which confused me, is how they describe their "slices." Anyway, I ordered two and then went to the right side seating area to wait.

There is a good little bit of seating here. In the ordering space, there were a few chairs. The room off to the right has a few tables, but it also is a little shabby looking. It looks like maybe they began to paint but didn't finish. The outlets don't have covers, the walls are different colors, and it could probably overall use a nice shining.

But to be honest, this didn't bother me at all. I was focused on my pieces of pizza. After a little while of waiting, our orders were ready. We took our boxes to the car and dug in.

This pizza, as you can see, has tiny little bits of cheese - not shreds - and the sauce tasted just like I remembered. The very bottom of the crust was a thin crisp and it was poofier above. I really, really liked it. It's similar to what I am used to, and better than most of the pizza I can get locally.

Grade: A

Did you know the Morgantown Farmers' Market is still running in the winter time? They've just moved locations -- up at the top of High Street at the Wesley United Methodist Church. It's open on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 17, Feb. 7, Feb. 21, March 7, March 21, April 4 and April 18.

There aren't quite as many vendors - but there's still a good bit! DeBerry Farm, Evans Knob Farm, Hawthorne Valley Farms, Sickler Farm, Stewart's Farm and Greenhouse, and Two Cow Farm were all there most recently. AND, there's a new addition - a cow cheese farmer! High Country Creamery is new and has been traveling from Maryland with fresh cow cheese - feta, mozzarella, aged cheddar, curds and havarti. Delicious.

So, go! There's plenty of parking around. There's construction on the side of the church, but see that entrance up there? Go there!

Heston has grown since my previous visits. The winery and distillery has expanded to offer a full-service restaurant. When I was there last, they offered food as part of an event outdoors, but this large restaurant space is new. To get the full experience, Tom and I made reservations for New Year's Eve dinner here after a quick wine tasting in the main store area.

We sampled all of the wines plus the moonshines and some of the other liquors before buying a few bottles and heading next door to the restaurant. While our reservations were at 7 p.m., we ended up waiting until around 7:20 p.m. before we were actually seated. I was pretty unhappy with this, but apparently they had selected certain tables for reservations, and we had been waiting for the couple ahead of us to finish up. Anyway.

When we were finally seated, we waited another 10 or 15 minutes for a server to finally come over and take our drink orders. I must say, I was not impressed at this point. But then the waitress asked if we'd like a complimentary appetizer. Um, uh-huh. We ordered the crab-stuffed mushrooms off their New Year's Eve Menu as an appetizer.

The menu for the night looked really nice. A few appetizers - shrimp, crab/artichoke dip, the mushrooms, meat/cheese board. Their soup was a lobster bisque. Entrees were steak, lobster-stuffed shrimp, pasta primavera, chicken bernaise and salmon oscar. Plus a handful of desserts - cake, truffles, bread pudding, bananas foster.

The mushrooms arrived not too long after placing the order (so I feel like I'm finally in the swing of things), and three are delivered to us. Three for $10 is ehhhh. I know they're crab-stuffed, but it's a tiny bit of crab and lots of breading. So, a little pricey there.

But overall, they were pretty good. Mushrooms were cooked well - a little springy still so not totally overdone, and the breading didn't have much crab, but it did have some nice sage flavor.

We were brought biscuits with some whipped butter. Biscuits were warm and light.

For my salad, I got a side of the poppyseed something dressing. Not a bad house salad - some mixed greens, red onion and a tomato or two. The dressing wasn't my favorite - I typically go for a French. But I didn't hate it either.

For my entree, I went with the Salmon Oscar, plus mashed potatoes and glazed carrots as my sides. The Salmon Oscar was described as "decadent crab stuffed salmon, paired with asparagus and topped with bernaise sauce."

So, as you can see, the "stuffed" salmon is really just about three pieces of crab on top. I wasn't crazy about the sauce, but I was happy it was fresh crab (not imitation) - just wish I could've actually tasted it and more would've been nice.

The salmon was also cooked well. It had a good flavor, but considering there were only about three tiny pieces of crab on top, I didn't get that "crab-stuffed" flavor I thought I would get. No decadent, rich filling. Just a piece of salmon and with some crab on the side. However, each was good on its own. I just wish they were married like I was expecting.

The sides were both very good. The killed the mashed potatoes and savored every last bite. Lots of herb and pepper. The carrots were also very tasty with a nice brown sugar glaze.

Overall - service was spotty, but they made up for it. Salad, biscuits and sides all very good. Main entree not exactly how I expected it, but all components of the meal were good.

Grade: B

Sarris Candies always reminds me of high school fundraisers where students would sell a two-pack of pretzels for $1. And they were the bomb.

Sarris makes some of the best chocolate. Even though their factory store is right across the border in Pennsylvania, I never had the chance to go until recently. If you get the chance to go, do it. It's like Willy Wonka. Kinda.

From the outside, it doesn't seem like much, but once you get inside, there are just rows of cases of individual chocolates, plus the walls are lined with all the goodies and treats sold in stores. I definitely wanted to get some of their freshly made chocolates - a caramel, a peanut butter, a pretzel, and a caramel/peanut butter combo.

SO GOOD. If you like the stuff that's packaged and shipped to our local stores, just imagine that x10 in deliciousness. Fresh and custom - perfect combo. You can pick and choose which chocolates you like. I ended up getting four for about $4.  But they were four I knew I loved and wanted. Plus the pretzel one actually came with two pieces.

AND, there's more! They have a an ice cream parlor. We had come here after dinner (and dessert), so I didn't need more ice cream. But don't think I wasn't tempted. I was.

So, if you're looking for a little trip outside of town and love chocolate and/or ice cream, this is a pretty sweet (get it?) place to go.

Grade: A

Lakeview is hosting the 31st Festival of Food and Wine Jan. 16-18, 2015

Day Package
$49+ tax & gratuity
Breakfast, Lunch, Classes & Access to Artisan Marketplace

3 Day Package
$125 + tax & gratuity
Friday Welcome Session, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Classes & Access to Artisan Marketplace

Weekend Stay Package
$415 + tax & gratuity
Overnight Accommodations & Full Weekend Classes, Meals & Access to Artisan Marketplace

I am so excited that I FINALLY got to visit Oglebay's lights. It's been on my bucket list for quite some time, and when Kaitlynn was in town recently for Christmas, we made it a point to go. There are just miles of extravagant lights.

Terra Cafe recently announced they will be expanding their hours to include dinner service (EDIT: Hours are 5-9 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). They're serving "tapas" or small plates - meaning, well, each plate is really small, and you're meant to order more than one and share them with the whole table. I don't mind that idea (because I like to try a little of everything), but it can definitely add up in cost fairly quickly.

After I was seated (no ordering at the counter here), I ordered the beef croquettes, which were two round Possum Tail Farm grass-fed beef infused with lemongrass, ginger and coconut curry aioli. These were pretty good. They were $9 for two small round balls with some beet noodles underneath. But they were good. I am a huge fan of the light flavor with the lemongrass. And the aioli was tasty, too. I really wish it was the croquette sandwich. I love that thing. To get the same equivalent of a sandwich, I'd probably have to order three plates.

My friends ordered the margherita pizza (which apparently apparently Sargasso makes their pizzas) and the chicken satay. Both I thought were OK, but not great.

I'm glad at the last minute I thought to add their pork wontons. They came with red cabbage and a maple horseradish sauce. These were $1 cheaper at $8, and there was a bit more substance to them. Four fried pockets filled with meat. I think they were tasty for the most part, but the meat could've used some more flavor. The horseradish sauce was a nice touch.

They also have a very nice dessert menu (in addition to the goodies in the case) that complements their dinner menu. You can get three mini desserts for $10. That is perfect. And a crazy good deal, too.

I ordered the Firefly Farms Allegheny Chevre Panna Cotta, the bourbon salted caramel chocolate bar and the triple berry cheesecake (raspberry, blueberry and blackberry). The panna cotta was very tasty, and I love the little touches like a fresh lemon. The caramel chocolate bar I thought for sure would be my fav (caramel, duh), but whew you could taste some bourbon/bitterness in the chocolate. And the cheesecake was sweet and whipped. They were all quite lovely, and I was impressed with the presentation, the quantity and the quality. Super pleased with the desserts.

It's a little on the pricey side for me, for what you get. Dessert is totally worth it. But I spent about $20 for the two croquettes (which are about the size of golf balls) and four pork wontons. And it was all good - but not crazy great.

I'm looking forward to seeing what else they add to the dinner menu and if they'll be doing dinner specials! Something to keep an eye out for. No grade because it's just an update =] They've already been put through that ringer.

BRGR is a restaurant in the Pittsburgh area, which features creative burgers and spiked shakes. Afton and I checked out the Cranberry Township location because it was along the way. And yep, pronounced, BEE ARR

It's located in a strip mall, so parking was no problem. When we went inside, I was surprised to see most of the place bare, save for the bar area. Granted, the bar area is large and probably a good place to watch the game. Service was off. We weren't immediately greeted when we came in, and once we were seated, we had to wait some time before someone actually waited on us.

The menu has some interesting beef burgers - like a pad thai one and another featuring guacamole, jalapeños, Sriracha and chipotle aioli. Plus some others that include a black bean patty, a salmon patty, mahi mahi, bison and turkey.

I ordered "The BRGR" - which is 8 oz. of dry aged prime beef, pickled red onions, arugula, creamy bleu cheese and oven-roasted tomatoes. I also ordered a shake: Salty Caramel - bourbon + caramel sauce + sea salt + vanilla bean. Yaaasss.

My burger was really pretty good. I don't remember much of the bleu cheese, but the flavors overall were delicious.

Afton had ordered some fries, and we split some of those. They were average. It's kind of a bummer that if you want to add fries to your burger, it's like an extra $4. Little steep. Not sure they were worth it, but they weren't bad.

And my shake was delicious. I could definitely taste a good bit of the bourbon. It came out in the metal can, while Afton's was served in a glass. Not sure why. I think mine ended up having more, though. But very tasty.

Overall thoughts: This place wasn't bad. I think maybe I like the Burgatory more. I think if the service here had been right, the "feel" and overall experience would've been better. But my burger was tasty, and my milkshake was sweet and boozey (my favorite). I think being able to add fries to the side, instead of buying them as like a $4 appetizer seems like a reasonable request. In sum, pretty good.

Grade: B

Thankfully, the Northern Panhandle is littered with DiCarlo's locations. The next one on my list is Warwood.

This location is odd in the sense that it shares a walkway with Subway. Inside. But it didn't bother me much. There are a set of tables and a banister and back beyond that area is the counter where you order.

Two pieces, please.

After a bit of a wait, I had two pieces and out the door I went. The first thing I noticed was that each DiCarlo's varies in price. Some are 10 cents more or less per piece. Then, I realized the shredding style of the cheese is different. These small round bits of cheese - or as I've been saying, nobbules - were a bit thicker than the finely shredded mozzarella at other places.

The taste, still the same, though. The crust was a bit darker. The sauce was the perfect blend of tomato and spice, and the cheese - maybe because of the way it was shredded - did not melt nearly as quick and was still fairly in tact by the time I had gotten on the road and was ready to have a slice.

All around, good.

Grade: A