New Year’s Resolutions and a Side of Greek

Okay, okay, I realize it’s been way too long since I’ve updated and I’m sure you’re waiting with bated breath to hear about my next culinary adventure. All joking aside, while I am not big into New Year’s resolutions, I figured I should at least set one: to update Mojitos & Florentine at least once a week.

Now that that’s settled, I had the opportunity to kick off my new year with a great cuisine adventure outside of the city – yes, I ventured to Astoria, Queens for some delicious, authentic Greek food at Mezzo Mezzo. It also helped that my culinary experience was paired with some great company as I had a chance to meet up with some fellow alums from my alma mater (Ohio Northern University). It’s become an annual tradition for our theatre department to take us to this wonderful establishment (thanks Prof. Reiss!)

For the appetizers, they served up one of my favorites, Saganaki, A.K.A. “Greek flaming cheese.”  It’s super tasty and all you need is 1 lb. Mozzarella cheese, 2 tbsp. butter, 2 tbsp. brandy and 1/2 lemon. Once the cheese is broiled over heat until it’s light brown, you just pour the brandy over it and ignite! (Extinguish with a lemon). Check out the full instructions at: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1718,159166-255206,00.html

Another suprisingly good appetizer was the octopus. Believe it or not, it’s very mild and tender:

And of course, you can’t go wrong with the grilled calamari:

For my main course, I opted for the seafood pasta – a perfect combination of clams, mussels and scallops in a creamy sauce:

Definitely worth the trek out of Manhattan. www.mezzomezzony.com.

Tags: Astoria, brandy, butter, calamari, clams, flaming cheese, Greek, lemon, Mezzo Mezzo, mozzarella, mussels, New Year, New Year's resolutions, octopus, Ohio Northern University, pasta, Queens, saganaki, scallops, seafood