Chef Ric Orlando

Albany, NY: Anniversary Dinner at New World Bistro Bar [#FoodPorn]

What can I say? Another amazeballs meal from the grey matter of Chef Ric Orlando. I can’t say enough about how much I love this Chef and his menus. After going to the Hell Dinner at Brewery Ommegang I knew that I wanted to take Elise back to New World Bistro Bar for our anniversary.

NWBB is one of those kind of places that has sooo much good food on their menu it’s almost a shame to just order a main for each person. You’re better off getting a bunch of little plates. I’m slacking on a few posts so I’m going to make this quick. The menu for the night:

  • Tie-Dye Pie – Had to try this since I was a little disappointed with the heat (but not the flavor) of the version I had at Ommegang. The crust was much thinner at NWBB but this didn’t take away at all from the experience. The heat was noticeably increased and I did not mind this one bit. Much better this time around.
  • Yellowtail Ceviche with Sweet Potato – Elise is kinda obsessed with ceviche after having it at Ceviche in Florida. I’m OK with this as I find it pretty tasty as well. NWBB’s version was obviously delicious.
  • Wasabi Deviled Eggs – A) I love wasabi. What Asian doesn’t? B) I love deviled eggs. Put the two together and you know I’m game. These were good, and definitely try them if you’ve never had them, but I’ll stick to the ones from the Sriracha Cookbook. Wouldn’t mind seeing Sriracha ones show up on the menu next time!
  • Pulled Goat Sliders – Elise saw goat on the menu and wanted in. She totally surprised me by that but hey, when else were we going to have goat? I don’t even think there was any _sauce_ on the plate when we were done. Get these get these get these!
  • Pork Belly – Wow. This was the most tender I’ve ever seen meat in my life. Literally marshmallow consistency. And the crust! Such a crispy crunchy delicacy. It’s really tough to describe, but this was totally different than the pork belly and kimchi at the Hell Dinner. You gotta go experience it for yourself.
  • Mississippi Mud Pie – Can’t say I’ve ever had this dessert before, but if this is the standard hell yes I’ll try this again. It was basically half cooked brownie with a side of vanilla. As you know, ALL brownies should be half cooked, and the crust of the brownie is the grossest part.* So this dish was perfect for me.
  • Apple Rhubarb – Talk to SWMBO about this one.

Beer or the day for me was “NWBB Etherial Imperial Double IPA” brewed by Chatham Brewing. This was so good that it prompted me to drive down to Chatham Brewing the next morning and pick up a couple of growlers before they headed to TAP NY. More on that later.

I don’t think I have to say this again, but if you haven’t had something by Chef Ric Orlando just go to New World Bistro Bar or New World Home Cooking and have a life-altering dining experience. Now. Thank me later.

* The Perfect Brownie Pan is the bane of my existence. One of my personal hells would be an unlimited supply of brownie batter and only The Perfect Brownie Pan to bake it in.

Cooperstown, NY: Outstanding Beer Dinner at Brewery Ommegang with Ric Orlando – Part 2 [Hell Dinner]

(Continued from Part 1…)


At this point the wait staff brought out something I wish was sitting on the table the whole night: salted habeneros. This was a simple mix of salt, vinegar, and habeneros ready to kick up any dish that needed a little lot of kick. I put just a spoonful in my mouth and while I had spent the rest of the night determined that I wasn’t going to need a drink of water, I had to break down and take a gulp. This was exactly was I needed on the Tie Dye Pie!

The fourth course was the one I was looking forward to least: Espresso-Habanero Glazed Escargot, Tortelloni, and Edamame paired with the Ommegang Abbey Ale. I’m not a big fan of molluscs of any form (I can sometimes choke them down with a little lubrication from some melted butter, but beyond that, no thanks). They just look… slimey. With a little encouragement from my tablemates, I chowed down. OK, not nearly as bad I expected. And with the habanero sauce, I cleared the plate. I’m not saying I would go out of my way to order this again, but this has definitely squashed me fear of snails and if they end up in front of me I won’t mind tackling them again.

The fifth course was the one I was looking forward to the most. I mean, it had “Harissa from Hell” in the title. After Googling what the hell harissa was, I couldn’t wait to try a ghost chili version. This was served with Lamb Shank Tagine paired with Art of Darkness, the only beer on the menu I haven’t had yet. Expectations were high for this course. But the thing about the harissa is that it has a ton of different ingredients and spices in it, not just ghost chilies. So after having the salted habeneros, this seemed tame as well. So I piled on the habeneros, obviously! This dish “kicked up” was pretty damn good.

At this point of the night the Chef took his coat off and hung out at the table, to have some beers and BS, which was totally cool. (Yes, his shirt says “Got Dim Sum?”. Totally badass.) We finished the meal with a little dessert: Mocha Chipotle Glazed Chocolate Cupcake, White Chocolate Dipped Serrano Chile and Mole Truffle Pot du Chocolate paired with Three Philosophers. I don’t remember a cupcake, but I do remember a Chinese soup spoon filled with chocolate topped with whipped cream with ghost chili flakes. Chocolate and chili go together so well. It’s one of the reasons I like Cigar City’s Hunahpu so much (which would have paired incredibly with dessert, btw). All of this was amazing, except the serrano. This was the hottest thing we tasted all night. I don’t even know why this was. Serrano’s aren’t even that hot. But I took one bite and threw in the towel and I was not the only one. Many did not even touch the thing. I don’t blame ‘em.

I can’t get over how good this dinner and the night as a whole was. Ommegang’s new digs are beautiful and was the perfect setting for a dinner like this. I can’t wait to go back (for BCTC and Darius Rucker). Chef Ric Orlando puts on such an amazing spread and is such a good storyteller he provided the meal and the entertainment for the night. If you’ve never gone to one of his New World locations, stop what you’re doing and do so immediately. And if you’re smart, you’ll keep an eye out on the Great Beer Deserves Great Food Blog and make sure you hit up the next event.

Cooperstown, NY: Outstanding Beer Dinner at Brewery Ommegang with Ric Orlando – Part 1 [Hell Dinner]

While I’ve been to Ommegang since they’ve opened their new visitor center and café (during last year’s Belgium Comes to Cooperstown, arguably THE best beer fest in the area), this is my first time at going in, checking it out, and having a meal there. With Chef Ric Orldano of New World and Chopped fame at the helm, I couldn’t have picked a better meal to start with.

Now, I’ll admit. I was a little weary when I received the email from Ommegang’s Event Coordinator last Thursday and saw some of the menu items. Chicken livers, rice cakes, snails, edamame, lamb shank tagine, harissa? Um, no thanks. Some of this stuff was just out of my comfort zone. I was starting to get disappointed. Luckily, the feelings were completely unfounded, and I’ve learned to just put my trust in Chef Orlando’s hands.

I walked in and checked out Ommegang’s new digs. This a serious upgrade to the previous space which was pretty nice on it’s own. I didn’t get to see the bar area as it was closed, but they ushered us into the new café pretty quickly. It is absolutely gorgeous. It seats about 60 people, which means we had a full house. Each table sat about 8 people, and we were lucky enough to be seated at the Brewmaster’s table. I didn’t know how cool that was going to be until later in the evening.

We got about a half hour of tastings of pretty much everything they had on tap. I tried a few of the beers I knew weren’t going to be offered later for the dinner and the Chef brought some sauteed chilies to munch on before dinner began. These weren’t too hot, but they were a preview of what we had in store for the rest evening. Chilies, chilies and more chilies!

We were asked to take our seats, and like I said earlier we were seated at the Brewmaster’s table. Across from me sat Ommegang’s Brewmaster Phil Leinhart and his wife, and the rest of the table was filled out by his family, Chef Ric’s wife Liz, and some more Ommegang crew. Chef Ric came over to check on the table between each course and I was giddy like a schoolgirl to sit here and chatting with these folks the whole night.

Both Phil and Chef Ric got up to say a few words before the first course was served. Phil discussed the direction that Ommegang is taking Great Beer Deserves Great Food. Chef Ric gave an intro to this idea of Hell Dinner, where the dishes get progressively hotter and hotter through the night. Each dish was rated on the “Ric-ter” (har har) scale, a 1-10 scale specifying the heat of the dish. All of the dishes that night were rated between 5 and 10, and at this point I was probably drooling on myself.

This first course was Piri Piri Chicken Livers with Berkshire Bleu and Celery Salad paired with Ommegang’s BPA. Piri piri is rated at 50,000-175,000 scovilles, but this dish was pretty mild. That was fine with me since I knew it was only going to get hotter through the night. The liver was better than expected. This was followed up with Pork Belly Jigae with chewy rice cakes and kim chee paired with Hennepin. This was, without a doubt, my favorite dish of the night. I still crave it today, and can’t wait to make it in my own kitchen. It had the perfect amount of heat: enough to make your nose start to run but not so hot it would hurt you.

The next course was interesting. “Tie Dye Pie” was a small pizza with “Purple Haze” sauce and four cheeses paired with the Rare Vos Amber Ale. This Purple Haze is a habanero sauce blended with red cabbage to give it the color of its name, along with ginger and pineapple for flavor. The crust and cheese were great, but I’ll admit I was a tad disappointed in the sauce. It was an 8 out of 10 on the Ric-ter scale, and had habeneros in it; I was ready to burn. That didn’t happen, but Chef Ric did come out and explain to us that the habaneros tonight were a little on the milder and so would be the sauce. Oh well, I still want to try it again at New World, either in pizza or shrimp form.

Continued in Part 2…