Luso, my favorite Long Island restaurant

On Saturday, my family and I made our second trip in two weeks to Luso in Smithtown on Long Island. Side note, we decided to make our car our permanent residence.  It’s pretty cozy in there with the three of us and all of our luggage. We have food, a portable dvd player, music, and the company of each other, what more could we ask for?

So Luso is a Portuguese chartcuterie.   They bbq meat over wood briquettes and their signature dish is the bbq chicken.  This is the only reason to go to the restaurant.  Seriously, it’s cha-bang – out of of this world!  I’ve been there three times now, and have ventured to other areas on the menu and have been underwhelmed (my friend got fish and didn’t like how much butter they used, the sangria is overly sweet, and the kale/sausage soup is okay but J’s is better).  Whenever we go, we order the chicken for two for $18.95.  Sounds a little steep huh? But it’s really like the deal of the century, since along with that delicious grilled chicken, you also get as much salad as you want and tons of side dishes.  The salad is very good and very simple, just a mix of iceberg lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and white onions dressed with oil and vinegar.  It’s very European and with a little salt and pepper, it’s kind of addictive.

My sister literally ordered four plates of that salad; she was going a little nuts for the salad.  Then the chicken came out. They use a special marinade when grilling the chicken and the meat has so much flavor.  The skin is so crispy and good. It’s probably one of the best grilled chickens I have ever had (besides the grilled chicken we had out in Portugal).

The real kicker is when you put (or pour like J does) the Portuguese hot sauce, Piri-Piri sauce, on the chicken. We discovered the amazing Piri Piri sauce on a trip to Portugal a few years ago and have never forgotten it.  We even tried to recreate it but to no avail. The Portuguese use a special hot pepper that we couldn’t locate here.  Anyway, it gives a nick kick to the chicken and we literally clean the restaurant out of their Piri Piri whenever we eat there.

When you order the chicken, you also get a few very generously portioned sides:  rice, steamed vegetables, french fries, and home made potato chips. I mean, it’s a food fest all for less than $10 per person, AMAZING!

We all devoured the chicken and the rest of the food and let satiated and happy.  Service is efficient and the restaurant itself has a great outdoor back patio with huge outside heat lamps, and the inside is simple and cozy.  There’s always a ton of Portuguese people there which to me is a great sign.  If you’re ever on Long Island, check out Luso and get the chicken.  You won’t be disappointed.

The best Capital Region pizza so far…

We are planning to conduct a pizza death match but we did find a contender for the best pizza we’ve had up here so far. We got a pie from Caputo’s Pizzeria in Clifton Park.

J had been talking about this pizza for a couple weeks now, some of his co-workers were talking it up.  As foodies, we take all food seriously, but pizza has a particular soft spot for us, especially me since I’m from Long Island (land of awesome pizzas).  For the past 11 years that I have lived in the Capital Region, I have tried a lot of different pizzas and have been let down repeatedly.  My husband, having had the experience of both LI and NYC pizza also understands my despair at the desolate landscape of pizza in the Capital Region.

Forgive me for my little tangent, but what is up with the pizza up here? The crust is usually tasteless, too thick, or cardboard like.  The cheese has no flavor and there’s always way too much of it.  Then the sauce, or the lack of it, has no tang, no depth.  Uggh.  I mean, if I need pizza, J will usually make it himself (always delicious) or we make do with Inferno’s Pizza, which is probably one of the better Upstate type pizzas there are.

Deep breath.  Okay I’ve calmed down from my little diatribe about pizza.  On to Caputo’s.  The pizza was good, surprisingly good.  The cheese had that nice salty thing that a lot of LI/NYC pizzas have.  It needed more sauce, but the sauce that was on it was tasty.  I would prefer a little bit more tang to it.  The crust is really where Caputo’s shines.  It’s thin and crispy and tastes really good. I have to say I was impressed.  It will work for my pizza fix when I need it.  However Long Island/NYC pizza still reigns supreme. nothing beats a slice from Emilio’s in Commack or Little Vincent’s in Lake Ronkonkoma.    Then there’s the pizza at Lombardi’s in NYC, OMG.

We also ordered the garlic knots.  They need some work, they weren’t buttery enough and they needed more garlic.  But the dipping sauce was really good – it was a marinara but full of garlic slices, it’s delicious.

Desperately in search of a good cannoli…

My family lives on Long Island, so I get to enjoy delicious pizza, real bagels, and other tasty delights whenever we go and visit.  Unfortunately I developed an addiction the last time we were down there.  My brother, very sweetly, brought home some desserts from the Alpine Bakery in Smithtown, NY.  These desserts included some very innocuous looking cannoli.  I actually ignored those cannoli for a while, who needs a cannoli when you can eat amazingly soft and delicious rainbow cookies???

But I was silly and it was a mistake I will never make again because once I took a bite of that cannoli, my world changed.  I’m not really a dessert person but MAN, these cannoli were good.  They had chocolate chips in the cannoli filling and the filling was probably 50% crack, it was so good. It had a sharpness to it and some lemony flavor and it was just yummmm, there just wasn’t enough to satiate my sudden addiction.

Which brings me to today.  My husband thoughtfully brought some cannoli home from Villa Italia in Schenectady, NY.  Let me just say this, Villa Italia makes a damn good cake, but they got nothing on those cannoli I had on Long Island.

My search continues…