Casa Roja

Octopus Dish

We recently went to Casa Roja for dinner. Casa Roja was formerly West End Bistro until Executive Chef Alex got ahold of the menu and put together an awesome Spanish Tapas menu. The above dish is just one of the nine we had. We enjoyed Ensalada Verde, Ensalada Rojas, Croquetas, La Pimento De Chorizo, Alas de Pollo, Valenciana Paella, Citrus Sour Pork Sandwich Special, Mushrooms, Octopus and Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse with Salted Dulcet de Lecher. There were four of us by the way. We enjoyed a great meal on the patio. Service and the atmosphere was great. The food was awesome, if I had one critique would the Octopus and the Ensalada Verde could have used a bit more seasoning, that however could have been my personal preference. All of this was for a very good fair price.

I am looking forward to the fall menu, according to Chef Alex he will change up the menu in October sometime bringing out local fall ingredients such as squash. I say bring on those comforting fall flavors with cream and butter, yum.

If your looking form a nice place within a few hours of home. I would recommend taking a drive to Chagrin Falls. Its a quite village with shops and restaurants plus great picture opportunities since the falls are actually in downtown Chagrin Falls just a pleasant walk from Casa Roja.

I would recommend you make a reservation before you go on Open Table.

I'm Back . . .

Good Evening Everyone,

Sorry I have been gone for so long. Life got busy and I neglected blogging. A lot has happened my food world since my last post. In a nutshell here is to catching you up:


 December of 2014 My wife and I started Catering here and there for friends and family. We did a number jobs from December to February. We like to do fresh farm to fork style cooking using as little processed products as possible.

After that my day job went crazy with a huge expansion that I was spearheading. This was finally completed and all done by July of 2015. We added 9k square foot to our showroom at Weaver Furniture, in Sugarcreek. Stop in and check us out.

In May Jamie Yoder and I took a food trip and furniture delivery to Washington DC, Where we enjoyed from Lobster Rolls from Will T's Lobster Shack, Burgers from Good Stuff Eatery, and Pizza from We the Pizza. We also had to stop in at Matchbox and The Hamilton. We had Pho, a first for me, from Pho75 and Pizza from the District of Pi. We finished out the weekend with an amazing meal at Jaleo by Jose Andres, so good, so awesome. The best dish all weekend was the Olive Oil Ice Cream at Jaleo. I actually recreated later at home. Maybe later I will share the receipt.

We went to Banff, AB, Canada for 10 days in July 2015 mostly for business but some pleasure as well. Unfortunately the Banff area isn't really know for its food. The food was good but nothing out of the ordinary expect some awesome poutine that we had. Poutine is crispy French fries with cheese curbs and gravy. So yummy.

I am sorry for the lack of pictures however I just did a Windows 10 update and I am having a hard time uploading pictures right now. Pictures of all of the above items can be found on my Instagram page. Look me up at kevinyoder or/and hash tags #smalltownboldflavors. Banff pictures are on my facebook page.

I am planning on posting more regularly starting now. My plans are to share with you food thoughts, recipes, great restaurants and other food related topics. Come back tomorrow to hear about a great tapas restaurant in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

Good Night and Thanks for visiting my blog.
Kevin Yoder

Celebrate Sugarcreek

Supper Tonight came from local farms. Amazing strip steaks and bacon from Sugar Valley Meat. Awesome Artisan Tomatoes, Red Skin Potatoes, Green Beans and Basil from Sweet Water Farms. Local. Fresh. Healthy. Who ever said eating unprocessed, healthy food had to be bland.

Bahler Street Pizza- Tuscarawas County Farmers Market

 

Bahler Street Pizza

 

Tuscarawas County Farmers Market

 

 

Most of you guys, especially local people, have heard about Park Street Pizza located in Sugarcreek, Ohio. Park Street pizza serves up some of the best pizza I have ever eaten. Now they are pioneering a new concept for the Tuscarawas Valley. They have opened a wood-fired pizza stand at the local Tuscarawas County Farmers Market, the market is located in the Tuscarawas County Fairgrounds. The market open at 3pm and is open until 7pm each Wednesday. Bahler Street Pizza starts serving at 3pm however they hardly ever make it until 7pm because they normally sell out early. The new concept is a home run. I had the wood fired pizza for the first time tonight. It is worth the wait and time to drive out for not only the pizza but while you are there pickup some fresh produce.  Although I don't know that they are working on anything permanent right now I cant wait until Bahler Street Pizza actually opens doors in a brick and mortar building. I guess we will just need to sit tight and wait and see what happens. Until then stop out and have wood fired pizza. If its not Wednesday and you are hungry for pizza just stop in at Park Street Pizza in Sugarcreek, Ohio.

 

 

Cinnamon Rolls

In the test kitchen working on cinnamon rolls. Coming soon to Wallhouse Coffee in Sugarcreek, Ohio.

Sugar Free Low Carb Icream & Seedless Berry Sauce

Ice Cream:
4 cups cream
2 cups almond milk
3/4 cup trivia
2 tsp vanilla
Freeze in ice cream maker.

Berry Sauce:
Frozen Berries
Splash of water
2 Tbsp trivia

Cook down, blend, strain and reduce. Then chill and serve.

Food Spotting Pittsburgh, PA- Saturday May 3 2014 w/ Jamie Yoder

 

 

Food Spotting - Pittsburgh, PA

 

 

For those of you that are new to my blog here is a brief description of what we do.

 

Every few months we have guys day out. We plan a one day trip to a "local" city within 2 hours of Sugarcreek, OH and we leave the families at home and go explore and eat our way through these places. Today it was just Jamie and I.

 

 



We started at the Strip District of Pittsburgh. This is a nice historic part of town line with shops and restaurants and anything you want to think of. 

 

 

1) We had espresso at La Prima- It was good but nothing spectacular (It didn't out do Wall House Coffee)

 

 

2) As We where walking down the street we came to this Italian Bakery called Jimmy Sunseri. Their breads are great but their 1 lb. peperoni rolls are awesome.

 

3)We know this is matter of opinion but do not try goats milk beer cheese. Think of it as eating cheese while smelling a goat covered in beer.

4) We stopped at Penn Avenue Fish Market. To eat here you need to like seafood. I had a first, Jamie got me to eat sushi for the first time. I had a crab salad sandwich which was good, should have had a bit of spice on it, Jamie had Fish Tacos and Spicy Pepper Roll which were both really good. (See Pictures)

5) We stopped to taste the Perogies ar S&D Polish Food beside the Fish Market. We got 2 Cheddar and 2 Farmer Cheese Perogies.  If you never had any please try them. They are boiled and tossed in a pan with butter and onions. However makes them for you be sure to ask them to let the butter brown a little. (Sorry No Picture)

 

6) We needed a sweet bite after the seafood so we went to La Gourmandine Bakery. It is a traditional French bakery and it is good. This is a most stop in Lawrenceville area in Pittsburgh. 

 





 

 

7) We went to Brugge Café (See howdoesitrate.blogspot.com) for a complete review and pictures.

 

 

8) By now we needed a break so we went to Mt. Washington area to walk off the food we just consumed. Which by the was wasn't as much as it sounds. It rained today but it was nice anyway.

 

 

We also went a few other places to walk around and see architecture and building before resuming our eating conquest. Some nice places include Squirrel Hill and University of Pittsburgh. We were wasting time until Cure opened at 5:00pm.

 

 

9) We ate dinner at Cure. (See howdoesitrate.blogspot.com for complete review and pictures)

 

 

10) We ended the day with gelato at Mercurios. Great stuff. Too many decisions.

 

That concludes our day and trip to Pittsburgh, PA. Hopefully we will go to another "local city" sometime soon.