With James Beard finalist Chef Paul Smith back as a culinary consultant, Barkadas at the foot of Fort Hill has rolled out a few long-awaited new Filipino-inspired menu items that look absolutely fabulous.
Replacing a few lower-selling and redundant items are a new glazed salmon dish glistening with Thai peanut sauce, spicy shrimp, charred Brussels sprouts with sesame gochujang aioli, and blistered edamame with sweet soy glaze.
There’s also a new Korean pork BBQ bowl, honey sriracha wings, pork belly lettuce wraps, a chopped wedge salad (with Spam instead of bacon, of course) and crispy chicharron pork rinds served with sambal ranch and pinoy vinegar for dunking.
The restaurant at 100 Cantley Dr. in Charleston is open from 4 to 9 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 4 to 10 p.m. Friday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. For more information call 681-205-8051, visit www.BarkadasRestaurant.com or check out the restaurant’s Facebook page.
Sarah’s Bakery starts new online store
What’s better than enjoying great baked treats and sweets? Getting them delivered to your door … FREE!
Sarah’s Bakery at the Bridge Road Shops in South Hills has not only launched a new online store, but is also offering limited free delivery from it through the end of July.
Featuring many items available at the bakery itself – depending on availability, of course – you can order a variety of cupcakes, brownies, scones, cinnamon rolls, cookies, blueberry buttermilk pie, strawberry shortcake, Boston cream pie, cream puffs, eclairs, whoopie pies, lemon bars, blueberry breakfast cake and banana pudding, plus mini coconut cream pies, key lime tarts and cheesecakes.
There are also savory items like spinach tomato mozzarella quiche, sausage and cheddar quiche, spinach feta croissants, Mexican street corn salad, broccoli salad, macaroni salad, chicken salad, Greek salad, curry chicken salad and pimiento cheese. All delivered straight to your door within a limited area.
Sarah’s Bakery at 1011 Bridge Road in Charleston is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call 304-343-2253 or visit the bakery’s Facebook page.
The new online store can be found at https://sarahs-bakery-llc.square.site, plus you can also order through Grubhub.
West Virginia bucks national ice cream trends
Speaking of sweets, this past Sunday was National Ice Cream Day and a new consumer study by Scholaroo has found that West Virginia’s favorite ice cream is, well, different from almost every other state in the country.
It’s probably no surprise that the most popular ice cream flavor in America is Chocolate, which was voted #1 in 23 different states. Rocky Road came in second with 17 states choosing it as their favorite and Neapolitan was third with 3 states.
What did raise an eyebrow, however, is that West Virginia is one of only two states that picked Strawberry as their favorite ice cream. (Here’s to you, Maine!) The Mountain State’s remaining favorites, in order, were Neapolitan, Chocolate, Coconut and Rocky Road.
Another interesting scoop?
Americans devour an average of about 12 pounds of ice cream each year, with consumption up 10% over last year.
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Steven Keith is a food writer and restaurant critic known as “The Food Guy” who writes a weekly column for the Charleston Gazette-Mail and has appeared in several state, regional and national culinary publications. Follow him online at www.wvfoodguy.com or on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. He can be reached at 304-380-6096 or at wvfoodguy@aol.com.