New Features

HELLO!

I hope everyone is liking the new website, I know I prefer it a lot more than the previous! I am finally getting this site to where I want it, besides switching yinzhungry.com to wordpress some bonus features have been a new mobile page which livejournal never offered us and even an iPad page! You can also check out my twitter feed on the right hand side, which I promise will start to feature more food related topics compared to me just posting about the blogs on their before. All these features are to help make YinzHungry.com your #1 source for all Pittsburgh related foodie topics. Here is a checklist of features that I have wanted to add to the site for some time, you can see what I have already made happen and what is in store for the future of this site:

-Pittsburgh Theme (check!)
-New Site (check!)
-Mobile Page (check!)
-Food Pics (I try to do this!)
-Guest Bloggers (we have done 1 so far)
-Video Blogs
-Recipe Page
-Healthy Choices Page
-Drinks Page
-BLOG MORE!

Sometimes it is hard to do that last one, whether its finding the funds to go out to eat or just wanting to try to eat healthier or even wanting to cook in. Thats the reason I want to add some new pages, some of the food I blog about is more delicious than it is healthy and I want to start making this page accessible to everyones culinary lifestyles. I hope you will look forward to seeing these changes just as much as I am in creating them! They will all be a work in progress and won’t happen over night, so keep checking back and make sure you LIKE YH on facebook and FOLLOW YH on twitter or even subscribe to this blog to stay up to date on all the latest blogs and changes in the future!

Stay Hungry Pittsburgh!

Cuzamil Restaurante Mexicano

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and enjoyed a lot of great food too! This month I checked out Cuzamil twice, once on Cinco de Mayo and also last week. On Cino de Mayo the place was PACKED! My friend and I were lucky when we got to Cuzamil because we didn’t have to wait for a table even though the restaurant was busy, but that soon changed for most people who came after us, as we were leaving the wait was an hour. I know I was impressed with the food at Cuzamil along with the margaritas. A few weeks back I noticed Cuzamil for the first time and knew I had to check them out ASAP, what better day to do that then on Cinco de Mayo?!

On both trips I ordered Taco Dinners, the first was the Al Pastor (Pineapple Pork) and the second time was Ground Beef. The Al Pastor taco’s were delicious! The taco comes with rice and beans, if you have ever been to a Mexican restaurant I believe the rice and beans are pretty universal and can’t really say too much about them. Getting back to the taco’s, the pork was perfect and every bite had a nice hint of pineapple. The ground beef taco’s were good too, I find it very hard to mess those up.

The first trip I ordered a Chile Relleno and never received it, the second trip I ordered it and had some confusion on what I actually got. According to their menu a Chile Relleno is a ground beef and cheese ball, with a piece of bell pepper, battered and deep fried. That is exactly what I have seen on TV shows and other restaurants and that is what I wanted. When I ordered it, the waitress asked if I wanted the Chile Relleno or Chile Pablano? I asked what the difference was, I was told the Pablano was either chicken or pork with cheese in a pepper and that the relleno was just the pepper and cheese cut up. I ordered the Pablano with chicken. It was good, but I really wanted what the description said and was let down by that.

My main issues with Cuzamil was the Chile Relleno and the staff telling me the dish was something and the menu was something different. Also on Cinco de Mayo the place was packed and I really don’t think the staff was prepared to handle such a crowd. That was the main reason a second trip was necessary to see what the place is like on a normal day. The food was great both trips, but what will really bring me back is the margaritas! The first trip we ordered a pitcher of Mango margaritas and WOW did the tequila hit quickly! That pitcher went down real smooth! On my second trip we tried kiwi margaritas first, they were alright, but not as good as the mango and I couldn’t taste the tequila as much in the kiwi. I have a feeling for how close Cuzamil is to my house I might have to go back after work one day when I need a good margarita to chase the worries away!

Not sure what I will order next time I go back, a few friends have ordered the Cuzamil Platter which has a mix of everything and is really meant for at least 2 people to share. I may not know what food I will get, but I know there will be a pitcher of margaritas to wash it down for sure!

Location
2109 Murray Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Phone – 412-521-3250
Web – http://www.cuzamilpgh.com/

Urbanspoon Rocks

With all the changes to the site this week, I am also going to start connecting all my blogs to Urbanspoon which is an awesome site! At the bottom of every blog will be a little image link to Urbanspoon that gives you the popularity of the restaurant on Urbanspoon and some contact info. If you click the image link it will take you to that restaurants Urbanspoon page. Also, if you follow the link below you will see that “Yinz Hungry?” is #11 in the Pittsburgh blog leaderboard on Urbanspoon:

http://www.urbanspoon.com/blogs/23/Pittsburgh.html

This won’t do! We NEED to be in the TOP 10!!! Let’s make this happen!

Burgatory Bar – April 28, 2011

This past Thursday some friends and I went to Burgatory, I haven’t ventured out onto the new Pittsburgh burger scene lately and was really excited to do so. Especially because I have heard some great things about Burgatory. How did Burgatory hold up? Let’s dig in…

I started the night out with one of their “Hard Shakes” and the one that caught my eye was the “Apple Pancakes & Bacon” – Gala Apple & Caramel Vodka with Caramelized Apple Pancakes & Bacon. As the menu says “If you’re scratching your head right now, you’re not ready for this one but trust us – it’s oh so good!”. No, no it is not! They had my interest because of the flavors in there and I thought maybe they would work well together because of the salty and sweet combo. I can say that outside of the bacon in the shake I thought it was good, because I would take a sip and the sweetness was really good, but then I would get hit with the bacon and it would just ruin everything for me, and then I would have to chew the bacon and other bits in the shake. I know I usually say bacon makes everything better, today we are going to add an asterisk to that line *NOT IN MILKSHAKES!

We then moved to the appetizer of “Six Napkin Nachos”! Menu reads “Tony’s Chicken Chili, Fire Roasted Poblano Peppers, Jack & Cheddar, Smoked Jalapeno Sour Cream and fresh Guacamole.” Another disappointment at Burgatory, I felt that everything that was on the nachos just didn’t give anything a great flavor experience. I think there was too much working against each other as I didn’t get any real taste from the nachos, and it tasted mushier than anything. 0 for 2.

Since this is a burger joint and not a nacho bar, hopefully the burger will save the day! A really nice feature is that you can build your own burger at Burgatory but they also have a selection of burgers that they recommend. I tried the Morty’s Steakhouse – “Peppercorn Crusted Beef Burger with Horseradish Cheddar, Haystack Onions and Cabernet Sauce.” Their tagline for the burger is “Like the greatest steak dinner you’ve ever had reincarnated as a burger”. Let me tell you, I had the greatest steak dinner of my life last summer at Chef Robert Irvine’s restaurant in Hilton Head, and this burger doesn’t even come close to that! I ordered the burger medium well and the burger was cooked perfectly and juicy, I especially love when there are little juice pockets in a burger for a flavor experience unlike any other. That is about all I can say great about the burger. The peppercorn crust was WAY too over powerful on this burger because that was all I could really taste as I ate the burger. Bite after bite, peppercorn seasoning upon more peppercorn seasoning. The thing that sold me on this burger even more was when reading the menu it has Horseradish Cheddar cheese, where? While it was on the burger, it was scarce and the flavor was minimal as the peppercorn was still battling my taste buds in each bite. I was also interested in the cabernet sauce, but that was just there version of A1. If you have ever had an A1 steakhouse burger from Burger King that is pretty much what I had here except the burger patty was better quality. If you are in the mood for a steakhouse burger, save some money and just go to Burger King. Along with the burger you have a choice of fries or chips, the waitress was selling us on ordering the fries which are homemade and are $1 more. Don’t waste the extra dollar and stick with the chips because they are far better tasting and already come with the meal.

The rest of the table created their own burgers and seemed pleased, on my next trip I will make sure to avoid the hard shakes and recommended burgers (along with the seasoning) and create a flavorful burger which is what I should’ve done in the first place. Overall table rating for the trip was a 7, so the overall Burgatory food experience was just average. Who else has been to Burgatory? Have you had the same experience or has it been for the better?

Location
932 Freeport Rd
Pittsburgh, PA 15238
Phone- 412-781-1456
Web- http://www.burgatorybar.com/
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Burgatory-Bar/172102409486384
Twitter – http://twitter.com/BurgatoryBar

THE NEW YINZHUNGRY.COM

WELCOME!

If this is your first time visiting yinzhungry.com, thank you for stopping by! If you are a returning reader, welcome back! Please take a moment to view the new site, and leave a comment to let me know what you think of the new site and any ideas you may have for the future! Besides the new look, my favorite feature is now my twitter feed on the right side, if you are not following us already make sure you do @yinzhungry.

Thanks,
Chris