Inspired by a pgh.food posting about a great gelato place in Kittanning, and further spurred on by someone else's claim of the "world's best hoagies" (or some such hyperbolic description), and having some new friends who live there and were willing to "show me the sights", I hied myself off to the nether-regions of southwestern PA on a food quest. I met my friends for lunch at Miller's Hoagies. I'm sorry to report that I must strongly disagree with the poster who raved about the quality of their hoagies. Although the hoagie I got was certainly edible and not too bad-tasting It was far from from being the best of anywhere except perhaps Kittanning. The bun was essentially a huge hotdog-type bun - not the Italian bread-style hoagie bun which I'm used to. I got the "combo" which was on special at the time. It consisted of various lunchmeats made into a big *roll* of meat. The sandwich was topped (well actually the toppings were on the bottom) with lettuce tomato, relish, oil, cheese and I'm not sure what all else. I also requested mayo on the side since it did not come with mayo. Now this was okay for a cold lunchmeat sandwich but my idea of an Italian hoagie is ham, cappicola, and salami with provolone, baked, and topped with shredded lettuce, tomato, onions, and usually an Italian-style vinaigrette dressing. I usually ask for mayo as well. So, a little disappointing but no big deal. The company was good. After lunch we walked down to the riverside park and walked along the river until we got to Mulberry St. where the aforementioned gelato place is located. It's called the Mulberry St. Creamery. The gelato was very high quality but I was disappointed that there were no summery fruit flavors, just what I like to call "savory" flavors (these are things like chocolate, peanutbutter, caramel, etc. which I think of as more wintery flavors). I was really craving something fruity but the only thing with any fruit was a blackberry (?) cheesecake thing which didn't appeal to me. I don't care for the type of ice cream that has bits of cake, cookie, pie crust, etc. in it. The other choice would have been one of their Italian ices which came in fruit flavors but I was in the mood for something rich and creamy, not icy. So I thought I'd try the coconut cream pie flavored gelato. However, I didn't realize that it would have pieces of pie crust in it! Blecch! Blecch! Ptui! :-P The gelato itself was great but it was totally ruined by the crap in it. Oh, well! Live and learn - always ask what's in it. I guess I just assumed it would just be like the *filling* in a coconut cream pie. It never would have occured to me that anyone would want pieces of ***pie crust*** in their ice cream. Sheesh! But I should have known - after all, there are all those weird people who eat raw cookie dough and even want it in their ice cream. ;-) Good grief! In spite of all that I had a great time in Kittanning with my friends. The weather was perfect and the riverside park was lovely. On the way home I stopped in Harmar- ville and got a black raspberry ice cream cone at Bruster's and finally fulfilled my cravings. Too bad black rasp- berry month is over at Bruster's. Their black raspberry ice cream is "too die for"!!!! It's got the perfect combin- ation of creaminess, sweetness, and tartness. Kate
Pittsburgh, PA