“Picnic” appetizer offering at Casola Dining Room.
It’s been way too long since we paid a visit to the Casola Dining Room at Schenectady County Community College, which provides training for many who find jobs in Capital District restaurants in upstate New York. They serve a set menu Tuesday-Thursday each semester starting a few weeks in, after new students have had some training. In the fall they focus on regional American specialties; in the spring it is various international cuisines. Lunch is offered on Tuesday and Thursday and dinner on Wednesday night.
Scallop (singular) over pasta at Casola.
This week I had the “American Bistro and Gastropub” menu which brought me a “picnic” of various items as an appetizer, a scallop on a pasta with a creamy sauce as a main, and a salted caramel tart for dessert. Very satisfied with everything. The courses are presumably chosen by instructors. The “picnic” was all over the place but enjoyable, with the duck prosciutto the high point and a too-cold pot of paté only a mild disappointment. I needed to ask for the menu again to confirm the main was “scallop” and not “scallops”. My single bivalve was well prepared and the pasta base was enjoyable though I could not taste the crab; mysterious cracklings, which I thought were dukkah but turned out to be pork, were a nice touch. Dessert tart was predictably rich and delicious.
Salted caramel chocolate tart at Casola.
We have another local chef-training restaurant in Seasoned, affiliated with the culinary program at SUNY Adirondack in Glens Falls. We reviewed them during the pandemic and hope to return for one of the imaginative brewery collaborations they are now sponsoring from time to time. Do you have a culinary training program that offers meals to the public where you live? Check it out. It’s a win-win for the students and the community.
