FeedMe518

Once inside, you will find three dining rooms for seating guests and a beautiful bar made of mahogany where I prefer to sit for dinner.

Lake Ridge offers a nice wine menu and great beer selection, but as a tequila and bourbon drinker, I am impressed with their high-end selections of coveted bourbons and nice scotches, which are some of the best bottles you can serve.

The first item I always order when I visit Lake Ridge is the Bostonian Shrimp. There is a reason this jumbo shrimp wrapped in bacon and served with maple Dijon horseradish dipping sauce is described as “A house favorite.”

The Pretzel Crusted Crab cake & Lobster cake is a delicious collaboration of jumbo lump crab meat and lobster mixed with green onion, bell pepper, celery, and house seasoning, served with curry mango aioli.

The Lobster Betty is a butter poached lobster tail served over braised greens finished with a shallot sherry cream sauce offered as a starter, but could easily be satisfying as an entree. The Red Curry Seafood Bolognese may be my new favorite entree in the region. I’ve been served this dish two times in five days at this restaurant, and I have eaten the leftovers for the other three of those five days. The sautéed shrimp, perfectly cooked scallops, and lump crabmeat in a red curry Bolognese style sauce, tossed with pappardelle pasta are an incredible flavor combination.

The Pecan Pork Chop is a favorite among their regular guests. This boneless 14 oz. pork chop encrusted in pecans, pan roasted, and finished with a tart cherry demi-glace was absolutely wonderful, beautiful, delicious, and tender.

The Mushroom and Crab Phyllo Cup is not only visually delicious when presented, but the sautéed leeks, wild mushrooms and jumbo lump crab meat in a garlic sherry butter sauce truly "excites your senses,” as Chef Scott would describe.

The Goat cheese, walnut, and fig crusted Salmon is incredible. I've enjoyed this perfectly cooked oven roasted salmon, topped with goat cheese, walnuts, and dried figs finished with raspberry arugula vinaigrette, many times.

I have dined at Lake Ridge many times over the past several years, where the food & service are always excellent. I truly believe that you will have a wonderful dining experience here as well. The Grilled New Zealand Lamb Rack, finished with a rosemary red wine demi-glace, is another well-executed entree that I have ordered several times.

Happy Eating!

Lake Ridge Restaurant is located at 35 Burlington Avenue, Round Lake, NY.

Nellie Ackerman-Vellano, Feed Me 518™ Instagram: @FeedMe518 FB: www.facebook.com/FeedMe518 Website: www.FeedMe518.com

LIMITLESS FORM MS OF EXPRESSION

DISCOVER. EXPLORE. CREATE. SAW’s Cary Hill Sculpture Park remains free and open to the public! Experience the healing power of art and nature in one beautiful setting.

Winter Inventory Sale

20% Discount on All Artwork

Tracy Helgeson

Website: www.thelaffergallery.com Address: 96 Broad St Schuylerville, NY 12871 Winter Hours: Thursday - Sunday 12pm - 5pm

Due to COVID and an extended closure in 2020, The Laffer Gallery will be not be taking our annual winter hiatus. Instead, we will hold a special exhibit featuring all artwork in our inventory. The show will run from January 30 to March 14. Exhibited artwork will be offered at a 20 percent discount.

More than 70 artists are participating. Hundreds of paintings, sculptures, and pottery will be featured. The artists are as grateful for your support as we at the gallery are. This sale is our collective gesture of appreciation.

Inventory will be available for purchase online as well as in the gallery.

“Living in the Moment of Ice” The Ephemeral Art of OKAMOTO STUDIO

by Carol St.Sauveur Ferris

It is known that Japanese culture is steeped in tradition yet consistently remains at the forefront of innovation and technology. For the people of Japan, it is truly a cultural dichotomy with the past effortlessly intersecting with the future. Shintaro Okamoto is a perfect example of this, and he is as hip as he is humble. He recently spoke with great reverence and pride about his father, family, and education when sharing the journey that brought him to New York and to the forefront of ice sculpting.

Shintaro was born on April 5, 1974 in Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan. His father, Takeo Okamoto, had a huge influence on him. According to Shintaro, “He epitomized the Renaissance Man”. Takeo designed and built their family home and landscape with his own hands. He was an exceptionally talented painter and sculptor, and a professionally trained sushi chef as well. When Shintaro was just nine years old, his father moved the family to Anchorage, Alaska to take over and manage a sushi restaurant. He often helped his father at the restaurant and quickly learned the ins and outs of the hospitality industry and the value of good customer service. During his free time he explored his great love for animals and wildlife, which inspired and informed his extraordinary talent in drawing and painting throughout his young years.

At school, young Shintaro was fortunate to be embraced by an art teacher who recognized his gift and encouraged him to paint and draw. It came as no surprise to anyone when he went on to win an art competition before he could even speak English. And by the sixth grade Shintaro was chosen for a drawing internship, meeting and studying under a professional wildlife artist twice a week. In high school he took first place in the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts (NFAA) competition. He was also selected as a US Presidential Scholar, one of the nation’s highest honors given in this country to students achieving academic excellence. And as a US Presidential Scholar Shintaro had the privilege of visiting the White House in Washington, DC.

During his culinary career, Takeo’s skills and artistry found their way into ice sculpting. He embraced it and was a true pioneer in this novel and impermanent art form. In the early days he shared his sculptures with friends which eventually led him to creating extraordinary sculptures for a wide range of events and parties that he was catering. This then led to him competing in ice carving competitions as well. While Shintaro was still in grade school, he had the honor of being his father’s partner in one of the ice carving competitions but as it turns out, his only job was in the shadows, shoveling excess ice that fell away from the sculpture his father was carving. “It was tough work and very humbling”, according to Shintaro. Eventually he learned the skills needed for ice carving, was “promoted” to full partner, and traveled with his father in the United States and Europe for a number of competitions. While in high school, Shintaro found he was interested in both art and medicine. He took night classes at a community college and did an externship with a local plastic surgeon. He also had the unusual opportunity to shadow a general surgeon and draw medical illustrations for him which allowed Shintaro to observe his work. Upon graduation, Shintaro left Alaska for the East Coast to attend Brown University where he continued to study fine arts and premed. Ultimately his undergraduate degree was in fine arts followed by a masters from Hunter College in New York.

In 2003, while still attending graduate school at Hunter College, Shintaro opened OKAMOTO STUDIO Custom Ice in Long Island City, New York. His father, who had visited him on several occasions, closed his Alaskan sushi restaurant and moved to New York to join his son. Initially the Okamotos promoted their ice carving business on a very simple website and by giving away ice sculptures to nonprofits for their galas. They also patiently built an excellent reputation with caterers by coming to their rescue at the last minute, creating and delivering beautiful ice sculptures just in time for an event. Slowly but surely business grew and the expertise of OKAMOTO STUDIO was sought by high profile designers, event planners, celebrities and corporations for their special events. Having a shared background in the restaurant and hospitality business and a commitment to delivering good service, father and son made a wonderful team. Their extraordinary artistry and vision, with ice as their medium, set them apart from the rest.

Ice sculpting has evolved a great deal since its earliest days. The first know piece of sculpted ice is attributed to Auguste Escoffier in 1892. He was a famous French chef who carved an elegant swan to cradle his custom dessert creation called “Peche Melba”, for a dinner party held in New Orleans in honor of the opera singer, Nellie Melba. It wasn’t long before ice carving became a major part of the culinary arts world with ice

sculptures becoming an expected feature in food presentation.

Iconic ice carved swans on the buffet table of the early days have long given way to elaborate ice sculptures depicting everything from animals, logos, automobiles, flowers and people. And those that carve these incredible pieces are specialists in their own right. Shintaro and Takeo, New York’s ice-carving dream team, were gifted artists and meticulous carvers, universally admired for their uncanny ability to execute intricate details in ice. While their incredible talent separated them from other carvers, it was their value system and philosophy that grew their business and set them apart from the rest.

Today OKAMOTO STUDIO continues to build upon that early success by embracing and educating their clients from the very beginning of a new project. Initial consultations allow them to discover their vision and goals. In turn, clients discover that a simple block of ice holds many design possibilities and begin to explore what those might be. The Okamoto team then confers and develops a conceptual design that represents their vision for the client. Once approved, plans are developed that detail how a simple block of ice will be transformed into a spectacular sculpture, carefully depicting the event’s theme and conveying the client’s message.

Back in the day, the ice carvers’ tool box included ice picks, hammers, razor sharp chisels and handsaws. While these tools are still in the mix, today’s carvers’ also use a wide assortment of hand and power tools including chain saws, lathes, drills, and precision cutting CNC machines. And of course there’s the ice. The ideal block of ice is made from pure, clean water but in actuality, the freezing process has more to do with the final transparency of the ice. Clear ice can now be made using special machines that slow the freezing process while removing air bubbles and any impurities. Once carved, ice takes on an opaque effect so the carver will often apply heat from a Propane or Mapp Gas cylinder to bring back the clarity of the ice. But the most important tools of all are not found in the tool box. Ice carvers who have the instincts and abilities to interpret, create and execute a breathtaking piece for a client are born with these exceptional tools and are called ice sculptors. The Okamotos are the very definition of ice sculptors.

To fully appreciate the depth and breadth of their work, a visit to the OKAMOTO STUDIO website is a must. It’s like taking a virtual field trip into a fantasy world of ice – exotic, thought provoking, remarkable, and breathtakingly beautiful. Gorgeous images of ice sculptures that they have created for a wide range of clients including titans of Wall Street and major corporations to the neighbor’s children about to become a bar/bat mitzvah or say their “I dos” fill their site. It’s clear that every

client is unique and as important as the other to the Okamotos.

There’s a unique ice runway for American fashion designer Zac Posen; delicately carved polar bears for jewelry designer David Yurman’s holiday store windows; and a fun, freestanding display wall of Jimmy Choo handbags and shoes floating in stacked blocks of ice. There are images of sculpted logos enhanced with special lighting for corporate giants like LEGO, Ruelala, Yahoo, Spotify, and Embraer Airlines. And a cross-section of the sports, entertainment and film industries are represented as well, including the New York Knicks, Def Jam Recordings, NBC, Warner Brothers, Notorious BIG and Katy Perry.

Pictures of colorful florals and spectacular individual flowers, seemingly floating in carved ice which have graced many wedding, gala, mitzvah and holiday tables as centerpieces are also featured on the site. And an extensive collection of images featuring contemporary ice bars with dedicated nooks for top shelf liquor bottles and glasses; fun luges of all shapes and sizes that serve up icy cold, signature drinks which are incredibly popular and a sophisticated take on the funnel/siphon drinking days of frat parties; crystal clear cocktail ice branded for bars, restaurants and special events; and all sorts of culinary ice sculptures custom designed for holiday parties and more. It would seem that whatever a client can imagine, OKAMOTO STUDIO will create. Sadly, in 2012, Shintaro’s father passed away from cancer, but not before seeing OKAMOTO STUDIO Custom Ice achieve well-deserved recognition and success. The business values that Takeo imbued in Shintaro as a child including humility, hard work, exceptional customer service and a willingness to look beyond himself, are fundamental to the continuing success of the business. According to Shintaro, he “looks at the world at large, sees needs and opportunities that are relevant to the studio, then challenges himself”. And as a new father of a young son of his own, it is safe to say that Shintaro will teach him the same values he was taught, ensuring that the Okamoto legacy will live on.

More information on OKAMOTO STUDIO Custom Ice can be found at www.okamotostudionyc.com, on FB at facebook.com/okamotostudioice and on IG @okamotostudio.

Brule County Blues

A run-in with the law led to a short stay in a South Dakota jail for Troy musician Josh Coletto—but it also launched his country band, Brule County Bad Boys, and a new album. South Dakota’s Brule County is not the best place to find yourself, unexpectedly, in the dead of winter. The sparsely populated county along the Missouri River is desolate before spring breathes some life into Chamberlain, the county seat. Troy musician Josh Coletto found this out the hard way after a cross-country road trip went awry during a traffic stop in Brule County, which led to a two-month stay in the county jail.

“When I first got pulled over, it was January and very bleak,” says Coletto over a recent Zoom call. But Coletto, a chef and co-owner of Nighthawks restaurant in Troy, made the most of his time in the Great Plains. The talented chef received a work release during the day to cook and rewrite menus for a nearby casino, which later tried to draft him after his jail stint was over. He also cooked for the small jail population, using his culinary skills to vastly improve the cannedgoods menu of chili and stew.