The Art of the Okapi Lunch Antipasto

The first key to a great lunch antipasto is fresh, high quality ingredients, and if there's one thing this okapi knows about it's how to find the very best ingredients for the best prices in this city. So, let's take a little tour, shall we?

I started at the Rochester Public Market. This was rated #1farmers market in the country last year, and there is no doubt in my mind that they earned this honor. This is where I got the tomato, romaine lettuce, 5 year aged sharp cheddar, olives, and cranberry stilton cheese. 

The produce can be purchased on any day the market is open (Tues, Thurs, Sat year round, extended days summer) at pretty much any farmers stand, so why not enjoy the ambiance and haggle a little?

The olives however can found at VM Giordano (open Thurs/Sat Only) which is a small cheese and olive shoppe located along the NW section of the market. For this lunch antipasto I chose green olives with herb de province from this shop. This is a great cheese and olive shop, but they are way busy. It would pay to research their product list before heading over so you know exactly what you want. This okapi didn't do that, so the rest of the olives and cheese were purchased from a cheese stand. 

There are two cheese companies that sell a huge variety of cheese and olives (Sat only) at stands in the main market and either one will do. I purchased feta stuffed green olives, pitted kalamata olives, 5 year aged cheddar, and cranberry stilton cheese: all for a fraction of the Wegmans price.

The rest of my ingredients were purchased on West Ridge Road. I started at Ridge and Dewey by hitting up Skip's Meat Market. This place has the the best prices for cold cuts that I've seen in the area. Many are under $5 per pound which is significantly less expensive than local super markets. They slice the meat any way you want it and you can buy as little or as much as you want. I grabbed some sandwich pepperoni, salami, and capicola. 

My next stop was Gruttadauria Bakery which is on Ridge near 390. This awesome place fills cannolis while you wait. They are amazingly fresh, crisp, and delicious. They can even be customized = awesome! 

Lastly, I popped into Pino's Deli which is found in Buckman's Plaza (west of the mall). This place bakes rolls fresh all day and I often get them hot. This okapi loves hot, fresh Italian bread more than almost anything in the whole world. The giant rolls that you see in the pic are called "paninis" by this place, but they look more like mini Italian loafs to me. Oh, and they're only 75¢ each.

I get that not everyone wants to do all of this running around and for those of you who want a kick ass lunch antipasto, but don't want the hassle, go to Wegmans. They have all of these ingredients, and other than the cannolis and bread, they are equal in quality/freshness. The difference here is in price, folks... and if you stop at the other places you're supporting small local businesses.

Either way you get your ingredients, the next step is the same: presentation. It's terrible to go out of your way to buy a bunch of great ingredients and then just throw them on a plate or (gasp!) serve them in the bags you bought them in. The way I see it, you have two options here:

Option 1: Divide it up like I did above. This can be done in any way as long as you separate the ingredients in a neat way. This okapi chose to do one serving dish for meat and hard cheese, one for soft cheese, and another for olives. You could do it cheese and olives on one and meat on another or split the olives...the options are really endless. It just depends on what kinds of serving dishes you have available.

Option 2: Put it all on one serving tray. If you have a huge tray, you can put all of this stuff  together. If you do this, you should alternate items for visual appeal. An example would be green olives, salami, kalamata olives, capicola, stuffed green olives, then sandwich pepperoni around the outside with a ring of cheddar in the inner ring and stilton in the center. Get creative!

Any way you do it, be neat and make sure to put down something like lettuce leaves as a barrier between the tray and foods. Enjoy!

Okapi Weight Loss Program Phase 2 (Update)

Yesterday Fancy and I called an end to the hell of fasting. I had wanted to quit since the first day and Fancy finally decided to join the charge after 3.5 days. Remember that juice that made me want to puke? Well, it eventually had the same affect on her. I knew it was evil, pond scummy, putridness and it would only be a matter of time. Sometimes my nose still catches a whiff of something and my taste buds have a lucid day terror of retasting it. I'm not sure I can eat red peppers again.

All in all I lost 5 pounds, as you can see in the pic above, and that's something. Phase 1 is still going strong for me, so I will update the whole situation soon. During the fast I only did the main 5 exercises: squats, push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups, and dips because of low energy. This okapi is totally okay with that because they're the core exercises for my 6 week plan.

My first meal when I quit? Japanese food from Blue Ocean (formerly Kyoto...Google hasn't updated the listing yet). It was fantastic as usual, but alas...no review. I was so excited for real food/disoriented from the fast that I forgot to take any pics until I was finished. Okapi fail.

Best Present an Okapi Could Ask For

"Killerokapi" By: Amber D. Knox

Okapi Weight Loss Program Phase 2 (Update Day 3)

Dear Juice Fast:

I hate you more than anything in the whole world. Do you remember the juice drank in the film where everyone tasted it and said that they kinda liked it? It's terrible. I found this other juice called "The Chiller" from a book and although "Fancy" could drink it, it made me nearly vomit. No, really my mouth waters in that bad way just thinking about it.

On Day 1 I nearly lost my mind and after referencing the website, I realized that there is an express version of the juice fast/reboot. It says I can eat raw or cooked (boiled) fruits/veggies as well as juice. Thank jeebus for that, the first apple I ate that day was like mana from the heavens.

Yesterday was Day 2 and I was pissed off all day. "Fancy" was too, but not nearly as crazy as me. Have you ever seen this okapi without food? It's like this:

So, now I'm on Day 3 and repeating the mantra "3 more days, 3 more days..." in my mind during every waking hour. I'm also trying to sleep as much as possible because okapis are peaceful when asleep and not so  angry. 

The only good juice I have found is (unsurprisingly) fresh apple juice. It is amazing. I also eat fresh fruit for breakfast like peaches yesterday and cantaloupe today which is delicious, but other than that my food intake sucks. 

I am goddamn sick of boiled zucchini, boiled carrots, and dressingless salads. I hate vegetable mixture juices and tasteless food. I have lost three pounds in case anyone was wondering, but I am convinced that it's just water weight from not eating salt. So, I'll update this part of the Okapi Weight Loss Program on Friday which will be here in 3 more days, 3 more days...

Vomitously and Ax-Murderously Yours,

Killerokapi

Okapi Weight Loss Program Phase 2

So, as many of you know I've been doing my workout program for two weeks and have lost a few pounds. I'm sure I've also gained a little bit of muscle, so all in all this okapi is happy. Now comes the fun part: phase 2. 

Have you seen the movie "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead"? Yeah, well I hadn't either until one of my best friends, The Ewok, came to my house after watching it. She told me all about this movie with this guy who juice fasted and lost weight and turned his life around and cured himself of a debilitating auto-immune disorder and helped save others and...well you get the picture. At first I was extremely cynical, but after several hours of The Ewok banging her spear and drilling in the gospel of the juice, I was intrigued.

I told "Fancy" about the juice fast and we streamed the movie on Netflix that very night. It turns out that everything The Ewok said was true, so "Fancy" and I decided to try it. I did extra research on juice fasting and we picked a date to begin: July 17, tomorrow. 

Juice fasting is when you eat only fresh fruit and vegetable juice for a period of time (usually at least 10 days). It cleanses your body of all the crap built up from years of eating terrible "food". You can only drink juice and water the whole time; no coffee, tea, cigarettes, booze, or food. I'll miss tea and food, "Fancy" will miss coffee, cigarettes, and food-plus she'll be working. This is going to be goddamn tough.

I went to the downtown public market this past Thursday, which by the way was rated #1 in the country last year, and bought $70 worth of produce. I have green leaf lettuce, celery, red peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, lemons, ginger root, peaches, and two kinds of apples. We're ready to juice! 

We will juice fast for a minimum of 10 days starting tomorrow, so I won't be able to do any restaurant reviews this week which is totally sad for me, but I will post about other stuff. I should have lots of energy after the first couple of days, so I'll be able to check out some sweet nature spots to throw on here for you guys. 

Lastly, please excuse my tone over the next several days: While my body is cleansing, detoxing, creating new cells, losing fat, and clearing up my skin I will probably be at least a little miserable. I'll probably be like Stan Marsh from South Park in that episode where everything seems like shit to him. On a totally unrelated note I think I'm a lot like Stan Marsh in other ways, like always wear a blue hat with a red stripe along the rim, I swear, I'm cynical...screw it, I'll just do a post about this sometime. I clearly have a complex.