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I Could Eat with Rick Bedrosian
Lark Street is undergoing. My parents would have loved Rain, especially because it’s right around the corner from First Presbyterian Church ! Restaurants come and go, so seeing a personal favorite stand the test of time is a beautiful thing. Vietnamese powerhouse, Saigon Spring (Clifton Park, NY) is approaching its 14th an- niversary but their Hudson Val- ley roots go much deeper. The owners of Saigon Spring are relatives of the owners of Van’s Vietnamese Restaurant , an Albany, NY based Asian eat- ery that was first established on lower Madison Avenue in the late 20th century. Pilot Episode 2 of “ I Could Eat ”, a new TV Series show- casing the cuisine and music that unites the diverse cultures of our world, made its world debut at the Cine- ma Village in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, as part of the prestigious Manhattan Film Festival. A month later, its West Coast debut was held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, CA. Episode 2 focuses on some of the interesting and off-the-beat- en-path restaurants in New York’s Hudson Valley. Host, Rick Bedrosian (“George” in a Beat- lemania stage show for 7 years, leader of Celtic Music power-
Asian Spring Festival is celebrated worldwide in countries that house significant Chinese or Sinophone populations, especially in America. In Southeast Asia, countries include Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
By Staff Writer Rick Bedrosian
R AIN CHECK ! For some people, Chinese cuisine is a com- fort food. It cer- tainly is for me. I remember in the 1960’s, fre- quently going with my family to a place in Schenectady, NY called, Lum Fung for Chinese lunch after church. That end- ed in the early 70’s when it was reported that one of their chefs had attacked a man (not sure if it was a customer or a fellow employee) with a meat cleaver. We quickly found other places but none were as good. I’ve been enjoying Chinese food since the Kennedy Adminis- tration but there aren’t any- where near as many Chinese restaurants in New York’s Cap- ital District as there used to be. And fewer good ones. Shining Rainbow , Fairy Sichuan , A La
Shanghai and Hu’s House have been my local go-tos but there’s always room for more on my dance card. Trying new plac- es to eat is a lot of fun and sometimes it’s necessary to check out a place you’ve driven by hundreds of times but never considered. Rain (Albany, NY) calls itself, “Modern Chinese”. I’d never been there so I decided to drop in for a couple lunches. The menu is for the most part (but not entirety), the standard Can- tonese dishes that I grew up eating: Wonton Soup, Eggrolls, Spareribs, Kung Pao Chicken and so on. But unlike most of the strip mall Chinese joints around here, this place is very good and the employees seem to really care about their cus- tomers. A dedicated parking lot is a big plus too, especially during the current facelift that
"The owners of Saigon Spring are relatives of the owners of Van’s Vietnamese Restaurant , an Albany, NY-based...”
house, Hair Of The Dog , since 1993 and an international tour guide) spans the globe seeking out the finest food and the most interesting music makers. “I Could Eat” Pilot Episode 1 has already won more than two dozen worldwide film festival awards with many still pending as Episode 2 is being released. Here’s a link to the trailer: https://vimeo. com/899653326/61b21e- 7f2e?share=copy
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