’Burgh’s best dishes and drinks
Paneer tikka samosa at Patel Brothers, Monroeville
If you like paneer tikka and you like samosas, then the paneer tikka samosa in the bakery section at Patel Brothers Indian grocery store will be your BFF. The triangular pastry ($1.49) is filled with small cubes of pearl-white paneer coated with a vibrant red sauce. Paneer by itself is bland, but when it is cooked in a piquant tomato-based, masala-redolent sauce as in this samosa, it undergoes a metamorphosis, and you end up biting into spicy and tangy pieces that take your breath away. The filling is complemented with a semi-hard, crisp and perfectly thick shell that does not ooze grease.
If the paneer samosa is sold out, be sure to order the potato-green peas samosa ($1). It has plenty of kick and is equally a delight to the senses. Neither of the samosas are served with the standard tamarind or green chili chutneys, but they don’t need them. Eaten steaming hot, they are wondrous just as they are.
Patel Brothers, 312 Mall Plaza Blvd., Monroeville.
— Arthi Subramaniam
Sorpresa pizza at Josephine’s Pizza & Enoteca, Indiana, Pa.
Some of the best — if not THE best — pizza in Pittsburgh isn’t in Pittsburgh, but rather an hour-and-a-half drive away in Indiana, Pa.
I recently returned to Josephine’s Pizzeria & Enoteca, which, after a visit years ago, became one of my favorite restaurants anywhere. I’m delighted to report that it’s still on that list.
I was happy enough just to confirm that it’s still open, this younger sister restaurant beside the local red-sauce landmark that is Nap’s Cucina Mia. Neither one is killing the social media game. (Josephine’s last Facebook post was 2017, but its cover photo is great, and it’s showing some new life on Instagram.)
We so wanted to eat at Josephine’s that we left Pittsburgh a night early and booked a motel — a cat-friendly motel at that — outside this pretty college town and county seat so we could dine before our kid’s early morning hockey game, after which we had to return home. So we pulled up early, just after 6, in front of the glowing red neon of the restaurant’s sign on the main drag of Philadelphia Street and were seated right away.
The place looks as good, feels as good and tastes as good as ever.
We clinked glasses with a TGIF round of drinks — draft pale ale, red wine and San Pellegrino Aranciata — and tried to choose from all the great choices on the one-page octopus-decorated menu. I wish I had taken one or at least taken a better photo. I couldn’t find a menu online.
We HAD to get pizza, made in the beautiful wood oven in the back, with “JOSIE’S” spelled out on the tile. But what pizza? What toppings?
Told he was forbidden to get pepperoni even if it were available, my 12-year-old settled on arugula, prosciutto and Parmigiano ($15) plus onion ($1). Nice choice. Doubling down on being adventurous, he ordered a Caesar salad topped with a poached egg ($9) and wolfed down most of it.
Other tidbits on the menu include roasted chicken thighs and octopus.
My wife and I could not decide. Turned out, we didn’t.
We just ordered a Sorpresa, which translates as “Surprise.”
We let the kitchen decide our toppings, relaying only that we preferred red pizza to white and that my wife is allergic to shrimp.
Surprise: Out came a gorgeous pie topped with meatballs, spinach and lots of red onions, plus sauce and real buffalo mozzarella ($14).
Not the toppings I ever would have picked, but it was an absolutely delicious combination, especially on this perfectly charred, crispy yet cushy, I believe, sourdough crust.
As our friendly server told us, two pizzas were plenty for three people, and we had room for dessert, especially because it was housemade spumoni ice cream ($3) and a pillowy panna cotta dressed in pistachio cream and cherries ($6). My nightcap was a taste of local Levity Brewing’s plum porter beer (gratis).
So fun. And SO good.
Maybe it sounds good to you, too. Maybe you have a cat.
I know a motel.