A Cure For The Winter Food Blahs
Palermo Salumeria
33-35 Francis Lewis Blvd., Bayside
HOURS: Tues-Fri 9 a.m.-7 p,m.; Sat 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sun 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Closed Mondays
CUISINE: Deli/Italian
PARKING: Street
RESERVATIONS: None- take out
With the winter months creeping up on us the last thing many of us want to do is venture out in search of a restaurant to fulfill our tummy’s needs. Summoning others to come over and provide you with a meal fit for a king has never been this easy and Palermo Salumeria does so in style.
Different from your typical restaurant’s delivery service, Palermo Salumeria supplies a wide selection of eats on time with the presentation your local pizzeria could only cry over.
Palermo Salumeria advertises itself as a deli and fine Italian cuisine. How can it be both? The Penne Vodka will tell the story.
Pink, creamy and full of flavor, the penne vodka is definitely of fine restaurant quality. You’ll wonder which high class Italian eatery this pasta dish came from. While many catering places deliver penne vodka that is often watery or overcooked, Palermo Salumeria brought us a pasta dish so exquisite, you almost felt wrong for not eating it while wearing a dinner jacket.
The pasta is cooked to perfection; not overdone, not too al dente. You can even get a slight taste of vodka in the sauce. The penne does not fall apart on the fork, as is often the case in more watery sauce. The creamy thickness of the vodka sauce sticks to the pasta, giving the penne the full flavor of the sauce. When the past is gone, try dipping some bread in the sauce, you won’t be disappointed.
For the meat lover, there’s an excellent stuffed loin of pork dish. The pork was cooked to perfection. A tender slice stuffed in the middle with a tangy mix of spices. It comes with a creamy mushroom sauce that only adds to the pork’s flavor.
Palermo Salumeria also offers up their own version of the infamous Italian meat-meet-vegetable dish; sausage and peppers. Perfectly cooked sausage links are served drowning in sharp-tasting cooked peppers. You won’t even need a bun for this.
For a good lunch, try a panini. Palermo Salumeria offered us a selection of eggplant paninis. The eggplant panini was toasted to perfection, crispy on the outside yet gooey within; the light bite crunches in the mouth revealing warm innards fit for anyone with veggies on the mind. Before I knew it, I had munched down three, saving a fourth for a midnight snack.
The pasta salad is chilled and fills your plate with an array of different exotic flavors. You may be able to find pasta salad almost anywhere in Queens, but you need to try the one at Palermo Salumeria.
Your lunch or dinner would not be complete without a good side dish. Palermo Salumeria has an assortment of those. Top of the list should be the rich pilaf.
Ah, the rice pilaf was quite a treat. Peas, mushrooms, and cheeses were littered throughout, allowing for the variety of tastes that make any Pilaf a success. The green peas had that special sweet kick, treating the mouth the way it deserves to be treated. Cooked just right, the rice had a pleasurable texture. It was the type of meal that wasn’t too heavy or too light. Though the mushrooms weren’t quite in the pantheon of elite, game-changing mushrooms, the sensation, nevertheless, of devouring them was worthwhile.
The rice dishes don’t end there. Try the rich primavera or the rich balls, sliced in two and topped with a layer of cheese.
–Queens Tribune Staff