S&Y Mini Hot Pot
An eminently pleasant, casually covert eatery run by a couple steeped in on-point cooking and hospitality might be the leader of a most respectable pack of hot-pot specialists now raising the bar on the genre in the Garden State.
The French Fry Guy
Andrew Keris, potato farmer and master of the double-deep-fry, turns out carton after carton of superior frites from the confines of his snappy green food truck. Catch him wherever you can.
Mom-and-Pop Shops Shine
Couples joining forces are the forces to be reckoned with in this round of favorites dominated by foods that emanate from small, family-run eateries. And then there’s a man and his potatoes.
Knock, Knock. Who’s There? Zucchini
Chef Andre deWaal refuses to take the green tubular squash for granted. After you make his Zucchini Bruschetta, you’ll join the ranks of its boosters.
Growing Gains
Activists in Trenton are looking to urban agriculture as a way to provide healthy foods, jobs, inspiration and sovereignty to not only those who live and work in the capital city, but residents of the rest of the Garden State.
Casa de Masala
Take classics from culinary canons Indian and Latin, pair thoughtfully and cook just right, and the result can be a menu of long-term, lovable partnerships. Like the ones found at a newcomer to the Bayshore.
Gio Cake Shop
Brazilian confections, from glamorous cakes to bonbons to breakfast Bundts, fill the cases at a café in Harrison as well as the needs of pastry chef Giovanna Valente’s broad customer base.
Green Beans + Chimichurri + Feta
While not possessing quite the same cachet as others in the peak-season, high-summer realm, these skinny kids on the produce block can make friends with accents in ways that take them out from behind the shadows of tomatoes, corn and eggplant.
Dinner, at Chickadee Creek Farm
A state grant-funded series of suppers at the organic farm in Pennington spotlights not just produce in its prime, but teamwork in a kitchen led by Jared Batson.
Ideal Eating
Call this a U.O.U. and take a few minutes to plan for some pleasurable dining-out time while summer’s still in its prime. It’s a personal process, one that involves a bit of ruminating and selecting, so we’ve got some recommendations to get your thinking off and running.
The Speckled Egg Café: Saturday Supper
Want to know what a true and original voice in cooking tastes like? Then step right up to this one-of-a-kind in Lambertville where the forces in the kitchen rise to every moment in time and redefine seasonality on brave new terms. It’s the newest entry into our canon of Favorites.
Less-traveled, More Adventurous
Invention isn’t the point, though exploration sure is when it comes to the favorite foods of the two weeks just past. Here are many familiar ingredients invigorated by independent thinking.