Peaches + Cukes + Lime
It’s more precious than ever this season. So give one of the Garden State’s top tree-fruit crops a helping hand in the kitchen both to stretch its presence and make certain its point gets across as strongly as ever.
Jersey Fresh Grows
A multimillion-dollar investment by the Wakefern Food Corp. in the Garden State’s marketing and branding program raises not only its stakes but regional awareness of all that’s coming out of our farms. It’s the lift the aging effort needs.
Casdeluna
In the ‘Burg of today, all eats Latin are hotter than asphalt in July. This Venezulean arepas specialist, which also makes a mean cachapa, is exactly where you ought to go, with the latest Stephanie Plum mystery in hand, to read and catch the food beat as orchestrated by restaurateur Mirna Castellanos.
TSP: High Summer’s Triumvirate
Tomatoes, squash and peppers can be combined in many and myriad ways, most of them ineluctably lovable. All of us have favorite ways of bringing them together. Because it’s flexible and showcases the way to coax max flavor out of each, this one is ours.
They Have a Dream
Landownership is the biggest obstacle for young people looking to forever-farm in New Jersey. A visionary who reached out to the farmers behind Ramblin’ Sol Farm in Upper Freehold broke down the barriers to make that happen.
Green Olive
The fundamentals of one of the prized cuisines in the Mediterranean vernacular are disgraced at a new Greek restaurant in a charming town that deserves much, much better.
LB’s Lunch Box
A seafood salad sandwich, a taco, an ice cream sandwich and even lemonade: Not exactly unfamiliar eats, but at this seasonal getaway run by chef Joselin Oudemans on Belhaven Lake in the heart of the Pine Barrens they are exalted rather than merely elevated. It’s that style of cooking that lifts LB’s into TPW’s canon of Favorites.
Suiting the Season
Peachy blueberries, watermelon, a veg-dressed noodles dish, calamari and the best-ever shellfish sandwich top the charts of this two-week span. Aren’t they all what you want to eat right now?
Spiced Watermelon
Is it a hand-held salad? A refreshing hors d’oeuvre for an outdoor party? A snack, a light lunch, a treat to bring to the beach or park picnic? A supplement to popcorn on movie night? It’s a favorite, gone jazzy.
Patidar Supermarket, Bridgewater
The new flagship store of this small chain of Indian markets is not just a stock-up spot for South Asian ingredients, but a place for shoppers less-versed in the region’s cuisines to be educated – and entertained by the excitement of the unfamiliar.
Lucky Star Tasty Food
The foods of Fuzhou in China’s Fujian Province are the marquee dishes at this minuscule storefront that takes its comforting classics seriously.
Café at Patidar Bridgewater
Stifle the hunger pangs that can lead to less-than-optimal impulse buys by taking a break to eat Indian classics at a café conveniently cloistered within a new mega-market in Somerset County.