Balkan Market
For New Jersey residents of Balkan heritage, the fundamentals of home-cooked meals often depend on procuring critical ingredients made in their homelands – ingredients that, fortunately, are imported and found in the Garden State at small, family-owned and independent groceries, such as this shop in Manalapan run by Timi Marke and his family.
Game Day Take-away
Call this Mid-week Quarterbacking: Up your game-watching eats into next-level nutritional value by faking out your mates with a spread that allows everyone to pass right by the antacid aisle.
Fancy Fish
"Fry" is the method done right at this storefront deep in the heart of Havana on the Hudson that’s all and only about fishes. Long may it reign, absolutely unchanged. P.S. It’s one in a family of five siblings.
Fresh, Young Ginger, for Gari
Youth isn’t wasted on this rhizome that’s juicier and livelier in its smoother-faced prime. As the cognoscenti know, now is the time to kick into ginger-pickling production.
Chocolates, with Super Powers
It’s actually elemental: cacao and honey, with a sprinkling of functional superfoods. That’s how a couple working out of a 1940s repurposed building in Union City is crafting a guilt-free line of chocolates by hand.
Deccan Spice
The traditions of thali fail to receive the respect they deserve at a high-style space where the premise is much about majesty, but the practice of reheating leftovers and an indifference to freshness prevail. It’s a disgrace to a ritual built on pride of place, process and ingredients.
Ube Ice Cream, at Sweet Dynasty
The purple yam popular in the Philippines shines in ice cream form at this diminutive shop in Edison. Subtle and sophisticated, it’s a flavor to favor in fall.
Ficus Bon Vivant
Far too much tastes far too bad at a downtown café-cum-restaurant that prides itself on its worldly menu and top-flight ingredients. From dish concept to execution to disconnected service, the flaws appall and need to be addressed.
Lobster Causa
Party time? Think this versatile dish from South America that can star shellfish or chicken or vegetables or anything that partners with potatoes. Its flexibility is its touchstone.
September Musings
It’s the Thinking Cook’s month, prime time of a Garden State year to let the confluence of summer and fall harvests inspire. In other words, take advantage of having it all at once and put noggin to bounty.
Andrea Trattoria Italiana
Sincerity is a tangible at the latest incarnation of a rustic, yet dressy restaurant from chef Andrea Covino. Here, it’s in the food, the setting, the service and in all the ways heart and soul are expressed.
Salad Upgrade
’Tis the season to re-think the tosses that have served you well these last several months. It’s time for something more challenging and complex – something not accomplished by adding cheeses, seeds, fruits and nuts.