Lenora’s Tinga Chimichanga
A small café in the Bayshore borough of Keyport is where a shredded chicken version of the Tex-Mex classic does exactly right by the genre.
Blair Mountain Biscuit Co.
Chef Ted Miller serves a staple of the South with twists on tradition at his snug storefront in Blackwood. It’s where you just might want to risk it for a biscuit.
Coming ’Round
Gumbo, chicken keema, a fruited scone, a pepper-based soup and a cutlet unlike any other make up the quintet of favorite eats from the past two weeks, Read about them here and now.
Greens Bars
Have your corned beef and cabbage, cottage pie or colcannon, Irish stew and Irish whiskey, green beer, green guacamole and cookies tinted shamrock green. But also eat your greens on St. Patrick’s Day, perhaps in pastry-esque squares that ooze cheese and the nutritional value of vegetables.
Riding the Tides of March
When what’s been in season ebbs, the Garden State’s culinary pros don’t call it a wash and give up. No, they rise up by digging deeper for inspiration, working on technique and reimagining standards with creativity and precision.
Chatpati Delhi
A strip mall storefront along the Garden State’s own Spice Route is where Chef Hema Singh leads a 14-person kitchen and her husband Jimmy Poonawalla runs the floor show. It’s not the Taj Mahal, but it’s a wonder of tastes and right now is New Jersey’s finest South Asian restaurant.
Burlington County Farmers’ Market: Pre-season Edition
Stock right up at the early birds’ version of one of the Garden State’s best farmers’ markets. There’ll be three more after this year’s inaugural foodfest, so let these highlights motivate you to mark your calendar post-haste.
The Floor Show
Traditional front-of-house team members might benefit from learning a few tricks of an updated model of the service trade. The discourse on “The New Counter Culture” continues.
Dried Sardines
By now you’re on board with tinned fish, assigning a prime place in the pantry for those trusty vessels that hold a range of seafood beyond the tuna that’s long been staple and savior. Turns out there are other versions of preserved fishes ready to step into the role of last-minute meal-maker.
Beth and Nick Blatt, Honey Moon Bakery & Pizzeria
In the latest installment of TPW’s periodic pro-to-pro column, Joselin Oudemans talks shop with fellow practitioners of the pastry and baking arts: husband-and-wife team Nick and Beth Blatt, of Honey Moon Bakery & Pizzeria in Frenchtown. It’s where the happily-ever-after has just begun.
Sergeantsville Inn
Another chef who once led a big-name, big-city kitchen has taken charge of the stoves at an iconic restaurant in Hunterdon County. Is the multi-tiered menu serving its mission and community?
The New Counter Culture
If the picture you have in your mind of the quintessential counterperson is the Soup Nazi or the guy at a New York-style deli whose gruffness has a sharper edge than the knife he uses to slice pastrami, snap out of the past and get with a new model in which intimacy, interaction and immediacy of engagement are purposeful and well-planned.