Meat, Wine and Three Fish Dishes
Once again, our small state offers a wide range of compelling, complex and scrupulously crafted foods that underscore the importance of high-level technique. Read, eat, then revel.
The Sub Salad
Start with lettuces that are flush in the markets this month, add the meats and cheeses vital to your favorite Italian sub, and finish with the key element of this peppy salad: a fresh, relish-like pickled peppers mince.
The Italian Table
Confusion reigns at a new restaurant that doesn’t seem to be interested in scaling the heights of either authentic regional Italian cuisine or carefully crafted Italian-American cuisine. Indeed, what’s being served is a mishmash of incoherence accentuated by poor kitchen skills.
Mayer’s Tavern
Kicking off a new column that spotlights favorites in the Garden State and will appear occasionally is this destination in Cape May where our own Deep South is mined for its bests – bests that then get absolute-best treatments in a tiny, yet mighty kitchen.
Dim 11 Congee Noodle House
Splendid dumplings, well-wrought braises and soups, Cantonese-style small plates and all the various specialties this new eatery’s name enumerates are served under the mindful watch of owner Li Mei. The setting is appropriately modest, allowing the food to take center stage.
Michael’s Birthday Meatballs
A mix of meats from Haring Family Farm is the base for a special-request dinner that’s fine for four – or can scale up to 40. Time to gather and celebrate.
Pardis Persian Grill
Take the time to travel to another mind-set at a stalwart that may offer familiar Middle Eastern staples but also stews, kabobs and starters that have the ring of authenticity and aren’t of the supermarket-stylized variety. Go for ghormehsabzi, not another falafel.
Brady’s Scallops on the Half Shell
The season’s best seafood dish is staring right at you. Simple, and making prime use of New Jersey’s finest, it’s the quick-on, quick-off-the-grill party food you’ll want to reprise.
Xina
A new version of a reliable Shore sushi/Pan Asian standby seriously shortchanges quality by allowing poor habits at every level to go unchecked. The result is flawed sushi that ranges from dreadful to disastrous.
Old Friends
There are various types of histories behind the foods attaining favorite status during the stretch of eating just past. And good reasoning for each’s elevation to the Top 5.
Hot Lettuce Summer
Lovely leaves of the season deserve more than a nominal toss in dressing. Chef Andre de Waal paves a path for these wavy, curly, crunchy or simply undulating sheaths to have more than a moment as the “It Vegetable.”
LBI North End Options
Pit-stopping at Birdy’s, Viking Fresh Off the Hook and Mustache Bill’s yields one clear winner in the daytime eats department. And for a bonus: An ice cream flight, at the island’s center.