Winter Fresh: 1-8-24
The official Jersey Fresh seasonality chart may give short-shrift to our four-season farmers in these winter months, but you don’t have to. Their crops, and some top-notch right-for-now specialty foods, show what’s peak at this brrrr time of year.
Chicken: It’s What’s for Dinner
Is there any aroma more heavenly in winter than that of a roasting bird? Only a bird that’s also been spatchcocked, smothered with a custom paste and set to drool over a stew of vegetables. Come and take a sniff of Kiera’s oven magic.
Ay Caramba
A Mexican seafood specialist rouses familiar fishes and combines elements from myriad Latin cuisines in a setting that invites convivial communal dining. It’s the first dine-card must of the new year.
Our Future
It’s that time of year when prognosticators prodded by the media tell us what we’ll be eating and drinking in the 12 months ahead. But instead of letting others tell us what will be on our tables, why don’t we take control of our own dining destiny?
Chill Warm Shrimp
Bringing a lighter touch to suppers on these darker days doesn’t have to mean cutting back on anything – not flavor, not substance, not the spark of sunshine that citrus imbues.
Joe Beninato, The Frog and the Peach
Once upon a time, he did his homework after school at the bar of the legendary restaurant in New Brunswick while his pastry-chef Mom put the finishing touches on the desserts that would be served that night. Today, Joe Beninato is the newest inductee into TPW’s chef-picks-chefs society of top toques, and driving that very same kitchen.
A Baker’s Dozen from 2023
Once again, with feeling and loving justification, the 13 favorite restaurant dishes of the year that is ending, the dishes that never will be forgotten.
The Nonna Factor
A chain of commanding know-how is entering public eateries, bringing with it tradition, culture, legacy and scraps of precious hand-me-downs. And, sometimes, songs as comforting as a lullaby.
The Fab 5 of ’23
Selecting the best eats every other week involves painful editing that too often leaves very-much-loved foods not making what suddenly becomes an unkind cut. To follow that formula to glean a Final 5 from a year’s worth of F5s positively stings. (Though it’s made bearable by eliminating F5’s favorite restaurant dishes of 2023, which will get their own due this Friday, Dec. 29.) So without any further ado, we spring to our feet and applaud the quintet of super winners!
Caviar, Casually
Fancy is fine, but does the fish roe that’s been called the Rolls-Royce of ingredients really need blini and puffy poufs?
White House Sub Shop
What becomes a legend most? In restaurants, legends are made by meticulous attention to every last detail that goes into procuring, preparing and serving food. They endure when a restaurant understands exactly why it’s in the business.
55-Pepper, Fermented
South Jersey’s rising culinary community takes a step higher with two new products from Reed’s Farm in Egg Harbor Township that showcase the skill and vision of a pair of collaborators. Guest writer Jeff Quattrone explains why he’s thrilled and delighted with the outcome.