It’s always fun to dine with fellow "food geeks." But it's especially fulfilling when those fellow gastronomes happen to be Rosie Saferstein and Jason Perlow, two pillars of the NJ food writing community, whose collective knowledge of cuisine is as broad as the globe itself.
We dined together at Gourmet Chopsticks in Fairfield, NJ. Really? Not Ninety Acres? Not Elements? Not daryl? No. Gourmet Chopsticks, formerly Hunan Cottage. The restaurant came highly recommended from Rosie, and if she says it good – I’m going to give it a go!
Gourmet Chopsticks serves Taiwanese and Shanghai style cuisine. What separates Shanghainese and Taiwanese cuisine? Approximately 425 miles. The same distance between NYC and Akron, OH, or NYC and North Carolina.
Live Chaat Bhel PuriI've eaten my fair share of Indian cuisine over the years - Northern, southern, British-style curry, you name it. But my latest dinner at Mausam Indian Cuisine Bar and Banquet in Secaucus taught me something new: beer brewed in India is good- damn good!
I refer specifically to Godfather Super Strong Premium Beer brewed by DeVans. Don't judge this beer by it's color. It may look medium bodied in color, but it packs a full palate!
Jason opted for Old Monk 10000, another Indian beer by Mohan breweries. I found it to be a little light and too hoppy for my liking.
Now, on to the food! Mausam is a bar, restaurant and banquest facility. We dined in the restaurant where primarily Northern Indian cuisine is served. The banquet facility, however offers both Northern and Southern Indian fare, as well as continental cuisine.
My husband and I recently had the opportunity to join Jason and Rachel Perlow at Tabboule in Ridgewood. Tabboule offers fine Lebanese cuisine in a casual, comfortable setting. Parking for the restaurant is easy and plentiful, as the restaurant is located in the Kings Shopping Center on N. Maple Ave.
We began our mid-day marathon eating session with traditional Lebanese Za’atar Chips. Rich with spices of thyme, sesame and sumac, very savory, very addicitive! Red Lentil soup accompanied the chips, and Rachel had the fabulous idea to sprinkle some crumbled Za’atar chips on the soup. It was perfect; like Saltines in chicken noodle soup - only much better!
Next the cold appetizers arrived tabbouleh, hummus, babaghanoush, stuffed grape leaves, and muhamara.
Ritesh Patel and Chef Karthik KumarMontclair has long been a formidable food town, highly regarded for innovative new-American cuisine, and praised for the large number of ethnic restaurants. Strangely, Montclair’s culinary portfolio was lacking a serious performer in the Indian food sector.
This past July, gastronomic fortune turned in favor of Montclair when Sati Sharma and his partner, Ajit Singh Bains, opened Brick Lane Curry House at 540 Valley Road in Montclair.
The Montclair location marks the third Brick Lane Curry House, following Manhattan locations on 6th Street, and 53rd Street. The man largely responsible for this culinary blessing is Montclair resident and food enthusiast, Ritesh Patel.
Click through for the video!
The code to left is known as a Quick Response Code, commonly referred to as a QR code. The information-bearing squiggly lines are also referred to as Smart Tags or 2D Codes.
Many industries are beginning to incorporate these codes into their marketing, using them as a form of unobtrusive communication, by linking the QR codes directly to a url.
Mesob Ethiopian Restaurant is one of the first restaurants in the country to use these codes in their restaurant. Vickie Smith-Siculiano, Director of Marketing for Mesob, and her mother Debi Smith have created and placed information bearing QR codes throughout Mesob.
Each time I go to Mesob Ethiopian Restaurant, I find myself warmed from the inside out.
Of course this can be explained on a chemical basis. Ethiopian cooking is dominated by warming spices like ginger, cinnamon, clove, and cardamom, not to mention the capsaicin packing spice mixture, berbere.
There's an intangible warmth at Mesob resonates beyond food science.
If you've ever hesitated about going to Mesob, or any ethnic restaurant that suggests eating without utensils, do yourself a favor, put the knife and fork down, use a moist towelette, and dig in.
Tear the injera, and with a claw like motion scoop combinations of wots. Then mix and match as you like, perhaps doro wot (tradtional Ethiopian stew) along with farmer's cheese or greens. It's delicious fun!
