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njduchess

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Everything posted by njduchess

  1. Husband and I are meeting friends from Wisconsin in New Mexico in early May. We will be spending the arriving night and departing night in Albuquerque with three nights in Sante Fe in the middle. We are set with flights and rooms. Now it's time to think about dinner reservations and other dining options and we need some help and guidance. The two places mentioned for Albuquerque are Graze by Jennifer James and Prairie Star. When I looked through New Mexico threads here, I find no mention of either of these. Are they worth a stop or are some of the other places a better bet? As for Sante Fe, we thought we would spend one day in Taos and go to Joseph's Table. We also thought about Coyote Cafe. Is it tired and passe or still a good choice? I think Mark Miller has some other restaurants. Are any of them better? Even if we go with Joseph's Table and Coyote Cafe, we still have a third night to fill in the Sante Fe area. As for lunches, I have found many good suggestions in earlier NM topics. I'll bring a list and we'll choose, based on where we find ourselves during the day. Our hotels all include breakfast, but we can certainly skip that a morning or two. What are the best breakfast places these days? Thanks for your help. Marie
  2. The biggest Easter Weekend event in our family happened on Good Friday. This is the 11th year since my cousins and I have taken over the tradition of making "pizza gayn" or more correctly pizza chiena or pizza rustica. The meats and cheeses get cubed on Wednesday night. On Good Friday, I rise at about 5:30 to scald the milk for the dough. By the time the cousins arrive at about 9:00 a.m., I have 3-4 batches of dough rising and ready to roll. We use 30 pounds of meats and cheeses (ham, pepperoni, salami, provolone, and muenster - where did that come from?), 30 pounds of ricotta, 5 dozen eggs, 20 pounds of flour. The yield is thirty 12-inch round pies which we enjoy and give many to family and friends. The first several years was trial and error because we only had a list of ingredients and vague instructions. Over the years, we have fine tuned the recipe and now turn out perfect pies (with no leftovers nor shortages). My Mom and Aunt used to do this project on their own (their father before them), but once they entered their 70's, the next generation took over. Now my cousin's daughters in their 20's have joined in the fun. Last year, we also had the "help" of another cousin's grandson - 2 years old. They stayed through breakfast and lunch and left at 6:00 p.m. Easter is somewhat anticlimatic after all of this.
  3. Within the past week and a half we tried Pandan. It is definitely a Phillipine restaurant. Had I done a little research about the word Pandan, I would have known. The owner is a young Phillipine man who has lived many places and had added items borrowed from other cuisines to his mostly Phillipine menu. For some reason, my husband ordered Shumai for an appetizer. They were unremarkable, but we were provided with an oil based chili sauce made by the chef that was wonderful. My husband ordered the Grilled Spare Ribs which he enjoyed, but he would have liked a larger portion. It came with rice and a green papaya and mango salad. I ordered jumbo shrimp with asparagus and mushrooms. It was in a wonderful brown sauce that had a very subtle and nice heat. My entree was very generous so my husband did not leave hungry. It's a BYOB, but we didn't have wine that night. We tried their drinks. I had a Thai iced tea, but my husband had a green concoction with slivers of coconut in it and he enjoyed it. Their desserts included Asian-style desserts and pastries, but we skipped them that night. They have quite a few grilled items (pork, beef, and chicken in assorted seasonings and spices), whole fried fish, and several seafood and fish entrees in sauces. The next time I want to try a specialty, Chicken in Pandanus Leaves, which was highly recommended. The owner said that they had an hour-long wait for a table on the weekend. It was only half full when we were there (Wednesday or Thursday). Although we only get out to dinner once a week, we hope to get back there soon. Rosie, we finally tried Cosimo's. We are addicted to their brick oven pizzas - so far only for Friday night take-out during Lent. Hopefully, we will get back for dinner. The menu looked very interesting. They have been really busy when I've been there.
  4. There are lot of good choices for dining in the area between Bay Avenue and Belleville Avenue on Broad Street. Formia has always had reliable Italian Food (not red gravy). Then last summer, Brookside Thai opened and although not the best in the area, it is good and certainly well-priced, too. This winter, Michi opened. It is a lovely spot - definitely a cut above the usual neighborhood sushi place. We're not that adventurous in our sushi choices, but they offer a very large array of very interesting rolls and very beautifully presented. Cosimo opened several months ago. We haven't tried it yet, so we can't comment. Even Vinnie's pizza is moving into the same stretch of Broad Street. When I was driving down Broad Street last week, I spotted a new restaurant opening soon called Pandan, and their sign said "fine Asian cuisine." The gossip at my nail salon is that the owners are Vietnamese. The decor looked elegant and we're looking forward to trying it soon. I guess that restaurants like to cluster. The parking situation is certainly better than Montclair. We're pretty happy about what's happening in our neighborhood. Marie
  5. About two weeks ago, we went to Chelsea Grill (Bloomfield Ave, Montclair) for dinner. They had an option of adding grilled chicken or shrimp to their first course salads. Grilled tuna may have been a third choice - can't remember. The salads are nice with arugula or field greens, with goat cheese or bleu cheese, honeyed walnuts, berries, etc. Unfortunately, they don't have a website. I have to rely on my faltering memory. Marie
  6. njduchess

    Sesame

    We decided to go to The Petite Cafe in Nutley. We've been there several times and find it pretty reliable. I ordered the poached pear and machego cheese salad with raspberry vinaigrette to start. For my entree, I had seared Hawaiian Ahi tuna with a wasabe dijoinnaise (sp?) sauce. It was quite good. My husband had shells stuffed with veal and porcini in an extremely rich cream sauce. I couldn't handle more than a taste since it was so rich. We shared a banana cake topped with sauteed bananas and creme fraiche. I think that part of it was that we always receive a warm warm welcome there - even though we are much less than regulars (and it's fairly easy to park!). The most recent new restaurant that we tried was Aozora. We were seated next to a large group of people who were pretty noisy and the hostess said she could not seat us elsewhere because the other tables were reserved (only a few had reserved signs on them). It had taken us nearly a half hour to find parking so we just sat down and had our dinner. The food was very good, but the overall experience was lacking because the group was so loud. Marie
  7. njduchess

    Sesame

    Rosie: Wanted to answer your question... It wasn't anything that you said that "turned me off." It's just that often times you absolutely "swoon" when you love a place that you've been to, i.e. that first trip to Fascino. I just had to get there ASAP. You just weren't swooning -- and I was in need of a treat. Circumstances have prevented us from dining out as frequently as usual in recent weeks, and I was needing to swoon that night. Marie
  8. njduchess

    Sesame

    I didn't feel particularly motivated to try this place last night (partially because of Rosie's post). Just because we like to try new restaurants, we will eventually in the coming weeks, and will let you know.
  9. Has anyone tried this restaurant? It has been open for about a week and a half. We're thinking of trying it tonight, unless anyone wants to warn us off. Thanks. Marie
  10. One night when we were eating at Brookside Thai (on a Tuesday night), we ran into Noi and Dana Ochoeron, owners of Sirin Thai in Morristown and former Enhance in Millburn. As it turned out, the two women running Brookside Thai were Noi's sisters. I thought that at least one of the sisters was missing the last time we were there. Will have to get over to the Orchid. By the way, Noi was kind (?) enough to tell his sister that we thought the food was not spicy enough, and dinner turned out to be an incendiary wonder.
  11. Driving South tomorrow on the Turnpike. We'll probably want to stop around 5:30 for dinner and we should be in the neighborhood of Camden or Gloucester County. Suggestions of restaurants in the vicinity would be most appreciated. We want good food but not fine dining (meaning lengthy). We would like to stay relatively close to the Turnpike. Any cuisine would be fine. Thanks for your input. Marie
  12. Elyse, the pecan pie was incredible. I picked mine up at 2:00 and it was still warm. Definitely the best I've had. You should charge more -- $9 or $10. The Bloomfield "Farmer's" market was disappointing. There was just one other vendor, and I don't think that they were growers. Elyse, I hope that you find other venues for your product. You're very talented.
  13. The gin in my liquor cabinet is drunk infrequently. (We have a preference for Vodka.) Does is lose quality after a period of time? If it does, how long would that time be? I'm not sure if this is a really dumb questions, but I ask at the risk of looking foolish. Marie
  14. My husband and I were there two weeks ago. I, too, noticed the impressive jewelry. There were many trendy little outfits - bare midriff, slinky dresses, etc. We had the grazing menu, which were three appetizers each and one dessert. There were six appetizers on the menu, and we tried five of them. The one we both HAD TO HAVE was the corn taco - and it did not disappoint. Filled with duck confit and grilled foie gras, it had us both "swooning". The other four were great, too, but the taco was very memorable. Be prepared to sit, though. We arrived at 7:00 and left after 10:00. We could have easily drank two bottles of wine, but kept it to just one so we could safely drive home. I'm trying to plan another visit. It's very fine dining. Marie
  15. FYI The Petite Cafe 503 Franklin Avenue Nutley 973-667-7778 We have been there once for lunch and once for dinner. Two completely different experiences - formica vs white table linen. We enjoyed both very much. Marie
  16. njduchess

    Pulled Pork

    I don't know how you feel about Martha Stewart but... This past year, she published a pulled pork recipe (cooked in a smoker and oven OR all oven-cooked). I just checked marthastewart.com and the recipe is there. It looked pretty good, but I didn't try it myself. Marie
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