New Year's in NJ

[Rosie]

Where did you go? What did you eat? Wishing everyone a very HAPPY and HEALTHY New Year filled with delicious dinners with good friends and family.

[Anonymouze]

Silver Oak Bistro. Please see that forum for details and it was FANTASTIC!

[Rachel Perlow]

We bought a very large lobster (again). This time I stuffed it with a Ritz cracker based seafood stuffing (bits from the lobster's legs, chopped shrimp and bay scallops, a take off of Alton Brown's recipe - hint, have the store par cook it to kill the beast, and have them break the claws and cut it in half while they're at it!). We started with an appetizer of shrimp cocktail, and had sides of steamed baby broccoli (new at Han Ah Reum) and spinach souffle stuffed baked potatoes. With all the snow this afternoon (a car had a (minor) accident right outside our house), I was glad to not be going anywhere, even if Ryan Seacrest is hosting "Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve."

[DonnaMarieNJ]

We had reservations for Formia's first, changed it to Cosimo's, then decided, after all of that, to go to Vinnie's. Go figure. It was very good tho. Our New Year is usually extremely low keyed, and with the snow, we were afraid to go too far. Formia's had a fixed menu at $45 (for 5 PM seating) and $60 for later seatings. Cosimo's had seatings at 5 and 7PM (I think) and had their regular menu. Vinnie's had their regular menu, also, and we were pleased with our choice. It was odd, tho, being in a pizza place on New Year's. We ate late in the afternoon (5 PM) and the restaurant was practically empty (probably due to the snow and/or time of day). This was very nice, tho, as we had excellent service and were able to linger and enjoy our meal.

On my way now to a house party next door.

Happy New Year everyone!

[Lutece]

We bought a very large lobster (again). This time I stuffed it with a Ritz cracker based seafood stuffing (bits from the lobster's legs, chopped shrimp and bay scallops, a take off of Alton Brown's recipe - hint, have the store par cook it to kill the beast, and have them break the claws and cut it in half while they're at it!). We started with an appetizer of shrimp cocktail, and had sides of steamed baby broccoli (new at Han Ah Reum) and spinach souffle stuffed baked potatoes. With all the snow this afternoon (a car had a (minor) accident right outside our house), I was glad to not be going anywhere, even if Ryan Seacrest is hosting "Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve."

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Wow Rachel your dinner looks fantastic.

I never cook lobster at home as I'm afraid to kill it but what u did gave me an idea.

We had dinner at dim sum dynasty and it was incredible and cheap. 4 of us ate for around 70 a couple I think.

We started with many appetizers... baby crispy ribs with ginger and scallions

an assortment of steamed dumplings, all interesting tasting and yummy

(shu mai, snow pea greens and shrimp etc) Who rem's we had a bottle of champagne and ketel 1 on the table!

Chicken with pine nuts in lettuce leaves

Crispy shrimp rolls

Lobster with ginger and scallions

Peking pork chops..they were just how I remembered them when we used to go to Chinatown in Flushing many years ago...they were lean, crispy and the sauce was sweet and delicious

Chow fun special they made for us with baby bok choy and chinese broccoli.

I have not one complaint about anything and the service was terrific.

They couldn't do enough for us...

Its so great to have a restaurant like this in Ridgewood and now we don't have to travel to silver pond in ft lee and I actually like these people a lot more.

Enjoy, and I hope to see you for dimsum today!! Although, I'm on salt and msg overload, I can start back on my 'healthy eating' tomorrow !!

[Rosie]

Rachel--If you ever open a restaurant I'm there! Great looking dish.

[Peter Conway]

Rosie,

New Years Eve was a rest and recover after a week of great food in and around Playa Del Carmen on the Mayan Riviera. I am putting together a post on the great restaurants we found there.

Happy New Year

[Rachel Perlow]

hint, have the store par cook it to kill the beast, and have them break the claws and cut it in half while they're at it!).

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I never cook lobster at home as I'm afraid to kill it but what u did gave me an idea.

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If the lobsters are small, say 2 lbs or less, I just do them myself in my large stock pot. This one was about 8 lbs -- it wouldn't have fit! Also, since we were going to share it, and I wanted to try the stuffing, it made sense to have the fish guys start it for me. When we got it home it was still warm and too early to cook, but too big for the fridge. Thankfully, it was 30 F outside and snowing, so it chilled on the back porch. When it was time to prep, I removed the beast to a sheet pan (you need something with edges, there's a lot of liquid). Ripped off the claws & arm joints, separated body from tail. Finished splitting body & tail (they didn't cut it all the way through) with my kitchen shears. Set tail aside with claws and worked on the body.

The legs of a lobster this size have a lot of meat in them. Remove from body and using a combination of Alton's rolling pin method and kitchen shears, I removed the meat, set aside for the stuffing. I then removed all the gunk and gills/lung sacs, etc from the body (discard). What remains is the jointed sections. I think of them like the leg joints of a crab, there's lots of good meat in there, but at this par cooked stage, it's kind of gelatinous, so I tuck it back into the body and top it with the stuffing (some stuffing goes on top of the tail meat, to protect it from the oven heat as well). The stuffing protects this meat, so after you eat the tail and most of the stuffing, you get to pick through the joints.

It cooked in a hot oven (450 F) for about 15 minutes.

Actually, this one was too big for us, we didn't even touch either claw or the arm joints. I removed them from the shells and set aside for lobster rolls, tonight or tomorrow. There's more than a pound of meat left!

Hope you give it a try sometime.

[Wiener]

Happy New Year to all ! First time ever I ventured out on New Year's Eve and enjoyed Die Fledermaus at the Met in New York! Beforehand, we had a a great steak at home. Made my favorite cherry preserve , red wine, balsamic sauce which I copied from Karen MacNeil, who wrote the Wine Bible. A few glasses of rose champagne before the opera made for a great evening. And were were back in New Jersey by 11 :30 , safe and sound.

[StInGeR]

Happy New Year everyone.

We spent NY's eve with friends at An American Grill. What a great night, between the Giants clinching the division, the food and the company, you couldn't ask for a better night. We started with cigars and dirty martinis. Oh God that was a bad move from the start, from there things just got worse I had the smoked beef capparcio (sic) AWESOME!!! and followed up with the short ribs, again AWESOME!!! Considering I'm not a big fan of risotto, the risotto that accompanied the short ribs was outstanding - and made a really good breakfast this morning. Lou, as usual I have to give you a ton of credit - great staff, great food, great company (including yourself), who can ask for anymore than that?

Cheers

Tom

[Lreda]

Thanks dude, glad you were able to join our regular NY Eve boozers. Look like you all had fun as all the men stumbled their way out to be driven home by the women. Glad you dug the short ribs, they've been popular. Let me know when we're going out for cocktails.

[Lreda]

We had reservations for Formia's first, changed it to Cosimo's, then decided, after all of that, to go to Vinnie's.

Let me get this straight, you made reservations at 3 different places on one of the busiest nights of the year. Even with the courtesy of canceling you fail to give the other restaurants time to rebook. I don't mean to be disrespectful but I think that's lousy. Restaurants plan NY Eve for weeks, confirm, plan menus based on how many people we have booked and then order food based on how many we have reservations. Give that a little thought next time a holiday comes around.

[whitetrufflechick]

We had booked a New Year's package at the Middletown Westin that included dinner at the Copeland. Dinner was great, service was only so-so and a nice time was had all around.

Happy New Year all!

[DonnaMarieNJ]

Let me get this straight, you made reservations at 3 different places on one of the busiest nights of the year. Even with the courtesy of canceling you fail to give the other restaurants time to rebook. I don't mean to be disrespectful but I think that's lousy. Restaurants plan NY Eve for weeks, confirm, plan menus based on how many people we have booked and then order food based on how many we have reservations. Give that a little thought next time a holiday comes around.

The reservations were made weeks ago and if my first choice of restaurant had come up with their menu earlier than the week before New Year's, I would never had made the reservation. And 5 PM is NOT a popular time on New Years.

Maybe you didn't mean to be disrespectful, but you have no idea of the cirucumstances. You automatically believed that I would hold three reservations at one time and cancel at the last moment which is NOT what happened. Why would you assume that?

[Lreda]

Because that's the way you phrased it, as if it were all done on the same day.

[rooftop1000]

Let me get this straight, you made reservations at 3 different places on one of the busiest nights of the year. Even with the courtesy of canceling you fail to give the other restaurants time to rebook. I don't mean to be disrespectful but I think that's lousy. Restaurants plan NY Eve for weeks, confirm, plan menus based on how many people we have booked and then order food based on how many we have reservations. Give that a little thought next time a holiday comes around.

The reservations were made weeks ago and if my first choice of restaurant had come up with their menu earlier than the week before New Year's, I would never had made the reservation.  And 5 PM is NOT a popular time on New Years.

Maybe you didn't mean to be disrespectful, but you have no idea of the cirucumstances.  You automatically believed that I would hold three reservations at one time and cancel at the last moment which is NOT what happened.  Why would you assume that?

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because he is grumpy when hungover

T

[Lreda]

Or when I don't get to have fun on holiday's because I'm on the phone shuffling everyone's last minute changes. Had 3 stinking glasses of wine and that's it. Ask my fellow lush the dirty martini drinker, Stinger. Spent all morning and afternoon on the phone and chef'd out 200 dinners, went home and passed out. Got up this morning and made breakfast for the kids and then took care of them as I love to do. Just sat down a couple of hours ago.

Happy New Year all.

[Beth E.]

Had sushi at home with Eric. We originally had plans to go out to Trattoria Fresca -- which I would have loved to do, but the plans to send the kids to the in-laws fell through when their babysitter cancelled. We had to cancel our plans -- and we gave the restaurant as much notice as we possibly could.

So we ordered sushi from Zen in Livingston and for the bubbly I had BANFI Rosa Regale Brachetto Sparkling Wine. It's a sweet sparkler. One website I read about it on described it suchly: "A unique red sparkling wine, sweet and appealing. Aromatic with a hint of rose petals and raspberries. Delightful, vivacious and aromatic, pairs very well with chocolate. It can also be enjoyed with strawberries, fruit salads and a wide range of desserts."

Here's a link if you want to see more about the wine: http://www.finewinehouse.com/index.asp?Pag...ROD&ProdID=9474

[NJ2FLA]

Hello All and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

I am currently down in Boynton Beach, FL because it's too bloody cold up there. If anyone is interested for dinner last night I went to a restaurant called "Bova" in Boca Raton, FL with my neighbor.

Ristorante Bova

It used to be called Mario's Tuscan Grill. From what I understand they redid the whole place and renamed the place.

I had a nice Delmonico steak which was served with mashed potato and warm spinach which had onions in it.

For dessert we each had a personal chocolate soufflé with three dipping sauces. One was a chocolate, the next a strawberry, and the third a vanilla.

I also found the mens room to be really ultra modern as they had televisions in the wall above the urinals. I had never seen that.

I know this is the NJ board but I am sure we have some "snowbirds" that read the forum.

-Scott

Edited January 2, 2006 by NJ2FLA (log)

[Rebecca263]

Kiddle and I have a friend staying with us for a week. we stayed home and I served the kids a 5 course meal, in long stages, while we played games and watched Donnie Darko.

First course- potato pancakes in a pool of garlic ginger soy glaze, topped with a layer of multiple bites of glazed and sauteed salmon belly, accented with sun dried tomato caps, filled with Neufchatel and covered in scallion.

Second course- small plates of a half dozen for each pan seared sea scallops and apple slices, drizzled with extra strong extra virgin oilive oil, and sprinkled with a grey sel de mer.

Third course- mixed greens, tossed with strawberries, pomegranate seeds and scallion, dressed with balsamic vinegar and fresh smashed garlic.

Fourth course- a duck(from Reading Terminal Market!) marinated with soy sauce, garlic, ginger and honey for a day, and then roasted, served with apricot preserves alongside. Crispy and gamey and the kids were thrilled!

Fifth course- at 11 I decided to bake a double layer chocolate cake (with applesauce instead of butter)instead of serving the cheese plate. I made a glaze out of chocolate and yogurt after soaking the layers with leftover hot chocolate from the day before. The hot chocolate was incredibly thick, we'd made it with whole milk and lots of Mexican chocolate.

The kids ate the cake at around 1:30 AM and passed out around 3:00.

I drank 4 glasses of water AND THEN I passed out. Happy Gregorian New Year!

[StInGeR]

Had 3 stinking glasses of wine and that's it. Ask my fellow lush the dirty martini drinker, Stinger.

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I take exception to the lush comment. Actually no I don't I'll take that as a compliment coming from you Lou

[TMus1111]

Decided to go to dinner at the last minute with 3 friends, so I called Bloomfield Steak House to make a reservation for 9:30 - on the phone they said they were taking the last seating at 8:30, but they would give me a reservation for 9. I was there maybe 10 years ago for NYE and the were open past midnight, guess things have changed since then, and I can understand the staff wanting to celebrate with their friends and family. The service was fantastic, very accomodating. We had a wonderful time, it was a very relaxed environment and the food was delicious. I had the lobster, and tasted someone else's steak. We were the next to last party to leave around 10:30, and we never felt rushed. After dinner we decided to go to church, and then back to my house for some champagne. All in all a very nice way to ring in the new year, especially considering that everything was last minute.

[kimmyb72]

Went to Salt of the Earth in nutley as we did last year... last year it was great. This year it was a disaster.

6 of us ordered filet mignon. We were told that they were out and were substituting ny strip. Ok fine but we paid for filet mignon, there should have been an adjustment on the price.

The waiter then came back and told us they were short one steak so my husband ordered zuppa de pece.

4 of us ordered the pumpkin raviolis for an appetizer. Instead of 4 plates we got 2 plates with double orders and were told to share. Also the raviolis were spinach ravs with pumpkin filling, never saw that before.

We had to flag down the waiter for more bread and refills on soda twice. The restaurant was only ½ full, if that.

My husband finally got up to say something to a woman in charge and explained all of the above. She replied with but I don’t understand. As he was speaking to her our dinners finally arrived.

My sister and I got the chicken and it really didn’t like it, tasted like rubber, the steaks were ok, zuppa de pece awful.

My husband asked for the check and we looked at it to see if the tip was already included.

We noticed the we were charged $72 for the pumpkin raviolis. The menu stated that for an appetizer portion the price was $9. we told that to the waiter and he said well that’s what it came up as. We then asked for him to get the menu so we can show him and to speak to the manager. He said the mgr was not in and my husband told him to call him on his cell since the whole dining experience was a disaster. He left then came back and said, I quote, “oh sorry that was my f up.” He said the whole word though. Since when is it ok to speak to customers in that manor? So very disappointed in this restaurant and will never go back.

I am calling them tonight to speak to the mgr.

[menton1]

We had reservations for Formia's first, changed it to Cosimo's, then decided, after all of that, to go to Vinnie's.

Let me get this straight, you made reservations at 3 different places on one of the busiest nights of the year. Even with the courtesy of canceling you fail to give the other restaurants time to rebook. I don't mean to be disrespectful but I think that's lousy. Restaurants plan NY Eve for weeks, confirm, plan menus based on how many people we have booked and then order food based on how many we have reservations. Give that a little thought next time a holiday comes around.

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I agree, it's pretty smarmy to schedule 3 restaurants and then choose among them. I can't blame a restaurant for backing up a res with a credit card becuase of behavior like this. Inconsiderate, and it affects the restaurant AND the other would-be diners!