Atlantic City Food & Wine Festival: July 28 – 31. Too much great info to list. Check out the events, personalities and details
Bands, BBQ & Bowling at the Barrow Mansion,. unday, July 31, 3pm Barrow Mansion 83 Wayne Street, Jersey City. Maintained entirely by volunteers, the Historic Jersey City & Harsimus Cemetery is working towards a matching $50,000 grant, as well as trying to maintain the grounds. This benefit will help the cemetery reach its goals. BBQ by Lucky Sevens Meat (choose one): Pulled Pork Sandwich, dressed with coleslaw, served on seeded brioche roll; Beef Brisket Sandwich, served on toasted roll; BBQ Ribs, choice of Memphis Sweet or Carolina Gold. Sides (choose one): Mac-n-cheese; Corn-on-the-Cob. $25 Donation includes BBQ plate. $20 Donation w/o BBQ. $5 discount with two non-perishable food donations for St. Matthew’s Food Pantry. For more info visit www.jerseycitycemetery.org
Cooking Class: Entertaining for Foodies Tuesday, August 2, 6-10pm Culinary Arts Institute 161 Newkirk Street, Jersey City. A class designed for all those who are “foodies” – people who are passionate about food and love studying it, preparing it, savoring it, and especially sharing and serving it! Learn about preparing simple but delicious canapes for special, intimate dinners for two and get togethers of all sizes.
Extreme Cupcake Tasting at The Cookie Cab in Toms River on Saturday, July 30th. Taste the unexpected when ingredients like Curry Powder, Potato Chips, Chili Pepper, Bacon and Absinthe find their way into some of the most interesting and delicious confections around. We’ll be sampling all of our extreme creations (and a few of our classic favorites), and we hope that you’re inspired to re-imagine what you thought a cupcake could be. Go beyond Chocolate, Vanilla and Red Velvet – and try something extraordinary! Check out their Facebook Event for more info.
BBQ and Blues in the Park in Mount Holly on Saturday. This event will be free to the public this year. No $5 entrance fees! Take your friends and family to enjoy the BBQ & Blues Festival at the municipal parking lot in Mount Holly, NJ on Park Drive. The festival, to be held on Saturday, July 30, 2011, promises to be a blast for the whole family. The event begins at 11am and finishes at 5pm. The finest quality beer and wine will round off some of the best Blues and Rock music the area has to offer. This year we will have over 40 BBQ teams competing for 5K+ in prizes. The kids area will have a rock climbing wall and the chance to win a new bike with several minute to win it games! The beer tent will supply plenty of beverages and have a great view of the stage. If you are looking for a great place to stay, the Best Western Westampton is conveniently located off exit 5 of the NJ Turnpike and only 5 minutes from our event. http://bbqandbluesinthepark.com/
Hudson Restaraunt Week Continues! Through August 5th. Make your reservations here.
Annual Peach Festival, Mount Laurel Friends Meetinghouse. The festival will be on August 6 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Mount Laurel Friends Meetinghouse, located at Mount Laurel Corner, the intersection of Moorestown-Mt. Laurel Road (Route 603) and Hainesport-Mt. Laurel Road (Route 684). The outdoor festival features homemade cakes and pies topped with fresh, locally grown peaches and homemade ice cream churned on premises with an old-fashioned ice cream machine. Guests will also be treated to balloon animals and tricks by Pretzels the Clown and a classic car review. Volunteers will offer informal tours of the historic building to interested visitors. Tickets to the Peach Festival are $5 for adults, $3 for children, and free for children under 4. For information about the Mount Laurel Meeting Peach Festival, contact the Moorestown Monthly Meeting office at 856-235-1561 before August 4.
STELLEKAYA South African Wine Dinner. Friday, August 19, 2011 – 7:00pm at Branches Catering in West Long Branch. About Stellekaya…Stellekaya means “home of the stars” and is a privately owned boutique wine producer situated in the heart of the Cape Winelands. The cellar is located in the famous town of Stellenbosch and all grapes are sourced from producers in this appellation. South African cuisine is very diverse with English, Dutch, Indian and other Southern Asian influences not to mention the rich food culture of the indigenous people of Africa. This dinner reflects the diversity of the culture. Click Here to view full Menu
A Mid-Summer Crab Feast August 18th, at the Elan, 111 Rt 46 W, Lodi, to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Lodi. The all-you-can-eat, sit-down, family-style menu includes appetizers, Dungeness crab, roasted potato salad, grilled corn on the cob, coleslaw, jalapeno cornbread, homemade doughnuts, seasonal fruit salad, wine, and beer. 6 to 8 PM; adults $54.95, teenagers $44.95, children ages five to twelve $39.95; plus tax and 20 percent gratuity. For reservations, call 973-777-0503.
The Fifth Annual Crab Cake Festival & Shore Chef Cook-Off August 20th and 21st. Monmouth Park, 175 Oceanport Ave, Oceanport. The event will feature New Jersey crab cakes and seafood from NJ restaurants, with chefs competing for Best Crab Cake and Best of the Rest. Along with thoroughbred racing there will be live entertainment and crafts to buy. Noon to 5 PM; $3 grandstand admission allows admission to the Cook-Off area. Advance tickets are not required, and food prices will range from $5 to $15. Check out the fun on YouTube.
Rib Rock Sunday, Aug 28 7:00p
A five-course Farm to Table Dinner sponsored by Slow Food Northern NJ August 21st, will be held at Fosterfields Living Historical Farm, 73 Kahdena Rd, Morristown. Chef Andrea Carbine from A Toute Heure in Cranford will prepare a dinner centered on Fosterfields’ heirloom vegetables, grass-fed meat, and poultry. Chef Diane Pinder of Donna & Company Artisan Chocolates will present dessert. Sustainable and organic wines will be paired with each course. Live music will be provided by the Cabin Jazz All-Stars, and farmer Rob Kibbe will conduct a horse-drawn hayride tour. The proceeds from this Sustenance on the Farm Dinner will benefit Fosterfields’ educational farm programs for schoolchildren and the Slow Food Northern NJ School Garden Program. For more information, call 908-451-0051, and for tickets log on to www.sustenanceevents.com.
Rib Rock at PNC Bank Arts Center August 28th. Headliners: The J. Geils Band, B. B. King and Gary Clarke Jr. Action on the Festival Stage starts at 3 p.m., In between acts, emcee Chef James Conroy, from QVC, will be entertaining the crowd with “low and slow” barbecue techniques and cooking demonstrations, interviews with the chefs, and audience participation contests and activities. Among a wide array of crafters and vendors, Jersey Shore-centric attractions in the festival arena include fortune telling by Madame Marie, meet and greet with the team from Weird NJ, and trims by the Shore’s Bikini Barbers, “Where it’s Summer All Year Round.” Jersey Bites will be serving on the Judging panel, so stop by and say Hello.
When trying to cook in season some of the hardiest riders on the produce truck are peppers. One of my personal favorites with an exceptionally long growing season, March to about September or perhaps October with this year’s weather, are long hots. They are a great addition to any dinner but beware. While they don’t have the guaranteed heat of their capsaicin filled brethren the habaneros or heaven forbid Scotch Bonnets, long hots are (in the paraphrased words of Forrest Gump) like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.
– To taste: add a nice, simple marinara sauce (I recommend Don Pepino), diced tomatoes, grated garlic, salt, and pepper.
Our Passaic County Regional Editor, Terry Krongold, visited with Munch Catering at the Nutley Farmer’s Market. Although it was a rainy day, Matt & Jessica persevered, and offered samples of two delicious recipes – Fresh Berry Smoothie and Summer Sugar Snap Pea Salad – both made with Jersey fresh summer produce! Check out the video below and then follow the links for the recipes.
A new fromagerie-a slice of cheesy heaven-has opened in Palmer Square in Princeton.
The shop also has tasty non-cheese items too. My favorites are the strawberry chutney in the case and the softest dried figs with a lovely, deep brown sugar flavor that are kept in glass apothecary jars behind the counter with several other kinds of dried fruits.
And the pièce de résistance–homemade watermelon rind pickles! These delicious, sweet, spicy old-fashioned treats are a taste of my childhood. My mom used to get them occasionally in a jar-probably from Delicious Orchards in Colts Neck-and I would eat the whole jar on her, usually in one sitting. Boy, would she be hopping mad to discover only one or two pieces left in the bottom.
We started our meal by ordering a cheese and fruit plate and a pork belly and mango appetizer from the menu of tasty tapas. The cheese and fruit platter had two great cheese selections, including a rich and slightly salty blue cheese and a goat cheese that was free of any graininess. We loved the plump Jersey blueberries that accompanied the cheese and other fruit selections. The pork belly was a new try for me- those plump little morsels aided and abetted my appetite and made me look forward to the main course.
Since I had heard that the scallops were locally sourced, I had to give them a try. They were incredible-if they had been any fresher, I would have been eating them down at the dock. Chef Brett keeps it simple by searing them in a Cointreau/butter/lemon thyme combination. This worked wonders at really letting the flavors of these babies shine through.
We both thought we would have no room for dessert, but I weakened when our server described the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bombe. My friends, it is indeed the bomb-an inside layer of creamy chocolate mousse and peanut butter coated with chocolate ganache and nuts.
The person who sets the mood and drives the engine of this little eatery is owner Ann Gauthier, who serves as Mom and/or Grandma to all who come in to eat. Although all the servers at Shut Up and Eat! are friendly by and large, when Ann is patrolling the tables there is a change in the vibe. She is talkative, funny, loves kids, already knows the answer to a question on the menu that you’ve only begun to ask, and does not take any shenanigans. In other words, she’s all Jersey.
Haifa Cafe & Grill owners Sami, a native of Haifa, and George, of Greek ancestry and a Palisades Park native, attend Mass regularly and light candles, offering prayers for the success of their small storefront eatery off River Road in Edgewater. Somebody up there seems to be listening, as sales are slowly picking up for the two twenty-somethings who met six years ago while working at assorted bagel stores and restaurants in New Jersey. They scraped together their savings and opened their Mediterranean inspired tiny restaurant about a year ago and have amassed a group of regulars who come for the freshly prepared food which is full of bright flavors and bold seasoning. This makes up for the lack of ambience and fact that everything is served on plastic plates or paper lined baskets. To be sure, this is a step up from street food and worth a visit, just don’t expect upscale dining.
We visited on a Friday evening and started with excellent falafel ($5.99), each flavorful orb’s crustry exterior yielding a fragrant, tender interior, redolent with cumin. Kibbe ($6.99), another deep friend Arabic appetizer containing a blend of beef, minced onion and pine nuts, was also nicely done. But what really turned these apps from good to great was the trio of sauces they were served with: Garlic, Parsley and Hot Sauces, the 2nd being my favorite, an explosion of flavor, like a parsley pesto or Arabic take on chimichurri. The menu’s wide array of appetizers, from traditional items like Baba Ghanouj ($5.99) to Foul, ($5.99), fava beans with garlic, lemon an dolive oil, Zatar Pita ($2.49) topped with oregano, sesame seeds and olive oil to Nakanik ($5.99), fried or grilled mini sausages marinated and served with tomato and garlic, make it enticing to order several and enjoy amongst a larger party.
The Lamb sandwich (6.99) was delicious, served in a warm pita packed with sliced of lamb (flavorful, not particularly tender though), tangy tahini and cabbage, lettuce and tomato. Another sauce accompanied this, the only non-premise-made sauce, which was a smooth mango chutney, fabulous and a great accompaniment to the toothsome sandwich. Hand-cut fries ($3.75) cooked in soy oil were enjoyed by my companions, but I found them undercooked and in need of seasoning. Varieties include Haifa spiced fries ($3.99), using a special houseblend of seasonings, and Greek Fries covered in oregano, garlic and lemon sauce ($3.99).
Haifa makes its own Shawerma fresh each day using layers of beef and lamb on the weekends and chicken Monday through Friday. We enjoyed the chicken ($10.99) very much, each slice generously seasoned with sumac and fragrant spices. The Haifa Mixed Platter includes Shawerma, kufta (patties made of ground lamb and beef), chicken and two lamb chops ($16.99). Grilled shrimp ($12.99), Calamari ($12.99), sauteed in a Greek inspired preparation are also offered along with multiple kabobs and grilled quail, three for $11.99.
