Best Bar Snack

A couple months ago, my husband and I met up with my parents in the city for a drink before dinner in Tribeca.  The prior Christmas, I had given my parents a gift certificate to Nobu.  My Mom had just recently tried sushi for the first time, and it was love at first bite (since then Friday night sushi dinner at my parents' house has become a staple).  I had taken my husband to Nobu for his birthday the year before, and we had had such a great time that I knew my parents would enjoy it too (we had such a good time, ahem saki, that I might be black listed from Nobu after a complete face plant in the center of the dinner room. They have my name and phone number on record.  I guess we'll be using my husband's name and cell phone next time we want to make a reservation there).

We met up outside of Nobu but wanted to grab a drink somewhere different first (My husband and I were headed to Dylan Prime for dinner instead of joining my parents on their date night).  We didn't typically hang out in Tribeca so we were at a loss.  Out though came the handy iPhone and the trust worthy Google maps which quickly directed us to Brandy Library.

I have to admit that I was a little hesitant to be guiding our party to a "library" as maybe my iPhone didn't misinterpreted "bar" for "books" (auto correct has gotten the better of me some times), but what we found at the end of the trail was a pleasant surprise.

Brandy Library is a quiet, old school style bar with a vast array of brandies, whiskies, rums and cocktails.  I am not typically a hard alcohol drinker (I prefer a glass of wine to liquor most days), but I had a delicious Caipirinha.

The best unexpected benefit of Brandy Library was the bar snacks given to each patron.  They were these delicious short bread cookies.  I must say too that they definitely helped me make it home that night, absorbing the beverages I consumed at the Library as well at dinner afterwards at Dylan Prime.  

If you are looking for a low key but different type of spot to grab a drink in Tribeca, head towards the Brandy Library.  It did not disappoint.

Spaghetti on the Mount (and reason for gap in blog entries)

I could start off by profusely apologizing for how long it's been since my last entry, but even that would be an understatement.  Since my last entry, life has thrown twists and turns in my way both good and tough that have kept me removed from this blog.  Alas, I am back with the hope of continuing to grow this blog into the central New Jersey restaurant review site that I had originally envisioned.  I hope you will will join me for the ride.

Last year, my husband went in for surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC, one that we had hoped would go smoothly, but alas, as life would have it, ended up being a pretty bumpy ride.  All is good now, but in the midst of it all, I spent many a night searching for good food on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.  I wasn't looking for exotic eats, more so for solid, comfort food to calm my nerves and bring a sense of normalcy to the chaos that was that time in our lives.  One of these quintessential foods in my mind is pasta and red sauce (coated, no not sprinkled, but coated with parmesan cheese.  I know that it's fashionable for a waiter/waitress to lightly shave fresh parmesan over a diner's plate, but it makes me self conscious when they are ready to stop, and I see barely a little dusting over my food.  I much prefer when they leave the shaker on the table, and I can help myself.  Even if it's not as fresh, at least I am able to have the flavor I desire).

Searching for a good pasta and red sauce near the hospital ended up being easier than I thought.  Tre Otto is right down the street from the hospital and serves a delicious plate of Spaghetti Al Pomodoro.  The pasta is cooked perfectly al dente.  The red sauce is light.  It is the perfect dish to calm one's nerves after a rough day at Mount Sinai.

I went there some days for lunch too and highly recommend the Caprese Panini.

If you find yourself at Mount Sinai (for what I hope are only positive outcomes) in need of good Italian comfort food, I highly recommend Tre Otto.  It definitely helped me get through some rough days and nights.

Back to Our Old Roots

Last night after going to my husband's grandmother's apartment in Manhattan for a little cocktail reception, we stopped at Fleming's in Edgewater on our way back home.  When my husband and I lived in Northern Jersey, Fleming's used to be our go-to place for a good non-Italian meal.  When we were in the mood for a good steak and potatoes type dinner, we would go to Fleming's.  Back then too, Fleming's used to have these amazing garlic crusted crostinis with a champagne infused brie or cabernet infused gorgonzola spread that were simply awesome.  We used to ask for three or four refills of this starter course.  They have since done away with them and replaced them with a garlic bread.  While the garlic bread is good, it just isn't the same as those crostinis.  I emailed Fleming's for the recipe at our point to attempt to make them on my own. While they were good, they were just the same.  I guess it follows the saying that all good things must come to an end.

I have to preface my review of Fleming's last night with a little caveat.  I just wasn't feeling like myself last night.  I had gone on a long run in the morning (prepping for the Long Branch Half Marathon in two weeks) and hadn't really gotten a chance to recover during the day.  I was a little achy and tired and had a bit of a headache.  So I might have been a little pickier than usual.  Alas, last night Fleming's just wasn't up to snuff.  I think the best part of my meal was the garlic bread and the french fries.  My Caesar salad was really small.  I wonder whether the smaller portion is an attempt to save money.  My husband and I used to split the salad, and there was always some left over.  Last night, I finished and still wanted more.  The lobster sauce for my scallops tasted a little off.  It was runnier than I remember and tasted a little bland.  I had a glass of a South African Sauvignon Blanc which was nice.  My husband though did enjoy his dinner especially compared to the other steakhouses we've been to recently.  Fleming's is his favorite chain steakhouse.  He had the petite filet and baked potato.  We passed on dessert since it was really late at that point, and we just wanted to get home.  I wonder if living in Central Jersey and being exposed to more fresh seafood is why my dinner last night was just the same.  I wonder if I had had steak too if I would have the same experience as my husband.  Next time, I'll give it a try.    

Yum!

Last Friday night, my husband and I went out to dinner with two friends of ours that are dating.  Friday night is usually my night for a low key dinner (either pizza at home or an easy dinner with my husband).  After a long week at work, I usually just decompress on Friday nights.  Our friends though weren't available at any other time, and we really wanted to see them, so we went for it.  I'm so glad we did!  We were able to make a reservation at Blue Point Grill in Princeton.  After trying to make one a couple weeks ago to no avail, it was exciting to get the chance to dine there.  We had eaten there a couple years ago when my husband lived in Somerset but hadn't had the opportunity to go back since.  I started with the steamed shrimp dumplings, and my husband enjoyed the buffalo shrimp.  He then had the salmon special which was described by the waitress as the "filet mignon" of salmon, and I ordered the grilled scallops with a side of french fries.  For the first time in a long time, I ate a dinner without a vegetable.  It was definitely out of character.  What made up for it was how delicious the meal was.  My food was all cooked perfectly.  Although it was not the "best" salmon my husband has ever had (he always looks back to the salmon he had at the Ocean Club in Scottsdale, Arizona as the best he's ever had), he was very satisfied, and his plate was clean.  For dessert, we broke Lent for the night and had the chocolate lava cake.  Blue Point Grill is BYOB so we enjoyed a nice ten dollar bottle of South African Sauvignon Blanc.  That is the best part of BYOBs.  In a non-BYOB restaurant, the wine would have been $10 a glass.  It definitely helps ease the pain with the bill at the end of the night.

Dinner at the Blue Point Grill in Princeton was delicious.  I can't wait to return!

New Kid on the Block

Two weeks ago, we went out to dinner with friends of ours in Manalapan.  They live in Northern Jersey but were down visiting her parents during the day.  I had seen on njmonthly.com that a new Italian restaurant had just opened in Manalapan.  I like the idea of trying newly opened restaurants.  There's something about finding a place you like from its beginning.  We had tried to find a non-Italian place, but as anyone who lives in Central Jersey knows, those are few and far between.  Besides, Italian food is usually a safe bet for satisfying multiple palates.  Tuscan Grill Cucina in Manalapan was no exception.  Everyone left that night satisfied.  The other couple started with mussels in a white wine sauce.  My husband and I both started with a Caesar salad (if you haven't noticed from all my blog posts so far, I am a big fan of Caesar salad).  We had this in place of the house salad that accompanied all entrees.  For dinner, I had the shrimp scampi.  The portions for all the entrees were large.  The husband in the other couple that was dining with us dared me that I couldn't eat the other thing.  My husband warned him that daring me to do something was futile.  I always meet a challenge.  The other problem was that he didn't know I had gone on an eight mile run that morning and hadn't eaten much all day.  Needless to say, there was not a scrap left on my plate.  My husband enjoyed his blackened salmon too.  Nobody was left with any room for dessert though.  Next time, I hope to try dessert too (after Lent is over when I can have chocolate again!).  

Next to add to our list is to try the sister restaurant - That's Amore - owned by the same people.  Hopefully, it will have the same great food!

Kippered Salmon in Central Jersey

I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but we are a bi-religion household.  I am Catholic, and my husband in Jewish.  With that, definitely comes its differences and challenges, but we have done our best to enjoy each sides' cultures and traditions.  One part of my husband's Jewish upbringing is his love for kippered salmon and poppyseed bagels.  His family is notorious for their lively breakfasts of salmon and bagels where not a scrap goes uneaten.  It is an amazing thing to watch as I enjoy my plain bagel with butter.  I'm not a real fan of salmon unless it's raw and in sushi, and it is definitely not the time for me to be trying something new in the midst of three brothers rationing out the slices amongst themselves.  It is definitely one of the things though that really attracted me to my husband in the first place, not the fishy aftertaste he gets but his love for his family and their traditions.  The importance of family to him makes me love him over and over again.

With his love for kippered salmon, I have tried for years to find the same salmon his father gets in Jersey and New York.  Right before we moved, I found it in Manhattan at Russ and Daughters, the good, oily version.  After moving though, I started the search again.  All the versions we had found so far were just not the same, even that at Wegman's which I blogged about earlier.  It just different have that oily quality.  It was much drier.  Then one Friday night, my husband was feeling under the weather, so on the way home from my usual Friday night grocery store trip (Friday night at the grocery is in my mind the best time to go - no crowds and still fresh food ready for the Saturday rush), I tried to find this Jewish deli we had been to earlier to see if they had matzoh ball soup.  We had previously been searching for salmon there but no luck.  Luckily though, this store was south of where I was and not on my way home.  I say luckily only because as I didn't see this deli, I pulled into another shopping center five minutes from home looking for it only to find Jerry and Harvey's.  When I walked into Jerry and Harvey's, I had that feeling that I had found a gold mind.  They had the yummiest looking cookies, great looking salmon behind the counter and signs all over the place for Passover.  I order a quart of "wonton soup," only to be given the strangest look and the response "If we had wonton soup, I would eat it all the time."  I quickly corrected myself but then hit the next obstacle.  I had assumed that a quart of matzoh ball soup would be self explanatory, but alas, matzoh ball soup is actually chicken soup with matzoh balls added (in a separate container).  I have definitely learned now though and have honed my ordering skills.  

When I brought it home, I was happy to have the matzoh ball soup hit the spot with my husband.  Since then, we have gotten the kippered salmon there too, and it too fills that void for my husband.  It is right kind of oily and brings back memories of home for him.  For Passover this year, we will be trying their brisket, gefilte fish and horseradish.  Hopefully, it too will not disappoint.  Jerry and Harvey's definitely brings the "New York Jewish Deli" to Central Jersey.

        

Off the Beaten Path in Princeton

A couple Saturday nights ago, my husband and I met up with friends of ours in Princeton.  They live near his parents' outside of Philadelphia, so Princeton seemed to be a good meeting place in between.  We tried to make reservations ahead of time at Blue Point Grill, a seafood place that we had been to a couple years ago with his parent's.  However, a week ahead, all we could get for four was at 4PM or 9:30PM, both times which were just unacceptable for a nice dinner with friends.  We still tried to go as walk ins.  We met the other couple at the restaurant after finding parking six blocks away, running out of change trying to fill the meter, getting awful blood blisters on my feet from my new shoes and freezing ourselves on the six block walk to the restaurant.  A day earlier, it had been a surprising 80 degrees and even that Saturday had been in the 60s, but by nightfall, it dropped back to the 40s, so we were completely unprepared coat-wise.  We went inside hoping that maybe there would be a cancellation or that they had room for walk-ins, not reserving out the entire restaurant.  Alas, we were told that the wait would be an hour and a half to two hours.  Since it was a BYOB and there didn't seem to be a bar close by, we left.  As a side note, the restaurant did offer to seat us at the sushi counter right away, but we wanted a setting fit for good conversation for our double date, so we passed.  

The other wife had been to a little hole-in-wall Mexican restaurant called Tortuga's nearby at lunch one time, so we went to check it out.  My husband and I are not really "Mexican restaurant" kind of people.  I mean we enjoy homemade tacos for dinner once every couple weeks but when we choose to eat out, we never go the Mexican route.  So we were a little nervous and hesitant but with no other options, we went with the flow. We hiked back to our car, thinking how lucky the next person who took our spot would feel with the meter fully paid for several hours.  We put the address the other couple gave us into our GPS - 44 Lehigh ("like the college") - and headed in that direction.  They told us that the restaurant was in a residential section of town so not to be worried if we ended up in an area surrounded by houses.  Well, needless to say, there is a 44 Lehigh in Princeton and it is definitely in a residential area, but it is actually a house, not a Mexican restaurant.  We looked around, figured out that we were definitely in the wrong spot, were very grateful for our iPhones and realized that the restaurant was at 44 Leigh instead.  Luckily, it didn't take us too long to find our way back, and the other couple had stopped along the way at an ATM and a liquor store, so we weren't too late.  The wait at Tortuga's was only half an hour so we waited.  I'm very happy we did.  We enjoyed chips and guacamole for an appetizer and shrimp tacos and            spicy chicken for dinner.  It was very tasty.  I am very happy that we were able to try it.

Next weekend, we are actually heading back to Princeton to try Blue Point Grill again.  This time we made reservations two weeks in advance.