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.

Solution #2 to Lenten Fridays

Last week, my husband and I were researching restaurants online in anticipation of my birthday dinner in May.  During this search, my husband found Albivi Brick Oven.  He read that they have great buffalo wings (for him) and brick oven pizza (for me).  He made a reservation for the following Friday at 8PM.

When we got home from work that Friday, we changed and headed out, armed with the address and what has become our trusty GPS.  Our poor GPS was put to work on this trip though.  We followed the lady on the machine's directions until we arrived at construction signs indicating that the bridge was out.  Since the GPS was unaware of this detour, we had to turn off and travel in a different direction hoping that our GPS would pick up again and take us on a different route.  Luckily, it reregistered and continued on in the right direction.  The route to the restaurant was definitely an experience.  We passed house after massive house that felt like they kept getting bigger while the land the property was on kept expanding as well.  It is truly amazing.  It feels as though the areas around Old Bridge are definitely not for lack of money.  Around every corner, you can seem to find pockets of mansion house developments.  It always makes me wonder who actually lives in those houses, what they did to get so lucky, where they work and what they do.  I can only dream that someday I will know the answers through my own experience.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, we walked in the front.  The front of the restaurant looked like we had expected, a pizza counter with booths, a place perfect for buffalo wings and pizza.  However, that is not where we were seated.  We were taken into another room off to the side which had a very different vibe.  That room was intimate, dark with nice tables and beautiful decor on the walls.  It was definitely not the buffalo type scene.  After the initial shock, we settled in and decided on dinner: caesar salad and buffalo chicken pizza to start and margarita pizza and chicken parmesan with a side of spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.  The restaurant is BYO so they opened our bottle and served us delicious bread.  The night was off to a good start.  The food did not disappoint either.  We left full to gills and very satisfied.  Luckily, we remembered to take our half drunk bottle of wine with us.  We did leave the leftover pizza though.  Hopefully, somebody else was able to enjoy that.

From time to time, dinner out comes with interesting entertainment from one's fellow diners.  Friday night was no exception.  The table to our right was very lively.  Two couples were out on a double date; however, the women and men did not seem to intermingle.  The women talked amongst themselves while the men got into a very serious baseball discussion about which players to draft and which ones to start, who was going to have a good year and who just simply should stay behind.  I thought they were talking about fantasy baseball leagues, but as my husband leaned in to tell me, they were talking about Little League - ten to eleven year olds to be exact.  I guess priorities for some are just different.

  

Smooth Sailing at Shipwreck Point

Last night, my husband and I had reservations at 7:30PM at Shipwreck Point in Point Pleasant Beach.  We arrived a little early and took a walk up to the beach boardwalk.  I am a sucker for the beach.  I love looking out at the expansive ocean.  It helps to put life and its little quandaries into perspective.

After a few moments of gazing out over the sand and water, the cold breeze caught up with us (I mean it is only the first weekend in April), and we rushed back to the restaurant for dinner.

Before I go into the "good" and the "great" about this new restaurant, there are still a couple hiccups that the restaurant needs to address (I mean nobody's perfect right?) that I would be remiss in not mentioning.  Before I begin with those though, I need to preface it by saying that despite these little glitches, my husband and I both had a very delicious meal and are excited to return to the restaurant (after Labor Day of course since Point Pleasant during the summer just like all other Jersey shore beaches are a nightmare to navigate).  So here I go.  There was the act of sending us to the bar when there was an open table in what seemed to be a shady way to have us order a drink before dinner.  Alas for them, they didn't win that one, and after hovering in the corner of the bar for a couple minutes, we were seated.  There was also the lack of fresh pepper for my caesar salad.  However, once I flagged down a waiter to request it, it was quickly brought to the table.  There was the strange moment when the waiter brought the wine bottle to the table to show my husband the vineyard, but then he disappeared for three minutes and came back with the bottle opened and poured.  It was just very weird.  In my experience, waiters usually open the bottle of wine at the table.  Also, not that its one of my priorities when eating out (the food matters more to me than the "experience") but the restaurant had a view of the parking lot and when a car parked there, the bright lights shone into the restaurant.  The dining room too was pretty loud.  Lastly, when my husband's steak was undercooked, they took it back and cooked that same piece of meat a couple more minutes.  While it was then served to my husband's liking, it still just seemed a little odd that they wouldn't have gotten a new piece of meat that wasn't already sliced down the middle.

Now that the negative is out of the way, I can tell you that the food we were served was delicious.  My husband and I spent the first six years out of college living in Northern Jersey which was not for lack of New York style, "meat and potato" style steakhouses.  A couple weeks ago, I wrote about Witherspoon Grill in Princeton which was definitely a similar style (and also very delicious).  However, aside from these two restaurants, we have been hard pressed to find similar places.  Excitingly, Shipwreck Point did not disappoint in terms of food, wine, service and experience.  After we were seated, we were brought the wine list and cocktail menu to peruse.  We decided on a bottle of Susanna Balbo.  The bread server then brought around the basket of three breads to try.  I selected mine.  My husband wanted the same, but there was only an end piece left.  The server went back into the kitchen and replenished so that my husband would get a center piece and not the end.  There were also three different spreads on the table: a regular butter, a special flavored house butter and sea salt.  The house butter was delicious.  For dinner we order caesar salad and shrimp cocktail to start and surf and turf (filet and lobster tail) and filet for dinner with a side of "pommes frites."  The shrimp were gigantic but very fresh and flavorful.  The cocktail sauce had a nice "kick" to it.  The salad was fresh with a very light, refreshing caesar dressing.  The meats were also delicious.  Mine was cooked perfectly, and even though my husband had to send his back to be cooked more, when it came out the second time, he greatly enjoyed it.  The french fries were also the perfect thin, crispy fries that I love.  I'm not a fan of steak fries.  They're too potato-ey for me.  I like the crispy texture and the saltiness.  Since it's Lent, we passed on dessert, but maybe next time, we'll test out one of the options.  The only thing was that while the initial description of the desserts peaked our interest, there was the little subtext underneath that mentioned different aspects that weren't appealing.

All in all though, we had a delicious meal and will definitely be returning (after the craziness of the Jersey shore summer of course).  Shipwreck Point, we'll see you when summer ends!

 

Casa Nova 68

After my day in the city with Mom and sister last week, I was surprisingly still hungry, so my husband and I looked for somewhere to eat.  We searched the web to its end and decided on Casa Nova 68.  After a day of such great food in the city, it didn't live up to expectations.

We started with mozzarella carroza trying again to match what we had at Pastaria in Red Bank but nothing can compare.  We also split a caesar salad which was ok.  We then ordered chicken parmesan and lobster ravioli which again were ok.  We bailed on dessert.  The food was just ok, nothing that blew me out of the water but edible and satisfying.  The bottle of wine we enjoyed was very nice.  I just wish I could remember the name.

A cupcake worthy of a spoon

Last weekend, my Mom and sister came to visit, and we went into Manhattan for the day.  It was definitely a day of food (separated by lots and lots of walking all around the city).  When my husband and I lived in West New York, for the first many years, we didn't really explore the city.  During the last two years though, we changed that and really delved into what the city had to offer.  What I discovered is that the best thing (at least in my mind) about Manhattan is the food.  Last weekend, I tried to show that to my Mom and sister too.

We started off the day wandering around Chelsea Market, stopping for coffee and a loaf of bread at Amy's Bread, looking at all the bakeries with wide hungry eyes and checking out the fresh fish.  It was enough to make anyone's stomach start to growl.  When we reached the end, our stomachs were definitely telling us it was time for lunch.  My hair dresser back in Philadelphia always tells me how his favorite restaurant in Manhattan is Pastis.  So we decided to give that a try.  We ended down to the restaurant.  When we got there, the restaurant was so crowded but we were seated right away.  We sat down, our water glasses were filled and then we looked at the menu.  It was brunch.  I don't understand brunch.  In the city, on Saturdays and Sundays, so many restaurants forgo their lunch menus from the week and enter "brunch" mode.  They might have the best lunch menu, but I for one never get to enjoy it because I have to work during the week (foreign concept I guess).  I get relegated to "brunch."  Some places will at least put part of their weekday lunch menu on their brunch menu.  At Pastis, this was not the case.  At Pastis, brunch was waffles and eggs, true breakfast food.  My Mom, sister and I were not having any of it.  Besides, the restaurant truly was jammed, and there were people hovering over our table.  So we put the menus and got up and left.  We headed up again back the way we came to a a spot more our style - Company.  Company is a little pizza restaurant with one of the best Margarita pizzas I have had in a while.  We started with a little white pizza with just bread, olive oil and parmesan.  It was tasty.  Then we each had a glass of wine and a margarita pizza.  No one's plate had a crumb left.  It was a good thing though that our next stop was completely across town.  We walked over to Chikalicious for a triple chocolate cupcake, the absolute best cupcake I have ever had.  I have been professing my love for these cupcakes to my Mom and sister every since my first one two years ago.  I'm happy to say that they weren't disappointed.  It's a chocolate cupcake filled with chocolate ganache and a thin chocolate frosting.  It is truly an out of world experience tasting this cupcake, true bliss for the tongue.  It was a great end to a true foodie day!

Sawa X2

Lent makes dinners on Friday nights so tough.  It basically limits the options to pizza, pasta or seafood.  Is anybody has any other go-to "Friday night during Lent" dinners I'd love to hear them?  Last night was especially tough since we had had pizza on Thursday and are potentially going out for seafood tonight so that left pasta, but we just weren't feeling pasta last night.  Then my husband had a great thought - sushi and hibachi.  While it's still seafood, it's just different flavors and textures.  So we went back to Sawa in Eatontown.  After moving to Old Bridge, I wanted to spend the first year trying different restaurants all the time, never returning to the same one twice.  We've ordered delivery from the same place more than once but eating out, we've kept to the "no return" philosophy so far.  Last night, we finally broke with that tradition.  The food at Sawa did not disappoint.  It was just as delicious the second time as the first.  We enjoyed salmon rolls, tuna and avocado rolls, shrimp hibachi (for me) and steak and lobster hibachi (for my husband).  I think Sawa will definitely become one of more frequented places while living in Old Bridge.

Little Italy in Woodbridge

A couple Saturdays ago, we went out to dinner at Mulberry Street in Woodbridge, NJ.  Again, we had read good reviews online and liked the menu on their website so we decided to give it a try.  It is pretty amazing how "word of mouth" has changed over time.  I for one definitely use the internet to check reviews for everything before I try it whether it be a new restaurant or a cell phone.  There is just a overabundance of information sources these days.  I'm not sure sometimes if it is good though.  I mean how much can you really trust reviews from strangers.  They could have been having a bad day or they just might have different priorities or standards than yourself.  I guess in saying that though, here I am posting my own reviews in this blog.  I think though that if you start to follow one individual and like what they suggest, you can start to trust their recommendations.  Most reviewing sites allow for so much anonymity that you can't follow a particular reviewer through their recommendations.  I'm hoping that I can erase some of that here and just give you one person's take.  You might agree or disagree with me but at least you'll know that if you like one of my suggestions, you will most likely like another.

Sorry for the momentary rambling but now back to Mulberry Street.  After having mozzarella en carrozza at La Pastaria in Red Bank, we have been searching for it again.  The mozzarella en carrozza at La Pastaria is delicious.  Other places have yet to live up to it.  Mulberry Street's was ok but still not on par with La Pastaria.  We also enjoyed a caesar salad s an appetizer which was very tasty.  For dinner, we had chicken parmesan and Mussels Fra Diavolo.  Both dinners were very filling and enjoyable.  The flavors were nice.  

We drank a nice bottle of wine at Mulberry but I can't remember the name.

Our dinner at Mulberry Street was very reminiscent of the real Mulberry Street in Manhattan.  The food and wine were both delectable.  We will definitely be returning to Mulberry Street.

The Jester just wasn't funny

A couple Fridays ago, my husband was craving good bar food - wings, chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, onion rings and french fries - all the food that while it is not good for you is sometimes just what will hit the spot and satisfy your cravings.  So we turned to google and searched for a bar food restaurant in the area with good reviews.  We found the Court Jester in Freehold, so we went for it.

I had a chicken caesar wrap with a side of waffle fries, and my husband ordered the sampler platter (chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, buffalo shrimp and buffalo wings).  What a disappointment!  Everything was just "ok."  Nothing was special or tasty.  It just felt like we were eating just to eat, not because we were enjoying the food.  The highlight of the meal was the order of waffle fries.

To drink, we had one of the lagers that they have specially made for them by Blue Mood.  It was a tasty beer, but the fries and beer are definitely not enough to make us return.  Our search continues for good bar food in Central Jersey.  We have heard that JJ Bitting in Woodbridge is good.  Next time we are craving some good bar food we'll head there and check it out.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Bad blogger

So I know I've been a bad blogger since it's been over a month since my last post, but things have been busy with work.  After a long week in the office staring at spreadsheets, it's tough to log on to my home computer to do anything.  I just can't stare at the screen.  I'm back now though, and hopefully I'll be better!  I will try for my fans (all 3 of them that is...they may be limited but they are definitely valued).

Finding a steakhouse in Central Jersey

My husband and I enjoy a good steak restaurant, the standard style of New York steakhouse where the menu consists of steak and seafood entrees, caesar salad and shrimp cocktail as appetizers and various potatoes as sides.  Since moving to Old Bridge though, we had a tough time finding this style of restaurants.  The "steakhouses" in the area are either Italian style steakhouses which, even though they are advertised as steakhouses, still specialize in the typical Italian fare or they have an "everything under the sun" type of menu which features everything from burgers and sandwiches to pasta dishes and from seafood to chicken wings.  Since it doesn't come across as their specialty, it is tough to order steak at these places.  We have kept searching though.

Last night, we searched again and found Witherspoon Grill in Princeton.  It was a longer drive than we would have liked (interestingly enough though our GPS seemed to take us a really long way to get there and then on the way home took a completely different way which was half the time), and it was bitter cold outside.  Once we found a parking garage next to the restaurant so that we wouldn't have to be in the cold too long, we both decided it was worth it.  We bundled up and ventured to the restaurant.

The restaurant does not take reservations so we had to wait twenty minutes.  We went into the bar area to wait, since the front of the restaurant was cramped and crowded.  We both didn't want a drink yet though so we just waited there.  While we were waiting there, we noticed three open tables to the side of the bar, one for two people and two for four people.  Interestingly enough, after our twenty minutes of waiting, we were seated at the two person table there.  I am still not sure why we had to wait since the table had been set and cleaned already, but I will never know the answer.  

While waiting, a woman and her friend came into the bar and were very talkative with the bartenders.  It was the one woman's birthday, and they wanted to eat in the bar area.  I found it strange that for a celebratory occasion, they wanted to eat in the cramped bar area, but maybe that is just me.  I definitely prefer the space of a table if I am having a relaxing enjoyable meal.  I only like to sit in the bar area when I want to have a quick meal.  They were definitely interesting though.  They first sat at a small table in the bar area but were unhappy there (I guess it was too much space) and asked to have the next available seats at the bar itself.  Again, I was confused why they wanted as little space as possible but to each their own I guess.  When they were finally seated, the birthday woman made a grandiose announcement that she wanted to "keep summer alive" and ordered a glass of rose.  Again, I was expecting an order of a daiquiri, a margarita, some alcoholic lemonade or something similarly refreshing and fruity.  I was not expected a glass of rose.  Finally though the entertainment had to end with the hostess coming over and escorting us to the table that had been open for the last twenty minutes. 

To keep with the theme of entertaining diners, the tables in the restaurant were very close to each other so we were able to listen to the discussions going on on both sides of us.  On our one side was an adult man and woman with two younger boys.  Like our hibachi experience from an earlier post, it seemed as though the man and woman were dating and each had brought their son.  On the other side was two couples on a double date.  The man in the one couple was acting like the "Mayor of Princeton," in a cocky ostentatious voice he kept talking about how great Princeton is with all the wonderful places he's been and activities he's done in the area.

Aside from our fellow diners, dinner itself was very good.  My husband started with the lobster bisque and then enjoyed filet mignon cooked medium with a side of onion rings.  I tried the caesar salad and also had a filet mignon cooked rare with a side of french fries.  Everything was tasty and enjoyable.  We had a bottle of Malbec with dinner from the discount wine list which was very enjoyable too.  Our waitress too was very friendly and attentive.

Dinner at Witherspoon Grill made for an enjoyable Saturday night.

Grandma Pizza - Central Jersey at its best

Since moving to Central Jersey, I have found three things food wise that the area does better than the rest - the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables, the fresh, straight from the ocean seafood and, last but not least, grandma style pizza.  I had never even heard of grandma pizza before moving to the area.  Whenever I had heard the term "sicilian," it always meant thick crust.  This is not the case in Central Jersey.  Here, a grandma pizza is a thin crust, sicilian pizza served best when made with fresh mozzarella.  It is definitely one of my new favorite things.  My husband have tried them at Old Bridge Pizzeria and Bacci Brick Oven.  The two pies have their own unique flavors, but both are delicious in their own ways.

The only problem with Grandma Pizza is that it only ever comes in one size.  My husband and I can eat a decent amount of pizza, but when it comes to trying to finish a Grandma, there is always some that goes to waste.  It feels like such a shame to throw away such a tasty meal.   

Back in Philly for My Sister's Birthday

Last night my family celebrated my sister's birthday at Cuba Libra in Philadelphia.  My husband and I drove down Saturday but got to the restaurant an hour early.  We were going to go in for a drink at the bar, but the entrance was mobbed so we decided to go to Bleu Martini next door.  I enjoyed a Strawberry Blonde, and my husband ordered a vodka and ginger ale.  I really enjoy fruit flavored, sugary sweet martinis, and my Strawberry Blonde definitely hit the mark.  It was a delicious drink and went down easily.  Just out of curiosity, my husband checked the menu at Bleu Martini, and it looked good.  If we lived in the area, we would definitely give it a try.

When the rest of my family arrived, we went back over to Cuba Libre.  We were seated immediately (right at our reservation time).  The bar was still crowded, and there were no open tables in the dining room.  My parents and brother and sister all had different types of mojitos.  I am not a fan of mojitos.  I don't like the mint taste in them.  Trying to keep with the spirit of the restaurant though, I tried a Raspberry Caipirinha.  It was definitely yummy.  The sad part though is that at least for me it was the highlight of my meal.  The worst part is that it wasn't that my food was bad, it was that the portions were so small that I left hungry but the bill was still substantial.  

Back though to what I had to eat.  I started with the only salad on the menu, really the only item with vegetables on the entire menu, the Ensalada C L T.  The salad was fairly uninspired.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.  For dinner, I had the Camarones con Cana.  This is definitely where portion shock came into play.  My plate had six shrimp in total.  Six shrimp for twenty-six dollars is a little ridiculous if you ask me.  I had also asked to have white rice in lieu of the pepper, but when my plate came out, there was no rice to be seen.  The sauce on the shrimp was spicy but tasty.  I did enjoy what little food I had, but as I said, it was definitely a little bit of food.  The rest of my family felt the same way.  My Mom and sister had the paella which they said they could barely see on their plate.  My husband had the salmon.  My Dad and brother split the Plato Gaucho for Two (which looked like Plato Gaucho for 1.5 if that).

One thing I have to say before I go on is that while my family definitely enjoys good food, they are not large people by any stretch of the mind.  When they go out to eat though, they like to leave satisfied.  At Cuba Libre, everyone left hungry.

For dessert, my Mom and sister each had flan, and I had berries with cream.  Again it was nothing over the top, but I think my dessert might have actually been bigger than my dinner.

The restaurant itself did well with the Cuban theme.  The room was decorated as if it was a courtyard surrounded by Spanish style villas.  The ambiance was great.  However, the bathroom left much to be desired.  There were only two individual bathrooms for the entire restaurant, and they both reminded me of a bathroom at a dive bar, not a restaurant that charges twenty-five dollars for an entree.

All in all though, the company was great.  I was happy to be able to celebrate my sister's twenty-second birthday with her.  My husband and I learned that it is only an hour and fifteen minutes from our house to downtown Philadelphia.  The drinks were delicious.  So, the night was definitely a great time.  Nevertheless, without good food, all of this fades to the side.  I do not plan to return to Cuba Libre.

Luigi's in Old Bridge

I have already mentioned Luigi's and their steak sandwiches (closest match to a Philly steak sandwiches that we have found this side of the Delaware River) in an earlier post.  Since moving to Old Bridge though, Luigi's has been one of our top choices for delivery and not just for their steak sandwiches.  This Friday night we ordered from there again.  My husband stuck with the steak sandwich, but I had a chicken caesar wrap.  The wrap is very good.  The chicken is lean, and the dressing is very tasty.  One thing to note though is that it is a very messy wrap.  I'm not sure if it's just me and my clumsiness taking effect, but I always end up with my hands covered in dressing from this wrap.  This is one occasion though where I'll put up with the mess.  I usually don't like foods that make my hands messy (crabs and buffalo wings are on my list for this reason).  I don't know why.  It's just one of my quirks I guess.  When it comes to the chicken caesar wrap at Luigi's though, I don't mind the mess.  The wrap itself doesn't fall apart.  The dressing just oozes out of the wrap and onto to the plate or my hands.  However, the dressing makes the wrap.  It is a good, messy wrap.  

Park Ave Bistro - the NJ one (not the NYC one)

Yesterday my family came over to our house to spend the afternoon and evening with my husband and myself.  They came to see our Christmas decorations (we bought our first tree this year and put up outside lights for the first time too... a feat I'm proud to say we accomplished not with grace but still with success).  My Dad also helped us put in a dimmer for our new dining room chandelier.  I tried to get him to come over and not do any handy man work for once, but he can't help himself and I definitely don't say no too forcefully.  He has definitely been our savior with our new house projects.  

I also made my second batch of cupcakes from my sister's Christmas present to me - the Martha Stewart Cupcake book.  This second batch was just as good if not better than the first.  The other week my husband and I went to brunch at his grandparent's, and I brought my first batch - Gingerbread cupcakes.  This time I made vanilla cupcakes with dark chocolate icing which are so yummy.  The cake is moist and bouncy for lack of a better word.  The dark chocolate frosting is to die for.  I highly recommend these.  

For dinner, we ventured out into the snow to Park Ave Bistro in Freehold as while I can bake, cooking is not my forte.  I can boil water for pasta or saute meat for tacos, but anything more intense still scares me.  I am gearing myself up though to try more complex meat dishes.  I even got a roasting pan for Christmas to ready myself for this quest.  The telling sign though is that I have already broken out the gingerbread man spatula and cupcake cookbook but the roasting pan is still in its box.  

So the first thing I have to admit too is that I pulled my first ever table move at a restaurant.  My in-laws are notorious for not keeping the first table they are seated at a restaurant.  At first, it bothered me but now I completely understand.  There is no reason for not being happy and settling when out to eat.  If a better table is available, I think you should ask to be moved.  Why not?  You deserve it.  The first table we were seated at was in direct line with the front door and whenever it opened it was freezing, so I went and ask the hostess to push the two tables in the middle of the room together and seat us there.  She was gracious and obliged.  I greatly appreciated it.  It made our dining experience so much more enjoyable.

I mentioned in an earlier post that to me, a good restaurant is defined by the food.  Our meal at Park Ave Bistro exemplified that.  The food was very tasty.  Around the table, we had many different starters that were all shared - mozzarella and tomato, fried mozzarella sticks, buffalo chicken tenders, house salad and bacon wrapped scallops.  Everybody enjoyed.  For dinner, we had bruschetta chicken with french fries, ribs with onion strings, hamburgers and cajun chicken linguini.  For drinks, there were a couple beers, a couple glasses of house white and red wine and two very yummy strawberry martinis.  At the end of the night, everyone agreed that it was definitely worth a return trip.  One thing to note, definitely go hungry if you plan to eat the ribs.  They looked as if they came from a couple different animals and as if they were designed for an army.  Tasty but overwhelming.

Dinner with my family is always a great time and when it's surrounded with good food, it's even better.  Last night definitely fit the bill.

What I thought was Cella Luna

It appears that Cella Luna has either changed its name or gone away and become a new restaurant entirely called Cucina Michael.  Whatever the case, that is where my husband and I went to have dinner on Friday night.  We made the fatal mistake that night to forget to call ahead of time to ask if the place was BYOB (a very necessary pre-dining activity in Central New Jersey).  So we arrived empty handed which on a Friday night after a long week is not the way to arrive.

We were seated quickly as there were a couple empty tables.  There was a kid's soccer party going on in the other room (which seemed strange at 8PM on a Friday night but I don't know.  We're not in the "kids" world yet).  The kids ran between the party room and the dining room all meal long.  At the end of the night, I totally understood the table of open wine bottles in that party room.

Our meal though started off well.  We had mozzarella en carozza.  It was delicious little triangles of breaded mozzarella goodness.  Our entrees though were a different story.  While the basics were good (my husband's chicken parmesan and my shrimp and linguini), there was overall way too much sauce on both dishes.  The top portions of our entrees were yummy but when you got to the part of the plate that curved into a little bowl, everything was so drenched in sauce that it became unappetizing.  It was definitely a shame.

So while we loved our appetizer, we will not be returning.

Wine Store on New Year's Eve

Crash!  I turned around from my position in line to see the flow of red wine running across the floor of the liquor store and the scattered broken pieces of glass puncturing its smooth journey across the room.  A customer a couple people behind me in line at the liquor store had dropped his bottle of wine on the floor.  It made me wonder how many times bottles are broken in liquor stores.  I never really thought about it before, but now I really wonder.  It definitely seems like it is one of the biggest hazards of running a wine store.  From one of the most clumsy people, I won't say that I have never done it (for fear of jinxing myself more than anything), but I will say I never thought it before.  This is coming from the person who a couple years ago was enjoying a very romantic dinner with my then boyfriend and now husband at The Ocean Club in Scottsdale, Arizona and who at the end of the meal made a very ostentatious gesture with her hand and knocked the wine glasses on the floor smashing them to pieces.  It is also coming from the girl who just the other month was taking a jar of tomato sauce out of the fridge and had it "slip" from her hand and splatter all other the floor into a million pieces.  Months later, we are still finding glass shards in the kitchen.  So needless to say, I should be one to see a store full of glass items and expect that things would break there all the time.  However, it never crossed my mind until this New Year's Eve.

This New Year's Eve my husband and I stayed in, had pizza and buffalo wings and enjoyed our new house.  It was perfect.  My husband ordered the wings from Anchor Bar in Buffalo which if you haven't done it is very cool.  They ship them overnight to be delivered around 11AM the next day.  Although I am not a fan of buffalo wings (They are too messy for my taste.  I don't like when my hands get messy while eating.  It's a silly thing of mine.  I'm the same way about crabs, too messy to enjoy.  I don't mind my mouth getting messy.  It's my hands that bother me), my husband enjoys them, and he especially likes getting them from Buffalo.

So we went to the wine store that day to pick up beer and wine for out at home celebration.  I have to admit, I was shocked by how crowded the liquor store was at 5PM on New Year Eve's.  I would have thought that people would have either already had their alcohol for the night or would have been going out to dinner and not needed it, but I guess there are a lot of BYOBs in our neighborhood and people must get what they need at the last minute.  I mean the store was mobbed.  The check out line went all the way from the front of the store to the back.  It was impressive.

I'm adding it though to my list of places to avoid: grocery stores on the eve of the eve of a major holiday and liquor stores on New Year's Eve.  Next year, I will be more prepared.  Let's just see though how long I keep that resolution!

Blue Water Seafood Company

My husband went to a bachelor party last spring in DC where he had these buffalo shrimp that he absolutely loved.  So begun our quest to find buffalo shrimp in Jersey.  We had no luck until moving to Old Bridge and coming across Dino's Fishery in Hazlet.  The buffalo shrimp there fit the bill, and my husband would them as take out for lunch on the weekend fairly often.  Recently though, the Dino's Fishery phone number has been going right to voicemail, and we have been unable to get them.  

The other week we were both craving seafood, and with Dino's still not picking up the phone, we went online to try and find another seafood place.  While we couldn't find buffalo shrimp on any menus, we did find the Blue Water Seafood Company in East Brunswick, NJ, a place with such solid reviews that we figured we would give it a try.  We were not disappointed.  The restaurant is in a small unassuming building on the side of the road on 18N, but the food is delicious.  The fish is fresh and tasty.  We had fried calamari to start in a mango salsa which was absolutely delicious.  The portion was huge so we were unable to finish it all.  For dinner, my husband had salmon while I enjoyed grilled shrimp and scallops with a side of french fries.  Everything was cooked perfectly.  My husband had been eying the lobster bisque pot in the corner of the room all night and after dinner in lieu of dessert, he had a cup of the bisque.  

The restaurant may be small but the food definitely makes it and isn't that what should make a restaurant.  I always find it strange when people complain about service and restaurant set-up in a place where they enjoyed the food.  To me, if the food is good, the rest is just icing.  While I like icing to live up to the expectations the food sets, it won't stop me from going back to a restaurant.

I definitely recommend Blue Water Seafood Company.