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!