Author: Suzanne Zimmer Lowery
Celebrate NJ’s Delicacy Days
December 2, 2012
We’ve had Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Super Sunday and Cyber Monday, so why not a whole week devoted to delicious food gifts made right here in the Garden State? Call it NJ’s Delicacy Days. Dig in, folks, now you can eat local and give local…
Seen in: Soup to Nuts
Thanksgiving Pies, Some Veddy British
November 18, 2012
We Americans may feel we invented the deliciously flaky pies that will adorn our Thanksgiving tables, but like the Pilgrims themselves, the concept of sweets or savories wrapped in dough actually came from across the Pond. Thanks to the Pie Store in Montclair, all you have to do serve one of these heritage creations is warm it up th your oven.
Seen in: Soup to Nuts
Food Banks, Restaurants and More Pitch In
November 12, 2012
Val Traore, CEO of the Food Bank, is blunt. “Food drives are helpful but money is better as we can get truckloads of nutrient-dense food from other parts of the country for pennies on the dollar. I
Seen in: Soup to Nuts
After the Sizzle Stopped: My Week With Sandy
November 5, 2012
The last sound I heard before the lights went out at 5 pm last Monday, October 29th, was the sizzle of a little boneless leg of lamb searing on my stovetop. It had been marinated in wine and fresh herbs, and it smelled marvelous. As it always does, that sizzle held so much promise, but this time it was not to be.
Seen in: Soup to Nuts
Three Cheers for Serenity!
October 28, 2012
Serenity the state of mind is fine in its place, but right now the state of mind at the Serenity Cafe in Toms River is euphoria, and with good reason. Its chef/owner, Greg Manning, has won a national award from the readers of Cooking Light magazine: The Neighborhood Chef Award.
Seen in: Soup to Nuts
Honoring Vincent Price: Campy Ghoul, Serious Gourmet
October 19, 2012
Vincent Price, the wicked voice of film horror for over half a century, once sprinkled Kermit the Frog with salt and threatened to gobble up his delicious legs. This might be a perfect example of the actor’s campy approach to the macabre, but few people realize that Price was actually a sophisticated gourmet and cookbook author.
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Chef’s Table
October 16, 2012
Dali loved the classic French food Claude Baills made him. Times change. Happily, Baills’s cooking does not.
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Think You Love Pickles? Not Like These Folks…
October 15, 2012
So says Robyn Samra, owner of Pickle Licious, a pickle-making company and all-things-pickle retail store in Teaneck. If Samra's customers are "pickle crazy," what does that make the owner and her family? There may be no adequate word for their degree of picklephilia...
Seen in: Soup to Nuts
The Brazilian Food You Don’t Know (But Should)
October 8, 2012
Say "Brazilian food" and you can't help but think "Rodizio," the all-you-can-eat skewered meat feast popular in restaurants in Newark's Ironbound. Rodizio is great fun, but it isn't the Brazilian food Ilson Goncalves grew up on in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. At Samba, his restaurant in Montclair, he recently showed me the real deal.
Seen in: Soup to Nuts
From Mozart to Mocha, With No Regrets
October 1, 2012
Julie Jacobson did her utmost to follow in her mother's footsteps. As a girl she took up her mother's instrument and style of music--classical piano--and followed a precocious path right through graduation from the Juilliard School of Music. But something was missing in her life, and not until she thought about her grandparents and their literal mom-and-pop market in Morristown did she realize what it was.
Seen in: Soup to Nuts