So Many Recipes, So Little Time
Yunnan at South of the Clouds in Jersey City. Bright, clean, efficient. Steamed pot chicken was fantastic. My late obsession is a good chicken broth — not easy to make, not easy to find. This one was good. Fantastic Yunnan style pork ribs with mint — smoky, charred. Great lotus fries — so crispy. Honestly,…
Negative reviews can be entertaining — people complain about the darnedest things. Reading them out loud on the way back after a good meal is like reading Chekhov’s The Complaints Book: — kitchen closes at 11, at 11:02 the manager refuses to let us order a burger… this chris christie look-alike sissy man was supposed…
Our refrigerator is currently packed the way my mom loved it — no way to stick a hand in. Not even a finger. Two gigantic camping coolers packed to the brim are stacked one on top of the other by the side door. And there is nothing to eat in the house. In the morning,…
Reunions after some time has gone by make me cautious. People change, I change. Passing time creates awareness of significance of good memories. Should they be challenged, even sacrificed, to an attempt to revisit and make them relevant? Like in that movie, an exchange between a British sixty-something couple returning to Paris after thirty years…
As I rarely cook something twice, rarely we go twice to the same restaurant. Our state is one of the most diverse and inclusive ones. Plus, the city is close and, in the city, there is Queens, the most ethnically diverse urban area on the planet. To choose a place to go to is a…
There used to be a Greek restaurant next to my studio. A new family took over it and now it’s… Greek. But what a difference a family makes. You walk into Aegean Estiatorio like a friend and leave like a family. Amazing how two people can change the vibe of the place and make it…
Tom’s mom cued us in to this little gem of a place. Seafood Gourmet is a local fish market with a small dining room attached in the back. No any signage outside whatsoever — only those who know. Inside — a line of seafood lovers crowding like penguins against the back refrigerated wall, waiting for…
For almost thirty years, several times a week, I have been driving by this place on my way food shopping, to the bank, to the airport for pick ups and drop offs, giving tours to house guests, and for almost every other errand saying to myself each time: we have to try it. Tom literally…
We’re lucky to live in the area where many different cultures are within a close reach. Not only in Queens, Brooklyn, or the Bronx which are a bus and a subway ride away but also in Paterson, NJ that takes minutes by car. The prospect of shopping for clothes depresses and terrifies me. Shopping…
We’ve been to Razza in Jersey City before when they just opened and were on a first-come-first-serve policy. That day, we arrived by opening time and somehow wiggled ourselves in. The memories of the food were great but overall experience not so. Last week, the stars placed us in Razza vicinity with some time…