FRESH FROM THE FARM

Attention farmers and folks who love shopping at farm markets and farmstands: 'Tis the season to be eating very, very well - with foods that go straight from the fields of our local farms to our dining tables.

So, farmers, please clicks COMMENTS below and post information about your farm market or stand. Tell us the name of your farm, where it's located, when you're open and what's fresh at the moment. If you're picking squash or beans or sweet corn, the rest of us would like to know. Feel free to post info any time on this blog. I'll regularly create FARM topics this season or you can e-mail me (clurfeld@app.com) or call me (732. 643. 4273) to prompt me to create a new FARM topic for you.

And for those of you who love to plow the farmstand trail, please let the rest of us know what you're finding where - and what you're cooking with beautiful Jersey produce.

thanks!
Andy
6.28.07

RANDOM RESTAURANT THOUGHTS

I was speaking this morning with John Roberts, who for 17 years was president of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade. We were talking about Sickles Market, which has won the NASFT's prestigious retailer of the year award, a particularly big deal for a market in Little Silver, N.J. (We'll be highlighting Sickles in the Food section of Wednesday, July 4.) Anyway, John, who has lived for 15 years in Rumson, offered some personal observations of eating in this area that I found reflective of comments I've heard from many folks over the years.

"When we moved to Rumson 15 years ago,'' John said, "our feeling was that this area was behind the times in terms of restaurant innovation.'' Perhaps restaurants relied on tourism, rather than creativity in the kitchen, to keep business strong.

John, who now works as a consultant in the food industry, had vast experience and lots of travel under his belt to support his observation that "at that time, not a lot of places were offering exciting dining experience.''

He feels the area is beginning to catch up with the culinary times - - and he credits folks such as Bob Sickles, owner of Sickles Market, with vision and determination to innovate and educate.

Just as I was finishing the Sickles' story this morning, a colleague came by to tell me of a disappointing dining experience she'd had at a local restaurant. A local restaurant, I should note, that is extremely popular. What did I think of the place? she asked. Behind the times, with a menu that hasn't evolved in years. Resting on very, very old laurels -- and very dependent on visitors to the Shore.

Our conversation brought to mind many of the excellent points John Roberts made to me and prompts me now to ask you: What restaurants in our midst are resting on old laurels? What restaurants chronically disappoint when you expect them to excite?

cheers,
Andy
6.27.07
P.S. Samaha's Farm Market, on Lloyd Road in Aberdeen, opened for the season this week. I talked to farmer-owner John Samaha this morning and he was picking all those good squashes and early-summer vegetables we've been craving. It's open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. FARMERS: Please post right here on this blog when you open your markets and farmstands for the season. Tell us your address and your hours of operation. Or e-mail me the info at clurfeld@app.com and I'll post it all for you. Whenever new crops come in, or if you have something special and/or unusual, either post it here or let me know so I can spread the good and delicious word.

ICE CREAM CHRONICLES, part two (WITH A SIDE OF FISH)

As I was watching Susan Maccanico, of Niki's Homemade Ice Cream in Belmar, make ice cream one recent afternoon, I was struck by a few things. First, it's time-consuming. Second, there's lots of room for improvisation. Third, the ice cream industry sure has changed since I did a stint at HoJo's back in the early 1970s.

"In the beginning,'' Susan was telling me as she reminisced about her earliest days as an ice-cream parlor owner, "the old standards were in vogue. Chocolate, vanilla, butter pecan. Then it started branching out, with cookies and cream, candy bar flavors, toasted coconut.''

Her daughter-in-law Cheryl Maccanico noted today's trends to "comfort food" flavors - peanut butter, for example. Nearly every ice cream parlor I visited on my Shore tour had a good four or five flavors sporting peanut butter.

That's a lot of stirring for ice-cream makers like Susan. In fact, though she closes at 11 p.m., she's downstairs in her kitchen till 2 a.m. most nights making ice cream, then back at it a couple of hours before her shop opens at 1 the next afternoon. No wonder she's so trim and fit.

Though kids love soft-serve, I learned that once they age into the teen years, they start ordering hard ice cream. I guess that brands me as a permanent kid. Sure, I order hard ice cream quite often, but my soul craves soft chocolate. With marshmallow sauce. I'd love to eat a huge cup of that right now, preferably sitting in Niki's courtyard, right next door to her shop.

Maybe that's because I've been out in the sun, scouting fish the past couple of days. The blues are running, as are the flounders, and local lobster is tasting good these days. I'm readying a story for this coming Wednesday (June 27) about cooking fish on the Fourth of July and have lots of good advice from local fishmongers. So think about it. Think about fish on the Fourth.

Meanwhile, what/where are you eating this weekend? And, restaurant chefs, what specials are you posting?

cheers,
Andy
6.22.07

A CHEF IS BORN

You remember when that toddler-wanna-be took those first steps, right? Of course. There's another milestone in some kids' lives: first slicing with a real knife.

My favorite 8-year-old kitchen helper has been asking when she could use the chef's knife to slice and chop since she was 3. She's curious about everything in the kitchen and always is eager to join in the cooking. Last night, we were using chives and mint to make a kind of Asian pesto, dandelions and mushrooms to make a topping for pasta, baby bok choy as the main element of a stove-top braise, and cucumbers for a refreshing, counterpointing salad. We even prepped sugar snap peas for future use. My pal, aided by her 5-year-old sister and good-naturedly abetting her 3-year-old sister's tasting wishes, had dutifully stripped the leaves off the dandelion stalks, separated the leaves of mint from their stems, ripped the strings off the pea pods and was begging for more work.

"Andy,'' she asked, her voice soft but not a tad whiny, "can I chop something?''

She'd probably asked me that question a hundred times over the years, never getting discouraged at my firm, "No, not yet. You need to be stronger to use that knife.''

But on this night, I said, "Yes, you're ready. You did beautiful work with the dandelions and the herbs and the peas. You can slice the cucumbers. I'll show you how.''

Her face was proud and determined. She picked up the santuko and manned her cutting board. She already knows how to properly hold a knife, already has practiced how to grip, firmly, whatever is to be sliced or chopped. She now stirs sauces with a steady hand and is watchful when her younger sisters approach the stove, cautioning them to keep hands behind backs and stand clear of the flame. She is not only strong, she shows responsibility.

So we tasted the cucumbers, to determine if they were bitter and needed to be seeded (they weren't and didn't), but decided to remove most of the peel (a tad tough-textured). Next, I guided her through the first few slices, urging her to slice a bit more thinly. She followed directions. Her cuke slices were beautiful. They stood, crisp and elegant, in a simple salad flecked with fresh dill and dressed with splashes of lime, rice vinegar and olive oil. Thomas Keller would have approved.

It was a momentous first step for my friend. I see delicious things in her future.

cheers,
Andy
6.19.07

THE ICE CREAM CHRONICLES, part one

I've been touring the Shore, checking out trends in ice cream for a Food cover story (running this coming Wednesday, June 20), and learning the darndest things. I had much more material than could make it into the space allowed me, so I thought I'd offer up some extra scoops here.

I'm quite curious about the sundaes vs. regular cups/cones thing - you know, do folks order more sundaes or do they go for basic cups and cones? One scooper told me, emphatically, "Cups and cones. With the variety in flavors today, with all the accents already mixed in, you don't need to pay extra for toppings on sundaes." Logical, I thought. Once upon a time, there was chocolate-vanilla-strawberry, with a side of butter pecan, pistachio and, maybe, coffee, but now you get chips of this, combos of that, and all manner of mix-ins mixed in at the start.

Then I chatted with another scooper, who said, "Sundaes are big. Real big. But there's a difference in how people order them. Women take their time, consider the options and really work on putting together their sundaes. Men just come up to the counter and and say, 'I'll get the hot fudge.' They want to get the ordering over with."

We both laughed at that, though the scooper insisted over my giggles that it was absolutely true. Knowing how I personally labor over constructing my own sundae order and even go so far as to ask whoever is making my sundae to put things together in a certain fashion, I can't dispute the distaff angle of his theory. I always feel awful that I'm probably holding up the ordering line.

While what the typical kid orders at an ice cream parlor makes me shudder, there was one thing a scooper said that made my jaw drop to my knees. As I spied Day-Glo blue ices in one of the tubs at this particular shop, I commented that this surely was no color that EVER had appeared in nature. I mean, it looked sci-fi supernatural. Wacky. So I asked the parlor owner who in the world would order shocking-blue ices.

"Kids," the proprietor of the shop told me. "It makes their tongues turn blue."

Golly. When I was a kid, my favorite ice cream combo was chocolate with marshmallow topping. I thought soft chocolate trumped hard chocolate in those days, and I always tried to steer any ice-cream-eating expedition to Carvel. (Alas, Carvel is not the same any more; the formula must've been changed.) When I lost out, when the ice-cream-eating took place at the old Minuteman in Somerville and, later, when I was a teenager, at the Buxton's in Pluckemin, I got a little fancy. In those pre-rocky road days, I used to urge scoopers to mix some chocolate chips and mini-marshmallows into my chocolate, then top it off with gooey marshmallow sauce. Before there was rocky road, I was leaning to rocky road. But nut-free rocky road. My old high school chum Erin, who worked at Buxton's, must've gotten in serious trouble for deviating from the strict recipes to make my special-order ice cream. But it tasted good.

Oh yeah: I still hate nuts in ice cream. I just don't get setting something that's crunchy-dry against something that's cooling-smooth. That's one counterpoint that never has worked for me. In fact, when I learned the love of my high school life habitually ordered nuts on his sundaes, I gasped and reconsidered my devotion. Could I care for someone who had such poor taste in matters so culinarily critical?

I quickly softened in my judgments, and have remained open-minded in my assessments of friends and their ice cream choices. So, tell me, friends: What is YOUR favorite ice cream flavor? And why?

cheers,
Andy
6.17.07
p.s. I'll do another round of ice cream chatter later this week. Please do check out the cold, hard facts of our local ice cream scene this Wednesday in Food.

THE BLUEBERRIES ARE COMING!

For those of you (and there have been dozens) who have been asking when the blueberries at Earth Friendly Organic Farm (located on Olde Noah Hunt Road, about three miles west of Great Adventure) will be ready to pick, there's news from the farm's owner, Roz Ressner:

"The berries are ripening," Roz says, "and hopefully we'll begin picking on the 30th of June." Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Roz and her crew at Earth Friendly, on Olde Noah Hunt Road, also have a number of activities planned for the summer. For example:

* Make the perfect blueberry pie, with Theresa Brosius in the Kitchen
followed by lunch on the patio; Tuesday, July 17, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

* Learn to make blueberry jam; Wednesday, July 11, starting at 9:30 a.m. You'll pick blueberries, make jam and have lunch at Earth Friendly.

Call Roz to make reservations for both events: (609) 259-9744.

And here's another note from Roz re: a special you-pick day on Sunday, July 22, to benefit an organization called Empower The Children. "My good friend, Rosalie, a retired speech therapist from Jackson, lives in Kolkata eight months of the year and has devoted her life to helping impoverished children of Kolkata through educational and nutritional programs, served up with lots of love! Earth Friendly would like to invite you to help in a small way. A portion of our blueberry sales will be donated to Empower the Children. So please reserve Sunday, July 22 for some serious picking!"

For more info, visit Roz's web site, www.earthfriendlyorganicfarm.com

I've said this before and I'm sure I'll say it again after I pick blueberries at Earth Friendly this summer: I've never had better blueberries, anywhere. And, as many of you know from reading my end-of-summer vacation chronicles, I'm a Maine regular and I've got tons of blueberry experience.

Cheers,
Andy
6.13.07

LAST LICKS

So the finale of “The Sopranos” was an eating scene in an ice cream parlor in Bloomfield. But we only got to the onion rings; we didn’t make it to dessert.

Last night and today, there’s been a ton of discourse everywhere I watch, everywhere I listen, about the ambiguity of the final episode. Lots of folks are totally ticked that there wasn’t a big-bang ending of some sort, a conclusive conclusion. After I (like everyone else in the HBO universe) realized my TV hadn’t failed me, I said, “Bizarre.”

Then, a second later, I loved it. I loved the ending because it brought to mind another ending I’ve never forgotten: “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Freeze frame; the outlaws live forever – never making it to the barrage of bullets that await.

Pop to black; the Sopranos live forever, too, never making it to whatever was out there for them. We can argue the scheme of things right and good vs. the attachment we felt for modern-day criminals all day, all night, but that’s pretty ambiguous, too. It was, after all, entertainment.

Have an ice cream sundae, ignore the consequences, and say goodnight. Right now, I’m going to watch it again. Who knows? Maybe they’ll show another of the three endings those folks said they filmed.

Andy
6.11.07

THE TOPS

I’m loving the fact that folks are shedding their insecurities about screw-caps on wine bottles.

For the longest time, far too many wine-drinkers were holding on to silly and out-dated notions that only bad wines were capped with screw-on, screw-off tops. When really good winemakers started sealing their bottles with screw caps, which offer fabulous protection for the tasty stuff inside, some folks remained reluctant to buy the wines. It made no sense – and, frankly, it branded the reluctant as uninformed.

But today, temptation is trumping all those old wives’ tales of plonk under the screw-caps. All the Yalumba “Y” series wines from South Australia are bottled with screw-caps, including the fabulous – I mean scrumptiously delicious – 2006 Sangiovese Rose. Bonny Doon’s California-raised Ca’ Del Solo line is screw-capped, following winemaker Randall Graham’s own pioneering spirit. The other night, I screwed the cap off the dandy 2005 Indaba Chenin Blanc from South Africa. Many terrific German rieslings come with screw-caps, including the right-for-drinking-now crisp and fruity 2005 Bex Riesling.

I understand and appreciate the pomp and ceremony of popping a cork. It’s fun, it can add a touch drama – but it also brings with it uncertainty. Every wine-drinker I know has nightmare corked-wine stories.

That doesn’t have to happen on a night when there’s a thirst for a flirty wine with quenching capabilities. Twist, pour, sip and enjoy. Hey, if you’re at a BYOB restaurant charging a corkage fee, and you find yourself a tad miffed, you can always point to your screw-capped bottle of wine and ask, “Corkage fee? Where’s the cork?”

Speaking of which, I haven’t heard of any more BYOBs tacking a corkage fee on to diners’ tabs. Have you?

Cheers,
Andy
6.9.07

GREENS AND ICE CREAM

The baby arugula is so nice these late spring days but, once I got it home from the market, I suddenly didn’t feel like salad. I wanted something more substantive, with a bit of body to it. So I made arugula pesto.

You can make pesto out of practically anything green (my personal favorite, something I love even more than traditional basil pesto, is a combo of cilantro and mint, which I spike with ginger root and garlic, thin with lime juice and use to dress Asian noodles, seafood -- and chicken that otherwise would taste ho-hum plain), so I just went at it: I toasted pine nuts, then I whirred arugula and the toasted nuts in my food processor, drizzled in olive oil and added grated Parmigiano Reggiano. I tasted, decided it needed something more, and so squeezed the juice of a couple of lemons into the mix. Bingo. A little sea salt, pepper and I was done.

Literally. There’s no more to the story. It’s a simple pesto. I tossed it with spaghetti and plan to use the rest of it to dress sandwiches and such over the weekend. I’m quite certain it would be terrific alongside a slab of beef you’ve grilled, a condiment of another color that would add nuance to the meat. You know those Tuscan steak platters so many of us love? The ones that set a steak over a bed of balsamic-splashed arugula? Well, it’s the same flavor concept. Marinate your steak for a spell in a mix of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, grill, then serve with a slather of arugula pesto. Sounds like a fine Father’s Day dinner to me.

OK: Now, a favor. What LOCAL (this means NO chains allowed) ice creamery do you favor? And what flavor there do you crave? I want to know your ice favorites, both place and flavor. Thanks!

Cheers,
Andy
6.8.07

SEAFOOD REPORT

Greetings - and here's the latest from the Jersey Fresh folks on the availability of local fishes. (I'm editing out anything less than excellent quality.) Shop smart - eat local. Restaurant chefs: Are you using any of these local fishes in specials this weekend?

Black Sea Bass – Supplies are good with excellent quality.

Bluefish – Supplies are good with excellent quality.

Butterfish – Supplies are good with excellent quality.

Flounder – Supplies are good with excellent quality.

Fluke – Supplies are very good with excellent quality.

Ling – Supplies are very good with excellent quality.

Lobster – Supplies are good with excellent quality.

Mackerel – Supplies are good with excellent quality.

Mahi-Mahi – Supplies are very good with excellent quality

Monkfish – Supplies are limited with excellent quality.

Monktail (Day Boat Gill Net) – Supplies are very good with excellent quality.

Scup (Porgies) – Supplies are very good with excellent quality.

Sea Eel – Supplies are limited with excellent quality.

Sea Scallops (Day Boat) – Supplies are good with excellent quality.

Snails – Supplies are limited with excellent quality.

Squid – Supplies are good with excellent quality.

Sword Fish – Supplies are limited with excellent quality.

Tilefish – Supplies are very limited with excellent quality.

Weakfish – Supplies are very good with excellent quality.

Whiting – Supplies are very good with excellent quality.

Cherrystones, Chowders – Supplies are limited with excellent quality

Cape May Salt Oysters – Supplies are very good; available on a daily basis with excellent quality.

cheers,
Andy
6.2.07