Change in Plans

Dinner this Friday, which was scheduled for Lalezar, a Turkish restaurant on Bloomfield Avenue, is canceled. We are having a big reunion with my father's family - my aunt is coming from Florida to visit, along with my cousin from Germany. Dinner will be at the family favorite, Mario's in Clifton . This will be the first time in 27 years that my father (age 90), his sister (age 86) and my uncle (age 82) have seen each other. It will either be tears or fireworks!

I'll send out a revised schedule for our last two dinners, on August 7 and 14, later this week.

Rosie's Wine Bar

Went out to dinner tonight at a new favorite - Rosie's Wine Bar in Garwood. Alan and I first saw it driving to a cooking class at Classic Thyme in Westfield last year and couldn't find it again until we happened upon it this summer. Went there in June and it has quickly become a new favorite for wine and now dinner.

It is a great place to sample wine. You can create your own flight by ordering half glasses of wine. The wine menu is extensive and includes 25 reds and 25 whites you can order by the glass or half-glass. We've had a great time sampling different wines. And even better, they sell bottles of the wine they serve, so you can bring home what you've sampled and enjoyed. The best part is that they sell the wine at store, rather than restaurant prices. We've bought a couple of wines for $9-$12 a bottle.

Tonight was the first time we tried a full dinner. The menu is eclectic with a nice selection of appetizers, salads and entrees. We all shared hummus, which was homemade along with warm pita bread. Really, really good. Alan had a flatiron steak, which was very tender and cooked in a great sauce. I had grilled salmon in a balsamic reduction which had a wonderful flavor. I also had Israeli couscous, which I like much better than regular couscous. It is larger and creamier, almost like orzo.

The nicest part of the evening was sharing it with Polly and her friend, Megan, who we haven't seen in awhile. It was so nice to see her - it made dinner very special.

Try Rosie's Wine Bar - it is well worth the trip. And if you have difficulty finding it, like we did, it is off North Avenue in Garwood, right across the street from the Shop-Rite.

Good, But Not Great

Moroccan food at Marrakech tonight - good but not great. The food was very interesting and had some really good flavors but, all in all, it just couldn't compare to some of the other restaurants we've tried over the last 8 weeks.

We started our meal by sharing an appetizer of ground beef and eggs in filo pastry, shaped like a cigar, called - no surprise here - cigar marocain. It was good, with a nice cinnamony-sweet taste. My entree was chicken tagine, which I enjoyed. It came in beautiful pottery cookware, with a lid decorated and shaped like an upside down funnel. It was cooked in an olive-lemon sauce, which was absolutely delicious. Alan was not as positive about his lamb tagine, which had an odd and unfamiliar taste to him. We shared steamed couscous, light and fragrant.

The best part of dinner was dessert. Alan had a delicious - and very sweet - mocha creme brulee. I ordered the pastilla au lait - rice pudding in filo dough with almonds and condensed milk. It came out looking remarkably like a piece of broiled flounder - very disconcerting. Once I got past the resemblance, I enjoyed it very much - it was the best part of the meal.

I was surprised that the items on the menu sounded so French, which makes sense because of the French ties to Morocco. (Not completely sure of my history, but there was a clear French influence.)

All in all, an interesting, but not great experience. Our biggest complaint: portions too small, chairs and table too small and cramped, but prices high. Not much value for the money.

A highlight of the evening was a new wine that we tried - Adesso, a dry red wine from Sicily. A very intersting flavor and a good contrast to the sweetness of the meal.

Next Stop - Morroco

Tomorrow we continue our journey up Bloomfield Avenue to Marrakech for Morrocan food. According to their website, Marrakech is a family affair, run by brothers from Casablanca, with Mom and Dad helping in the kitchen. The menu sounds great. I am curious to taste tagine, which sounds like an exotic way to cook chicken and fish. I've already picked out dessert - pastilla au lait - described as rice pudding in filo dough. Could it get any better?

Check out their website at http://www.marrakechofmontclair.com/and do plan on joining us tomorrow at 7 PM. It would be great to share this dining adventure with our friends. Just call and let us know.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

How Could I Forget the Bread?

Somehow I forgot to mention the best part of our dinner at the Taj Palace - the bread!!! We tried two kinds of naan - plain and flavored with nuts and raisins. It was delicious - and my favorite part of the meal. Actually, I could do a separate blog on the bread alone. We have had some new and delicious bread on our summer tour - the pita at Stamna, the injera at Mesob and now the naan at Taj Palace. As a bread lover, this has been an unexpected benefit of the restaurant tour. I've found recipes for each and would love to try making some. Maybe a wrap-up at the end of the summer?

Just the Two of Us

Just the two of us at dinner on Friday. We went to the Taj Palace for Indian food and decided to be adventurous and try some dishes we had never had before. We shared an appetizer sampler of samosas, pakoras and papadom. Alan ordered sultani, a specially-seasoned lamb tandoori, which is cooked in a clay oven. I had a chicken biryani, which was like an Indian version of fried rice. We ended the meal by sharing a custard dessert called firni. We thoroughly enjoyed the entire dinner.

Of all the foods we've tried so far, this had the most interesting selection and combination of ingredients, especially spices. The first mouthful of my biryani was a bit of a surprise - it tasted different from anything I've tried before. As I continued eating, I enjoyed it more and more - the spice combination was both fragrant and delicious. I was curious about the spices used in buryani, so I checked out some recipes online. Ginger, chili powder, turmeric, cumin, cardamon, cinnamon and saffron are all used in biryani. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of cinnamon it really did give the dish a unique flavor. There were also golden raisons and cashews - a wonderful touch. This was also the least expensive dinner we've had so far - a real bargain for a really delicious meal.

Would we try it again? Absolutely! Yes to both Indian food and the Taj Palace.

Taj Palace on Friday

Continuing our route up Bloomfield Avenue, Friday's dinner is Indian food at the Taj Palace. Check out the menu at www.tajpalacerestaurant.com and join us. Enjoying good company, introducing friends to one another and sharing interesting new food has been wonderful. Good food, great company - what could be better! Hope to see you on Friday.

Good Food, Great Company!

We had a great time at Tuptim on Friday. The food was good but the company was even better - Linda, Stephanie and Nick joined Alan and me.

Alan and Nick are "meat and potatoes" guys, so the thought of trying something different was a challenge for them, but they actually did enjoy their meals. They stuck to the basics of meat and chicken in traditional sauces. Stephanie and I were more adventurous - we had a shrimp, scallop and chicken combination dish in a roasted chili sauce - mild for me and hot for her. Linda is a vegetarian and had a delicious dish with tofu, which I tasted for the first time. It was crispy and really good - not at all what I expected. We shared some appetizers - the chicken satay was a favorite. The restaurant itself is spacious and comfortable - perfect for our table of five.

We decided to save room for dessert elsewhere and after dinner we walked down Church Street to Gimmie Jimmie's. Good coffee, cake and cookies. I had a slice of my favorite red velvet cake. It was nice to sit outside enjoying dessert, listening to music and watching the action on Church Street.

Next week is Indian food. In the meantime, Linda, Stephanie and I decided that we needed to take a special trip back to Mesob for Ethiopian.

Tuptim for Thai

It's Tuptim Restaurant for Thai food on Friday. The menu looks interesting - lots of choices, including a vegetarian selection. Check it out at http://www.tuptimthaicuisine.com/index.htm. I've only had Thai food once and enjoyed it, so I am looking forward to trying it again. Hope you can join us. Think we'll bring a shiraz this week as our red wine.

Fabulous, Fabulous, Fabulous!

For me, Mesob has been the most fun experience so far. It is exactly what we hoped our

"summer tour" would be - a very different dining experience, unusual but delicious food and the opportunity to bring some of our favorite people together.

The food at Mesob was fantastic. Along with Stamna, our first stop, Mesob is by far my favorite. The food was both different and familiar. Dishes were based on the basics - beef, chicken, lamb, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, portobello mushrooms, carrots, green beans - cooked with different spices and sauces and a wonderful use of beans. We shared an appetizer sampler of farmers cheese, lentils, chick peas, mushrooms and tomatoes - all delicious. For our entree, Alan and I shared a meat sampler of beef, chicken and lamb, cooked in amazing sauces. The flavor was very different, but not overwhelming. Dishes come in your choice of mild, medium and hot, which we appreciated.

And yes - we did eat with our hands. The food is served in small plates or servings on a large tray. You break off small pieces of bread and "pinch" what you want to eat. The sauces are thick, which makes using the bread to pick up the food very easy. And the bread - incredible! Called injera, it is a light porous bread, served folded like a tortilla or in long strips wound into a coil. I am a bread lover and this bread had a wonderful and unique flavor.

Best of all was the opportunity ot share the experience with good friends. Paula and Greg and Cyndie, Bob and Hope Rice joined us. Here's to Hope - I don't know many eleven-year-olds who would be willing to try something so different.

Mesob is BYOB, so we brought a bottle of Purple Cowboy, which we have been saving, to try. It is a red blend, made by the winemaker who makes two of our favorite blends. It is described as "tenacious red" on the label and was a little too strong for me, but others did enjoy it.

Try Mesob - the food and the experience are well worth the trip. The restaurant itself is also beautiful - the ambiance adds to the enjoyment of the meal. I am thinking of suggesting it for the ACNJ holiday party this year!

But Do We Eat With Our Hands?

This Friday (July 3) will be the most exotic stop on the tour thus far - Ethiopian food at Mesob Restaurant on Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair. A glance at their menu suugests that we are in for quite a different experience - check it out at www.mesobrestaurant.com. Everyone has asked if we will be eating with our hands! Is it true or just a rumor? Be adventurous and see for yourself - join us at Mesob at 7 PM. We will bring the wine - just let us know if you can come . Hope to see you there.