Food Blog

Yes, that’s an ad over there on the right. I’m just testing the concept with a few of my food related clients to see what they may be worth.

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Some summer food pictures.

This is really a spring picture. Nothing says spring in New Jersey like soft cell crabs. I got this one live at Sun Farm Market (900 Easton Ave. Somerset NJ) back in May. I used to drive all the way down the shore to get ‘em. This little Asian market has a good fish market and a good variety of produce.

It’s not summer without funnel cake. At the Custer St. Fair in Evanston Il.

Summer is also for grilling and smoking. Here’s some smoked ribs and a smoked pork shoulder(and some red peppers). The pork shoulder was brined over night and smoked for 5 hours, then grilled for a short time to crisp up the skin. The Weber Bullet (Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker) has been producing great stuff. See the Virtual Weber Bullet site has lots of good tips and modifications.

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A few posts ago I linked to the Restaurant Guys podcast, as I have several times in the past. I love those guys and listen to them often in my kitchen as they interview authors, cooks and food and drink professionals. I got a chance to eat again at one of their restaurants – Catherine Lombardi. I had eaten there around Christmas once before.

It’s a lovely place, obviously designed with much care. Large tables, lots of room, a great bar, (excellent cocktails with fresh ingredients), the menu and the food are put together with a reverence for tradition and quality. These qualities are also evident in their downstairs restaurant, Stage Left.

Unfortunately, when a place strives for that level of dining, and bills the diners at that level, it needs to come off as flawless or any errors are magnified.

I ordered the Cumare Nancy’s Stuffed Calamari with Red Sauce and the stuffed veal chop – the arugula and pancetta stuffing sold me on the chop, over trying the osso bucco or the scallopini.

One of my table mates doesn’t eat cheese, and the roasted (unstuffed) veal chop with the polenta (with cheese), when he asked for a substitution, which they had happily complied with.

I love their stuffed calamari – perfectly soft pillows.

When the chops came, I was slightly distracted by the fact the table mate that doesn’t eat cheese got the polenta, instead of the substitution. I tasted my polenta which definitely had cheese in it. We waved down the waiter who apologized for forgetting to tell us that the chef had made the polenta without cheese, instead of plating a substitution. Then as any food blogger does, I stuck my lens in my food. It was only then that I realized that my chop wasn’t stuffed.

Same cut of meat, but it was kind of a bummer, since the stuffing is what sold me on the chop. And it took awhile to get someone’s attention, and get an answer to whether I could get it replaced in a reasonable amount of time. It couldn’t be done so I just went ahead and ate my cooling piece of meat. It was an excellent chop, juicy, tender, just on the right side of rare.

After dinner Francis, one of the owners, came up to our table and asked how everything was. I explained the error and he asked if it had been replaced. I told him the chef had said there wasn’t time. We talked for a bit about our wine (a nice Brunello) and his podcast and its growing audience. He’s the kind of guy you could easily spend the rest of the night at the bar with, listening to his stories. I didn’t mention food blogging or the fact I gave him a plug recently.

Dessert was good, they make a fine cheesecake, served with a little dollop of marscapone on the side, which is a nice touch. The waiter brought us a few extras, a plate of cookies and a zabaglione to share. And perhaps as an apology, some snifters of Sambuca, with a very rare touch – the bottle was left on the table.

The Sambuca, cookies and zabaglione were comped of course, but I had a bit of a feeling of unsatisifaction about the error. I’m not really sure I was really bothered by it, it’s just rare you get a mistake like that, in a place like that, especially when you’re ordering the most expensive thing on the menu (45 bucks).

I don’t seek out flaws in food or service to write about like a professional reviewer. I’m not an advocate for the diner, nor an adversary to the restaurantuers. But I’m not sure whether I’ve toned this review down a bit just because I like these guys. On the other hand, I can’t overcome the feeling of an unbalanced price-to-quality-of-service ratio. Perhaps because my memory of my last meal at their more upscale Stage Left was the same.

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