Ruffino Wine Dinner at the Chart House

The Chart House, Weehawken New Jersey

Chart House, Lincoln Harbor Pier D-T, Weehawken, NJ 07086

Ruffino Import Company is having a wine dinner at the Chart House restaurant in Weehawken New Jersey tonight.  A great way to celebrate Valentine's Day a little early.  Just a word of warning, this is going to be another epic multi-part post.

Poggio Casciano Estate Via di Poggio al Mandorlo, 1 – loc. Quarate, 50011 - Bagno a Ripoli (FI)

Tonight's dinner wines

The first course was Insalata di Melone:  micro rocket, parma prosciutto, Meyer lemon gastrique.  The melon was cut thin which made the melon to prosciutto ratio very good.

This was paired with the 2017 Orvieto Classico, Tuscany.  A little sweeter than we usually like, but it cut the pork fat and complemented the gastrique. It will be a good summer wine.

See the next post for the Second Course.

Happy Belated Birthday to Barney and Lisa

 

Noord, 1046 Tasker St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, (267) 909-9704

Lisa Leonard and I share a birth date, so every year we all get together to celebrate in one way or another.  This year, Brunch in the Passyunk Square Area of Philadelphia:  Passyunk Square is an up-and-coming neighborhood of brownstones and historic, narrow "trinity" houses. Affordable housing and diverse dining options attract hipsters and young professionals alike. East Passyunk Avenue is lined with vintage shops, gastropubs and Vietnamese pho soup spots, as well as cheesesteak rivals Pat’s King of Steaks and Geno’s Steaks. Outdoor street festivals are popular here during the warmer months. (Thanks Google for the verbiage)

The location, the unusual yet familiar items on the Brunch menu and the BYOB policy drew us to this restaurant.

As it was a celebration, we brought Prosecco.  The table was brought molasses Bread with brown sugar butter.

I ordered the Keshi Yena (Netherland Antilles Cheesy Casserole): ground chicken, gouda, sambal, raisin, olive, pepper, grilled pineapple. The casserole was tasty if not attractive under the eggs, but if you were to serve lasagna sans noodles, it would not be pretty either.

Lisa ordered a different item from the hash menu, the Seasonal Vegetable Hash: a saute of market vegetables, red potatoes, fresh herbs, lemon, two sunny side eggs.  Seasonal today meant potato and cauliflower in a tomato sauce.  I tasted it and found it uninspired.

Amy had the Gooseberry Wenteltefjes (Classic Dutch Toast) with nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, whipped cream, powdered sugar.  These were not the sweet slices of French Toast I think of, they are almost savory.

After Brunch, we walked around the neighborhood, stopping at the Primal Supply Meats Butcher Shop which was having a tasting of products from Fishtown Ferments.  

I sampled the sauerkraut and the beets. I bought the seeded sauerkraut.  It has cumin seeds in addition to the traditional caraway.                         .

We also hit Urban Jungle, a fun garden shop, currently starting to move into the spring planting season.

Happy Hour at Hudson & Co. Bar & Grill

Hudson and Company Bar and Grill

HUDSON & CO. BAR and GRILL, 3 SECOND STREET, JERSEY CITY, NJ 07311

.Amy and I met with Marci Skolnick and Mark Goodloe for a happy hour overlooking Manhattan.

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Thursday Night Run - Hoboken

Jackrabbit Hoboken and The Mills Hoboken

THE MILLS, 125 WASHINGTON ST, HOBOKEN, NJ.

Once a month, the Jackrabbit running store in Hoboken has an evening charity run.

There are THREE major components to the evening's The runs are 5k, Thursday at 7pm and usually have about 20 participants.  The evening is a lot of fun and a good chance to learn the local running community.  First, once you arrive, be sure to buy your raffle tickets $5 each, this is the charity part.

Then there is the run.  This is NOT the route I walked or the actual 5km run, this is the Google/Android/GPS interpretation of my walk.  I walked from the store to the river, around Pier A and back to the store.  My walk took as long as most of the runners.  Upon return there is the group photo and the raffle.  Prizes have included SHOES, HATS, GLOVES, SUNGLASSES, and other things from the store - not a bad selection of prizes!

The party and tasting are sponsored by Ketel One Botanical Vodka.  Free tasting for all!  Thank you local Ketel One distributor!



Drinks are moved around to local bars each event.  We were at The Mills, and also had the nachos... losing all benefit of the run.

Lunch with Yvonne and Michael at Queens Beer House

Queens Beer House

Queens Beer House, 92-50 59th Ave Elmhurst NY 11373

We headed here under the assumption this was a German Beer Garden - the Google information has been updated to "Beer House."  It is not a German restaurant at all.

We were joined by Yvonne Rigby and her 6-year-old son Michael.  Once we wrapped our head around the Non-German menu, the food was pretty good.

While the large German Pretzel was perfect, it seems a bit overpriced for an oversize hot pretzel.

I had the Fish and Chips.  The chips/fries were great.  They had a tomato salsa topping that puddled and made the bottom soggy.  I could have used a bit more tartar sauce.

Amy had the Reuben Sandwich with Fries.  The meat was not New York Deli meat, but the high-quality bread, excellent fries, and presentation were more than enough to make this a great meal.

Yvonne had The German Bratwurst, another great presentation.

Michael had the Bianca Flatbread Pizza:  Mozzarella, Ricotta, Onions, White Mushrooms, White Truffle Oil, and Basil.

   

Birthday Dinner in NYC Chinatown: The Peking Duck House

The Peking Duck House

The Peking Duck House, 28 Mott St # A, New York, NY 10013

The restaurant I chose for my birthday. I haven't been to Chinatown in many years and felt I wanted to have a Chinese dinner that didn't come out of a paper box!

I haven't been to Chinatown in many years and felt I wanted to have a Chinese dinner that didn't come out of a paper box!

This white tablecloth restaurant in the heart of Chinatown is obviously known for their Peking duck. There's not as much meat on a duck as you might imagine. BYOB. Beer available.

Soy, Duck, and Hoisin Sauces

Shrimp Soup with crispy rice

Assorted Apps

The Actual Peking Duck... delivered sliced with pancakes and scallions

Crispy Fish Entree

Fresh Fruit for dessert

Some reviews state that the duck is butchered tableside. Certainly, ours was not, it came from the kitchen already sliced and off the bone. Maybe this is because we had the half duck and not a full duck. Through observation, I can tell you that the full duck is not butchered "at the table" it is carved at a table in the middle of the restaurant and then brought to the table.

Here is an excellent YouTube video posted by "Mike&Yayee’s Travel and Cooking" posted a week before our visit.

Picking up where we left off in the last post...

Idgy Dean and DMC at the House of Yes in Brooklyn, NY

This is a continuation my previous post about the first part of this evening in Brooklyn. Our friend Idgy Dean was having a launch party for her new collaboration with Run DMC. The most obvious observations about this evening are Idgy Dean's ability to collaborate and her loyalty to her artist friends and community.

Her use/collaboration of the talents of Hattie Chamberlin (the harpist), Tiffany Topol (and her ukelele), Wasa Bibi and James Benjamin (DJs), BodyArt by Tash, Raquel Rosario (the tarot card reader), Angela Jones (the tintype photographer) and Fritz Cook (musician) made for an exciting and eclectic evening.

Her music demonstrates a wonderful blend of intellectual, artistic, and almost nerdy abilities. The looping and the layering of rhythm, bass, lead, and melody tracks make for long dance-worthy compositions. As a non-dancer, the live performance pieces strike me as a bit long, but no one else seems to worry about that :-)

The production value of the concert was much more than I expected. The incense, the projections, the dancers, and the choreography all helped to make this a truly multi-sensory experience.