Summit House and Black Horse pub

Birthday fun for Leslie at the Summit House in Summit. Nice clean upscale place without the really high prices.  I enjoyed my Duck but the pasta appetizer was excellent. The Aquerello Risotto with crushed peas, smoked ham, herb oil, parmesan was good but the best was the House-Made Campanelle with porcini, pickle peppers,  and harissa was excellent.

After my bowling event I was pleasantly surprised that the Black Horse Pub has brought back the stuffed lobster with shrimp salad.  Good move!

Some old favorites and new experiences in Somerville and Hoboken

We got snowed out of a return trip to da Fillipo's on Saturday in Somerville but the past few weeks we enjoyed a new spot at Del Frisco's Grille in Hoboken for lunch.  We loved the cheese steak egg rolls, the fish tacos.  My steak sandwich with parmesan crusted fries were strong.

Old favorites were the corned beef sandwich at Harold's deli in Edison and we went back to Boulevard Seafood in Somerville for one of my favorite appetizers in the crab cannelloni.  This time I had the Grilled red snapper with a hash and herb butter sauce which stood out. 

Common Lot in Millburn, H2Ocean in Cedar Knolls, Wegman's, Olive Lucy's in Morristown and Zach's Oak Bar in Hoboken

I have to lead off with the duck for two at Common Lot in Millburn which the chef had recommended when me and Leslie were there a few months back. You have to call at least one week beforehand but the call is well worth it. The chef orders a whole duck and then splits it up into a breast, chopped duck salad and a really strong duck fried rice.

For an appetizer the octopus was as meaty an octopus as I have ever had.  The meal closed with a nice apple tart and a ice cream made with goats milk and a drizzle of maple syrup which was as interesting a desert as I have had in a while.  Our board president had the venison which looked great.

 We enjoyed seafood at H2Ocean in Cedar Knolls with the Calabrese's. The blackened sea bass with asparagus wrapped bacon was tasty as was the Lobster Empanada at Olive Lucy's in Morristown.

 The biggest surprise was actually at Wegman's burger bar where I had a very tasty Shrimp po' boy with fries.

This morning we went to Zach's Oak Bar for Brunch and I had the salmon eggs benedict while Leslie had the chorizo breakfast burrito. 

Berkeley Heights and Bedminster

Had a great time at the Long's wedding including some good food at Natarir in Bedminster such as the short rib off the bone.  I even got the tennis boys together for a great photo op!

The Sisto's took us to a place I had not heard of in Strega Bistro in Berkeley Heights for a nice night out.  I started with the Burrata and really enjoyed the seafood risotto.  Don's veal looked good with some nice greens on top. Leslie had the grouper which was really interesting.

Don

Aruba

We had a great trip to Aruba last week and we were really happy with the food options on the island.  The tough part is to pick which really good restaurants to go to.  We started at Atardi which has tables on the beach in a really nice ambiance.  I had the macadamia crusted grouper but the star was the crab appetizer which was awesome.

The breakfasts were very good including the dutch pancakes which were similar to crepes.  The best option was the smoked salmon sandwiches at the Dushi Bagels and Burgers and Mulligan's in the Divi golf and beach resort where we stayed.

The West Deck was our next dinner stop and this was an informal spot overlooking the beach and we could watch the cruise ships go out. I love conch fritters and was looking forward to those as well as the Ceviche which was very good.  Leslie's fish sliders hit the spot.

The most interesting choice of the week was the Old Cunucu House which is a local Aruban favorite. Of course, I could not resist ordering the Iguana soup which tasted like really good chicken with a kicker.  My main meal was the caribbean lobster with cheese which I liked a lot.  This local restaurant with two wonderful stray dogs hanging out was fun.

Food however was not the main attraction on Aruba as NFL (No Fun Leslie)  was cajoled by me into some exciting activities such as the UTV tour, paddle boarding, golf, tubing and snorkeling. 

Cheesesteak from Sonny's, brunch in montclair and

We got a chance to go to Toast in Montclair for brunch and as expected the food was excellent and Murphy even got the chance to beg a little bit for the bananas foster french toast.  I had to try for the first time ever the carrot cake pancakes. These could have been deserts instead of brunch.

The night before we ate at the remodeled Rosie's trattoria on the new patio and we had fresh pasta dishes. My pasta had a nice amount of crab and Leslie's had really good salmon.

Great surprise last night when Allie and Tyler came back from Philly with Allie handing me a cheesesteak sandwich from Sonny's in Philly.  Definitely top 3 of Cheesesteaks I have had in Philly so add that to the list.

My quarterly visit to Americana Diner in East Windsor yielded a very good combo of Burrata en Carrozza and coconut shrimp.

Local brunch places

The last few weekends we have focused on some really good local places for brunch in NJ.
In no particular order we went to Rockaway and Missy's Main street cafe.  I had one of the Specials in the Bananas Foster French Toast which was delicious.  Neat place with the check coming in a mini mailbox.

Mara's cafe looked good as a bakery but my Steak and Egg Burrito was a super Summer special. The pepper jack cheese and siracha sour cream was a really nice addition to the Steak and scrambled eggs.

Next up was Sweet Basil's cafe in Livingston.  Reviewers of this brunch spot focused on a number of good looking options but I had to go with something I never had in the Shrimp Benedict which was excellent but unusual. The ingredients were roasted corn & yucca hash with shrimp, topped with guacamole, two poached eggs & cilantro chipotle hollandaise co     rn & yucca hash with shrimp, topped with guacamole, two poached eggs & cila

ntro chipotle hollandaise