Road Trip: Aberdeen Seafood & Dim Sum in White Plains Restaurant Asian Brunch Chinese Dim Sum White Plains Lunch Nancy Kleeger November 27, 2011 Upon our return to the United States this summer from living abroad for 13 years, with our most recent move from Hong Kong, my family and I were faced with a serious food challenge. We hadn’t had access to good pizza, bagels and deli for years, so the first few weeks after we moved back, we became “born again” NY carb fanatics, showing our faces at every bagel and pizza joint north of NYC. After a month or so, this eating frenzy thankfully began to wear off. One of the things we miss most about Hong Kong is going out for Dim Sum, or yum cha, as it’s also called in Cantonese. After a friend mentioned Aberdeen Seafood & Dim Dum in White Plains, I knew we had to go to bridge East meets West food chain. Read More
Red Mango All Natural Fro-Yo Coming to New Canaan Jeff "jfood" Schlesinger November 25, 2011 Red Mango, a Dallas based company offering 100% all-natural frozen yogurt will open its first Connecticut location in New Canaan at 125 Elm St. Red Mango has a "real" yogurt taste more akin to Pinkberry vs. the more sugary versions found in many fro-yo venues these days. According to the Red Mango website, its frozen yogurt contains live and active cultures with no preservatives, artificial coloring, or preservatives. Its gluten-free yogurt uses only natual sweeteners and will offer an alternative to other frozen yogurts in the area that use high fructose corn syrup in their products. The standard flavors include the original Sweet and Tangy, a Pomegranate by POM, Madagascar Vanilla plus with an ever-changing special flavor, currently Cinnamon Apple Orchard at other locations. Read More
Ad: Cheesecake Factory & Brio Open @ Danbury Fair Mall Restaurant American Danbury Italian Advertisement Kid Friendly CTbites Team November 23, 2011 Danbury Fair has made shopping more appetizing this winter with the addition of popular restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory® and BRIO Tuscan Grille. These great new dining options bring affordable upscale dining to Danbury Fair and will provide the perfect rest stop during the upcoming holiday shopping frenzy. The Cheesecake Factory®'s award winning family friendly menu with over 40 decadent desserts promises something tasty for everyone while BRIO brings authentic, Northern Italian cuisine to Danbury CT. Read More
Connecticut Food Bank Needs More Turkeys Stephanie Webster November 22, 2011 Connecticut Food Bank needs your help by 2pm TODAY!! It is estimating that its annual Thanksgiving for All campaign is about 1,800 turkeys short of its goal this year. Please take a moment to help and donate a turkey through the CT Food Bank's virtual food drive at www.ctfoodbank.org. Last year, Connecticut Food Bank distributed 24,000 turkeys and enough trimmings to provide an estimated 790,000 meals for people in need during the holiday season. This Thanksgiving, Connecticut Food Bank needs to distribute more food so more people in need can be served, especially in the ongoing challenging economic climate. Member organizations of Connecticut Food Bank are reporting an average 30 percent increase in demand for services. Read More
Eating Fairfield: Great Dining Deals Start Nov 27th CTbites Team November 22, 2011 The New England Culinary Group is gearing up for a week-long celebration of dining in Fairfield, CT from Sunday, November 27- thru Friday, December 2, 2011. Restaurants participating in Eating Fairfield will offer consumers specially discounted prices on prix fixe menus and special offers throughout the entire week. Unlike your typical “restaurant weeks” that have so fabulously been taking place throughout the country, Eating Fairfield will not only include specially priced prix fixe menus, it will also include an array of delicious and fun offers from participating restaurants and markets, allowing for a wider variety of choices throughout the week. Read More
leFarm's Whipped Chicken Livers w/ Shallot Jam Recipe Features Recipe Bill Taibe November 22, 2011 What would Thanksgiving be without a little offal and who gives better offal than LeFarm's Bill Taibe? I mean really...the man knows his organ meats. LeFarm will be offering this recipe for Whipped Chicken Livers with Shallot Jam for pickup at leFarm (203.557.3701), but if you want to make it yourself at home, here's how: At a loss for where to find some great tasting chicken livers? Try the new Craft Butchery in the Saugatuck area of Westport. Read More
Thanksgiving Holiday Smokin’ w/ Corinne Trang Features Entertaining Holiday Thanksgiving Recipe CTbites Team November 21, 2011 Corinne Trang, author of The Asian Grill, and local Fairfield County resident, is back with some holiday recipes that will get you eating out of the traditional Thanksgiving box. Thanksgiving is a holiday my family adopted when we moved from France to the U.S. in 1978. And eating turkey on that day meant that the bird would never be seen again at our Christmas table as tradition dictated in the past. Our new American holiday quickly became another excuse to get together with family and friends and eat all day until our stomachs would burst. In that way, we were no different than other families joyfully eating their way through a 20-pound plus bird, side dishes, and desserts, except that… Read More
Ad: Thanksgiving Dinner @ Artisan Restaurant, Southport CTbites Team November 21, 2011 Looking for a great Thanksgiving meal, but don't want to cook? Artisan Restaurant in the Delamar Southport hotel is offering guests a three-course pre fixe farm to table menu. Their traditional Thanksgiving feast will include appetizers, entrees and desserts using the freshest produce selections and seasonal ingredients from local Connecticut farms. Read More
A Good Crêpe is Hard to Find...A Guide to FC Crêpes Restaurant Fairfield Norwalk New Canaan Lunch Kid Friendly Dessert CTbites Team November 20, 2011 I’m tough on crêperies. I can’t help it. I’m constantly comparing their crêpes to the ones of my French childhood summers spent in Brittany, the northwest peninsula of France and the crêpe’s birthplace. My great-grandmother made them in her two room farmhouse –– she poured the mixture of buckwheat flour, salt and water onto a billig, a hot, round, buttered, grill surface, then with her rozell, a small toothless rake, she spread this batter into a fifteen-inch-round sphere the thinness of butterfly wings. As the batter bubbled there and the edges browned, she coaxed the half cooked, wobbly, crepe onto her long, wooden spatula and flipped it over, intact. The crêpe continued cooking this way until completely golden, signaling to her to scrape this fragile delicacy gently off the billig with her spatula. From here she held the hot crêpe between her fingertips and the spatula. She then placed it onto a waiting plate, setting the crêpe down with the same carefulness as though she was putting a drowsy baby onto a pillow. Read More
Match's Jack Daniels Whipped Sweet Potatoes Features Entertaining Holiday Thanksgiving Recipe Matt Storch November 20, 2011 Thank you to Chef Matt Storch of Match Restaurant in South Norwalk for this next Thanksgiving recipe, Jack Daniels Whipped Sweet Potatoes w/ Brown Butter, Maple Syrup & Goat Cheese. Excuse me...I think I may have just drooled on my keyboard. If you're looking for a less boozy side dish (Lord knows why this would be), check out Matt Storch's recipe for MATCH's Luscious Whipped Potatoes. Light and creamy, these are sure to please guests of all ages...even that sister-in-law who never smiles. Read More
Roasted Pumpkin & Squash Soup via Dressing Room Features Entertaining Holiday Thanksgiving Recipe CTbites Team November 18, 2011 Everyone's favorite winter harvest holiday is soon upon us and it's time to start lining up those Thanksgiving recipes. While some have tried and true favorites passed down from generation to generation, my family is slightly more A.D.D. (attention deficit disorder) about the whole affair. Every year becomes an "exciting" opportunity to test out new dishes (some savored...some spit out) and pave the way for new traditions. We have however found that the best recipes often come from our local chefs. Hence, CTbites brings you the first in a series of Thanksgiving recipes from the Fairfield County chefs you know and love, starting with Executive Chef Jon Vaast of The Dressing Room. Enjoy! Read More
Bread Pudding w. Bourbon Pecans & Butterscotch Features Entertaining Holiday Recipe Dessert katie vitucci November 18, 2011 When I saw this recipe in the November issue of Bon Appétit I knew I would make it. I thought maybe as a Thanksgiving dessert. But, it turns out I couldn't wait that long and made it the day after it arrived in my mailbox. Of course the fact that it was a bread pudding comprised of pecans, and bourbon, and butterscotch sold me. More than all that though, I was intrigued by the use of poppy seeds in this dessert. Poppy seeds in bread pudding? Well, yes. And - they work. The little bits of black splattered among all the other rich, creamy goodness add a nice crunch and texture. Read More
Friday Froth: Seasonal Brews Ingredients Friday Froth Beer James Gribbon November 18, 2011 The following Froth column was originally scheduled to run last week but got sucked into a worm hole. Pardon any time related ambiguity. Congratulations to those of you who are now able to read this after having been gracefully ushered back into the 19th[strikethrough] 21st century by our benevolent dictators at CL&P. There's a scene in Gladiator where Djimon Hounsou's character sees the Roman coliseum for the first time and says "I did not know men were capable of such things." I imagine that's a little what it's like to use an oven or turn on the lights after a dozen days whose rhythms were controlled by the Sun's rise and fall; writing notes on the back of a wooden shovel with a lump of coal by candle light, that kind of thing. The long nights of the winter can now once again be banished by the sorcery of compact fluorescent bulbs, but some elements of the wintertide are to be embraced, like seasonal brews. Read More
Food 52 @ Darien Library Nov. 28 Amy Kundrat November 18, 2011 Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, co-founders of the site Food52.com and authors of a new FOOD 52 cookbook will be speaking and signing books at the Darien Library on Monday, November 28 at 7 p.m. This event is held in conjunction with Barret Bookstore. Their site food52.com is a celebration of the best home cooks in the country. Over the course of 52 weeks, they ran recipes competitions on the web site and that year-long exercise has turned into The Food52 Cookbook. Read More
The Wine Mapp Opens in Greenwich Ingredients Greenwich Specialty Market Wine Chat Wine Tasting Jessica Ryan November 17, 2011 The Wine Mapp, a unique wine and spirits boutique, recently opened its doors in Greenwich. The store is nicely sized, cozy and intimate. There’s a feeling of warmth at The Wine Mapp that eludes the larger competitors. The store is owned by Allyson and Charlie Do of Norwalk. It was Charlie who first had the idea of opening up such a shop after visiting a restaurant in New York City where a waiter came out with a list of wines that were stored on an electric tablet of some sort. He knew, at that moment, that he was going to open a wine shop that would incorporate technology - more specifically, he knew he was going to incorporate the iPad to give customers the best possible shopping experience. Read More
Invite: Gourmet Cheese Selection from 109 Cheese & Wine CTbites Invites CTbites Team November 16, 2011
Butter & Herb Roasted Turkey with Madeira c/o Fine Cooking Features Entertaining Holiday Thanksgiving Recipe Fine Cooking / Anna Thomas November 16, 2011 Opening up the latest issue of Fine Cooking, we found it impossible to take our eyes of the cover. So who better to kick off our series of Thanksgiving Day recipes than the good folks at Fine Cooking who came up with this amazing-looking recipe and have let us share it with you. So if you've got the bird in your sights but are lacking inspiration, here is one recipe you may want to consider. Butter & Herb Roasted Turkey with Madeira Serves 10 to 12, with a good probability of leftovers Read More
