Community Plates Food 4 All Fundraiser [Update] CTbites Team August 21, 2013 Hunger in the United States makes no sense. Community Plates is working to end it. Join Community Plates on October 1, 2013 at their annual fundraiser to kick off the 2013-2014 food rescue season. Help them meet their goal to rescue 3,000,000 meals over the coming year. Food for All 2013: A Night to End Hunger in Fairfield County.(click here to register!) 6:30 – 7:30 VIP Cocktail Reception 7:30 – 10:00 A Night to End Hunger in Fairfield County Read More
Chef Cindy Hartog Launches Kids Cooking Classes @ Oak & Almond CTbites Team August 21, 2013 Chef Cindy Hartog, owner of Cindy's Sous Chefs, has been teaching kids to cook in Fairfield County for over 10 years. Starting this fall, Cindy wil be teaming up with Oak & Almond in Norwalk to offer a comprehensive Kids Cooking Class program, "Oak & Almond Culinary Academy." Classes will meet once a week for 10 weeks, beginning the week of September 9, from 4-6. The fee is $700. Class size is strictly limited. The kids will be cooking full meals (except during 2 strictly dessert sessions), and will get to sample their foods in the beautiful restaurant itself. The menu for the classes will follow Cindy's Sous Chef's curriculum, focusing on food from around the world. Cindy's goal is to foster a kid's passion for food. Italy will include Pasta from Scratch, Tiramisu, Panzanella, and more. Japan includes sushi rolls and dumplings. Children will have a chance to eat their creations within the main restaurant. Parents wishing to eat or drink during class time will have a discount applied to their check. There will also be a cake decorating class using an airbrush, Cookie Creations, and a Chocolate Craze class. Read More
The Chelsea: Gazpacho Meets Mozzarella & Tomatoes Recipe Ingredients Features Entertaining Recipe Matt Storch August 20, 2013 The Chelsea in Fairfield boasts a vibrant pub scene and some pretty tasty fare. Chef Matt Storch who oversees the kitchen with Jeff Spence (also from Match Restaurant) says, "There's a lot of love in every dish." Given the season, we were feeling the love for this classic mashup: Gazpacho meets Classic Mozzarella & Tomatoes. Enjoy this dish while tomatoes are still in season, because unless you are canning those beauties, the harvest time for local vipe ripened tomatoes is coming to a close in September. Enjoy a little bit of The Chelsea in your kitchen. Read More
Baldanza Natural Market & Cafe Opens in New Canaan Restaurant Specialty Market New Canaan Breakfast Lunch CTbites Team August 20, 2013 The makeover at 17 Elm Street in New Canaan is complete and Baldanza Natural Market & Café is now open. With an organic focus and local sourcing, owners Sandy and Angela Baldanza are offering clean, fresh dishes from local sources. The décor is reminiscent of an old fashioned country market with 12 interior seats and 18 on the patio for guests to enjoy the cuisine on site or ask for a take-away. The display case now offers organic salads with many of the items sourced from local farmers including Riverbank, The Hickories, John Boy's, Ryder and Ceccarelli’s Farms. The Café is currently serving both breakfast and lunch. The opening breakfast choices include eggs, pancakes, French toast, Daily frittatas, granola and freshly baked croissants. The lunch options range from hot dogs and hamburgers to a Gruyere and Grafton Cheddar sandwich, plus a kale and arugula salad with cherry tomatoes and Gruyere. Daily "Specials" may include a Sliced Strip Steak Sandwich with Grafton Cheddar, L&T. In the early evening Baldanza offers take-away dinners including a lemon scented organic half-chicken. Stay tuned when CTbites returns to sample the cuisine. Read More
Arethusa Al Tavolo: The New Gem of Litchfield County Restaurant Farm to Table Litchfield Local Farm Cindy Hartog August 18, 2013 Arethusa Al Tavolo is the new gem of Litchfield County. Only a one hour's drive from Westport, past lush pastures and glistening lakes, Arethusa Al Tavolo takes you on a culinary journey. The restaurant is located right next door to the Arethusa Dairy Shop, founded by Manolo Blanik owners George Malkemus and Anthony Yurgaitis, whose taste and style manifests itself in all of their ventures: The Arethusa Bar, The Dairy Farm, and Arethusa Al Tavolo, which opened in June 2013. The dairy produces milk, house made ice cream, and Arethusa cheese to take home. The restaurant highlights fresh local ingredients, and Chef Daniel Magill, who has worked with the likes of Daniel Boulud, works his magic in a dining space that is bright and airy, but with no airs. The food is the centerpiece. Read More
Pick Your Own Raspberry Season is On! CTbites Team August 18, 2013 This just in from Bishop's Orchards in Guilford CT... It's that time of year. PICK YOUR OWN RASPBERRIES at Bishop's Orchards. Come out with your family and friends to Pick Your Own. It's the beginning of the season and the berries are ripening up nicely! It's something to do that is fun for all ages!Picking Hours are subject to change due to weather and crop availability. Always call first before coming, 203-458-PICK) Read More
Community Plates "Food For All" Fundraiser to End Hunger in Fairfield County CTbites Team August 16, 2013 SAVE THE DATE!! Community Plates is a non-profit organization that has employed one simple idea to address the complex issue of hunger. Community Plates connects food to people in need of it, by rescuing good food that would otherwise be thrown away and delivering it to hunger relief agencies in Fairfield County. On October 1st, 2013, Community Plates will be hosting a fundraiser to raise money to continue their mission. We hope you can join us! Details coming soon... Read More
Recipe: Late Summer Tomato Tart via Marcia Selden Features Catering Entertaining Recipe Marcia Selden Catering August 15, 2013 Late summer offers some of the best produce of the season! For those of you who garden, you may be finding yourself with a bumper crop of plump sweet tomatoes. Here’s our recipe for a delicious tomato tart. Don’t let the word tart intimidate you, it’s deceptively easy to make, and absolutely perfect for a picnic at the beach or at home with friends. Read More
Winesday: The Color Pink...Rose to Watch Ingredients Cocktails Wine Chat Winesday Emma Jane-Doody Stetson August 14, 2013 I love the color pink. Just over a month ago, I bounded into the Kuwaiti restaurant with the tips of my hair dyed a vibrant hue of “funky flamingo,” the result of a renegade mission with a friend earlier that morning. Yet when it comes to wine, I frequently find myself forsaking my favorite color. I tend to prefer a rich red to a rose- even in the summer months. Recently, though, roses that satisfy my taste for reds have garnered attention. Shelves are slowly filling with roses made from robust, red varietals. They manage to incorporate the robust notes while keeping the light nature of the rose. They prove perfect for summer cuisine. People can still enjoy a cold drink and the more delicate body will not overwhelm poultry or fish straight off the grill. At the same time, the subtle smoke and black fruit from the red grapes can hold up to spicy dishes, red meats, or even a burger. One of the most exciting bottles in this genre goes by the name of “Nigl.” It heralds from Austria and is comprised of 100% Zweigelt, a red grape indigenous to the country. Read More
Chef Michael Symon Coming To Stew Leonard's Sept 10th CTbites Team August 14, 2013 Chef Michael Symon will be appearing at Stew Leonard's Danbury location on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. to sign his new cookbook MICHAEL SYMON’S 5 IN 5: 5 Fresh Ingredients + 5 Minutes = 120 Fantastic Dinners. MICHAEL SYMON is a co-host of ABC’s The Chew, an Iron Chef on Food Network’s Iron Chef America, and the host of Cooking Channel’s Symon’s Suppers. He is the author of Michael Symon’s Live to Cook and Michael Symon’s Carnivore. WHAT: When co-host Michael Symon first joined ABC’s The Chew, what excited him most was the thought of being able to inspire home cooks to create affordable and delicious food. With harried home cooks in mind, Michael developed a simple, brilliant formula to help home cooks pull together fresh meals on weeknights: a maximum of 5 fresh ingredients that cook in 5 minutes. MICHAEL SYMON’S 5 IN 5: 5 Fresh Ingredients + 5 Minutes = 120 Fantastic Dinners (Clarkson Potter) ties perfectly into his segment—the most popular one on the show—featuring dazzlingly quick, satisfying dinners that the whole family will love. Read More
A Farm Grows in Stamford: Hubbard Heights Farm Local Farm Stamford Lou Gorfain August 13, 2013 Thanks in part to a gruff farmer who answers to the moniker "Uncle Buck," three acres of organic vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers are ripening smack dab in the middle of Stamford's big town hustle and bustle. Rows upon rows of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, potatoes, kale, eggplant, lettuce, herbs, pumpkins and squash now prosper on land that was once part of the city's most fashionable district, an estate area known as Hubbard Heights. Over a century ago, this is where the town's doctors built their stately manses to be near the new Stamford Hospital just down the block. Even today, historic Hubbard Heights remains one of the most elegant streets in town. But let’s go Way Back to the Future, more than two and a half centuries ago. You would be standing in the middle of Hubbard Farms, a vast bucolic acreage farmed by the Hubbard family, newly arrived in Connecticut. Their fields stretch almost to the horizon; the abundant crops leafy, tall and green, free of herbicides, fungicides or growth hormones. Read More
Maddy’s Food Truck – A Caribbean Escape in Stamford Food Truck Stamford Eliza Schlesinger August 11, 2013 We’ve all been there, you’re at work, it’s a long, hard morning and your eyes glaze over as you start to dream of an island vacation. While a quick tropical getaway may be a little out of reach for a working girl in her 20’s, there is a more realistic option that can be squeezed into the lunch break, Maddy’s Food Truck. Several months ago, Maddy’s Food Truck hit the mobile meal scene as one of the first in the area and now spends lunch-time parked on Stamford streets and nights outside the Beer Garden. Offering a combination of American treats and family-inspired Haitian recipes, the menu offers a variety of dishes to appeal to the masses. My first taste was the bacon and avocado grilled cheese served with marinated tomatoes; I guess my reputation regarding my love for grilled cheese preceded me. The bacon was crisp, the avocado fresh and the marinated tomatoes added a nice flavor. Although I was pleased with having another delicious grilled cheese option, I was eager to show my palate something new. Read More
Bareburger, "Best Burger in NYC," Coming to Harbor Point Stamford & Ridgefield Restaurant Stamford Burgers CTbites Team August 10, 2013 Burger lovers rejoice. As reported in HeyStamford!, Bareburger is coming soon to Harbor Point in Stamford & according to the Bareburger web site, will be opening in Ridgefield CT Fall 2013. Bareburger is a micro-chain of organic burger restaurants. They currently have ten locations in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. Voted "New York's Best Burger" by Zagat, and Michelin recommended two years in a row, this place will be worth a taste. Bareburger restaurants offer organic burgers and sandwiches, fresh salads, delicious shakes and sharable snacks in environmentally sustainable, eco-friendly locations. Their belief is that organic food tastes better and is better for you, and that sourcing our ingredients locally benefits our communities. Their menu features a variety of meats, including traditional beef, chicken, turkey and lamb; exotic options such as elk, bison, ostrich and boar; and mushroom, veggie and black bean burgers for our vegetarian and vegan guests. More on the Bareburger opening coming soon. Read More
ShakesBeer Festival Raises Pints & Funds for Stratford Theater Aug 17 Events Beer James Gribbon August 09, 2013 ShakesBeer Festival Raises Pints, Funds for Stratford Theater on Aug. 17Shakespeare wrote the line "a quart of ale is a dish fit for a king" in A Winter's Tale, so down two pints and get to feeling regal as the first ever ShakesBeer festival comes to the grounds of the American Shakespeare Festival Theater in Stratford on Saturday, August 17. Music, food, local craft beers and, naturally, some live theater, are all planned. The American Shakespeare Festival Theater overlooks the mouth of the Housatonic River at 1850 Elm Street in Stratford, and has hosted show business names like Christopher Walken, Katherine Hepburn, Christopher Plummer, Jack Palance, Roy Scheider and Kelsey Grammer from its construction in 1954 until finances caused the last curtain to fall in the late 80s.* The building still stands, the location is still prime, and efforts to restore the theater have been ongoing in fits and starts since various developers and the town of Stratford itself wrested control of the property from the state. Read More
Ridgefield Farmers' Market Returns Ingredients Farmers Market Ridgefield CTbites Team August 08, 2013
Parallel Post Launches Farm-to-Trumbull Dining Series, Aug 18 Restaurant Events Farm Dinner Farm to Table CTbites Team August 08, 2013 Parallel Post in Trumbull is launching a dining series inspired by the season, Farm-to-Trumbull. Farm-to-Trumbull has been designed by Parallel Post to provide an intimate experience for 40 guests led by James Beard-nominated chef Dean James Max. For $75 per person (tax and 18 percent gratuity not included), guests can warm the palate with a welcome cocktail and sampling of small bites, followed by a family-style meal ripe with the season’s finest local ingredients, wine pairings presented by our mixologist and an all-you-can-indulge dessert bar. The dinner will take place at the beautiful, Gilbertie’s Herb Gardens in Easton. The menu for the event - much like Parallel Post’s weekly-changing restaurant menu – focuses on localism, following the philosophy that natural and sustainable products, and responsible farming, are the key components in ingredient selection. Read More
CTbites' Chef Demo Tent Returns to Westport's Blues & BBQ Festival Restaurant BBQ Chef Talk Cooking Classes Education CTbites Team August 07, 2013 Listen up food lovers. CTbites has rounded up some of the area's top chefs for two full afternoons of live cooking demonstrations, recipe tasting and general good times. Last year's CTbites Chef Demo Tent was such a success we've added a second day! On Saturday, August 31st & Sunday September 1st from 11:30-5pm come on down to Westport's Blues Views & BBQ Festival to meet: Chef Matt Storch of Match; Pietro Scotti of Da Pietro's ; Fritz Knipschidlt of Café Chocopologie; Chef Rob Troilo of Nicholas Roberts; Helton DaSilva of Barcelona Restaurant; Pat Pascarella of Bar Sugo; Mark Hepperman of Saugatuck Craft Butchery; Jamie Cooper of BONDA; Carlos Baez of The Spread; Judy Roll of Tabouli Grill; and Bar Q/Bobby Q's PitStop's own Tim Doherty. Come get schooled while you enjoy samples from 11 talented local chefs. View the full schedule below... Read More
Thali's Chef Prasad: A Lesson in Spice @ Clarke Culinary Center Features Restaurant Cooking Classes Education Kitchen Gear Sarah Green August 06, 2013 A lesson in spice, a lesson in life - a cooking class with Prasad Chirnomula is both. Purely charming and ridiculously modest, Chef Prasad (of the Indian restaurants THALI and THALI TOO and of the former Oaxaca in Westport) recently taught a group of eager foodies some very important secrets regarding the art of cooking Indian at Norwalk's prestigious Clarke Culinary Center. Clarke offers the best in high end kitchens and top quality appliances as well as wonderful cooking classes where top notch chef Gods let a small groups of mortals watch and learn. So we came, we saw, we watched and we ate. But it wasn't just food that Chef Prasad cooked up- it was more like the creation of a warm, breezy sunset. Chef Prasad created a palate of color. Read More
