Zaragoza’s tapas bar opened in New Milford in April 2016. The CTBites crew covered them a few months before their official opening and shared owner Artie Praino’s anticipation of a long-time dream come true after years in the deli business. Now, two and a half years later, they are a much beloved, popular spot for delicious, creative plates and cocktails.
Fully informed by several Zaragoza regulars that I was sure to be delighted, my belly gurgled for a new tapas experience. I’ve had the pleasure of going to Spain a few times, so, admittedly, morsels from those adventures like ceviche, calamari, and chorizo propelled me to the restaurant with little hesitation. I was eager to taste what their twist on the classics would be.
Mecha Noodle Bar & Mézon owners, Tony Pham and Richard Reyes, are excited to announce the launch of their new food truck, Eat Justice. The truck will open its window to the public on Friday, June 15th, at Holbrook Farm in Bethel. The Eat Justice food truck rolls into the CT food scene with some pre-existing street cred, and we're not just talking about our beloved noodle slurping shop founders. Beneath the new pink origami pig exterior resides the bones of the EGGZ food truck, purchased from Matt Stanziato. Lucky us, the truck will continue to feature EGGZ' killer breakfast sandwiches, but Pham and Reyes will expand the menu to include "Daily Inspirations" ranging from Banh Mi to a classic Cubano. Bonus... you don't need to hunt down the Eat Justice truck. It will reside at Holbrook Farm every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 8am-1pm, like clockwork. This is a great reason to head to Bethel.
I submit that raw milk might just be the most real of all foods.
Start with the fact that milk is the only food created specifically to feed something. (Honey doesn’t count, as the pollen honey is made from has its own agenda.) Synonymous with nourishment, raw milk is the first food most human beings—all mammals—ingest. And raw milk, for it to be free of any off flavors and to be safe to drink, requires painstaking care to produce. Every little step in the process matters.
The subtle and intricate flavors in raw milk, the very opposite of the one-note flavor of pasteurized milk or, worse, the waxy cardboard taste vacuum of skim, come from the undenatured biocomplexity in unpasteurized milk. When I read chemists-for-hire claiming, on behalf of big commercial dairy, that there isn't that much nutritional difference between pasteurized and raw, I choose to trust my palate. Well, my palate and the biochemists who say that the difference is real and considerable.
Fairfield County is full of trailblazing women, particularly in the culinary world. Which is why, with 2018 being proclaimed the Year of the Woman, we felt compelled to honor the pioneers among us.
Our new series, “It’s A Woman’s World’ is devoted to Fairfield County female influencers who’ve forged their own paths, often in food-related fields long dominated by men.
Whether farming the land, bringing healthy food to the masses, feeding an entrepreneurial spirit or injecting feminism with food, these groundbreaking ladies have set a new definition of women’s work, creating new paths and setting examples for those who follow.
How'd they do it? Read on. This week, we feature Annie Farrell, a pioneer in sustainable farming, and farmer at Millstone Farm in Wilton CT. Stay tuned to see who’s next. And feel free to send suggestions for your candidates to steph@ctbites.com.
Writer Luke Shanahan contemplates the virtues of a truly excellent fresh egg with Lloyd Allen of Double L Market.
Consider the egg.
Any serious cook knows its singular importance in the kitchen. Many cooks—serious and novice alike—remember the egg as the first thing they ever learned to cook.
In the book The Next Course, rock-&-roller chef Marco Pierre White, who at 33 became the youngest cook ever to be awarded three Michelin stars, reveals his country side when he suggests that scrambled (gulls) eggs with celery salt served with mayonnaise—an emulsion of egg yolk, acid and oil—may be a worthy last meal on earth. (Here's a handy list of local CT farms that produce fresh eggs.)
New bar & restaurant opening in Westport as reported by WestportNow.
A new bar and restaurant, 190 Main, opens Dec. 15 at 190 Main St., according to Melissa Gorman, co-owner with Sam Alang. Gorman said the eatery offers small plates and tapas featuring seafood specialties. Gorman is a Weston resident who grew up in Savannah, Georgia where she previously managed several restaurants. The 190 Main Street space was previously occupied by the Vine Wine Room that closed in July and the the Luxe Wine Bar, which closed in April 2016. The restaurant offers lunch Thursday through Sunday and dinner every day, according to Gorman.
Market Place Hospitality group is delighted to announce the grand opening of their newest location, Market Place Kitchen & Bar Newton, this Friday, December 1st. The restaurant will be open to the general public for dinner and is located at: The Village at Lexington Gardens, 32 Church Hill Road, Newtown, CT. With sister locations in Avon, Danbury, and Woodbury, Market Place Kitchen & Bar is 100% locally owned and operated and committed to sourcing local ingredients and working with local farmers.
Managing Partner Eli Hawli says: “We are delighted and honored to be a local business supporting local farms. As our Market Place family continues to grow, we will continue to provide the same quality of craft cocktails and chef driven cuisine which we know all of our wonderful customers want and expect from us
In Italian, stuzzichino means a snack, or appetizer, or nibble. Assaggio, similarly, means a small amount of food or drink.
From Italian to Spanish, both translate roughly to tapas, an Iberian food culture that pairs small servings of food with drink in a laid-back setting.
It’s the kind of cuisine and vibe that Massimo Tabbacco and Miguel Angelo D’Onofrio, co-owners of the recently opened Bar Lupa, want to achieve at their redesigned space on the Post Road in Westport.
“It’s little portions, so you can taste a variety of things,” Tabbacco said. “It’s basically the same thing as Spanish tapas. But here in America, they know the word tapas more than stuzzichino.”
To avoid confusion, the items are listed on the menu as “Italian tapas,” but the dishes are inspired by Tabbacco’s and D’Onofrio’s respective upbringings — in Rome and Sao Paolo, Brazil, which has a large Italian population — and shared experience working in Italian restaurants throughout Fairfield County, as well as New York City.
Four years. That’s the time Tyler Anderson devoted to perfecting his signature dish, Tapioca Custard. A lush confection of clams, bacon, onion, potato and fennel, the delicacy perfectly defines the wizardry of this celebrated chef … a magical spin on homespun.
The small portion is intentionally introductory, a riff on a classic New England starter. As if by sorcery, the custard conjures “all the flavors of clam chowder.”
Anderson conceived the dish as a tribute to the meal – and the moment -- that super-charged his culinary life. “I went to the French Laundry in 1997 when Tomas Keller was in the kitchen,” he recalls. “Up to then I had been cooking mainly to meet women and go drinking with my buddies.”
He began the feast with Keller’s classic, Oysters and Pearls, a sabayon of pearl tapioca with beau soleil oysters and white sturgeon caviar.
“I took the first bite,” he remembers. “And at that exact second understood that cooking could be more than just cooking.” He pauses and grins. “It made me smile. I was happy. I now had a passion to make people happy.”
On Saturday, September 16th, Enjoy an organic farm to table feast alongside the sounds of acclaimed jazz musicians from The Mike Casey Trio at Waldingfield Farm in Washington CT.
Visit a beautiful organic farm hidden in the Litchfield Hills for a fine seasonal dinner all sourced locally. Guests will enjoy an Autumn sunset and a fine dinner in celebration organic farming in Connecticut!
4 PM Refreshments & Farm Tour 5 PM Cocktails & 1st Course 6 PM The Mike Casey Trio Followed by Dinner & Dessert
Yes, we can squeeze the peaches before we buy them in the supermarket and cherry-pick the basket we like at the farmer’s market, but there is nothing more satisfying than standing under a a tree limb full of ripe peaches. There is a tangible joy in choosing one, reaching up to feel the soft fuzz against the firm fruit and inhaling it’s perfume as you gently twist it from its stem. This was our experience yesterday and not one person in our party of 8 put their first picked peach in a bag. Bishop’s Orchards in Guilford can offer you this experience 4 times over, as their orchards are currently yielding peaches, pears and raspberries. Bishop’s is a straight shot up Rt. 95N(exit 57; take a right) and the 45 drive is well worth it.
For Bob Kunkel, the Co-owner of Harbor Harvest in Norwalk, CT, he is a true mariner whose blood is part saltwater and whose first love is the sea. With forty years in the restaurant business and a background in ship builders, Harbor Harvest is a market with a vision like no other. Mr. Kunkel does not settle for anything but fabulous which means all his products are locally sourced and of the highest quality. He makes a point that sustainability and being environmentally conscious is paramount to a healthy community and the world which has to lead to some epic initiatives.
The Black Rock Farmers' Market is back, Saturdays, June 10 -October 7th 9am to 1pm at 481 Brewster Street in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport CT. The season will kick off during Black Rock Day Weekend, an event that serves as a community initiative to promote projects that enhance the quality of life for residents and business in the area.
BRFM is a producer-only market featuring locally farmed vegetables, fruit, cheese, eggs (with a real life rooster), bread, meats, jams pickles and so much more. Their local artisan selection varies from vintage finds to natural beauty care products. Market visitors have the opportunity to start their day with a 10:30AM yoga class in the field and enjoy their weekly produce shopping accompanied by live local musicians.
Mark your calendars for opening day of the Westport Farmers’ Market, Thursday, May 18th, from 10 to 2 at 50 Imperial Avenue. (View the complete market vendor list below.)
Chefs from area restaurants will return this year to provide a source of inspiration to area shoppers. Each week they will create easy, healthful, delicious meals using fresh, local products found at the market. These seasonal recipes and others from top chefs throughout the area will be distributed each week at the market and available on the WFM website.
Farmers’ markets in Fairfield County, CT will begin opening in May and early June and we will update the listings below (from 2016) with 2017 information as it becomes available. Here are the markets updated so far via our friends at Fairfield Green Food Guide.
New Canaan opened April 22
Shelton opens May 6
Norwalk Rainbow Plaza opens May 17
Westport opens May 18
Greenwich @ Arch & Horseneck Streets opens on May 20
Fairfield’s downtown market that launched last year opens June 11
We felt this list of farmers' markets was pretty spot on. Check out Best of Connecticut's list of the 10 Best Farmers' Markets in CT.
Connecticut has organized its best local offerings into “trails” that visitors can easily follow to enjoy the best of the best. One such trail is the Farmers Markets of Connecticut trail, which highlights local markets across the state. At each market, you’ll find freshly picked local produce, delicious baked goods, coffee roasted in Connecticut, and other products to allow you to prepare the freshest most delicious locally-sourced meal for you and your family.
After 20 years as a Sono institution, Barcelona Wine Bar has moved up the street and officially opened its doors in Norwalk’s new Waypointe complex. Their new home looks and feels much like the creative dining spaces guests have come to expect from Barcelona’s five CT locations, but as SVP Adam Halberg says “ Waypointe will feel familiar, but there are some key areas that make this new location quite unique.” The open kitchen, massive 40 seat bar, and a new menu approach will take their authentic and distinctive Spanish tapas menu even closer to the markets and restaurants of Spain.
With cooler weather around the corner and Rosh Hashanah just past, it’s time to reach for your honey pot. If your summer was full of honey-themed cocktails and BBQ’s, it’s quite possibly still on the kitchen counter but if you enjoy honey “only in my tea when I’m not feeling well” it might be in the darkest corner of your cupboard most likely crystallized. No, it is not spoiled and you don’t have to throw it out. Right now, honey is having a moment as the next artisanal food superstar. Partly because bees are disappearing – you’ve heard about colony collapse sparking a beekeeping craze and partly because honey is believed by many to relieve symptoms of colds and seasonally allergies.
Honey is the only food made by an insect that humans consume and although it was found in the tombs of the Pharaohs, honey can last forever if stored properly – in a cool, dry place, yet it will loose its delicate flavors and health benefits over time. Most people think that honey is honey is honey but it’s not. I’m going to help demystify the flavorful world of honey so that you can be an informed honey connoisseur and navigate your way around the delicious and diverse world of natures oldest and only raw sweetener.
Autumn is here and Connecticut Farms have delicious seasonal produce ready to be harvested! Last week, CTBites told you where you can pick your own apples. While apples are delicious, pumpkins truly epitomize the fall. From jack-o-lanterns to pies to pumpkin flavored everything, the gourd has many uses. Here are 12 places that offer pick your own pumpkins! Be sure to call ahead to confirm availability.
Harris Hill Farm, New Milford: On weekends during the month of October, Harris Hill Farm in New Milford opens the farm and its pick-your-own pumpkin patch to the community.
Castle Hill Farm, Newtown: Castle Hill Farm in Newtown has a 4 acre pumpkin patch. They also have hay rides and a corn maze.
Lyman Orchards, Middlefield: Lyman Orchards in Middlefield has a 24 hour hotline so that you can get updates on the crops and conditions.
Bishop's Orchards, Guilford: Great picking of all kinds at Bishop's + a corn Maze on the weekends from 10-5.
Holmberg Orchards, Gales Ferry: Pumpkins are in season from September-October at Holmberg Orchards in Gales Ferry. On weekends, enjoy a corn maze, tractor rides, cider donuts, and a wine
