HUDSON Restaurant Week: Winter 2015

Dino & Harry's

Yup, we were “snowed-in” just yesterday and #Snowmageddon2015 was not all cracked up to be, but it’s time to brave the cold weather and snow because Hudson Restaurant Week is here! The lovely prix-fixe meals started this Monday and will carry on through February 6^th. This year is the largest Hudson Restaurant Week featuring more than 50 restaurants, showcasing the gastronomic culture of Hudson County.

Light Horse Tavern

Take a peek at some of my previous Hudson Restaurant experiences; it might help to narrow down the list!

A&W Steakhouse, Bayonne

Bistro La Source, Jersey City

Brass Rail, Hoboken

Clinton Social, Hoboken

Dino & Harry's, Hoboken

Elysian, Hoboken

Hamilton Inn, Jersey City

Haven Riverfront Restaurant, Edgewater

Light Horse, Jersey City

The Madison, Hoboken

Maritime Parc, Jersey City

Skylark on The Hudson, Jersey City

The Stewed Cow, Hoboken

Sushi Lounge, Hoboken

A&W Steakhouse, Skylark on the Hudson
 

Check out the Hudson Restaurant Week website or facebook page to see restaurant listings and menus.

The Madison

Stay tuned on facebook, twitter and instagram for my restaurant week updates and adventures! So excited to dig in.

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Clinton Social

baking with friend(s) is BEST

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To make up for a dinner cut short, my friend decided we would have a baking date. She deffo knows the key to my heart. Of course I wasn’t bothered by our truncated burger binge, but I am always up for whipping up some baked goods, taking photos and devouring the finished product.

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So we started off with this recipe for chewy fudgy homemade brownies from Sally’s Baking Addiction and got a little bit experimental. We added a dash of pretty pink Himalayan salt in lieu of the normal variety, because we’re fancy like that. 

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Instead of making some of that thick buttery frosting following the recipe or even some salted caramel frosting from a different recipe on the blog, we opted to be a little inventive.  To top our brownies, my friend created a caramel glaze with a hit of heat and savory. 

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Our brownies were fun to make, but in the end something may have gone amiss. Maybe we added too much flour, resulting in fluffier cake-like brownies, not the gooey fudgy bars we were expecting. Maybe we cranked a tad too much of the pretty salt, leaving the treats a smidgen more savory than sweet. Maybe we mixed two different kinds of chocolate with two chocolate and sugar contents. Maybe we got caught up listening to Robyn and Oh Land and let the bad boys cook a little longer than necessary (I guess, “better safe than sorry” is not a phrase apt for brownie baking).

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This was not about the maybes and things that could have been. It was about hang-time, gossip, and catching up. It was about bonding in a kitchen, playing with a pup, and inhaling the sweet smells of chocolate, sugar and butter.

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Breaking into that crust of firmed glaze and getting that perfect bite where the chocolate outshines the salt, and the heat and burned sugar come through, is pretty darn good. But baking with friends is best!

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the let-DOWN : UMAMI Burger

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Maybe, I wasn’t finding that the meal was worth the hype. Don’t get me wrong— I’m a burger kinda girl. I really love a good burger. But as much as I wanted to love my burger from Umami Burger, I did not.

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I got the Manly Burger, which was topped with beer cheddar, bacon lardons, onion strings, house ketchup and mustard spread. It was greasy and a lot. The textures were fun—the chewy lardoons, the crispy onion strings, the decadent beef and almost fluffy bun. But it was too much grease, too much heavy, and somehow I feel like truffle had infiltrated everything.

I did try my friend’s Truffle Burger and that too, was greasy and difficult to get down. Delicious, but more than three bites of one of these burgers seemed nearly impossible to me.

By the end I peeled off the cheese, removed the strings and lardoons, skipped the bread and just ate my patty. My Manly Burger was emasculated and denuded.

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And as much as I love truffle, it is possible to over-do it. It seems like truffle is “the thing” at Umami Burger, and my friend wanted to eat there for the Truffle Burger. But I wasn’t feeling it. The truffle fries were skinny and salty, with a dense glob of truffle cheese. It lay thick and creamy and truffly, too truffly. Next time I would opt for the plain fries.

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I really wanted the truffled beet salad, before I realized how truffly everything was going to be. Surprisingly, I really liked the salad, even though its base was spicy adult arugula. The truffle was definitely highlighted but it made the arugula less aggressive. The smooth ricotta, sweet beets and smoked almonds broke up the utilitarian truffle. It was a vicious cycle of necessary evil and vanquishing that evil.

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The staff was super nice and friendly, even though our server never brought the beer I ordered. He answered all our silly questions and gave his recommendations. I don’t know if the cool vibe and the service are really enough to make me try another burger, though the dessert list looked pretty up my alley! 

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photo op: RECENT eats

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You know that whole “New Year, New Me” shtick? It’s totally not me. Sure I would love to join the clean eating movement and participate in the paleo livestyle and pretend to be gluten-free, but I can’t. So I’m just going to keep being the old me (maybe with the addition of a few more veggies and sit-ups). And new old me still likes to eat and bake and indulge.

So I had a duck fat grilled cheese and salty fries late night at the Pig & Prince.

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And I tried to balance out the “bad” with some “good” wholesome and healthful breakfasts on ig.

And I baked kamish bread and experimented with apricot preserves and stiff raisins while the boy was working hard on a Saturday afternoon.

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And I went on an greasy early dinner date at Umami Burger that got cut short but was too long on truffle.

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And I forced my Food Fun kiddies to make ice cream sundaes for their last day of the activity, with too many oreos, sprinkles gummy bears and most definitely far too much whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

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And I watched my mom make vegetable lasagna and ate a ton with no shame whatsoever.

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Any changes for you all in the New Year? How are you thinking of mixing up your food encounters in 2015? Follow on facebook, instagram, twitter, and yelp to keep up with all the pretty eats, big bites, and upcoming restaurant weeks.

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