May 13
...serving up your daily dish.
Was this the reason Friar Tuck's closed?
For some great ideas for yummy weekend dining – and where to take Mom -- check out Food.
-- Photo: Anthony Batson
May 13, 2006 in Photo of the Week | Permalink | Comments (9)
February 28
...serving up your daily dish.
The call came at 8:30 a.m: “Mrs. Baristanet, it’s Ho Yung at Aozora. We just received a 350 pound bluefin tuna today from South Africa, and you might want to come down and take a picture.” Never one to miss a photo op, I agreed.
Nelson Yip, Executive Chef, asked where we’d like to do the photo shoot. “How about up here on the sushi bar? (What was I thinking?) He opened the walk-in fridge where I saw a giant silvery grey 6 foot something fish, nearly three times my size, in a coffin-like crate.
Ho Yung, Aozora’s owner, sat us down for Sushi 101. Bluefin is the aristocrat of tunas. This beauty was caught at 200 pounds and fattened up at a South African sea farm for market until it reached a massive 420 pounds. That's when Ho got the call. $8,000 dollars later, this bad boy was being airlifted to Montclair via Newark. It took 4 people to carry him into the kitchen.
He says the quality is guaranteed by analyzing a core sample of the fish. Ho usually buys 4 of these guys a year, and a lot bigger – up to 600 pounds. But because it’s the height of bluefin season - when the fat build-up makes for better tasting sushi and sashimi - he couldn’t let this "little" one get away.
We went back the next day to see what became of our fishy friend, and this is what we saw.
Baristaville customers like to order "Tuna Madness” – a meal of all tuna sushi, sashimi, maki,
and tartare artfully prepared by the skillful hands of Chef Nelson Yip. Restaurant diners, from as far away as Atlantic city, are chowing down about 70 pounds of the fish a night, says Nelson. ..407 Bloomfield Avenue, 973 233-9400.
February 28, 2006 in Photo of the Week | Permalink | Comments (68)
July 23
...serving up your daily dish.
A gesture of virtual peace from poster Mike M., who has found a "satellite" Montclair in North River, NY. After a couple days of grumpy-tense posts (his words), he thought we could use some zen.
Meeting my new neighbors after moving to the Watchung Plaza area, I was surprised to learn that, like us, two of the eight other families on our small street vacationed at summer homes in the Adirondacks. Seemed improbable that three of nine families had such similar workaday and leisure pursuits. The next summer, we enjoyed paddling on a remote motorless lake -- long drive down a dirt road and half-mile carry. Finishing our lunch, we greeted people from another canoe preparing to set up camp for a couple of days. We soon learned they too lived in Monclair!
Apart from winter snowmobiles and jet-skis on a few larger lakes, the Adirondacks are rightly know for quiet and relative solitude in vast tracts of woods or on beautiful, clear lakes. We began to wonder whether the Montclair/Adirondacks parallels were coincidence or something more.
Regardless, it's a nice morning here. Clear; beginning to warm up from Friday's overnight low of 54. Enjoy the photo and imagine you were here. You'll feel better.
OK, Mike, we'll try. This summer, if you're reading us from some peaceful paradise, send us a photo.
July 23, 2005 in Photo of the Week | Permalink | Comments (11)
June 11
...serving up your daily dish.
June 11, 2005 in Photo of the Week | Permalink | Comments (13)
May 28
...serving up your daily dish.
The sky was speaking to James Bratek, too, on Friday when he snapped this picture in the Verona Hills (Kips Ridge area) as stormy clouds passed through after a picture-perfect day.
May 28, 2005 in Photo of the Week | Permalink | Comments (4)
May 15
...serving up your daily dish.
A mystery wrapped in an enigma encased in bright blue plastic. Montclair resident Carson Caroll, 20 months old, of Montclair, faces down a great big ball, and Scot Surbeck, as usual, is there.
May 15, 2005 in Photo of the Week | Permalink | Comments (2)
May 8
...serving up your daily dish.
Mary Jane Park has lived in the same house in Montclair her entire life. She was a school principal for 30 years in Parsippany. Yesterday she was working as a volunteer, sitting underneath the wisteria, during a plant sale in Montclair at the Van Vleck mansion. When she was a child she played in this house with the Van Vleck children. - Scot Surbeck
May 8, 2005 in Photo of the Week | Permalink | Comments (4)
May 1
...serving up your daily dish.
"...I ended up looking at this forever..it was like a fireplace, I couldn't take my eyes off of it," says Wayne Robbins, producer of cable tv's "Inside Montclair," who sent us this image. For bonus points, what kind of flower is this?
May 1, 2005 in Photo of the Week | Permalink | Comments (3)
April 24
...serving up your daily dish.
This rare Batman appearance in Brookdale Park was captured by Scot Surbeck.
April 24, 2005 in Photo of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 17
...serving up your daily dish.
Paul Zalewski spots magnolias in front of Glen Ridge town hall.
And Scot Surbeck takes a closer look at a magnolia in Montclair.
April 17, 2005 in Photo of the Week | Permalink | Comments (2)
