New to the area we are slowly sniffing out the local treasures.
Please if anyone else out there lives in the area share your favorites here.
Today we stopped into the Holland American Bakery
The traditional Dutch offerings were surprisingly good, the only item I didn’t care for was a small almond tart, it had a weird light spongy kind of texture. I inhaled an excellent linzer tart one of the best I’ve had in years. The other cookie pictured, I forgot the name ,was actually the best cookie I’ve had in years, crumbly, brown buttery, almond goodness.
DH liked the more traditional donuts. He sampled raspberry and blueberry jelly donuts and a Boston crème that had more of a buttercream type of icing rather than the more traditional chocolate glaze.
I thought the cake part of the all the donuts very good, but the jelly filling was more of a pie type of filling.
The crème in the Boston crème was very good though, not too sweet with a nice light consistency.
There were lemon meringue pies on display that looked so good, I almost forgot I don’t like lemon
meringue pie. We picked up a package of their dinner rolls on the way out, excellent as well, I think DH may have eaten them all by 3 pm.
Alice’s restaurant looks perfect, right up DH’s alley. A neighbor
recommended we check out Crystal Springs, he said it is a really
beautiful place but never mentioned the restaurant. I’m going to
check it out next time I drive by, we are not far. TY
I can second The Chatterbox. The last time we went, it was during the New Jersey State Fair and the restaurant was very busy. Btw, the 2017 fair is on right now (started today) - hint, hint, nudge, nudge.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed thus far to this thread. Every single recommendation looks good. Today we had to be in Newton, so we took a short detour on the way home and stopped at Victoria Diner. What a fun time we had. Good food, hilarious staff and friendly diners. They filled us in on their Saturday night BBQ which may not be happening this week on account of the fair, recommended the fair itself and Chatterbox as well.
DH ordered the open faced turkey special which came with mashed and a salad, he ordered an additional side of onion rings as well. I ordered the chili cheddar burger special, I had a cup of Manhattan clam chowder with mine, the chowder was good and had a nice kick, no need to add tabasco. It was such a nice change to have a simple solid good meal out without pretense.
I did not try the turkey but DH commented that it was good, the fresh turkey being the best part. Every component of my meal was very good together they were even better and made for one perfect lunch., Chili alone is worth going back for very beefy, not particularly spicy but complex enough to keep it interesting, great texture no need for sour cream or cheese, cheddar burger 4-6 oz hand formed patty cooked to requested temp , coleslaw I think I detected a trace of horseradish excellent, pickles really good sours with a nice crunch, great hand cut fries. I had ordered the chili on the side, as I always do but ended up putting it on the burger, this bean less chili was made to be eaten on a burger or hot dog. We will definitely be eating here again when in the area.
The creamy Italian dressing was commercial, but of a good quality. The iceberg salad was fresh and refreshing, very good tomatoes, carrots shredded in house, good quality green pepper and cucumber.
Curlz, I’ve been a fan of Bobolink for a long time and used to visit when they were located in Vernon. We would be a 15 minute drive from the Farm had they not moved The new farm is still a schlepp but a nice occasional ride.
I still want to get to one of their pig roasts. Have you been out to the farm in Milford?
Not really a place but an event, every June at the fair grounds is Michael Arnone’s crawfish festival.
3 days of great New Orleans musicians, crawfish and other foods that are new Orleans centric.
Since I didn’t realize they had moved, my guess is that I was at the original location…it was a million years ago with the crew from eGullet. We had a HUGE pot luck on the property and sat there watching cows/calves wandering around, watched them make cheese, and just had a lovely time there. Since then I’ve been happy to see many places using their cheese. When did they move?
They reciprocate by carrying products from many local artisans … which I like
They leased the farm in Vernon
They purchased the farm in Milford in 2010
I think they received some type of government subsidy to help with the purchase
I’m not a fan of Bobolink ever since I visited their Milford location to buy some cheeses. The place was very busy and while we were waiting we had a good look around. It was, in a word, filthy. We left. I have seen their products at various farmers’ markets and I’ve never bought anything because of this one poor experience. As the saying goes, you have but one chance to make a first impression.
Not necessary, our neighbors invited us to join them and we accepted. Very different vibe than the Columbia County and Dutchess County Fairs in NYS. Easy to navigate, mellow civilized crowd, polite staff and better than expected food. All of the food looked very good with exception of the pizza, the vendors all seemed to have the same shitty looking pies. I had a very good chicken gyro l&T, onion, white sauce, hot sauce, grilled onion and pepper. The others had classic gyros that were equally good. All of the ingredients were extremely fresh, the chicken had been marinated before grilling and there was no skimping. We have not had food this good at either of the two fairs mentioned above, we pretty much don’t eat at fairs period because we had never had anything good … this was the exception
I’m sorry, I did not notice, we were focused on helping our neighbors to locate a particular candy vendor who after 20 straight years at the fair, apparently did not show up. There were some very disappointed people who had driven from PA and VA to stock up.
No one seemed to know anything about this vendor, including the folks in the information booth other than they had a vast selection of great candy… I sent my neighbors the link to economy to help soften the blow, they were grateful but it really didn’t make up for their disappointment.
The new farm is still a schlepp but a nice occasional ride.
