by | Dec 23, 2020 1:09 pm | Comments (1)
Courtney Luciana photo
Seared Blackened Tuna Tataki.
Chef Nixon Sambuaga of newly opened kosher restaurant Fin and Scale on Whalley.
“You’re going to fall in love,” Chef Nixon Sambuaga promised, “after you try this.”
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Nixon’s Kosher Tuna Tataki’
by | Dec 22, 2020 9:09 pm | Comments (0)
City government and business leaders have launched an “Eat New Haven” campaign to encourage people to order from restaurants to help them survive the Covid-19 pandemic.
by | Dec 21, 2020 3:34 pm | Comments (2)
Emily Hays Photo
Ketkeo Rajachack with daughter Christine Son at Pho Ketkeo.
Ketkeo Rajachack learned to make khao poon from her mother to sell from an open-air tent in Laos. Now she cooks and sells the dish at her Temple Street restaurant, Pho Ketkeo.
by | Dec 17, 2020 12:50 pm | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photos
Seikichi Muto, owner and chef at Sonobana on Dixwell in Hamden, took a small ball of rice in a gloved hand and deftly made it just the right shape to accept a piece of raw, tender yellowtail. He did the same with with piece of salmon, and with a piece of tuna — as he has been doing for 34 years in the same location, and now during the Covid-19 pandemic.
by | Dec 15, 2020 1:57 pm | Comments (0)
Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo
Alison De Renzi and Francesco d’Amuri.
L’Orcio lights up State Street as it has for the past 18 years with customers dazzled by the Tortelli di Zucca and Pappardelle Al Ragù.
by | Dec 11, 2020 12:28 pm | Comments (3)
Brian Slattery Photos
Owners Sukra Shrestha and Arjun Khadka, chef Krishna Paudel.
Arjun Khadka, the head chef and one of the owners of Cumin India on Skiff Street in Hamden, laid out a spread of Cumin’s more popular dishes. Among them were well-known fare like chicken tikka masala and garlic naan.
But the restaurant is also a place to sample Indo-Chinese dishes, a lesser-known facet of Indian cuisine that combines the influences of India and its neighbor, China. Among the many Indo-Chinese offerings on the menu is vegetarian Manchurian — vegetable dumplings topped with a sauce that pulls its ingredients from across Asia and elsewhere, and reminds us that India, as vast as it is, is also connected inextricably with the wider world.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Arjun’s Vegetarian Manchurian’
by | Dec 9, 2020 1:00 pm | Comments (4)
Linwood “Woody” Lacy found his wings, and never gave up on his cooking dreams — which spawned a colorful spin on surf and turf.
by | Dec 8, 2020 1:24 pm | Comments (1)
Emily Hays Photos
Te Amo Tequila co-owner Sonia Salazar.
As Georgina Iglesia’s chicken soup simmered in the kitchen of Te Amo Tequila, Iglesia herself was 2,096 miles away in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Her granddaughter Sonia Salazar was the one stirring the soup and adding onions, jalapeños, cilantro and avocado on top.
by | Dec 7, 2020 1:49 pm | Comments (0)
Laura Glesby Photo
Pataka co-founders and brothers Romy and Harry Singh.
If you ask for a Chana Kulcha, Harry Singh will give you two pockets of homemade pita, overflowing with a fruity mix of sweet chutney and warm spiced chickpeas. The pomegranate seeds on top will burst with tart flavor like the fireworks after which Singh’s restaurant, Pataka, is named.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Singh Bros.’ Chana Kulcha’
by | Dec 4, 2020 3:57 pm | Comments (2)
Brian Slattery Photos
Lara.
Aaron Lara added a final touch — a sprinkling of freshly cut scallions — to a Peruvian rice bowl, one of the most popular dishes at Bomb Wings and Rice. With its combination of marinated chicken, aji verde (a flavorful green sauce) and rice and vegetables fried fast in Bomb’s special sauce, the dish balanced tastiness and healthiness, or, as owner Jason Teal put it, “naughty and nice,” a mindset that has guided Bomb since its opening in March 2019 and through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Aaron’s Peruvian Rice Bowl’
by | Dec 3, 2020 6:50 pm | Comments (4)
Pre-pandemic photo
It was a Jewish wedding — so of course this spread came from Abel’s.
The pandemic has claimed a second-generation kosher catering business that was an omnipresence at local religious celebrations.
by | Dec 1, 2020 5:37 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photo
Fred & Patty Walker, & freshly made sandwich.
Thirty-four years.
That’s how long Fred and Patty Walker have been married. That’s how long they’ve run Chestnut Fine Foods & Confections. And that’s how long they’ve graced New Haven with a creamy, crunchy, not-too-sweet, and all-too-satisfying Brie on baguette sandwich — which packs a particular punch in a pandemic.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Fred & Patty’s Brie On Baguette’
by | Nov 30, 2020 4:27 pm | Comments (20)
Laura Glesby Photo
Haci Catalbasoglu: Back home, and at work.
Littleford
Instead of creating PowerPoints in New York about potential corporate mergers, Hacibey Catalbasoglu has spent the pandemic months splitting logs, throwing dough, and memorizing the Napoletana recipe at Brick Oven Pizza on New Haven’s Elm Street.
by | Nov 13, 2020 11:31 am | Comments (4)
Lulu Villa’s planned home.
The team behind Pacifico is expanding their presence in New Haven just a mere two doors down: Owner Moe Gad and Chef Rafael Palomino plan this winter to open a new Italian restaurant called Villa Lulu on 230 College St.
The menu will focus on Italian old-school classics in a contemporary yet homey setting.
by | Nov 12, 2020 3:55 pm | Comments (18)
Ephrat and Benny Lieblich inside soon-to-open Ladle and Loaf near Edge of the Woods.
Paul Bass Photos
Co-owners Choni and Esther Grunblatt with Operations Manager Zee Kessler outside their soon-to-open Westville Village restaurant.
An Argentinian entrepreneur is about to start selling kosher sushi up the block from a new Peruvian restaurant, a new Mexican eatery, and a new Syrian coffee shop.
Did somebody say something about a pandemic recession?
by | Nov 11, 2020 1:41 pm | Comments (0)
RABHYA MEHROTRA PHOTO
Sample bowls: Pitaya on the left, Greens on the right.
Patti Ochsendorf filled two cups with a green and pink smoothie base each, then topped it with crunchy honey granola and blueberries, strawberries, mango, and pineapple. The green color came from kale and spinach blend. The pink color came from pitaya, also known as dragonfruit, which has a rough exterior with a pink or white inside.
by | Nov 4, 2020 11:51 am | Comments (1)
I kept dropping the apple while frantically trying to peel it. But I was doing my best to follow the lead of my instructors at Sanctuary Kitchen. Clumsy fingers and perilous peeler aside, my kitchen slowly filled with the scent of fresh apples — as did, I assume, the kitchen in every other tiny square on the Zoom call.
Continue reading ‘Sanctuary Kitchen Preserves Food And Culture’
by | Oct 29, 2020 11:15 am | Comments (14)
RABHYA MEHROTRA PHOTO
Inside El Segundo.
Rust, holding braised pork shoulder straight out of the oven.
Mexican street food has moved into New Haven’s newest mini-neighborhood.
by | Oct 27, 2020 10:37 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Singing. Dancing. Trivia. Beer floats. All this and more was part of the Shubert Theater’s second Covid-era installment of “Next Stop: New Haven,” a fundraiser and night of entertainment on Monday evening that featured Broadway stars, the Shubert staff, and a host of downtown restaurants who contributed snacks and libations to make an evening at home feel like an evening out.
by | Oct 19, 2020 1:00 pm | Comments (7)
Contributed photo
Sous chef Nick Hurwitz-Goodman cooking at a pre-Covid event.
Nick Hurwitz-Goodman, a sous chef at the University of New Haven, was feeling fine. But Covid-19 was spreading fast on campus, so he decided to get tested.
Hurwitz-Goodman tested positive. Now he is stuck at home, uncertain if he’ll develop symptoms, worried about his coworkers who might also have been exposed to the virus.
Continue reading ‘Covid-Positive Chef: UNH “Bats Blind Eye”’
by | Oct 9, 2020 12:27 pm | Comments (7)
RABHYA MEHROTRA PHOTO
The team at Claire’s Corner Copia: Putting safety first.
New Haven restaurants won permission to fill their indoor spaces to 75 percent capacity, but for now most are holding back.
by | Oct 7, 2020 2:50 pm | Comments (4)
Lenny’s Fish Tale seafood restaurant on Long Wharf is the city’s latest Covid-19 business casualty.
by | Oct 5, 2020 9:21 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Harvest after dark.
The sound of jazz filtering up to Chapel Street from Harvest Wine Bar is not new to a Thursday night in New Haven, but on this particular Thursday, Oct. 1, it felt like the first time and happened to be the first of many things for a few in a long while.
by | Sep 28, 2020 12:15 pm | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Stefanie Clark Harris and the Feverfew
Friday was a night of firsts for the New Haven music scene. It was the live debut of Stefanie Clark Harris and the Feverfew, the EP release party for the band’s first record “Black Diamond’, and it all happened at the inaugural show of The Stack Sessions, a District Arts and Entertainment presentation being held in the amphitheater on the back lawn of The Stack and Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ, in the District Complex on James Street.
Continue reading ‘Stack Sessions Serve Up Live Music And BBQ’
by | Sep 24, 2020 9:29 am | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen photos
No guacamole left behind at Westville’s new “Camacho Garage.”
The chipotle ketchup on my notebook didn’t quite fit the script.