by | Jan 27, 2021 6:21 pm | Comments (3)
Dylan Sloan Photos
After its Reuben sandwich won accolades, the crew at Olmo decided to adapt the recipe to a breakfast sandwich.
As Olmo remodeled its Trumbull Street dining room during the pandemic to become a takeout storefront called the Bagelry, the retooled Breakfast Reuben has become a bestseller.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Craig’s Breakfast Reuben’
by | Jan 22, 2021 2:15 pm | Comments (2)
Brian Slattery Photos
The order for a Super Supreme baked potato at Spuds Your Way in Hamden took owner and cook Jared Cohen either mere minutes — or over 12 hours — to prepare, depending on how you counted.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Jared’s Super Supreme Baked Potato’
by | Jan 18, 2021 2:31 pm | Comments (0)
Lisa Reisman Photos
“Baking is unforgiving,” said Bryan Burke as he poured flour from an industrial-sized bag into a container on a commercial scale at Sherkaan, the restaurant in the alley across from Yale Bookstore.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Bryan’s Butter Chicken Pie’
by | Jan 15, 2021 4:07 pm | Comments (1)
Dylan Sloan Photo
Chef Isaiah Perez applies the finishing touches.
Since adding the “Prison Reformer” hot dog — spicy mustard and his signature sauce — to the menu at Jordan’s Hot Dogs and Mac on State Street, Corey Spruill has gotten plenty of questions from customers.
He intended it that way.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Corey’s “Reformer” Frank’
by | Jan 14, 2021 12:34 pm | Comments (1)
Nora Grace-Flood Photos
Ernesto García at work.
“You never stop moving in the kitchen!” Ernesto García remarked as he sliced avocado, cooked tortillas, and directed employees.
Minutes later, one golden arepa filled with black beans, plantains, avocado, tomato, and crispy mozzarella lay plated on the bar of Rubamba, García’s High Street restaurant.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Ernesto’s Venezuelan Arepa’
by | Jan 11, 2021 2:12 pm | Comments (2)
Emily Hays Photos
Kuro Shiro owner Kenny Kim prepares vegan tantanmen.
The broth was creamy, savory, almost nutty. And it was vegan.
Kuro Shiro owner Dohyuan “Kenny” Kim created his recipe for vegan tantanmen with his younger brother. It was a twist on the meat-based, Japanese noodle soups that were just getting popular in the U.S. at the time.
by | Jan 8, 2021 4:16 pm | Comments (4)
Brian Slattery Photos
Hazan.
Jessica Hazan, chef and owner of The Soup Girl on Whitney Avenue, thanks the insistence of a customer for getting her to come up with a recipe for gumbo, which has turned out to be one of the takeout place’s most popular dishes.
by | Jan 7, 2021 6:36 pm | Comments (0)
Sophie Sonnenfeld Photos
Tony Zhang (momentarily unmasked for the photo).
Chef Tony Zhang’s squirrel fish is traditional dish with an individual spin: a boneless deep-fried sea bass with pine nuts, green beans, corn, carrots, and a homemade fruit sauce, a traditional dish with an individual spin. It also happens to be his boss’s favorite dish .
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Zhang’s Squirrel Fish Dish’
by | Jan 4, 2021 3:42 pm | Comments (0)
If you order Mikro Depot’s Sunday brunch in Hamden and can’t decide which breakfast food you are craving most, you can ask for the French toast and get the flavor of multiple breakfast foods all in one order.
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 10, 2020 2:22 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
Shilmat Tessema has mastered making food that you don’t need utensils to eat.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Shilmat’s Yemisir Sambusa’
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 2:59 pm | Comments (5)
Paul Bass Photo
Qulen Wright at Ninth Square’s vegan Caribbean paradise.
Qulen Wright didn’t have “chicken” or “wings” in mind when he invented his latest main course dish.
Then his customers took a taste.
by | Dec 2, 2020 2:19 pm | Comments (3)
Emily Hays Photos
Havenly Treats Head Chef Nieda Abbas.
Nieda Abbas served up a falafel unlike any I’d ever tasted before: one bite electric with acidity and flavor, the next comforting with nutty falafel and warm flatbread.
Part of the secret: mango pickle.
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.