Da Filippo with my Figlio

Yesterday Sylvain and Nora disappeared into the March blizzard, he for France and she for New York, leaving me and Thibault with a night of our own. Where to go and what to eat were the pressing questions. Because of the bitter cold we ruled out sushi in favor of comfort food. I reccomended Da Filippo (Autentica Cucina Italiana) in Somerville as the only good, authentic Italian restaurant in New Jersey. Like many New Jersey Italians, Filippo is Sicilian, but his food reflects several regions of Italy.

For me it was a great treat to return to Filippo after several years, and for Thibault it was an initiation into true Italian cuisine. He has a wonderful love of food (his favorite sandwich as a two-year old was black olive tapenade and chevre on focaccia) and enjoys sushi, Indian, Thai and of course French cuisine, but his experience of Italian has been limited to what is available locally. Can you say, "standard Italian American?"

To get into the mood, we started with the bruscetta de la casa - simple toasted Italian bread with sliced tomatoes, garlic, basil and fresh parmesan - and a big bottle of sparkling Abruzza water.

For appetizers, Thibault ordered the braised artichoke special and I had the fritelle di rughetta - pan-fried arrugula with a creamy sauce of anchovies, garlic and parmesano-reggiano. Mine was unbelievably good as I knew it would be. Crispy but creamy, pungent but sweet. A heady and auspicious start to our meal! Thibault dispatched with his artichoke without complaint and with an audible groan of pleasure.

The appetizers tempted me more than the main courses, or maybe I had had one bruscetta too many. For dinner I ordered a double portion of the Sarde Fritte a Linguata, delicate, lightly battered and fried fresh sardines with a squeeze of lemon, and a side of meltingly tender but still bitter escarole with garlic and olive oil, and rosemary roasted potatoes. So good! Thibault has been on a gnocchi mission lately and ordered the hand-made ricotta Gnocchi con Sugo Bolognese which he happily devoured.

No dessert for La Signora but Thibault managed to find room for a plate of Profiteroles. He said liked the contrast of the cold cream filling with the warm chocolate sauce. I had a taste and he was right on.

In all, it was a great meal, good conversation and a lot of welcome laughter in the company of my son. As a parent, it is so satisfying to arrive at this place in time where my child and I are nearly peers and can enjoy each other's company as equals. And we listened to The Clash, nice and loud, all the way home.

http://www.dafilippos.com/

Real Food in Flemington

Every once in a while I get an urge to head to Flemington to the Amish market for a big weekend "dinner." It is one of very few places that serves truly old-fashioned home cooking. Before sitting down at a booth in the unpretentious restaurant (okay, all it has going for it is a large wrap-around mural of PA. Dutch scenes), we stock up on some important items. The farm-raised meats and poultry are gorgeous and it is one of the few places that always has fresh rabbit, guinea hens, capon and duck available. Nice home-made sausages, smoked bacon and cold cuts as well.


The bakery's cakes are unbelieveable, especially the red velvet, and the pies are the best I've found with an excellent crust and not too sweet. We can never leave without one to put in the freezer to have on hand for the right moment. Whoopie pies are also critical. We brought some home for the kids and an extra one for Thibault's freind Laz to try along with a fabulously gooey nut-covered breakfast cake. On several occasions I have stopped by the market on a Saturday morning just as the apple and blueberry fritters are coming out. I can go for years and years without eating a doughnut, but these are to die for. Hot, sweet, fried perfection.



Other absolute must-haves are the pickles, and the Amish seem to pickle everything. Sylvain even tried pickled kielbasa. He said it was very good but I just can't get my mind around that. Generally I don't like sweet pickles as a rule but the lemon pickles are sweet and spicy with a unique flavor that I find addictive. They are not for everyone - Nora can't stand them.

I could go on and on about the hand-made pretzels and potato chips, fresh butter and farm cheeses. And then there is the fact that the market is run and staffed by the Amish. These people and their lifestyle hold such a fascination for the rest of us. A visit always leads to thoughts of the things that fill our lives and the choices we make.

We've been going to the restaurant for probably fifteen years now. The dinner buffet is a more recent addition dating to when the business changed hands several years back. We used to order mostly from the menu. Things like chicken and dumplings, biscuits with sausage gravy (Thibault's favorite), and pulled pork sandwiches. Everything came with sides of home-made potato chips and lemon pickles.

The buffet takes the Amish culinary experience to a new level with choices like slabs of delicious all-beef meatloaf, chicken thighs, chicken with dumplings, sliced pork loin, and turkey breast along with buttered broccoli, buttered sweet corn, buttered carrorts (yes, butter is a reccurrent theme) pureed potatoes, cheesy noodles (our name for them and Nora's favorite), baked beans and more! There also is a salad bar but it is nothing special. In fact we usually just get a big bowl of pickles and ignore the sad ice berg lettuce, grated carrots and trays of things covered in mayonaise. But every once in a while I will grab a pickled egg.

The dessert bar is a trip with a selection of "pudding" and tapioca. The kids' favorite is the eclair pudding. For what I can tell it actually is made of layers of mashed eclairs and choclate pudding. Sylvain loves the tapioca, something I haven't recovered from my childhood memories of. But this tapioca is like no other! Sylvain's choice was bright orange with canned mandarin oranges. I am not even slightly tempted by the puddings but I cannot resist the squares of sheet cake. It doesn't matter what kind is offered. It is very simple and very good. That seems to be the theme here. Simple and good food (that inspires you to eat things that you normally wouldn't).