Foodie Friday

Foodie Sarah Henry invites you to a Food Adventure in Jersey City

IncrediBalls: Swedish meatballs and gravy.
IncrediBalls: Swedish meatballs and gravy.
Choc O Pain: Chocolate almond croissant, various breads.
Thirty Acres: Steak tartare club sandwich with bacon, yuzu aioli, and house-made salt and vinegar chips.
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Welcome to the sixth borough. It overlooks the Hudson, not the East River, and the walk-ups are red brick rather than brownstone, but Jersey City is a lot like spruced up neighborhoods in Brooklyn, at least in the ways that matter: a sense of community, a quaint downtown, a vibrant food scene, unique shops. People are proud here. “Made in New Jersey” items are prominently displayed in storefronts, and produce is fresh and very local – look closely at labels at farmers’ markets in New York, and you’ll find that much of it bears the label “grown in New Jersey.”

And like Brooklyn, chefs who became successful in Manhattan are leaving the hubbub of that crowded island to seek serenity in quieter, more spacious boroughs. New Jersey often gets stuck with the stigma of being a dingy avatar to glittery New York, but isn’t it about time to get over that? The restaurants sure have.

Welcome to the sixth borough. It overlooks the Hudson, not the East River, and the walk-ups are red brick rather than brownstone, but Jersey City is a lot like spruced up neighborhoods in Brooklyn, at least in the ways that matter: a sense of community, a quaint downtown, a vibrant food scene, unique shops. People are proud here. “Made in New Jersey” items are prominently displayed in storefronts, and produce is fresh and very local – look closely at labels at farmers’ markets in New York, and you’ll find that much of it bears the label “grown in New Jersey.”
And like Brooklyn, chefs who became successful in Manhattan are leaving the hubbub of that crowded island to seek serenity in quieter, more spacious boroughs. New Jersey often gets stuck with the stigma of being a dingy avatar to glittery New York, but isn’t it about time to get over that? The restaurants sure have.
Thirty Acres
500 Jersey Ave.; (201) 435-3100
The feather in Jersey City’s cap is Thirty Acres. Kevin Pemoulie, former chef de cuisine of Momofuku Noodle Bar in Manhattan, opened the restaurant in 2012 with his wife, Alex. The restaurant quickly gained notoriety and even earned a semi-finalist spot in the James Beard Best New Restaurant category.
Equal parts seasonality and originality dictate the small menu, with the dishes as fleeting as the seasons themselves. Once Pemoulie takes a dish off the menu, that’s it – it won’t be coming back, not even very popular items.
There’s only ever been one exception to the rule: A corned beef dish with mustard and pickled cabbage, coupled with unusual accompaniments of hazelnuts, mint and maple syrup. It was a hit at the restaurant in days past, and has since been re-imagined for the brunch menu.
“People really liked it,” he said, and so for awhile “I stopped doing it.”
But why mess with a good thing? Isn’t the goal of a successful restaurant to cater to its customers? Not exactly. Pemoulie said he wants patrons to be adventurous and try new things. The small, revolving menu facilitates that, and when people try new foods they like, he says it builds a relationship of trust and rapport between chef and diner.
“I don’t want anyone to get to comfortable,” he said. “It pigeonholes what you do.”
Feeling daring? Recent audacious dishes have included pig tongue with pickled ramps and sunflower Hozon (a brand-name seasoning developed by Momofuku), and fried lamb sweetbreads with a Sichuan glaze and accents of celery and sesame.
Choc O Pain
530 Jersey Ave.; (201) 435-2462 & 157 1st St., Hoboken; (201) 710-5175
Take a stroll down the street from Thirty Acres and you’ll find yourself in front of Choc O Pain (which essentially is a play on the words chocolate and bread in French) a bakery serving some devilishly good chocolate almond croissants and fresh, crusty bread. Owner Clemence Danko follows the old-world recipes, using a long fermentation time and wild yeasts harnessed from the air to create a pure product. A good loaf, she said, should only contain four ingredients: flour, water, salt and yeast. She’s French. She’s traditional. Her baked goods are a Francophile’s edible bliss. Sip a café au lait, bite into a fresh croissant or fruit tart and relish that though you feel like you’re on a Parisian sidewalk, you’re in the much closer neighborhood of Jersey City.
Sam A.M.
112 Morris St.; (201) 432-2233
A charming cubbyhole of a place, Sam A.M. dishes up hearty brunch fare in the Paulus Hook neighborhood. The décor is cheerful, the music loud, the staff tattooed and the kitchen the size of a shoebox. Chef Francis Samu may very well welcome you himself; when he’s not performing a well-choreographed routine with his kitchen cohorts, he’s at the door humming along to the likes of Jimi Hendrix and greeting customers like old friends. On a particularly lively late Sunday morning, Samu recruited the whole restaurant to serenade one blushing customer with the “Happy Birthday” song. Another patron, looking about nine pregnant and looking for a place to sit with her husband, was granted a table for “two and a half” with a cheeky grin from Samu.
Upon whipping out my heavy-duty camera in an attempt to furtively snap a few shots of the food, Samu caught my gaze and shouted, “Stop!”
My companion and I paused, camera lens and forks frozen in mid-air. Were photos against the rules?
Samu strode quickly over to the table, arms laden with coleslaw and barbecue sauce, and suddenly the brisket we had ordered was getting a few cosmetic touch-ups. With the side of coleslaw noticeably plumper and the glistening sauce now dripping in excess, Samu gave his approval.
“Oh yeah,” he said with a nod. “Now it’s ready.”
Chicken and waffles are popular, as well as challah French toast and a biscuit and gravy dish. Top-notch pastries are also available, in addition to fresh juice and Stumptown Coffee.
Taqueria Downtown
236 Grove St.; (201) 333-3220
This is the real deal: if you’re into Tex-Mex and little sombreros perched on the edge of flavored margaritas, this is not the place for you. Taqueria Downtown only serves authentic Mexican food, and a lot of it costs on par or less than a round trip train ticket to New York City. But why would you go to New York in search of exotic tastes when you could try tacos made from cactus, beef tongue or even pork stomach in Jersey City? Margaritas are cheap and potent; only three ingredients allowed: tequila, triple sec and fresh lime juice. Really, what are you waiting for? If you scrape together the change probably hiding in your couch cushions you could get a taco right now for $3. Be forewarned: There are no cutesy Mexican fables on the menus, no nachos or fajitas, and no sour cream (it’s crema fresca), but as the menu states, “there’s no substitution for the real thing.”
Milk, Sugar, Love
19 McWilliams Place; (201) 984-0530
The brand’s moniker is also the better part of the main ingredient list for the ice cream. Chef and owner Emma Taylor got her start at Gramerncey Tavern in Manhattan as a pastry cook, but while ice cream is her first love, New Jersey is a close second.
“New Jersey all the way,” she said.
Why did she choose to specialize in ice cream? Growing up on the Jersey shore, Taylor equated childhood happiness with ice cream and summer.
“It’s my best and fondest summer memory,” she said of slurping up ice cream on hot days near the beach. “If I could do anything for the rest of my life it would be to extend that summer.”
And so she made it immortal with her ice cream. Sure, there are the usual suspects of chocolate and vanilla, but there are also modern flavor combinations like olive oil and lemon, or lavender and honey.
Taylor said she draws inspiration from savory foods she eats and re-imagines them with sweet counterpoints. She also gets ideas from selling her product at farmers’ markets, where she meets other venders and utilizes her ice cream to showcase their products. All the base ingredients are organic, and there are no eggs, which Taylor says yields a cleaner taste and lets the pure flavor of the cream shine through. The waffle cones are homemade, and so are the cookies that make for delectable ice cream sandwiches.
Razza
275 Grove St.; (201) 356-9348
Dan Richer, chef and co-owner of Razza, is so passionate about pizza he’s analyzed the science of the process down to the cellular level. But what exactly does that mean?
He states it’s important to define the characteristics of a pizza in order to take it to new heights. He likens himself to a craftsman, like a cabinetmaker or a blacksmith.
“We do very few things and do them very well,” he said.
Since he’s shooting for balance, the menu asks that no substitutions be made.
“If you let people change things, it compromises the integrity of the pizza,” he said.
Consider the pizza, comprised of just a few components: Crust. Sauce (optional). Cheese (also optional… but not really). Toppings. Then analyze the crust, the foundation and of all pizza: Richer opts for using wild yeasts as opposed to commercial ones to create a “community” of live ingredients that pave the way to more taste. He suggests tearing into the crust and taking a whiff.
“You can literally smell the difference,” he said.
Produce is sourced locally and seasonally; salads showcase seasonal greens and pizzas provide sturdy bases for many regional ingredients, such as kale from New Jersey and cow’s cream from Lancaster Valley.
IncrediBalls
Check Twitter/Facebook for up-to-date locations; (201) 577-6272
And finally, not all good foods need to come to the table – or even be eaten while sitting down. Some are just fine consumed standing on the street, with the breeze in your hair and sauce on your chin. If you’re lucky enough to spot the IncrediBalls truck, take your pick from Italian meatballs with marinara sauce, Swedish with dill and gravy, barbecue pork with coleslaw, and buffalo chicken with contrasting hot sauce and cool blue cheese.