It is with great sadness I must announce that the Gastronomer’s Tumblr blog and Twitter will be no more after October. I have decided to move - far from the warm embrace of the Left Bank - and will no longer be able to blog about living, dining, and drinking in Jersey City.
The times I will miss! I can only hope that my readers will continue to enjoy and experiment with food from the Hudson waterfront to Central Avenue. Perhaps one of you will take up the torch of picky blogging culinary connoisseur of our fair city?
But enough - what city will I be gracing with my epicurean presence? It is still undecided but I will sure enough update if I continue to blog about the joys of overstuffing or inebriating one’s self.
You may already know that the Gastronomer is extremely biased towards Thirty Acres. What with the copious fresh seafood, inventive pairings of flavors and textures, and friendly local staff and patrons (we saw three people we know!), what is there to dislike?
In short, I loved my meal so here is the quick and dirty on the dishes I enjoyed (with pictures lifted form the Thirty Acres tumblr page:
- Raw bar - sweet fresh sea scallop dressed with a slightly creamy salsa verde, thinly sliced radish, watercress (it said cilantro but I am pretty sure that watercress was substituted), ample salty trout toe, and sprinkled with sweet earthy pumpkin seeds.
- Raw bar - arctic char belly, a cousin of salmon and lake trout with firmer fatty pink flesh and a bit leaner flavor, paired side by side with a swathe of metallic golden beet puree sprinkled with the salty, spicy Japanese chili pepper garnish.
- Rich petite smoked quail (whose delicious smokey smell still haunts me) accompanied with salty crisped baked kale (a recipe I will soon try to recreate at home - this has to be a healthy chip alternative) and a velvety herbed bread pudding evoking Thanksgiving stuffing.
- Housemade cavatelli tossed with salty spicy chorizo, tiny cubes of zucchini and tart green apple, mint, and ample ricotta salata sprinkled across. This was perhaps my favorite dish - I am a sucker for homemade pasta and the Mediterranean-ish combination of salty, sour, and mint made for a complicated yet satisfying flavor profile.
- Thick juicy bone-in pork chop accompanied with stewed fall fruits like spiced seckel pear and apples. Although delicious and well done, this dish was my least favorite of the night. Perhaps because it was last and I was absolutely stuffed?
