Montclair's Zeugma Mediterranean Grill

I am not prone to gushing, but when I say “you need to get to this place,” believe me!

I was a guest at a press dinner (my meal was complimentary) a few weeks ago and visited Zeugma for the first time. They’ve been open over a year, and while I had seen clippings and heard chattering about it, somehow I never got there. This is  Mediterranean cuisine kicked up a notch. Read on for more details.

Executive Chef, Can Alp, who was born in Turkey, has designed a menu that blends middle Eastern dishes with European influences. For instance, his delicious “muhammara” is made with a sweet pumpkin puree instead of the usual red peppers and has a slightly spicy finish.

Beet Heaven

In his “beet heaven” dish, he takes labneh, the creamy yogurt spread popular now at many restaurants, and adds organic baby beets and lemon for a wonderfully bright and flavorful dish. 

Rip a piece of his homemade pita bread to drag through the “sauced eggplant,” redolent with green peppers, onion, and garlic, and you’ll be in heaven.

Turkish Dumplings

I could have made a meal of the “manti,” and the “borrek,” two dishes I was not familiar with. Manti are terrific little Turkish dumplings stuffed with shiitake mushrooms in yogurt sauce, and drizzled with paprika oil and parsley oil. Chef Alp rolls pastry and stuffs them with spinach and feta to create the delicate borrek. 

Borrek

Not to be missed if you are a fan of grilled octopus is Zuegma’s version. A hearty serving with grilled zucchini topped with roasted pumpkin seeds, roasted cherry tomatoes, and a fabulous Kalamata olive dressing. 

Looking for a salad but something a bit different? Try the Roasted Artichoke and Kale Salad and you won’t be disappointed. A beautifully composed dish of baby arugula, artichokes, kale, mixed greens, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, sunflower seeds, blended together with a light lemon balsamic dressing.

Roasted Artichoke and Kale Salad

For my entree, I chose the grilled lamb chops. Although they were cooked slightly more than my requested medium-rare, they were seasoned perfectly, and served with a delicious black garlic roasted eggplant puree, a bit of harissa sauce, and a delightful side of fresh mint, arugula and parsley.

Chef Alp does double duty as Zeugma’s pastry chef, and wowed us with what’s known as “Z-Chef Special.” You can definitely see how his experience in Paris has influenced him here. He takes delicate French meringue, whips pastry cream with strawberries, and plates it on a gorgeous lake of raspberry sauce. 

As if that wasn’t enough, he brought us a delectable warm, dark chocolate fudge brownie topped with pistachio gelato and crushed pistachio. And then, the pièce de résistance a beautiful poached pear soaked in a spiced red wine with “floss” halvah, vanilla bean gelato, in a sangria reduction! Magnifique!

I loved that much of Zeugma’s menu is designed for sharing. Take advantage of the menu sections labeled “mezzes” (small appetizers) and “in the middle,” (slightly larger plates) and craft your very own Mediterranean feast.

To re-confirm my original sentiment of “Get yourself to this place!” a couple of weeks later I went back anonymously. And I’m happy to report that the food and service were just as good as I originally experienced. 

Zeugma is BYO but is also a retailer for California’s Domenico Winery, selling both full and half bottles (no wine by the glass).

They are open for lunch Monday-Friday, dinner every day, and brunch Saturday and Sunday.

Zeugma Mediterranean Grill

44 South Park Street

Montclair

973-744-0074

www.zeugmagrill.com 

Hours and menu items subject to change.

A Variety of Topics

It's been awhile, but I've been busy gathering all sorts of food and restaurant data for you, my dear readers. Let's see, over the past two weeks I've visited 2 restaurants (one really good, one pretty good); cooked up a Lentil soup, and just today, baked a Banana Bread (photo above, hot out of the oven still in it's parchment paper wrapping). So it will be a jam-packed posting with varied topics, hopefully of interest to you.

I think I'll begin with the restaurants (in all honesty, there were a few more restaurants within that two week period, but I believe we should focus on the really good ones). Let's start with Saturday night's venture to Arturo's in Maplewood, NJ. Arturo's is located on a prime corner in adorable Maplewood. It is primarily a pizza shop but on Saturday nights, diners can opt for the tasting menu and embark upon Chef Dan Richter's flights of whimsy. This week's tasting consisted of eight courses for $50 per person (not unreasonable, we thought, when initially making the reservation). I had some hesitation about a tasting menu due to their usually small portions, but I figured eight courses should satisfy even Barry. Unfortunately, I had no idea how small these would be...let me clearly state that the food was delicious and there were plenty of "yummy" sounds emanating from our table. But when I tell you that one of the courses (scallops crudo in a Sicilian olive oil with watercress garnish) was exactly one scallop sliced micro-thin into four slices for the two of us to share, you get an idea of the size of these plates. Another course, foie gras ravioli, was served two on a plate, about 1 inch each. The server actually said to us when she laid the plate in front of us "that's for you to share." Other courses consisted of house-cured, paper thin pork shoulder, excellent beef carpaccio, and a delicious version of Tuscan ribolitto soup. The main course was a braised chicken leg served with one strand (I'm not kidding you) of broccoli rabe and two small, very creamy, Fingerling potatoes. A cheese course was served next with their homemade Farmer's cheese. The dessert course was a Panna Cotta with a very nice chocolate sauce. Now you may be thinking "hmmm...that sounds like alot of food," but trust me, I managed to eat every morsel of every course. My husband wanted to order a pizza to go as he was starving when we left. Of course, by that time we had been there three hours (!) having sat through what must be the slowest service in history. There's leisurely and then there's ridiculous. As I mentioned earlier, the food was delicious, but for $50/pp, I expect cloth napkins and flatware that wasn't borrowed from Folsom Prison. Oh, I also expect adequate portions - tasting or no tasting. I'm just sayin'...

But on Sunday night, all cylinders were firing (but not the pizza oven) at La Pizza Fresca in NYC. My friend, Noreen, found this listing of authentic Neapolitan pizzerias in the US and as NYC is only about 20 minutes away, we thought a trip was in order. We love pizza and if there is a chance to have real Neapolitan pizza close to home, we're on it. As it was a Sunday, we decided to have an early dinner so we arrived (after sailing through the Lincoln Tunnel and finding a parking spot on the street) about 5:30 (they opened at 5pm). We were so disappointed when the lovely hostess/ bartender told us that the pizza chef was delayed so there would be no pizza until 7:30! We were crushed - our hopes of authentic Neapolitan pizza dashed. We considered going elsewhere for dinner (we were in Manhattan, after all, in the Flatiron district), but after perusing the menu over a glass of Sangiovese, we opted to stay. And were we glad we did.

First of all, to appease us for the lack of pizza, the hostess brought us a plate of absolutely delicious and creamy mozzarella with ripe tomatoes and fresh basil. It just got better from there. Noreen and I both ordered the Grilled Calamari Salad, which was fabulous - large, fat, perfectly grilled squid nestled in mixed greens with Gaeta olives. Another primi thoroughly enjoyed was Barbabietole e Gorgonzola (beet salad, Gorgonzola cheese, pine nuts).

For mains, I had the hostess' recommendation of Rigatoni with Veal Polpetti (little meatballs) with San Marzano tomato (the meatballs were so delicate), Noreen had possibly the world's lightest gnocchi, my husband had the soup special (creamy, light, butternut squash), and Doug enjoyed Rigatoni alla Siciliana (eggplant, fresh mozzarella, San Marzano tomato). Dessert was also a cut above - authentic tira mi su and a mini chocolate souffle. The service was (as it should be) unnoticeable.

On the way out, we spoke to a woman who is a regular - she vouched for the pizza, saying it is outstanding. She also told us that on Sunday nights, the regular chef is off. A valuable tip for our next trip - this time definitely for the pizza.

I should also mention one of the other restaurants visited in the last couple of weeks was Gianna's in Carlstadt, NJ. No time to review here but it is an excellent "red sauce" Italian restaurant (the Bolognese sauce is wonderful).

Are you still with me? We'll wrap up quickly now with a recipe for Banana Bread with Cinnamon Crumble Topping (I'm skipping the lentil soup recipe as it wasn't all I had hoped for). This is from one of my favorite food writers, Molly Wizenberg, who writes the wonderful blog, Orangette. This is so different from other banana breads because it has this fabulous crunchy topping of cinnamon and brown sugar, that kind of crystallizes on the top of the bread. If you've got some past-their-prime bananas, put them to good use with this recipe.

I was inspired because of a food writing course I am taking. Our assignment was to write about a food (the feel, touch, smell, taste of it) - my choice was the everyday fruit, the ubiquitous banana. Ah, but when you really see the banana for the first time, it's not so everyday. Do me a favor: the next time you have a banana, really look at it - it's small, compact, it travels well, it's good both raw and cooked - pretty near perfect, wouldn't you agree?

Banana Bread with Cinnamon Crumble Topping

1-1/2 C all-purpose flour

1 C sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 3 medium)

2 large eggs

1/2 C vegetable oil

1/4 C honey

1/4 C water

Topping:

2 TB sugar

1 t ground cinnamon

2-1/2 TB packed dark brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a 9x5 inch metal loaf pan (alternatively, you can spray the pan lightly with cooking spray, then line it with parchment paper, letting the excess hang over the sides - this makes it very easy to remove the bread from the pan after baking).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the bananas, eggs, oil, honey, and water. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir well. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.

In a small bowl, mix together the topping ingredients. Sprinkle evenly over the batter.

Bake the bread until a tester inserted into its center comes out clean, about 1 hour, give or take a little. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Then carefully remove the bread from the pan, taking care not to dislodge the topping. Cool completely before slicing. Makes 1 loaf.

Oceanos, Fair Lawn, NJ

We had dinner last night at Oceanos, a Greek seafood restaurant.  This was our anniversary dinner so I researched carefully.  Besides getting great reviews from various local newspapers, one of my favorite food bloggers, TommyEats, had given Oceanos a big thumbs-up. Additionally, after the chef/owner picks out the day's seafood every morning at the Fulton Fish Market, he comes back to the restaurant to bake all the bread for the day.  The bread, BTW, is a wonderful marble and served with flavorful Greek olive oil from the family's vineyard in Greece.

My big take-away: the outstanding service.  Yes, the food was fresh & delicious, and the restaurant's atmosphere was sleek, pleasant, & quiet (loved the color scheme - all soft blue and chocolate tones).  From the friendly host who greeted us at the door to the efficient, smooth, not overly-friendly wait staff, this was one of the most pleasant dining events in a long time.  

The best thing about the service:  I have no idea what my waiter's name was.  And, please don't take this the wrong way - he knew his place.  He didn't hover over us, although when we looked around for him to request another glass of wine or ask a question about the specials, he was there.  When he was serving a course and we engaged him in conversation, he smiled, made a light comment, and was gone.  What a breath of fresh air from the all-too-typical "hi, guys, my name is Joey and I'll be your server."  I know a lot of restaurants think that by having their wait staff introduce themselves it gives you some kind of bond with them, but frankly, I don't want to bond with the wait staff.  And, the use of the word "guys" has really gotten out of hand.  I know we all use it in our daily lives, but this is probably the thing that irritates me most at a decent restaurant.  If I'm at a Chili's (or similar ilk) for a casual, quick meal, OK.  But "real" restaurant owners:  please train your wait staff not to address patrons as "guys."  Wait staff:  look at the people at your table.  Your big hint here, some of us are not guys...

So, now to the food (photos above):  we started out with a grilled calamari appetizer - very nice.  For the main course, I had the Chilean Sea Bass, served with grilled asparagus and a vegetable risotto.  This was delicious.  My husband, Barry, had the swordfish special.  This was served with a tequila-lime sauce and yellow Spanish rice - again, delicious.  Dessert consisted of a Greek yogurt with walnuts and cherry preserves for me and a chocolate-cheesecake-layer cake for Barry.  

As an aside, have you tried Chobani Greek yogurt?  OMG - it is TDF. Try it - go to www.chobani.com and get yourself a coupon.  Once you try Greek yogurt, you will never go back to weak, watery yogurt.  There are a couple of other Greek yogurts in my Shop-Rite but I haven't tried them yet.  I am stuck on Chobani - fat-free, great flavors, and wonderfully thick, rich, luscious yogurt.