In our column, The Best Local Thing I Ever Ate, we ask local chefs, restaurant owners, and food lovers to share their favorite dish in town. These are the kind of meals that you crave, dream about, salivate over. The meals that you order over and over again.
This month, three local ladies share their picks:
Baristanet contributor Kristin Wald says the house-made hummos at Falafel Hut in Montclair is superb. “I used to only buy hummos at Sahadi’s on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, but I’d offer up the Falafel Hut hummos as a rival. It’s creamy and garlicky and it’s excellent on its own or in a wrap. Perfection!”
Karen Schloss Diaz, longtime restaurant and food trends columnist for The Montclair Times/NorthJersey.com, loves the Carrot Mango Smoothie from Plum on Park. “Once in a while, my latest obsession coincides with something really healthy … and I’m overjoyed (and surprised) when that happens.”
For Melody Kettle, president of the Montclair Wine and Food Festival it’s the Pho at the Vietnamese restaurant Binh Duong in Bloomfield:
The rib eye at The Orange Squirrel and the duck at Blu came close, but, let’s face it, you can’t beat a good pho. Therefore, my favorite of favorites is, no doubt, the rare beef pho at Binh Duong. The noodles and beef (I get my meat served on the side because I like it especially rare) are excellent, but it’s really the aromatic beef broth that makes this dish most phonomenal! Topped with Thai basil, bean sprouts, jalapeño, a squirt of hoisin, sriracha and a little fish sauce, it will set you right every time.
Do you have a “Best Local Thing I Ever Ate” to share? Send it to us here and it may be featured in upcoming editions.
Lobster Cobb at Toast still one of my favorites.
had to been said in past. . . at least once. . . . French Toast at Raymonds.
No.6 Ani Ramen @ Ani Ramen
Speck Pizzette @ Salute
$1.50 oysters @ Costanera Raw Bar Thursdays (though I preferred them when the price was $1)
Foie Gras @ Escape
Shishito peppers @ Pig & Prince
I like the Charbroiled pork Pho @ Huong Viet in Nutley better than the Bloomfield Pho, wish they’d come back to Montclair
I’m with Kristin on Falafel Hut. And as good as the hummus is, the baba ganoush is even better.
The fried oyster appetizer at CulinAriane; I hope they have it at their new location!!