The Return Of Newark Cider

New Jersey has in recent years, been known for their wines and champagnes. Yet another heady beverage is making a comeback -  Newark Cider. This clean tasting fruity brew is being made in state again and is gracing tables as it did in George Washington's day.

Rachel Wharton, a food writer and editor at  The New York Daily News took a break from her newspaper to write this piece for today's New York Times Food section. Newark cider was a great favorite of colonial New Jersey.It was also the treasured choice of George Washington who called it "the champagne of ciders". For decades cideries graced the Newark ,New Jersey area, thanks in part to the vast amount of apple orchards located the various hillsides bordering the town. They were perfect for growing fruit. The slopes have cool nights and warm days which protect the fruit from frost along with helping to accumulate flavor and sugar. The apples, themselves, are descended from the four varieties that make up the brew. Campfield, Povoshon, Granniwinkle and Harrison, the most celebrated of the quartet are the ones used. Together they create a crisp clean cider with notes of caramel and brown sugar, thanks to the Poveshon.Yet it is the Harrison apple that makes the cider sing.They have both the astringent tannins and high acidity that give the drink its' very rich, sugary flavor.

The entire Jersey cider industry was ready to be consigned to history  however it was revived to Charles Rosen.This former chief executive of a Manhattan advertising agency that dealt with other liquors, Svedka Vodka and Mike's Hard Lemonade, wanted to reintroduce this staple of Revolutionary New Jersey. He invested all his money in the business , long gone thanks to first urbanization  and then Prohibition.In 2011 he was looking to effect change in the state. It was then he was handed the magazine Edible New Jersey which had an article about the history of Newark Cider.The article's author, Fran McManus offered a suggestion at its' end - the apples were being grown in other states - why not bring  them back home? Mr. Rosen decided to give it a try. In 2015 he planted several thousand hard to find vintage cider apple saplings. While waiting for these to grow , he produced mainstream ciders such as cherry -cranberry with apple juice bought from other orchards. There is a new Champagne style cider made entirely of Harrison apples, found when his lawyer, Thomas Villardi, came upon a deserted cider mill in Maplewood NJ and with it , the trees. There is also the Ironbound Cider Company that has a tap room and tasting room where New Jersey sourced ingredients are turned into delicious dishes that go perfect with the cider. It's located in Asbury ,New Jersey, just a skip away from the Bridgewater Commons Mall.

New Jersey is known for many things. Cider will once again be one of them. New Jerseyians will enjoy this heady brew  the same way George Washington did.

Where The Wild Things Are Eaten

There's A club in New York that has attracted adventurers and adventurous eaters for decades.The meats aren't your usual roast beef and chicken.They"re a bit more gamier, in fact they're downright wild.It's the famed Explorer's Club and it' been serving up some strange beasts for interesting feasts. Stephen Rex Brown wrote about it in today's New York Daily News(again the Daily News has some really good food articles).It an annual dinner that has attracted some of the last century's more famous explorer's.Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Sir Edmund Hillary This year Amazon founder ,Jeff Bezos and the edge of space skydiver, Felix Baumgartner will be honored. However it's the food that will shine.In past years it was a maple glazed hog mask or the face of the pig,along with python patties with bacon on top.For seafood adventurists the club served up jellyfish slivers in a white soy sauce.Turtle cakes with capers remoulade has also been given out.Desserts usually have the added decoration of mealworms and crickets. The club started in 1903 when navigating through most sit down dinners was an adventure.The club was founded by professionals dedicated To the exp,oration of Earth, the oceans and outer space.The first group included early Arctic explorer's,Adolphus Greeley and David Brainard.Teddy Roosevelt and Prince Albert I of Monaco were honorary members..The club has always been known for it's strange dinners.This year a few dozen pounds of alligators will be used as well as some exotic fungi.The dinner became a yearly fixture in the 1930s when explorer's brought back well preserved mammoth meat from Siberia.Since then every kind of meat, from ostrich to tarantula has been served.It's been made into such mundane recipes like bakes and sliders,the easier to eat them. Insects become kabobs while eyeballs are like appetizers. The Explorers were never faint hearted men and women.Eating the wild things on the planet means having a steely constitution.It's a club for the adventurous palate.

Your Own Gourmet Salt

Sea salt is one of the hottest food items right now. This gourmet specialty is everywhere, seasoning everything from popcorn to ice cream.Now there's a way to make your own.You can have your own. Version of fleur de sell orMalden's Surprisingly it's a simple procedure. it was the topic of an article in today's New YorkDaily News (I'm TheTimes Dining section a rest tonight)Making your own sea sal T is easy ,even if you have to use the waters right off of Manhattan.Take the seawater first thing in the water before the swimmers arriveRun the water through cheesecloth to eliminate any sand or gritThen put int o ashallow glass baking pan.You can dry it out in a low temp oven for days or outside for two or thee weeksOnce thieves are dry ,scrape from pan and store in an airtight container. Making your own salt. a shallow you to customize it.You can add lavender as some fancy French companies do. Try an apple wood one by adding soaked chips to the dryig process.There is also a recipe for lemon salt, popular with chefs in London right now.Thos requires both le,on juice and lemon zest added.Squueze over the drying salt and process in a warm sunny place like a window sill.SSpice up your salt with dill or Rosemary for something to add to salads.Drip some vanilla extract over the still. Wet salt for a dessert kind sea salt is hot right now.Customize your own with different flavors or just create a plain one.It's a neat way of having this trendy foodie item.

Food Trend 2012

Now that the New Year is here , it;s time to see what will be the top food trends in 2012.there will be a lot of them from  what yesterday's Daily News Eats section predicts.Some are actually very predictable, some are sort of a surprise. However for now there is no new breed of animal we'll be eating or new strain of fruit or veggie to go wild over.It seems the New Year looks to the past as to what we'll be chowing down on.

The Eats section  interviewed several New York City chefs and they more or less answered the same way/. Local foods will be the biggest trend, carrying over from 2011.Both Robert Newton of  Brooklyn';s Seersucker Street Canteen and Jason Hilbert of Gwynnett Street, also of Brooklyn both feel that local produce will figure heavily in both restaurant and home cooking. This makes sense given that almost every town, and section of  New York now has a farmer's market. This also means that there's a good return to preservative free cooking too. People can pick up fresh spinach and tomatoes  along with herbs and spices. Locavore cooking may also figure heavily in the return to home gardening. There may be more tomato and pepper plants sold as there will be fruit tree saplings.

Another trend is once again taken from 2011 and that is comfort food.,In fact the  number one comfort food that may be the must have is the simple grill cheese sandwich. Daniel Holzman of  .Meatball Shop predicts that this gooey treat will be making the rounds of some of the best restaurants. Another trend is more sustainable seafood and a huge interest in seafood dishes. This last makes sense because , unlike beef and poultry, fish have  the necessary Omega threes along.It's also lower in fat and cholesterol. Another chef,Dan Silverman of Manhattan's The Standard Grill predicts North African and Moroccan cuisine will be hot. Thanks to the international coverage of the events of Arab Africa, more people are curious about the Arab lifestyles and what foods they make and eat.

The year has just begun however the trends are starting up. There will probably be a few new ones with each season. Like any other trend , food trends come and go. The ones mentioned may be hot, They may simply be predictions. It's hard to say.The year is brand new yet.