HobokenFoodCritic

As I had mentioned previously, we spent our New Year’s Eve at Trinity. Although New Year’s Eve is generally overrated, we wanted to do something different than sit around at our apartment (or someone else’s), which is basically what we did the previous two years. This time, we wanted to get all dressed up and have an elegant, romantic night out to start the new year off right.

Trinity provides an interesting mix of old and new. The decor, as well as the cuisine, combines Celtic tradition with modern classiness. With slightly-oversized wooden tables, dim lighting, and calming ambience, Ashley and I agreed that the atmosphere inside Trinity could be described as ”rustic elegance”.

Trinity’s dinner menu has never been as immediately appealing to me as its more modern neighbors The Quays and 3 Forty Grill. Perhaps this is because much of Trinity’s Gaelic-style fare is not what I normally would expect at a somewhat pricey restaurant, with dishes including such items as creamed corn pudding, deviled eggs, potato gnocchi, or duck sausage.  Yet, the food seems to maintain a steady balance of heartiness and fanciness.

For appetizers, we decided to share the Grain Mustard Braised Mussels and the Mixed Baby Greens. The mussels were served in a brownish sauce that complimented them nicely. Mixed into the soupy sauce were large chunks of spicy sausage and small pieces of smoked ham. It was a combination of flavors that is not common with your typical mussels dish, but everything came together deliciously.

The mixed baby green salad was nothing more than a bowl of mixed baby greens topped with a balsamic vinaigrette and a few baby tomatoes. While Ashley appreciated its simplicity, I thought it could have been a bit more inventive.

For the main course, Ashley went right for the kill and ordered the Grilled Black Angus New York Strip Steak, which is probably my favorite dish on the menu. She ordered it medium and it was cooked absolutely perfect–seared on the outside, and gradually becoming a nice red in the center. And juicy. It was served with green beans, wild mushrooms, and a potato tart–which was also delicious.

Since I had eaten way too much red meat over the holidays, I was looking to have some fish. I opted for the Crispy Skin Salmon, a dish I had not yet tried. It was a good-sized piece of salmon (though not quite as big as Ashley’s New York Strip) with a spicy dose of what tasted like blackening seasoning on its crispy skin. The salmon was sitting in a sweet sauce that helped balance out the salty spiciness of the fish’s seasoning. The salmon was accompanied by some broccolini (which, in case you haven’t guessed, is like mini broccoli).

During dinner I drank two glasses of Black Box Merlot, which I enjoyed, while Ashley had two glasses of Black Box Cabernet, which was quite a bit heavier but stood up pretty well to her steak.

At one point, we took note that although the restaurant was full to capacity, we didn’t feel crowded. We were quite relaxed and happy, and our waiter was very polite and didn’t make us feel rushed.

The total price of the dinner came to $104 plus tip. We had taken our time with dinner (almost two hours), and as 9:00pm approached, people started filling in the bar area, and a line was forming outside. Instead of hanging out by the bar area, we snagged one of the comfortable leather couches in the small lounge area in the central part of the restaurant. We sat there for a while and enjoyed some good conversation and a few more drinks.

As the night rolled on, the place started to get more crowded, but not unbearably so. The crowd that showed up was not the typical drunken idiots you might expect to see on New Year’s Eve, but rather a somewhat classier crowd that was having a good time but not overdoing it.

By about 10:30, we noticed that the table at which we ate dinner was not occupied, so we decided to abandon our leather couch and sit back down at the table and order something to snack on. Our same waiter as before came right over to us and smiled as he handed us the dessert menu. We ordered the Artisinal Cheese Platter to split, and I ordered some Macallan 18 yr, which is one of my favorite single malts. The cheese platter came with grapes, several different crackers, some mixed nuts, an apple chutney spread, and three different types of cheese. Everything in the platter was very good, though we felt that the pieces of cheese were relatively small, especially for a “cheese platter”. We thought there could have been a few less crackers and a bit more cheese. This time, the bill came to $38 plus tip, mainly because my Macallan 18 yr was $21 alone.

We were happy that the music played was a good variety of fun music. In the last few minutes before the ball dropped, everyone sang along to a few 80’s classics such as Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ and Bryan Adams’ Summer of ‘69.

We had one more drink and danced for a little while. As 1:00am neared we decided to head home. It was a good night. We ended up spending approximately $240 total on the night, which is probably comparable to what we would have spent if we went to one of the all-inclusive buffet/open bar events around town. However, we valued the freedom of being able to order whatever we wanted for dinner, as well as not being limited to only certain types of drinks, and not feeling the pressure to “get our money’s worth” all night. We did what we wanted, and we did it at our own pace. And it ended up being a great night.

Being not-too-impressed by the produce, deli, and seafood sections of the ShopRite in town (which is where we do most of our grocery shopping), we sometimes take the walk down to Garden of Eden (on Washington St. between 2nd and 3rd) to get the hands-down freshest groceries in town. So, when we wanted to cook a meal that was a bit more daring and exquisite than we are typically used to (we were thinking seafood), we hit up Garden of Eden in search of some fine ingredients.

Garden of Eden is (to stick with the biblical references) like heaven on earth–at least when it comes to specialty food markets. Much like the story of Adam and Eve, one can easily be seduced by the mounds of colorful, perfect fruit arranged outside the front window that seem to beckon you to come inside.

Walking around inside Garden of Eden is as much of a feast for your eyes as it eventually will be for your stomach. It is a relatively small food market, as compared to ShopRite, A&P, and even the Kings’ in town. But the place is impeccable, clean, neatly arranged, and, as I mentioned, colorful and appealing. It’s the kind of place that you walk into and want to buy everything. The fresh fruit and vegetables look so perfect they almost appear to be fake. I couldn’t resist the asparagus.

They even have some unique, reasonably-priced, pre-packaged veggies that can save you some prep time. I found a package of 3 different kinds of sliced zucchini–regular, yellow, and light green (I don’t know the technical names)–which I thought would be a good compliment to seafood, so I grabbed it and threw it in my basket.

Then came the seafood section. Since this would be the main course, this was the toughest decision. The fact that all their seafood looked amazing didn’t help. So, I did what any Hobokenite would do when faced with a buying decision. I splurged. I bought 1 pound of Chilean seabass, 4 huge sea scallops, and a crabcake. Probably enough food for 2 people.

It was difficult to control myself from buying more food as I walked through the hot prepared foods, fresh breads, cheeses, and the deli section (which features meats from Applegate Farms in Montclair). Somehow, I managed to make it through.

The total cost of what I bought was $49. As I left, I couldn’t help but think that we could have dined out, saved ourselves the work, and had a professionally cooked meal for not too much more money than what I spent. But what fun is that?

Actually, you don’t have to empty your wallet like I did to get great stuff at Garden of Eden. As a matter of fact, most of the fruits and vegetables are comparable in price to ShopRite–and MUCH better in terms of quality. However, you do have to be careful, because some stuff can be pricey, so it is best to be an educated consumer. Self-control is also key–you can easily find yourself being lured into stuffing your basket full with as much food as you can carry. Nevertheless, if Garden of Eden sold basic household products such as paper towels, cleaning supplies, and garbage bags, I would probably shop there exclusively. But that might take away from its devilish appeal.