Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

Why? Because it was my birthday! As if I need an excuse!

A dear friend treated me to a birthday eve meal at one of our favorite haunts, New York City's Tea & Sympathy. The mushroom shepherd's pie with peas and carrots, $13.95, and a pot of decaf Earl Grey, $4.50.

A Mrs. Bucket-approved dessert: Victoria sponge cake, $8. Loved the post office tea pot, and thought of Hyacinth's poor postman. She only uses first class stamps, you know!


I always save one vacation day to take my birthday off. Do I want to spend my birthday in my cubicle? No! Instead...

At the Rutherford Pancake House in Rutherford, New Jersey, I shared vegan sliders with a tamarind date sauce, $5.95, and vegan cheese quesadillas with roasted red peppers, spinach and portabella mushrooms and the most sweet potato fries I've seen on one plate! $9.95.

At all-vegan Sweet Avenue Bake Shop, also in Rutherford, a Boston cream cupcake, $3.50. Kind of makes you want to move to Rutherford, doesn't it?

To go: their classic white room cupcake - vanilla cake with vanilla bean frosting, $3. There's something so timeless and comforting about vanilla, isn't there?

Toasting to a California sparkling rose at the The Kitchen in Englewood, New Jersey, which celebrates the cuisine and the era of the 1930s. Love this unique concept, and the BYOB saves a fortune. I don't care if it is organic, I'm not paying $12 for a glass of wine anywhere.


About five complimentary passed appetizers come (they accommodated vegetarian), and I also had a small taste of their daily soup (roasted garlic and cauliflower soup - some of the best soup I've had in recent memory). Then it was time for the entree.

The vegetarian gratin, with butternut squash with faux bacon, caramelized onions and greens, $19. Entrees come with two sides: sweet potatoes with nuts and marshmallows, and collard greens. Classic comfort food, done right.

I know, the apple cranberry crisp is more seasonable, but the caramelized banana napoleon, $8 - just so tempting and delicious.

An aside about how good the food was at The Kitchen - a lively table was next to mine with about a dozen people also there for a birthday celebration. When the food came - silence soon followed. A man at the table declared, "It must be good - the conversation has ceased!" Ever notice how when the food is amazing you zone into your own little world? I also smiled thinking about how food brings us together - yet another reason it is one of life's great pleasures.

Depressed about being another year older? No way. Remember the words in P.S. I Love You expressed by Harry Connick Jr.'s character, "We're so arrogant, aren't we? We're so afraid to age. We do everything we can to prevent it. But we don't realize what a privilege it is to grow old."

I'm privileged to celebrate another birthday, and hope you view your own next birthday and each one after with a happy and grateful heart.

The Kitchen in Englewood: It's the Cat's Meow

If I could build a time machine (and how I wish I could), it would definitely make an extended stop in the 1920's and 1930's.

That's why I was so excited to visit The Kitchen, a new restaurant in Englewood, New Jersey, that celebrates American food and 1930s.

Why this time, and this cuisine? From their site:

"The 1930's was a special era for America in terms of entertaining and dining out. Although in the depths of the Great Depression, new restaurants opened at a rapid rate and entertaining at home increased each year. With the repeal of Prohibition, cocktail parties with passed canapés grew in popularity even with the middle class. Americans had not legally been able to import alcoholic beverages for over ten years. Bourbon, an American spirit, became very popular among Americans and the Mint Julep became the signature drink of the Kentucky Derby...America was developing an identity for food and beverage."

Images from the era adorn their walls.


I would love to be in this crowd for a night.


Don't you think gloves and chic hats should come back in style? I do.


I adored the centerpieces on each table: all pots of fresh herbs. Ours was one of my favorites: aromatic and woodsy rosemary.

It's BYOB here, which translates into a big savings on the bill if you imbibe.

To give you the feeling you are at a festive party, about five complimentary passed appetizers come to your table. My sweetheart had to eat two of each for the tuna tartare, beef brisquet, and shrimp. I got to enjoy the vegetarian options.

Sweet potato pancakes, with a tropical chutney.

Mushroom tarts, with a warm sherry glaze.


I was eyeing the baby greens salad with mandarin oranges, caramelized almonds and citrus dressing, but my sweetheart had a strong craving for...

A chopped salad, $6: iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers and bleu cheese dressing. Simple and comforting.

A roasted vegetable napoleon, served with with an oven dried tomato sauce, $18, and vegetable assortment, including candied sweet potatoes. All entrees are served with two market sides. Not pictured, it came with roasted baby potatoes with fresh herbs, and warm beets.

The dessert list was mouth-watering. Caramelized peppered pineapple and strawberry rhubarb crisp were strongly considered, but we went with the toasted sponge cake, from a recipe created in the 1930's, with berries, raspberry sauce and whipped cream, $7.


I left wanting to dig up magazines from the past in antique and vintage shops and get in the kitchen for some soul-nourishing food like this all the time.

Take a musical journey to the 1920's and 1930's with The Big Broadcast on WFUV each Sunday night. Listen online to the past two week's shows in their archives.

Coming up: let's go back even further. How about a few hundred years.