They're the culinary equivalent of great jeans, a "humble" pleasure that offers instant comfort, goes with almost everything and on occasion can be dressed up to dazzlingly chic effect.
Fifteen minutes early for a 7:30 reservation at Rocca, and our table wasn't ready-no problem; we didn't expect it to be. The lovely hostess asked us to take a seat in the drafty foyer right inside the door. Within two minutes, she reappeared. "I moved the tables around so you wouldn't have to wait out here- it's too cold."
From guacamole to peking duck rolls, dishes prepared at your table somehow seem to elevate the dining experience. Now chaat-Indian snacks usually sold from street-vendor carts-has joined the pantheon of tableside-prep.
"Nothing is more the child of art than a garden," said Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott. Indeed, with a hefty assist from Mother Nature, every garden possesses a unique, ethereal beauty-and Bergen boasts a wealth of private plots bursting with inspiration. Read on for an inside look at three, plus helpful tips from the Bergenites who tend them.
When Roy Weber first moved into his Ridgewood Colonial, the recently divorced father of two couldn't have told you what his design preferences were. "I'd never really thought much about decorating," admits Weber, 66, a lecturer at Rutgers Business School.
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