Posts by Carolyn R. Choate
One of New Hampshire’s most popular winter attractions is returning to Nashua. The New Hampshire Orchid Society will present, A Bounty Orchids, March 25 – 27, at the Courtyard Marriott, 2200 Southwood Drive, Nashua. Off Exit 8, Everett Turnpike.
Eating up the food, the friendly conversation, the sense that I’m in a remote – and scenic – destination far from home, and warmed in the glow emitted by gas heaters placed among the many well-spaced tables all occupied at the foot of McIntyre’s ski lift, you think, “life feels good again.”
Chef/owner Omar Abouzaid and his wife, Ibtisam, are no strangers to Manchester or the food biz. They first moved to the area 20 years ago from Morocco to attend Southern New Hampshire University. Ibtisam earning her degree in International Business; while Omar graduated with an MBA before continuing on to get an MS in Finance.
Before the world started looking eerily like a Charles Dickens throwback, Ed Aloise and Claudia Rippee, of Republic Cafe, 1069 Elm St., were reveling in their best year yet. Their tenth, in fact; a nod to the couple’s complete commitment to elevating the farm-to-table concept to a thoroughly flavorful, gourmet experience where even the prices were easy to swallow.
The 20-something Salem native with an associate’s degree in baking and pastry arts and a BA in culinary management from Southern NH University, purchased the former Michelle’s Bakery in December before stamping his own unique identity on the place in April: Bearded Baking Company.
In addition to all that regulars have come to expect from Angela’s Pasta & Cheese, Steve Freeman plans to start cooking classes – once we get past COVID-19 restrictions.
Things have really been hoppin’ at Bunny’s Superette, 75 Webster St., ever since a new Nepalese take-out restaurant took up residence in Pramod Nyaupane’s renovated store last week.
Gary “Diz” Window, chef/owner of recently opened Diz’s Café, 860 Elm Street, thinks the world could use some comfort food right around now. His spin? “Things your mother would make but I make ‘em better,” he tells me before readying for a long day in his newly appointed home away from home.
You don’t need TV financial analysts to tell you what your wallet has been feeling: the steady climb of food prices since the onset of Covid-19. Just last week, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that April saw the biggest one month increase at the nation’s grocery stores since 1974; a 4.3 percent increase in meat, poultry, fish and eggs, and a 7 percent across the board increase in all departments since this time last year.
Sales have doubled to over 800 meals a week for the already-booming Elm Street-based home-delivery and curbside pickup meal service since the outset of COVID-19.
Timing, they say, is everything. Ask Tom Puskarich, chef/owner of Restoration Café on Hanover Street. After spending time last fall conceptualizing an innovative new restaurant — one without walls, tables or chairs — never could he have imagined the irony of COVID-19 on his latest dining venture, Good & Planty.
It’s unprecedented, alright. What the 6-0-3’s Liquor Commission has created from modest beginnings in 2005 is, today, the envy of event planners in any major metropolitan zip code. Rock star participants, sell-out crowds, proceeds benefitting a worthy and respected local nonprofit, EasterSeals New Hampshire.
The Barking Tomato recently traveled from Nashua to the Queen City – passport in hand – to eat what all the fuss was about vis a vis Yelp and Trip Advisor food critics and I gotta confess: you are the Queen of global yummy.
One early December morning well-spent in Manchester and my foodie Christmas list is all but wrapped up! In beautiful baskets with festive cellophane. Ready to ship across the city or across the country.
NH Orchid Society President Andrea Deachman says the annual event often stimulates new interest in the Society. She’s hoping to increase the state-wide roster beyond its current 150 members following February Follies.
Enjoy a walk-through of the new Whole Foods in Bedford, opening April 8. Carolyn Choate goes aisle by aisle, and leaves no fruit bar jug unturned.
Of course, I awoke those spring mornings to the requisite Easter basket filled with green cellophane grass and heaps of jelly beans in Red #40, Yellow #5, Green #3, and Blue #1; not to mention bunches of beautiful pastel foil-wrapped chocolate eggs and, the crown jewel of the Easter candy crowd, a foot-tall, hollow milk chocolate bunny with solid chocolate ears. Breakfast? I was perfectly satisfied; stoked on a massive sugar high which, when combined with Aquanet, to hold my curls after sleeping with mom’s foam rollers, I could recite the week’s Bible verse, Luke 24: 46-47, in 10 seconds flat: Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
WATCH: Carolyn Choate, our Barking Tomato, gets the inside scoop from Chef Michael Buckley on his latest venture.
With the magic of Christmas less than a week away, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite foodie things – both old and new – in case there’s a food-lover on your list you haven’t checked off yet. Or, even better, maybe you’re the food-lover taking a shine to an idea (or two) of mine. Feel free to send to Santa!
I have four shelves of proof of my tomato bumper crop – waxed paper quart containers, freezer bags, and plastic tubs – that will be gone by January. (If not sooner.) Roasted Tomato Rustic Sauce, whose ridiculously easy recipe from Stonewall Kitchen, I thank God for – and share with you here.