One thing that makes a place great to live is the ability to get great food. Do you like shopping at the farmers market? I love it! And in this area we are so lucky to have several of them. I most often shop at the Montclair market on Saturdays. And unofficially, it is open year round.
From June-November there are many more vendors and the produce is much more abundant. Throughout the year though three of my favorite vendors brave the weather and are there almost every weekend. Those three are Vacchiano Farms, Shore Catch and PickleLicious.
This is what I love most from them:
1. Shore Catch has amazing fresh fish. I love the tuna and scallops. It’s so fresh that we usually eat it raw in a tuna poke and then we serve the scallops sliced and raw with just a little extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon and Maldon salt. I also love their flounder which makes a great ceviche. They have pretty much made it so I only want to buy fish from them.
2. What I really wanted to tell you about today though is the hot dogs from Vacchiano. Like everything they sell and make, you can taste the quality from this family owned business. I have been buying steaks, chicken, cheese and eggs from them for years. I never thought that I would be writing to you about hotdogs, they are just so good that I had to let you to know about them.
Growing up Jewish in NY, I ate a lot of great grilled hot dogs as a kid in the summer and so it’s something about which I have very particular standards. My grandfather would go to the Hebrew National factory in Brooklyn and it’s a big deal memory to me. I was actually very skeptical to even try their hotdogs.
Well luckily my son insisted. They are so flavorful and have the perfect snap. When you cook them on the grill, they split. If you like hotdogs at all, you need to try these. I can’t imagine a better hotdog than these homemade all beef ones.
3. While I thought that mustard and sauerkraut were the only things I would ever want on a hotdog, PickleLicious makes a condiment they call krelish which changed my mind. It’s mustard, kraut, relish and a little crushed red pepper. They also make great sauerkraut and pickles.
So try some or all of these things and let us know what you think.