Charlie's Italian Hot Dog

Review

Since 1962, Charlie’s “Famous” Italian Hot Dogs in Kenilworth has battled all comers for the title of best Italian dog in Jersey. At Charlie’s, each component of the traditional Italian Hot Dog – a hot dog (or two, if you’re hungry), sweet peppers, onions and sliced potatoes – is deep fried separately before the sandwich (meal) is assembled in a half-round pizza bread with a smear of spicy brown mustard. I tried the single on my visit. The bread is soft, but not too soft. The natural casing dog has an excellent snap and flavor. The potatoes are not healthy, of course, but I found them crispy and less greasy than those at Dickie Dee’s or Jimmy Buff’s, where all the ingredients are deep fried together.

Charlie’s menu includes hamburgers, cheeseburgers, Italian sausages and disco fries. Add potatoes, peppers and onions to any sandwich for Italian Style. There is a second Charlie’s location on Route 22 East in Union.

A recent “Food Wars” episode pitted Charlie’s Famous against the legendary Jimmy Buff’s. The three judges, including the Star-Ledger’s Pete Genovese, gave the title to Charlie’s. The episode was running in a continuous loop on a TV in the restaurant when I visited. James Racioppi, owner of Jimmy Buff’s, was gracious in defeat on the show, but I noticed a new Jimmy Buff’s location has opened in Kenilworth, right around the corner from Charlie’s. Bad news for Kenilworth waistlines. Good news for anyone who wants to conduct their own Italian Dog throw-down. Add a stop at nearby Galloping Hill Grill  in Union, my #2 favorite hot dog joint, and you’ve got a mini New Jersey hot dog tour in Union County.

Links

Food Wars
Roadfood.com

Leitão á Bairrada

Review

Crispy and steaming out of the oven

I’d heard rumors of New Jersey restaurants that serve whole roasted pigs. Filipino lechón, Puerto Rican lechón asado, and Cuban roast pork cooked in a caja china are all on my list of foods to find. Casa do Leitão in Elizabeth popped up on the food boards when I was researching Jersey’s best Portuguese food. Translated as “House of Suckling Pig,” fans rave about the roast pork that emerges from this unassuming take-out counter and restaurant. I made a note of the address and website, printed out the menu, and waited for the right opportunity to order the Leitão á Bairrada. We waited too long. The oven-roasted whole suckling pig from Casa do Leitão is one of the best meals I’ve had this year.

My opportunity was an invitation to a backyard dinner. We volunteered to bring a pig.

Better than a box of roses

Casa do Leitão’s website suggests calling 30 minutes ahead to place a take out order. From online food discussions, I learned that ordering over the phone can be a challenge without a working Portuguese vocabulary. My wife and I decided to wing it and simply show up. The restaurant is literally “on the other side of the tracks” in Elizabeth, if you’re coming from Morris or Westfield Avenue. Make the first turn onto Walnut Street after passing under the railroad tracks and you’ll see the restaurant, the small building with a Portuguese flag out front. Parking is tricky in the residential neighborhood. There’s a take-out entrance with a counter, where most of the activity was taking place at 4 pm on a Saturday, and a cozy dining room with a full bar and six tables.

The full menu at Casa do Leitão includes all kinds of Portuguese BBQ (chicken, ribs, rabbit) and traditional dishes – shrimp in garlic sauce, pork bits with clams (Carne á Alentejana), and oven-roasted goat and lamb –  but we had come for the Suckling Pig. After navigating a half-Spanish, half-Portuguese conversation with the very friendly woman at the counter, we learned that a whole pig would feed 8-10 people, cost $150 and be ready in 2 hours. The restaurant serves roasted pig whole, half or quarter; by the pound or the portion; or in a sandwich. The timing for take out depends on when the next pig comes out of the oven. On weekend days, according to the woman behind the counter, they might cook around 18 pigs. We placed the order and programmed the GPS for the return trip.

We arrived for dinner empty-handed, but promised a splendid main dish as soon as we picked up our pig. Exactly two hours after we had placed the order, our pig came out of the oven, steaming and crackling on a metal spit. As the cooks removed the spit and tipped up the pig to drain the accumulated juices, you could see where the underside of the pig had been sewn together after butchering. The smell of fresh roast pork filled the restaurant and, I have to say, the little pig was quite beautiful. (Apologies to those who don’t like food that resembles the animal it once was, and to EthnicNJ’s vegetarian readers.) The skin is irresistible – glistening, crispy and a deep, reddish-ochre color. It’s all you can do to resist snapping off the tip of an ear as soon as it is within reach. The pig is presented to go in a parchment-paper-lined cardboard box, shaped like a box of long-stemmed flowers. (This pig would make a fine Valentine’s gift alternative, IMHO) The box is left uncovered so the skin stays crispy during transport. I was drooling from the porcine aromas and hunger pains on the ride home. Our car has never smelled so good.

The House Specialty

The leitão in a box made quite an impression upon presentation in our friends’ backyard. I was pleased to see that our kids were more excited than squeamish. The host, very skilled with a carving knife, made quick work piercing the pork skin and slicing up layers of moist, perfectly cooked meat. Tasting the skin made me regret wasting any room in my stomach with the BLT I had eaten for lunch. The roasted pork skin is so thin and crispy you could suffer a bacon paper-cut if you’re not careful. You won’t be able to resist grabbing for the first piece to pop in your mouth. What makes Leitão á Bairrada unique, according to the traditional preparation in the Bairrada region of Portugal, is the paste of garlic, white pepper and pig fat rubbed over the entire pig inside and out. The result is a flavorful, not too salty, skin and meat. The melted layer of fat between the skin and meat coats every slice of pork with even more flavor.

Meat this good can be eaten by itself, often with your fingers. It’s also good over rice, or in a sandwich. Inspired by David Chang’s Momofuku pork buns, our friends served Asian steamed buns, quick pickled cucumbers, Sriracha Sauce and cilantro, the makings for spectacular leitão buns.

I’ll seek out other versions of whole roast pig in New Jersey, but Casa do Leitão’s Portuguese specialty will be difficult to beat.

Links

Chowhound
The Wall Street Journal

Links

Off the Broiler

A one stop shop for fresh Middle Eastern baked goods; desserts; halal meats; groceries; prepared foods (buy the hummus!); a cafe in the back serving shawarma (sliced meat sandwiches) and lahmajeen (flatbread “pizzas”); and distinctively, a gold jewelry counter.

Links

Off the Broiler