Take out: Yes
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
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
Take out: Yes
Spirito’s serves up red sauce Italian like my grandmother used to make. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if my Grandfather used to eat there in the 1950s. This Elizabeth favorite probably looks and feels exactly the same. A no-frills, family-friendly dining room with wooden booths against the walls, under old pictures of the Elizabeth docks. There’s a bar area with a separate entrance. Spirito’s is open for dinner only, and closed on Mondays.
The atmosphere is old school, with old waitresses. My son was startled when our waitress, sixty years old if a day, carrying a full tray of dirty dishes from another table, supported her elbows on our table, and the tray under his nose, while she memorized our order.
Spirito’s menu is brief. Pasta and a few meat dishes like chicken and veal parmigiana. Everything we had was delicious. I can still taste the garlic salad I ordered six months ago. It’s a must try. The homemade ravioli is excellent – a perfect cheese mixture fills the ravioli and the lasagna. The chicken parm is thin, even light, unlike most versions. Everything comes with a tomato gravy that’s been cooking all afternoon. Spirito’s also serves bar pies, which have many fans, but I haven’t tried one yet.
At Spirito’s, there’s no butter with the bread, no coffee, and no dessert. Cash only.
Links
- Author: Anthony
- Published: Aug 18th, 2010
- Category: Food, Portuguese, Review
Take out: Yes
Review
- Not far from Newark airport (the neon Budweiser brewery sign glows like a harvest moon above the treetops) in a residential section of Elizabeth, Valenca is a hearty Portuguese steakhouse with big portions, great food, and plenty of neighborhood charm. The appetizers were enough for a full meal – stuffed scallops, clams on the half shell, calamari and the stand-out Portuguese Chourico – a delicious sausage served flaming at your table. The many meat and seafood entrees are all large enough to feed more than one. Valenca’s signature dish – Filet Mignon on a Stone – means the dining room fills with a buttery steam cloud from patrons grilling hunks of raw beef on individual trays with a sizzling stone, garlic butter and a lemon wedge. You can also order Tuna on a Stone. The paella and seafood Cataplana are excellent.
Valenca fills up with local families and couples; reservations recommended. The dining rooms are attached to a full bar with some banquet/catering rooms upstairs. Service is efficient, but a little slow when crowded. Headed here with family to celebrate my wife’s birthday last week (looking younger every day), and enjoyed a wonderful meal.
Links
