Highlights of Highlawn’s jazz menu ($29 prix fixe, offered Wednesdays and Fridays) included a tasting of tuna and salmon tartare, Wagyu hanger steak in red wine sauce, a sauteed striped bass with shallot sauce (pictured) and an off-the-hook chocolate tasting.

The restaurant’s vibe is Mad Men-elegant but hardly sedate (the baristas felt comfortable gabbing and laughing at a large table while enjoying the jazz duo that played throughout the evening). And yes, we spied Assemblyman Thomas Giblin and author Dorothea Benton Frank among the well-heeled crowd.

At $29 for three sumptuous courses, the jazz dinner was a special girls night out, but we all could see returning for a romantic night out. Go, dress up, hear some jazz and experience fine dining in a beautiful setting. Then let us know who you see.

Have you ever found yourself at a Superbowl party unhinging your jaw and shoving anything salty, greasy, fried and over 45 grams of fat per serving in your gob? Well get a grip this year and knock that off. For the love of all that is sacred and holy we are lucky to live in a place with choices — and good ones at that.

I hail from a place where football is a way of life.  At the age of six my father taught me how to throw a football and take a hit so Super-Sunday (even though my Lions did not make it there this year) has always been a day full of fun mud-filled and snowy memories for me.

Here are  a couple of my top choices for food that you can order out as well as sweets and Giants gear. For a smaller party check our guide for the best Sandwiches of Baristaville Part 1 and Part 2 and remember, for any size party I advise you to get your order in ASAP.

Murph's Sports Shop

For my favorite pizza and BBQ Ruthie’s  will be open for catering, pre-ordering is advised. They will offer their BBQ including wings, smoked wings, ribs, pulled pork and chicken, beef brisket, burnt ends gumbo and all of their sides and fixin’s.

Little Phil’s Artisanal Deli catered the Baristanet holiday party and  EVERYTHING was fantastic. They have a full menu from fantastic sandwiches to spring rolls and samosas.

For sweets Le Bakers Dozen will be frosting their yummy  NY Giant helmets, footballs and cleat cookies (pictured above).

If you are looking for just about anything with the NY Giants logo such as shirts, sweat-shirts, hats, clocks and waste cans, Murph’s Sports Shop is your blue and red destination.

Not looking to order out or don’t have the time to plan ahead? This is one of my favorite ways to entertain a casual group with almost zero prep time — that is of course if I am not making my roast pork. First you need a panini press. If you like sandwiches you will not regret buying one of these doo-dads. I keep mine out all winter and we use it almost everyday.

Here are some of the things I like to serve:

• A selection of different sliced meats and cheeses
• Roasted red peppers
• Black olive
• Pickles
• Artichoke hearts
• Tomatoes
• Arugula
• Onions
• Mayonnaise
• Mustard
• Pesto spread
• Olive oil
• Flat breads and less crusty loaf breads

This spread can be as extensive as you would like or a simple as  a few items. Set everything out on a few platters near the outlet to plug in the the panini  press and let people assemble their own sandwiches. Personal, home-made, not a recipe for indigestion and you will not be stuck with ten pounds of macaroni and potato salad for the week.

Remember people, the game is on a Sunday so please stay away from the blue and red jello shots.  Nobody needs to witness a technicolor yawn on the train or bus Monday morning.

So fine sports fans of Baristaville, are you hosting a party? Heading over to The Commonweath Club? Or are you bagging the whole thing and using the time to re-watch episodes of Downton Abbey season one in anticipation of Episode 5?

“Liquid Nitrogen: Applications In the Modern Kitchen” will be held Monday, February 13, 5 p.m., at Adara, 77 Walnut St., Montclair. The hands on course includes lecture, demonstration and a three course meal — appetizer, entree, and dessert — each involving LN2. Class is $250 per person and includes recipes to take home. For information, call (973) 783-0462.

The Orange Squirrel in Bloomfield is offering a special Valentines Day $85 pre-fixe menu available Tuesday, February 14. The menu offers two choices for each of the four courses; dishes include tempting aphrodisiacs — white asparagus with truffle essence, kumamoto oysters, roasted half quail, duck breast, and a chocolate ancho souffle. Chef Francesco Palmieri is both an inventive chef and a warm host; read about Palmieri and his mom’s vegetable garden in NJ Monthly. For reservations, call 973-337-6421 or e-mail info@theorangesquirrel.com.

The always romantic Highlawn Pavilion has a four-course menu for $74 with optional upgrades for filet mignon, a seafodd sampler and rack of lamb.

If lobster is your ultimate aphrodisiac, you’re in luck. The Manor is offering a Valentine’s Day Lobster Buffet Dinner for $75.95.

The restaurant is on the site of the former bead store next to the former Cafe Eclectic. Montclair is also losing its other bead store, Montclair Beadworks on Church Street. 

Meanwhile, up the avenue, another restaurant has closed: Southern Belle at 615 Bloomfield Ave., former home of the defunct Table 8, is now empty. No answer at the restaurant or word on whether the owners will try another location.

Where will you go now for your BBQ ribs, hush puppies and fried green tomatoes?

I don’t own a fancy juicer but an inexpensive Black and Decker citrus juicer that works like a charm, and was a very well spent $30. I highly recommend one of these juicers to make freshly squeezed citrus drinks.

Here is how you mix it up:
For one drink-

• The juice of 1/2 large pink grapefruit about 3/4 of a cup
• The juice of  1/2  lime or 1/2 lemon
• The juice of 1/2 one  medium to large orange about 1/2 cup
• One shot of vodka
• One half shot of Limoncello or St. Germain

Pour the juice into a tall glass, then mix  in the vodka and Limoncello or St. Germain . Add ice if you like. I don’t get all excited about watered down juice, so I just say no to the frozen water. The Limoncello will give the drink a sweeter flavor while the St. Germain will give the drink  a fresher flavor.

Enjoy and feel free to lie to yourself about this being healthy, fresh juice and all.

These varieties of citrus available at Whole Foods and Kings.
Citrus tea towel availible at O Soliel 

Now what to name this citrusy madness? “Orange you glad I didn’t make this drink from bananas?”

I’ve had several great meals at Taximi — thanks goes to Baristanet reader Conan for recommending. Here’s Conan’s review:

The food and service were outstanding. Our table [of six] was presented with a complementary plate of mixed dips – tzatziki, taramosalata, skordalia, melitzanosalata , hummus, and some wonderful, freshly baked, soft pita to scoop it up. Otkapodi, the traditional charcoal-broiled octopus appetizer, was tender, tasty, and basted in a wonderful, lemony sauce. The Garides Santorini (Gulf shrimp), slowly baked in fresh tomato, feta, and Retsina wine was every bit as good as the ones we had last fall on Santorini (although the view in Santorini was much better). The special that evening was a 14-oz. veal chop, cooked perfectly and served with potatoes and peas – marvelous. Kokora Me Xilopites, a Quartered free range chicken (more like three quarters of a chicken) in a mavrodaphne wine sauce with Tripoli noodles, was advertised by our young (but very knowledgeable) waiter as coming from his grandmother’s recipe. I had never heard of the dish before, but it was exceptional, and if it truly did come from his grandmother, we need to import her to Baristaville and not let her go. The leftovers fed two people for a Sunday night supper. For deserts, we all shared Baklava, Galaktobouriko (Semolina custard wrapped in phyllo covered in a orange, lemon syrup), and thick Greek yogurt with honey, walnuts, and fresh fruit. There are many classic and not-so-classic Greek items on the menu, and a whole selection of Market-priced whole fish dinners.

This is not like Stamna (also excellent), which is more of a boisterous Taverna. This is formal, white-linen dining. Everything about this place was superlative: food and service, especially. The décor is a bit outré, but not to the point that it is too hokey. There was excellent live Greek music for part of our evening – even though we were a 6:30 reservation. As we were leaving a couple of hours later, the music was about to start again. It is expensive, though, so check the menu beforehand to avoid sticker shock: someday I will try their Paidakia (grilled lamb chops) and decide if they are truly worth $42, but based on the tastes and textures we sampled Saturday, I would not be surprised if they are worth every penny.

Editor’s note: If you want to hear live bouzouki, call ahead and ask what nights it’s offered.
Taximi Greek Cuisine, 350 Bloomfield Ave, Caldwell, (973) 287-6803, BYOB, open Tuesday through Sunday.

Ryan DePersio in the Kettle Kitchen with the baristas in 2010

Set your kitchen timers. Fascino chef Ryan DePersio, who cooked for the baristas in 2010,  is setting up now for his 10:45 a.m. appearance on the fourth hour of the Today Show. What will the Montclair chef be making for Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb? “Going old school with chicken caccitore recipe…” DePersio tweets. Yum.

Anthony Brinton plans a new cafe on Walnut Street.

When Cafe Eclectic closed in early December, its ubiquitous barista, Anthony Brinton, hinted that he would be starting a cafe of his own. Yesterday, when I bumped into him at Trend Coffee & Tea House, Brinton’s plan had progressed enough for him to share it with me.

Brinton plans to open a new coffee shop, the Red Eye Cafe, at 94 Walnut St., the space recently vacated by The Chocolate Path. He emphasized that he needs to get all kinds of permits from the town, and that he’s shooting for a mid-March opening.

The soft-spoken Brinton, who looks as much like a movie cowboy as anybody in Baristaville, was a favorite of many Baristanet readers — including Scientific American editor Fred Guterl — when he helmed the cappuccino machine at Cafe Eclectic. Eclectic’s owner, Julio Valentin, made a gift of it to him.

Can’t wait.

The Inside of a Zongzi

In honor of the Chinese New Year and to honor just a tiny bit of the wonderful and vast Chinese cuisine we have right here in Baristaville, I will pass along a red envelope to you containing (not money) but a delicious secret : Zongzi. Zongzi is a glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves containing anything from salted pork fat to peanuts. Although it is not a traditional food of the Chinese New Year, it is a staple of Duanwu also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, held in May or June.

Most people won’t enter a store, particularly a store  that is not  from their own cultural background, grab a few random things from an unmarked box, buy them and eat them. I am that girl. Lucky for me it has served me well, and I have been pleasantly surprised many times. This was my experience at East West Asian Gourmet Market. In front of the main register there is usually a cardboard box with a plastic grocery store bag lining it, holding these triangle shaped, fist sized dumplings. Don’t look for a sign because you won’t find one. Grab a few ($1.99 each) and throw

Zongzi Wrapped and Unwrapped Ready to Eat

them in your basket. Sometimes they have more than one box and I was told the peanut filled dumplings are tied differently than the pork filled (if you have questions just ask at the register). Now take those babies home and steam them for about 10 minutes. I showed chopsticks in the photo for scale but I am told Zongzi are commonly eaten by  cutting the string, unwrapping the leaves, holding them with your hands like a wrapper and eating from the leaves. Traditionally, they sold  on the streets for the festival and eaten while walking. Watching them being made is almost as fun as eating them!

The rice will melt in your mouth and fill you with a satisfied happy feeling. I dare say that these sometimes hit the spot better than the best bread. The first time I tried Zongzi I held it in my hands, looked at it and said, “Sweet lord in heaven little ricey dumpling where have you been all of my life!!!” Yes, they are that good.

Steamed Pork Buns from East West

East West is a market that we visit most every weekend, stocking up on frozen dumplings, noodles, coconut milk, the best priced fish etc. This week I also bought  a few packages of spring roll shells to make my friend and very talented colleague Alison Bermack’s Chicken Spring Rolls that were featured on Barista Kids.

 Xīn Nián Kuài Lè 新年快樂 or Happy New Year to all who celebrate! Today is the first day in the Year of the Dragon; let it be filled with joy, be prosperous (whatever that means in your life) and like the dragon let it be magnificent!!!