Jenn Hall

Edible Jersey: From Sea to Plate – Life on a New Jersey Fishing Boat

July 17, 2019 by jennhallwrites

The Atlantic is a study in gray, steel clouds meeting mineral-hued waters at the horizon. Guiding his fishing boat through the Manasquan Inlet, Jamie Dopkin veers right. Along the jetties that shape the channel, a fluorescent buoy pops like an exclamation mark, marking a scuba diver. At sea, buoys and their colors are a form of language. A cross between a Chesapeake Deadrise– and Down East–style boat—workhorses of the East Coast fishing trade—the FV Webo, circa 1981, is just roomy […]

Categories: food & drink, on the water

Edible Jersey: Enjoying Skate at Da Pesca

July 17, 2019 by jennhallwrites

For as prehistoric as a skate looks in the water, dotted wings billowing, the fish is plated with poetry and a wink at Chris Cannon’s daPesca, the seafood-focused concept at Morristown’s Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen. Curled into a scallop-shape medallion by executive chef Craig Polignano (there’s that wink), the dish is a riff on French beurre nair, which Cannon first savored as a nine-year-old in Europe. “I’ve remembered it forever,” he says of the memory. “l love the texture. […]

Categories: food & drink, on the water

Edible Jersey: New Jersey Seafood – A Partial Guide

July 17, 2019 by jennhallwrites

Do your part to build and sustain our local seafood industry. For New Jersey fishermen and women, chefs and restaurateurs, part of the challenge is encouraging consumers to be aware of, ask for and buy the expansive bounty of fish caught in New Jersey waters. When visiting your local fishmonger or favorite restaurant, go beyond the more traditional, popular options (imported tuna, salmon, shrimp) and try some of NJ’s delicious but lesser-known varieties. Read more… Published in the High Summer […]

Categories: food & drink, on the water, sustainable & just

Edible Jersey: Local 130 Seafood Writes Its Next Chapter

July 17, 2019 by jennhallwrites

Anyone who has shopped at Local 130 Seafood’s store in Asbury Park knows to expect a snapshot of what’s running in Jersey waters week by week. This summer, the business is taking a leap with the addition of a 6,000-square-foot, ocean-hued warehouse in Long Branch. Formerly home to D’Ambrisi Wholesale Foods— which has moved up the block—the space opens possibilities for a company that started with a single refrigerated truck and a vision. “We started the business to support New […]

Categories: food & drink, on the water, sustainable & just

Edible Philly: Fresh Food for All – Building a More Inclusive Philly Farmers’ Market

July 1, 2019 by jennhallwrites

PHILADELPHIA IS UNDOUBTEDLY A MARKET CITY. There are more than 80 seasonal and year-round farmers’ markets in the region—60 within the city limits alone. Echoing national trends including the celebration of local, organic produce and producers, new markets have opened at a steady pace over the last 20 years. According to the Farmers Market Coalition, the number of farmers’ markets in the U.S. has grown from 2,000 in 1994 to more than 8,600 today. With a rich history of community […]

Categories: food & drink, sustainable & just

NJCU Magazine: A Community that Cooks

July 1, 2019 by jennhallwrites

If you drive down Garfield Avenue in Kearny, the Jersey City and Manhattan skylines rising in the distance, then make a left onto Davis Avenue, the scent grabs you first—a rich, savory perfume that indicates you’re in proximity to an expert barbecue pitmaster. Here, inside Red White & Que Smokehouse, John Easterday ’14 spends his days—make that early mornings—cooking up some of the best smoked meats in New Jersey. A Marine Corps veteran, Easterday honed his craft alongside his boss, […]

Categories: food & drink

Edible Jersey: When We Gather – Preserving Family Time at Savoie Organic Farm

May 9, 2019 by jennhallwrites

Farm life evokes romantic visions: Tractor rides at dusk. Landscapes in the saturated tones of summer produce. A breeze always rustling the grasses. The reality? Well, that’s a bit different. Farming is sun-up, sun-down work. Everything is grit and grind, the kind that gets under the fingernails. Carving time for anything other than seeding, weeding, harvesting and marketing is a victory. Still, it makes one philosophical about the things that count: food, family, living a healthy life—and when you get […]

Categories: food & drink, when we gather

Jersey’s Best: Made in Jersey – Connection to the sea inspires artist’s nautical creations

May 9, 2019 by jennhallwrites

We tend to see barrier islands as constant — stationary across bridges — and beckoning the swimsuit-clad masses come summertime. Yet, as with certain creative souls, the nature of a barrier island is to drift. Turn back the clock 20,000 years, and the Barnegat Peninsula on which Lavallette sits lived farther out at sea, near the continental shelf, said jewelry artist, metalsmith and former environmental scientist Jen O’Reilly. “As sea levels rise through melting glaciers, a barrier island’s nature is to retreat […]

Categories: artists, on the water

Edible Jersey: Red Bank Road Trip

May 9, 2019 by jennhallwrites

When I was a kid, our first family dog was Molly, a wire-haired terrier mutt with a vague resemblance to a Gremlin and the countenance of an estate heiress. Her namesake was the Molly Pitcher Inn, the 20s-era banquet hotel perched on the banks of the Navesink River and known for its decadent brunches. At the Molly, my single mom waited tables to support my sister and me. I remember her gorgeous as she left for work in a crisp, […]

Categories: food & drink, travel

F-I-N-E Fine (flash fiction)

May 4, 2019 by jennhallwrites

I need to get this computer off me, she says. I can’t tell if I’m sick or depressed. Depressed is sick, I tell her, but she says there’s a difference. She would know.Her mom, and her mom’s mom, and the moms before them, all swirled out into that inaccessible distance. One killed herself. One got committed and clothed in a buttermilk dress. The rest toiled on amid children and husbands, saying everything’s F-I-N-E fine. They repeat it like a mantra. […]

Categories: fiction

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