In Sicily, come summertime, the most memorable meals are taken al fresco amid fields and groves that offer up their bounty. By day, an aggressive sun presses down and nourishes the crops, white hot until dusk’s reprieve. The slender leaves that adorn olive branches frame a tumble of mountains in the distance. Viewed from afar, the landscape is all green earth and blue sky and the rugged geometry that defines this Italian island. Look closer, however, and the season’s jewel […]

Categories: food & drink

If you’ve been on social media of late, you know that doughnuts are having a spotlight moment. Come July, however, one’s attention is best rewarded by a sweet treat of another stripe: a Jersey-grown doughnut peach. These luscious fruits hit farm stands once a year, in high summer. Though grown in the US since the early ’90s, they remain rare. Less than 1 percent of the state’s 66-million-pound annual peach crop are doughnuts, according to the New Jersey Peach Promotional Council. […]

Categories: food & drink

Sometimes honoring a legacy means blazing a trail. For pitmaster Alyson (Aly) Lupinetti of Mount Laurel-based Butch’s Smack Your Lips BBQ, said trail scorches straight through the Rock, Ribs & Ridges festival in Augusta. Held annually at the Sussex County Fairgrounds, it pairs mountain views and country jams with a ‘cue competition that draws entrants from as far off as Ohio and Florida. In 2017, she and her crew landed the coveted honor in the juried competition after two successive runner’s-up […]

Categories: food & drink