Taylor's Ham

where food and music and Taylor Swift collide

Restaurants

  • Finding the *perfect* croissant

    Read time: About 10 minutes Croissants can be a thing of beauty. Even in New Jersey, which is decidedly not France. We’re limited to the butter, water, and flour we can get around these parts. And yet, what I’ve found through my travels in and around South Orange and Maplewood (SOMA) is that a lot Read more

  • Medusa Greek Street Food (South Orange)

    Read time: About 7 minutes Once upon a time, my go-to cuisine was Indian food. Show me a velvety butter chicken. Regale me with your rich saag paneer. And delight me with your fluffy garlic naan. MDP and I used to order frequently from Indian places in and around SOMA (South Orange and Maplewood), double-parking Read more

  • The Arnold Palmer Season Is Now

    Read time: About 7 minutes You have $5 in your pocket. You want to be delighted. Enthralled. Refreshed.  Look no further than this round up of the Arnold Palmer – that irresistible combination of iced tea and lemonade – found in and around the South Orange and Maplewood (SOMA) area to guide your low-cost (tariff-free?) Read more

  • Maize

    Read time: Approximately 6 minutes I had heard that Maize, the scene-y, newish globally inspired Mexican restaurant in Westfield, was right near the train station. When I pulled up today – thanks to Apple Maps telling me to turn into a parking lot and saying you have arrived, to where exactly, I wondered – I Read more

  • Barn Bird Kitchen

    Read time: About 6 minutes Good vibes only.  That’s the best way to describe the experience at Barn Bird Kitchen, which recently opened in Maplewood Village. When we walked in for lunch, the owner – who is also the restaurant chef – warmly greeted us in his baritone: “Welcome to Barn Bird Kitchen,” a smooth Read more

  • Taino’s Kitchen Downtown

    An unsung benefit of having jury duty in Essex County is getting to visit the county seat, which is New Jersey’s largest city: Newark. The courthouse and broader Essex County operations headquarters are just peripheral from the bustling downtown, marked by many colleges and universities and further down Market Street, a ton of shops and Read more

  • Willow & Whisk

    It’s not every day that you’re the first ever customers to eat at a restaurant. And how special was it for me and MDP to be the first table sat at Willow & Whisk, the much-anticipated new breakfast, brunch, and lunch spot in downtown Millburn. As soon as we walked in, the vibrating energy was Read more

  • Deeper Well Tour + Miti Miti (Brooklyn)

    A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (although I may have been in Midtown Manhattan at the time), I logged in to a pre-sale queue for tickets to see Kacey Musgraves on her Deeper Well tour. I’d seen Kacey twice before: once at the legendary Apollo Theater (nosebleed seats) and another Read more

  • Osteria LK

    Anyone in SOMA can tell you that Arturo’s was an institution. People would line up and wait around for hours, squeezing on to the small bench outside its Maplewoood Avenue façade, to snag a table in the spare, dark restaurant so they could sample fresh pasta and legendary pizza. When Arturo’s decided to leave Maplewood Read more

  • Happy 15th birthday, Taylor’s Ham!

    It is a little hard to believe that I’ve been writing on Taylor’s Ham since 2009. Think about that. Where were you 15 years ago? I was… Living in Queens. Finishing an MFA in memoir. About to meet the man who would become my husband. Just starting my career as a communications professional. Back then, Read more