Maggie Hoffman at Serious Eats on the best way to pair beer and cheese:

“If I were to say, ‘Fill in the blank: Cheese and ______’, most people would say ‘crackers’ right away. Well, beer is made from the same ingredients as crackers (plus a few extras), so to me it just makes sense to put them together,” says Jesse Vallins, Certified Cicerone and Executive Chef at The Saint Tavern in Toronto. But of course, when it comes to beer and cheese, some matches turn out tastier than others.__

My wife and I had dinner years ago with my parents at the excellent Vetri in Philadelphia, and the sommelier mentioned that he had struck up a friendship with a local brewer. He said that if we were interested in pairing beer with our courses, he would be happy to help. My dad and I took him up on the offer when dessert came around; we had a cheese plate and shared a few beers with each of the three cardinal flavor profiles he had assembled. It was a lot of fun and a great memory for me.

The One Rule Beer Experts Swear By When Pairing Beer and Cheese

Rhonda and I drove up to New Brunswick yesterday to visit Aaron. The plan was to stop at Stokelan Estates Winery on the ride up, then Dinner with Aaron,, after which we’d retire to a nearby Marriot. Sunday would be some shopping with Aaron before heading back home. I am taking a vacation day tomorrow to take the Sunday Scaries out of robbing some joy from the occasion.

Our attempt at sharing a bottle and a flatbread at Stokelan was foiled by other people with the same idea. We stopped there, but they had no seats. We tried nearby Iron Plow/Tramonti, but they were closed for a private event. We figured we’d just high-tail it to New Brunswick, scoop up Aaron, and check in at the hotel.

We had stopped at Bagliani’s for salami and Gran Padano cheese, so we thought that we could grab a bottle of wine to take back to the hotel with us. We drove straight past Aaron’s house to a corner liquor store called Peters. The joint was full of students, and lots of them coming and going. Aaron was calling me on the phone while I was shopping; he saw us roll by in search of Peters.

Casa Ragazzi

Casa Ragazzi is a trendy Italian restaurant in downtown New Brunswick. I was excited to try it after I saw the menu, which appeared to offer the formal Italian dinner sequence: apps, followed by a small pasta course, and then a secondo, or meat course. We ordered this way and the waiter was surprised. That set off alarm bells; the arrival of both courses at once confirmed our suspicions. Our cocktails were great, though, and the food, while arriving at too-quick-of-a-pace, was delicious. Aaron and I split a T-bone florentine, and I finally had a chance to try guanciale.

Ruby Ke Kitchen Se

This week on Designed in California, Jason Snell interviewed Ron Johnson, the guy who created Apple’s retail stores. Johnson recently released a book about his career, including his long tenure at Apple. One thing that struck me is how Johnson talked about brick and mortar retail: he loves it. He talks about the opportunity to see things, to interact with aspirational purchases. He even posits a kind of communal effect of mall-shopping.

I don’t know about all of that, but as a kid of the 80s, I’ll always have fond mall memories. Sprinting between the anchor stores and stopping by KB to check out action figures, later shopping for acid-wash jeans, and countless slices of pizza. In that spirit, we often find outselves at the Menlo Park Mall when we visit Aaron.

It’s a nice mall, much nicer than our local malls, and they have an Apple Store. So we popped in to check out the 18 Pro, from the new colors (that burgundy is really dark!) to the aperture controls on the camera.

Between all of the walking and the 30-minute Peloton ride this morning, I was starving. We all agree to Indian for a late lunch/early dinner, and Yelp helpfully pointed us to Ruby Ke Kitchen Se, a quaint spot in nearby Edison. We had no recommendation save for Yelp’s, so we dodged the rain and ran inside.

Ruby Se Ktichen Se proved to be a revelation. We ordered a couple of chaat appetizers, including an Indochinese version of fried paneer. The sauce invoked both Thai and Chinese likenesses, and we were all well impressed.

The gentleman who served us (I’m guessing he’s the owner) shared a number of enlightening details. He talked about the Chinese cultural influences in the cuisine due to Chinese immigrants in India. Similarly, when we remarked about the difference in color between Aaron’s goat Korma and Rhonda’s chicken korma–Aaron’s was a darker, richer color, while Rhonda’s had more of a red, tomatoey aspect–he offered that making the same sauce and just swapping out the protein isn’t true to the cuisine, and hence the differences.

Arron will be a sophomore at Rutgers this coming fall, and he is moving out of the dorms and into a apartment. Rhonda and I drove up to New Brunswick this week to help him move some of his stuff, and he followed us in his car for practice, as he didn’t have it with him last year, and so has never driven on the formidable NJ Turnpike.

The house is pretty much what you would expect for a college frat house. We moved a big air conditioner into his room, which is the third floor and a converted attic. AC is a necessity! We put together some furniture, and came back the second day to finish the job after stopping to get pillows and, unplanned, a vacuum cleaner for his room.

It’s a neat space and reminds me of one of the dorms I lived in at Ursinus, specifically one of the rooms on the third floor. It was a converted house. It will be a very cool place to hang out with friends.

I booked a room for Tuesday night at a local Marriott, and made a reservation at Saltfor dinner. After we finished moving, we checked in and had cocktails that I made at home to enjoy in the room. We lit out for Salt after a quick rest in the room.

Salt was excellent from start to finish. They had a capacious selection of oysters, and so we ordered six Wellfleets (old favorites), six Kumamotos, and another six of another variety whose name escapes me. I skew briny with oysters, so all of them were described thus, but there was still a tremendous range of flavors. The Wellfleets were probably our favorites, with a sweet, meaty texture along with an assertive brininess. We gilded the appetizer lily by ordering some steamed PEI mussels and clams casino, too.

Dinner was a full fish-fest: I had the whole branzino, Rhonda the soft-shell crab, and Aaron the crispy skin Black Sea bass. Each of these were excellent: the branzino was perfectly cooked and beautifully presented with the head and tail intact, but on a nice small plate, making it look less like a giant meal and more of a humble fish for a hungry fella. The soft-shell crab was sweet and crunch without relying on a thick layer of breading or batter. Mission accomplished with that dish for sure. Aaron’s sea bass had a nice crispy skin, as promised, and served over a small mound of risotto.

Another standout: when I got fussy about our Manhattans, asking for a specific rye and vermouth, as well as the proportion of each, the server didn’t miss a beat. I’ve had servers frown and take a lot of notes, but our man nodded knowingly with each request. (For the record, we had WhistlePig rye 10 year, which I’ve only ever had once before, at Knife and Fork in Atlantic City. Salt also had the 15-year-old version.)

We had plans to meet some friends at the Blue Rascal in Hammonton on Wednesday night. We got up, checked out, and drove back to the apartment for the aforementioned tasks, and then set off for home. We couldn’t help stopping once again at the Szechuan House on the way home for lunch. It’s a great place to order a bunch of dishes and share.

Rhonda and I split a bottle of Bellview Rosé, and we ordered a few appetizers: cold sliced beef and tripe, which comes with a chili vinaigrette; Dan Dan noodles; an egg roll; and chicken dumplings with the chili vinaigrette. We also ordered salt and pepper prawns (heads on), Kung Pal chicken, and shredded pork. Everything was excellent once again, and the lunch obviated the need for dinner.

Rhonda and I took off for Philly yesterday to see Tomahawk at Union Transfer. We had a lot of fun taking to boys to see the Foo Fighters two summers ago in Hershey, PA, and while we were tempted to reprise that trip, the Foo Fighters tickets were just too expensive.

I booked a room at Sosuite at Independence Lofts. They have a bunch of rooms on the ninth floor of a building in the Spring Garden section of the city. Like some of the more recent trips we’ve taken, Sosuite manages your check-in and check-out remotely; you don’t deal with a hotel manager or concierge. It was a great little room, with a nice view of the city, a queen size bed, bathroom, and kitchenette. It was perfect for a quick overnight.

We stopped by the Institute Craft Bar & Kitchen in the same building as our suite for a couple of drinks. We had Manhattans. It was the bartender’s first day on the job, so she needed a little direction. She even asked for our feedback (they were good).

Before the show, we had dinner at Osteria. It’s a more accessible version of Marc Vetri’s namesake restaurant. We shared the Frito miso, and we each tried a couple of the pasta dishes from the Primi section of the menu. (I learned by visiting the country twice that dinner in Italy isn’t a big plate of pasta; pasta is a small dish you enjoy before the second course, which is typically fish or meat.) I had the rigatoni, which is made with chicken liver, cipollini onion, and sage. I was torn between that and the tagliatelle, but when I asked our server what she recommended, she said the rigatoni is famous by dint of wining a James Beard Award. So that sealed the deal. Rhonda tried the Tortelli, which was served with sheep’s milk ricotta, brasied baby artichoke, and lamb bolognese. Both dishes were emblematic of both Vetri’s style and the Primi piatti tradition: just a few bites of pasta. We had a rosé with the appetizer and pasta.

The restaurant generously brought out a free pizza for us to share, which was a lot more food than we needed, but we were both keen to try it. It has a great chewy crust, charred on the undercarriage, but soft and chewy to the bite.

We splurged a bit and shared the T-bone steak special, which was superb. My general rule of thumb with steak in restaurants is to avoid it: I make it often enough at home, and it comes out pretty great. But this sounded too good to pass up, and provided a nice counterpoint to the carb-heavy pasta, focaccia, and pizza we’d enjoyed first.

There was nothing to regret with the T-Bone: it was expertly cooked to medium rare, cut Peter Luger style, with the sliced steak returned to its original place on the bone for serving. The platter was adorned with cippolini.

Osteria is a quick walk to and from our room, which was also a short walk from the venue. We strolled back to the room to drop off our leftovers, and then headed over to the show.

Union Transfer is a charming venue to say the least. It’s plenty small, if your tastes skew toward the intimate. It already pretty crowded when we got there, and after finding a place to stand upstairs, I went back downstairs to fetch us a couple of beers. I was on my way back up with our drinks when I heard the first strains of the Melvins, who were the show’s opener. I’m not familiar with the stuff, but man it sounded so tight. I grooved to the rest of their set. My only complaint is that we couldn’t find a place to stand that afforded us a view—any view—of the stage.

I checked out Union Transfer after the show online, and learned that it’s know for having great sound. I can’t disagree. Both bands were loud, but the sound was clear and intelligible. You could really feel it in the room.