Condo de Fast One is close to an Orthodox/Hasidic Jewish enclave in northern New Jersey. On (late) Sunday morning, S. and I decided to take a walk for some bagels.

We first walked to a Jewish bakery I’d seen, which smelled fantastic and warrants a future return, but yielded no bagels. Thankfully, there was a kosher bagel shop on the walk home. S. felt a bit sacreligious with her naked, sleeveless arms, and I even felt like I was out of place. However, they had whole wheat everything bagels, so we will definitely be back, despite the $1.00 per bagel price.

We also needed eggs, so we walked into a local “supermarket”. Turns out it is primarily a Spanish market, complete with Spanish-only signs in the meat department. What a treat! I picked up fresh ingredients for sofrito, including ajicito dulces peppers and tomatilloes. I wouldn’t know about sofrito if it wasn’t for Daisy; it’s a sauce easily made in the food processor, and leftovers freeze really well into individual ice cube trays. It was great mixed with some pinto beans to make refried beans to place into tortillas. We also grabbed queso fresco from the meat/deli counter, since S. is fluent in Spanish.

S. also mentioned she saw an Asian market nearby, so we now have at least three cultural food experiences within a few minutes’ walk of our new home!