Terra Nova, Sewell

Well, we knocked off all the basics in order to bring you a comprehensive dining guide to South Jersey cuisine, such as it is. With that done, there was nothing for the last night but a leisurely dinner out, and Terra Nova is a competent location for that. Pictures may follow if I can find them.


The concept here is Italian...and sushi. It's not like they make chirashi pasta or anything, but they do have a big raw bar and a wide-ish selection of sushi, mainly American style rolls. The majority of the food, however, is big-plate Italian stuff.


The two big plates that we had were the:

• Sonoma Skewers, two sticks with shrimp, chicken, and vegetables. It took Dad the better part of an hour to get through only one of them, and the other went home. While I didn't try them, they were certainly impressive on a size-and-roastedness basis, and I think we all know that bigger and grilled-er is better, don't we?
• Meyer Lemon Veal seemed to have nothing to do with Meyer Lemons, much to my dismay (and wiki informs me, again to my dismay, that Meyer Lemons originated in China. I always thought they were invented by Meyer Goldberg in Crown Heights around the turn of the century, oy.). But it was a big (huge?) plate of whole-wheat pasta topped with 2 or 3 large slices of veal (sorta breaded-and-pan-fried style, as if for marsala or something) and massive amounts of sauteed mushrooms and (pickled) artichokes. The artichokes and mushrooms were the standout items here; everything else was a little soft and bland, which is almost OK for veal but a bit beyond acceptable for pasta. Unfortunately I ate everything; America is bad like that.

And we had some sushi. So American in style - using thin-sliced cucumber to wrap everything, then topping it with something that resembled Russian dressing (which has nowt to do with Russia, of course). The fish was mediocre in taste and texture, but actually quite fresh, so I guess that's an OK tradeoff. To a Japanese sensibility this is awfully weird, but to Americans it's probably a nice mix of tastes.


Too full even to consider dessert after all this foolishness, we rolled out and across the street for some water ice and gelato. Separate stomachs, y'know?