Somerville

The Origin French Thai Restaurant at 25 Division Street Somerville N.J., 08876 Tel: 908.685.1344 Fax: 908.685.1610 is a reasonable drive from Princeton.

It has a reputation for preparing better tasting food than the other Thai restaurants in central New Jersey. We went for lunch, arriving just as they opened. Three groups entered just at that time. Within minutes, one dining room was very active with customers. Service was friendly and competent, but a little overwhelmed by the quick rush. No mistakes were made, there were just more customers than they could begin service for quickly.

The dining room on the entrance, where we were seated, was very attractive with a tin ceiling and some exposed brick. The place settings were nicely composed and used stylish dishes.

We ordered thai mussels as an appetizer, beef and asian vegetables with a coconut milk based red curry, and Pad Khing shrimp with mushroom, snow peas, and onion ginger sauce. The luncheon entrees came with soup or salad and were served with white rice and a thin spring roll. The soup was a cream of mushroon soup with yellowish cast, perhaps saffron or tumeric. We weren't sure. My partner liked it very much. I was less enthusiastic and stuck to the spring salad with a balsamic vinagrette. I liked the beef curry very much. My partner was less enthusiastic. There was a parallel response to the Pad Khing, although we both thought that the shrimp were well prepared. We examined the dessert menu. The selections seemed pleasant enough, but we decided to postpone trying anything until another visit.

Martino's Cuban Restaurant on Main Street in Somerville offers a menu of inexpensive food of high quality. We enjoyed lunch there. The restaurant has two cream walled and small dining rooms with rustic timber accents painted red. There were also some brown plank shelves, with Cuban geegaws displayed on them. The tables and chairs are black. At the back of the dining room on the main entrance is a wall full of framed reviews extolling Martino's. In our dining room there was a television tuned to ESPN. The tv sound was muted, but music was playing in the background.

The two of us each had a small cup of hearty black bean soup. The soup was thick, rather mild, with lots of black bean flavor. It was topped with chopped fresh onion. I added some hot sauce, which enhanced a very good basic soup. We then shared two empanadas. The crust was an extraordinary crisp corn meal, with lots of corn character. The crust was beautifully crimped. The filling was finely minced pork and potato, nicely seasoned. The empanadas were cut in half and served with a spicey dipping sauce that was sweet and had some heat and a slight cumin flavor. We loved these. We both ordered cuban sandwiches of ham, roast pork, swiss cheese, and pickle. These pressed toasted sandwiches were on particularly good bread and came hot and crisp. The toasting created a hot, crispy, sandwich that we both enjoyed. We followed this very filling lunch with a shared tres leche cake. This was tasty but the least successful item that we selected. It was a vanilla flavored sheet cake soaked with the traditional three milks and topped with whipped cream. We enjoyed it but we have had better ones. The whole lunch for two cost under $23, before the tip. We only drank water. We will return for dinner sometime soon. It was a great lunch.

We will return.