If you take a little cruise north on Route 8 to Richland Township, you’ll find a nice little restaurant there known as the Cala Lily Café.  It’s an unassuming place, tucked in beside a hobby shop.  But owners Paul Anzaldi and Rick Rivera have a good thing going here, Euro-American cuisine with a flair of Southwest added in for good measure.

Paul has constructed a solid, conservative wine list.  The night I was there he had Bonnie our server bring out a bottle of Saragusa Zinfandel.  I’ve always liked Zins, and this one’s an excellent choice.  Then for starters Chef Rick sent out two excellent appetizers: Bacala ground with white beans served on Crustini, and Mediterranean Mussels.  These mussels were tender and as good as it gets, so good in fact that I had to do a little “Scarpada” (in Italian it means to take your bread and scrape the plate clean to get every last bit of the juices left on the dish).  Next we tried the Blackened Duck Breast Carpaccio with Spanish cabernet vinaigrette, the

 Portabella Mushroom stuffed with seafood and artichoke hearts, and the Poblano Chile Relleno with Spanish drunken goat’s cheese. 

Chef Rick’s best of the evening might just have been either the Yellow Fin Tuna with Brie, or the Paella de Alicante, which was loaded with mussels, artichokes, sausage, scallops, calamari, chicken, clams, lobster, shrimp, and saffron rice.  Rick is Mexican and was born in Spain, so he knows Paella (pronounced Pah-YAY-yuh) and this one proved it, no question.  We followed it all up with one of the homemade desserts: the Cala Lily Truffle, served in a Margarita glass and surrounded with raspberries with Chambord poured over the whole dish.  What a meal!