A cookie is more than a cookie at new Manalapan bakery

What happens when a Brooklyn girl moves to New Jersey and finds herself missing out on great bakeries?

She opens her own.

Pikria Basaria of Marlboro is the owner of Manachoux, a beautiful new bakery in a strip mall on Route 9 in Manalapan. She bakes delicious jumbo cookies — some of which are stuffed — and intricate pastries inspired by her Georgian upbringing and the country's French influence.

Another European influence: good butter. Basaria, a former restaurant owner and current mortgage broker who taught herself to bake, uses high-fat butter "so the finished product is really rich and really tasty," she said. "You taste the quality."

I agree. I'm a chocolate chip cookie snob, and her version is the best I've ever had. They are crispy on the bottom and top, chewy in the middle and chock full of chocolate.

I also tried a lemon cookie with cheesecake in the center, a Nutella-filled red velvet cookie, and a few others. All were perfection, and you should definitely stop by.

Another exciting recent opening is Catbird , Aimée McElroy's return to the Asbury Park culinary scene after her Medusa Stone Fired Kitchen closed in 2022. Her restaurant, built in the renovated lakefront space previously filled by Sunset Landing Luncheonette, opened earlier this month and serves McElroy's wood-fired pizzas, nonalcoholic cocktails and more.

The restaurant is currently open for dinner, with breakfast and lunch to come, McElroy says.

Food truck season begins

Have you voted in the APP Readers' Choice Food Truck Contest yet?

We started weeks ago with a bracket of the 32 trucks attending this weekend's Jersey Shore Food Truck Festival at Monmouth Park, and now it's down to two: Ohana Food Truck from Lavallette restaurant Ohana Grill, and Tuckerton-based Five Sisters Food Co.

Voting is open through 11:59 a.m. Friday: you can place your vote here. Food writer Gabriela L. Laracca and I will crown the first-place truck the first day of the festival; watch for that story over the weekend at app.com.

Quick bites

The Asbury Park Press Summer Guide , filled with stories on things to do this summer at the Shore, is on newsstands tomorrow. Print subscribers will find the publication tucked inside their newspapers.

Chef Lou Smith of Manasquan's Blend on Main is embracing AI with "Ask Chef Lou," a chatbot from ChatGPT. With just a few clicks, Smith can tell you what meal to cook with the ingredients you have on hand, how to make a particular recipe, or how to perfect a cooking technique. "You can ask, 'Hey Lou, I only have 4 ounces of halibut, I have tomatoes and some onions. Give me a dish that would require only cooking on a stovetop, and I want to use the style of Capri, Italy, for three people," he said. "And it just spits it out."

Get your tickets for the Pour into Summer Wine Festival, taking place Saturday, June 8, and Sunday, June 9, at ShoreTown Ballpark in Lakewood. Tickets cost $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and include samples from a lineup of more than 100 wines. The event also will feature food trucks, craft vendors and live music.

That is all for this week! I hope you have a relaxing three-day weekend. For more food content, visit app.com and follow Jersey Shore Eats on Instagram and Facebook.

Sarah Griesemer is a food writer for The Asbury Park Press and app.com. For more on where to eat and drink, please consider a subscription.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: A cookie is more than a cookie at new Manalapan bakery