A Super Bowl-Goer’s Real Guide To Downtown Jersey City (And Beyond)

Jeremy (or J. as I have called him on this blog until now) and I are proud to announce that we co-authored a guest post on our friend Kevin's blog, Inside Jersey City. Super Bowl XLVIII coming to New York has been all the buzz lately, but of course, the Seahawks and Broncos will actually be playing for the coveted ring in East Rutherford, New Jersey.  And what many people don't know is that the players are staying in hotels in Jersey City.  So Jeremy and I put together a Super Bowl-goers guide on our favorite places to eat, drink, and hang out in the beloved town we call home.

So go on over to Inside Jersey City to check it out! While you're there, check out all the tips, helpful information on local businesses, and other useful resources about Jersey City on Kevin's blog!

Special thanks to Kevin for hosting our guest post!

Austin Food Highlights: Part 3, BBQ!

Before we left for Austin, I asked around for suggestions of places to eat and drink in the area.  One of suggestions that kept recurring was barbecue at The Salt Lick in Driftwood, about thirty minutes outside of Austin. Friends and acquaintances raved about how great it was, while food blogs and reviews on the internet were telling me the Salt Lick was touristy and overrated.  So I knew that there was only one way to get to the bottom of this - I had to see it for myself.

We went for lunch on Tuesday, which made it the perfect time to go, since there was no wait for table.  When you first walk in you get to see the meats cooking here:

We ordered the Rancher plate, which is a sampler of brisket, sausage, turkey and ribs that you see in the lead photo.  When we ordered it, the waiter dutifully asked, "Do you have a preference on brisket?"  Being a barbecue novice, this question baffled me.  Apparently, there are three choices when ordering brisket: lean, moist and burnt ends.  We ordered a little of everything to get the full experience.

Overall, the food was solid.  My favorite meat was the sausage, which moist and flavorful. I learned that my preferred form of brisket is "moist" - the burnt ends were a bit too crispy for me, and the lean was just bland.    The turkey went very well with the barbecue sauce that kept in a squeeze bottle at every table.  While this was hands down better than any barbecue I had in the North, I could see why some may call it overrated.  The barbecue was very good, but it was mass produced, and didn't seem very special.

So after talking to locals a few days later, we learned about Lockhart, the self-proclaimed "BBQ Capital of Texas."  One google search on the smartphone and we cruising down the fastest highway in the country to Black's Barbecue.  Here's some of what we ate:

What you see here are pork ribs, beans, potato salad, a deviled egg, and what is the largest beef rib I have ever seen.  Here's a close-up of this giant beef rib:

This rib was massive, and delicious.  It easily eclipsed the Salt Lick.  The rest of the food was great too.

The difference in the barbecue at Black's was that it had punch, it was in your face, it had personality.  When you ordered your food over the counter, you could see the guy behind the counter cutting your meat right in front of you.  It just had more of a personal touch than the mass produced meat at the Salt Lick, where the meat was basted using a mop.  Don't get me wrong, the Salt Lick was good, but if I had to choose one for barbecue, it would be Black's, hands-down.

Austin Food Highlights: Part 2

Hope everyone affected by Hurricane Sandy is safe and secure! I'm typing as fast as I can before the power goes out...

This is where I go a little out of chronological order in my trip, since I am saving the best for last.

Breakfast taco from Wholly Cow:

I have been told that the breakfast taco is to Texas as the cheesesteak is to Philadelphia.  Which I have to agree because it really is ubiquitous in Austin.  Though a more apt analogy is is the breakfast taco is to Texas as the egg and cheese on a roll is to NYC, in keeping with the breakfast theme.  The breakfast taco really is everywhere you go in mornings, coffee shops, food trucks, fast food joints.  In fact, we got ours from Wholly Cow, which is actually a burger joint that serves local grass-fed beef burgers near our hotel.  (We went there because it was the first place we stumbled upon that had them). What was a little disappointing was it took a while to get our tacos after we ordered them, apparently the place was quite busy filling takeout orders that it took about 20 minutes to get ours.  But once our tacos were brought to us, they were great.  This is a chorizo taco with eggs, potatoes and cheese.  The stuff you see dripping on the end was red salsa.

Chalupas from Juan in a Million

I will admit my ignorance; before coming to Juan in a Million, the only chalupas I have ever encountered were the Taco Bell version, which are effectively tacos with a crunchy shell.  I didn't realize that chalupas are actually tostadas, which is something I am familiar with, Although you can tell from under the mountain of lettuce and cheese, these were bean and beef chalupas, which were very good.  My favorite item, although not pictured here, was the salsa that came with the chips before our food came out.  Most of the time, when you go to Mexican restaurants, the chips and salsa are just as ordinary as the bread and butter that comes out before the meal in American restaurants.  But this salsa was special, spicy and fiery, making it unlike any other restaurant salsa that I've ever had. 

Ribeye Steak from Hoffbrau Steakhouse

Don't let the picture fool you - as plain as this steak may appear, it was out of this world.  Just like this steak, when you first walk into Hoffbrau, you will notice its humble atmosphere, the room was un-airconditioned, the tables are covered in vinyl checkered tablecloths.  It basically looks as if it hasn't changed since it first opened in 1934.  The waitresses were friendly, but with a no-nonsense attitude - they take pride in the fact that they have no menus, simply a piece of paper on each table slid into one of those plastic holders normally reserved for the daily specials or a drink menu.  But the food is great.  Their "Take it or Leave it" Salad is dressed with a garlic dressing so sharp it has a bite to it.  The steak was bathed in a lemon butter sauce as you can see here, and served with a side of potato wedges.

Frito Pie from Doc's Motorworks Bar and Grill

Before I came to Austin, I knew that Texans took pride in their chili, which has a strict no-beans prohibition.  So of course, I wanted to try it.  And if I got to try "Frito Pie,"  which is Texas chili on top of Fritos, another Texan product, even better.  During my last full day in Austin, I realized it was the last item on my list to try, but oddly I had trouble finding any places near where I was serving them. Google searches on my phone for "Texas chili" kept bringing me to locations for Chili's, the chain restaurant.  Finally, I came across it while having drinks at Doc's Motorworks.  While it made for a good snack, this version of it was mostly cheese and toppings, that I felt I was only getting accents of chili.  So one day, I will have to try again to get the full Texas chili experience.

You may be wondering, where's the barbecue? Don't you know that Texas has great barbecue?  What about the Salt Lick?  Well, I've saved the best for last, but that will have to wait for another post.

Austin Food Highlights: Part 1

J. and I just came back from our lovely trip in Austin, TX -  and just in time for Hurricane Sandy to hit the Northeast!  There was  A LOT of amazing food in Austin - the majority of my pictures were of food, and not much else! So I've divided the trip into multiple parts to make it more manageable to read (and for me to write).

Before the trip, I garnered tips from friends, acquaintances, the internet, and food blogs, and made a list (yes, I made a list) of all the food places I wanted to try, categorized by cuisine and setting (i.e. fast food, or sit-down restaurant).  In essence, most of the restaurants fell into four categories:

1) Mexican/ Tex-Mex - (I read from the Homesick Texan, that Mexican food in Texas is essentially Tex-Mex.  I've never been to Mexico, so I can't really make an assessment on that.  All I knew is that the food is deliciosa).

2) Southern (e.g. chicken fried steak, biscuits, etc)

3) BBQ

4) Steak (in my book, steak has its own category)

Arguably, the last three could be clumped together, or be subcategories of "Southern" - but this was my list, so this is how I organized it.

First stop: Breakfast at Biscuits and Groovy.  I first learned about this cheerful food stop through my friend Molly.  I love biscuits and gravy when I first had them in North Carolina about two years ago, so I was excited to try the Texas version of it.  I was not disappointed.  What is neat about this place is that they have a  mix tape trade and most of the menu items are named after famous music celebrities.  I chose the classic Biscuits and Groovy:

J. had the "Gloria Gaynor"

All the food is prepared to order in a little trailer and the guy (presumably the owner) was very friendly.  The portions were also very generous, so we were full well beyond lunch time.  Which brings me to our next stop;

Fried Chicken at Ms. P's Electric Cock

Also served from a food truck (food trucks are a thing in Austin).  The fried chicken was almost unbelievably juicy and succulent - it rivals the fried chicken at Soul Flavors in Jersey City, now for the best fried chicken I've ever had.  The mac and cheese, next to it, was also good, very rich and decadent.  Even the roll was special in that it was slightly sweet, whereas at fried chicken places in "the North" the roll is more of an afterthought.

Dinner at Hoover's Cooking

Pictured here are BBQ pork ribs, seasoned green beans, corn on the cob, chicken fried steak, and jalapeno corn bread and sweet potato biscuits.  My favorites were definitely the meats - but the sweet potato biscuits were interesting.  They were sweet and glorious when slathered with butter.  I never would have thought to make biscuits with sweet potatoes.

Believe it or not, this was just Day 1 of our trip to Austin.  Like I said, there is a lot of amazing food in this city, so stay tuned!

Note:  As always, I was not compensated by any establishments in my reviews.

Chicago Food Highlights

J. and I took a weekend trip to Chicago.  We had limited time, about 30 hours or so in city.  So I had three food-related goals:

1) Have a Chicago-style hot dog

2) Eat at a Chicago steakhouse

3) Try deep-dish pizza

So here goes!

First stop, Chicago-style hot dog.   I had done some research on Chicago-style hot dogs before the trip and well, it turns out I don't like pickles, hot peppers, mustard, onions, or anything that goes in a Chicago-style dog.  But I was still determined to try a hot dog in Chicago.  So after a turbulent flight and landing, and checking into the hotel, we stumbled upon this place:

It had a sign claiming to have been "voted #1 hot dog in Chicago", so this place was as good as any other.  I found out that this is a local Chicago chain.  Its founders are two brothers that traveled the nation in search of hot dogs in every city.  Hence the name "America's Dog."   On the menu, they have a different hot dog representing a different American city.  So I had the Memphis Dog, which had pulled pork and coleslaw....

It was pretty tasty, even if it's not a "Chicago-style" dog in its own right.  But I had a hot dog in Chicago, so that makes it a Chicago dog, right?

To be fair, J. had a real Chicago-style hot dog, which he enjoyed. 

Next stop, eat a a Chicago steakhouse.  While exploring the downtown area of the city, we came upon Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse.  J. informed me that Harry Caray was a famous announcer for the Chicago Cubs, and a Chicago personality. I had no idea.  But the filet mignon was nice and juicy, and cooked medium-rare just the way I like it. 

Also, another neat tidbit about the place is, if you drink at the bar (we did in the afternoon before dinner), they give you complimentary (and highly addictive) house-made potato chips!  

The next morning, we took a walk off the well-beaten path to the Maxwell Street Market.  I had read about this weekly Sunday market from the Paupered Chef and learned that it was essentially a flea market, but with really good food. So I knew to not be put off by rows and rows of tables selling used merchandise from baby clothes, to power tools, to knock-off sports jerseys.  (Incidentally, J. bought a Chicago Bears jersey, while I got myself a pair of knock-off DG sunglasses.).  Here are the cheese enchiladas we had for breakfast:

The vendors, spoke little English, and we ate off of a paper bowl on bright green plastic tablecloths (as you can see in this picture).  So you knew it had to be good.  This wasn't one of the my three goals, but I was glad we made this stop!

But no trip to Chicago is complete without Chicago-style deep dish pizza...

This pizza came from the Exchequer Pub. On the day we were there, their exhaust fan was broken, so they had a limited menu, mainly pizza, which worked out quite well for me.  You can't see it too well from the picture, but there was pepperonis, sausage, and bacon in this pizza.  Also don't be fooled by the size in the picture.  This was  A LOT of food.  The pizza was about 10 inches in diameter and about 3 inches thick.  J and I shared it for lunch, and still had some leftover to bring with us on the plane.  (Which I ate at the airport since our flight was delayed.  It's still good cold, despite its brick-like consistency)

So that concludes our whirlwind food tour of Chicago!

Note:  As always, I was not compensated by any of these businesses to make this review. 

Seattle: Food Highlights

The day of the Chocolate Tour was actually the first day of my vacation.  The following day, J. and I boarded a plane to Seattle.  A  friend was getting married there on July 3, so we decided to make it a vacation of it and stayed for six days.  We were quite fortunate with the characteristically dismal rainy weather in Seattle and enjoyed about three days of beautiful sunny Seattle.  The weather was a cool 60 to 70 degrees out, which was a huge relief from the 90-100 degree heat wave that was going on in New Jersey. 

We took advantage of the abundance of fresh seafood in Seattle.  One of the things I love about Seattle is that Seattle residents (Seattle-ites?) take care to get fresh ingredients that are local and sustainable.  

But no trip to Seattle is complete without coffee.  

Okay, I cheated, this is actually hot chocolate, but the foam art was so pretty that I had to take a picture of it. 

The best meal we had was at Etta's, which was behind the Pike Place Market.

Grilled Octopus 

Etta's specialty - "Rub With Love" wild king salmon with sauteed greens, cornbread pudding and shiitake relish 

Chocolate malted milk cake with rice crispies 

The wedding was lovely, but most notably (food-wise, at least) was in lieu of a wedding cake, the happy couple served cupcakes from Cupcake Royale.  (Which, in my opinion, is the best idea ever!)

For breakfast, we went to Portage Bay Cafe twice, because it was next to our hotel, and the food was delicious.  Most notably, they serve pancakes that includes an all-you-can-eat toppings bar, with fresh fruit, freshly whipped cream, and other goodies. 

On to more seafood...

In case you can't tell, that is an oyster on the button, which I tried for the first time at Elliot's Oyster House.  I actually quite enjoyed my oysters,which were salty, sweet, and briny and didn't have too much of a fishy aftertaste.  Not sure what took me so long to try them. 

The weather was so nice, we were able to sit in the back deck at Ivar's Salmon House, where we had this gorgeous view of the Seattle waterfront.

From left to right, seafood cocktail, smoked salmon, and fried clams and chips.  (And, yes,  that is J. wearing a Charlie the Tuna T-shirt 

For our last dinner in Seattle, we went to Chandler's Crabhouse. Once again, we were lucky enough to be able to sit outside. 

King Crab Legs with mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus

Grilled salmon with rainbow quinoa pilaf

You may have noticed the lack of mention of Seattle' famous Pike Place Market, which we did go to.  I had been there before on previous trips to Seattle, so I didn't feel the need to take any pictures.  Even if we hadn't gone, I'd say we had a lovely trip with plenty of fresh, delectable eats. 

Note: I was not compensated by any of the above establishments for this review.

The Quest for the Best Lobster Roll

About two years ago, I went to Maine for the first time. And it completely changed how I eat lobster. Maine lobster is really like no other. It's sweeter, firmer, and juicier than any other lobster I've ever had. And lobster rolls, well, lobster is by far the best thing to ever be put in a hot dog bun. The last time I went to Maine, we were in New Harbor for a wedding of a good friend of Boyfriend's. I had my first lobster roll at a casual dinner the night before the wedding (I still don't know where it came from), and I have been dreaming about it since.

So when Boyfriend told me that another friend of his was having a wedding in New England, I immediately suggested if we could make a vacation of it and drive up to Maine. And so we made the trip to Portland, Maine, so I could enjoy the fall foliage find the best lobster roll. And I was determined to find it, cholesterol and high blood pressure, be damned.

But little did I realize how much variation there was in lobster rolls. Mixed with mayo, mixed with butter, bun toasted, with lettuce, you name it. The perfect lobster roll from my memory had the lobster mixed with just a little mayo, nestled in a bun grilled in butter. Lettuce optional.

Here is the first lobster roll we had on our first night in Maine at the Portland Lobster Company, which boasts that it has the best lobster roll in Portland. Now don't get me wrong, the lobster meat was tasty, sweet, and juicy and the bun was nice and toasty. But this lobster had mixed with drawn butter, which left something to be desired.

After a morning of hiking at Bradbury Mountain State Park, we tried our second lobster roll at the Lobster Cooker in Freeport, Maine. (And yes, we stop at the L.L. Bean flagship store while we were in Freeport). As you can see from the picture, this roll did not contain butter or mayo. Just lobster and lettuce. Once again, while very good lobster, it did not quite recreate the memory I had.

Here is the third lobster roll we had at the Thirsty Pig in Portland. This time we specifically asked the waitress for mayo. Unfortunately, the mayo came slathered on the bun, rather than mixed with lobster meat. Just not the same. (Though they did make a pretty mean sausage at this place).

So after my third lobster roll on this trip, none of them quite bringing the joy that I had of my very first lobster roll, I was beginning to feel disillusioned. Had I built up the memory of the lobster roll so much, that no lobster roll of the present could meet up to it? Would I have to end this trip, with my dream unrealized?

Just when I began to lose all hope, we drove to Gardiner, a small town about one hour away from Portland, in search of fall foliage. (All the rain from this summer meant that peak fall foliage was about two weeks late this year). At a service area, a nice woman at the information booth suggested that we go to Dennis's Pizza. They made lobster rolls with mayo, without mayo, any way you want it, she assured.

Dennis's Pizza turned out to be a hole in the wall pizza place that also served lobster rolls and deli sandwiches. Now, I had gone to college in Philadelphia, where I had some of the best cheesesteaks in hole-in-the-wall pizzarias, so I was not discouraged.

Turns out hole-in-the wall was the way to go. This was the best lobster roll of the trip, exactly how I wanted it - lobster mixed with mayo and the bun perfectly toasted with butter. And it didn't need any sides like french fries or coleslaw to complicate its simplicity.

So now that I am back home, I will be dreaming of this lobster roll. That is, until I make my next trip to Maine.

Note: I was not compensated by any of these establishments.