Real Jamaican Jerk An' Ting

I've found my absolute favorite Jamaican restaurant, and it's in Somerset, NJ. It's called "Real Jamaican Jerk An' Ting" (http://www.realjamaicanjerk.com/), and it is truly the real deal. The restaurant's website tells a bit about what REAL Jamaican jerk cooking is all about, and how the meat is prepared and flavored. It's a process that involves a bit more than slapping some sauce and seasoning on a piece of meat and throwing it on a grill or in an oven. I can't put my finger on each spice used in the Jerk seasoning this place uses, but I know there's plenty of LOVE in it, because I've been greeted with a smile and warm reception each time I've walked in to get my take-out order. There are only a few tables in the place, but I do plan on eating a meal there sometime very soon.

So let's talk about the situation here: It was my friend Steve's birthday, and I was on my way north, past New Brunswick, when I realized I was hungry and it was Steve's birthday. I arranged to stop by and bring a Birthday feast for him, and asked if he'd had real Jamaican food. The answer of "I don't think so" put me into hyper-food-introducing mode, and I made a bee-line to Hamilton St. for the good stuff. I have this place's number saved as a contact in my cell phone, so I called when I was 15 minutes away and put together a take-out order. Chicken Soup, Jerk Chicken, Jerk Pork, and Curry Chicken. The meals come with rice and (pidgeon) peas, fried plantains, and a sort of slaw of lightly cooked cabbage, bell pepper, and carrots. All of this for 7-9 bucks a pop. SERIOUS bang for the buck, here, folks. I figured we could all share the goods.

The Jerk chicken and pork here is simply the best I've ever had. They're both incredibly tender and succulent, and you can tell they've been cooked for a long time in a unique way. The pork might be one of the best-prepared meat dishes I've ever had, all around. Texture, flavor, quality, and price....simply unbeatable. The chicken isn't far behind. The curry chicken is also absolutely awesome, falls off the bone, and is spiced perfectly. The rice and peas are a great starchy compliment. The fried plantains are absolutely perfect, and the (steamed?) veggies on the side were surprisingly PERFECTLY cooked and flavored. This is the best take-out meal for this price in Somerset or New Brusnwick, as far as I'm concerned. The chicken soup was even unique, sort of thick and creamy, but spicy, and a bit different from your standard cream of chicken with rice.

I love Jamaican food and music, and New Brunswick and Somerset have great places to seek out both elements of this unique Island culture. It's an area I've adopted as one of my many "second homes", and this bright green little building on the Somerset/New Brunswick border is my new favorite places to get my fill of the food part. The music part can be had down the very same street, on the New Brunswick side, in my friend King Django's recording studio and record label, Version City (http://www.versioncity.com/, http://www.stubbornrecords.com/). He specializes in reggae, ska, and all Jamaican music of the last 50 years.

Well, I'm a hopeless culture junkie. Contact me, or anyone I've linked in this post for more info!

Jerk Pork

Curry Chicken, Jerk Chicken, and Jerk Pork

Rock 'n Roll Thai Food

So, considering I'm the guy behind a record blog and a food blog, you can imagine I might be interested in combining the two from time to time, right? Well you're correct.

So my family loves Thai food, and we were really excited to hear of a new Thai restaurant opening in our town 4-5 years ago or so. When I heard the word "Rock" in the name, I was confused, until I walked in. It's a tiny little palce with maybe 4 tables and a 5th one that seats two people. And there are records on the walls, hanging from the ceilings....it's got a kitschy little decor thing going on. So I'm like, okay, this is cool, I love records and Thai food. And then I ate the food and realized it was maybe the best Thai place in the area, and it was in my town, and it had records on the wall......well, yeah, my brain exploded right then and there.

So at first no one was coming to the place, as parking is minimal, it's in a kinda crappy location, and it wasn't really well-advertised. Word of mouth obviously quickly spread (my family talking about it non-stop to anyone they knew who would listen certainly helped), and within a year or 2 the place was impossible to sit down and eat at on a weekend, and take-out orders were flying out of there. It's literally ONLY a husband and wife running the place, doing everything, so things get a little hectic, but they somehow hold it down and the quality of the food doesn't suffer. And the husband and wife that run the place are super cool people. We used to go in and they'd hang out and talk to us some days because it was very quiet. It was truly like eating a family meal. We still get the all-star treatment here when things aren't going too crazy.

So, anyway, of course I've taken about a million people (even some girls) to this place, because it's tops. My first meal outside of a hospital last summer (after spending 2 months in hospitals) was here, and I took 2 of my hospital therapists with me. I'd been talking this place up to my friends Frank and Aimee for a while, so they finally made the pilgramage up to my town to see what it's all about. They weren't disappointed.

I generally just find out what people like in general, or can/can't eat, and order for them. I know the whole menu by heart and don't even really need to look at it. We got Chicken Green Curry, pork in a peanut curry sauce (they call it Rama there), Pad Thai, and a massmaman curry shrimp special that day. We also started it off with Tom Yum and Tom Kha soups. The Tom Yum is a little spicey and extremely flavorful, as it should be. The Tom Kha has that coconut base and perfect seasoning that it's supposed to have, with chicken in it....perfect. My friend Sean used to have an unhealthy addiction to this stuff. The Pad Thai here is lighter than other places, with less "sauce" to weigh it down, and thinner, lighter noodles than some places have. Its has just the right amount of peanut pieces in it to give it awesome texture....it's a masterpiece. The Green Curry is the best I've ever had. The peanut curry is a great mix of sweet and savory, and again, not overly heavy like some places. The massmaman curry was also a nice sweet/savory kind of thing, with a darker look and slightly sweeter taste than I'm used to in that style curry. But the shrimp were delightfully crispy, and everything comes over a bed of crispy, lightly cooked veggies (unlike places that just throw a dish of meat at you).

I won't give the name of this place up, as it's actually TOO busy sometimes, and they really can't handle much more business than they already have (and you can easily find it if you search for Thai restaurants in Colonia). If you can squeeze in the place early on a weekend or do take-out, you certainly won't be disappointed here. This place has a special place in my heart for many reasons. This Thai Restaurant ROCKS!

RAMA:

PAD THAI

TOM YUM

American Food: A Post-Veteran's Day Tribute

I love America, and have numerous friends and family members who are veterans, and who have served in our armed forces. So since I usually get all up in some food from all over the world, I decided to do a post about some home-grown American-style eats for the vets. So, thanks for your service, guys, go get an awesome burger at Mastori's!

There's lots of stories about the origin of the Hamburger. I'm not as interested in the stories as I am in how they taste, so I'll get right down to business. I lived in Trenton for a handful of years, and in that time, I ate at Mastori's in Bordentown several times. Not as much as I'd have liked to, but I got my fix. The place is great for many reasons: it's huge so there's always seating, they give you complimentary fresh home-baked cream cheese-filled and cinnamon-filled breads that are fantastic, and their portions are quite large. Plus, their food is (mostly) damned good diner-type food. Their menu is ENORMOUS, and it's got every diner favorite and then some on it. It's a BIT pricier than most diners, but you do get more bang for the buck overall.

So, when eating at a diner, the first things that pop into my mind are burgers and breakfast. Breakfast is a no-brainer at a diner, and burgers are usually a fairly safe bet for a cheaper, easy bite. Some are better than others, of course, and to me, Mastori's is better than just about all. The thing that sets this burger apart, beyond the fact that it's 3/4 pound and they have some interesting toppings to choose from, is that it tastes like absolutely FRESH ground beef. This isn't a frozen patty, and it's not a leftover meatloaf....it's FRESH ground beef that crumbles and barely holds together with each bite. It's moist (I'm assuming it's not the 94% lean stuff your mom tried to use when she got on a health kick), juicy, and a true pleasure to eat.

I forget the menu name of the one I got (Circle something), but it had a whole slab of grilled bermuda onion, as well as a thick slice of Canadian bacon, cheddar, and BBQ sauce on top. Enormous! My good buddy Frank got one called the "Ham" Hamburger, with sliced Virginia Ham, cheese, and I believe BBQ sauce as well on top. Well, I like to call these "Fork and Knife" burgers, because trying to eat them with your hands is just silly, even downright irresponsible! The other members of our party got yummy chicken pot pies, and one poor soul got chicken parm (at a diner? C'mon, Craig...). Frank and I were in serious beef comas after dinner, and his gal Aimee got a huge hunk of cake, none of which any of us touched, HA! It looked great, though. This place can definitely bake, and definitely cook some ground beef. I have it on good authority that their breakfast is also pretty out of control. That'll be a future blog post...

So, in conclusion, thanks to America's brave soldiers for protecting our ability to go out and have a fantastic burger at a place like Mastori's. Here's a picture of Frank struggling, against my advice, to eat this burger with his hands:

My Mexican Second Home

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. This is the first time in a while that I remembered to ask a friend to take pictures of food before it got devoured in a grisly scene.

This post concerns my favorite Mexican spot in New Brunswick, NJ. Now, I'd love to give you the address and name of this place, but I'm afraid the NBPD might go there and break up our good time...........kinda-inside jokes aside, this could be any number of Mexican places in New Brunswick that doesn't have "Burrito" or "Bell" or "Cantina" in the name. Basically, in New Brunswick, you find a place with a name and menu that's in Spanish, in a neighborhood you wouldn't want to live in, and go there. That'll be where the good food is, I promise. This is one of those places. It's across the street from a bar on French St. that has an astounding number of transexual prostitutes hanging around it at all times, day and night. So you can imagine why I've taken such pleasure in walking there after a night at a non-tranny bar with a bunch of punk rockers and such.

Backstory on this joint: I was first taken here by my friend Vic Ruggiero and some friends after a night of spinning records at the Court Tavern (before I was old enough to legally drink there). I was blown away by the THREE fresh salsas they give you (a red, a green, and a pico de gallo) with chips, as well as the $4.00 pricetag on a burrito the size of my thigh. I've since taken an untold number of friends there for a taste of some phenominal, authentic Oaxaca-Mexico cuisine. In my hayday I was there 1-3 times a week. Various jerks I used to hang out with who were free Monday nights and Tuesday mornings would gather at our local watering hole, then at last call, we'd walk over to this spot, as they don't close until 3 AM. We closed the restaurant on more than one occasion. These were carefree days of innocence and beauty, when growing up was the last thing on any of our minds. Mondays were like any other night of the week: PARTY NIGHT.

So fast-forward 4 years, and here I am with one of the very same jerks I used to close the place with; a man called Jay Insult. I can no longer party like I could in the old days (a whopping 4 years ago), so I leave all the partying to Jay. On this night, we made a pre-bar run to the secret spot, as we would sometimes do back in the good ol' days, although now I don't pile beers and more Mexican food on top of it. We ordered what we'd normally order: I got a burrito al pastor (with seasoned, tender pork), and he got a vegetarian burrito without lettuce (he's a freak). The prices went WAY up to $4.50 or $5.00 for a burrito, but we carefully pick change out of our friends' couches and car floors and make up the difference in price. Let me now take an entire paragraph to explain something about these burritos.

Now, I know you're not supposed to judge a Mexican joint by their burritos, because burritos are bullshit gringo food, and restaurants in Oaxaca don't serve them. But these are awesome, and transend gringo burrito bullshit. They're huge, and you don't eat them with your hands, but with a knife and fork. They come with lettuce and tomato on top, as well as a nice salty grated cheese (akin to pecorino romano) and crema. They're stuffed with meat, rice and beans, veggies, and sometimes a little cheese. They're an intense burrito experience. The main reasons we mainly get burritos are: the price, and the fact that every other item on the menu (priced 6-8 dollars or so) is enormous and requires a to-go box, and there's no room for leftovers when you're walking with them to a bar, or what have you. That being said, I've never gotten a meal there I didn't like, and I've tried a variety of dishes. The salsas here are my favorite, as they're very fresh, and you know this because they're different every time you come. Sometimes one is hot, the next time it's not. Sometimes one is really salty, and other times it's kinda bland. You can always count on at least 2 of the 3 being winners, and one being so-so. As Meatloaf once sang, however, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

I've got plenty of awesome stories about this place, and could honestly do a weekly blog just about this restaurant, but I'll spare you all the gory details and let you experience it for yourself. This place is as good for a meal as it is for entertainment from a cast of characters that comes through the doors almost constantly. Here's pictures of our meal, and some of the awesome dudes you may encounter on French St.

PS: If I've never taken you here, and I know you, it's your fault. I'm always down to go here, so force me to take you. And if you go without me, brush up on your Spanish before going, because you'll likely have a tough time ordering in English!

My Burrito
Jay's burrito

Awesome dudes. Grimey and awesome.

My first Peruvian expedition

So this kid I know that sometimes goes by "Marz", whom I got Pho'ed recently, hails from Peru. Well, really he hails from Long Island originally, but his parents are from Peru. So he knows some stuff about his native food....as well as Peruvian food. My friends Frank and Aimee from Toms River wanted to try something different (we got Kabobs a few weeks back), so I called Marz to get some advice regarding what to order at the Peruvian spot in Toms River called Chim Pum Callao. He dropped some knowledge on me, because I didn't know what I was in for. The weather sucked, and the mood was kinda dim. My last food adventure was rather weak, which hit me where it hurt, and I needed a success to get me back on the horse, so to speak. We rolled into the EMPTY restaurant armed with a few things to look for on the menu and a complete lack of experience eating Peruvian food.

We started with some Escabeche de pollo as an appetizer, as Marz had suggested we try. WOW. Tangy and flavorful, slightly crispy, with awesome fried potatoes and onions. Amazing. I got a steak meal with rice, fried plantains, a fried egg, and french fries on the side. The steak was well-marinated and thin, but tender. Everything was presented expertly. Frank got a braised pork dish in a tomato-based sauce. Aimee got some arroz con pollo that was green in color, and packed with flavor. Everything had spices that I couldn't completely figure out. It was unpredictable in the BEST way. I then went ahead and researched Peruvian food and found that it's among the most diverse and multi-faceted in the world, pulling from influences reaching all over the globe. I wish I could tell you exactly what flavors tickled my tongue tonight, but I literallly don't know! That fact makes tonight's meal the most exciting one I've eaten in a while.

I feel like I need more visits to this fine establishment to better explore the menu and pick the brains of the friendly staff, as well as my Peruvian comrade. If you want in, let me know. Here's a few pictures of the things we tried tonight. There will be a follow-up visit, for sure.

This BBQ was so EXXXTREME!

Okay, this post doesn't involve eating out, unfortuntately for everyone involved. It was actually eating in, down south of Toms River where I've been living all summer. There's a BBQ joint down there called Ben's Extreme BBQ that sounded like it would be good for blogging about. I mean, I'm an EXTREME kinda dude, and I love BBQ, so this should be a sure win. So last time I tried going there with my friend "Rick Moranis" my car died and it was a major bummer. This time I said screw this, I'll get take-out and we'll eat at my house.

I got some different stuff to sample, hoping to find the EXTREME, FACE-MELTING awesome BBQ I'd dreamed of. Got some hot links, pulled pork, ribs, brisket, burnt ends, collared greens, mac 'n cheese, and baked beans. The selection of meats was extreme, and the place is this tiny little shack with about 2 tables and 4 different sauces to sample on your BBQ. I felt like that should be an extreme feast that would surely turn my hair white and/or sterilize me or SOMETHING. Unfortunately, I'm not sterile (sorry ladies) and still have brown hair. The BBQ, while tasty, was not particularly EXTREME. The beans were kinda boring, greens had little character, and everything kinda seemed like it'd been sitting around for a while. Rick Moranis was hoping for some EXTREME food adventure, and I don't really think I provided it. But, we did have a good evening of eating out/in New Jersey.

Here's a photo of my being cautious, afraid that the BBQ might be too extreme, even for ME!

And EXTREME BBQ CLOSE-UP:

What about Kabob?

I've been spending my weekdays working and living just south of Toms River, NJ, and luckily have a friend or two who are up for culinary adventures in that area. Unfortunately, the area is mostly culture-less. Lots of Senior Citizen "villages" and such, with the strongest local immigrant population being Mexican. As a result I've had some decent Mexican food down there, but not much else.

Driving down Lakewood Rd. in Toms River on my way home from my friends' house, I'd passed a place called Salang Kabob this summer, and of course it got me curious. Turns out it's a small Afghani restaurant that was getting solid reviews on local food websites. My adventurous friends Frank and Aimee have a townhouse 5 minutes from the place and had been curious about it as well. Now, Frank's family is right off the boat Italian, complete with grandmother whose English is barely intelligable (but whose meat sauce is apparently unbelievable) and family functions where Italian and English are spoken interchangably. Aimee is Irish-American. Her homecooking wasn't really what you might consider exciting, and her exposure to cuisines of the world is quite limited. BUT, I'm stoked on her willingness and desire to try new crazy foods she never knew existed.

I'd never had Afrghani food before, but have eaten more than my fair share of kabobs and middle-eastern cuisine. They hadn't. We decided we had to try the Kabob place together.

The restaurant is small, but cozy and clean. It seems to definitely be a family-run place, and the lovely lady who took our orders and explained what things were made a point to say that everything is fresh and homemade - my two favorite things to hear in this situation. We were given a small plate with a few vegetable dumplings without ordering it, and it was very tasty, with red and white (yogurt?) sauces. Then we were given the hearty, grainy bread to dip in the sauces, and it got our mouths watering.

Aimee's potato dish (a special not on the menu) had a yellow sauce with spices I truly couldn't identify (A RARE EVENT!). We all tried it and were LOVING it. I got a beef kabob that was perfectly grilled and seasoned, over lightly seasoned rice with raisins (sorry, not familair with actual terms for this food). Frank got a light beef stew over rice (also a special not on the menu) that was like a standard beef stew, but AGAIN with flavors I coudn't identify. I felt out-gunned, but in the most delicious way possible. The chutney Frank and I were given to go on the little salad on the plate was pure herbs in what seemed like lemon juice or some sort of slightly sweet acid, and it was spicy and just awesome. We were given more bread to dip in everything, and DIP WE DID!

It was a treat to talk briefly with our waitress about what the restaurant was about and what the food was, and the food itself spoke volumes more than she could have verbally. This picture of our messy table and mostly-cleaned plates tells the tale, folks.

Vietnamese food on Marz

This past Saturday a dear Peruvian friend of mine asked me to accompany him to a Vietnamese restaurant he wanted to try in Jersey City called Saigon Cafe. He'd eaten Vietnamese food before, but never tried "Pho", which is my favorite soup of all time. I have eaten at many Vietnamese joints in NJ, and have found that the best ones are the places where an enormous bowl of pho goes for about 6 bucks, there's no more than 10 tables, and hardly an English word is being spoken in the place. Saigon Cafe was pricier and nicer-looking than I'm generally comfortable with, but we sallied forth.

We had the pork summer rolls appetizer, which was really good with just the right amount of mint, and it made me hopeful. I ordered the grilled marinated pork(my favorite pork dish, I think) over vermicelli and my friend (we'll call him Marz) tried the pho he was so longing phor. They didn't give you optons as to what kind of beef you want in the soup, which bummed me out. Ususally you get your choice of tripe, tendon, flank, brisket, balls (not testes...I think), etc. His pho had what looked like some brisket and flank, and that was it. It was served the the customary condiments(bean sprouts, basil, and lime wedge), and I coached him on spicing it up with a bit of Sriracha and hoisin sauce.

The beads of sweat on his forehead after finishing half the bowl told me he weas pleased with the selection and spice level. I almost went and got a mop to wipe his face with. He told me about some Peruvian hot sauce his mom makes that I wanna try, then wiped his forehead and dove back in. My pork was tasty, and the pho was very passable, but I want to get Marz on some real deal stuff in Edison. I also want him to hip me to some good Central-American food in North Jersey. I'll report on that when it happens. Maybe next time I'll take him to a cheap place that puts more cow parts in the soup. Also, sorry for lack of pictures, Marz' sweat dripped onto the camera and ruined it. Here's a stock pho-to.

New Jersey is a GREAT state to eat out!

Hi, everyone on the Internet. I've created this blog for a few reasons. Let me explain.

First, I love food. I am a chubby dude, make no mistake. I got that way for a reason - because I love the hell out of some food. There are few things that I'm more passionate about than eating a good meal. Music and fishing are probably the only two, and luckily they can all be combined to make my life awesome pretty regularly. I'm also from central New Jersey, which is the most ethnicly diverse area in the country (according to me). It does have the highest concentration of Indians, as well as an awesome population of people from all over Asia. Just a bit north of me is northern NJ, which is densely populated with all kinds of Europeans spanning that entire continent, with a strong concentration of Polish immigrants and Italians with close ties to the homeland (think Sopranos). We have inner cities with awesome soul food, incredibly strong Mexican neighborhoods (especially from Oaxaca), Southern BBQ masters....we quite honestly are just a super diverse state. We're like the whole country crammed into one small coastal state between New York City and Philadelphia, PA.

Secondly, I love exposing people to types of food they haven't tried, but that I think they would love. When someone tells me they like Mexican food, but have only had it from a chain restaurant, I take them to a tiny place in New Brunswick where I have to order for them in Spanish and you can get a burrito the size of your thigh for 5 bucks. When someone tells me they like spicy food but are intimidated by Indian food, I take them to a place in Edison with friendly waiters who take pleasure in explaining what things are, and where the expensive things on the menu are 9 dollars. My passion for food and willingness to try different things since I was a kid, combined with the diverse area I grew up in, has given me a very intimate relationship with all kinds of "exotic" ethnic foods. I am seriously thrilled to share my experiences and guide people into a culinary world they previously thought out of their reach.

Finally, I'm just a culture junky. I LOVE music and food from all over the world. I think music and food are easily accessable keys to break down cultural barriers and get to know about cultures of the world. When I've shown genuine interest in and appreciation for Jamaican music to people from Jamaica, I've been readily accepted and gladly educated on the entire culture. When I've done the same for Thai food to Thai people, I've gotten the same open-armed welcome. People LOVE to share the cultures they grew up with in their countries of origin with open-minded and appreciative people over here. As a result of my good-natured curiosities, I've gotten some awesome insights into the food and music of many of the cultures that inhabit this great state. I crave authenticity in all aspects of my life, so this is very important to me.

So, here you go. I'm going to try to take people once a week to sample a type of food they've never tried, and let you in on our experiences. I'll try to take pictures and share some stories, as well as fill you in on restaurants that you might want to try, and good ways to get into foods you've never thought you'd even want to try.