Daniel

Tmus, Can you tell me what you have gotten there and whats your favorite thing..

Sure, twist my arm why dont you.. Shack's 1160 E. Grand St. Elizabeth New Jersey It just so happens that I need to renew my passport so I had to run over to the post office.. Right across the street from the Elizabeth Court House and Police Station there is this little restaurant.. There are some tables and chairs in there, but it seems like its a place that mostly does take out.. edit to add: Hey thats me in the window. Looking at the menu, it is very similar to the place I went to yesterday.. Do to the better area its in, its a little more expensive.. The oxtail here is 11 bucks, yesterday it was 9.50.. I was going to order it so I could do a side by side comparison, but I am not that hungry.. Anyway, I was quickly greeted by an extremely nice woman.. I ordered the brisket and was told it wasnt ready yet.. I then went rib sandwich and mac and cheese.. I also got a huge cup of their super sweet southern tea.. After talking to the woman and the older woman cooking in the back, I knew this place was going to be great.. When the ribs came out the older woman cooking came over and asked me if i wanted xtra bbq sauce.. I said do you have a spicy sauce.. She then added hot sauce and their bbq sauce together.. Yeh, this women is a pro.. So here are the ribs.. They are excellent.. Sweet, spicy, not smokey, but done really well. I love their bbq sauce.. They taste almost how they look... .. If this isnt the best thing they have there, then I cant wait to try everything.. I am very impressed by them... The mac and cheese is also very good.. Infact, this is the best mac and cheese I have ever had at a soul food place.. It is the best mac and cheese I have had outside of making it myself, or having some tricky version.. Very cheesey, not dry, just fantastic.. There sweet tea is comparable to the tea I miss from my roadtrips through the south.. All in all the place is great.. Might have to throw this spot into the weekly rotation.. This place exemplifies southern or down home cooking.. Its made with love, its made with care, It's "Little pink houses for you and me" and it comes through in the food..

Anon, I can't help you, but you would have LOVED Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor about 25 years ago in the Paramus Park Mall in the Food Court area. Wow ... waitstaff were dressed in pin stripped vests, old fashioned ties, and cane hats. The restaurant featured a distinctive look of a century past ice cream parlor and they had PLENTY of penny candy. Oh, the good ol' days. ← We had one in East Brunswick Mall Too.. I remember a huge huge going on when it was someones birthday.. Sparlkers, sirens, lots of yelling..

Need a winnebego need a winnebego.. Does anyone have a website for cheap rentals where i can pick up in vegas and drop off in New York, New Jersey, CT or VT..

In Carmines defense, he does have a restaurant in Rome, which is where I met him several years ago.. He goes back often, but there certainly is a bit of "showmenship" about him..Went there tonight and had a beautiful five year old as my date.. She loves the fried red mullet which is in the fritto misto and the lemoncello cake.. She had half a plate of the misto, almost all of her penne, and certainly all of her cake.. I had the artichoke salad and the filet.. Making the rest of the filet for a sandwich tomorrow which is the best way i think to have it.. I sometimes just get the fillet to go so I can make one the following day.. Just a block away from home, needless to say, the place is my beacon of light on the UWS.

I got mine at Home Depot.. You can also get a weber smoker box to put in your grill.. I have never smoked anything on a gas grill so i dont know about the result..

So today it was soul food.. Went to Nerias's Soul Kitchen 216 Second St Elizabeth NJ 07206 908-282-4416 This place has been open for maybe 6 months.. I had gone when they first opened and they were still feeling things out.. Today I went and it was a lot better.. They have daily specials along with their regular menu.. Some items that look good are the short ribs, turkey wings, and their fried whiting.. They also have similar sandwiches.. I got the oxtail in a brown gravy over rice.. You have the option of picking two sides, I went Collard and Mac.. They also have yams, cabbage, blackeyed peas, lima beans, potato salad, creamed corn, or fries.. The oxtail pieces were plentiful as well as the mac and collard.. This easily could provide two people with a meal.. The oxtail came in a brown sauce that was thick, rich, and had a real strong celery presence.. They used more butter in this mac then i would ever, so it was obviously really good.. So buttery that besides the puddle left in the styrofoam, * the noodles would slip off my teeth when i went to bite them*.. Collard greens were good.. Not vinegary enough for me, I really like places that have the little peppers in the vinegar sauce.. All in all the place is good not great, but i need to try other things before being sure.. I.E The whiting in special batter.. Its clean, people are friendly, and the food is honest.. Tastes homemade and prepared with love..There are two other soul food places on my list that I will be reporting on when i get the chance.. *Denotes exaggeration

They might only need mustard and kraut but bacon, kraut, onion sauce and mustard aint to shabby either...

Yeah, I like the poppy and prune hamentaschen/homentaschen particularly. (Lexical note: Homentash, plural homentashn, is a Yiddish word meaning "Haman's hat." Haman is the villain of the Megillas Esther -- i.e., the Biblical Book of Esther. Yiddish is written in the Hebrew alphabet and can be transliterated into English various different ways.) ← Yes yes thems are the ones, they are the cookies for the holiday Purim, but are great any day...

This is a great blog Pan.. I enjoy following you around the city and hearing your perspective.. I often go to Moishes and get there homentash for the office.. I see they have them in the front right of there window.. Have you tried theres..

It has been awhile, but better late than never! On a side note, I recently made Apricot packets from Desserts by PH using fresh Frog Hollow Apricots. It was an amazing dessert. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos. ← Cake looks great Doc.. I think its time for me to revisit that recipe myself.. Although I wonder its shelf life in a New York City kitchen in this weather..

Met a friend for dinner tonight at Pearsons.. It was a beauiful night and with my car parked in front of a hydrant directly across the street, we were happy that three of the four picnic tables outside were available. We also surprised to see how empty the joint was.. There might have been 6 tables eating in the whole restaurant. The service was pretty bad there.. I think we had a new waitress, but she was really terrible.. She was young and this might have been here fist day of work anywhere.. I liked to hear my waiters opinions on things.. She had no opinion on anything.. Infact, she couldnt descibe anything on the menu.. Not to mention not getting us drinks and then the wrong ones, forgetting silverware, never bringing salt, or seperate plates, or pouring a different beer into a glass of beer, yatta yatta yatta.. We ordered a small beef ribs, a brisket and nc style pulled pork combo, onion rings and mac n cheese. Here is the star of the meal.. The beef ribs were cooked perfectly.. These meaty ribs ran with hot juice when you bit into them.. A little smokey, but it didnt need to be any more. Great with there bbq sauce which I really enjoyed.. The NC style pork and brisket were pretty good.. The pork had a nice amount of smokey pieces of skin mixed in, but it lacked the sweetness I am use to and the vinegar sauce was weak.. I ended up adding some of there thin red vinegar sauce they provide on the table.. That too was missing something.. The brisket was good.. The meat was a little dry, it didnt have that crunchy fat layer I like, and it didnt deliver a big smokey taste.. Also it came to the table cold.. It was certainly good, but not great.. .Coleslaw was a stand out also.. Definately would be a great addition to a sandwich there.. The onion rings were rather poor, almost terrible.. They were over fried and was soaked with grease.. I am a man who loves his grease, but this was just bad.. I can honestly say this was one of the only times in my life i didnt enjoy a plate of onion rings. Mac and Cheese was ok.. It was really dry, the cheese on top was burnt into individual crusty strands.. It got a lot better when i added the bbq sauce.. All in all i would say this place is goodish.. The beef ribs werevery good.. I wouldnt go here again unless i was in walking distance, or at a friends house playing cards and with in their delivery zone..

Edit to add.. I am happy to change my story about Red Eats.. It wasnt the Food Network where I first saw this place on television.. It was PBS that aired a special report called Sandwiches You Will Like where I saw Red Eats.. And it was Mr Holly Moore that was eating there with the host, showing him the ropes.. To me that was soo cool to see him there and to recognize him from Egullet.. Holly, not only was your website such a great tool for finding places, but it might have been you who got me to Maine in the first place..

Thats awesome Marlene.

Ate at Celeste last night as I do weekly.. Had another really great time there.. Started with chicken livers in a sage butter balsamic reduction.. A hardy portion of juicy chicken livers, and the falatta.. Had proscuitto, salami, and breasola with a couple of olives.. Carmine came by a but a sweet compote of apricot and garlic.. Great stuff.. Not a great picture of the livers.. Happened to have my camera so I decided to snap some photos in the middle eating this.. Also forgot till half way into the falatta.. Next came the pasta.. Tagliatella with shrimp, cabbage and a melted cheese..I added red pepper. The pasta is homemade and perfect.. Chewy, tender, a delight! The olive oil they use is really fruity and ties everything together... A lot of shrimp in this dish.. Next was the meat course.. This like the pasta is a half portion as we split them... This is filet mignon.. It was shaved and cooked medium rare.. It was excellent, i just cant remember the flavors on the account of the two bottles of wine and half bottle of port we drank.. But i can tell you i was dragging bread through the plate once the meat was gone.. Next we moved on to the cheese course.. One of the better priced cheese courses as well as extensive normally.. Last night many of the cheese were too close in taste and texture.. But as always the compotes and honey dips he adds to the cheese are outstanding.. But besides the cheese itself, the best part is hearing Carmine's description.. This man has a passion and love for cheese that might go down as the worlds greatest romance.. Like a beaming father he arrives with the cheese plate.. The man travels to Italy with the sole purpose of filling his suitcase with raw cheeses.. He is a real trip.. The cheese at one oclock might have been the epoisse like cheese someone was referring to..

Thanks for the kind words.. The trip was absolutely amazing. I miss it terribly..

Thanks for the kind words.. The trip was absolutely amazing. I miss it terribly..

Surprising to see there are no restaurants in India mentioned on this list.. I guess the chefs need to come all the way from India to learn from Jean Georges how to make Samosas... Haha.. What a joke.. And all this time I bet people in India thought they were eating authentic food.. Also surprised to see that Nobu beats out any restaurant in Japan too... The Japanese sure dont know what they are missing.. They should get thereselves to London to try authentic sushi..

Yes scheich i am out of my mind.. I am so out of my mind that I made up the fact that I had a brown curry sauce at two german resaurants in New York.. Are you one of those people who likes to answer questions with another questions... If you havent heard of it, keep quiet and try to learn something.. Thats why i asked the question..

Sad to say from my dining experience the Samosas were the best thing I ordered.. Good thing you left.. Place is expensive and is as good as any neighborhood average place.

Thanks Gifted..

I suggested those places to my girlfriend and she said the places suggested were more clubby then places to eat.. She is there for business and on an expense account.. Not that she needs to spend a lot of money, the food is obviously the most important thing.. But she will be there for business dressed in business attire.. I guess I am asking if Atlanta has a good greek restaurant comparable to Kyma.. That might be a good question..

I am looking for first of all the name and second of all a place where i can get one of these Monkey Tables. I know it might sound morbid, but I think it would look cool in my dining room.. If you dont know what I am talking about, its those tables where you can stick the monkeys from the neck up through the one side of the table.. Its used in countries that eat monkey brains.. I have absolutely no intention of eating monkey ever.. Definately a great dinner conversation.. Thanks..

My girl is staying at the hyatt on peachtree in downtown atlanta....She usually stays in buckhead because she likes to go to Kyma and Bluepointe...however, wasn't able to get a rez in buckhead and would like comparable restaurants downtown.... Thanks a lot..

Thats exactly what I did this weekend, with out the Packers.. I went beer and butter boil.. Then grilled them over charcoal, then put them in the saurkraut for a couple of minutes before serving.. They were excellent.. Anyone else have a favorite cold cut from there?