MJP

If you don't mind a chain place, Manhattan Bagel does jalapeno bagels that do the trick. There are locations in many places.

Thanks for the responses; right now it looks like Corduroy. Central is all booked up every day we'll be in DC. O_O Palena is jacket and tie... I'll pass. Jacket is OK, but I don't wear a tie to work and I won't wear one to eat, no matter how good the food is. This neck will run wild and free! :-P

My girlfriend and I will be in DC for our anniversary next weekend. Does anyone know if a good recommendation for a really unique experience? I'm talking Gramercy Tavern-esque in terms of service, food, etc. Really, what I'm looking for is something above the normal, a dress decent but no jacket required place. Type of food is way open; we're all over the place and like anything, more or less. I'd prefer something that can't be found anywhere else (and would be able to take a reservation for this weekend). Any thoughts?

I think the smoking ban is wonderful in terms of restaurants and most indoor areas. I don't smoke, I hate the smell of tobacco, and it causes serious health problems. I think the removal of personal freedoms in the case of smoking justifies the harm it can do to others.

There's always the Subway in the food court area behind Chipotle. :-P Jason did a post on La Estrella del Caribe and it looks quite great.

HAR just had the new Korean place open up a month or two ago, right next door. Looks authentic but I haven't had a chance to eat there yet. If you're shopping at HAR, the food court does good honest Korean food. It ain't exactly restaurant setting, but if you're like me and need a dose of kimchi stew every now and then, it's a good place to go for your fix.

I have not... I've actually never been, although my mom got their pasta sauce from time to time when I was a kid. I should go especially since AK Market and that new hot dog place are right nearby. Are they open on Sundays?

I plan to try my hand at making mole poblano in the near future. Aside from the little Mexican groceries in Bergenfield, are there any places that sell Mexican chiles and groceries in NJ? The closer to Lyndhurst the better. I'm specifically looking for ancho, pasilla negro, guajillo/mulato chiles, Mexican Canela soft-bark cinnamon, and Ibarra Mexican Chocolate. Raw pumpkin seeds are a plus as well.

Miami Danny: Katsucon starts on Friday at around 10 AM and lasts until Sunday afternoon. I don't have the actual schedule yet, but it is a real trip. Just go past the hotel and look around inside if you can; there'll be lines of people EVERYWHERE dressed as characters from their favorite anime, video game, comic, movie, etc. It's worth it just to see the sheer artistry of the costumes. In my case, it's not about artistry as much as it is a meta-joke; I'll be dressed as Waldo (as in Where's Waldo?) on Friday and one of Team Rocket from Pokemon on Saturday. If you have anyone under 25 in your family, ask them about it. :-D Also, people who went last year have advised that the sushi place, Chipotle, and other food establishments ran out of food. Literally ran out. It happens all the time. The biggest convention on the East Coast takes place in Baltimore in late July/early August, and the Burger King and Sbarro across from the Baltimore Convention Center are usually out of food by Saturday afternoon.

If any eGulleteers want to see a real sight, come around the Omni Shoreham Hotel in DC this weekend for Katsucon, a Japanese culture convention. Focusing in anime and video games, there's going to be tons of crazy people in elaborate costumes walking around and acting silly. :-D The other side of this is that my friends and I will need quick eats that aren't Burger King or otherwise. So does anyone know what's good and fast around 2500 Calvert Street NW? We're not looking for proper restaurants; we're looking for fast and inexpensive, hopefully nutritious. Anyone have any pointers?

I wish I could have made it, but I couldn't rotate my neck that night. ;-; I'm not big on the Hoboken restaurant scene but it looks like it's worth a trip at some point. I'm a sucker for really good chicken wings, but the stuff about Korean fried chicken is my current yen. Maybe next up in line?

Shanghai Park? Details! Do they do a dim sum or is it just off the menu? Location?

Curlz, beware: their soup dumplings were pretty bad this past Sunday. Wrappers were too thick, filling wasn't very flavorful, and the broth had mostly leaked out and was a very different recipe. I think I'd not recommend it on the soup dumplings alone since everything else was nice and tasty. They did have posters of lion dancers and stuff, so C46 looks like the real deal. I believe Chinatown in NYC does something annually as well.

I've been dying to do Chinese New Year for ages, but it's almost always on the same weekend that I've booked up for friends' birthdays or conventions. :-( China 46 is doing something; I was there last weekend but didn't take much note other than I saw a sign in the window.

Ceviche in the Heights is good stuff.

wtc: I don't know if they use bufala mozzarella, but Foschini's in Lyndhurst makes a very, very legitimate and tasty Margherita. The tommyeats entry does make it seem a little too touristy-pizza, but the photos seem to be a different story. Give Foschini's a shot, though; it might ease the pain of a not-so-great wood fired brick oven pizza.

ShopRite in West Caldwell carries it pretty much all the time. It's in with the rest of the soda, IIRC. Also, if you're willing to go to enough bar mitzvahs, I could swear it was out there at one reception, most likely at the Richfield Regency in Verona. I did swipe some from the storage area when I was a lad of 12 on the bar mitzvah circuit. All my Hebrew School classmates went there and I became pretty much an expert on overcooked prime rib thanks to the Regency. Harold's Deli (Lyndhurst and/or Parsippany) sell Cel-Ray if you absolutely can't find it and want to pay marked-up restaurant prices for a can of soda. All the more excuse to go there and have a sandwich.

My parents, my girlfriend, and I went to Fortunato for the official new-job dinner. It was the parents' first time; they'd heard me talk it up many times. We started off with the eggplant tower and the special appetizer that night, clams in a garlic butter (I think) with pancetta. It was a really surprisingly light clam dish; perfectly done, with the pancetta crispy and delicious. My dad referred to it as a "high-end pork and clams," but that's high praise coming from him. We also had two half-portions of pasta as appetizers: the homemade gnocchi with rabbit and wild mushrooms off the menu and the risotto of the day, a wild mushroom and white truffle oil risotto. The girlfriend and I had the gnocchi before, which was why we pressed my folks into it, but the risotto blew everyone away. It was very light-bodied, with the essence of the mushroom in every grain of risotto and the truffle oil ever-present but not at all oily. For the mains, we had a good spread. My mom had the veal osso bucco, my dad had a veal loin (I think) in a mushroom sauce (the rest of the details escape me), my girlfriend had sea scallops over white beans and escarole (a special, not from the menu) and I had the grilled salmon with blue crab claw salad over lentils with a white truffle reduction. I think that the scallops were the best thing there, but the osso bucco was immensely delicious. The braising liquid was really present in the meat and the sauce, and it was very full-bodied but not too rich. The veal loin was also delicious; perfectly done. Chris' sea scallops were, as the steady case is at Fortunato, absolutely perfectly done. They should teach their technique at cooking schools everywhere. I wasn't too flattened by my salmon. It was very good, but it was a dish where you really needed a bite of everything to get the fullest range of flavor. When I did, it was an amazing combination: the salmon balanced well with the truffle reduction, as did the lentils, and the crab salad was a good balancer. I was expecting something with a bit more salt to round it out, but I think I was spoiled by the seared salmon I had the first time at Fortunato. My dad had a great time schmoozing with the guy who served our wine and my mom was beyond impressed with the quality. As always, Jeff was there to say hello, and since it was extremely cold, there weren't too many diners there, but there were enough people to make the place feel like a good business was being turned. Still the best restaurant in the area. Jeff mentioned that they're doing a series of monthy wine tastings, with each wine paired to a Fortunato dish. The last one was on 1/25, just days before, that produced a prosecco that was well-received by us. I may have to go back after a convention in mid-February to find out when their next tasting will be.

I need to correct myself: Fortunato is far more than an "Italian place" to me, and having talked with Jeff (Is it Jeff? I never did the proper introduction-shpiel ;- just tonight after another landmark meal, he mentioned what I'd posted here. Fortunato is not an "Italian place." It is an all-around Italian restaurant that leads in terms of, oh, just about everything they do. I retract anything stating that Lyndhurst is without good restaurants, and in perpetuity hope that Fortunato will need no special mention, instead being entirely THE best restaurant in town. E&V trip is being planned. Stay tuned.

ghostrider: sorry you got slammed; whoever slammed you was not a true Foschini's ambassador. :-P It is definitely worth at least the try. It's not the prettiest place in the world, but it's worth bringing the kids (if you have any) for a casual dinner. It'd be worth it to have the pies fresh if you are coming from elsewhere. BYO, of course. tommy: I've seen pies by the slice at lunch. I haven't checked for dinner mostly because whenever I order, I just call downstairs, run over, pick it up, and bring it back. I've gotten the timing down cold: I can go there just as they sprinkle on the fresh basil and close the box. :-D They have pies in two sizes, which is higly advantageous: a twelve-inch pizza serves one with a few slices left over, and it's just a little over half the price of a sixteen-inch regular pie which they do as well. I definitely recommend getting more than one at the twelve-inch size to go for the variety. I recommend the Margherita, the FBOK special, and a couple others which elude me. There's one with plum tomatoes and red onion that really is fresh and delicious. I would try this Brooklyn Pizza in Edgewater, but whenever I go, it's for Mitsuwa. :-( I can't pull myself away, unless it's for the Greek restaurant in City Place.

Very thin crust, wood-fired brick oven, authentic ingredients, etc. They're not the doughy Italian-American style pizzas that a lot of other places do. I know there's a couple of places in NYC that do a traditional Italian pizza, but Foschini's is the only one in Jersey that does it that I know of. They're the place to go for a Margherita pizza.

I of course have to recommend Foschini's. If you park around back, yell up towards the deck. That's where I live, above the best Italian-style pizzeria in Jersey. :-D Definitely try the FBOK Special... pesto, smoked mozzarella, grilled chicken, and fresh tomatoes. A really nice change of pace.

Curlz left out the best pizza in Lyndhurst and the only one worth the drive- Jojo's. They're on Ridge Road, just near the North Arlington border. For a traditional pie (not Italian-style like Foschini's) Jojo's can't be beat. Probably not worth the drive, but I don't know if Clifton pizza merits such a trip. :-P

I agree with Hank... I would die to have a serious Mexican (e.g. not Tex-Mex, more like Zarela or a Rick Bayless establishment) in Bergen somewhere. It's good to have Fortunato not five minutes from where I live, and Balocco looks good as well. But even so, Serious Italian is well and good, but I miss Serious Mexican.

I'd go to E&V, have their spedigni Romani, a scungilli salad, and the seafood risotto. Or a Cremator, two Rippers, an order of onion rings, a large birch, and chicken rice soup at Rutt's Hut. Now THAT is a last meal.