The New Jersey Foodhound™

When I first moved back to the Tri-State, I made a point to venture out to as many new restaurants as I could. My search started in a stereotypical fashion, in that I felt Manhattan's Chinatown and the adjacent neighborhood of Little Italy were a great place to start. My girlfriend was somewhat familiar with the area, and one hot summer day while walking through she suggested a stop in at Ten Ren's Tea Time . It was my very first experience with the now well-known and extremely refreshing treat - bubble tea. The Grub: While I've heard they serve food at Ten Ren's Tea Time , I'll be honest and say I've never tried it. What I really show up for is their vast list of drinks and tea concoctions, and I do mean vast. Iced tea, hot tea, fruit tea, milk tea, fresh tea, flavor blends, slush and milk ice in a variety of flavors offer customers no shortage of choice. Many of these drinks can be combined with "toppings," which, for the unfamiliar, are gummy...

As a general rule, I happen to be a proponent of trying to find the most authentic version of a cuisine possible. Be it Italian, Chinese, or even American, I'm not a fan of fakes or of low effort, dumbed-down versions of the food I should be eating. That said, every so often an Americanized Chinese restaurant creeps into the fold despite my best efforts to keep them away. One such restaurant - Jade Island in Staten Island, NY ,  stands a thankful bastion of tradition, hearkening back to years I can hardly remember - or wasn't around for. By the way, If you thought that tiki-themed restaurants were gone for good, brace yourselves - you're in for a treat! The Grub: If you have eaten Chinese food in the USA before, you know exactly what you're in for at Jade Island . All the classic dishes make an appearance: wonton soup, chop suey, chow mein, lo mein, beef with broccoli, chicken with cashew nuts - all of which are just as good, if not better than where you probably ...

I was first introduced to Eddie Huang's Baohaus by Anthony Bourdain on an episode of his landmark TV series - No Reservations . Might I add, I have never been lead astray by Tony, R.I.P. That said, this was one of the first restaurants my (at the time) new girlfriend and I wanted to try together - and it has since ended up becoming one of our favorite food-on-the-go spots when we visit Downtown Manhattan. The Grub: The menu isn't very long here and it doesn't have to be. It's that damn good. They offer a handful of variations on the gua bao, also known as just bao or Chinese bun - usually filled with pork belly. Which, as it so happens is one of the options, dubbed the "Chairman Bao," along with a fried chicken bao dubbed "Birdhaus." Rounding out the menu are tofu, fried fish and spicy chicken bao, all with their own cleaver moniker. Add a side of Taro fries if you're extra hungry and grab a Lang Lang, basically a Chinese Arnold Pa...

I must have passed this restaurant at least two dozen times before my girlfriend's reminders sparked a trip one hungry evening. Admittedly we should have stopped sooner. ShangHai Restaurant is one of those great little hidden gems - nestled on the quiet portion of an otherwise busy street in Fort Lee, NJ.  Their menu offers a number of fantastic, simple, authentic Chinese dishes that will keep me coming back a few times a month into the foreseeable future. The Grub: You already know that they serve Chinese food, but let me give you a few suggestions for your inaugural trip. First, I would definitely start with their Scallion Pancakes and an order, or perhaps two orders of their soup dumplings. Both are some of the best I have ever had, and I'm counting a number of really good places in Flushing and Manhattan's Chinatown. After that, as an entree I would definitely suggest the Braised Pork Belly or Pan Fried Beef Udon which again represent the pinnacle of what Ch...

I love Chinese food, as many around the world certainly do. Being from the United States however, I wasn't aware until my late teens that the food I had come to know and love was not real Chinese food. Elements of the original food still existed in the dishes we ate, but most were created here to fit an American palette. So in 2012 when I decided to move from Pennsylvania back to the NY Metro area, I couldn't wait to find some real, honest-to-goodness, legitimate Chinese food. My first stop was a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant on Division St. recommended to me via television by the late, great, Anthony Bourdain: Xi'an Famous Foods . The Grub: Xi'an Famous Foods offers some of the finest, fastest Western Chinese food in NYC. If you have never tried, or have wanted to try hand pulled Chinese noodles this should be one of your first stops. Most of the menu items are based around long, wide, perfectly chewy noodles made by hand - to order. Many of th...

Hand pulled noodles are bangin', slammin', crackin', they're the bees knees, the cream of the crop and also top of the class. There are a number of places around the city where hand pulled noodles can be found, and a lot of them are very good. One of my personal favorites is located off the beaten path, just north of the N line in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. Wong Good Hand Pull Noodle is exactly as the name suggests, good, hand-pulled, noodles. Duh. The Grub: Now, if you ask me what they serve here, I'd have to answer that question with a question by saying "Did you not hear their name?" If that somehow doesn't clear things up, or you just want a bit more specificity, let me elaborate. Wong has a long list of dishes that use either their fried, or boiled hand pulled noodles as a base and adds some trimmings. These could be veggies, pork, beef, fish, duck and even some of the offal bits. You can also have their noodles in soup if yo...

After moving to Cliffside Park I was on a savage hunt for some good, authentic Chinese food. New Jersey seems to come up short nearly every time in this category, and my former home of North Bergen was no exception. Having spent quite a bit of time in Flushing, Queens one tends to become spoiled quite quickly. I can say I was extremely pleased to find the Petite Soo Chow Chinese Restaurant. The Grub: This is hands down the most authentic Chinese food I have found in New Jersey - most everything else boils down to the Americanized Chinese food we all grew up eating. Petite serves up classics like scallion pancakes, fried rice cakes, Chow Fun and Chow Mein. I really encourage everyone to try their Pork Soup Dumplings - little steamed dumplings full of magical, flavorful pork soup and filling which, in my opinion are insanely good. Damn near close too, or exceeding anything I could find in Flushing or Chinatown. While a number of their noodle dishes are extremely good,...