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...

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...

For those not in the know, today is May 15th - a day on which we celebrate the great American treasure: The Chocolate Chip Cookie. On national Chocolate Chip cookie day, lovers of the ubiquitous dessert can come together and reflect on such a perfect creation. One may find that they can pick up cookies for free in various locations across the country, if they be so adventurous. While this isn't going to be an article about that, I do plan to talk about one of the best places I have found to pick up a chocolate chip cookie, or any baked good for that matter, at Martha's Country Bakery . The Grub: In my humble opinion, Martha's is a bakery and cafe of the highest caliber. They offer an extremely wide variety of baked goods - and I truly mean that. You can find all manner of breads, cupcakes, cookies, cakes, pies and anything in between. While you may be able to stump them with the odd request, they will almost certainly have something to fit every taste (a...

You may think this insane but, I hadn't tried falafel or any Middle Eastern food before finding this little gem, and I now know how ultimately spoiled I have become. Having had it many times since, I can say with absolute certainty this is one of the best places serving the fare. If I'm honest, it's one of the best places I have ever eaten. Period, end of story. The Grub: Pahal Zan offers a small but efficient menu of Middle Eastern classics with an Israeli focus. Shawarma, kebab, falafel, salads - you name it they have it, and it's all so damn tasty. Get it on a platter, get it on a pita, it doesn't matter. The flavors they coax out of the food here absolutely blow my mind every single time. While everything is great, the true highlight here is the falafel pita sandwiches. Packed with hummus, falafel, 3-5 different salads and topped with tahini and spicy sauce, these pita sandwiches are an astounding amalgam of flavors that struggle to find a r...