Single Guy Cooking

I’ve had a lot of guests in from out of town for the last couple weeks so I haven’t spent much time whipping up meals in the kitchen.  When people from NC visit me here, they generally want to get out and see the area (I can’t blame them).  I thought I would write some quick review of some restaurants I’ve visited recently and the little bit of food that has been made around here.

• Sonny’s Famous Steaks – my parents and I got this tip from a handsome cab driver.  The steaks here are better than the Pat’s/Geno’s tourist stops; they were juicier and seemed to be better cuts of meat.  Also, eating inside, as my trip to Pats on Monday in the blistering cold showed, is a huge plus.  It’s in the vicinity (easy walking distance) of old town and many of the independence tourist sites so that’s a huge plus as well.
• Chinese food in chinatown – nothing to write home about, frankly.  Of course, I think the critical element here is ordering something that Chinese people actually eat and I didn’t even know where to begin.  I’ll take the blame for this one not being good.
• Katz’s Deli – a very famous deli that wouldn’t have even crossed my radar except for Anthony Bourdain’s disappearing manhattan episode. It was also home to the famous “i’ll have what she’s having” scene from when harry met sally.   Anyway, aside from all the tourist stuff about this place, the food is delicious. I had a pastrami on rye and some pickles and a Dr. Brown’s – delicious.  I highly recommend it, but you may want to go early and on a weekday if you can.
• We went to multiple Irish pubs in the Times Square vicinity.  I could never go back and not feel like I was missing anything.  The food was average, uninteresting, and the beer left something to be desired.  Blech.
• Tad’s Steaks (times square) – I honestly chose not to eat the food here because the place looked dingy and the food looked old.
• Triumph Brewing (princeton NJ) – higher end decor (it’s princeton), expensive prices (it’s princeton), and I still thought the food was rather average and nothing to write home about.  I had their basic in-house IPA and found it to be rather uninteresting.  it wasn’t bad, but wasn’t really good.  Dear River Horse Brewing, can YOU open a place in Princeton and supplant Triumph?  Thanks in advance.
• Chapala (Hamilton, NJ) – I’m accustomed to mexican restaurants providing the same-old menu.  Chapala ventures from that a bit and still manages to provide a solid menu that I think most people can find something they want.  It is a tad pricey (it’s NJ), but I had the lunch special 5.99 which was chicken mole with refried beans and rice.  If you want to read up on Mole, check out wikipedia.  This particular version was a frahijo pepper (i think…that’s probably not even close) with a chocolate flavor added – it was spectacular.

We also did cook a little bit when the chef was in town.  She whipped up some guacamole with red jalapenos, avocado, lime juice, and garlic that was delicious.  I think we inhaled enough of it for several people.  She also did some eggs benedict (a dish i had never eaten) and it turned out great as well .

My parents brought me some venison from home, so I’m excited about whipping up something with that, and I’m looking at maybe doing a chicken curry with some of the spices I found stuck in random places around our apartment.