Stack 'Em High, Stack 'Em Low

After a disappointing first attempt to head over to Stacks, the relatively new pancake house in Paramus, NJ, I decided to finally mosey on down there again. Will it be better this time around? 

 Our first attempt was back in June. Being pancake aficionados, my mom and youngest sister were excited to go, and being known for taking too long to decide on my orders, I took a look at the menu online prior to leaving. Lo and behold, there was a sign on the menu stating it was open 24 hours a day on Fridays/Saturdays. So we headed over after a day filled with some hard work and waiting for my other sister to get off work and getting lost along 17 (thanks a lot Darth Hugh for wasting my gas looking for u-turns all over 17 north and south). After what seemed like a ridiculously long journey and some stomach grumbling and near tears frustration only the hungry will understand, we reached the promised land around 11PM. Only to find out that no, in fact they aren't open 24 hours a day, despite the menu stating otherwise. Should've known better when there was no "hours" posted anywhere. There were still construction going on, a few stragglers chomping down, and some waiters who had no clue as to what their hours were. They were more interested in socializing with each other than knowing when they were open and closed apparently. We had to ask 2 servers and wait for the hostess to reappear before learning that they were "very sorry" but they were already closed for the night. 

Ready to punch someone in the face at this point, I shored up reserves of patience previously unknown to me and we drove as quickly as we could to another dining establishment almost guaranteed to not disappoint--Stateline Diner in Mahwah.

The second time around was a couple of months later and unfortunately, it did indeed not live up to expectations. Is it the gloom from my first experience coloring this post? Most assuredly not. This food was just ok but not great. We arrived at a very respectable time of 8PM. Our waiter, Nick was nice enough, and gave us our menus promptly with a cute basket of cornbread. It was yummy I admit, with a great sweet crusty top. It was like having the corner piece with each bite. I ordered hot chocolate as a drink and unfortunately most of the whipped cream was already melted by the time it reached our table (Nick seemed embarrassed about this and pressed upon us that there was indeed real whipped cream in our drink). The hot chocolate was good, so good that it was like taking a pouch of Swiss Miss with mini marshmallows into a mug and pouring hot water in it. I do believe it was Swiss Miss. For $2. A mug. 

I ordered the Hudson, a pancake wrapped around scrambled eggs, bacon, cheddar and home fries and served with a side of salsa. Unlike my sister and mom, I am not a big pancake fan. I like my pancakes flat, sprinkled with white granulated sugar and rolled up.  I wasn't even feeling pancakes at this point but if I went to a pancake house, I might as well try them. Pleasantly surprised that the pancakes were indeed fluffy, light, and sweet. Yummy. The wrap itself was huge, and I was served two pieces.

Sadly, this wrap wasn't too flavorful. I hardly tasted the bite in the cheddar, and the home fries were tasteless. Thank goodness for the pancake, bacon and salsa. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to finish it. My mom has a tendency to order too much. This time, she ordered another pancake wrap, Washington, and the chicken wings. Half hot for me, half mild for her. We got all hot the first time and had to send it back.  Was it worth it? They said the mild was good, but the hot sauce had too much of a vinegar taste to it and not enough sweetness to balance out the heat. Wish I brought my own bottle of Frank's Red Hot. Why? Because like the old lady said, "I put that Sh*% on everything."

I ate everything but a few pieces of the pancake wrap and one wing. After all that food, my verdict is I'd rather not return there again. Decor was fine, place was clean, plates were adorable, and I do love the stacked stone outside. Wait staff was attentive when he wasn't too busy copping a feel of the hostess' butt. Repeatedly. In plain view of the entrance. Classy dude. Real classy.

Stacks 

479 Rt. 17 South

Paramus, NJ

Shake Shack Shake Up

I like to peruse the internet for "Best of . . . " lists when I have the time. One of those lists happen to be the best burgers in America. Discovering this list I wanted to jump in the car and go right away but I reigned in the impulse because I was going into the city this weekend anyway. So off we went after having run a mile that morning with the dog, looking forward to some fish balls and burgers. I was planning on dragging my family over to the Shake Shack in the Theater District but since the Philippine Independence food area was located on Madison and 24-26th streets we found a Shake Shack right in the park there.

A plus is that this is where it all began. We went to the original shack and I was expecting a lot considering the line was long enough to be a 30+ min wait. Not that I was counting. I'm not sure whether the wait was due to hundreds of Filipinos there for the festival or that it was just that happening here but we dutifully stood behind a man with a box of craft beer from Whole Foods woefully warming in the spring weather. We finally ordered and the guy next to me joked about my ordering the whole menu. I ordered three single stack Shack burgers and three shakes (2 caramel and one Fair shake: Vanilla spun with coffee). 

Here's the handy dandy vibrating guest caller  and the receipt totalling a little more than 30 dollars. Thirty dollars for four people? It was good and considering it's NYC, I guess worth it. 

The only thing is, after the long wait to order, there's yet another wait for your food. However, I was not complaining as it means they cook it fresh. Yumm.

We got the food and it looked and smelled delicious. Grabbed an almost indecent amount of napkins and ketchup and joined the group.

Conclusion? Juicy and delicious. Worth it and I will be coming back. The meat patty looked hand assembled, slightly pink in the center and dripping with juice. The american cheese melted on it like a hot delicious glue to hold the burger in place with ripe red fresh tomatoes and a leafy lettuce. No iceberg for this baby. Amazingly enough the tomatoes did have their own flavor that added to it, they were small but there were at least three in there.  The shake was delicious but being "spun" with coffee, way too liquid to be called a shake. The caramel shakes were perfect in consistency but the Fair shake had better flavor. Just wished it was thicker. The fries were alright, I tried it with cheese but nothing special. Next time, these burgers coupled with Pommes Frites poutine. Match made in heaven. An added bonus? Lots of eye candy to be had.

Shake Shack
Southeast corner of Madison Square Park
Near Madison Ave. and East 23rd.
(Take the R/W to 23rd St.)
11A-11P

Zuppa Toscana

Nothing better on a cold, cloudy day than a large bowl of steaming hot soup. This is a tweaked recipe, tried and true from none other than Olive Garden's repository of goodies: Zuppa Toscana. Love this the first time I tried it during an all you can eat Soup Salad and Breadsticks meal. My sisters and I can get full from just the breadsticks and soups, sans salad as we're not salad people. We can pack away at least three bowlfuls each in one sitting, liberally sprinkled with freshly grated parmesan.

Finding something my sisters and I all like can be rare. So in those rare occasions, I like to recreate them at home and as with most homemade creations, they turn out much better than the restaurant versions. I love to tweak recipes and I'm a slap and dash cooker, too lazy to measure most things, adjusting according to taste memory. Original recipe calls for kale, but having younger sisters with less adventurous tastes, they prefer spinach to kale.

Zuppa Toscana

- 1 lb. sweet/hot Italian sausage combination
- as many red potatoes as you like
- 1 medium onion
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/3lb bacon
- water
- 1/2 pint heavy cream
- chicken bouillon
- bag baby spinach (rinsed) or bunch of kale (cut off stems and just use the leafy greens)

Cook the bacon in a heavy soup pot, put aside bacon. Peel the Italian sausages and roll into bite sized pieces, brown in the bacon grease. Halve each of the potatoes and slice thinly. Add potatoes to pot, flavor with salt, pepper and hot red pepper flakes.  Add onions and garlic until onions are translucent. Add water to deglaze pot, add bouillon, and cream. Simmer until potatoes are tender and cooked through. Add spinach. Serve with chopped bacon and a liberal sprinkling of freshly grated parmigiano reggiano. Eat with a side of sliced baguettes fresh from your local bakery.

Downtown to Noodletown

Made the rare trip down to Chinatown for a noodle fix. Found out about Great NY Noodletown, voted one of the world's top late night restaurants by Travel and Leisure, open until 9AM-4AM Mon-Sun. So we hop down the 2/1 train to Canal and meander our way through the hoards of tourists and knock off scalpers to get to our destination. Distracted of course by the one thing you must not miss in Chinatown--the egg waffles.

I've only found these tasty little morsels in one spot in Chinatown along Canal, so I'm not sure whether or not they like to hide their carts elsewhere but one whiff of these babies will have you coming back for more. 15 for a $1? Yes, please. We buy at least $5 worth. Because that's how we roll.

After which, as everyone checks off things on their tour to do list, we make our way to Elizabeth Center, found of course in Elizabeth right by the Police Station. This is where you buy the cute, obscure, and just plain hilarious items you never knew you had to have. Including this little baby: 

It says: "Don't touch me. Go home first!" That's support alright.

Then we finally found ourselves in the shadow of the Great NY Noodletown. My mouth starts to water and my feet fly to the door, only to read the dreaded sign: Cash Only.

Oh Chinatown, you never change. Word the the wise, always bring cash to the ethnic neighborhoods. They usually have a minimum on cards, and some really do only accept cash. My theory is to save on taxes. Because that's what I'd do. Kidding, IRS, kidding. 

The interior was small but clean, unlike the bathroom. As usual, only a one toilet affair but at least the door locked, there was enough soap in the dispenser, and there was clean water running from the faucet. The exhaust however, was supported in place by duck tape (it holds the universe together), and the floor had some liquid spots I'd rather not think about. Try not to think about the grim scenario of the overhead unit falling on your head and then slipping on the mini puddles and the staff finding your unconscious self slumped over the toiled seat while you're doing your business.

The menus, interestingly enough, are trapped underneath the scratched but clean plexiglass. Saves on printing costs, which is probably why I can get a big bowl of congee for less than the price of a tall frappucino. We had four in our party and one man who sat at a four seater table was made to move. We sheepishly mosied along to our invaded spot but the man didn't seem to mind. After all, it is NY and you lose most of your sense of personal space while jammed between two giants like sardines in a can during rush hour. Service was prompt, and we were approached by two other waiters asking us whether or not we were ready to order after our original waiter took it not five minutes beforehand. We received tea right away, in glass cups of all things, which made them too hot to handle for the first couple of minutes. Because you know, I don't have silicone coated oven mitts for hands.

Mom and I knew what we wanted right away and we were pleasantly surprised at the price-$3.50 each for a big bowl of pork and century egg congee. It was delicious, hot and filling. Only thing missing was the fish sauce, and sadly I had a lot less century egg pieces than my dining companion. 

I also ordered the roast duck/baby pig over rice meal, for $5.50. I'm not too big a fan of duck, as I find there's a certain aftertaste that lingers. This one was pleasantly fatty but the skin was not as crisp as I'd hoped it would be. I finished off the pork, which was a little bland but the skin was deliciously crisp. I ended up giving most of the duck to Johnnez and he devoured it.

Leslie ordered the Seafood Pan Fried noodles, one of the most expensive things on the menu at $11.95 but it was good. I still liked the one at Hop Kee better as this one was not as crispy burnt around the edges, but good nonetheless. 

My second favorite next to the congee was bro-in-law's duck lo mein. For $8.95, it was very flavorful and I never would have guessed it was duck. Absolutely delicious, I wish I'd ordered it. 

Verdict: Recommended. Bring cash. Bring a big appetite as the servings are generous enough to share. Most people will leave pleasantly full for less than $10 each. The congee alone would fill up any normal person, but then again, my appetite knows no bounds, provided enough time to recover. . . usually about 30minutes to an hour.

Great NY Noodletown

28 1/2 Bowery

New York, NY 10013

And It's U-Yee and Me

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night . . . shall deter me from certain cravings. Current one? Sushi. Got home from work, recharged with a nice long rainy day nap and gathered up my mom, sis and "bro-in-law" to drag them with me in my approx 45min drive through the turnpike to go to U-Yee Sushi Hibachi. It turned out to be an hour due to the tropical monsoon like precipitation that deluged the Garden State. 

But finally, here we are after driving around and around one of the ubiquitous mini malls that dot the Jersey landscape. Thank goodness for Google Maps otherwise I'd still be driving to find this place. Next door to a Jesus bookstore interestingly enough:

Got there just in time for the 4:30 seating before the crowds took over. Got seated promptly and ordered away using the pencil and paper ordering system I've found from Sushi Palace. It was a little dizzying to juggle between the check off list and the descriptions from the main menu but I forge on in my sushi craving mission. Felt like I was in school again doing state wide testings. Ah the good old days.

Good thing we came early as our waiter, whose pen name looks a lot like "Milk" but I strong suspect could be "Mike," really pushed us to order before the masses overwhelmed the sushi chefs. I'm not surprised as there were no less than seven sushi makes behind the counter with large plate full of sushi. Think I Love Lucy, the chocolate belt episode. 




Our sushi came surprisingly fast, all five first rolls that we had: shrimp tempura, that Leslie states were the best she'd ever had, crazy dragon, golden dragon, and the Iselin. Then Milk/Mike came by as we were hungrily scooping up our rolls pushing us to order more as it looked like the sushi chefs were going into overdrive making the multiple orders of sushi from the increasingly growing number of customers. We ordered more tempura, the spider roll, and the Mexican. 

 

I've recently found the magic of fried tempura ice cream and seeing it on the menu, we pounced. Alas it was not as good as the green tea one from Daruma. This was covered in a sponge cake, vanilla flavored and, sadly neither warmed through nor crunchy. Fail. All in all, I would recommend this place for sushi cravings but it won't be the best sushi place you'll ever be to. Salmon and tuna in the rolls didn't pop with fresh flavor unlike in other places but for half price, it' can't be beat. Great shrimp tempura, the spider roll tasted like the shrimp. 

UYee Sushi
675 U.S. 1
Iselin, NJ 08830