Famous Dave’s BBQ
Several locations in the US
315 Route 206, Suite 502 (Location visited)
Hillsborough, NJ
I will be straight to the point of this post: the day after Delta’s, I wanted meat – End of story. 
OK, OK, in a way, in this trip, I wanted to try as many different cuisines as I could – with the exception of burgers, you will find out why on Friday. Still, I wanted to go meat heavy and thought BBQ was the next logical option. But, just in case, I did have steak on this trip but it will be the topic of another post. Quickly browsing around, the only place that seemed “close” (and that is stretching it a little bit) was Famous Dave’s BBQ, a chain restaurant. While I had some hesitation, in the end, if they are ranked as one of the top 100 in Urbanspoon ranking, I must give it some credit, right? Now, since it is a chain, it shouldn’t really matter which location I went. So, rather than driving to the one with that ranking, I drove south-southwest to the location in Hillsborough. Did I mention I spent a lot of time driving around?
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Tagged as:
BBQ,
Beef,
New Jersey,
Pork
Delta’s Restaurant
19 Dennis Street
New Brunswick, NJ
The day after my meal at Martino’s, I was in adventure mode again. After all, despite a couple of things went sideways, it was a good meal and that raised my mood. This time, I went further east-southeast from where I was staying, into the neighboring city of New Brunswick (which, of course, should not be confused with the Canadian province of the same name). During my “research”, I found out this ought to be a good place for good eats. However, given my driving “skills”, I ended up lost *again* (due to me being in the wrong lane and forced to turn into an almost endless street without driveways to do a 3 point turn) and driving around almost aimlessly. The original place I was looking for was a small eatery called “Stuff Yer Face“, which serves stromboli – something that looks like a mix of calzone and a wrap. Sure, I was business dressed but, hey, I will do almost anything for food! I ended up in some wacky streets and noticed a restaurant called Frog and the Peach which Christina also mentioned. When I parked the car (a block and a half away, I must add), I then realized there was somebody who appeared to be a bouncer standing outside (which, I will admit could have also been the valet). In an odd way, I felt intimidated… Could I be thrown out because I was taking pictures with my external flash, aka, Speedlight (as it looked quite dark from outside)? Not wanting to risk that possibility, I went to the other (almost unnoticeable) restaurant futher down the same block: Delta’s. Again, not willing to wander around aimlessly…
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Tagged as:
Chicken,
New Jersey
Martino’s
212 W Main Street
Somerville, NJ
Before this trip, I did a bit of homework: I contacted Christina who writes Pizza & Bagels, a blog which had several posts in the area I was staying, and asked for recommendations. After two nights of borderline average meals, it was time to use one of these recommendations/lifelines: Martino’s. (On that note, the posts so far has been sequential, i.e., they are what had night after night). While it was on my way back – after taking a small detour, that is, I wasn’t 100% sure of the driving instructions. Again, driving at 100 Km/H in an unknown area after 7:00 p.m. is somewhat challenging… But, after missing (once again) several exits I managed to find Martino’s, a Latin American (non-Mexican!) restaurant.
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Tagged as:
Latin America,
New Jersey,
Pork
Fuddruckers
Several locations in the US
1271 US Highway 22 (Location visited)
Bridgewater, NJ
Having arrived to the hotel at night and had to go to work the following morning (about the only time of the day I would see some sunlight) meant I still had no idea of my surroundings. On my first night after work, I was driving around when, suddenly, I missed the exit I was supposed to take – in this case, it just happens the exit was on the leftmost lane and, while trying to “drive safely”, I was on the rightmost lane… Anyway, while driving back and forth trying to backtrace the correct exit, hunger stroke. It was “late” already and, when hunger calls, there is only that much you can do. The first place I saw was a Red Lobster and followed by Fuddruckers. With no idea what it was but with mention of “butcher shop”, it sounded like a good deal!
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Tagged as:
Burgers,
New Jersey
Ruby Tuesday
250 Davidson Ave
Somerset, NJ
On my flights, I usually sleep. No, really! While sometimes there are good movies, under the influence of Gravol/Dramamine, forget about it. This time, even the fact the movies were food related did not help! Among the movies available were Julie & Julia, Babettes Gæstebud (aka, Babette’s Feast) and, if memory serves me right, Big Night. Heck, just for kicks, I grabbed my copy of the On-Board magazine as it feature some food related topics, like restaurants in Vancouver (a brief look at it focused mostly on fine dining. Sigh…). On an unrelated note, I was flying Air Canada and, despite all the crap said about it, for a North American airline, it isn’t that bad, specially considering the issues I had flying with US Airways, including me being in a watchlist…
But, back to the topic, after getting myself terribly lost near Newark, I eventually hit the highways and arrived to the hotel… At 9:00 p.m… Hungry at that point, as I just had breakfast and skipped all the in-flight snacks and meals (I was testing a theory, that if you arrive hungry and tired you might as well eat something and hit bed to more easily overcome jet lag, in this case, I will have to say it worked!), I went at the closest place available: Ruby Tuesday
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Tagged as:
Chain Restaurant,
Chicken,
Diner,
New Jersey
Hello, New Jersey! Yes, my business trip required me to travel to the US again, this time to its Garden State: New Jersey (EWR being the code of Newark Liberty International Airport). Since I am flying to the East Coast, there are your usual caveats: If you want to arrive “early” (as in late-afternoon, early night), you have to leave early from Vancouver. In my case, I usually try to catch the flights between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. In a way, that is a semi-sweet spot: It allows me to sleep almost normal hours and, depending on the destination, by the time I hit the hotel, it is dinner time.
Since I was at the airport at around 6:15 a.m. and the security check queue wasn’t that bad, I had plenty of time. In the past (depending on the gate), I would end up going to Tim Horton’s and get their breakfast sandwich. However, this time, I was in a different area – the “new” wing and it had a new assortment of food options. The bad? Too early and they weren’t open yet… So, I back traced and the one that caught my attention was Legends, aka, White Spot. Too early for burgers but, at least, it gives me the chance to finally try their breakfast!
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Tagged as:
Airport,
Breakfast,
New Jersey,
Vancouver
