Americana Diner, East Windsor

Ahh, the diner. A New Jersey staple... breakfast anytime, open late (if not 24 hours), greasy food... what's not to like? Anything you want to eat, just name it and the diner is sure to provide! That being said, the Americana Diner is a bit different.... sure they have a huge menu, they stay open late, and you can get any deep fried delicacy you fancy, but they also have a few things not found in the typical Jersey diner. First off the place is huge... I mean really, really, truly big. They also serve liquor (woo-hoo!), whereas most diners are where you end up AFTER a few libations. Lastly, they fancy themselves to be a bit more upscale in both their atmosphere and their menu.

Matt and I recently ventured to the Americana for breakfast (we've also lunched there, though... try the tuna!). I went for one of their more... well.. 'fancy' entrees, while Matt stuck to a basic egg breakfast. Upon further discussion we also decided to throw in an order of their turkey hash, as neither of us had ever heard of such a dish and we are both huge fans of hash in general. (No Mom, not THAT kind of hash... the food kind).

Our food came out quickly, as food should in a diner (if it ain't fast, it ain't a diner, no matter what it says on the sign). I had ordered the Athenian Feta Crepes and they looked colorful and beautiful! The oh so thin (and oh so tasty) crepe was filled with a really well seasoned mixture of feta, spinach and tomato. There was definitely some garlic used, and I believe a little lemon too, and it all worked VERY nicely. On the side there were some nicely grilled zucchini slices (unnecessary, except, I guess to make the Crepes look less lonely... and yes I ate them anyway) and a cabbage leaf cup of tzatziki sauce for dipping. This, my friends, was SUCH A GOOD IDEA! The creaminess and mildness of the sauce really accentuated the tastes of the Crepe filling well.
Matt got eggs (scrambled) and a side of Taylor ham. Nothing fancy. The eggs were fine. Cooked just to his liking. The ham was nice and brown around the edges, and the hash browns were also enjoyed. His toast was toasty. Let's face it. His breakfast was boring... delicious, but boring. Here's a picture anyway.On to the turkey hash. People, this dish might sound like a good idea. You may say 'Hey! I like corned beef hash, but its so heavy, and it's not how I'd like to start my day. Turkey seems like a great idea for a substitute! What could be bad?' A lot. A lot could be bad. Thank goodness I'm here to warn you. This was the driest, blandest side dish I have ever had. The turkey (which seemed to be from a carved turkey... think Thanksgiving not lunchables) would have been delicious, except they sliced it thin and then cut it into pieces and threw it into the skillet. Turkey is a dry meat to start with so to have large portions pre cut into small pieces, sit out, and then heated through took ALL of the moisture out of it. It actually made me make that noise that dogs make when they eat peanut butter. It turned into a thick paste in my mouth, and there were too few onions and peppers to bring it back. The flavor was boring (it actually just tasted like over cooked turkey and cardboard) and the texture made me sad. There. Enough hash bashing. Try it at your own risk.Overall the food was fine. The atmosphere was lovely. Our waitress was pleasant. The orange juice is expensive ($4.50 for a glass of O.J.? BAH!) Everything else, hunky dory. It was just a poor side dish choice by us (and them, I guess... ick). That's what we get for trying to be KIND OF healthy. See? Stick to greasy meaty corned beef hash. Can't fail.

Americana Diner
http://www.americanadiner.com/
359 Route 130 North
East Windsor, NJ 08520
609 448 4477

Kanoko, Princeton

I can't help it. I am addicted to Japanese food, ESPECIALLY sushi. Hence my love affair with Kanoko. My cousin J introduced me to the place a few years ago when she first moved to the area, and we've been going back ever since. Now that I work locally too, I may as well set a cot up in the place. Not much to look at (I actually thought it looked downright shady from the outside the first time J brought me there) it houses some delicious and very reasonably priced food within.

J and I met for lunch recently at 'our spot'. She is pretty predictable when it comes to ordering at Kanoko...she's been hooked on their Chirashi since '07. Despite their plethora (seriously! plethora!) of cheap lunch specials (2 rolls, soup, AND salad for $7.75! Chicken Tempura with Miso soup for $7.50!) I decided to order À la carte and went with the Sunomono and the 'Fancy Spider Roll'. While J sipped on her steaming Miso soup my Sunomono came out. Delicious chunks of fresh fish tossed with sesame seeds, seaweed and cucumber matchsticks. I have noticed that Sunomono is different everywhere you go but here they use crab, lightly seared tuna, yellow tail, and white tuna, and its simply awesome. The fish is cold and fresh, the seaweed is salty and has a bit of tooth to it and the cucumber is crunchy.

As I was mopping up the last bit of vinegar onto a bite of crab the rest of our meal was delivered. J's chirashi looked great. Chirashi is a bowl of rice adorned with big pieces of fish, cut Sashimi style. She orders it a lot and has let me know that it always has different fish in it, depending on what's fresh and abundant. Today it was a colorful mix of white tuna, shrimp, salmon, Tamago, tuna, and what I believe was mackrel. It's a whole lot of food and J was very pleased with it. She said everything tasted fresh and delicious, and after trying a bite of her white tuna with a bit of the perfectly seasoned sticky rice I couldn't agree more. A bit too much garnish for our liking (J always asks for a seperate plate to put the lettuce leaf, lemon, and excess ginger on) but it makes for a beautiful presentation.

My "Fancy Spider Roll' was just right, as well. It was a regular spider roll (fried soft shell crab, cucumber, avacado and a bit of sauce) mixed with spicy tuna. The crab was fried well and still warm and crunchy which complimented the cold vegetable matter and spicy tuna mixture very well. My only problem with the roll is the sheer size... the pieces are large! Too big for a mouthful but awkward to bite in half. But hey, if that's my biggest problem with the place I should consider myself lucky!

Kanoko is a great place to go for lunch. Cheap, fresh, and fast, they have lots of lunch specials and 4 pages of À la carte choices including appetizers, specialty rolls, tempura and teriyaki dishes plus more. Who knows? There's a great chance that you will see J and I there on one of our frequent lunch dates!

Kanoko

3798 Route 27

Princeton, NJ 08540

732-821-8822

Trattoria Rustica, Matawan

For cheap, delicious, fast and friendly eats you can't beat Trattoria Rustica in Matawan. The food is consistently delicious, the portions are really generous, and the wait staff is super nice. I'll put it out there.... the place isn't exactly what one would call pretty. It looks like a standard pizzeria in the front of the building with an intimiate dining room in the back. You can tell that they tried to doll it up a bit by painting and adding some artwork, but it is what it is... and what it is is the back of a pizzeria.

Matt and I have enjoyed meals here almost a dozen times, but on this particular night we had a mission. We went to Rustica to enjoy our last meal as locals, seeing as how we have recently moved further South. The menu has tons of options to choose from... pizza, sandwiches, salads, pastas, meat, seafood you name it; but we had a hankering for some old favorites and knew exactly where to get them.

I knew for a FACT that I wanted the penne Puttanesca... they make it the BEST and I crave it at least once a month. Bummer, though.... they were out of anchovies (CRUCIAL to the Puttanesca process) so I had to make a new choice. I ended up getting the Picante which is basically Puttanesca without anchovies but with spicy sausage, while Matt chose penne with vodka sauce and grilled chicken. We also decided to throw in an order of garlic knots, just for good measure.

Silly us, we forgot that Trattoria Rustica always brings out delcious homemade bread with black olive and sundried tomato tapenade to start. The bread is always warm and fresh, and the tapenade is cool and refreshing... a perfect combo. Right along side that we had our garlic knots, which LOOKED very intimidating, but were actually quite tasty. Covered in what almost seemed to be a thick garlic and herb paste, the color was scary. We thought it would be like a garlicy punch in the mouth, but in reality the flavors were quite subdued... juuuust right! After that they brought out our salads... generously portioned with all the fixins. We both had their signature house dressing (Parmesean peppercorn) on the side.

Our meals came out shortly after, and although my first choice had been unavailable I was VERY pleased with my 'runner up', the penne in Picante. The sauce was spicy from the hot peppers, salty from the capers, and earthy from the black olives. The sausage was perfectly cooked and tasted fresh and delicious. My one complaint is that it seems that the sausage was cooked in the same pan that the sauce was made in, making it all a bit oily... a lot oily. Taste wise, though, it was a real winner.

Matt's penne vodka with chicken was great. The perfect combination of creamy and fresh tatsing, the sauce was delightful... not heavy or thick. We suspect that his pieces of chicken were lightly floured before being cooked, and while he would have preffered that they not be, it was still tasty. The chicken was tender and well seasoned and cut to the perfect size to compliment the penne. He was very happy with his choice (and I was happy with his choice too... I couldn't keep my fork out of his plate!)

They have a relatively extensive dessert menu, but we've never finished a meal there, let alone saved room for dessert. I can say that they all look delicious, though! Trattoria Rustica is a real gem. Easy to miss by the casual passer by, it's what I call a 'real neighborhood find'. Take the time to stop in and try one of their fabulous (and oh so reasonably priced!) dishes. I assure you you wont regret (or forget!) it.

Trattoria Rustica

259 Main St

Matawan, NJ 07747

(732) 566-9991

Zen, Marlboro

People... PEOPLE!!!! Go to Zen. Seriously. If you like sushi, go there. Soon. I promise you won't be sad. Now that we have gotten that out of the way, allow me to tell you why.

First off the place is really pretty inside! It has a funky, modern, glam look going on. Large hanging sculpture dangling from wires on the ceiling, bright colors, mosaics of gold beads, funky artwork every which way, Zen is fun and hip without being intimidating (yes, I said hip... deal with it). The furniture is sleek, the actual plates and glasses are unique and all differently shaped, and the vibe is good.

M.E. joined Matt and me on our recent excursion to Zen. Now Matt is not a seafood eater... at all. Ever. It just isn't his thing. Now I know what you're thinking... why on Earth would we come here? Well, because they have amazing non-seafood dishes... and M.E. and I can be very convincing when it comes to getting sushi. We'll lie, cheat, and steal our way to obtain raw fish... we're not proud.

To start off our meal Matt ordered the steamed pork Gyoza while M.E. and I split a crab salad with a sweet vinegar dressing. They were both fantastic. Matt's dumplings were tender but not sticky, and the pork filling was perfectly seasoned.
Our salad was delicious. HUGE pieces of crab were laid out over a bed of perfectly chilled salad greens. Now usually when you think of crab at a sushi place you expect to see that psuedo crab leg stick thing that is typically stuffed into a California roll... not here my friends. This crab was fresh out of the shell; claw meat, leg meat, body meat... if it was once a part of the crab it was now on our plate. The dressing came on the side without our having to ask (thanks, ZEN!) and it was delicious.... sweet and tart all at the same time, it complimented the salty, fresh crab perfectly.
For dinner M.E. and I each went the 'roll route' while Matt stuck to creatures that had lived upon land. I chose the Dynamite roll (tuna, salmon, avocado and flying fish roe topped with spicy sauce) and a (excuse the doofy name) Bon Jovi Roll, which is a spicy tuna roll topped with snapper, tuna, salmon, avocado, and 3 different types of fish roe. M.E. got the 'Three Musketeers' roll (spicy tuna roll topped with alternating strips of white tuna and regular tuna) and the Zen Maki combo roll, which was actually three regular rolls (a tuna, a salmon and a California roll). Matt ordered the Chicken Bibimbap which was described as a sweet and spicy chicken, rice and vegetable dish.


None of us were disappointed. The fish at Zen is so fresh it may as well still be wet. I have eaten at many sushi places in my time, and never have I seen tuna so ruby red or salmon so glistening and pink that it looked almost fake. It falls apart in your mouth and melts like butter on your tongue... I really cannot say enough good things about the sheer quality of the food. My Bon Jovi roll (Gosh that name is SO DUMB) was OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD. There was so much fish stacked atop my generously stuffed roll that I am still shocked that I was able to eat it all. The spicy tuna is NOT that bland paste that most people try to pass off to their customers. This was large chunks of tuna that were coated in just the right amount of spiced sauce... not mousse-y or thin in the least. The Dynamite roll was equally fresh and delicious... a bit heavy handed on the sauce for me, but the fish was still able to shine. M.E. enjoyed her rolls thoroughly as well. Her Zen Maki combo roll (rolls? there were technically 3 of them....) were all lovely... good fish to rice ratio. A bit boring considering all the option available at Zen (they have over 20 different specialty rolls to choose from) but hey, the chick knows what she likes. Her Three Musketeer roll was great... the white tuna was firm to the touch but buttery in the mouth... YUM
Matt's dish may have been the biggest surprise of all. I had never heard of Bibimbap before that night. I have since learned that it's typically a Korean dish and the name literally translates to 'mixed dish'. It was delicious. The chicken was cooked well.. not dry at all (as I find to usually be the case is Asian cuisines in general... maybe I'm just not going to the right places?) The sauce had a bit of heat to it but with a sweet, almost nutty taste to it. It tasted almost like there were peanuts incorporated into the sauce but after asking our server (and me losing 5 dollars after betting that I could 'name that taste') it turns out it was just lots of sesame. The description of chicken, rice and vegetables was a bit misleading, as the only vegetable to be found in the dish was cabbage, but there were still no complaints. The rice was tucked nicely under the chicken and cabbage and was not used as a plate filler, the way rice often is.The food was delicious, the server helpful, and the ambiance lovely. Of course, this being said, it came at a price. Zen is what I call a 'special occasion' restaurant. Our bill came to just under$100 (all we ordered is what was listed in this post... the place is BYOB and we were a tap water drinking bunch that night). It was worth every penny and none of us have any regrets about what we ordered, but this is not your every day 'lets just grab a few rolls and some soup' kind of joint. The quality of the food (especially the fish) makes the price well worth the trip, so round up a group of your nearest and dearest and check it out for the next birthday/anniversary/Canadian Flag Day... whatever. Let me know your thoughts!

Zen Japanese Cuisine

US Highway 9
Englishtown, NJ 07726

(732) 536-7874‎