Last Tuesday, we were in a mood for Vietnamese food. We went to Bien Hoa since their food was delicious and I especially love their quails. Not every Vietnamese restaurants have quails in their menu, so this is one of the reasons why we keep coming back to this place.
That night we ordered goi du du (papaya salad with beef jerky), cha gio (Vietnamese egg rolls), com tam suon bi cha trung ga (grilled pork chop with shredded pork, crab meat patty and egg on broken rice), and of course chim cut ro ti (roasted quails). As expected, all of the food was delicious! The papaya salad was crunchy with sweet and sour taste coming from the sauce, also they were not skimpy with the beef jerky. The egg rolls was hot and crispy, while the pork chop was tender and excellent. Last but not least was the quails, they were amazing, the meat was tender and very tasty.
Goi du du and Cha gio
Com tam suon bi cha trung ga and Chim cut ro ti
By the way, we tried one of their pho during our previous visit, but unfortunately the soup was not that tasty. If I remember correctly, the ones from Pho Anh Dao tasted better last time we had them. It has been a long time since we went there, so we plan to give them a visit when the weather gets cooler.
Pho xe lua
**********
Bien Hoa
2090 State Route 27
Edison, NJ 08817
(732) 287-9500
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Dinner at Bien Hoa
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Lunch at Singapore
After looking at the menu we decided to order shrimp and crabmeat spring rolls, crispy duck salad, Malaysian hot and spicy shrimp, spinach with shitake and garlic, fresh mango with chicken, mee goreng, banana leaf grilled fish. Wow, that's a lot of food! I knew even before the food arrived that we would take some home for our lunch tomorrow. Actually we were thinking to have Singapore chili dungeness crab too, fortunately they didn't have it on that day, phew, one less entree to take home :-)
The shrimp and crabmeat spring rolls was very good, crunchy and lots of filling, highly recommended. However the crispy duck salad was not as good as we hoped for, the duck was not crispy at all. For an awesome crispy duck salad that has never failed as of today, we have to go to Thai Kitchen in Bridgewater, they call it house special duck though, so yummy! Thai Kitchen have 3 locations but we usually go to the one in Bridgewater, so we don't know how the taste at the other locations.
Shrimp & crabmeat spring rolls and Crispy duck salad
Back to our today's lunch, the Malaysian hot and spicy shrimp was good, it tasted literally as name says. Spinach with shitake and garlic was okay, not my favorite since I don't really like any vegetables. The fresh mango with chicken was too sweet for me since I was hoping to taste a little bit of sourness in it, the mango slices added some crunch to it.
Malaysian hot & spicy shrimp and Spinach with shitake & garlic
Fresh mango with chicken
The last two entrees were delicious, I liked the mee goreng a lot. The noodle has some bite to it, the dried squid sauce was so tasty and not overpowering. The banana leaf grilled fish was so tender, the sambal was spicy and complimented the fish well.
Mee goreng and Banana leaf grilled fish (red snapper)
As predicted, both R and B and us took home the leftover entrees which was still a lot, we only managed to finish the appetizer/salad since we already had our eyes on the desserts which were fried banana and peanut pancake. Fried banana was good, crunchy and I could taste the sweetness of the banana, but I didn't like the syrup on the bottom, I prefer they had used honey instead. The peanut pancake was pretty good, crispy but the filling was not sweet enough, I still like the one from Penang more.
Fried banana and Peanut pancake
Overall the food was good, unfortunately the service was only okay, we had to wait for about 30 minutes before the first food came out. They were not busy, but I suspect they only had a few staff to run the kitchen since it was a family business -- and we ordered a lot.
**********
Singapore
182 Orlando Drive
Raritan, NJ 08869
(908) 685-3088
http://singaporenj.com/
Thai Kitchen
1351 Prince Rodger Ave
Bridgewater, NJ 08807
(908) 231-8822
http://www.thaikitchennj.com/
Penang Malaysian Cuisine
505 Old Post Road
Edison, NJ 08817
(732) 287-3038
http://www.penangcuisine.com/
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Take out dinner from The Cheesecake Factory
I remembered that The Cheesecake Factory just started having the curb side to-go service, so last night we gave it a try. We love their food a lot, my favorite one is Bang-bang chicken and shrimp, so that was one of what we ordered. In addition to that, we also ordered Chinese chicken salad and fresh banana cream cheesecake. Unfortunately I forgot to take picture of the salad, but I have one from our previous order.
As expected the bang-bang chicken and shrimp was wonderful, it was creamy, spicy and very tasty. The Chinese chicken salad was very good, it has the crunch, sweet and sour in it. The banana cream cheesecake was good, it was very creamy, smooth and I could taste the banana, my husband's favorite.
Bang-bang chicken & shrimp takeout and Chinese chicken salad
Fresh banana cream cheesecake
Here are some more pictures of our favorites so far: Thai lettuce wraps (messy but awesome), Jamaican black pepper shrimp (hot and spicy, my husband's favorite dish here), crispy crab wontons (crispy in the outside, creamy in the inside), and of course the tiramisu cheesecake (amazing, my favorite's cheesecake)
Thai lettuce wraps and Jamaican black pepper shrimp
Crispy crab wontons and Tiramisu cheesecake
The Cheesecake Factory has never disappointed us, no wonder we love to go there. The food is excellent and huge, the service is good. I know that there is usually a wait, that's why if we want to dine-in we try to come as soon as they open or put our name first then take a walk at the mall while waiting for the table.
**********
The Cheesecake Factory
455 Menlo Park
Edison, NJ 08837
(732) 494-7000
http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Lunch at LouCas
When we arrived, we were surprised that the place was quite empty, there were only several people. I knew what I wanted for an appetizer: fried zucchini. It was very good, thin and crispy. While my husband ordered the appetizer special of the day: cream of Maryland crab, which was creamy but lacking the crab meat.
Fried show string zucchini and Cream of Maryland crab
For the entree, we both had the day's special. I ordered lobster ravioli, it was very good. The ravioli was huge and had enough filling, the sauce was smooth, so yummy. My husband ordered diver sea scallops, another good choice. The scallop was tender and not overcooked, the risotto was creamy and perfectly al dente.
Lobster ravioli and Diver sea scallops
The service was friendly, however it was a little bit difficult to find our waitress once they had more customers. She was very busy, we even had to ask another waiter for our check. The ambience was good, definitely a place to bring in family for a nice lunch or dinner.
We were very full and had to skip dessert. I was okay with it since I remembered that I still had lots of desserts at home that I bought from Tafu and Bouchon Bakery yesterday.
**********
LouCas
9 Lincoln Highway (Route 27)
Edison, NJ 08820
(732) 549-8580
http://www.loucasrestaurant.com/
