Menlo Park Diner in Menlo Park, NJ

During my travels along the east coast (which appear to be an extended adventure on this blog but actually happened during two trips which added up to just over a week), I had dinner one evening in New Jersey at the Menlo Park Diner. Menlo Park's big claim to fame was that they were once home to Thomas Edison's laboratory. I paid the site a visit, but unfortunately they were closed for renovations. That meant food was the big attraction here.

I ordered the spinach and feta omelet. This was served with homefries and toast. There was plenty of feta in here, making the omelet filled with lots of salty, cheesy goodness. The homefries were alright, although a bit bland. The rye toast came pre-buttered. Overall, pretty typical of a diner breakfast.

We dined here with someone named Jeffrey Wiernik. Jeff has ambitions of being a world famous food blogger. People normally aren't featured on this blog, but Mr. Wiernik asked to be published as he begins his food blogging adventure. He ate chocolate chip pancakes at the diner. This is what he thought of them: The pancakes were light & fluffy. There was an even amount of chocolate chips throughout each of the pancakes. Follow Jeff on Twitter at @JeffreyWiernik and read his blog (that has yet to contain any posts about food) for more insightful thoughts potentially about food.

Philly Pretzel Factory in Haddon Heights, NJ

I was driving along the New Jersey Turnpike and got off for some gas in the town of Haddon Heights. Suddenly, I saw a place called Philly Pretzel Factory. Since I was still relatively close to Philadelphia, I decided it was worthy of a stop.

The pretzels were surprisingly cheap at $0.50 each. They weren't the typical pretzel shape that I was expecting, but were still pretty tasty. There wasn't a huge difference in taste between this and other soft pretzels that I've tried. I ate the pretzel with some mustard and ended up being a very nice snack.

Curry Chicken from Mehek in Princeton, NJ

I'm running low on my supply of restaurants/food stuff to write about at the moment, so for the next few posts I'll be digging into the Watch Me Eat archives for previously unpublished food adventures. Memories are fallible, but I will do my best to keep these posts as accurate as possible. Mistakes in the details may happen though. Feel free to correct!

Today we are going back to September, 2007 to the lovely town of Princeton, NJ. After some exploring of the town, I ate lunch at an Indian restaurant called Mehek, located right across the street from the University.

Mehek had a take-out counter on ground level and a dining room upstairs. We ate on the second floor. It was after the lunch rush, so we were the only ones eating at the time. Because of this, I chose to order off the menu rather than get the lunch buffet that was offered.

I had the Curry Chicken. The dish came with a bowl of chicken and vegetables in a curry sauce, along with a side of rice, and basket of roti. I love the flavors of Indian food, and the food from Mehek was no exception. The curry was delicious, and I'm always amazed how much flavor the seemingly plain basmati rice has.

If there weren't six states between Florida and New Jersey, I'd gladly return to Mehek!

Chinese Food at Princeton Junction's First Wok

I ate at the First Wok Chinese Restaurant in Princeton Junction, NJ. I started off with an order of Scallion Pancakes, mostly because Chinese Restaurants in Florida do not serve them for some reason. They tasted fine, but were a bit too flaky and didn't hold together as well as other scallion pancakes that I have eaten in the past.

I ordered Chicken with Black Bean Sauce as the main dish. It was very good, with the tender chicken mixed with peppers and onions, all topped with black bean sauce. I ate the dish with brown rice. I had no complaints about the chicken...

I also liked how they automatically give everyone a tea cup and leave the tea pot on the table. This seems to be a northern thing because I can't think of any Chinese restaurants in Florida that do this. In Florida, if you want tea, you have to ask and get charged extra for it...

Americana Diner's Athenian Feta Crepes

I ate at the Americana Diner in East Windsor, NJ. Since it was a Greek Diner, I ordered something Greek sounding and got their Athenian Feta Crepes. They were filled with spinach and feta cheese. The crepes were served with some zucchini and tzatziki. They were good!

Jersey Mike's Giant Subs...

People seem to love Jersey Mike's Subs. I tried the chain for the first time today at the Lake Mary, FL location. I had a coupon for giant sized subs, so that's what I ordered. I had a turkey sub with provolone, lettuce, onions, pickles, banana peppers, oil & vinegar, and oregano. It was automatically put on a horrible white bread. It wasn't until after the sandwich was made that I noticed there were other types of bread on a shelf behind the counter. It would have been nice if they asked rather than automatically making white bread sandwiches. Besides from the bread, the sandwich itself was okay, except maybe the sandwich's size. Nobody should be eating a sandwich as huge as what was served in one sitting. This giant sub could have been split into four separate meals (and it was cut into four pieces), but yet I'm sure most people eat the whole thing, all at once. I truthfully think the size of the sandwiches is what gets Jersey Mike's it's fans, because the actual sandwich itself wasn't all that...

La Strada Gnocchi

I ate Italian food for lunch at La Strada in downtown Millburn, NJ today. I ordered gnocchi with a four cheese cream sauce. Two different types of bread was brought out first, with the focaccia being the better of the two. When the meal was brought out, I was a bit surprised to see tomato sauce covering the top of the massive pile of gnocchi. The menu said nothing about any tomato based sauce and only mentioned the four cheese cream sauce. Regardless, the gnocchi was still good and the tomato and cream sauce mixed nicely into a pink tomato cream sauce. It would have been a better meal if they gave less pasta and instead gave a salad along with the gnocchi...