Coney Island Halal Truck in Brooklyn, NY

I was in Coney Island and passed by a Halal Truck parked along Stillwell Avenue under the subway station. We were looking for some food and the scents emanating from the truck smelled so good that this truck was the chosen food source for the night.

I choose the lamb with rice. This consisted of a mound of yellow rice topped with lots and lots of gyro meat. A salad was served on the side. Everything was then topped with white sauce and a little of their hot sauce. I did enjoy this meal (way better than Nathan's less than a block away in my opinion). The meat was flavored very nicely. The rice was cooked well, and the sauces were tasty. It also ended up being a huge portion of food for a very affordable price.

The Tuck Shop in Chelsea, NY

While in NY, I was looking for a late breakfast and ended up at the Chelsea Market. I had been here before and tried The Lobster Place. On this visit, I quickly forgot breakfast foods and decided to try an Australian meat pie from a place called The Tuck Shop.

I guess what I ordered was more Australian fusion. I had the Thai Curry Chicken pie. It was filled with chicken, kafir lime leaves, galangal, coconut milk, thai basil and chilis. The crust was nice and flaky, similar to a typical pot pie. The fillings were creamy and tasty, although the chilis were very intense. I normally have a high tolerance for spicy foods, but I was tearing up every time I bit into a piece of pepper. Interesting how I ordered something denoted as spicy at a Thai restaurant the night before and there was hardly any spice, but this Australian-Thai pie with no warning about the heat was one of the spiciest foods I've eaten in recent memory. I really have no clue if pot pies like this are really a prevalent food in Australia, but I'm assuming this is more Australian than Outback Steakhouse is Australian...

One More Thai in Manhattan, NY

I made my way up to New York. One of my meals in the city was Thai food in the Lower East Side at a restaurant called One More Thai.

I ordered the Drunken Noodles. This consisted of wide noodles mixed with chicken, egg peanuts, peppers, and basil. The noodles were tasty, although the spiciness noted on the menu was hardly present even with all the peppers. I'm not an expert on Thai food, but each time I've had drunken noodles seems to be very different. The only consistency between my experiences with this dish seems to be with the shape of the noodles. Interesting...

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.

Termini Bros in Philadelphia, PA

While wandering around Philadelphia, I stumbled across the Reading Terminal Market. I had heard of this market in the past, but completely forgot about it until it was in my sights and bells went off in my brain that I should go in.

 

Inside, Reading Terminal Market sort of reminded me of Chelsea Market in New York, only on a larger scale. They sold almost every type of food stuff imaginable in here, ranging from Pennsylvania Dutch made cheese to Middle Eastern foods to Italian pastries.

The whole market was swarming with people, some taking foods to go, although the majority seemed to be eating in the tables set up in the aisles between the various vendors.

I had already ate lunch at Tony Luke's earlier in the day, so I decided I would get some dessert in the market. I came across a place called Termini Bros that caught my attention.

They had giant butterfly cookies in their display case. I have some happy food memories from when I was a little kid associated with these cookies, so I decided that I would get myself one.

The cookie was huge, probably a foot long from wing tip to wing tip. It was made of a flaky dough with a sweet cinnamon filling between the layers. I totally overdid it, but I devoured the entire cookie in one sitting.

We also got a cannoli from Termini Bros. They were filling these behind the counter as ordered, so it definitely made it more interesting than just getting a pre-made dessert from the case. The filling had a very strong ricotta flavor which I enjoyed. To me, this is what cannoli filling should taste like. The person who I split the cannoli with disagreed and prefers the typical Florida Italian restaurant cannonli filling which tastes more like icing.

Tony Luke's in Philadelphia, PA

While in Philadelphia, I decided I had to eat what is perhaps the city's most well known food: The Philadelphia Cheesesteak. I googled cheesesteaks in the city and a restaurant called Tony Luke's came up on the upper portions of the lists of the best cheesesteaks in the city. The restaurant wasn't too far from where I was, so it was the lucky cheesesteak winner.

Tony Luke's was located in an industrial area. You ordered your food at a window and dined in their outdoor seating. There was a very varied crowd here, ranging from very obvious tourists like me, lots of airport workers, and construction workers.

While I was waiting for my sandwich, I headed over to their pepper bar and sampled a couple of these hot pickled peppers.

For my sandwich, I had a Philly Cheesesteak Hoagie. This consisted of steak, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. I wasn't really sure if I'd be able to tell the difference between a cheesesteak in Philadelphia compared to the sandwiches in Florida. Turns out the biggest difference I noticed was in the steak itself. Rather than the really finely sliced beef that I've had elsewhere, the steak from Tony Luke's was a bit thicker. I would estimate the slices were about double the thickness of standard cheesesteak meat. It also had a meatier flavor, so perhaps less seasoning/processing was used to prepare the steak. 

Overall, this was a tasty sandwich. I can also now say that I've eaten a Philly cheesesteak in Philadelphia. That makes me a self-proclaimed expert on this type of sandwich, right?

Tea-Do in Philadelphia, PA

I found myself spending the day exploring Philadelphia. While wandering around the city, I ended up in Chinatown. I honestly had no clue that Philadelphia had a Chinatown before I wandered into the neighborhood, but while there I decided to get something edible. This ended up being boba tea from a place called Tea-Do.

Tea-Do had food on the menu, but I decided to only get a drink here. I had a mango smoothie with boba and mango jelly floating around in the drink. The smoothie was good, cold, and very refreshing. I liked the mango jelly, but the typical tapioca ball boba like this always make me want to brush my teeth badly. It's something about their sticky consistency.

I did enjoy my smoothie from Tea-Do. They had a better selection of drinks available than many other boba tea places I've visited and offering food was nice as well.

Vaccaro's in Baltimore, MD

While in Baltimore, I decided to get some sort of dessert in Little Italy. I came across a bakery called Vaccaro's and decided to give them a try.

They had all sorts of pastries, cookies, cakes, and other desserts in here.

I had a chocolate and vanilla neapolitan. This flaky pastry was filled with alternating layers of vanilla and chocolate pudding.

I wasn't a fan of how it was served in the plastic clam shell container. The chocolate that topped the dessert stuck to the lid and sort of pulled the pastry apart when I went to open the container. This was tasty, although it was definitely more than I could eat in one serving.

I found out later that Vaccaro's was part of a larger chain. I came across a Vaccaro's in a strip mall in the suburbs of Baltimore and was also informed that there are a few of these in New York as well. I guess Vaccaro's wasn't the small, independent pastry shop in Little Italy that it initially appeared to be.

Uncle Lee's Szechuan China Room in Baltimore, MD

I did some visiting in the Baltimore area. While there, I parked in Little Italy and walked towards the Inner Harbor. I didn't want to actually eat in the Inner Harbor, so I headed a few blocks away and came across a Chinese restaurant located inside a large building that was formerly a bank. It seemed like the restaurant had a bit of an identity crisis since there were three different names outside the restaurant. The China Room was located on the side of the building. Uncle Lee's Szechuan Restaurant was on the awning out front. Finally, Uncle Lee's Harbor Restaurant was on the window above the door.

The inside of the restaurant was very impressive. I don't know if this building was something else between a bank and Chinese restaurant, but modern banks definitely aren't built this way. The interior was decorated with all sorts of ornate features. It didn't look very Chinese (except for the lantern globe lights that were added), but it was a very unique building to be eating lunch in.

I started with an appetizer of scallion pancakes. These are hard to find in Florida, so I decided to get these fried pancakes when I saw them on the menu.

A cup of wonton soup was served next. The dumplings were good although the broth could have used improvement. It was completely clear and basically tasted like warm water.

For my meal, I had one of the lunch specials called Baby Shrimp with Szechuan Rice Wine Sauce. A big plate of shrimp was served swimming in sauce. There were hardly any vegetables in here and was a bit boring. Although the menu noted that this was spicy, it hardly had any kick. Rice was served on the side which was very useful in soaking up the pool of sauce.

I found the food here to be a bit mediocre. The prices were also very affordable and the building was way cool. Can't win with everything...

Larry's Homemade Ice Cream in Washington DC

After getting pizza from Dupont Pizza in Washington DC, we stopped for dessert at a place called Larry's Homemade Ice Cream. This place had all sorts of interesting flavors, but unfortunately they were all out of many of the flavors that I wanted to try. I guess that's the downfall of going to an ice cream shop a few minutes before the closed.

Since they didn't have the exotic flavors left, I went with a more mundane flavor and ordered a cup of the strawberry cheesecake ice cream. It was good ice cream, with the flavors of both strawberry and cheesecake popping out. Little chunks of actual cheesecake mixed in with the ice cream were also a nice touch. The small cup of ice cream was a bit on the expensive side at almost $5, but it was homemade ice cream in a city. The high price was somewhat expected.

Dupont Pizza in Washington DC

I bought a late-night slice of pizza in Washington DC from a place called Dupont Pizza. They were located near an intersection that had far too many restaurants serving pizza (Chicago style pizza next door and an upscale pizza place across the street). As the name implies, Dupont Circle was a few blocks away.

I had a vegetable slice topped with spinach, onions, tomato, and mushrooms. I was about to order two slices, this and another variety of pizza, but then I noticed the size of the slices. Each slice was a quarter of the pie. At $5 per slice, the size was appropriate. The slice itself was nice and thin with plenty of toppings. The sauce and cheese lacked flavor and were a bit bland tasting, but the slice did satisfy my hungry stomach.

My slice from Dupont Pizza could have been better, but I've also had far worse slices as well. I wonder if they were going for the quantity over taste mindset here?

Maine Avenue Fish Market in Washington DC

I remembered reading about the Maine Avenue Fish Market sometime in the past. While visiting Washington DC, I decided I should visit this place. The Maine Avenue Fish Market is the oldest seafood market in the country and consists of several floating barges filled with all sorts of seafood docked around a wharf. The floating seafood market setup was way cool and the place had a very unique feel.

I couldn't quite figure out if all of the barges here had the same owners or not. Captain White's seemed to be one of the big vendors here, but there were other names on the barges as well. Some barges only sold fresh fish for you to buy and cook at home, while others had pre-cooked seafood, and yet others cooked your food on the spot.

I went with a barge that cooked the seafood. Crabs seemed like the thing to get here. I went with a half dozen blue crabs. This seemed like a good deal for $7, plus the whole process of eating the crabs in a fish market was quite the experience.

The live crabs were hand picked, sprinkled with seasoning, and dropped into a steamer.

After about fifteen minutes, the crabs were cooked. They were placed in a paper bag and were ready to eat.

Besides my crabs, I also got a bowl of clam chowder here. The creamy soup was tasty with lots of pieces of clam and big chunks of potato.

To eat the crabs, there was a small dining area by the water. There were no seats. Everyone stood around counters smashing their crabs open with mallets and devouring the very fresh, sweet crab meat.

I very much enjoyed my visit to the Maine Avenue Fish Market. I suppose if you don't like seafood, this place wouldn't be for you, but why would you be going to a fish market in the first place? The whole setup of buying seafood from barges floating in the river was something that I've never seen before and was a fun experience.

It looks like Anthony Bourdain did a segment on the Maine Avenue Fish Market on an episode of No Reservations.