QBA (Quick But Authentic) Cuban Lunch Truck

Phone: 973-687-2000

http://qbacubankitchen.net

Tuesdays & Thursday at Hudson and Grand Street

There's a new lunch truck in Jersey City waterfront area, and it serves one of my favorite cuisines - Cuban! For about $8, you can get their main entree of either bistec (steak and onions), pollo (chicken) and lechon (Cuban pulled pork) serves with white rice, black beans and a choice of unique sauces such as citrus garlic mojo, guava habenero bbq, cool creamy garlic aioli, jalapeno cilantro aji. QBA also offers cubano sandwich, empanadas, maduros and specialty chips, as well awesome drinks like guava juice spritzer, cortadito and cafe cubano. QBA sold breakfast when they first came to Jersey City, but it was discontinued, unfortunately. I would love to have that ham, scrambled eggs and maduros breakfast roll and cortadito for breakfast again!

Service with a smile :)

bistec lunch with white rice and black beans

cortadito with ham, scrambled eggs and maduros breakfast roll

Krave Truck Korean BBQ

Location: Hudson between Grand and York Street, Jersey City (Day)
Columbus and Marin, Jersey City (Evening)

http://www.kravetruck.com

For some of us here in NYC metro area who can't wait for LA's Kogi Korean BBQ Truck to arrive in the city (rumored arrival - 2010), Krave Korean BBQ is the answer to our prayers, at least to the jersey city folks for now. Of course, Krave does not have high caliber chef like Roy Choi (a Le Bernardin alum) nor does it have the same variety/creativity of the korean+mexican street food served at Kogi - think Kogi dog (hot dog) and black jack quesadilla, but the guys who cook at Krave definitely know their Korean BBQ meat, they are delicious! It used to be that Krave only serves dinner near Grove Street Path Station in the evening, but recently they join the line of amazing lunch trucks at Hudson Street. It didn't take too long for people to find out about Krave and its delicious Korean BBQ meat so lines are definitely forming (and getting longer each day) during lunch time at Krave's Truck!

Korean Taco and BBQ rice platter. BBQ rice platter with kimchi and a pick of 2 meats - spicy pork, sesame chicken and kalbi or Korean Taco and BBQ sampler ($10 with 3 meats and drinks).

BBQ pork and kalbi beef over rice with kimchi

Lucinda Burrito & Taco Truck

Address: Parked daily on Hudson @ York in Jersey City

http://www.lucindatruck.com

Phone: 201-484-0566

I have been going to Lucinda for its fish tacos and grilled skirt steak tacos for sometime now. It used to be two ladies cooking at Lucinda Truck but the new owners are now Chris and Natasha. Equally nice, and tacos are equally good. The fish and grilled skirt steak tacos there are delicious but small, so be sure to order two if you are hungry. It usually takes some time to cook the tacos so call ahead so you don't have to wait too long. Lucinda's chips, salsa and guacamole is also awesome, but I haven't seen it on the menu for a long time! Maybe it's time to bring it back? :)

Owner Chris and Natasha

Louisiana Spice Truck

Address: Near Harborside Financial Center Plaza 2, Jersey City

http://louisianaspicetruck.com

Phone: 718-938-1628

So my wish came true. There's a new lunch truck "in town", and it serves awesome Louisiana creole food! Having never been to Louisiana, my experience with creole food was only through eating at Emeril's New Orlean Fish House restaurant in Las Vegas and Mardi Gras restaurant in Forest Hills Queens. I like the spices and complex taste of creole food - it's like French, Spanish, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian, African cuisine all infused into one cuisine, in a good way. Some of my favorite creole dishes are shrimp creole, jambalaya, gumbo, crawfish bisque... you can say that creole food and my taste bud just clicked.

Since I no longer live in Queens, and it's been ages since I visited Las Vegas (or I should really visit New Orleans), I don't get to eat in a creole restaurant as much as I would like to. So it was a sweet surprise when I discovered Jessie's Louisiana Spice truck on my way home one day, I think I've been praying hard enough for a new place to eat in Jersey City. Jessie had been living and working as a chef in Paris for many years, so it's our good fortune that he decided to start a lunch truck in Jersey City. His menu changes, but you can count on him for mouth watering jambalaya at any given day.

If you work in Jersey City and you are looking for something new and nice for lunch, Louisiana Spice truck is the place for you. Check out the website or follow him on twitter for the latest menu/news. Why settle for the same old pasta, pizza, sandwich or soup for lunch when you can get exciting dishes like chicken and sausage gumbo, brisket, pulled pork, pineapple cheesecake, chocolate bread pudding, creme anglais, red bean and rice and banana pudding?!

my first lunch box from Louisiana Spice Truck. Jambalaya with chicken and Andouille sausage and rice.

Chicken Gumbo!

Cucharamama

Address: 233 Clinton Street, Hoboken, New Jersey

http://www.cucharamama.com

Phone: 201-420-1700

My co-worker Bernie accused me of discriminating against New Jersey food. "Sarah, you don't eat in New Jersey enough! You only eat in New York City!", he complains all the time about my preference for NYC food. It's not that I don't eat in New Jersey area, it's just that most of my friends live in NYC and we usually eat out in the city together. But Bernie is right. I should really spend more time exploring good food in New Jersey - Hoboken, Red Banks, Short Hills and Fort Lee all have really awesome restaurants. We have tried some pretty impressive food in Hoboken, ie La Isla (a cuban restaurant) and The Dining Room at Anthony David's. And on Thursday night, we had dinner at Cucharamama a Latin Bistro in Hoboken, and it totally blew us away!

So I found out about Cucharamama from The Best New Jersey Restaurant issue of New Jersey magazine. We have been loyal customers of La Isla, so we were not interested in trying out other Spanish restaurants in the area. But we'll be going to Cucharamama more often now!

The chef/co-owner, Marciel Priscella picked Cucharamama (CU-CHAH-RAH-MAM-AH) as the restaurant name because it means "Mother Spoon" in Spanish, and the word symbolizes strong women who rules the kitchen with their good cooking. Speaking about strong woman, I also found out that the chef/owner Marciel is also a Spanish culinary historian and a Doctor of Medieval Spanish History. I would be worried if other restaurants try to serve dishes from Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and other countries in South America all at the same time, but Marciel knows her Spanish/South American food. I felt like I've been to South America after eating her food. Another wonderful thing about the restaurant is its cocktail list. Mango Batisdos and Morrir Sonando cocktail?? I'm totally sold!

We would have ordered dessert if not because of Ida Maria's concert. But we were perfectly happy with our orders. We had Choritos en Salsa "Cuzquena" (mussels), Arepas de Choclo (sweet corn arepas) with salmon roe and Venezuelan Crème Fraîche, Crema de fijoles y tomate sazonada (corn and tomato soup) and Bandejita Palsa (for meat lover, a Colombian Highland classic). The Arepas de Choclo was made fresh from the restaurant's wood burning oven, one of the best we've eaten and it goes well with salmon roe. Better than The Arepa Lady's arepas but more pricey. The pork cracklings in Bandejita Palsa dish was freaking amazing. The complimentary flat bread and honey butter itself is worth going to the restaurant. Gan and I will going back to Cucharamama for more deliciuos Spanish/South American food very soon!

(From left) Mango Batidos -- Brazilian tropical fruit milk shake spiked with cachaça or rum. Morir Sonando cocktail

Flatbread with honey butter

Arepas De Choco - Cachapa -- fresh corn cake served with salmon roe and venezuelan creme fraiche - nata

Crema de Frijoles Blancos Y Tomate Sazonada con Merken De Chillan Y Albahaca -- white bean and tomato cream perfumed with chilean merken and fresh basil

Choritos - Mejillones en Salsa Cuzqueña -- mussels in a spicy sauce of panca peppers, garlic, cilantro, and peruvian dark beer

Bandejita Paisa for meat lovers, Cucharamama's version of the colombian highland classic from antioquia - skirt steak, pork cracklings, colombian sausage, arepa, rice and red beans, ripe plantains, and colombian hot pique sauce

Casa Manila

Address: 665 Newark Ave # 1, Jersey City, New Jersey

Phone: 201-386-8900

Gan and I finally found a Filipino turo-turo style restaurant (we call it "economy rice" in Malaysia) in downtown Jersey City that we really like. The restaurant is new, clean and the food is delicious. They have the usual Filipino dishes such as Chicken Adobo, Bistek, Friend Tilapia, Ginatang Sitaw, Pancit Bihun, Filipino sweet sausage and more. The menu changes from day to day, and they usually have soups like those we have back home. The restaurant closes early so try to drop by early if you are going for dinner.

Japanese Bento Lunch

Where: Harborside Financial Center, Plaza 5, Jersey City (side entrance near Amiya)

When: around 9.30am daily

We are seriously deprived of good food here in Jersey City. But I have to say, once in a while, there are random food vendors that show up and sell home-cooked food that is both satisfying and reasonably priced. For instance, there is this seller who comes to Harborside Plaza 5 daily (around 9.30am) and sell good Japanese bentox lunch set for no more than 8 bucks. I have tried their beef sukiyaki, ramen, chuka (chinese) bento, curry katsu etc, and they were quite good.

Mitsuwa Tuna Cutting Event November 2008

Address: 595 River Rd, Edgewater, New Jersey

http://www.mitsuwa.com

Phone: 201- 941-9113

We had a fantastic time at the Mitsuwa Tuna Cutting event last year, so we decided to inform more people to attend this year. This is definitely an annual event not to be missed, especially if you love sushi/sashimi- the supplier of the fish is the same distributor to some of the top sushi restaurants in the city such as Sushi Yasuda and Masa. This was also the only place (and the only time) you can get top grade toro for reasonable price. I am already looking forward to next year's!

400 lbs Giant Blue Fin Tuna

TORO, fresh off the belly of the Giant Blue Fin Tuna. still lukewarm!

the yaokuis

Halal Cart

Address: Across the street from Au Bon Pain

Compared to NYC, there are not many dining options in Jersey City. It does not make any sense since Jersey City has so many corporate offices and the people working here (like myself) have to eat lunch too, right? So if you are thinking of your next restaurant venture, please consider opening up one in Jersey City?

There are only a number of places which Gan and I like to get our lunch from. One of them is this Halal lunch cart that sells superb chicken over rice. I have heard from friends working around midtown that there is also this very famous Halal cart. I have yet to try it so I have can’t do any comparison between the two. But the cart in jersey city is also extremely popular; there is always a long line during lunch time, and the chicken over rice dish is most popular and is usually sold out by 1.30pm.

I have no idea what kind of spices they use to marinate the chicken and I doubt they will want to share the recipes with me, but I think the yellow rice and the hot sauce + white sauce make the dish so delicious. I usually cannot finish a whole plate of food (during lunch), but anytime I get this for lunch, I completely devour everything in the takeout box. It is high in calories, but it is awesome, and cheap, $6 :)

I was negotiating with the guy to let me take pictures of his cart and he told me it's ok as long as I feature him in my blog since he's single. lol

My lunch box - chicken over rice with salad and white and hot sauce

* pictures taken using iphone

Wendy's Free Burger

I love summer in the city. There are so many events and food fairs happening, and from time to time, you can get some pretty nice stuffs/food for free. Today I found out from my co-workers that Wendy’s is giving out free burger near where I work and we went there to check it out. I almost did not believe that I was going to get a free burger, and I thought there must be a catch. But I was wrong! They were really giving out Free Burgers, absolutely free burgers, and a can of soda for each person.

So thank you Wendy’s for the delicious free burger and soda. You guys made my day!

Grandma's Pizza

Address: Look for the truck on the north corner of Plaza 3 Harborside Financial Center, Jersey City (Monday-Friday, 12pm-3pm)

Phone: 973-941-2372


I have yet to try the famous Lombardi’s Pizza, since the there is always long lines; but of all the pizzas I have tried, I actually really like the square pizza from the pizza truck near my work place. Something about the toppings - fresh homemade mozzarella, fresh tomato paste, basil and crunchy crust makes it insanely delicious!

Haagen Dazs Green Tea Ice Cream

Guess who makes the best green tea ice cream in my opinion? Haagen Dazs! I am not sure if the regular supermarkets carry this "limited edition" Green Tea ice cream by Haagen Dazs, but I got it at Wholefoods Market in Edgewater. It reminds me of the Green Tea ice cream I had in Kyoto. Hope it doesn't go away!

Mitsuwa Supermarket Giant Blue Fin Tuna Cutting Performance

Giant Blue Fin Tuna Cutting Performance @ Mitsuwa Supermarket

Address: 595 River Rd # 1, Edgewater, NJ

Phone: 201-941-9113

Gan, Oi Yen, Nick and I went to Mitsuwa Supermarket at Edgewater NJ today to check out the Giant Blue Fin Tuna cutting performance. Even though I have been to Tsukiji market in Tokyo, I have never been able to wake up early enough to check out the auction in the morning (LAZY!). So this was really the first time I have seen an uncut Blue Fin Tuna, and boy it was gorgeous! The Tuna weighs around 700lbs and I believe it's about 4-5 days old. According to the announcer, Tuna taste better when it's aged for a couple of days.

The supplier of this Blue Fin Tuna also supplies to the top Japanese restaurants in NYC such as Masa and Sushi Yasuda. So it was great that we get to buy Toro for roughly $1.50 per slice, instead of the usual $12 per slice charged at the high end sushi restaurants. At the end of the performance, people were just snatching those tuna as though it was free (Gan was one of them, haha). We bought some Tuna blocks for dinner as well and it was amazing.

Gan: We bought a couple of ohtoro and chutoro tuna block as well as some nigiri sushi made from the fresh cut/butchered tuna. Can't get any fresher sushi than that in the city. As with beef, tuna taste best with its marbled fat. Ohtoro is the fattiest and chutoro is next. Just to echo one of the things that the announcer mentioned at the performance, it's a common misconception in America that the color (redness) of the tuna determines the quality of it. the best tasting tuna is usually the one with higher fat content and they are usually lighter in color, usually in pink.

I want all of those!!

It was funny to see the guy using a special hammer to cut the tuna

Gan: They don't waste anything. The fins are used. The head as well. Even the meat was scraped off the bone. We were wondering how much was the whole tuna's worth in a normal market. If it's about $40-$50 per pound (of course, not all are toro quality from the fish), that 700 pound fish is worth $28K-$35K!

Oi Yen imitating the look of the Blue Fin Tuna

Gan: Hmm... I see the resemblance. Glowing skin, shiny eyes, and decorated.

Amazing Toro Sushi, freshly cut from the belly

Han Ah Reum Supermarket Foodcourt

Address: 321 Broad Ave, Ridgefield, New Jersey

Phone: 201-943-9600

Gan and I absolutely love the food court at Han Ah Reum supermaket near Palisades Park, NJ. We were introduced to this supermarket by our friend Ray sometime ago (he's our source to all good stuffs in NJ :) ) and we have been going there for food shopping and lunch/dinner ever since. We love the spicy chanpon noodles there and for about $8, you can enjoy a bowl of spicy seafood soup with homemade noodles. You get also get dishes like Kalbi Tang, Abalone Porridge, Soon Do Boo Chigae etc. Two thumbs up for this place!

Gan: This is one of the main reason I love the NYC metropolitan area (including NJ). The influx of immigrants in these area introduces a lot of possibilities in terms of culinary choices as well as ethnic food products (groceries). Mitsuwa, the Japanese groceries supermart at Edgewater is great for its Japanese produce (japanese organic eggs, cucumber, eggplants, and of course the seafood). The Korean groceries like Han Ah Reum is most famous for their great beef selections, especially the ribs (kalbi).

Spicy Seafood Chanpon Noodles

Gan: It's Chinese Korean but they are uniquely Korean because of their hot paste soup and noodles. It's really spicy but they're great. I think the key is they stir fry all the ingredients first, chinese style with the high heat wok before adding it onto the blanched noodle and spicy soup.

Jar Jiang mien- korean style.

Gan: Another Chinese Korean dish. Don't look appetizing with the color but the bean paste sauce with the noodle is great.

Yaokui Gan