Bread Bar

Under food:

Bread Bar

Flatiron District

Superfatty went out to lunch with some coworkers to Bread Bar. This outing came about when Restaurant Week was extended this month. Tabla, the dressier sister of Bread Bar, was part of this promo, but when we arrived all rushed and famished, everyone in the group opted for the downstairs Bread Bar instead.

Air-popped popcorn with spices. This was ok, the spice was sprinkled on top but did not warm enough that the aromas were released.

Our friend, V, was our de facto guide to the menu, since she grew up on Indian fare. She steered us towards the thali, which is an assortment of various items. Thali is a typical lunch dish in their cuisine. Depending on the restaurant, it can be a simple assortment or an all-out, full-blown feast with a whole lot of dishes.

Vegetable thali. (Blogger insists on displaying the picture sideways.) Clockwise, from top: sauteed greens, chickpea and pear chaat, green mango chutney, mungbean ussal and basmati rice. Whole wheat naan in the middle. This looked like a very filling dish. The chickpea chaat was very pleasant, and I kind liked the ussal because I just like mungbeanss. The chutney was super sweet.

This is what I got: fishcake wrapped in banana leaf thali. Clockwise from top: naan, fish cake, basmati rice, mungbean ussal. The fish was flavored with a lot of spices, I think lemongrass and ginger among others. No banana leaf flavor, I'm afraid. Nevertheless, this was a pretty hearty dish too.

Saag paneer pizza. The "sauce" is creamed spinach and the "mozarella" is chevere. My coworker broke a tooth while eating this... I wonder what this means???! In any event, I was too busy tucking in my food that I did not want to try the pizza.

Overall, we all agreed that the food was not bad... we all had a good time outside of work V agreed with my assessment that the flavors were rather toned down for the western palate.

Whassamatta? Egg Plattah!!!

Under food:

The Egg Platter

159 Crooks Ave

Paterson, NJ 07503

(973) 684-3291

I like to think of this tiny diner as a time machine. It feels so 1950s inside, with the chrome, the tiny booths, the round stools by the formica counters, and the fake wood panelling. Its myspace page mentions that it has been around since 1977.

A lot of changes have passed the Paterson area in the decades past. I think this diner is one of the few leftovers from when Paterson was still a booming industrial city. You could easily envision the factory workers coming over here for breakfast or lunch way back. Nowadays, the clientele reflects the diverse community in this area, but still with that same blue-collar vibe. The prices here are unbeatable.

This place ain't called The Egg Platter for nothin'. They make 21 different kinds of egg platters. We tend to opt for the basic stuff.

That day's specials included beef sausage with eggs and home fries, steak and eggs and waffle with eggs.

Beef sausage wit home fries and two eggs. DJKung found the sausage a bit gamy.

Two eggs with a Belgian waffle. I love how sunny this picture is, with the glistening egg yolk, creamy pat of margarine, and the subtle yellow of the waffle.

The Egg Platter gives serious bang for its buck. For our breakfast, we spent about $12 in all (including drinks). Sure, you could have better breakfast fare elsewhere, but not in a time machine like this!

Shanawaz

Under food:

Shahnawaz Restaurant

1380 Oaktree Road

Iselin, NJ 08830

(732) 283-2257

Yay, we finally made it to Iselin! The Iselin-Edison area has a large Indian and Pakistani population. Over the years, this enclave has produced this bustling community of shops, stores, and of course, restaurants. This was UFC's first sojourn into the area (exit 131 on Garden State) and we were very excited.

The main strip, Oaktree Road, was congested (we went on a Sunday). Parking was not too easy, specially with the restaurants that only had street parking.

We picked Shanawaz because its lunch buffet was pretty crowded. The posted menu was pretty good too, but since we are pretty much novices when it comes to Indian food, we opted for the buffet ($7.99 per person).

Shanawaz has an odd layout. Basically, you go snag a table, then go up to the counter and place your order. You can flag a waiter if you need drinks and whatnot, but you will have to go back to the counter if you wish to order other dishes.

The lunch buffet was excellent, but had few veggie options. There's a nice selection of the sauces, fresh naan bread, chicken biryani, chicken and lamb korma, a lovely spiced chickpea dish, and a nice potato dish.

Fresh naan, great for sopping up the sauce.

Chicken korma. The spice blend was excellent. DJKung went back for seconds and thirds. DJKung's pops liked the lamb korma, which reminded him a lot of the Philippine-style caldereta. The lamb was gamy and likewise excellent.

Superfatty's plate. This was my second helping, so there was more overlap of the dishes on the plate.

DJKung's pops wanted some white rice, which no good meal can go without. I also wanted to try their other apps, and ended up ordering a samosa and a fried potato puff.

Foreground: Fried potato puff. This was very yummy. I forgot what the app in the background was. This was denser, and was also very good.

The food was overall, pretty excellent. My advice is to scope out the buffet before picking this option, because at most, there are about five or six main dishes. They have a decent a la carte section, and the prices are very reasonable.

We did not have room for dessert; there were some sweets shops and bakeries on the main strip. I guess we'll have to reserve the food crawl some other time!

Boozoo Bajou at Cielo

Under fun:

Boozoo Bajou at Cielo

We were looking forward to seeing Boozoo Bajou after his awesome DJ set some time ago. I did miss his last party, which was very danceable.

Too bad the party was on a Monday night, a frigid one, at that. It seemed that the party was not well-promoted, because the turnout was pretty low.

DJKung hanging out by the speakers. I like how his face has a nice glow from his telephone.

The venue, Cielo, has one of the more diggable sound systems out there. The sound comes out very crisp and clean. The hardwood dance floor is minuscule, unfortunately. The walls, which look like an abstract log cabin, is starting to look outdated.

Boozoo's set started off very spare and meditative. . . a great listening experience. He was reaaally slow to warm up. By the time we left (12ish), it seemed like he was still warming up. Played great listening songs, as opposed to boogie-able songs.