Brunch at Liberty Prime Steakhouse in Jersey City, NJ

Dan and I went to Liberty Prime Steakhouse around the corner for one of the best brunches I've had, especially in JC.  They have a lot of reasonably priced steak brunch entrees and excellent, cheap drinks as well.  Looks like their normal entrees are comparable to most other steakhouses, but brunch is really a bargain and sooo good.  There are still many other things I want to try so I am super happy this is so close by.  Also excellent musical selection.  It was basically all '90s so I was karaoking while eating.

House Bloody Mary and Liberty Prime Bellini (champagne, peach schnapps and peach puree).  Both only $4.  My bellini was delicious

Filet Mignon Benedict - beef tenderloin and poached eggs served on a butter brioche and chive hollandaise. Came with avocado and home fries.  Delicious and perfectly cooked steak and eggs.  $17 seems wholly reasonable

Steel cut Irish oatmeal served with grilled bananas and brown sugar oatmeal.  Sounded intriguing, even to me who doesn't like oatmeal.  It wasn't as sweet as Dan expected or as I hoped 

Steak Sandwich - rib-eye steak crispy onion rings, sweet peppers, chipotle mayo, served with Parmesan steak fries.  The steak was delicious and perfectly cooked.  I thought the onion rings would be rings but even better they were french fried onions.  The bread was a perfect thickness and sturdiness but still not hard to eat.  The fries were sooo good.  Perfect amount of garlic and cheese.  Huge portion though so only ate maybe half

Close up of my delicious sandwich. Did I mention it was only $14?

Home-made Chili

Since it's officially chili weather Dan made an excellent batch with ground beef and chuck cubes.  Had some nice spice and tasted awesome topped with cheese (obvi) and fresh cilantro. I don't even bother trying to make it since Dan has become an expert.

Dinner from Greene Chutney in Jersey City, NJ

Looks like the fan problem was fixed as we managed to go to Greene Chutney for dinner.  It's basically Indian Chipotle as you get to pick your starch, protein, sauce, and fixins.  I went for a quinoa with chicken and paneer base topped with masala sauce.  Dan got basmati rice with lamb and paneer with tomato and onion sauce.  All the proteins were very good.  They gave HUGE portions so I felt like there was sooo much cheese, which is home-made.  I preferred the quinoa base as it tasted fluffier and absorbed sauce well.  I preferred Dan's sauce to mine though, which was good but not spicy.  Lasted for two meals so while expensive on the surface (about $10-11 a bowl depending on protein), I rarely have Chipotle leftovers so this ended up being cheap.  Great find and so close!

My bowl pre-mixing.  Quinoa with paneer, chicken, broccoli, potatoes, chickpeas, cucumbers and coriander topped with masala sauce

My bowl all mixed up.  So much food it was hard to mix!

Dan's bowl with basmati rice, lamb, paneer, potatoes, chickpeas, red peppers, and coriander with tomato and onion sauce

Lunch at Xi'an Famous Foods in NYC

Went to Xi'an Famous Foods with Tracy for lunch.  It was crazy crowded - lines out the door to order and lines inside to grab a seat.  Fortunately despite the chaoticness we were able to grab seats together and eat our food with enough time that I didn't feel rushed. The food definitely has serious spice.  I got through my spicy lamb cumin noodles but towards the end was feeling it.  There was LOT of chili oil and my main critique was the amount of oil they appeared to use.  But the noodles were delicious and obviously fresh.  Would love to come back; maybe to a larger location since there are several around.

N1 Spicy Cumin Lamb Hand-ripped Noodles - excellent noodles though they were so long and I had no knife.  Lamb was tasty and very tender

A2 Stir Fried Cold-Skin Noodles - Tracy got this.  The protein was gluten I think?  Interesting but I def prefer meat ha

Spicy Cucumber Salad - not spicy to me but love the flavor and was a great way to cool off my mouth

Dinner at Roman Nose in Jersey City, NJ

Dan and I went to a celebratory dinner at Roman Nose as we were dying to have the pasta/pizza after our excellent brunch.  Everything we ate was delicious and cooked to perfection.  The pizza in particular was amazing though very rich.  I loved the pasta as well.  And there are still many more dishes on the menu that I would love to try.  We managed to save room for dessert by having self control and not eating all of the savory food ha.  The dessert was definitely worth saving room for.  Glad we found our new go-to Italian spot though unfortunate that it took so long to make it there.

My Mediterranean Mule (Figenza Fig Vodka, Crabbie’s Ginger Beer, Lime Juice) and Dan's Frank's Fedora (Bulleit Bourbon, Figenza Fig Vodka, Chartreuse, Lemon Juice, Salt, Thyme).  I loved my drink.  Dan enjoyed his but it wasn't quite what he expected.  The bartenders there seem excellent as both times I've really enjoyed what I go

Bucatini all’Amatriciana - Rome’s spicy red sauce answer to carbonara, with guanciale, Sunday Sauce, onion, and a red pepper kick.  Slight spice but not too much.  This was EXCELLENT.  I loved the thickness of the guanciale and the thickness of the noodles themselves 

Meatball side - two meatballs in Sunday Sauce with fresh bread scarpetta. Great sauce and the meatballs themselves had great seasoning

Zucca pizza - Roast butternut squash, pancetta, caramelized onion, mozzarella, fontina, parmigiano, maple glaze, parsley.  Definitely worth coming just to try this.  This was also the small size and was HUGE

Nonna Memma's Cookies - two cakey, fluffy cookies served warm with powdered sugar. Super tasty but not overly sweet.

Tiramisu - housemade mascarpone cream with ladyfingers soaked in espresso and topped with cocoa. Excellent though took awhile for Dan's accompanying coffee to arrive, which made it taste even better

Dinner at City Diner in Jersey City, NJ

Dan and I wanted to go to Greene Chutney but they were surprisingly closed due to their fan being messed up.  Not exactly sure what the issue was, but good thing City Diner is so close and always open.  We both decided to get breakfast for dinner and it was delicious and less than $10 per person. I'm glad that we have this option as a kind of emergency go-to.

Dan's omelet with mushrooms, jalapeno, spinach and American cheese

My corned beef with eggs over easy.  Delicious though prefer my corned beef a little thicker cut

Close up.  Eggs were perfectly done

Dinner from Komegashi in Jersey City, NJ

We ordered ramen for pick up from Komegashi.  It only took ten minutes to be ready, which is awesome. Since we did pick up we were able to only order one bowl of ramen, which is actually a sizeable portion and we weren't super hungry so it was perfect along with dumplings.  So happy it's so close!

Miso Ramen, pork dumplings, and side salad.  All delicious, inexpensive, and quick