Dinner at Top's Diner in East Newark, NJ

Saturday night and we were too tired to cook, so we went to Top's Diner because the menu is so massive that there had to be some gluten-free options.  Dan ordered breakfast and I got a salad but before you judge me, just know it had some awesome very HP-type ingredients in it ha.

Bourbon Street Omelet - spicy Andouille sausage, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, cheddar cheese with home fries

The Ritz Salad - Romaine, grilled chicken, feta cheese (that giant block!), avocado, dried cranberries, fresh oranges, candied walnuts, tossed with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Dinner at Edward's Steakhouse in Jersey City, NJ

Nicole and I went to Edward's Steakhouse for Restaurant Week, as getting steak during RW is always the best value and I've never been to Edward's.  Overall the meal was pretty tasty and definitely a good value of $38 for four courses.  The steak itself was a 12 oz Delmonico - pretty huge though a little fatty, and I should've had it cooked medium well vs. medium, but sometimes I feel judgment when I order it so well cooked ha.  A good meal but not memorable or worth a return trip.

Baked clams with breadcrumb stuffing.  Nice and cheesy.

Filet Mignon Vegetable Spring Roll over a spicy remoulade w/miso dipping sauce

House salad - mesclun with a sherry shallot vinaigrette.  Specifically chose those over Caesar so I wouldn't be too full before the meat, which was a smart decision

12 oz Delmonico steak with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and creamed spinach

Icebox cake - not as cold as I would've hoped ha

Creme Brulee

Home-made Roasted Chicken w/vegetables

Dan made roasted chicken again a la Thomas Keller.  Underneath we had potatoes, carrots, and apples.  This was the first time making it in our new oven, so it took a little longer to get the chicken cooked through, but perhaps that was also because it wasn't defrosted enough.  It tasted great though, nice and juicy, and the veggies were super flavorful.  However the apples created a great aroma but the apples themselves got overcooked.

Brunch at Bistro La Source in Jersey City, NJ

Parental brunch in JC went surprisingly well, despite the treacherous icy conditions.  And as usual, the food was delicious.  Everyone particularly loved the mussels and octopus, which I didn't take pics of.

Spinach eggs benny with home fries

Salmon eggs benny with home fries

My apple crisp dessert with cinnamon gelato

Fried fish sandwich w/fries

Home-made Filipino Breakfast

I was craving a Filipino-style breakfast so made some garlic fried rice, garlic eggs, and pork tocino.  I seriously think home-made Filipino food is infinitely better than going to any restaurants, at least in the United States.

Tocino, garlic eggs, and garlic fried rice

Home-made BBQ Ribs with potatoes and spinach

Dan tried to show me that he could make ribs better than my father, which was definitely a tall order.  Like my father he boiled the ribs then finished them in the oven.  They turned out well but not quite as tender, we think because they needed longer time.  He used two different sauces though, a sweet and spicy Ray's sauce as well as Dinosaur BBQ's Wango Tango.  Both were pretty delish but I liked the Ray's better.  He also made some potato and spinach w/TJ's African Smoke.  A delicious, comforting meal.

Dinner at Bin 14 in Hoboken, NJ

So Dan and I don't exactly love Hoboken.  In fact we don't really like going there at all.  Except for Texas Arizona I try to avoid it as much as possible.  But in some of my yelping adventures I came across this restaurant that had a pretty extensive gluten-free menu, so we decided to venture out and make a trip to the Hobo.  Bin 14 is apparently the only wine bar in Hoboken.  Again, not my favorite thing, but nice that I got to try two types of Riesling and not break the bank at all.  I do like flights.  Anyway, they can make most of their dishes gluten-free, including pizza, pasta, and even bruschetta.  I wish I had known about the latter because I didn't even look at the bruschetta dishes.  But just gives us a reason to come back.  The food was really rich and considering the extra charges was not too expensive.  We definitely ordered too much food in my opinion, but Dan enjoyed the meal a lot and I was glad to find a place where they had the same dishes available both as is and gluten-free options.  Definitely worth another trip to try other dishes on the menu.

Grilled octopus, potatoes, capers, and giardiniera - yes, I had to google that last word, which refers to pickled veggies.  The octopus was well cooked and tasty.  I compared the dish to the one at Flex Mussels though, which was a mistake because Flex Mussels octopus is the best hahaha.  This was very well-balanced though and generally light-tasting because of the acid and veggies

Poutine, which is kind of the main reason we came here.  Fries w/mozzarella curds and foie gras gravy.  This was tech not poutine as there were no curds :(  Why do people lie and say there are curds when it's just melted mozz?  Don't get me wrong, this was still freaking delicious esp. with the foie gras gravy, but I want some curds damnit!

Foie gras gravy - full of gluten so I ate like 95% of this, which is prob why I was so full later

The poutine as it should be, with gravy smothered all over

Gluten-free pizza with caramelized onion, pork belly, tallegio, brussels, and egg yolk.  OMG this was SO rich and SO good but I was struggling to get through.  The gluten-free crust was almost cookie-like, which added to the richness of the cheese, which is one of my fav types that I discovered at Eataly.  Tallegio is def mozz-like in creaminess but also sort of brie like in its mildness.  The pork belly was sometimes hard to taste but obvi adds flavor.  The brussels I liked for lightening it up.  And the yolk made me want to cry because it was that good on top ha.  Unnecessary but def made this dish a knock-out

Gluten-free penne with pork ragu, parmesan and poached egg.  Delicious and honestly I didn't notice a difference in the texture of the pasta.  The ragu was great too but I was pretty full at this point so couldn't eat that much

A shot w/the egg broken up.  Never going out of style in my opinion