Food is such a huge part of our lives, I know it is for us. I’m married to a food snob for whom it’s all about the experience and he’s got the belly to prove for it (good thing he doesn’t read my blog J) But he’s a fantastic cook and I have to say in the past (almost) 1 year of being married he has definitely elevated my sense of food and introduced me to good, fresh and simpler foods.

The first 10 months of our marriage (and it hasn’t quite been 11 months yet) eating at local eateries in Queens became our thing. We have a standing date on Friday and we’d explore Queens. Unlike my previous life where food venues only existed in Manhattan I ventured into unknown neighborhoods in Queens with him to discover some amazing foods, Italian, Indian, Thai. And it became our thing.

So naturally when we were planning the big move I was sad about leaving all that comfortable familiarity behind and being forced to discover new places and who knows ‘the area might be a dump and we won’t find anything’…I exclaimed out loud to him one day. He’s used to such grave statements from me about frivolous stuff. Anyway unbeknownst to me he went around in the neighborhood ahead of us moving in and scoped out a few places for us to try after we moved in.

I’ve been a Queens girl for 22 years of my life and it was a really emotional decision to move to New Jersey. But it was the right decision for us because H needed to be in Jersey according to his contract and his commute is now cut down by 3 hours a day! So now he sleeps in while I still have to get up and go to work at the same time!

He was flexible; he would live anywhere in NJ as long as my commute into midtown was the same or better than before. I appreciated that. We have a few friends up and down the gold coast (Weehawken, Hoboken, Jersey City) and figured we’d check out that area since I’m not exactly ready for total suburbia. We scoped out places in Newport Jersey city and hated them. We just found it so congested and lacking in any character. It was like living in Manhattan, cold highrises with no connections to people and places. We loved living in Forest Hills where we really felt like we were in a “neighborhood”. We needed something similar.

One of the appointments I had to look at apartments landed us in Paulus Hook and the first time we walked thru the neighborhood I was hooked. We loved it because it had so much character and history and it had a really casual laid back environment. The sidewalk culture was more family oriented versus the “single scene” sidewalk culture further north in Newport. AND it had historic signficance dating back to George Washington and if you are a regular reader you know how I have a thing for GW. Of course the massive apartment, being on the water and the amazing view had a little something to do with it.

When we were in Queens we walked everywhere. I couldn’t live in a place where I couldn’t just hoof it. I could easily walk several miles just running errands in Queens and I finally felt like I found a place that would allow me the same thing. A loop around the boardwalk in front of our building is easy 2 miles. From the get go we started exploring the local neighborhood eats. In the past 3 weeks I’ve discovered a few places I like and a few places I won’t be going back to.

Taqueria Downtown

On the corner of Grove St & Grand St

I love this place. It was the first place we ate at when we first moved into the neighborhood and I have loved it since. It’s Mexican food but it’s like comfort food to me. There are no refried beans here, chips or guacamole at the table. They don’t serve sour cream with your food and nothing is supersized and precooked. It’s truly authentic no frills fresh and excellent Mexican food.

The staff is always super friendly (hey we even got a tip for a great mechanic in the area from one of the guys) and they have a little garden in the back that reminds you of a backyard in someone’s home while you eat under the trees. The Quesadillas are fantastic, NOTHING at all like the stuff you get in run of the mill Mexican places. They usually have this Mushroom and Queso fresco special that is to die for. The fish tacos are fantastic and come with some secret sauce that is just divine. There are no hard tacos, only one kind of tacos, freshly rolled soft tacos. And do get the Bean Tostada. I highly recommend it.

Ibby’s

On the corner of Grove St & Wayne St

My friend Vinny told me about this place the first week I moved in. He insisted I go eat there. So on the 2^nd day we moved in and the kitchen wasn’t up and running H and I in between errands popped in and picked up a couple of Falafels. We ate there on the 3^rd and 4^th day and have eaten there every week since. Hell even when we had unexpected family visit a few days after we moved in we got a whole catering tray from there. It was great.

It’s just plainly put DELICIOUS. The owner Adnan Kwara is the nephew of the guy who owns Mamouns. Regardless the food here is fresh and fantastic. Everyone in Jersey City recommends it and so do I.

Brownstone Diner & Pancake Factory

On the corner of Jersey Avenue & Grand St

This is a good diner for breakfast any time of the day and it’s always packed. They have every imaginable kind of pancake, omlete, waffle you can think of and it’s all made fresh. It’s a good bet on lazy Saturday morning and it’s always consistently good. They also have a huge Panini, wrap and burger menu but we have never gone past breakfast. I had quite a few people tell me to eat there when I moved to Jersey City and I was definitely happy with it.

We also ate at this place called Medina (Pakistani food) also on Grove St and found it to be not fresh. Hated it.