A Week at the Jersey Shore

RRR, Mr. RRR and I hit the Jersey Shore for a week of beach time. Our culinary adventure started on Monday evening with a trip to Red's Lobster Pot, a gem of a restaurant located in Point Pleasant.

Red's is a tiny restaurant (although they expanded their outdoor area some time ago to include a waiting area and raw bar seating). If you go to Red's on a weekend night, you can expect to wait for awhile which is why being able to go on a Monday evening was particularly appealing.

We were seated with barely a wait. The most interesting items on Red's menu can be found on the Specials Board. Mr. RRR (making his f-is-for-foodie debut!) ordered the twin lobster tails stuffed with crab meat, RRR had an order of crab cakes and I chose the penne with lobster meat, shrimp, pesto, zucchini and mozzarella. The crab cakes were chock full of crab meat with just enough bread crumbs to bind but not overpower the crab; a mistake many shore establishments tend to make. My pasta was al dente and the flavors were light and fresh - a nice departure from my usual pasta in a spicy tomato sauce with seafood ventures.

Tuesday evening we met up with Dad at his favorite place, Jack Baker's. Since I've already written about Jack's ad nasuem; I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say, a nice time was had by all.

Wednesday evening included a trip up to Pier Village, a sprawling new development of condos and shops on the Long Branch promenade. After surveying the menu options at a few of the restaurants we decided on Sirena, a contemporary Italian restaurant located on the beach. We ate outdoors on a deck overlooking the ocean and there's nothing like having the ocean as your dining soundtrack.

One of the highlights of the Sirena meal was my dayboat sea scallops over corn risotto. The sweetness the corn added to the starchy risotto was a perfect companion to the scallops which charred just the way I like it. I'm sure the great atmosphere and well made cocktails added to the pleasant dining experience but it seems like Salema will only get better with time. I'm really liking this new development and would love to make the rounds to the other restaurants in Pier Village in the near future.

The grand finale of our Jersey shore dining adventure was a trip to Bum Rogers in Seaside Park. Bum Rogers is a panel palace of a restaurant, known for it's garlic crabs and cold beers. The cleaniness of the place might be a bit suspect (the restrooms are nasty) but you can almost always count on a great meal here.

I chose a crab dish with marinara sauce on this visit over linguine. The tomato sauce was surprisingly sweet and the lump crab meat on top of the dish was an extra bonus to the two full crabs that came on top of the pasta. RRR also enjoyed a crab as well as part of her pasta dish which included scallops, broccoli rabe and shrimp in a garlic white wine sauce.

One other meal of note came from RRR. In our "let's clean out the fridge in foodie's apt" venture, we decided to make a "peppers and eggs" sandwich for lunch. What made this sandwich so special was that it also included garlicky broccoli rabe and a Portuguese wheat roll from the Garden of Eden. So simple yet so fantastic!

The Jersey Shore... don't knock it until you try it!

Cause Down the Shore everything's all right...

Ahh…Memorial Day Weekend! What does that mean? An opportunity to eat and drink with reckless abandon; especially when your travel plans include a trip to the Jersey Shore!

Rockstar, Thighs and I hit the road late Friday for a weekend in Toms River. We kicked off our weekend with a late dinner at Jack Baker's Lobster Shanty in Toms River. Jack Baker's also has a location in Point Pleasant catering to the 'Benny's' and while the Jack Baker's in Toms River definitely caters to the 'senior-set'. This was painfully obvious we arrived after nine to find were were at the end of their dinner service. Needless to say, this is a place we often go when dining with dear old Dad.

This didn't stop us from indulging in the all-you-can-eat $19.99 seafood buffet. It actually wasn't as bad as I expected (but was too famished to care). The calamari was a standout item for me, breaded and coated in a sweet and spicy sauce – not bad! Thighs and Rockstar particularly enjoyed the sole which enveloped some crab meat stuffing while I preferred the mahi mahi. With final stops at a local liquor store and the Super Stop n Shop we were ready for the weekend and ready for bed.

Saturday morning, we mobilized for our jaunt to Island Beach State Park. We been doing this for a few summers now and have a good system going; pulling the beach chairs out of the shed, getting the umbrellas, neat sheets and towels together, obsessively applying sunscreen and of course packing the cooler on wheels chock full of snacks. The healthy fruit and veggie snacks are eventually overlooked for the bag of chips but we do make a noble effort. The final stop of seaside journey includes stopping at Ebby's Deli in Berkeley to get a sandwich right before the entrance to the park.

Ebby's is a bit of an old school deli with plenty of Italian specialties (including pignoli cookies, cannoli, biscotti and the like) and some great sandwich combinations. We will usually pick the standard crowd pleaser: turkey, lettuce, oil and vinegar since fresh mozzarella, grilled chicken and sundried tomatoes don't often travel well to the beach. They also serve up the usual Taylor Ham, egg & cheese sandwiches but unfortunately we've had breakfast by the time we get there. By the way, if you don't had Taylor Ham - you haven't lived!

After a beautiful day relaxing and snacking on the beach we headed home to get ready for our night's big excursion; a Lakewood Blue Claws game! Capt BG joined us and as you can imagine, Ms. Foodie's love of baseball is really a love of ballpark food.

I started the evening with a sausage and peppers sandwich. The sausage was sweet and I was impressed by the kick of seasoning in what can usually be a bland ballpark meat. A few innings and quite a few beers later and I was splitting a nicely charred hot dog with BG. The lack of sauerkraut at the park was only one of a few missteps by First Energy Park's catering; but with such a tasty snappy hot dog' I really couldn't complain.

Thighs had a chicken cheese steak with some tangy zesty BBQ sauce that was really amazing. We compared it to our favorite chicken cheese steak from Off the Wagon. Wow! Tender, fresh thinly shaved chicken on a hearty roll with a nice kick from the BBQ sauce – who knew?

The soft ice cream was a bit of a chemically-induced mess but at this point we had so many great items that I'll give them a pass but they really should work on that since what's a seventh inning stretch without some soft ice cream?

Luckily, I made up for the lame ice cream at the park with a stop at Kohr's on the Boardwalk. No trip to the Jersey Shore is complete without a soft ice cream cone. Now if I only had room for pizza!

We also spent some time with the parentals, meeting my Pops and Marie for dinner on Sunday at Hot Tomato, a modest Italian restaurant on Fischer Boulevard. It is a BYOB with an extensive Italian menu and gentle prices. They offer a wide range of specials nightly as well and if you can stand the wait, you will be in for a pretty good meal.

I went against the norm, ordering a rigatoni with Bolognese sauce after seeing an order leave the kitchen. The hearty sauce was flavorful and zesty, a nice balance to the toothsome pasta.

Thighs plopped a meatball in my plate and again, I was surprised on how well this garlicky meatball was prepared; finely ground beef and a nice layer of flavors. Rockstar chose the "house specialty"; fusilli with sausage in tomato sauce with a touch of cream.

Monday morning was spent with Thigh's parents and breakfast at Fast Break. In the past, we have had some great breakfasts at this perennial greasy spoon but this particular trip was a huge disappointment. After waiting an hour for our food, my standard omlette was satisfying but only because I was starving after my morning run. If it were not for the pleasure of the company (Momma & Poppa Thighs are a delight), I would have walked out a long time before our food arrived. I'd like to tell you that the diner was packed but this was not the case. Service was obscenly lame and I highly doubt I will be back any time soon.