A Slight Delay

The average “Mexican” restaurant is to Mexican food what Olive Garden is to Italian, offering up bastardized and Americanized versions of the real thing. Your neighborhood Chili’s (and what neighborhood doesn’t have a Chili’s, usually nestled between two Starbucks), usually has an interior that looks like Applebees with piñatas, and features food the likes of which Donald Barthelme once compared to Italian with jalapeño peppers.

So imagine the simple pleasure of a Mexican restaurant that actually serves Mexican food. Or come to Fiesta Hut, in East Rutherford. You won’t find machine-made tortillas, ugly masses of 50’s sci-fi refried beans atop more beans atop rice, or frozen, manufactured food passed off as fresh. You also won’t find Tex-Mex. Just a handful of simple, authentic Mexican dishes, made with fresh ingredients. (more…)

One thing I’ve learned to appreciate is restaurants with small menus. Some restaurants will offer anything and everything short of grilled panda loin on ciabatta, but the quality tends to suffer when you try to be all things to all comers. On the other hand, eateries that have smaller menus tend to pay more attention to what they prepare and serve.

If you want proof of this, look no further than Steve’s Sizzling Steaks in Carlstadt, NJ. They’re a stone’s throw from a Charlie Brown’s; it’s also not far from a Lone Star, an Outback, and other steak houses, none of which can hold a candle to Steve’s simple formula of preparing basically one thing (steak), and doing it very well (or rare, if that’s your thing). (more…)