Jamaican Coffee & Sunday Brunch At The Turning Point

Restaurant Reviewed by: Jane Ong

I'm not a coffee snob but I can taste the difference between a cup of good coffee and the cup of coffee that I usually make from my Mr. Coffee at home. Today, I went back to The Turning Point in Brick NJ for brunch because I loved it so much last time when I was there.  I ordered the same egg benedict that I had last time and I also ordered a French Press of the 100% Jamaica Blue Mountain Certified Coffee ($9.75 per French Press Jar).  It's pricey coffee but the French Press is large enough to brew 2 cups.  I shared the coffee with my friend.  We love the hard sugar stirring stick so much!  This coffee was really aromatic, and rich in flavor.  It's amazing how the quality of coffee beans can make such a big difference to the brew.  After I return to Los Angeles, I will have to upgrade my coffee beans at home. Life is too short to have el cheapo ground coffee every morning.

Restaurant: The Turning Point

Address:505 Route 70, Brick, NJ 08723 

Phone:732-903-6073 

Disturbing Arts But Comforting Fish Tacos

Restaurant Reviewed by: Jane Ong

Fish Taco is another of my favorite foods back in Los Angeles.  I haven't had any tacos since I had arrived at Toms River New Jersey.  So I'm very delighted to have a couple fish tacos today, and surprisingly, they are quite good.  After a month being in Toms River and  Manchester Township here in  New Jersey, I had lowered my expectation for food in this area. So this taco ($7.00 for 2) find is a delicious surprise to me.  The salsa on the side however has lots of room for improvement (and they can refer to the salsas at La Salsa as a role model for salsa).

The quality of the Fish Tacos however doesn't apply to the Steak Bites ($7.00) we order.  This is like a beef kebab, but a yucky beef kebab. Even the overly sweet soy sauce can't cover the gamy taste of the beef (or steak?).  Steak and beef shouldn't taste gamy at all.  This just tells me that the freshness and quality of the meat had been compromised. This is another one-bite dish for us that we can't finish.  We will just stick with the Fish Tacos from now on.

We are happy to find this restaurant which not only offers Fish Tacos comparable to home, it also has a spacious, nicely and comfortably decorated dining environment by the water.  The water view is so scenic. Being used to the beach and marina views back in Los Angeles, it's nice to see that there is a different kind of coast line that is lined with beautiful trees. I had never seen a coast line so green and lush.  It's really pretty.  We however chose to sit indoors because the temperature is quite hot out there, and this is the only con compared to the always comfortable and air-conditioned feel of the California coasts....But we love the interior decor of this restaurant.  It's really comfortable here.

This restaurant is located within walking distance in downtown Toms River.  Yes, finally, there is a place where I can walk around!  And by walking, I almost ran into this disturbing woman outside the restaurant.  I was really startled by her. She reminds me of a character that I saw long time ago in a horror movie...

This is one disturbing sculpture of a very scary looking Asian chick.  The placement of this statue is so weird, because it seems it is placed here just so randomly.  I had never seen anything like this in my life.  Bumping into this disturbing lady really makes my day because it really gives my associates and I a very good laugh.  I guess Toms River isn't as boring as I think and it may be full of surprises.

Restaurant:Baker's Water Street Bar & Grille 

Address:4 Robbins Pkwy, Toms River, NJ 08753 

Phone:(732) 240-4800 

We Finally Found Decent Tasting Chinese Food Amid Bomb Threat

Restaurant Reviewed by: Jane Ong

A real estate assignment brought my associates and I to the Ocean County Mall in Toms River yesterday.  After the lengthy and intense meeting that kept us away from our lunch break, we decided to grab an early supper at the food court in the mall.  I was very surprised to see that there were only three food vendors at the food court of a mall this size. This has to be the smallest food court I had ever seen in a mall.  May be the demographics of the mall's visitors had no interest in dining and that's why the mall has a small food court like this?

Although I have been generally disappointed by the lack of decent Chinese food in this area of New Jersey, my crave for Chinese food was so strong that I was willing to keep trying.  I'm glad I did, because the Chinese food at this food court was decent tasting to me even though it was a little oily.  It wasn't great Chinese food, but it was okay enough for my taste.  I had the two items combo plate at $6.79, with half fried rice and half lo mien.  The fried rice and lo mien were decent and not too oily.  Most importantly, they didn't have that artificial food color that I tasted in other Chinese restaurants in this area.  The fried rice and noodles here were well seasoned with soy sauce, and not yellowish food coloring.  (I just hate Chinese fried rice and noodles that look too yellow).  

The spicy chickens were well seasoned also with decent quality chicken.  The sauce tasted somewhat of cajun and jerk seasoning, which I like because I love spicy food.  The green beans were also well seasoned.  If only they can go light on the oil, I will like the food  even more.  I'm glad I found this Chinese place just in time before the bomb threat evacuated us out of the mall after 5pm..

Restaurant: Master Wok
Address:1201 Hooper Ave, Toms River, NJ 08753

Why Is There No Fresh Sushi Fish By The Jersey Shore???

Restaurant Reviewed by: Jane Ong

As of now, I am getting extremely homesick and I want to go back to Los Angeles so very much.  I used to always buy into the propaganda against Los Angeles and I used to resent all the negative qualities that people list of Los Angeles.  One of the negative qualities I used to loathe about Los Angeles was the congested traffic and the need to have to drive everywhere. Now that I'm working in Manchester NJ,  I realize my usual commute to my work in downtown Los Angeles wasn't bad at all.  I am spending more time driving here in Manchester to get to places now than I did in Los Angeles. The drivers in this area and the nearby townships are much worse than the drivers in Los Angeles.  I used to think drivers in Los Angeles were rude and aggressive because I was told so.  Now  I feel that the drivers in Los Angeles are so much more civilized compared to the many crazy or drunk drivers I've been encountering here.  I am not sure if they are drunk, but the way their cars are speeding left and right and cutting others off dangerously, I'm just guessing the drivers must be under the influence.

It took me more than 30 minutes' drive to get to this sushi place that I found on the internet.  Back in Los Angeles, it only took me 10 to 15 minutes drive to get to a lot of great sushi places.  After a few incidents where I almost got run off by crazy drivers, the Angry Dragon Roll and the Philadelphia Roll that I ordered at this restaurant came out to be very fishy.  I had never had sushi that had fishy fish.  I don't think the tuna and salmon in the sushis are supposed to be fishy.  I don't think the fish that was used in those sushis was fresh.  Fishy taste and smell usually indicate a problem in the freshness of sushi fish. These sushis had prices that are comparable to the sushi restaurants in Los Angeles, but the quality of these sushis were nowhere near even the sushis that I bought in a supermarket in Los Angeles.

The salad that I ordered was also a little wilted, and not like the crisp and fresh salad I was used to in the Japanese restaurants back in LA.  The dressing in this salad was awful and when I asked for the refreshing Japanese ginger dressing that is so widely used in Japanese restaurants back in LA, the waiters in this restaurant didn't even know what it was.  

The miso soup here in this restaurant was also awful, and very watered down.  I tasted more chlorine in the soup than miso.  So this was how I spent my memorial day holiday this year, a miserable scary 30++ minutes drive to a sushi place which I couldn't do more than a few bites even though I was starving.  The decor of the restaurant reminded me of the chic and contemporary restaurants in Los Angeles, but somehow the restaurant was like an amplifier that made it extremely loud and noisy even when the restaurant wasn't that full.  We couldn't engage in any conversation there because the noise level just made it impossible. Yet the restaurant was not even half full.  All the good internet reviews on this restaurant were so misleading to me.  This kind of restaurant will not have a chance of surviving in Los Angeles, let alone receiving all the rave reviews. Somebody from Los Angeles needs to come here to open a decent sushi restaurant.

Restaurant: Xina Restaurant

Address: 3430 NJ-37, Toms River, NJ 08753

Phone: (732) 279-6327

Winner Announcement : College Diet Cookbook Giveaway

We had only one participant for the above free book giveaway. The winner for the above free cookbooks giveaway is: Renee from Washington.  We will contact the winner for shipping address so we will mail the book out ASAP.  Please continue to follow us for our upcoming free books giveaway.