Feed a Family of Four with a Single Pastrami Sandwich at Harold’s

What:

Harold’s NY Deli
An old-school NY-style sit-down delicatessen serving monstrous portions of all of the Jewish classics. I’m by no means the first to speak the praised of the place – it’s been written about all over the place including in Saveur, the New York Times, as well as a feature on Man vs. Food. And yes, it’s worthy of all of the hype.

Where:

In a parking lot off of the highway in Edison, NJ
1171 King Georges Post Rd. Edison, NJ 08837
[wpgmza id=”296″]

When:

For when you feel like shoving more Jewish comfort food down your gullet than should be humanly possible. (more…)

Continue ReadingFeed a Family of Four with a Single Pastrami Sandwich at Harold’s

This is Undoubtedly the Best Po’ Boy Shop in all the Land

What:

Parkway Bakery and Tavern
@ParkwayPoorboys
This bar and restaurant is quite old, very famous, and generally regarded as the ultimate place to go for the very best poboys in NOLA.

Where:

Midcity
538 Hagan Ave. New Orleans, LA 70119
[wpgmza id=”290″]

When:

This is the kind of place that’s perfect for any time you need a big, cheap, hearty sandwich full of greasy meat and deep-fried seafood to crush an epic Bourbon Street hangover.

It’s a bit out of the way, so you’ll probably need a car to get all the way out there unless you want to splurge on a long cab ride. This place is known to generate long lines, though we were fortunately able to get food in hand in just about 15 minutes after our arrival. So, come only when you’ve got a bit of patience in case you encounter a longer line. (more…)

Continue ReadingThis is Undoubtedly the Best Po’ Boy Shop in all the Land

Impressive Cocktails and Fine Dining Small Plates with Filipino Flair

What:

1760
@1760SF
A well-regarded, two-year-old, high-end restaurant that focuses on globally inspired tapas style small plates.

Who:

New Chef, Carl Foronda, has overhauled the restaurant’s entire menu with dishes that include influences from his Filipino heritage.

Where:

Lower Nob Hill On Polk Street
1760 Polk St, San Francisco, CA 94109
[wpgmza id=”285″]

When:

Perfect for a date night or dinner with your parents. (more…)

Continue ReadingImpressive Cocktails and Fine Dining Small Plates with Filipino Flair

Mike Winston’s Best Meals of 2015

Yes, I know this year-end list is beyond belated. Actually, I’m probably over a month late. Normally, I’m not one to make these kinds of excuses, but my life has been pretty hectic lately.

As you may or may not know, I’m getting married in a couple of months, so my time has recently come at an extreme premium and I haven’t been able to commit as much attention as I’d like to this little publication obsession. With that being said, over the next couple of months, I’ll be playing around with post style and formatting a bit in an attempt to find new ways to rapidly pump out awesome food articles with fewer publishing limitations on my end. Please feel free to give me feedback on the new content — I’m planning to review this little experiment in a few months and we can take it from there.

(more…)

Continue ReadingMike Winston’s Best Meals of 2015

This Incredible Chinese-Creole Cross-Over is Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Had Before

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I also don’t know how you could have possibly missed it. Over the summer of 2015, fried chicken was quite the hot trend, completely dominating all mainstream food media outlets with hyped up content. With big name heavy-hitters like David Chang opening his much-hyped Fuku and Danny Meyers launching a fried chicken sandwich at his much-loved burger shop Shake Shack, seemingly everyone was scrambling to get into the fried chicken game. Every place was busy concocting their own signature breading type, fry-style, and of course secret spice blend.

But, there’s one fried chicken variant that I had this year that was invented long before all of this summer’s madness and I still can’t seem to get it out of my head. This insane fried chicken creation has literally crept into my dreams on more than one occasion like Freddy Krueger, taunting and torturing me to return from within. Unfortunately, this unconscious itch can only be scratched in one place — and this unusually creative shop called Red’s Chinese is located in a way-off-the-beaten path New Orleans neighborhood called Bywater. If you’re in NOLA without a car, Red’s Chinese is not the easiest to access, but if you’ve got one, it’s an absolute cannot-miss. Actually, you better book your flights to NOLA now, you’re gonna want to experience this one for yourself.

(more…)

Continue ReadingThis Incredible Chinese-Creole Cross-Over is Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Had Before

A Wild, Wacky, Happy-Go-Lucky Hot Doggery in NOLA

This is probably the most bizarrely happy-go-lucky place anywhere on the entire planet. On this day, torrential rain was falling from the sky, the shop’s WiFi was out so the normal music source was unusable, and many of the ingredients had not and were not going to be delivered. But, that couldn’t hold the Dat Dog staff down – it’s not in their nature. In fact, from the moment I laid my eyes upon that gigantic, two-story, neon, multicolored building on New Orleans’ Magazine Street, I knew there was something special about the place. I think passing through those Heinz mustard-colored doors functioned as a sort of portal to a comically super-happy alternate dimension.

(more…)

Continue ReadingA Wild, Wacky, Happy-Go-Lucky Hot Doggery in NOLA

Where to Find Authentically Spicy Indian Frontier Cuisine in Monterey

Is it wrong that I want to eat Indian food surrounded by Indians? I don’t want this to come off sounding bad, but there’s something that just feels right about eating in an ethnic restaurant that’s actually filled with people of that ethnicity. I view it as a sort of tip of the hat to the place’s street cred and I’ve often found that it’s a pretty consistent indicator to determine if the place is going to be authentic and good. Just think about it, if Indians don’t want to eat this food when they’re dining out, why would I?

(more…)

Continue ReadingWhere to Find Authentically Spicy Indian Frontier Cuisine in Monterey

10 Tips On How To Actually Enjoy The Gilroy Garlic Festival

From the first moment many years ago when I heard about the Gilroy Garlic Festival – a festival designed to celebrate garlic in all of its many uses – I knew I had to go at least once in my life. I am a garlic-lover after all, even though you may recall that my recent visit to a world famous garlic-centric restaurant in San Francisco ended with disastrous results. But, I figured if any place could redeem the concept of garlic worship, the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival would be it. My move this year to San Francisco put me in close enough proximity to this Winston Wanders bucket list destination and provided the perfect opportunity to make my much-awaited garlicky pilgrimage to the Garlic Capital of the World.

(more…)

Continue Reading10 Tips On How To Actually Enjoy The Gilroy Garlic Festival

Catfishing for Southern Deep-Fried Perfection in Denison, TX

Over my many trips to Texas and other parts of The South, there’s one thing I’ve learned for sure – the most delicious foods usually come deep-fried. There are exceptions, of course, but in general I’ve found that Southerners have a very skilled hand using a deep fryer. Whether it’s deep-fried bacon, deep-fried eggs, deep-fried breakfast steak, deep-fried vegetables, deep-fried cheese, deep-fried balls of mystery meat, deep-fried sushi rolls, deep-fried samoa Girl Scout cookies, deep-fried sandwich fillings, or even an entire deep-fried sandwich – it’s all bound to taste really good and of course be really bad for you. But, one of the simplest, but most incredible things I’ve found you can get deep-fried in Texas is catfish and there’s one place I constantly return to for the very best – Huck’s Catfish in Denison, Texas.

(more…)

Continue ReadingCatfishing for Southern Deep-Fried Perfection in Denison, TX

A Great Place to Experience Pan-Fried Soup Dumplings in Silicon Valley

If you’ve got a car and are willing to drive to strange strip malls in Silicon Valley, there are plenty of interesting Asian foods to find. It’s always hard to know if a dingy shop is one of the good ones or the bad ones until you try it for yourself, so as I approached Shanghai Flavor Shop in Sunnyvale, I prepared myself for the whichever side of the coin it was going to land.

(more…)

Continue ReadingA Great Place to Experience Pan-Fried Soup Dumplings in Silicon Valley