Hanover yer tastebuds (More Jersey)

Another trip to HQ, and an attempt to find a couple restaurants to add to my routine.

Peking
11460 US Hwy 46
Parsippany NJ
973-334-1917

Nikko Japanese Restaurant
www.nikkonj.com
881 State Route 10
Whippany, NJ 07981
(973) 428-0787

Don Jose
200 Route 10 West
East Hanover NJ 07936
973-781-0155
www.donjosemexican.com

Saigon House
320 Route 10 West
East Hanover NJ 07936
www.saigonhousenj.com

The first two nights I hit old standards.
Peking for chinese takeout on the way to the hotel: Their housemade shrimp dumplings in spicy peanut sauce are darn good, and the pork fried rice had good roast pork in it. Except for those dumplings I haven't found anything that makes this a destination, but I keep coming back for the dumplings. I also give them props for making me food as they were closing up -- they were already past their closing time when I showed up, but made me food anyway -- nice of them to do so for a $10 order.

Nikko on is probably the closest restaurant to my offices, and isn't what I'd call great, but their menu is varied. A Ten Don (two big shrimp and several veggies) was a nice small meal including soup and salad, plus four pieces of nigiri (salmon and mackerel, two of my faves). Decent, but barely worth writing about here.

So I went further afield for the next two nights.

Don Jose I'd seen before, next to Penang on Rt 10. Both are impossible to see heading east, as they face east, well set back from the road. Well-executed ordinary Mex-Am. They've got a number of chicken, steak, fish and shrimp dishes (with the same six sauces for the most part), but I figured how better to find out the variety except a combo plate? Chips were light, crisp and warm (always a bonus), with the table salsa fresh and sharp (I'd swap some onion for garlic, tho). The combo was a typical dog's breakfast in appearance: from left to right rice, tomato-sauced chile relleno (strangely stuffed with picadillo rather than the chicken ones when you order them as an entree), a chicken-filled tamale, and a cheese enchilada (I asked for mole), then beans. Overall enjoyable, but nothing stood out. One weird thing was the chile: the mildly cinnamon beef and the tomato sauce together came out like a Cinci chilli in flavor.

Tonight, I remembered Saigon House, which I'd had once for lunch.
I ordered the sugar cane shrimp, which was much better as the sum of the parts than the individual items -- the shrimp paste was pretty flavorless until assembled with herbs, lettuce, peanuts rice noodles, fried shallot, carrot and daikon and dipping sauce. Big fun food (but hard to read a novel while eating). I also ordered the transparent dumpings: tapioca starch steamed in banana leaves. Each rectangular bundle had a single (extremely overcooked) shrimp and a morsel of pork. The waiter warned me they were chewy as if it was something I shouldn't order, but they were fun: sweet chewy globs. If there were only pork I'd be happier due to the dried-out shrimp, but a novel dish I enjoyed. It did need the dipping sauce, and definitely not something you eat with chopsticks. Before my dinner was brought out, they brought a basket of what looked like oversized Quisp but were probably fried rice starch: crisp, and a good vehicle for the sweet and chile sauces on the table. A definite place to go back to.

But tomorrow -- HOME!