Mr. Chu, East Hanover NJ

Mr. Chu
44 West Route 10
East Hanover NJ 07936

I broke out of my usual Whippany/Parsippany neighborhood and took a trip down Rte 10 instead of heading back to the hotel.

Mr. Chu's, right across from the Novartis campus, was pretty darn good, and much better than the other Chinese places I've been to on trips to HQ.

Always obey your hunches on appetizers: The scallion pancake with roast pork ($4.95) was bigger than the dinner plate, crispy, chewy, and probably could have been dinner (maybe a cup of soup and I'd be done). As it is, I carried almost half of it out.

Crispy salt and pepper calamari ($10.95) was very good, but not perfect. The pieces of squid were pretty big and some were on the tough side. It's a difficult balance: smaller pieces cook too fast to crisp the breading. The flavor was very good though, not excessively salty, lots of scalions adding flavor. Very large serving, too.

Service was good, too. This one's a keeper.

There is a ton of good Taiwanese down there...kinda far, I suspect, from HQ, but worth a drive if you can make it. Big Taiwanese expat community between E. Brunswick and Plainfield. My references all are 10 years old at this point, so I guess you'll have to do a little research to find the best ones.

I miss having access to restaurants of that quality!

Hi,

One of my sisters lives in Parsippany, so I am thrilled whenever you report another good option in the area.

Queijo - though your references may be 10 years old, what do you recall as standouts? who knows, they may still be in existance.

Regards,

Since I can't remember the names of the places I used to eat at weekly (what can I say, I was but a young gobbler, and my Taiwanese boss was usually driving) I had to look up a site for reference.

Found this -- don't know how helpful it will be:

http://www.peizhang.com/guides/guides_r ... nceton.htm