The most interesting restaurant in central New Jersey: Thumbs Up. HOdown?

Check this place out: https://www.yelp.com/biz/thumbs-up-chinese-cuisine-edison

The menu at this place is insane. Most of the items I have never seen before, and they have great family style options like hot pot, make your own hot wok and fish options. We could probably have a dozen HOdowns here before we explore everything they do. Any interest?

Do we have any Chinese speakers on HO who can make sense of some of this menu?

That’s a pretty interesting menu.

Wow! Agree that it sounds cool… I’m game to go, but I am completely overextended into mid-June. Unless we meet up on a weeknight…

I’m up for any day. We’ll see if there’s any other takers :slight_smile:

It seems like they specialize in spicy hot pots and roast whole fish? I very quickly glanced through the other part of the menu- seems like those are generic dishes in Chinese restaurants.

Mark and I are up for it. We’re fairly flexible, particularly after the school year ends–Mark does tutoring on Saturdays until then.

Sck I’m not expert, but I have never seen a Chinese restaurant offer a custom roast fish like that, and I want to try it! Hot Pot is obviously standard fare but there are less than a handful of places in all of NJ I’m aware of that offer it. They also do the build your own stir fry thing which I’m only aware of only 1 other place that does that. If you’re familiar with these menu items perhaps you can join us for a HOdown and guide us through. Just looking through the pictures on Yelp there are a lot of items I have never really seen before.

Unfortunately I am on the left coast so I can only enjoy reading about your upcoming feast!

But yes I have not seen customized roast fish like that, but then again I am not very knowledgeable about regional Chinese cuisine. I’d be curious to know what kind of fish they use (and how fresh they are), and whether they have a ‘preferred way’ of roasting, because otherwise it becomes a Chipotle or Subway kind of dining…!

Joon do you have any good spots for whole fried fish?

I’ll go. When?

Hmm, I haven’t ordered much fried fish at Chinese restaurants. My personal favorite fried (whole) fish is at Far East Taste. Ask for the fried fish with fish sauce. If you don’t specifically ask for the fish sauce they will give you some crappy sweet and sour bullshit. Disclaimer: It’s been a couple years since I’ve had the fried fish there so I can’t guarantee they will have the fish sauce option.

Aside from that Shanghai Bun has an excellent fried fish fillet dish but it’s smothered in sauce so it’s not a crispy fried fish that you might be thinking of. It’s called fish in bean sauce or something along those lines on the menu.

I’m up for doing a midweek adventure so @CurlzNJ can join us. I’m free all next week I think (other than Monday).

A bit tougher for us folks that have to cook for our families, but possible…

We’re okay for any day except maybe Wednesday. Are we talking lunch or dinner? Mark has his volunteer tutoring Wednesday at OBPL from 3:30-5, so lunch has to finish in time for him to get there, or dinner has to start late enough afterwards.

I’m open on a Thursday…I,m definitely interested and only about 20 minutes from me.

@seal Why don’t you bring the whole family? :smiley: @eleeper @CurlzNJ @currymouth How about Thursday 6/3 or 6/10?

Thursday would be 6/2 or 6/9

If we’re talking about the evening, 06/02 is okay for us, but not 06/09. Lunch would be okay either day.

6/2 works for me! @CurlzNJ @currymouth how bout you guys? I can do dinner or lunch.

Sorry for the delay…as I said upthread, my calendar is a bit nutty these days! Lunch isn’t an option for me on a weekday, and I can’t do dinner on 6/2. Waiting to hear back if 6/9 is good for dinner; if so, I could be in Edison by 6:15-6:30–depends on the Parkway traffic!

I’ll update you as soon as I know about 6/9…