Journal Square INDIAN FOOD TOUR - Pav Bhaji, Volcano Biryani & Pan | Jersey City, New Jersey

So it's like a potato mash with green peas, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and a lot of spices. This one's spicy. Yeah. What's up everyone? This is David Hoffman from David's Been Here coming at you from beautiful Jersey City at Journal Square, also known as Indian Square, Newark Avenue. This place is famous for their Indian community. Lots of incredible Indian restaurants here. Today, I have the pleasure to be taken around by Nikita, a huge fan of mine from Chennai. Amazing. This is incredible. So she wrote me on Instagram. She told me we have to come out here to explore this area. So what are we going to eat here? So we'll have the pav bhaji from Honest. We'll have chaat from Mittas. We'll have eggs, different types of eggs from Eggomania. We'll have biryani from either Biryani Pot or Bawarchi and ended up with paan. Ended up with paan. Yeah. Amazing. So lots of energy. Yes. So there's all veg. Obviously, if you want to go non-veg, there's a lot of chicken places. So they also have some chicken biryani here. There's some supermarkets. There's a sweet shop. And you can buy clothing as well. Yeah. Clothing, electronics, jewelry, gold. And you name it and you have it here. And this used to be the biggest Indian community in the Western Hemisphere. But that sort of changed recently because most people are moving down to Edison, New Jersey, which I'll be going to tomorrow. I can't wait for that. But right now, let's start. I'm hungry. Let's go. I can't wait. Let's go. Let's go. So you have Ganesh Chaturthi coming on. That's the birthday of Lord Ganesha. And it's the day after and it's pretty huge in Indian communities. So all the temples are going to be decorated. So if you don't know who Lord Ganesha is or, you know, God Ganesha is the one with the elephant face, right? Yeah. And so it's Shiva's son. Yeah. Something happened. They cut off his head. Then he went out and he found an elephant, put the head on, right? Something like that. That's right. That's enough. So right here we have Ganesh. Hey, how you doing? I'm fine. What's up, man? Our first stop is Honest Restaurant. Here we're going to have pav bhaji. Pav bhaji, yeah. And it's really famous. It's made with Amul butter, the real Indian butter. And right here, before you enter the restaurant, you have the menu, right? So all the pav bhajis, right? I've had this in Mumbai. Yeah. Really good in Mumbai. Mumbai street food. Then they also have some dosas, Bombay chaat. So chaat's like more street food. Everything looks amazing. Let's go. So this is how they started in Ahmedabad. It was a hand cart, full hand cart. And then they started growing to different countries. And now they are in US. And this is Honest Restaurant. So it's like an Indian diner, fast, casual. And we're sticking to the pav bhaji. So we're just going traditional, regular. So it's a vegetable curry. A lot of tomatoes. You have some potatoes in it as well. You have onions. You have green peas. You have different vegetables. It depends from place to place. Some add cauliflower. Some add bell peppers. So it varies from place to place. But here it's made fresh. And that's their USP. That's the curry. And the next two, you have two pieces of bread, which is the pav. Pav, yeah. So it's a pav. It's soft. Two small buns. And that's to be eaten with the pav bhaji. Perfect. $10? Yep. Let's go. Alright, so this is it. Pav bhaji. Yeah. It's hard to say it. I mean, you've got to really read it. Yeah, it's pav bhaji. Pav bhaji. Yeah, that's right. It's pav bhaji. Yeah. So nice fluffy bread. Bread. Pavs. These are called pavs. This is the bhaji. You have onions and lime. Okay. You just sprinkle it and then dig in. That's it? Yep. And then we also got some mango lassi. Yeah. So this is to cool down the heat because we have Indian spice. Spice. Yeah, Indian spicy pav bhaji. I'm so excited. Me too. We'll add some onions. Okay. Perfect. And we'll add lime. Makes sense that you have all that ghee. Is it ghee? It's butter. It's just butter. Amul butter. Okay. Wow. Can I just try it? Mmm. It's spicy? It's spicy. Oh, it's going to be good. It's going to be good. Mmm. So we just grab a piece of fluffy bread. And... So you just break it off like that? Break it off like this. Okay. And you can take a spoon. Okay. And scoop it in. I'm going to scoop. Cheers. Mmm. Spicy. Yummy. Mmm. Oh, wow. Nice vegetable. Like pasty. Pasty. A lot of butter. Mmm. Creamy. Oh, wow. It's so creamy. Yeah. Oh. It's all the amul butter. I love the bread. And it's crunchy. Mmm. And soft at the same time. This is incredible. I don't even think I've had pav bhaji this good. In the U.S.? Oh, in the U.S. never. U.S., this is the place to go. Yeah. You want to, get the spoon. And just have a bite of... Mmm. Oh, my God. Mmm. It's tasty. Mmm. And this is pure veg. Pure veg. Oh. They make it even without onion and garlic on request. Mm-hmm. For people who are Jain. Okay. So... Yeah, and one thing that, you know, I've been converting a lot of people to Indian food, and they get blown away when they learn this is pure veg. Yeah, pure veg. They're like, how is that possible? Because it's so tasty. Tasty, and it has all the right amount of ingredients at the right quantity. But it's spicy. It's spicy, yeah. It's like real spicy. Yeah. So this is how we Indians eat the street. I love it. Let me join you. Just grab it like that, right? Yeah, just grab it. Oh, look at that. Mmm. It has a tanginess of the tomatoes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Whoa. I'm getting hit hard. Maybe you should try some lassi now. Mm-hmm. I'm gonna finish this whole thing. So it's like a potato mash with green peas... Tomatoes. Onions, bell peppers, and a lot of spices. This one's spicy. Yeah. So they have a house blend here. Mm-hmm. And they make their own spice blend. Okay. And it's spicy and it's fresh. This is so good. If you like like pasty tomato paste... Yeah. With vegetables, I think you'll love it. Obviously, don't go with the Indian heat unless you love spicy food. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And this is how you eat it, right? Yeah. Break, dip, and eat it with your hands. Mmm. I think I have to limit this because we're still allowed to eat. Yeah. And this is what you're supposed to drink, you know, after a really spicy meal. You know, or you're on a really hot day in Mumbai, you drink this. Lassi. The only thing is it's so thick. So it fills you even more. It's not like Amritsar thick. Yeah, it's not. Yeah, but it's thick. It's still thick. It's thick. I've had variations where it's like crazy thickness with like crumbles, right? Yeah, the malai and everything. The malai and everything on top. But this one's a little more watered down, right? Watered down, yeah. But then there's some versions that are super watered. Watered down, yeah. It's somewhere in there between. I think I gotta get a little more. One more bite. Yep. Mmm. Wow, what a delicious spicy meal. Yeah. To start with. Mmm. So this is a Mumbai staple. Yeah, Mumbai straight food. The hard thing in Mumbai is you eat this but you have to be standing up eating it. You know, like it's hard. It's hard. Oh, man. Maybe next place we'll have to tell them to tone it down. I don't know. Are you sure? The spicier the better. I am pretty full but we still have a lot of places to go to. Egg Mania. They have a lot of Indian variety eggs like Surthi Kotala which is a famous Surat street food. And you have Volcano Biryani which has egg in between. And it's really tasty and you should definitely try the spicy one. I'm trying all of them. All of them. Egg spicy biryani. Yes. So here we are at Egg Mania and we'll try all of the different varieties of eggs. And let's start. My man, how are you doing? I'm fine. How are you? Very good. So what are we doing? What eggs are we doing? Something from Surat, right? Surat? I recommend you the Surthi Kotala. That's one of the famous dishes from Surat. And another, it's a biryani. It's called Volcano Biryani. We're going to do those two. Yes. That's perfect. Perfect. So I'm in the back seeing how they make a few dishes. Over here they're making some masala, right? So you have the onions. They put some oil in there. And over here he's making some eggs. And he makes something called Paneer Bhurji. Right? Paneer Bhurji. So it's like a mix of herbs, some vegetables, and then paneer, which is cottage cheese. Right. And over here we have the eggs. Lots of eggs. In Surat I heard it's a street with all the eggs. All the eggs. I gotta go there one day. One day I'll go. Okay. So we have two dishes. I just watched them make both of them. What is this one? So this is called Surthi Kotala. Okay. It is shredded boiled eggs with lots of butter and spices, yumminess. And yumminess. It looks like a thick, pasty, again, you know, you have to use bread, obviously. It's a toasted bread. Okay. So you just break a piece. Break a piece. And just scoop. Sink all the butter and the eggs. And when she says a lot of butter, you put like a big block. Yeah, block. For this one bite. One bite. Yeah. And then you just. Mmm. Spicy. Mmm. A little spicy. Yeah. Mmm. So I'll say like it's a nice scramble egg with paste, you know, a few different herbs in here. Herbs and. Mmm. I'm gonna try it like this. Okay. Mmm. Oh, nice and oily. Yeah. Now I'm getting spice. Yeah. I didn't feel it before. But like the more bites you eat, you're gonna feel the heat and it's gonna be more spicy. And it's super filling dish. Yes. Like it's so thick. So thick. It has butter. It has eggs. And it's just going to fill you up. I've never tried this before. So is this from Surat? Yeah. It's from Surat. It's a street food in Surat. Like a place where you get all egg varieties and it's a specialty there. It's spicy. I feel it. But I need some more. Mmm. What I'm gonna say is that this is probably one of my favorite scrambled eggs ever. Got it. But I heard so many good things about Surat. You know, I went to Ahmedabad in 2018 and everybody's like, how can you not go to Surat for the eggs? And I'm like, next time. Eggs and locho and everything, you need to go to Surat. Mmm. It's really good. The street food there is amazing. This is amazing. This is so like, whoa. I mean, I love the textures, right? Yeah. So it's a big mix here. Yeah. And it's a little slimy too. Yeah. Right like that. Because of the butter and egg. Yeah. Look at this. If I eat this whole dish, I'm done. Yeah. I'll have one more little one but I gotta say, I'll rank this again like top egg dish ever. That's great. Mmm. I'm glad you love it. Mmm. Okay, so before we get to the volcano biryani, which looks like the best biryani of all time, we have like cacao? It's cacao. Cacao. Okay. Cacao is cake, cacao powder with milk. It's sweet and it's so chill. I mean, basically like a chocolate milkshake. Yep. And on top, you can't see it from there but you have the pieces of chocolate. Okay, so how do we eat this? So you have to mix the gravy. Wow, just mix it throughout? Yeah, throughout so that you get, it's evenly spread out. Whoa. This is so unique. You know, I've eaten Indian food so many times. First time trying this dish. Yeah, it's a speciality over here. Wow. And then you have the omelette down here. Yeah, so the omelette's at the very bottom, right? Yep. Just so you break it up? Break it up. Let's do it. Cheers. Oh my god. Another super buttery dish. Spicy? Spicy. Really spicy. And the flavors are really... Love the flavors. So obviously this is not your traditional biryani. Yeah. This is something else. It's just like a mix, maybe say a pulao and with gravy and omelette in the base. It's amazing. It is so unique. Nice flavors, lots of heat. Lots of heat. Eggs everywhere. Yeah, it has boiled egg, it has omelette and... So the omelette's at the very bottom. Yeah, it's in the very bottom. That's the base. Okay. Right there. And you get some more of this. Some of the rice and gravy. The gravy's like all throughout. The spice though. The spice is... It's intense. It is intense. You can feel the butter here as well. The butter. The whole thing is butter. Yeah. Like another big block of butter. Yeah. So lots of butter, lots of eggs, nice gravy and just, you know, infinite eggs here. Yes, infinite eggs. Wow. So Surat is the place to go if you want to eat eggs. Yeah. I should be done with the tour but... No. We need to go one more place. That's hot. Give me two more. So it's a different type of rice. Yeah. It's basmati. Basmati? It's basmati rice. This is perfect to cool me down. Yeah. Nice and liquidy. This is the ultimate biryani. 100%. You got to try this when you come to Jersey City. Yeah. You should. Egg mania. Yeah. I mean, I think this is the spot you have to come to. You have to. You shouldn't miss. You have the same thing in paneer as well. People who don't eat eggs. So that's good to know. So if you're a veg, obviously you'll switch it up. Yeah. They'll switch it up for you. Same way with the surfi gotala. It can be made with paneer as well. Oh. That thing is just like heaven. Heaven, yeah. Take it away. Thank you so much. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you so much. Thank you, bro. Thank you. Amazing. Loved it, man. I'll come back for those eggs, bro. I'll come back for sure. Next time I'm in New York, I come back to Jersey City. Bye-bye. Thank you. Namaste. Namaskar. Let's go. So what is this place? So it's more like a department store which sells all puja items and spiritual items. And they have all kinds of gods and goddesses. So unfortunately, they don't want us to shoot inside. So we're going to keep going and see if we find some more food. Where are we going to next? Next, we'll go to Mithas. It's a chaat place. They also sell sweets, Indian sweets. We'll have their sev puri and raj kachori. I've had both those dishes before. I love them. But I don't know how I'm going to do this. The food, the food caught my mind right now. And it's called Mithas. Mithas. This is Mithas. Every restaurant we've gone to today has a different layout, right? This is more like a bakery layout. Yeah. As soon as you walk in, you have a bunch of tables. I think there's 20 because they have all the numbers, right? Over here, they have all the sweets. Lots of sweets. So the guy said, we'll get you the raj kachori. But instead of getting the sev puri, let's go with ras malai because you have to try a dessert here. So we have ras malai here which is like a mix of cottage cheese, right? Cottage cheese boiled in milk and soaked in milk at this place. And it's a specialty here. This is my favorite. I'm this over gulab jamun or ras gula everyday. Everyday. This is so good. It's sweet. And then right here, we have raj kachori which is like potatoes, a big, huge puri. Huge puri. And it is stuffed with potatoes. It has sweet chutney. It has mint chutney, yogurt, sev, and some cilantro. Amazing. I had this in the city of Jorhat in Assam. Okay. And it was like a big one like this, a monster. Okay. I mean, look how monstrous this is. Huge. So how do you go into this? So you just… Yeah, spoons. Break. Oh. And what I love about this is it's going to be a little cold, right? Yeah. So if you see the stuffing here. And just break. Just break. Cheers. It's so good. It's like the ultimate refreshing chap. Yup. It's sweet. It's cold. It's refreshing. It's crunchy. Crunchy. It has everything. So many textures. Yup. Mmm. If you didn't know, and if you don't know about Indian cuisine, you probably think this is a dessert. Yeah, but it's not. Nah. It's a chaat. It's a street food. It is so unreal. Love the stuffing, right? Yeah. So it's potatoes. You got some lentils, right? Yeah. It has green beans. Mug beans. Mm-hmm. It's so Ben Mashed. Look at this. Every dish I've had so far today has been mind-blowing. Mind-blowing. They're all amazing. Yeah. And obviously, the difference is the people who is doing it, right? Yeah, they're all locals. Most people here, like, born in India and moved over. So a few are like that and a few are second generation. Mm-hmm. So it depends from place to place. It's away from me. Oh. Take it away. I'm serious. I'm sure. Oh, it has chickpea as well. Mm-hmm. So chana. Chana. Mm. We gotta finish this. Yeah, before I get to that, I'm gonna have a few more bites. Yep. You have to come here and try this. The one thing you have to try here is this. Yeah, Raj Kachori is the best thing in Mithas and it's really fresh and refreshing. I think it's also because I haven't eaten this in so long. Could be. Once you go back to India, maybe you'll feel that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Are you ready for dessert? Yep. I know I am. Everybody I introduced to Ras Malai, fall in love. Everybody. My parents. They love it. My cousins, yeah. This sweet dish is just... It's addictive. Yeah. It is. Truly addictive. Cheers. Mm. So it's like a huge... Yeah, cottage cheese like... It's like a... Not meatball. Yeah. Like it's in that shape, right? Yeah, that shape and it's so... It's juicy. It's crumbly. Crumbly and it has a flavor of saffron, pistachios and... Exactly. The milk and Malai. No, the milk. The milk is too much. It's too much. And it's really good. Mm-hmm. I mean, saffron. Wow. And this one. Another one on the bottom? Yeah. Whoa. This is like a lot. I mean, for good measure, right? Yeah. This is my favorite Indian food in America so far. Like straight up. I've had a lot of Indian food in America. Los Angeles, Miami, even yesterday in East Village. But this is something different. You're going to Edison. You'll love it there. I'm going to Edison tomorrow. One more bite? Yeah. I'm done. Thank you. Let's go. Thank you so much. Amazing. I love the Raj Kachori with that Ras Malai. Stole my heart. We are always here for you. Welcome anytime. Thank you. I'll see you next time. Thank you. I'm extremely full but we still have two more things to try. Where are we going? We'll have sugarcane juice and Indian sweet pan right next door to Mithra's. Shital Pan House. This one? Yeah. Oh wow. So this is this restaurant across this little street right here. And we're here at Shital Pan Center. Oh cool. It's a little hole in the wall. So this is the Indian sweet pan. And traditionally you have it in one whole bite. Oh yeah. I've done this multiple times in India. I love it. This gives you energy. It literally gives you wings. Hard to talk. You have the leaf. You have so many different things inside. Nice and sweet. Very sweet. Very sweet yeah. It's just sweet pan. Mithra pan. We call it Mithra pan. It's sweet. And they add gulkand which is made of rose petals and sugar. Once you're done you feel it. You go up. Yeah. Energy level just skyrocket. Yes. I need it right now because it's four o'clock. I'm very tired. And that's how you need to end an Indian meal. With pan. And here he's going to make the sugarcane juice. When you walk the streets of India you'll see guys doing this everywhere. They usually have like a big cart. They have a billion long sugarcanes like this right. This is actually very small. But here he's putting the same machine. Same type of machine right. So it grinds it and extracts sugarcane out right. The juice looks amazing. I can't wait. Obviously lots of sugar. But this is the best refreshing thing you can ever have on the streets of India in the heat. What's up man. How you doing? Good. I'm your subscriber. No way. If it's been here. Dude another subscriber. Yeah. What's your name? Sai. And you're from here? Yeah. New Jersey. Awesome man. So this video is coming out soon. Alright. Plus Edison as well. Alright. Thank you. Thanks bro. Thank you. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. You have followers all over the world. Sugarcane juice. Let's do it. Whoa. So refreshing. I know. We were talking about this earlier. You know when you're walking around India. You're eating you know spicy food. You're out in the super hot sun. And you find a guy selling this. You're like yeah for 5 rupee. You know you get a cup. And that's it. Yeah that's it. It's really refreshing. It is so good. It's so good. And it's natural right? This is the hardest thing to find in America. I actually found a place in Miami. Okay. A Cuban place that has it. Same thing. It has a machine to extract the juice. But this is just unreal. Unreal yeah. Unreal. The Indian thing. They add ginger and lemon to it. So that it gets more flavorful. And sometimes they throw like some masala right? Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. I am so calm now. Calm? I need a bed. Alright I'm gonna finish this really quick. Now. Let's go explore a little more. I know there's a few other shops around here. There's also a grocery store. And this is it right? The strip is very small. I mean it's like 2 blocks. 1 street. That's it. You got restaurants. You have Patel Brothers. Oh Patel Brothers is right here. Bro what up? Hey! Thanks man. What did you guys find today? Oh man. Too many things. So are you guys going to Edison? There are like more places. Tomorrow. Tomorrow right? Tomorrow. So I'm gonna suggest you some place called Mughal. Mughal. Okay. Try that. They got amazing amazing food there. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I will follow you man. Awesome. See you every day. Thanks guys. You're too much man. Hey David before we leave let's go to an appliance store and see what we get. Like all the Indian utensils and we have Lord Ganesha's here. I mean you weren't kidding with the Lord Ganesha. I mean how many does he have? Huge. So people buy these and put them in their homes right? In their shrine. Shrine. And like they bring him. And they celebrate him for like 1 day, 3 day, 5 day depending on how their rituals are. And in the last 11th day they put him back in the river or sea and that's called Visarjan. Okay. Got it. And he comes back every year. Okay. That's Ganesh Chaturthi. So he comes every year. He's prayed for a certain number of days and then he's immersed in the sea or river. Okay. Have the Ganesh Chaturthi coming up. We have a lot of different types of Ganeshas and eco-friendly ones and the decorated ones. Over here we have the pans that they use to make dosas which is a little different right? So it's more like a flat pan. And the reason for that is just the way they do it right? Yes. To make it perfect. Rotis, dosas, parathas and all different kinds of flatbreads. So this is Thoran and this is usually placed outside everybody's house or temples. And it's decorative and it's a kind of symbol like it's an Indian household when you see this outside every house. So this place you can find all the Indian utensils, the cookers. You have this to separate for the thali. So this is like you know the bowl right? So here you put the few different things. So thali basically means big dish and you put a few different things on it. So you have basically you know a big sample of stuff right? Curry, savories, chapatis and what not. I love your shop. Thank you sir. Thank you. I think I'm going to take one of these for my daughters. Do you like girlfriend? I'm married. Okay. This guy's a character. Too much. Okay so my friend here is charging me only $10 for these two. He's giving me basically a gift here. Thank you sir. Thank you so much. I appreciate for coming and I appreciate for visiting. No thank you so much. My daughter's going to love this. Yeah. So blue for Sienna and pink for Melina. I love it. I want some for me. No I'm joking. Give it to you. Yeah. What do you want? I don't know. For men? For men what do you want? I don't know. They have for men? Yeah. No way. They have steel khada. They do? Yeah. Your hand is big. I think so. No. Oh that hurt actually. Yeah I need a pretty big one. Okay. You're too kind. Thank you so much. Nice to see you. Thank you. Take care. Let's go. And that's it my friends. We explored Jersey City's Newark Ave also known as the Indian Square, Journal Square. Yep. Incredible. What an amazing strip. I mean it's just like non-stop Indian restaurants, grocery stores, got jewelry shops. You have places like that one we just went to. And it was amazing. We had papaji. Papaji. We had raj kachori. We had eggs, different styles. That is surti gotala, volcano biryani, sugarcane juice and sweet paan. Sweet paan. Incredible. What an experience. Really some of the most authentic Indian cuisine I've had in the United States of America. Just a quick 30 minute drive from Manhattan. You can also get here with the subway right as well. Yeah you can take a part train and you can get down at Journal Square. Just walk for 2 minutes and you're here. Exactly. Well guys I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did please give me a thumbs up. Leave me a comment below. Subscribe to my channel for more awesome travel content. I'll see you in the next travel food adventure in New York City. Peace out. Hahaha.