I posted the pizza part of this trip on the Pizza forum, so forgive the duplication, but since I made a day trip out of it, I decided to add a Trip Report as well.
I was intrigued by this article in the NY Times last week, so off I went down south on Friday, doing a loop thru Ocean and Monmouth Counties NJ.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/nyregion/02rays.html My first stop was Forked River German Butcher Shop on Lacey Road in Forked River. Very busy, good sized German Deli, with a small eat-in area as well. I bought a pound of Hot Dogs (very reasonable at $4.99/lb, in my view anything less than $5.99 is a very good price), a pound of Bratwurst (Also $4.99) and a pound each of German and Regular Potato salad. Also, I'm not sure what pepperoni rolls were doing in a German Butcher shop, but theirs were excellent. I had one outside in the car and brought one home for later. A delicious roll of pepperoni, ham and roasted peppers. A great start to the day.
The wursts were our Sunday dinner. (50 MPH winds and 30 degree temps on Sunday made it unpleasant and difficult to grill outside, but I had to do what I had to do). The Hot Dogs (Beef and Pork with natural casing) were excellent, as was the German Potato salad. The bratwurst was OK, but a little bland.
My next stop was nearby, at the Forked River location of Surf Taco, a small Jersey Shore chain of “Mexican” fast food that seems to be growing day by day. Growing way too fast in my opinion. Suffice it to say that if you are going to name your small chain of fast food places "Surf Taco" you better be sure the Tacos themselves are good, which these weren't. They were cold and barely done, and possibly stale as well. They were supposed to be soft tacos, but they felt like day old soft tacos. I’m not sure how any store manager could have possibly let these get out of the kitchen.
I had a chicken taco and a grilled shrimp taco, and also got one of each to go. The insides were OK and fresh but nothing special. The sauces were OK. I don’t see any reason to go back.
Here’s their website, if anyone wants to give another location a try:
http://www.surftaco.com/ I drove over to the actual shore area a few more miles east to walk around, then headed back up the Parkway to Hazlet and Rays. I couldn't find anything on the internet about Ray's (no web site) and I wasn't sure if it was an eat-in or just a take out place so I called ahead and ordered a 1/2 sausage 1/2 plain cheese pizza to go.
I had one slice of each in the car. The sausage half was excellent, good quality sausage and nice slightly crispy crust. The plain cheese half wasn't nearly as good, this was confirmed by my wife when she had her slices that night. The crust was just average and the sauce and cheese was fine but not special. I don't know how that could be (one half great and one half just OK), but that's the way it was.
Anyway it's a nice roadside type place, I'm sure I'd stop in again and this time eat in, and see which half of the pizza is the Real Ray's Pizza.
So 2 hits and one miss. That’s a good average for any quick Roadfood Trip.
