Oh, come on.

Irma's. Irma's! IRMA's!!!

Jersey City's seriously very best soul food.

The chicken is fried with lard, the skin is crisp, the flesh is juicy, not greasy. Irma's fried chicken will kill you RIGHT.

Find her at (592?) Communipaw Avenue between Monticello and Bergen, closer to Monticello.

Hudson Farmers Market
3437 John F Kennedy Blvd
Jersey City, NJ 07307
(201) 792-2992

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C-Towns are franchises, so they are run independently. The one at Bergen Square, like any grocery store, has strengths and weaknesses. A plus is that the owner/manager is not complacent and is always working on improving it.

They do have a decent deli counter. They carry some organic produce and dairy, including eggs, which is imporatnt for me to have near home. To me, the fish sometimes looks like it is frozen thawed and refrozen; I don't buy it. The beef and lamb usually look good.

Nice specialty/ethnic items throughout the store. Good source for nuts, in the back, behind produce.

Twin City also has its strong points, including, as I've pointed out elsewhere on the list, its fish counter, whole fish, fresh, reasonably priced. The fishmonger here is an independent purveyor, not part of Twin City.

Twin City also has amazing meat, if you're into beef and pork. Nothing organic that I've seen, though.

Finally got to Morton Williams this past Friday. Its newness shows primarily in its pricing inconsistency.

Imo, every large grocery store has good things about it and bad. No one store will satisfy all my wants and needs.

What I like about this store is, first, it's open and easy to navigate with a cart. Also,

- Great tea selection, pretty good coffee selection, decent prices on both

- Murray's and Bell & Evans chickens at reasonable prices. D'artagnan organic too, but priced at least $.50/lb. higher than A&P. They do carry frozen D'artagnan specialty items, like a whole organic rabbit, good to know.

- The fish is nice, but $1-2/lb. over A&P, which also has pretty nice fish. However, I did avail myself of a tilapia special at $2.99. It was frozen and thawing but too cheap to pass up. It was fine.

- They have an Asian aisle, which includes Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Pacific Island items, as well as an Indian section. The frozen aisles are broken down this way too. (We're so lucky here in JC!)

- A wide variety of specialty items, like condiments, European (French, German, Polish) mustards and choucroute-type items; Spanish and Italian tuna in cans and jars; other fancy preserved fish items. Also, what I thought was going to be about $20 worth of of Spanish saffron in a nice small square glass jar was $7.99!

- The produce is good, some is priced ok, some is through the roof. There is some organic too. You just have to check everything. And YES, right now those 99 cent blueberries are a steal. i bought three pints to make a pie -- $3.00 (plus crust and a little whatever) to make a pie?!

*** in-season tip: when an item like this goes very cheap in season, buy extra toward the end of the season and freeze them in large, double-zipper freezer bags. thawed blueberries work perfectly well for pancakes, pie, cake or jam...how nice to have flavorful blueberries in october!

My shopping companion asked why the cash register receipt said ShopRite and was told they buy from ShopRite's warehouse. Interesting. We both noted that it wasn't the place to buy regular grocery items; they're just too overpriced.

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The menu says they do. Why don't you go there and eat in once, get a sense of the place, the people and the food. Then you can ask them what their delivery schedule is.

As they say, she oughta bottle that stuff. Seriously, it is perhaps the best vinegar-based hot sauce I've ever had.

Here's why:

Its flavor is complex, with high and low notes.

Its aroma is intoxicating. When you smell it, you want to eat it. This is normal for food, but not for hot sauce.

It is very hot, but its heat does not diminish the depth of its flavors at all.

It's one of the most enjoyable experiences with heat I've ever had.

Like njxbean, I take extra when I get food to go there. I would buy a bottle of that sauce in a minute if I could it.

Hell, I would market and sell that sauce. It would be easy money, imo.

Also, the meat patties and the fish patties, the roast pork, the cook-up rice and anything jerked are my favorites. All the sides are good -- cabbage, spinach and squash.