By Peter Genovese/The Star-Ledger
Joe Epstein
A "runner'' delivers a plate of fried chicken at Max's of Manila in Jersey City.
To anyone who saw a guy with two big red shopping bags on Newark Avenue in Jersey City earlier this week, greedily devouring what appeared to be pork skin, I have just this to say:
I couldn’t wait any longer.
The pork, and the shopping bags, were from Max’s of Manila, the popular Filipino fried chicken chain that opened a Jersey City restaurant in late 2010.
The pork was crispy pata, a formidable piece of pork knuckle with a crackly, fatty skin that was impossible to resist. I blame my sidewalk dining on the friendly counter girl who said they leave the top of takeout boxes open so the meat won’t dry out. The smell of the pork and fat was so overpowering, I just had to stop on the street and rip off chunks of the perfectly cooked skin.
The chicken, buried somewhere in those shopping bags, could wait.
Joe Epstein
The crispy pata or pig's knuckle at Max's of Manila.
Max’s is a familiar name in the Philippines, with 100-plus locations there, and is slowly making inroads in this country. There are five in California, two in Hawaii and one in Jersey City — the latter no surprise, in light of the city’s Little Manila neighborhood.
Maximo Gimenez was a Stanford-educated teacher who befriended the American occupation troops in Quezon City after World War II; soldiers visited his home for drinks, later prompting him to open a cafe that served steak and chicken. The chicken became a hit and now Max’s is known as “the home that fried chicken built.” You can’t go far in metro Manila without spotting the familiar red logo.
The Jersey City store — located next to Phil Am Food, a Filipino grocery store — is a casual restaurant with booths and tables, and white walls and ceiling. It’s not quite fast food; a sign asks you to wait to be seated, and there are no items under heat lamps.
The chicken? Tender, with a crispy golden skin that tasted fine fresh or reheated in a convection oven eight hours later. A whole chicken is $12.95, a half $7.95. The crispy pata ($12.95 small, $17.95 large) may be even better; whether eaten at home or on the sidewalk, the pig knuckle is a juicy snap-crackly delight.
The online menu (warning: several listed dishes are not available in Jersey City) makes for fun, informative reading. Kare-Kare ($11.95 small, $18.95 large) is a “rich and exquisite” dish with oxtail, ox tripe and chuck in an “interesting” peanut sauce. I liked it — the thick, nutty sauce seemed like Thanksgiving by way of Manila — although colleagues steered away from it.
The sizzling beef ($14.95) is a stew-like concoction of meat, carrots and peppers with an agreeably spicy afterkick. Pancit canton, a Chinese noodle dish ($8.95), boasted intriguing ingredients (shrimp, chicken, chicken liver and gizzard), but the noodles tasted gummy. The sinigang hipon ($8.95 small, $15.95 large) is a pleasant sour shrimp soup with okra, onions and other vegetables.
Joe Epstein
Several sauces are available tableside in Max's.
Given the choice between “fresh” and “fried,” most people would probably choose the former, but they’d be misguided, at least when it comes to lumpia, the Filipino egg roll. The fresh version ($6.75) packs coconut heart, pork, shrimp and crabmeat in a bland crepe that does not hold up. The fried version? That’s the ticket. Same ingredients, but the fried shell makes for a different and supremely satisfying experience. The accompanying garlic-vinegar dipping sauce is a strong and potentially hair-raising delight.
Fried — can’t escape that word here — also elevates the banana caramel cheesecake ($5.95) to dessert hall of fame levels. Instead of the familiar slice of cheesecake from your local diner, Max’s cheesecake is in the form of lightly fried wedges of creamy, delicious cake. Other desserts include halo-halo, a popular Filipino iced treat with fruits, shaved ice, evaporated milk and ice cream ($5.95).
Other entrees include Filipino bistek ($10.95), chicken or pork adobo ($8.95) and pinakbet ($8.95), a meat and vegetable stew. Among the beverages are calamansi juice ($3.25), named after the most popular citrus fruit in the Philippines; and buko (coconut) juice ($3.95).
On weekend mornings, you can get traditional Filipino breakfast dishes including bangsilog ($7.95), with fish, fried rice and egg; and longsilog ($6.95), with Filipino sausage, eggs and garlic-fried rice.
The fried chicken went home the night of my visit. The pork? Dinner the following night. And it was enjoyed at a dining room table, not on the sidewalk. Standing up to eat is sometimes unavoidable, but it’s not a good idea when you’re tackling a massive pig knuckle.
Max’s of Manila
687 Newark Ave., Jersey City. (201) 798-2700, maxschicken.com.
Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m Sundays through Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays; 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays.
Peter Genovese: (973) 392-1765 or
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. Twitter: @NJ_Munchmobile and @petegenovese'
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