Rachel Perlow

or Upton Sinclair.

I wouldn't say it is a "great" restaurant. But, the Melting Pot is very fun and, when I saw it, always busy. We're talking Cheesecake Factory type lines or a full reservation book. I think one in my neck of the woods in NJ, say on Rt 17 by or in a mall, would be hugely successful.

Listening to the radio in the car today, I heard (yet another) ad for Amex Open/Rocco's. It concluded by asking other small business owners for feedback on OpenRocco.XXXX, where Rocco is posting a weekly journal. I posted a question asking about their payroll issues (doubt it will be approved). But at least we know why Rocco hasn't shown up here (besides the obvious).

You should have him (or you could) compare the two and see if it is worth buying or if the homemade is better.

No, it isn't. It's tag team. That is, if you post, you can be nominated. Uh oh.

Not quite the same thing, but a lot of Korean BBQ restaurants leave you to grill your own bulgogi or galbi. Sometimes the waitress would offer to help, but I thought she was only offering because we weren't Korean and I would insist on doing it myself. Eventually, I noticed that many of the other other (Korean) patrons were having the servers man the grill -- like they expected or demanded it. Since then, I have decided to relax and allow them to do the cooking. They usually lose less meat down the grill than I do anyway.

What is that?

Bravo will begin airing repeats of The Restaurant beginning Sept 8th (I know that link says the 16th, but I checked September's schedule).

Dude! Rocco called The Hospital ... and we all know there is only 1 Hospital / Medi centre / Clinic in all of NYC! And his street-fightin'-booze-brawlin' staff wern't there! j/k! Actually, they specifically mentioned Lenox Hill Hospital on the show. And if you call asking for a specifc patient's room, they wouldn't give you the room number, but they would connect you to their room. They wouldn't give the patient's status, but that doesn't extend to saying we have no patient by that name.

Yummy yummy beets! However, I sympathize. Recently a roast chicken dish I ordered came with a side of poached egg (at wd50 in NYC). I didn't like runny egg yolk and always avoided it in the past. However, this time I "bit the bullet" and ate it. I pretended it was a sauce for the chicken. And you know what? I liked it. I have since experienced a renaissance in my egg cooking, trying fried eggs for the first time, both over easy and sunny side up. Sometimes the Food God is trying to teach you a lesson.

branch - thanks so much for the poll results! Veddy interesting. guajolote - tomatoes are high in acid, or at least high enough for regular home canning. vox - I didn't say the theme song was "good," I said it was the best part of the show. Not the same thing.

Yes, I realized that. Just took it as an opportunity to tell people about that board feature. I think we should just set the 40 view as default.

No, not etiquette per se, but it would have been helpful if you had, for both the person you were making the inquiry to and to the rest of us reading along. Edit: See now, I edited my post when I saw that it started a new page (40 posts per page view). That way people don't have to go back to see to what I am referring.)

Page 35? It "only" shows 27 pages for me. Did you know you can change your page view options to show more posts per page? Click My Controls, go to Options/Board Settings. Change Number of Posts & Number of Topics to 40 (the maximum). Less clicking of "next page."

Here's a link to a previous discussion about Ninety Grand Grille.

Here's a link to Corcoran's review of East, better late than never.

Man, get yourself a food processor. No way you can grind beans in a blender. At minimum, get a hand cranked meat grinder. I'm sure you can get one of those pretty cheaply in PR. A lot of the recipes I read called for a meat grinder anyway.

OK, that I can agree with.

Obviously, Jason and my opinions differ. Jon - what did you think of the pho?

I would say it is definitely not worth the drive if you like Saigon Republic. However, if you are in the area or are driving down to Little Saigon but they are full up, then it is worth checking out. No tommy, the pho is just OK. The broth was good, but a little light in flavor, bean sprouts were fresh, plenty of herbs, light on the meat (we only had 1 sample of Pho Tai, rare sliced beef). It depends on what you're looking for in a Vietnamese place.

I would take broccoli (and other veggies like carrots & cauliflower) from the salad bar. Put in a bowl with a pat of butter. Cover with a napkin and nuke in the microwave for a minute or so. Vastly better than the mushy steam table "veggies."

eGullet Homework Assignment Interview non-foodie co-workers and family to see if they've been watching The Restaurant. Best to start with those you know already watch reality TV shows like Survivor or Meet My Folks. Some sample questions to ask them: 1) Do you watch The Restaurant? If yes, please continue... 2) Do you like the show? How do you think it compares to other reality TV shows? 3a) If you live in NYC, would you want to go to Rocco's? Even though the cameras are no longer rolling? OR 3b) If you visit NYC on vacation, would you make it a priority to eat at Rocco's? 4a) How much does Spaghetti and Meatballs cost at your favorite Italian-American restaurant? Taking into account that the food at restaurants in NYC tend to cost more due to high overhead, is $15 for Spaghetti and Meatballs too much money, cheap, or an appropriate amount? 4b) Same question for veal parmesean, only the price is $23. 5) If you do go to Rocco's would you expect: the food to be good or bad? the food to be served hot or cold? to see celebrities? to have a good time? the service to be good or bad? to see Rocco? to see Rocco's Mama? As long as you won't get in trouble at work for asking these questions, I'm really curious for the response of people who aren't as deeply interested in the restaurant itself, but in it just as a TV show. I tried to write those questions to not be leading (i.e. assuming a negative or positive response), try to ask them without expressing your opinion (assuming you haven't already made that opinion known ).

I think she wasn't feeling very well the morning after the wedding. We'll have to forgive her.

We stopped by Cosi for dessert tonight, had the s'mores. Very fun and yummy. Of course you could make them for yourself at home, but it was a fun & chatty activity. I think it would be great for a date. Not a first date, but a second or third date, sure. BTW - jhlurie was with us and was surprised at the prices. Apparently the sandwich prices at the Englewood location are significantly less than the NYC locations. They also have a website: https://www.getcosi.com/ Unique gift idea: S’mores Kit by Mail, $65, includes everything but the sterno.

We went to Pho Van Tuan for dinner tonight. Conclusion: The food is cheap (total for 3 people, including tax & tip was $57) and the portions are therefore appropriately small, but the food is very good. We ordered a large assortment of dishes, including a few appetizers (the roast quail and sauteed beef cubes being the standouts), pho tai (tasty broth and fresh salad/condiments but little meat), Beef rolled with green onion over Rice Noodle (Bun), and Lemongrass (grilled) chicken over rice. I can see going there if you live in the area or when Little Saigon in Nutley is packed (which is frequently due to their small seating capacity). Since they deliver (sometimes, when they have extra help, like on the weekends), we'll probably be ordering from there when visiting our friends in the area. There is a language barrier, and we had trouble ordering some of the dishes from the all Vietnamese list, even though they had an English translation. They were out of a lot of what we tried to order. Apparently more choices are available on the weekends. Jason took some pictures, they should be posted soon.