Rachel Perlow

I think this would best be moved to the Food Media or Florida forum.

Fink - do you grind your own ground beef? I've noticed that the servers don't ask about doneness. I had a 4 oz burger at your restaurant once and even though it was cooked through, and even had a crunchy crust, the inside was still nicely juicey. So, even though it wasn't pink on the inside it was still good. Do you eat burgers? at your own place? And if so, what degree of doneness do you prefer? Please forgive me, I know that this is a tough, loaded question, but I really am curious.

I was thinking the same thing! Wow, more than 2 lines!!!

The menu at your new restaurant is purely French, yet I understand that your reputation is based on an eclectic, fusion approach. Has it been difficult to leave that proven style behind and the signature dishes that went with it?

We've been there many times when she wasn't there. It's just as good - she learned from her mom and aunt anyway. And I purposefully left out the name of the restaurant (although many of you are familiar with our speaking about it) because I don't want you all to hold it against them.

Joe - I know how you feel. There is a restaurant that Jason and I frequent because we love it. It is automatically the answer (from both of us) to anyone's question of "what's your favorite restaurant?" This is a small (less than 25 seats), family-run place. There is no way for us to "sneak in" - they know when we are there. We go there about once a week and would probably go there more frequently, except they always take at least 50% off the bill.* (This is most definitely not why we like the place or why we refer people there.) We cannot stop them from doing this. I have even said to them "hey, we'd like to come more often, but don't want you to think we are taking advantage of your generocity." They insist they would never think this, but still, we feel uncomfortable going there as often as we might for fear of them feeling taken advantage of. We have started to help them out in other ways, by hosting their website, so that we can feel that this is the way they are paying us for that service. It does feel great to be part of a restaurant's "inner circle" and have them make special things just for us. But that relationship grew from our initial appreciation for the place, people and food. If you have this kind of special relationship with a restaurant, how did it develop and how do you feel about it now? ____________________________ * We had to make up an interesting story about why they couldn't comp us the time we were there with Jason's "boss" who was paying (actually a food reviewer for a prominent paper).

Link to review? Record or Star Ledger?

He's a brand new poster. How do you all know you know him personally? I assume this means that one or another of the people saying they know him were the ones that told him about egullet. Thanks alot.

Point of confusion: Was the 200 people event on or off premises? I agree with the theory that drrevenue seems to think that he is entitled to both special treatment as a friend and regular treatment as a customer. Further, anyone who makes personal attacks on one of the site's founders, who obviously has not done any research on that person, when they themselves are a brand new member of the site (wasn't the first post in this thread drrevenue's very first post ever?), does not deserve my respect nor the attention of so many prominent members of this forum. On another note: You can? Please elaborate. I thought Broadway tickets were non-refundable.

Are we going to pre-order this thing, or is everyong just going to get their own thing? My guest doesn't eat sushi. I don't care about which place we're going to, either is fine with me. Have any of you ever been to Tokyo East? That's the place in East Hanover in front of the bowling alley. It's pretty good too. And, no, you aren't actually in the bowling alley.

Kyoto is in Florham Park, on Columbia Tpke, in the strip mall opposite Treasure Island, the one with the McDonalds in the parking lot. Pull in the parking lot and the restaurant is near the elbow joint of the strip. Do they still do hibachi there? BTW - I'm in and I may be bringing a guest.

Jon - Have you driven by the Leonia location yet? It is only about 10 minutes from where you live.

Fink's wings are tasty! I wonder when the Munchmobile will make it there?

In your area, I'd recommend: Nagano on Washington St in Morristown (upstairs across from where Cinque Figlie used to be, current landmark would be Grand Cafe I guess) Nikko in Whippany, as Lou said Sono in Millburn Here's a link to a previous discussion about Japanese Restaurants in NJ.

Sounds like a field trip. Here's the current link for the fair. September 21-28, 2002.

The owners of the website probably included the work "Peking" in their code somewhere so that their site would show up when you do a search.

The shrimp appetizer was called Dancing Coconut Shrimp if I recall correctly. That was fun. Otherwise I agree with everyone else. Stick to simple dishes and concentrate on your other reasons for being there that evening.

Here’s the resolution to the refrigerator issue. First off, it wasn't just not working, I also didn't like the way it stuck out from the cabinet. KitchenAid (and many other brands) Stainless Steel-look refrigerators have black sides. The fridge stuck out about 6 inches from the cabinet so the black sides were exposed, which will not look right in my light colored kitchen. I expressed my displeasure and blamed it on my designer who should have, in my opinion, pointed out that this would happen and that I should have bought a counter depth model. So, I am swapping it for a similar looking KitchenAid fridge, and got them to waive the restocking and redelivery fees. This is the refrigerator that sticks out too much. The new one is supposed to be delivered in about a week. The new fridge is a little bit more money, but we actually got an excellent price on it. It was a decision between the "Architect" series or the regular KitchenAid 36" Stainless Steel Counter Depth fridges. The Architect series is more expensive, but was what we had in the non-counter depth model that we were replacing. It was recently on sale at Expo; even though the sale had ended the sign hadn't been taken off the display, so they're honoring that price. At this point I didn't even haggle because I had researched the prices on the regular model and realized that the price they were offering on the Architect model was lower then I could get online for the regular model. Here is a picture of it: I am glad we were able to get the Architect model because the handles we bought for the cabinetry mimic the demi-lune shape of the refrigerator's handles. Another feature of the fridge we like is the easy access to the water filter, which is in front through the bottom grill.

Nope. I will admit to trying them again recently. This is because of an eGullet inspired resolution to sample disliked foods occasionally on the theory that eventually I will learn to appreciate or even like them. This is the same resolution that led me to sample sweetbreads twice in the past year, they're still in the negative column. Took me a long time to learn to appreciate olive oil too.

Fink - Here is the pig we saw at Expo that we were talking to you about last time we were in:

Olives! Blech! Ptooey! Yuck. Where's that eleven foot poll thread when I need it?

I also coincidentally noticed I had a Lidia's Italian Table episode about pasta on my DVR, so I watched it and she did a raw tomato sauce with rotelle. Here's what I did: 1) Quartered cherry (2-3 varieties) and grape tomatoes, removing only the core if it looked hard, leaving seeds; diced and removed seeds from 3 green zebras (excellent heirloom variety, I highly recommend them) and a few San Marzano (that's what the variety is called, even though they weren't grown on the slope of a mountain). The San Marzano's are very pasty, so they are probably only good for sauce. I saved most of them for a cooked sauce. About 3 cups of tomatoes. 2) Added several grinds of kosher salt and about 1/4 cup of Bettini EVOO (purchased from Jim Dixon), stirred. 3) Minced 1 clove of garlic, placed it into a pyrex measuring cup, heated about 1/4 EVOO (I would have used a plainer oil, but I only had peanut and that EVOO in the house) and poured it onto the garlic. Allowed to sit for several minutes until cool. 4) Put the pot of water to boil. Grated parmesean cheese and tore up some fresh basil, oregano, mint and 1 sage leaf (could have used one or two more, didn't taste the sage at all). Strained the garlic out of the oil and added it and the herbs to the sauce (squeezed through the sauce with my hand a little). Reserve garlic flavored oil in the fridge for another use. 5) Cook pasta (farfalle/bowties). Meanwhile, put serving bowl in sink with colander set inside. Strain pasta, lift off colander, reserve some of the cooking water. Dump out the rest of the hot water. Mix tomatoes and pasta in the hot bowl with a little cooking water and mix in the cheese. 6) We both said, "Oh Wow is this good!" Nothing can beat ripe home-grown tomatoes.

Thank you for your additional suggestions, but that would require a trip to the store, and Jason isn't eating too much cheese these days anyways. I do have some good parmesean in the fridge though.

One-Burner Outdoor Kitchen.

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