Rachel Perlow

They have a special of Soft Shell Crabs right now that is so good. These crabs were bigger than the one's I had at America last week!

That's the kind of beets whose seeds I just planted, couldn't remember the name before. Let me ask you about the berries. Do they vine or bush and if vining, could I let them grow up the chain link fence we just put up to keep the dogs out of the garden? Do the berry plants come back every year or do you need to replant them? Should I start from seed or roots or seedlings? Does anyone know any good mail order sources as I haven't seen them at local garden centers? I'd really like to grow blueberries and blackberries (I don't like raspberries as much). Thanks!

OK, I've just called in the final headcount of 11 to Sean. We will be served appetizers of Bruschetta, Tuna Tataki, Mozzarella Napoleon, Mussels and Hotsy Totsy Shrimp. These will be served family style so everyone can have a taste. Next, three kinds of salads will also be served family style, the Bella Rosa, Ceasar and WOW. Then everyone can order their entree off the menu, followed by a selection of desserts. Click here for a link to Bella Rosa's website, click Dinner Menu to review the menu. Even though we are ordering main courses from the menu, we are being offered a fixed price, so dinner will be $33 per person, which includes tax and tip, but not drinks. The restaurant is BYOB, so feel free to bring any wine and/or beer that you would like to drink and/or share. See you all on Saturday at 5 PM. Email me at rperlow@hotmail.com if you have any change of plans, or if you have not yet RSVPed and would like to attend (I don't think adding a few more people will be an issue).

This thread was moved to the Cooking forum from the India forum by Suvir's request.

My mother and I are planning on going to the walk in the South Mountain Reservation (NJ) on Sunday, July 14th. What kind of mushrooms should we expect to find there then? I've left a phone message for the walk leader, I'll post the additional details after getting the info from him.

The Hilton at Short Hills has a gorgeous buffet brunch, as does The Manor in West Orange.

Could we make this thread an ongoing gardening discussion, not just about the garden in London? I was just thinking of starting a thread like this. For the first time we decided to grow some stuff from seeds (snap peas, string beans, okra, beets, mustard greens). Then the day after planting we were inundated with rain. Is this beneficial to the germination or could they have been overwatered by this? In addition to the above seeds, we also planted seedlings of about a dozen different types of tomatoes, chiles and other peppers, zucchini, cucumber, 3 types of eggplant, cantaloupes and herbs. What is everyone else growing? How do you choose? We try to grow things that are either expensive or hard to get in the stores (the beets we planted are striped beets, I'd plant some golden beets if I could find the seeds or seedlings). Or, items that we love to eat young and fresh from the garden (the cukes and zukes and string beans).

Darn! They had Stupice at Cross Country Nurseries and I didn't buy any. Live and learn, next year it'll be on my list.

When we first discovered Kinara, we made a point to try the buffet. Although it was probably on a weekend too, I'd assume weekday buffet is similar. We thought it was an OK Indian Buffet, but not worth the drive the way dinner is. So, if you are in the area anyway and in the mood for it, it is fine, but otherwise just go there to order off the menu.

I assume you mean it's really far away from where you've since moved to? Because Cinque Figlie only moved a couple of miles, Cedar Knolls is right next door to Morristown.

Clarified. You should learn to use the Smilies to help convey feelings as sometimes things are unclear online.

Just to clarify, we did not add all that simple syrup to only 1/3 of the puree. It was added to all the puree, then we only froze 1/4 of the "batter." See my description under the Cooking Forum. Also, Suvir, I think Jason was mostly kidding, we are not planning on having you cater for us any time soon. We'll bring you a taste of the sorbet on Saturday.

I think he's joking, but I'm not sure. He goes there way more than we do!

I remember Steve Klc recommending constructing a cage out of a cardboard box for containing the spray when using a paint gun to spray chocolate. I bet the same advice would be good for producing sugar threads.

Wow! I won't be throwing anything, but I will say I've never seen this kind of behavior there before. What a shame it ruined your Mother's Day. For what it's worth, I've found that it usually seems the asian families are seated in the first room and there are more caucasians in the nicer looking room. Also, we've talked to Cecil about what to put on the tables at the beginning of the meal. He would like to give everyone the seaweed with sesame oil, but has found that many non-chinese people still ask for the fried noodle chips and then don't touch the greens. They didn't even put those on the table? I guess you won't be going there on your own again anytime soon, but you could have just asked for the greens, they would have been brought, I'm sure. FYI - I know that Cecil has read eGullet and I will forward him this post. Perhaps he'd care to respond. It may have been a stressful, busy day, but I agree that there's no excuse for fighting with a customer.

Rosie, I think when thereuare mentioned Lighthouse, he was talking about the Korean place in Fairview, not the Dominican place that is now called Casa del Faro in West New York. Here are links about each: Casa del Faro, West New York/NJ Forum Lighthouse (aka Myung Ga) in Fairview/NJ Forum However, I concur with her recommendation of Casa Vasca in Newark, except that it is very crowded on Saturday nights and Glenn would have to wait a long time. Better locations for a Saturday night would be Spanish Sangria or Seabra's at Meditteranean Manor.

This weekend we planted: Small/Cherry: Riesentraube, Isis Candy, Red Currant, Grape, Yellow Pear Medium/Plum: Martino's Roma, San Marzano, White Beauty, Green Zebra (does anyone know how you are supposed to know when green tomatoes are ripe?) Large: Black from Tula, German Red Strawberry, Hawaiian Pineapple I bought them all at Cross Country Nurseries in NJ. Here is a link to their website: http://www.chileplants.com/. They are primarily known for their enormous selection of chilies, which you can mail order, and there are great pictures of most types of chilies on the website. If you want tomatoes you have to go to the nursery, they only mail order the chilies. Here's a link to my post in the Special Occasions forum about my visit to the nursery.

We've owned our Weber for more than a year and the ignition still works fine.

Forno's sucks.

Oops, I posted that post above as Jason, but I wrote it. Whatever (no, we are not the same people, just sometimes share the same computer). Roadhouse is good for a casual weeknight, burgers, sandwiches, etc. I consider it like TGIF (which Jason won't ever set foot in), but with better food. I forgot about Cafe Italiano Restaurante, which I think is in Fort Lee, not Englewood Cliffs. Excellent place, stupid name. We keep trying to go to Ciao Bella, but never have a reservation (do they even take reservations?) and can't stand the lines. The turkish place, Samdan, right across from it is very good though. BTW - the fish market in Cresskill on the main street, near the corner of Piermont Rd, is excellent.

We went to America in Tenafly on Friday night (see the what you ate this weekend thread). Although we had reservations, I don't think they were necessary considering the place was only half full the entire time we were there (7:30 reservations). I'd assume Saturday would be a little busier, but just calling ahead might be enough notice.

America was wonderful. We have to go there more than once a year. Some items we had were appetizers of duck confit over a mango jicama salad, the best black bean soup I ever tasted (it had bacon and crawfish in it), shrimp that Jason wouldn't let me taste. Entrees included soft shell crabs, diver scallops, poached lobster (not a seafood place, just a table in a seafood mood); I managed to snag half a scallop, heavenly. Kept desserts simple, sorbet, fresh berries. My dad ordered cheesecake, which was more like an individual cheesecake tart with chocolate and raspberries on top (didn't get a taste). With a relatively inexpensive bottle of wine, tax & tip, total was $270 for four. Moderately expensive, but I feel it was worth it.

Jason and I returned there last night with jhlurie and his brother. Saturday night is obviously the busiest night of the week for them, just as it is for most restaurants. However, the staff seemed a little overwhelmed by the crowd. Drink refills and table clearing was more sporadic and the galbi grill was unattended for at least 20 minutes. When the grill was being manned again there were longer lines than we had ever seen before and the meat was being portioned out, rather than set out on platters (on previous visits we were fill a plate and bring back to the table to share among all of us). Also, this time the lobster was brought to our table, one half-lobster per person, and that's it, no seconds, it was not on the buffet display. I asked the waitress about it and she said, it is "sometimes" on the buffet. So, our fist visit there must have been one of the rare occasions when they had it on the buffet. The rest of the buffet was pretty similar to other nights (many hot and cold choices, but not the same choices everynight). I would like to mention that previously the fish had been excellent and interesting, last night it was just poached salmon and it was overcooked. Sushi, on the other hand, was just as good as on our other dinner time visit. Other asian buffet places seem to use a lot more rice when making their sushi, the nigiri here is very delicate. I especially enjoyed the salmon and eel. Our conclusion, lunch is the best value, weekday dinner if you are in the mood for more seafood, and never go on a Saturday night! Actually, I'd assume Friday night is just as crazy and make that don't go on any weekend night.

Tonight, we're going to America in Tenafly with my parents. Combo birthday/Mother's Day, get me out of going to brunch Sunday morning thing. We were going to go to Gramercy Tavern on Saturday night, but between our friends dropping out on us and planting most of the garden tomorrow we decided to stay local and cancelled the reservation. I suppose where we go tomorrow depends on how wiped we are from gardening. I drove two hours to Rosemont, NJ, to the Cross Country Nurseries (clickee) today and picked out a variety of chilis and tomatoes to plant. I'll post more about that (I took pictures) in a while.

OK - I'm calling the restaurant tomorrow and telling them the reservation is for 9. If you are interested in going contact me ASAP (if you are reading this after the 10th, and you think you'd like to attend, then email me rperlow@hotmail.com so I can check if we can add you on. See you all next week!