Rachel Perlow

I'm so upset we're going to miss this shindig, it sounds like it'll be a great time. Part of our responsibilities was my making the Banana Pudding on Friday. I hope someone will volunteer to pick up the slack. Here's the recipe. Varmint was going to pick up the bananas ahead of time so they'd have a few days to ripen. Did you do that already, Dean? Also, I'm hoping someone from the NYC area would be willing to bring up my t-shirts & mugs (I had them shipped to Varmint's along with the extra shirts to sell at the party). In addition, anyone passing through our neck of the woods either heading down or on your way back home (Marlene?) should feel free to drop us a note and we can get together for lunch or dinner around here. Rachel

Yeah! Bunny! Yummy!

Could you tell us about shopping and other foodie destinations besides restaurants? I think part of the goal of this thread is to not only tell us about the local restaurants, but other experiences which make the area worth a long drive.

The Pig Pickin's made it to the Upcoming Events section of the main board index! Wheee.

Does anyone else make their own vanilla extract? I have a small bottle I keep in the spice cupboard. I take my leftover scraped pods and store them in the bottle covered with rum. Works well for me, the vanilla flavor comes through pretty quickly. I try to use white rum to avoid too much of a rum flavor and also that way I can seel when the liquid takes on a more brown vanilla color.

Is Bar Demi also closed then? I believe they shared the kitchen so I'd figure it is, but don't want to assume.

Jackson Hole has already been covered:

Jason and I went to dinner at Saigon Republic in Englewood tonight. We parked just up the street in front of this new store. A family party was just breaking up as we arrived, they had been having a "set up the store" party and the grand opening is tomorrow. After dinner we noticed a few people still inside so we stopped in to say hello and check it out. The grocery part is not huge, but a nice selection including souvenier trinkets from Puebla, all along one wall of the store. The rest is cold case & counter for prepared food. Soon there will be a few tables between the service area and the soda fridges in back, but they were not in evidence tonight. Jason got to sample the kick ass mole sauce that Jesus, the cook/owner (who formerly worked at Chez Dominique in Bergenfield), had served earlier at the party. We also learned they will be soon selling tacos, tortas, taquitos, etc. Saturday is their Grand Opening at Noon, featuring Free Tamales! El Paso Mexican Grocery and Deli 46 West Palisade Avenue Englewood, NJ 07631 201-567-3201

I posted Jason's grandfather's recipe for tuna on RecipeGullet. It's good, but too much onion for my taste. I usually use Solid White in water, Hellman's mayo, finely diced celery, grated lemon zest and a squeeze of juice. Optional additions are oregano, pepper or lemon pepper, onion (preferably red onion). NO PICKLE RELISH. Blech. Almost any kind of bread is good, usually but not strictly untoasted. Lettuce and tomato slices please. That being said... the best tuna sub I've ever had was the made by Dino, former owner of Dino's Bakery, formerly in Cliffside Park (I miss Dino, he sold the place a couple of years ago to his apprentice, that guy did not have Dino's magic touch, business run down and closed. Now, to add insult to injury, there's going to be a Domino's in that location. ). He used an imported Italian brand of tuna in olive oil and he mashed it up with diced tomato. Oh his freshly baked crusty bread. Mmmm. Usually, tuna is a "when Jason's not home" treat. He can't even stand the smell of it.

Homemade blackberry jam? drool.

I got brought along today for tacos. Whoa, really really good. And big. Well not big, diameter-wise, but more filling (meat-wise) than any of the other local authentico Mexican joints. The pile of chopped up bits of bisteca, pollo, carnitas, and chorizo (garnished with onion and cilantro) completely covered the doubled tortillas. Garnishes on the side of the plate included sliced radish, wedges of lime and optional pickled peppers and carrots. My favorite was the chorizo, the nice crispy bits are reminiscent of bacon - a squeeze of lime and you're good to go. Totally worth a long drive, especially if you want to stock up on dried chiles or the entire line of Goya products. The inventory of the store was very orderly and clean, much nicer than many of the other bodegas in the area.

Actually, there's an IKEA in Elisabeth NJ, about 1/2 hour from the new Paramus location. What I'm saying is that there's a Wegman's in Princeton, then they open one in Woodbridge, which is not too far from Princeton, but both are more than an hour away from me, taking them out of my regular shopping range. I'm saying that my area would be a prime target for a Wegman's, and that they should consider opening one up here, that's all.

If IKEA was able to find a location suitable to their monstrositiessness, I'm sure a premium supermarket could too.

Bergen County is the northeasternmost county in the state. The one up there by NYC/Rockland/Westchester NY. The closest future store you listed would be Wayne -- about 30+ minutes from my house. They should research the Rts 4 and 17 corridors. Rt. 17 particularly is one of the most commercially viable shopping strips in the country. High rents, but high profit potential as well. I suppose having a store in Wayne is an acceptable compromise, geographically, between some of the wealthier towns of northern New Jersey (Millburn-Short Hills/Summit and Alpine/Closter/Tenafly/Paramus).

Personally, though, I don't think I would pre-cook my onions or any veggie before freezing them. I would assume that part of the reason a recipe is asking me to saute onions would be to add depth of flavor to the dish as well as develop a good fond for an eventual sauce. If you skip the act of carmelization, I'd think you would skip some flavor. If I am grilling a hamburger, then your pre-carmelized/pre-cooked onions would be quite appropriate for a topping. I guess it would depend upon how you're going to use them. You need to precook most vegetables before freezing them. I use a plastic scraper to get all the fond, I'll deglaze the pan with a touch of water at the end. I usually stop the precooking before the onions brown. If you want more carmelization, then just brown them for a minute or two before continuing the recipe. Actually, I wouldn't use these onions as a hamburger topping because I like to keep the onions as rings for that, and I'll grill slices alongside the burgers for that.

This kind of do ahead prep work is one of the things that make a vaccuum sealer like the Food Saver worth having. You can prep peppers, onions, celery, carrots, herbs, etc., into dice and store in pint sized mason jar sealed with the FS. If you use the tape over the hole technique for the lid the jars are very easy to open and reseal after removing the quantity of food you want. However, the best way I've found to do onions, is to dice mass quantities at once and cook them all at the same time as well. I figure 1 cup diced onion equals 1 onion, so the small and large onions average out. Measure the raw, diced onion before cooking. 10 cups equals 10 onions. Divide the cooked onions into 10 portions, this usually turns out to be about 1/8 cup if they are well cooked down, but not browned. Put the portions into sandwich or snack sized baggies. Smoosh out the air and freeze flat. So many recipes start by cooking a diced onion for 5-10 minutes, much easier to heat the pan, and add the onions with whatever is step 2 and save 10 minutes every time you cook.

I've emailed Wegman's more than once saying they need to open a store in Bergen County. You work from the inside to get one here, OK? Welcome to eGullet!

I thought the sound editing was really well done. You could hear the slightest crunch as the knives went through pizzas. The subject matter, however, has been done to death.

Randall, do you prefer selling your wine to restaurants or stores? How do you feel about the policy that some California wineries have of limiting sales of their wines to restaurants instead of stores?

See Kim, they didn't need me.

If you're going to Jerry's, you may as well stop in at Balthazar Bakery just up the road. And if you're going to River Edge, have lunch at Finks. Call me, we can go shopping & do lunch together.

Yeah, that would work then.

That would depend on whether or not the searcher checks 'entire post' or 'title only.' Try to use Hawaii in the text of the post at least once. If there is any specific title that you want to change, just click report this post and ask the moderator to edit it for you.

What a shame. We really liked this place too. I hope they were well insured and can rebuild.

Dittoing tommy: Feather's 77 Kinderkamack Rd, River Edge, NJ 07661 Phone: (201) 342-6410 I tried calling to ask if there are any more in northern NJ they could recommend, but no one answered the phone. Also, from the link menton posted above: Maxwell's, 1039 Washington St.,Hoboken (201)656.9632 Alberts, 366 Marin Blvd., Jersey City, (201)222.3282