Rachel Perlow

if i may be so bold jason, i'm always impressed at how stain-free your shirts are when i see you at the beginning of dinner. Thank you. When Jason says I use Shout. I don't just use Shout. I use Shout Gel. The trigger bottles of Shout or Spray & Wash do not work as well as Shout Gel. The Spray & Wash stick is OK, but the Gel with the scrubby brush on top is the best. My laundry day mostly consists of spreading out Jason's shirts in front of me, one at a time, and scrubbing Shout Gel into each stain. Then I wash them with a pre-wash or soak cycle with a regular detergent like Tide or Arm & Hammer in our front loading Whirlpool Duet washer. These shirts I speak of are mostly t-shirts and golf shirts. Nice button down (especially white) shirts go to the cleaners.

I asked Arthur Schwartz (WOR radio, "Food Talk with Arthur Schwartz") regarding salt in bean cooking water. His response: "I do not wait to salt beans anymore. I put the salt in from the beginning, and I haven't noticed the beans toughening, the skins toughening, the beans splitting, none of the many things that they say will happen."

I have had similar (but not nearly as good & homemade looking) from King Fung supermarket in River Edge (across from Finks), that I think dumpling is referring to. We frequently have them as lunch with a sauce of black vinegar, soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil. My chinese friend refers to them as boiled dumplings (as opposed to steamed or fried). Glad you had fun last night, FG!

There have been no responses to these two items. If your kids are coming, please do your part to organize the kids activities. And we are going to be having an onsite planning meeting shortly, so we would like whomever is willing to direct traffic/parking be there as well.

"Area in question"? Since the original question was answered, we've expanded this thread to encompass all of NJ - I think that Denville fits.

Keep in mind the place has only been open for a week. However, the chef or owner (or is that one and the same) used to work at another restaurant in the area, Brookside Thai (378 Broad St, Bloomfield). I'm sure we'll go back eventually with our friends who live in the area. Another table we chatted with were very enthusiastic about the noodle dishes they ordered, pad thai and pad see ew. They also have some very interesting sounding fried rice dishes. My verdict is that it is a welcome addition to the immediate area, but not necessarily a place worth driving a long distance.

Zuccini fritters freeze well (IQF) and can be reheated in the (toaster) oven in the middle of winter.

OK, we're going to go for lunch. Will report back. If anyone wants to join us we'll be there around 1:30. Orchid Thai Restaurant 75 Washington Ave, Nutley 973-661-0588

Mmm, I was thinking about that one just the other day. Note to self: Get ahold of some lychees.

Shall we check it out for lunch today?

We've been trying to have her do a eGCI class or to write for TDG. A Q&A is a possibility, but hasn't she done that for the last year via the comments section of her blog?

:smacking forehead: That's where I'd seen him before!

Good point, same goes for the place in Bergenfield.

China 46 serves excellent Peking Duck. As does Beijing Duck House in Bergenfield. Note: Topic Merge to encompass all of NJ's Peking Duck offerings.

Fink is bringing the pigs already cooked. Price-wise, it just didn't make sense to cook it onsite. Here's Curdnerd's post about the facilities:

Did you see the six-packs of the large flavored bottles of Pellegrino? Look underneath the registers. Also, I got some great peppered ham there last week.

It is much harder comparing wine lists because of the format of the websites. Lupa has a whole wine list all on one page (updated 9/1/02). Babbo's wine list is broken up on different pages by style of wine. I can't find an update date, but the most recent press mention on the Babbo site is from July 2002. However, I did find a few wines that are listed on both lists. Interestingly, Babbo is not necessarily more expensive. Montepulciano D'Abruzzo 'Toni' Cataldi Madonna 1998: Lupa $70, Babbo $56 Vigna Garrone Odoardi 1998: Lupa $64, Babbo $67 Sagrantino di Montefalco Paolo Bea: Lupa (1998) $83, Babbo (1997) $75 - I was unsure about listing different years as I know nothing about this wine. There were several examples of similar, but not exactly the same wines.

Here is the address & phone for the place Dumpling recommended above. Han Il Kwan Korean & Japanese 2053 Lemoine Ave, Fort Lee, NJ 07024 Phone: (201) 944-8699

I just reviewed both menus. Now, I haven't been to Lupa, so I don't know how the portions compare, but I've calculated the average cost of primi and secondi courses at the two restaurants, the contorni are all the same price at each. I've left off the appetizers because they seem to follow completely different ordering structures at the two locations. So a meal consisting of contorni, primi and secondi, not taking wine or tasting menus into account, would cost approximately 40% more at Babbo. So macrosan is closer to the number with 2/3, but perhaps mikec meant to say that Lupa costs 1/3 less than Babbo? Dinner at Lupa: Contorni $5.00, Primis 12.75, Secondis 14.86 = $32.61 Dinner at Babbo: Contorni $7.00, Primis 18.86, Secondi 28.13 = $53.99 Now, regarding the wine. That is much harder to compare and averages just don't count as much. But, if you examine the wine lists available on each restaurants websites, it is clear that Lupa's wines are less expensive. There are many more choices available for under $30, and they don't have nearly so many as Babbo of wines over $100. Of course, there are so many other factors to consider when it comes to wine, but since cost is the issue of this post, there it is.

See my post above, just tell yourself it's a new sauce to try.

If the tomato paste doesn't add the right color, there's always food coloring.

I loved that picture of Momo, the perfect drool shot! I think since Ellen is in Mongolia with the camera equipment, Fat Guy has reverted to carnivorism. Fruit is traditionally served with pork because pork used to be much fattier than it is today. The apple or cherry sauce would cut that fat and refresh the palate, I think. Run of the mill pork available these days is much leaner and the fruit isn't as necessary, but it is typically served because it is expected. Of course, Lobel's pork is rich and fatty, and I think some sauteed sweet and tart apples would go very well with most preparations of it.

I thought about it some more, and feel that if you are using good Spanish smoked paprika, the ham hardly needs to be there at all. Let it be all about the various colors and textures of the beans and rice.

Hmm, how about boiling down some Coke to use as the simple syrup and infusing it with an actual vanilla bean? That way you aren't diluting the Coke flavor or risk making it extra sweet.

I'd like some more information about this. Aren't most fruits developed & vegetables propagated by various insects? Do the wasps get stuck inside the date (or leave something inside) that makes eating them a risk of eating an animal? ~~~ TVP is a soy food, basically little granules of chewy soy protein. I've found little use for it, although some people like to add it to stews and to vegetarian chili. I've barely worked with it myself but I believe you prepare it by soaking it to reconstitute and then adding it to a dish for brief cooking before serving. When you reconstitute it you may wish to use a flavored liquid like vegetable stock, or maybe coconut milk or something depending on what you're adding it to. I've used TVP as an extender for meatloaf, ironically. I don't bother soaking it, just mix it into the meat with the other ingredients instead of a bread or bread crumbs. It never seemed to get chewy to me if it were soaked first, so it didn't work as a meat substitute, like you couldn't make patties of it. But as a way to cut down on the fat of some ground meat dishes while reducing the carbs, it works very well. ~~~ There is also firm PRESSED tofu, which has more the consistency of a meat product like chicken breast. It comes in blocks, and is usually cut up into julienne strips and stir fried with veggies and meat. Very frequently used in a lot of chinese and thai dishes. I don't think you can buy pressed tofu, or at least not big commercial versions. Perhaps some Asian groceries have homemade pressed tofu. In any case, I've found that it is important to NOT get silken tofu (even firm silken) if you are planning on pressing it. No matter how much water I press out, silken tofu always seems to dissolve or crumble. That's why I bolded Malawry's quote, above. ~~~ This reminded me of the time we were gifted a chunk of foraged chicken mushroom. It was this "huge hunk 'O wild mushroom" that an eGullet member divvied up at the first NY Potluck dinner (see picture on page 2 of the linked thread). I know a lot of things "taste like chicken" but this really really tasted like chicken. It was great sauteed and mixed with pasta. ~~~ Thanks for the terrific class, Rochelle. I wanted to contribute a great recipe for Bean Pebbled Paella I found on Arthur Schwartz's Food Maven website. I especially thought you would like it because it sounds like you always have a variety of cooked beans in your freezer and this is an excellent way to use an assortment of them. It sounds delicious, although I'm sure leaving out the ham will cause the flavor to suffer. Any suggestions for a substitution?