ghostrider

Interesting. I'd asked about Foschini's a couple of years ago in another thread & it got slammed so I've avoided the place. I'm always willing to take a new opinion, particulary when it's backed by this kind of detail. We'll have to give them a try.

I'll add my recipe for Maine Shrimp With Linguini, since it comes out with a strong lemon flavor. Obviously it can be adapted for any sort of shrimp by adjusting the cooking time. Ingredients for two servings: ¾ lb fresh Maine shrimp ½ lb linguini 1 tsp fresh or pinch of dried thyme ½ cup fresh Italian parsley leaves 1 lemon 1 clove garlic light olive oil (or other neutral-flavored oil) for sauteeing You will need a large skillet, since the dish finishes with the addition of the pasta to the pan in which you’ve sauteed the shrimp. You’ll also need a big pot for the pasta, of course; you can set the water to boil before you begin rest of the preparations. Shell the shrimp. Have the thyme on a little plate or bowl ready to add to the pan. Pull the parsley leaves off the sprigs & have them ready. Squeeze the lemon into a bowl or glass and keep the juice at hand. Peel the garlic clove. Timing is the key to this dish; the shrimp will cook very quickly, in no more than 2 minutes on most stoves. You don’t want to overcook them or they will turn rubbery and lose flavor. You’ll probably want to have the pasta water boiling, add the linguini and let it cook for a couple of minutes before you begin sauteeing the shrimp. You can even prepare the linguini and set it aside before you start the shrimp, though you run the risk of having the pasta lose heat and clump together if you let it sit too long. Ideally you'll want to have the linguini drained just as the shrimp finishes cooking. Add the linguini to the boiling water. Let it cook 60 to 90 seconds less than the recommended time, since it will finish cooking in the shrimp pan. When that time has elapsed, toss a cup or two of cold water into the linguini pot to stop it cooking, drain the pasta and reserve. As the linguini cooks, crush or mince the garlic clove as you prefer. Add enough oil to the pan to coat the bottom; heat oil on a medium setting until it swirls clearly. Add the garlic and stir for around 30 seconds, until it begins to release its flavor. You don’t want to brown or burn the garlic, or that taste will dominate the dish. Add the shrimp to the pan and continue stirring; sprinkle them with the thyme while they cook. Keep a close eye on the shrimp; they will firm up and turn white very quickly, likely in less than 2 minutes as noted. Keep stirring and add the lemon juice as soon as the shrimp are firm. After another 5-10 seconds, as soon as the lemon juice begins to steam, add the linguini to the pan and stir. Add the parsley and continue to stir and toss until everything is well blended. You can turn off the heat 30-60 seconds into the final stir if the ingredients aren’t well mixed at that point. Transfer the mixture to two warmed pasta bowls and you’re done. I don’t add cheese to this particular dish because I find that it interferes with the delicate flavors here, but you could try a light sprinkle of good freshly grated parmigiano if you like. You can vary this dish by using different herbs – marjoram, rosemary, oregano, an Herbes De Provence blend. My only advice is to add herbs with a light hand and not overwhelm the shrimp. A note on salt: since I’m on a low-sodium diet, I purposefully haven’t included any salt in the list of ingredients. I find that the sea salts already in the shrimp are sufficient to balance the dish to my taste. Most folks boil their pasta in salted water, and there’d be nothing wrong with adding a pinch of salt to the pan after the lemon juice heats if that’s the way your taste runs.

Consumption of grapefruit juice was linked pretty conslusively with kidney stones. Since those studies were done at least 10 years ago by my recollection, they probably involved white grapefruit juice. This probably also has nothing to do with the decline in consumption of white grapefruit snce few seem to remember the connection.

That's odd. I've heard from chefs on TV that it's cutting the root end that causes tears the most. And we all know that we can believe everything we heard on TV. ← They're all wrong. It's leaving the unsliced/diced/chopped half cut side up while you slice/dice/chop the first half that causes the most tears. Put the oxymoronic whole half cut side down on your board or a plate while you attack the other half and your tears will be reduced at least by half. Gare-awn-teed! ← Well, come to think of it, I also have usually chopped off the root ends. So that could be the real reason I don't have too much problem with tears. (But my grandmother couldn't have been wrong, could she?) I also never thought of the possibility it was the uncut half sitting on the cutting board that caused the tears. But what about when you cut into that half? Seems to me the tear problem gets greater as you go along. ← Most people's grandmothers are never wrong. Sorry did not mean any disrespect to yours. I've always sliced off the stem end too, but still had intermittent issues with tears. After buying a particularly pungent bunch of onions last month & being especially beset, it suddenly occurred to me that the leaving the uncut half exposed probably wasn't helping matters. A little experimentation confirmed that. Now I either toss each half right into the pan as soon as it's chopped, if it's for a dish in progress, or sweep it off into a bowl & cover with plastic wrap if I'm doing prep work. Minimal tears, reconfirmed just last nght (the dish-in-progress approach).

Is it really jammed? I only drive by that mall in the mornings & not much is happening at Uno's then. Wait till they come out with the breakfast pizza tho. I guess this illustrates so many adages that I'm getting tired of repeating them. We have what I think is good pizza at New York Pizza on Park Ave. here in Futherford, but that's a bit of a haul from Clifton. I love the fresh mushrooms they use on their pies.

The brother of one of my best friends gives all of his siblings a case of white grapefruits from Texas every year for Xmas. They remain the sweetest & most flavorful grapefruits I've ever had. I have no idea what explains the larger trend other than The Madness Of Crowds.

Since "they" recommend holding an ice cube to a flesh burn ASAP after the incident to reduce healing time, I'd think that the same principle would apply to the tongue.

That's odd. I've heard from chefs on TV that it's cutting the root end that causes tears the most. And we all know that we can believe everything we heard on TV. ← They're all wrong. It's leaving the unsliced/diced/chopped half cut side up while you slice/dice/chop the first half that causes the most tears. Put the oxymoronic whole half cut side down on your board or a plate while you attack the other half and your tears will be reduced at least by half. Gare-awn-teed!

Just got a bottle of Berio Extra Light Tasting for cooking. On back of the label it says "Composed of refined olive oils and virgn olive oils." So now I've fiinally seen the term "virgin olive oil" on a label in the US. On front it says "100% pure all natural." I'll have to query them about solvents when I have the time. Their responsiveness to Mr. Finn is admirable. BTW, in the US, all of the labels on this sort of oil are careful to spell out "Extra Light TASTING." There's probably some FDA reg requiring this so that they aren't claiming to be a "Light" oil. Thanks for those definitions, very enlightening. I'll note in passing that Berio Bertolli, & Carapelli will tell you the countries of origin represented in their blended oils on their labels. Bertolli also has the "Composed of refined olive oils and virgn olive oils" line. Carapelli simply says "Blended from high quality olive oils." Agreed. Trying the really top oils & finding the good ones is one of life's ongoing pleasures. I keep noticing those green oils in clear bottles too. They're usually odd brands that seem to come & go on the shelves, Colavita being the exception. (And not all of Colavita's EVOO is green. Not sure if that's shelf age or different harvests.) Are these "lesser" brands using food coloring?

← Sorry, the notion of something labeled "Pure EVOO" was in fact the result of my own confusion. A survey of several market shelves today yields no such thing. Red herring, mea culpa. I would, though, like to nail down what "pure" means. Not to mention "100% pure & natural." Does "pure" = "virgin" or is it a different (lesser) grade of oil? I am starting to think that these terms don't tell you anything about how the olives were processed. Is that true? I wouldn't expect anything labeled "100% pure & natural" to have even a trace of benzene in it, but I may be expecting too much. I'd also like to know where I can find plain old virgin olive oil for cooking. "Virgin" still does seem to denote a particular processing method, as noted, but I've never seen "virgin" on a label without being preceded by "extra." I'd brought this up in another thread a year or more ago & was kind of scoffed at, but I still haven't been able to find a single bottle of oil on a shelf labled "virgin olive oil." I'm now thinking that it's more of an industry term than one which will appear at the consumer end of things. It's true that you pay a premium for olive oil, but you pay a double premium for EVOO over "pure" olive oils, at least in my part of the world. It would be nice to have something in between. I guess it goes to New Jersey. Excepting the mix at Whole Foods, the majority of oils on our local supermarket shelves are non-EVOO products, mostly labelled "pure" (hence my questions above).

Are you in the Clifton area? If so, do you have a takeout menu? Oh yes, Clifton seems to have a brand-new Uno's......

Got pea cravings, progbably from this thread, & have been on a search for frozen peas this week. Was reminded again, by reading labels, of the ridiculous amounts of salt that are thrown in with most frozen peas, unlike any other frozen vegetable I can find. Does anyone know why this is? Finally found the 10-oz bag of Cascadian Farms organic New Zealand peas for $2.49. Pricey but no salt. Whew. (Oddly, the 16-oz bag of Cascadian Farms organic peas has the usual ridiculous amount of salt.) In the past I've found a particular variety of C&W frozen peas (also sold east of the Passaic River & west of the Hudson, & perhaps elsewhere in our great nation), something like "Select Young Petite Peas," that also has no salt added. Can't always find these, not sure if seasonal or quirky stocking practices at local stores. All the other C&W varieties are as loaded with salt as everyone else's. I like frozen peas, I really do. Why do the packagers insist on torturing me with salt?

It's probably my ignorance showing, but this paragraph loses me. Are you saying that a bottle labeled "Pure EVOO" can have solvents in it? Are all non-EV oils by definition produced with solvents? Does "refined or rectified" automatically imply use of solvents? The apparent untrustworthiness of US labelling conventions seems to make purchasing solvent-free olive oil difficult. Any additional clarity that folks can provde would be welcome.

My dad would be 108 if he were alive today. And yes, he could cook very well. He even experimented with cooking Chinese & northern Italian recipes, which was a rare thing in 1950s middle America. Beyond that, he grew an outrageous backyard vegetable garden, not to mention several grape arbors & fruit trees. He would also drive 100 miles once every week or two to obtain bacon & sausages from the rural German butcher that had supplied the town where he grew up for generations. He also built a brick fireplace outback for grilling & BBQing meats. Hickory smoked Q was an everyday meal in the summertime. I daresay we ate better than any of our peers in upper middle class subrban St. Louis, though I only vaguely appreciated it at the time, because the quality of our food was important to my dad & he really enjoyed tending the garden.

A few weeks ago we finally tried Bhoj, recommended by the once (& future?) Jason Perlow almost 3 years ago. A bit tricky to find if you aren't handy with MapQuest, but if you just keep in mind that (coming from the south) you'll zigzag under the GSP 3 tmes, you won't miss a turn. It's easy to shoot by the little strip mall on the south side of Market, tho, if you don't know that you need to be looking for a strip mall. And now you do. Anyway a good recommendation from Jason. I was impressed with their deft use of spices & aromatics. They seem to have a more robust approach to spicing than Kinara, a place we've also enjoyed several times. Bhoj is well worth seeking out, one of Bergen County's little gems.

I'd go to Mercy Grill & hope that I could get some.

As someone on the other side of the fence (I deliver food for a deli among other pursuits), I'd consider a $5 tip on an order of that size the bare minimum. I'd think somewhere between $5 & $10 would be more appropriate. I do agree that both the particular charge & your lack of choice in the matter are over the top. If you're ordering from a restaurant delivery company, they're probably pocketing all of the delivery charge & the delivery guy is getting nothing beyond minimum wage. Better to order directly from the restaurant if they provide delivery. I'd expect a tip to be commensurate with how quickly the food got to you, tempered by the understanding that this isn't always in the delivery person's complete control. (If the kitchen is backed up with multiple orders at prime time there isn't much I can do.) My regular customers know that I've taken the time to learn the roads in their area & figured out the absolute quickest way (which usually isn't the obvious route) to their locations, & tip accordingly - usually 10-15%.

So where is this Garden Of Eden? Is it anywhere near the train station? I sure could have used some good prepared foods on my way home tonight. (I was counting on the Thai place in the station food court, not realizing that it'd be closed for the holiday.) Man this is wack. Their website hasn't been updated in over 2 years. Hoboken 411 (The NEW online guide to Hoboken!) doesn't have the address either. The place is apparently too new to show in the online Yellow Pages. Why is everyone keeping the location a secret? Is this really one of these places where, if you have to ask, you don't belong there anyway?

I used to be a stickler for never having herb or spice blends around. As the decades rolled by, I mellowed a bit & tempered my once rigid attitude. There's a time & place for many things in this life. Indian cooking - I once considered it a Betrayal Of First Principles ever to use a curry powder. As the demands of my then career grew & I had increasingly less time to cook, I found myself in situations where I was craving a hit of Indian spices & the choice was between whipping together a quick curry using a pre-mixed powder & ordering Chinese. I learned that a good blend had its uses. Mediterranean cooking - I currently have two different Herbes De Provence blends on my shelf. One goes well with chicken & fish, the other enhances rice very nicely. These I use more for variety than convenience. In both cases I still prefer to use individual spices & herbs appropriate to every given dish, but a few well chosen blends will find their moments. Now, the motley collection of pots & pans, that'll never go away. They're like old shoes, they've taken me so many interesting places, I can't bear to get rid of them.

Interesting. Though I've long been a proponent of frozen produce to get you through the long dark months between greenmarket seasons, this was the year that I discovered a local "Farmers' Market" and for the first time have been eating nothing but fresh fruits & vegetables in January. The green beans ($1.29 - $1.49 / lb) are crisp & fragrant. The red peppers (haven't seen yellow for a few weeks) at $1.29 / lb beat any frozen product. The flavor & aroma of CA & now FL strawberries ($1.98 - $2.98 / quart) have been a revelation; no, they don't match up to local berries in June, but at current levels of quality I'll never be tempted to buy frozen again. I'm still a big fan of frozen peas, spinach, brussels sprouts, & so forth. But it sounds like Bittman was writing about his New York-centric experiences, not to mention prices. Things are different out here just 8 miles west of the Hudson, at least this year. Maybe it's just a better year for non-local produce than 2005 was; I'm open to evidence of that notion.

This notion gets mentioned every time foie gras is brought up. I don't understand the argument here. Local (and state, and national) governments do this routinely. Why is it "idiotic" in this particular instance and not thousands of others? It seems to me that the real issue is whether the regulation is reasonable & serves the public interest.

We, & several other diners, have noticed this same thing at a new Turkish restaurant in our area. We all assumed that it had to do with the Turkish Way Of Dining. Now I'm wondering if they were just trying to be trendy.

Hmmm. The mashed potatoes as I recall were made with milk &, yes, a fair amount of butter. The "pancakes" weren't as thoroughly all-over browned as yours though - they were much thicker, maybe an inch or a little more, & had a distinct thin crust on either side. You could actually slide the crispy brown crusts off & eat them separately if you wanted. Of course then you were left with a big glob of leftover mashed potatoes, & there was little else to do except put more butter on them. Those were the days - bacon fat, butter & no worries.

"Each package comes with two DaysAgos in 4 assorted colors" That seems to kind of defy the laws of physics or something, but hey.... They aren't a bad idea, but since I'd need about 20 of them, the expense is decidedly prohibitive. The USFDA storage chart is pretty good thoiugh.

I don't know why anyone trusts Wikipedia as a source for anything. It's touted as self-correcting, but of course you never know what stage a given entry will be in. Less than 2 minutes of googling on a slow dialup connection led me to the information that imports of Azorubine are permitted by the FDA, as long as the substance is manufactured in FDA certified batches. Given that fact, it sounds like ShopRite's cautious response was right and proper.