ghostrider

Amplifying just a bit on that - with experience, you can get to the point where you can tell whether a piece of fish is worth pursuing further just by looking at it - fresh fish glistens, the color of the flesh looks vibrant; old fish looks dull and may be a bit grey. (This is easier with white fish such as sole & flounder.) I generally use peanut oil for frying/sauteeing fish filets. The flavor is neutral, it's not as rich as butter, and it has a higher smoke point than olive oil. (Sometimes the flavor of olive oil is a good thing though.) If you find a really good fishmonger who has fresh channel catfish, you might want to give it a try, the sweet mild flavor & texture are superb. As a midwestern boy who was raised on the stuff, I can't abide the farmed catfish, which is what you find most places. I've never seen fresh channel cat here in the East.

That looks like a contender! So when are you opening your seafood shack?

There are a couple of Polish meat markets along Van Houten in Clifton that I believe make their own sausage. One is called Korona, I'm blanking on the name of the other at the moment. It's not wurst, but for good store-made Italian sausage with a nice fennel kick, there's Belgiovine's Deli at 714 Bloomfield Ave. in Montclair.

Where exactly is this Wegman's that you frequent? (I keep hearing about them, never seen one, I am beginning to think that they are mythical, but your enticing pix seemed real enough.) And as long as I'm asking questions, who did you see at Bowery Ballroom? Do you have any favorite places in the vicinity for a quick & satisfying pre-show meal? (We usually wind up eating in the East Village & then stomping down to Delancey.)

← Do they say what they consider a "normal amount" to be? And is caffeine dehydrating if you are consuming an abnormal amount? That's the crux of the matter for some of us.

McCabe's sounds like my kind of place, but we are not driving. I never miss a chance at a train ride. Was hoping to look at Pierpoint's menu. Still getting "cannot find server."

Looks like I'm going to have one night in Baltimore in a couple of weeks. That means a dinner & a lunch opportunity. No car. Not sure yet exactly where we are staying (my wife is attending a conference & I get to tag along), but I understand it's near the Inner Harbor. Before I start going nuts on Google, thought I'd check in here. The Pierpoint site linked above is dysfunctional. Are they still in business? Where is McCabe's? I am interested in good, reasonably priced seafood, much more than I am in fine dining. I can deal with "touristy" if the food is decent. And yes, outdoor seating would be nice, if anyone's turned up any since May. Thanks in advance.

Just wanted to thank everyone for the edifying responses. Yep the strawberry crop also came to an early end, none at the market either. At least the peaches seem to have done OK. Nothing beats a locally tree-ripened peach.

Rutherford is not Lyndhurst! Must be another of those zombie after-effects. (Which is something you couldn't get in Rutherford, of course.)

I think the fellow should edit this one. You cannot make really good tea with a teabag in a cup no matter how you boil the water.

just curious, why no basil? To me, basil and tomato together is God's way to put a smile on my face, especially when they are both fresh. ← I don't want basil in everything. If I'm making, say a bbq sauce with canned tomatoes, I don't basil in it. If it's an Italian dish, sure, basil's no problem, but not every tomato-based dish works with a basil note. ← Even if it's an Italian dish you don't always want basil. I don't think the flavors work in an amatriciana dish, for instance.

So the Rutherford farmers' market opened today, and major bummer - no snap peas! The Matarazzo guy said that the season is already over. In past years they've always had them available for the first few weeks that the market has been open. This year's weather patterns must have bumped up the crop schedule. I am major depressed. Is this going to be a year with no snap peas? Please help! If anyone spots peas that are reasonably local (i.e., Whole Foods has 'em from Guatemala or someplace, but I'm not quite desperate enough to go that route yet), please post the info here. I know it's the end of the season, but I'm hoping that peas from further north may find their way into these parts. Thanks!

Given that the sole purpose of jarside recipes is to get you to consume more product & buy it more often, this one becomes doubly incomprehensible. I wonder how long it will take the bigwigs at Kraft Foods to notice this oversight, fire the offending bumbler, & hire someone to create a new recipe calling for generous dollops of Miracle Whip on both pieces of bread and in between each of the five slices of turkey, with an extra glob between the tomato & lettuce for good measure. Maybe I should apply for a job with Kraft.

I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss this suggestion, "shoo-fly" being a fairly obvious American misproununciation of "souffle," perhaps done deliberately & with humorous intent. That might make it doubly appropriate for this particular event, beyond what Chris has suggested, given all of the fancy French items on the menu. I note these items on the menu under GLACE -- Chalets rustic a la Fairmount Pyramid en Nougat Historic. -- which seem to me, at least on the surface, evidence that some whimsy went into the construction of this menu. There's also the "Filet de Boeuf a la Belmont" which also ties in with the location of the dinner.

No, you have to look at both, particularly if you're trying to avoid sodium as well as hydrogenated corn syrup & whatnot.

I have not seen any signs of pho in the mid-coast area (was just up there last month, spend a week or two there every year), but, for variety: Brunswick has two Thai restaurants (haven't tried either) and one Indian place (decent 10 years ago, haven't been back, but they've kept in business). If memory serves me, Brunswick used to have a Cambodian place in the 1990s, but I don't think it lasted. And that may well have been in some other town. I will add that, if you find yourself in the Bath area, Mae's Cafe & Bakery is our favorite place in town. They cook with a lighter touch than your standard seafood house, have a # of Southwestern-influenced dishes (love their blackened scallops!), and do wonders with a fresh herb viniagrette on their salads. Their desserts are superb. The walls are adorned with original paintings by several local artists, which you can buy if they strike your fancy. Mae's is at 160 Centre St., just west of the main downtown area on Front St, up the hill opposite the war memorial. Bath also offers Beale St. BBQ if you're interested in some good Memphis-style BBQ for a change of pace.

They're allowed to sell it, but they aren't allowed to have a "Jersey Fresh" sign on it, at least as I understand the system. Whether you can trust their sign placeage is another matter, of course.

All I know is that my local Whole Foods has been the only source of New York state strawberries I've been able to find this year. No other supermarket bothers, it's just endless tons of hard flavorless CA berries. I really don't care whether Whole Foods' berries are organic: they're fresh, local, fragrant & tasty, and that impresses the heck out of me.

As long as the cook (this thread began about cooks, not chefs) is interested in making omelettes. I'm not (nor am I a chef) and I couldn't care less how well I can make one. Back to the original question: I think it comes down to quality of execution. I can say that cooking Indian food stretches my abilities more than preparing a penne amatriciana. Neither is easy to do really well - you have to pay attention every step of the way - but Indian food requires more prep and more sustained attention. More complex dishes may simply be a measure of your ability to stay focused over longer periods, in addition to your cooking skills.

So, again: this place is strictly a kebab house, with some potentially interesting appetizers, and not a full-blown Afghan restaurant. Yes?

Yes, The Osprey, I'd blanked out on the name. Thanks. At least I didn't imagine the cooking. I guess the chef will remain another of life's mysteries. Never got to 22 Lincoln. ← Finally found out from a local native a couple of weeks ago that the chef who'd made The Osprey so magical was Michael Gagne, who subsequently opened his own place just down the road at Robinhood Free Meetinghouse. We've dined there twice and it's always interesting, sometimes wonderful. Yet it doesn't seem to have quite the same magic as The Osprey did during those years (which it's totally lost since, we also learned that Osprey is now owned by the same folks who run JR Maxwells in Bath & has similar food - not bad, just, err, standard).

Do you recall what else was on the menu - the Afghan equivalent of curries, a sort of creamed spinach dish, etc.? The Afghan names escape me & I lack the time to look them up. We have long missed the Afghan place that used to be up in Ridgewood. We might be up for the drive to Teaneck, but I'd like to know more about the menu. (Alas, they aren't on line.)

Just got back from a week-plus in Maine. My carefully planned investigation, aimed at settling the burning question of whether the lobster rolls at Red's Eats are superior to those at Five Islands Lobster Co., was terminated prematurely for two unexpected reasons: 1) The cottage we rented came with a season pass to Maine's state parks, which severly reduced any motivation we had to venture inland to places like Wiscasset. (If you know the beach at Reid State Park, you know what I'm talking about.) 2) After enjoying several FILC lobster rolls and getting a good fix on their quality, we made the surprising discovery that, sometime in recent years, the cost of the labor involved in picking the meat from a lobster and turning it into a lobster roll had grown much faster than the cost of the lobster itself. Thus, while you can get one of their superb lobster rolls for $15, you also can get a whole freshly steamed lobster for $10! Once we discovered that, we said to ourselves, "The hell with Red's!" and spent the rest of our days there cracking lobsters. For decades, it seemed, lobster rolls were always the cheaper option. I don't know when this changed, but it has significantly altered the gustatory landscape in mid-coast Maine. The question still burns, but with less heat now.

Thanks folks. Love the search engine! I now have a huge list of farm stands in 3 counties! Berries, yessss....... Johnnyd, as things have worked out, I doubt that we're going to hit Portland at all this time. Pity, Harbor Fish sounds like my kind of place. But we will be by the water, just a short walk from Five Islands Lobster Co., so I'm not complaining. At all.

I'm actually glad that I asked the converse of the question I intended to ask. The discussion is far more illuminating. As for me, I'll continue to refer to spaghetti con aglio e olio. There seems to be no good reason, Lorenza de Medici notwithstanding, to call it marinara.