ghostrider

Considering that farmed Thailand shrimp are, at a minimum, $2.00 per lb more expensive than the Mainers (at least in these parts), there's also a price differential to be touted. Not to mention the "Buy American" thing.

Today WHole Foods has printed up a couple of colorful little signs emphasizing "This Week's Special!" "Always Fresh!" "Limited Season!" and the like. Whatever the reason, they are trying to push the shrimp. I haven't been able to cook this week for various reasons, & won't this weekend either, & it's driving me CRAZY!!!!!!

THey're still showing up at Whole Foods in Jersey (price seems to have settled at $4.99 lb headless/shells on). I guess they aren't coming through the Fish Exchange?

I have a huge collection of tea tins. Some were packed carefully in suitcases & brought back from overseas in bygone decades. Some are works of art, some simply handsome. I use them over and over again. I've largely stopped buying tea in tins because my cupboard is full, and because the vacuum-bag packaging at places like Upton gets the tea to me in a remarkable state of freshness.

Another case of Mad Cow reported in Canada today: Reuters article

Hmm, I think that's a bit debatable, with respect to the lettuce. (Celery, definitely not!) I believe that they line the roll with a bit of iceberg at Five Islands. I like the additional crunch it provides, as long as it's used in moderation, & not to plump up the roll while they skimp on lobster - decidedly not the case at Five Islands.

Ow that's a depressing article. Meanwhile I saw the shrimplets (headless/roeless) at my local Stop & Shop last night, $5.99 lb. So somebody is still catching & shipping them to Jersey. Sadly, I had to pass; still recuperating from a nasty bout of viral gastroenteritis, won't be cooking anything other than rice & chicken broth for a while yet.

Seems to me that demand is a big part of the problem too. As the Newburyport article above notes: In our bigger-is-better culture, how many people are going to opt for these labor-intensive little guys just because they taste better? The frustrating part is that they DO taste better.

Shelled? Nosirree. (Headless though.) Which makes the momeymaker question even more compelling. Been out in the Midwest for more than a week, have lost touch with the Jersey market at this point. I'll file a report next week.

The Remedy Cafe in Bloomfield (401 Broad St.) may have what you're looking for, if you're ever down that way. You can read more about the place right here.

Try the Muir Glen Brand at Whole Foods. I just checked...I have a can of Crushed Tomatoes "with Basil" and Diced Tomatoes . Basil is listed on the front label of the crushed, but the diced does not note it on the label, nor does it list in in their ingredients. ← I can vouch that the Muir Glen diced do not have basil. I also like it that they can a salt-free version. (I use this regularly in my off-season pasta amatriciana experiments.) For what it's worth, "America's Test Kitchen" rated Muir Glen as the best-tasting supermarket canned tomato.

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.

If you're confining it literally to "my grocery store," that's a hard one. They are pretty good with certain fruits, particularly citrus, with the Temple Oranges of winter being the epitome. That's about it.

I note that this place offers warm gold showers on their third floor. OK, if that's your scene..... How do you explain to people how bad their writing is without offending them? Therein would lie the key to a successful business, methinks.

I'm still wondering whether he or she meant "hearty" rather than "hardy" in describing the "bean cassoulet" at Pigalle. Who knows, maybe they really were some tough old beans.

(Intemperate comment deleted by self.)

They're one of the ever-increasing ranks of linguistically infuriating restaurants offering a Prefix Menu.

From a conversation I overheard, Whole Foods have their collective eyes on the space. This is a long term plan & won't happen immediately. I suppose there are various reasons it could fall through.

Don't leave a paper bag full of garbage on top of a gas stove even if all the burners are turned off. (NOTE: I wasn't the one who did this. I am smarter than that. Unfortunately a friend of mine wasn't. And it was my apartment that he was housesitting.)

Be sure to invite Zippy the Pinhead over the next time you pick up an order. ← OK I'll be the first to admit that I need an explanation. I went to the Zippy site & did numerous searches, but only came up with strips that deal with Singapore Slings, clam chowder and Lo Mein Lounges. If there's a joke here, it's lost on me.

Not sure why I'm thinking of this right now, but I'm wondering whether any of the restaurant folk who frequent this thread have encountered a chef or a cook who spent a summer (at least) cooking at the Robinhood Cove Marina restaurant out Georgetown way (down the road from Bath). This was probably in the 1980s, or perhaps early 1990s. We dined there one night just to try some place different, and discovered a room with a cornucopia of the most outrageous sauces. We went back a couple of times. The food was stunning. Whoever was doing the cooking had mastered the art of making reduced sauces and concentrating and balancing flavors. I literally had not tasted sauces like that outside of France. (You have to take into account my budget at the time.) Of course, when we returned the next summer, the cook had moved on, and the food at the Marina restaurant had become ordinary. I've often wondered who was in the kitchen that year & what became of him or her. Was it Rob Evans? Was it the lady who runs Primo in Rockland? Was it someone who's now in another part of the world entirely? Whoever it was, he or she had The Gift.

Singapore chow mei fun - because it's one of the best things at my local Chinese takeout parlor Rigatoni amatriciana - the story behind this will get its own topic if I ever get around to writing it up. (And if I decide whether it's Cooking or Italy.) Suffice it for now to say that I encountered a sublime version of the dish in Venice in the 1990s and have been messing with the dish in the kitchen ever since. (Subject to long hiati - is that the plural of hiatus? - due to lack of decent pancetta.)

I learned how to find & cook Maine shrimp in New Jersey, thanks to some online inspiration from johnnyd (see New England forum). In my ongoing obsessive quest, I have come close to perfecting my approach to preparing rigatoni amatriciana, though I have not yet attained the consistency I'd like.

Happy to report that the little shrimps have reached my local Whole Foods in Montclair NJ. (Last year there weren't enough to go around the entire WF chain & I had to drive to a flagship-type store in Edgewater NJ to find them.) They appeared earlier this week at $6.99 lb, but I didn't have a free night to cook until tonight, so I regretfully passed them by. Went back today & they were $3.99! I was thrilled. We dine well tonight. Doubly happy since we had to cancel our Xmas trip to Maine at the last minute a/c a sick cat. (No shrimp samples for her!) If we can't get up there, it's nice that a bit of it makes its way down here.

The word on the street is that the opening of the West Orange WF has been rescheduled from March to July 2006 because the renovation is taking longer than expected. Then, once the West Orange branch is up & running, the Montclair branch will move to a larger space, likely the Pathmark space in Lackawanna Pz. As of now, the company definitely intends to maintain a store in Montclair. More power to 'em. They had fresh Maine shrimp for $3.99 lb today! It doesn't have to be Whole Paycheck if you keep your eyes open.