ghostrider

THanks folks. I'm aware of some of these places though a couple are new to me. 8 miles may have been a bit of an exaggerated approximation but most of these places still seem a bit far for takeout, at least the way I think of it. I may have to work on changing my mental constructs in this regard.

For the life of me I can't understand why we don't have any Indian or Thai food within an 8-mile radius. Notice I'm not saying "any good" Indian or Thai, I do mean any, period. This is really a dead zone. (Spring Grill in Rutherford are OK for what they do - Eurofied Thai/pan-Asian - but their somewhat upscale menu puts them out of the price range of what I think of as "regular takeout places.")

I live in Rutherford too & don't have much to add. New York Pizza has pretty good pizza & that's about it. There are some Italian specialty shops down Ridge Road over in Lyndhurst that I haven't tried, I don't know whether they have any sort of edge in quality.

Are you implying that the commerical has been on TV for years? Like someone else who posted above, I never saw the darned thing until last week. Makes me wonder if the ad itself has some subliminal thing going to make folks think they've seen it, as well as eaten the GBC, in years gone by. For the record: white boy from the 1950s St. Louis suburbs. Never heard of GBC until a couple of years ago when it showed up at a restaurant somewhere in the Northeast (I honestly don't remember where) in the guise of retro comfort food. And it was as vile as it sounds.

Wow--I can't imagine my local Shop Rite doing this, and for that, I am eternally grateful! After all, it's a store where I have to tell the 15 year-old cashiers what zucchini is... ← Ha you beat me to it! God bless Jersey! There are times when living here is positively refreshing. As for shopping patterns, depends entirely on (a) which store I'm in and (b) whether I need to hit the deli counter; if I do, I make a beeline for it, & that determines the course of the rest of my shop. I have this irrational phobia that if I dally to buy anything else, I will get stuck behind one of these people who are buying 8 lbs of bologna, 12 lbs of genoa, "gimme 6 lbs of that sale ham ya got - what yer out of it? - oh crud now what do I do - well, gimme 8 lbs of cheese - hmmmm, do I want white or yella today? - I feel a little crazy today, make it the white - now back to that ham...." I can never figure out how those people eat all those cold cuts before they spoil. Since I'm shopping for only two of us, I rarely buy enough to use a wheeled cart; it comes into play only when I'm buying a case of bottled water or something similar. Then it remains in the back aisle of the "racetrack" while I make little guerilla forays into the aisles; it's almost never worth the effort of pushing the cart back & forth up the aisles. Finally, from the article: I'd really like to see one of those stores with lowered aisles. I would think customers would get ticked off having to push the carts back up to ground level, but maybe the ride down makes up for it. I guess that's why they need the walkways in the middle, but then how do you reach the shelves from there?

Lalezar is open on Mondays, at least according to the schedule posted by their door, I double-checked it today.

Ran arcross a variety I'd not seen before called Pivona at the Union Sq Greenmarket on Monday. Similar in appearance, flavor & texture to a Gala but a bit less sweet. Have to say that the Fujis I got from the same farmer had superior flavor & crunch. Edited to note that this is my post #1000 on eG. Another milestone in the frittering of my life.

Did this just happen? I went 3 weeks ago, assuming they did lunch, and couldn't find it so I called them for directions. They said they were not open for lunch. I also tried Table 8 on a whim, since someone posted on baristanet that they were open for lunch. No such luck. Edit: I had to call both places to see if I am going crazy. Apparently I am, since they both claim that they are now open for lunch. ← I drive by Egan's several times a week. This week I noticed that they have a big banner draped over the storefront that says NOW OPEN FOR LUNCH. Not sure exactly how long it's been there but it's there now.

Ah serendipity! The top on my favorite Hall split in two after several drops. I have to glue it back together annually, I can't find a glue that will hold up with daily use. I suppose I should get to haunting eBay. (Somewhat OT but these all sort of relate to gift ideas for tea lovers, right?)

Fullers! Omigosh, but that takes me back to trips to London 3 decades back, CAMRA guide in hand.....

I love the Hall teapots. I have 2 of them, and two of similar build made by McCormick, that I found at various flea markets & street fairs over the years. They are the best! Not terribly elegant, but they really do the job, and I'm fanatical about that.

I was chagrined to discover it took me almost 1/2 hour to get to Montclair WF today, with relatively little traffic. My sense of time is notoriously oblique to that of most folks in this world. Depending on time of day, you might do better to avoid Rt. 3 & take Kingsland up to West Passaic/Broad/Watchung to Grove. (I usually exit Rt. 3 at Bloomfield Ave, & connect to W. Passaic. It's almost 2 miles shorter than going up to Grove because of the way Rt. 3 swings to the northwest.) But timewise it's uncertain, depending on how you hit the stoplights. It's a good morning & late evening route, not so in the mid-afternoon, traffic builds up. Edgewater is a haul but it has one of the most scenic parking lots in the area! They were also the only place I could find the fresh Maine shrimp in season last year (see the New England forum for more on that little delicacy). And Kinara is right across the street. Now I need to work on combining those two trips.

I can get to the Montclair store in 20 minutes from Rutherford. Of course Clifton is big & you may be in the wrong part. But if you want some shortcuts let me know.

As eG's resident Salt Paranoiac, I hope that's true (about the accurate labeling). I remember a recent discussion in another thread about "Swift's Proven Solution" being injected into their pork. I couldn't find anything on the Swift website or anyplace else that specified the contents of this Proven Solution. I wonder if it's on the pork package. It should be, according to the above statement. (Not that I eat Swift pork, but I'm curious, and I wonder if any of this applies to unbranded pork.)

Channel cat or farmed cat? Just curious. I despair of ever finding channel cat on the East Coast but it never hurts to ask.

Yeah, we had those durn moths here in Jersey too. Doesn't really seem to matter where you live, it's the plastic-bag storage, as mentioned above, that encourages them. Throwing out the contaminated grains/pastas etc. & storing the new stuff in sealed plastic containers or jars did the trick here too.

The other week I was waiting to meet my SO at Newark Liberty Airport's Terminal A. It was a night of many weather-related delays. After the third revision of her arrival time, I abandoned all hope of a nice meal at home & went to the food court. The Chinese place had already closed, so it was down to BK, Subway & the in-the-process-of-closing pizza place. (I don't recall their name.) Got a slice of spinach pie & their last remaining tomato & fresh basil slice. Their much touted crust (dough made with water imported from New York City!) wasn't all that impressive, perhaps because it was the end of the night & the slices were reheated. Cheese was OK, spinach was OK, but I was blown away by the tomato & basil slice; these were the ripest & tastiest tomatoes I've had this year outside of the ones I got from the greenmarket. Were these GM tomatoes? However they did it, I was impressed. Tomatoes that not only look good, but taste as good as they look, at a typical airport food court? Remarkable. My fave airport for food, though, is Zurich. There is a complete grocery store with cheeses & cured meats from all over Switzerland, & anything else you might fancy. You can assemble one heck of a picnic meal if you want.

On the other hand, they might have brought you a live cockroach.

Whoa, how did I not know about this place? I didn't even know there was another "farm market" up there. (I know the one further down on Rt 17 N next to Staples.) Thanks! (Straying way OT from bakeries but this is a valuable tip for me.)

This is why Whole Foods draws the crowds.

As a Rutherford resident, I'm skeptical that a high end bakery would last here. I think that the existing place survives precisely because they're more of an MOR type of place, which fits the prevailing tastes here. "I think many people want a place that's closer to whare they do other regular shopping (e.g. groceries) so they can just pop into the bakery on the way home to grab something." Having watched a truly superb fish market go under, despite being only 2 doors up from the local ShopRite (you didn't even have to move your car, for crissakes!), I can only conclude that most Rutherfordians aren't inclined to do the pop-in for anything out of the ordinary.

You can do their "14-day free trial," which requires you to sign up & give them a credit card #. You won't get charged for 14 days & you can go back to their website & cancel before the time is up.

Mort Peche, eh? Nice job! (I really think so. ) Fascinating. This may go on the list for post-Xmas dining. We had a Persian place in my town for a couple of years that served similar fare & was quite good. It was fascinating to go there on weekends, they drew Iranians from all over Jersey. But economics, & perhaps public attitudes after 9/11, were against them, they closed shortly thereafter.

My personal theory is that the newest elite consists of those who sneer at Whole Foods. I think I'll open a store that caters to these folks. "Fresh lobsters, and we treat 'em like they treat each other." Actually there's a lot about their marketing shtik that grates on me too, but whatever they're doing, it's effective. I just wish I'd bought their stock 5 years ago.

Ha, I was just going to mention that. Our local food banks set up outside our markets this weekend specifically to gather the turkeys & whatever else folks can give. There was an article in a local paper today that our NJ food banks are desperately short of frozen turkeys & everything else. Compassion fatigue seems to have set in after Katrina & no one has donated much since. I don't know if this is true nationwide but it's something to think about.