ghostrider

I drank Lapsangs for a couple of decades. Then they just got boring. These days I'm focused on Assams & Ceylons & the occasional Nepal. I wouldn't mention this in this thread, but the "tea for grownups" comments make me think that I've entered the next phase of life. "Tea for geezers" anyone?

I'd posted a query about the Hoboken location in the NJ forum last year; I'd walked by the place one afternoon & the menu looked interesting. The replies from the NJ crew who'd been there seemed to amount to a pretty uniform "nothing special" so I didn't pursue it further.

Lobsters eat their young. Maybe we're simply fulfilling our small roles in the great karmic wheel when we boil the adults.

They sell a set of cool little measuring spoons marked Dash, Pinch & Smidgen. They're actually very handy if you're on a low-salt diet.

Not quite. Caffeine is a known diuretic. It will actually dehydrate you if you aren't getting enough water to compensate. (Maybe I should start signing myself "notorious stickler" too, at least when I'm posting about tea.) Caffeine is my last remaining "vice" too at this point so I'm certainly in sympathy with your post!

It is the same chemically, but there is generally less caffeine in green tea than in black. This has nothing to do with the drying/fermentation process; caffeine content in tea depends on many factors - strain of tea bush, time of harvest, climate, location of plantation, etc. Individual batches of green tea may have more caffeine than individual batches of black; the rule is very general. Upton Tea has a good article on the subject in their archives (I've posted this link before), as well as some of the best teas on the planet. (Disclaimer: I am not a shill for Upton, just a huge fan.)

It's interesting how many folks equate caffeine with coffee. I gave up coffee 30 years ago because it was tying my stomach in knots & I had discovered the pleasures of really good tea. The few times I've tried coffee since then, I've gotten a noticeable buzz, considerably more intense than the simple feeling of being fully awake that I get from tea. The even fewer times that I've drunk an entire pot of coffee since then have resulted in a distinctly unpleasant wired feeling & a bit of the shakes that others here have mentioned. I've gradually reduced my intake of tea over the years, for no particular reason other than not feeling the need for it. My cardiologist still thinks I drink too much of it, yet remains puzzled that it doesn't seem to affect my heart rate. I've explained to him many times that a cup of properly brewed loose tea from a pot is considerably less strong than a cup made from a Lipton teabag, but it never sinks in, he just doesn't get it. Oh well, he has his areas of expertise and I have mine.

Thanks for the report. I'll still have to try them one of these days.

Thinking further on things I've seen at local Chinese restaurants, I am wondering whether wooden pencils jammed upright into a plastic cup filled with uncooked rice carry the same symbolic meaning as chopsticks in a bowl of the cooked stuff, or whether they're somehow exempt.

Hashi. Stuck in rice. Fork. Stuck in potato. If we do this, it doesn't much matter where we are, we're a doof and take that with us until we learn to look up and see what's around us. ← Universals in regards to manners? Maybe I'm missing something in your statement. I've said several times a genius in one cuisine is an ape in another. We're all doofs in one context or another. ← Yes, indeed. Especially as to the finer points. But there are behaivours that are found generally egregious and are not subtle at all. ← Fork stuck in potato will generally topple over; the potato will roll. Hashi stuck in rice will generally remain upright. The similarity between the two actions is not immediately intuitive. Well, they both seem kind of childish, but there's more inherent logic to the rice move. To me, at least.

Nice to hear about the Airtrain. Newark Airport recently opened a station on the NJ Transit NE Corridor / Coast lines (& gives you a free monorail ride out to the station), where 4 trains an hour will zip you into NYC Penn Sta for about $11. Noting Quito on your bio. On my way back to the train in Patchogue after dinner, I passed an Ecuadorian restaurant on Ocean Ave. that looked intriguing (& hadn't shown on any of my web searches, of course). Unfortunately we'd walked up a different street to get into town or we might have stopped right there. I'm sure LI isn't a wasteland once you get to know the place. Much like Jersey.

Downtown Patchogue seemed OK, though the climate yesterday wasn't conducive to strolling around. An easy 3-block walk from the train station. Food at The BrickHouse Brewery was ordinary & passable, but the selection of house-brewed beers was stellar. You're probably better off with burgers than entrees if you're going to eat there; but if you're a beer aficionado, the place is definitely worth a visit. Further east on Main Street there's a place called Trio which seems to be kind of upscale; it didn't have the right vibe for yesterday so I didn't even look at their menu. I found these websites helpful in finding options, though their listings aren't necessarly up to date (e.g., the tea shop Proprietea has become Sandals Cafe). LongIsland.com Eat Out Long Island It was an enjoyable day. I get a kick out of how the relatively new Secaucus Junction station in Jersey makes for virtually seamless train connections that get you in to Penn Station & out to eastern LI in about two hours total. No traffic headaches, no tunnels & bridges to navigate. Not that I know what would draw me back out there again, but it's nice to know that it can be done.

I'm the same way, but it's definitely the richness that gets to me, doesn't matter what the cuisine is. A lot of Indian restaurant food, be it good or bad, is needlessly rich. That's why I learned to cook it myself some decades back.

Don't miss their ho-made marinara sauce. I've walked by this place, it looks like a nice room & I dig the view out onto Lincoln Park. Still haven't tried 'em tho.

Dreaming & drooling in Jersey....

Over Christmas we dined in a Maine restaurant called Katahdin which makes a point of featuring local produce & ingredients. The fresh tomatoes in their salad were stunningly good for December. I've read elsewhere that there are farm folk in Maine for whom growing hothouse produce in winter is an important segment of their business. I didn't ask Katahdin where they got their tomatoes that day, but putting two and two together..... This is a little tangential to the topic, but I for one wouldn't slam a restaurant for serving seemingly out-of-season produce; were I a critic, I'd dig a little deeper.

Cheerios was my fave cereal as a kid, but their heart-healthy image is one of the most egregious scams going. 210 mg of sodium per serving is really pretty outrageous. Yeah I know I'm a one trick pony.

Not entirely. At 90mg sodium per serving in their Heart To Heart cereal, that's too much by my way of thinking. Kashi's ingredients seem to be very good otherwise, but I can't fathom why they need to put that much salt into the mix. I switch between No-Added-Sugar Alpen, Nature's Path Ginger Zing Granola, and Familia No-Added-Sugar Muesli.

I think I've always been something of a purist when it comes to flavors. I always have my tea after a meal, by itself. I find the flavor of tea alone to be so complex & satisfying that adding other flavors to the mix becomes a distraction.

I'm quite certain that when Arthur Dent was talking about "a cup of tea" it had milk and perhaps sugar in it. -mjr ← Probably so. It's the underlying heart of the dedicated tea-drinker, however diluted & sweetened, that I still admire in Arthur.

Me too. Boothbay has a lot of charm & also a lot of tourists. Some folks like the crowds; I prefer more remote places. Maine is a place where you can make that kind of choice; that's one of the many things I love about being there.

Ah, it always pays to search eG before posting. Dined at Mingala last night w a party of 6, chose it mostly for location (show at CBGB afterwards) + fond memories of their short-lived branch in the West Village c. 20 years ago. I was pleased. We have some TRULY BAD Chinese joints in Jersey & Mingala was way above that level. Yes, I'm always a little dismayed when I see the usual Americanized vegetable mixture in some of the dishes, but what the heck, at least they were fresh & properly cooked. Interesting mix of flavors; our companions enjoyed the Rangoon night market noodles; my lemon chicken was at least nicely cooked & had a well flavored sauce (damn low-sodium diet limits me). Sheila's Mingala Kow Swear Kyaw, a Burmese take on Pad Thai, was excellent; I cleaned up the last few bites that she couldn't finish. I would return for the Young Ginger Salad alone. Most refreshing. The fact that there was a huge Burmese family/friends gathering of c. 20 people at a series af adjoining tables along one wall may be a sign that they've changed cooks again, & for the better this time. In any event, at $18 a head, incl. tax & tip, I think we got an excellent value & a delightful experience. I can't overemphasize how gracious & attentive the service was. I like this place at this point in time & will definitely go back.

If it's so bad, how does the Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts stay in business? Is the Theatre in a vastly different area from the train station? They're 5 blocks apart according to the Theatre website. Friend of mine is running a show there (at the Theatre, not the train station) next month. Nobody's driving, that's why I'm asking about the train station area. My friend is plannng on taking the LIRR to Patchogue & a cab from there to his hotel in Holtsville the day before. Are you telling me that that's a bad idea? If so, is there a better town from which one can get to Holtsville?

Does anyone have anything to suggest? I'm looking for places within walking distance of the train station, if such places exist. Would prefer a good pizza/Indian/Thai joint to "fine dining." Any advice on the lay of the land (is this a town where we're likely to be pummeled by the Baseball Bat Gang?) would also be appreciated. Thanks.

The Comfort Food mess is accessible on line at the magazine's website. What a hodge-podge (dare I say, a slurry?). Looks like everybody was on vacation & a junior dog show editor threw something together. And how dare a piece purporting to highlight comfort foods not tell me where I can find the best mashed potatoes & gravy. Fie. While I was there, for the fun of it I went to their "Statewide Dining" function & searched for Soul Food. This yielded 2 suggestions: Epernay in Montclair and Huntley Taverne in Summite. Neither seems very soulful. Does NJM have a clue?