=Mark

I know it's a bit late but as far as Bay Ave Trattoria, it is owned and run by the couple who had run Joe & Naggies Bistro in Long Branch. The food is good, but you definately need to make a reservation for dinner.

I've recently come across one of my favorite BBQ sauces. I've been buying it by the gallon! Its called Blues Hog Tennessee Red. It's thinner and more vinegary than most BBQ sauces, sort of a pumped up, spicier version of an Eastern North Carolina style sauce. This is currently a fave of mine: Take a bunch of chicken drumsticks and toss 'em on the grill. Turn while cooking till they are about half done and the skin begins to crisp. Meanwhile, fill a cheap 9 oz. disposable cup about halfway with warmed Tennessee Red. Partially cooing the drumsticks makes it unlikely that you will spread any bacteria while cooking, as well as preventing the sauce from burning. Warming the sauce prevents it from cooling the chicken too much. Each time you are going to turn the drumsticks, with tongs dip them into the Blues Hog TR, lift and let drain for a moment and place back on the grill. Keep doing this until they start to glaze and caramelize, turning and dunking often enough to keep them from burning. When done, give 'em one last dunk before putting on a serving plate. Let sit 3 to 5 minutes to let the heat stabilize and the glaze to set a bit. Chow down! This summer I've been using thick sliced heirloom tomato as a side dish, not even salt or pepper. Eat with your hands, the tomato juice makes it easier to lick the Tennesee Red off your fingers!

Had dinner there on Friday night, and was somewhat less than impressed. Making an early arrival, before 6pm with reservations we entered a completely empty dining room. Even so, we were directed to a cramped corner table. When asking if we could move to a better table next to the windows we were told that they were sorry but no. This became more troubling by the time we left and the dining room was not even half full. One of the first pronouncements from our server was that she was new there (relatively, the place has only been open 3 months), and that the person training her was not in that night. Hmmmm. Oh well, it was just a Friday night... Appetizers wew ordered and served, and turned out to be fairly unremarkable. I had a Scallop Roll which was made with seared scallops, mango, scallions and was served with a tamarind sauce. Even though the ingredients were seemingly well prepared, the overall impression was one of blandness. I've found this with a lot of Japanese foods as the textures and flavors can be very nuanced, but expect Vietnamese fare to be heartier and more floral. We were then served a Mango salad which was julianned mango and jicama. It was OK but still lacked some punch. Our waitress then came and asked if we would like our check. I can appreciate attentive service and hate to be left forgotten while waiting for the check, but I honestly had hoped to be able to enjoy the entrees first... Once the confusion was cleared up, our dinners were served. Shortly after the plates were set, we were assured that our Mango Salad would be right out... (?) Incidentally, 3 of the evenings main courses were not available that night, which was a real dissapointment to half the table. I had the seafood medly, a combo of scallops, shrimp and chicken (of the sea? Nahhh.), served on noodles. I had specifically asked them to spice it up, but it was still bland. Other folks had the Filet Mignon, Diver Scallops and Pad Thai. Again the food was well prepared and cooked as asked, but remained rather ununspired. A little more assertive seasoning would have made our selections more memorable. Oh, and they did bring us our second Mango Salad... A notable departure from this trend were the desserts, not usually a contender in Asian restaurants. The Creme Brulee and Apple Tart with vanilla ice cream were declared winners. All in all, this place may be worth waiting for, giving time for them to work the kinks out of the service, but more attention needs to be given to the seasonings used in what is billed as an ethnic eatery. There are other local Vietnamese places with more authentic fare for half the price.

Dinner Last Night Two of these: Sliced toasted hard roll Schmeared with mayo and coarsly ground pepper Some rings of sliced red onion 1/4 lb. of roast beef A few slices of Swiss cheese One humongous, I mean half inch thick, slice of ripe tomato (I used an heirloom yellow one) Put on the top half of the roll and smoosh it down. Snarf it. Eat whats left of the tomater for dessert...

Personally, I like to have just a kiss of mayo, a mere smattering on the bread, but I also add a slice of cheese (perferably cheddar). My sequence goes like this: bread, mayo kiss, slice of cheese, sliced tomatoes, and the bread topper. The slice of cheese stabilizes against the chance of a tomato meltdown... Full of tomatoey goodness! ← Hey, for purposes of standardized testing I opted not to embellish the sandwich with other stuff. One of my favoritr derivatives is the BLOTCH; Bacson. lettuce, onion tomato and cheese..

It's been a great season for the local tomato crop; hot with a good rain every week or so. As a result, I've been conducting research into the consruction of a proper sandwich. To decrease variables, I've limited it to the essence of the concept: bread or roll (toasted), tomato and mayo. I've made allowances for cracked bblack pepper as this seems to have little effect on the physical characteristics of the finished product. My main query at this point was the placement of the mayo. I've seen several recipes that call for nayo to be spread on both the top and bottom pieces of bread. I've come to the conclusion that this setup greatly increases the likelyhood of a TSB (Tomato Sandwich Blowout). When bitten, the lubricating effects of the mayo on both sides result in the ejection of some if not all of the tomato and a messy combination of watery mayo/tomato juice combo from the opposite side of the sandwich. I personally find that if I just spread the mayo on one side, that the exposed piece of plain bread not only seems to provide enough friction to preclude a TSB, but has the added benefit of soaking up the tasty juice/mayo combo that is produced. Anyone else have an opinion on this weighty issue?

I don't think the quality of the food at Matisse survived the move onto the boardwalk. Might be the ghost of the old McDonalds building they now occupy...

Sleazy? Coca-Cola and PepsiCo playing on consumer's ignorance, and propensity to follow the shiny, flashy, glittery, expensive marketing gimmicks? It's sheer brilliance if you ask me! Anything is worth whatever you can get some bonehead to pay for it...

Dinner was excellent! As advised beef was avoided. Of course it isb't something I'd normally order out anyway. They started us out with expresso cups of a sweet carrot soup spiced with cardamom. Then I had the Crispy Braised Pork Belly, Gingered Plums, Napa Cabbage & Peanut Salad. The pork was a mixture of crispy and moist with tons of flavor, sort of like uncured bacon on steroids. The cabbage & peanut salad added almost an Asian touch. Other folks at the table had the Seared Day Boat Scallops, Citrus Braised Endive, Orange Butter Sauce, as well as the Seared Foie Gras, Pickled Bing Cherries, Pain Perdu, Almond Foam. The Foie Gras was almost too rich, but hey you have to go for it while it's still legal! Another diner had the Parisienne Gnocchi, Sugar Snap Peas, Braised Artichokes. The Gnocchi were smaller than I'm used to and slightly crispy as if they had been pan seared. For the second course, two of us had the Seared Long Island Duck Breast, Crispy Polenta, Port Plum Puree and the other two had Elysian Fields Rack of Lamb, Moroccan Cous Cous, Zucchini Mint Puree. It was all great. I'm not usually a grit guy, but the crispy polenta with the duck was really tasty. For dessert, folks shared Hazelnut Semifreddo Chocolate Sauce, Hazelnut Brittle, Crème Brûlée Trio: Vanilla, Maple, Cinnamon And, Warm Valrhona Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream. As I don't do sweets I opted for a course of "Stinky" cheese, (Stilton, Gorgonzola, Cabrales, etc). All in all it was a memorable event. The only minor downside is that after about 2 1/2 hours it started to become evident that thwy wanted us to "Go Away." This was somewhat of a surprise as one of the marketing strategies they used when they opened was that you had the table for the evening, and they wouldn' try to turn it over. Oh well, I guess that fell to economic reality....

It's been all over the news today that Aquafina, Pepsi's foray into the bottled water market, comes from the municipal water supply. So? Is this supposed to be a secret? I've known since they started marketing them that both Aquafina and Dasani are filtered tap water. Where did people think it came from? It says right on the label "Filtered Water."

We have reservations for dinner at Restaurant Nicholas in Middletown next week (yay!). I've been wanting to go there for some time now. I've been looking at the online menu, and so much looks good. I was wondering if folks that had been there would have any advice on favorite dishes...

It's too bad as I've been following the rebirth of Asbury in recent years...

Went for dinner and drinks last Friday with a group of friends and was less than impressed. First off the bartender kept going on about how sick he was to anyone who would listen. After hearing about the great international wine selection we were dissapointed that none of them were available by the glass. The food was OK, but they seemed to still be stucck in the 1990s practice of serving the side veggies essentially uncooked. I like crunchy veggies in a salad, but if they're on the dinner plate please cook them! To top it off the service was cursary bordering on rude. Maybe they were just overwhelmed by the crowd, but I'll probably give them a couple years to work out the lumps before going back.

excellent work, =mark. another part of the litmus test that i was going to mention is "no guanciale". this place suffers from no such problem. ← No Guacamole?

Picola Italia in Ocean, NJ...

Have you been to the Sawmill in the past couple years? It's no longer the comfy boardwalk bar where you can down a few beers and people watch the white trash going by... It's been totally redone as a fern bar/meat market with expensive drinks. So sad...

You must not have eaten at many Asian places in NYC...

I've been unable to get www.mcfoodie.com to load. Will have to try it again when I get home...

I like Osaka Japanese cuisine down in Marine Park a lot. It is an outdoor setting with a nice view of the river and marina. Unfortunately it will soon close for the season as it gets cooler...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) Farmers would be prohibited from force-feeding poultry under legislation being introduced in New Jersey that would alter production of the duck and goose liver delicacy known as foie gras. Assemblywoman Joan Voss says she crafted the measure, which would ban using a feeding tube to force the birds to eat, because it harms the animals. Such practices have been decried by animal welfare activists. I don't get it. Chopping their heads off, skinning and eating them does them no "harm?"

It's been my experience that unless the burner is stainless it will rust regardless of wjether it has been covored or not. I'm sure an argument could be made that grill covers trap moisture in the grill...

Ellen does a decent job...

I've bugged him for years, during both the shows, to offer an uncensored directors cut of them for the real fans. There's got to be a DVDs worth of great stuff on the cutting room floor...

Of course since the Isrealis blew all the airports apart a chartered plane would be of dubious iuse...

Yeah, it's like the alcohol free vodka that comes out of my tap...