=Mark

Pulled pork sandwiches are such a simple concept that it seems to fly in the face of reason that they are so difficult to track down commercially. To start, you take a big, boney, fatty hunk of pork... Slam it on a smoker and smoke with light blue smoke at about 220f to 245f for between 6 and 9 hours, until a fork stuck in it can be twisted with little or no resistance. By this time the collagen in the gristle has broken down to gelatin and much of the fat has rendered out. This essentially self bastes the pork and makes it very tender and moist... At this point, after resting for 20 or 30 minutes you can have at it with either a couple forks or bare hands and "pull" it to pieces. It is here where many establishments go wrong and either chop it or pull it too fine, giving it the overall consistancy of canned dog food. You want nice chunks and strings, with the flecks of browned flavorful outer portions evenly mixed throughout... Place some of this on a soft bun with some good sauce on the side (Another commercial miscue, they use too much sauce, a sign of inferior product), maybe a spoon of cole slaw on top and enjoy!

Good Fellas as a cooking movie? I can see the recipe: "Start with one large head, crack open..."

The long awaited (2+ years) DVD release of the movie Dinner Rush will be tomorrow, 21 Jan. I'm psyched, missed it in the 3 1/2 hours it spent in theaters.

Chinese Hot & Sour Soup ------------------------------------------ Ingredients: 6 cups chicken stock 1/4 lb julienned lean pork or chicken 2 tbsp garlic & red chile paste 2 tbsp soy sauce 3/4 tsp ground white pepper 4 eggs, beaten 5 tbsp cornstarch 1 cup sliced shittake mushrooms 1 can peeled straw mushrooms 1 can sliced bamboo shoots 1 can sliced water chestnuts 1 can baby corn ears 1 cake soft tofu, sliced into 1/4 inch cubes 1/4 cup white vinegar 1 tsp sesame oil 1/4 cup dried black fungus (cloud ears), soaked in water for one hour, drained and sliced. finely chopped scallions for garnish -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Preparation: 1. Bring stock to a simmer, add soy, pork, mushrooms & chile paste, simmer for 10 minutes. 2. add pepper, vinegar, bamboo, baby corn, water chestnuts, fungus and tofu, simmer 10 min 3. Mix cornstarch with 5 tbsp water and add. bring back to a simmer and pour the eggs in a very thin stream over the surface. Let stand for 10 seconds before gently stirring in the sesame oil. 4. serve with a garnish of chopped scallions. The pepper, vinegar and chile paste can be varied to taste.

Can you think of a reason why it woudn't be? Yes, if it is done to unload some crap that is approaching it's shelf life limit in storage.

Are the menus printed in ALL CAPS?

Which if I am not mistaken (which is entirely possible, if not likely) is a type of fish or preparation of fish and further adds to one's confusion. Geoduck?

I agree that dinner is quite noisy, but I've had many enjoyable lunches there. They often have a dish of porcini pappardelle pasta with porcini, portabella and morels in a wild mushroom sauce that is absolutely stunning. It's a beautiful dining room, especially if you get to eat there when it is snowing out.

Can Flaming Gully Merangue Pie be far away?

Firmly wrap fingers around cap. Twist.

Would also recommend Piccolo Forno. Very good food and romantic even when Angelo starts singing... Another Red Bank destination would be Buona Sera. A visually stunning dining room though the romance might be tested by the noise level at dinner.

Can we arrange for a round of FOGs at the NYC Chinese Banquet on the 29th?

This is interesting, as in dave Cooks experiments here, he found that the beet sugar caramelized a bit faster than the cane sugar.

Davids Kosher salt for cooking Rock salt for driveway & steps

The brothers have updated their menu quite nicely in recent years. One recent development that did dissapoint was that they discontinued lunch in the past year. They used to serve a very reasonable lunch menu that had dishes comparable to their dinner fare for like 12.99 to 14.99 for an entree. Don't know why they stopped it other than they must have been losing money.

I thought Nicholas had a website, but now I can't seem to find it...

Stayman Winesap Apples Wild Strawberries Spanish Winter Clementines

Actually it was 1998. Here are more images of the Bowers Chile Festival.

And to think I figured it was too late to recommend this place for your jaunt today... How did you find out about it? It's not exactly the most obvious place to stumble across.

If you want to get botanical (Sorry, I couldn't help it.), any seed bearing fleshy portion of a veggie is considered the fruit. Taken this way, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, green beans, tomatoes are all fruits. All fruits are vegetables (unless you could point out some mineral or metallic ones ), but not all veggies are fruits. Oh yes, we can't leave out my favorite fruit/veggie, anyone want to guess?

Saigon II, run by the folks who brought us Saigon in South Plainfield, has opened in the last month in Lincroft. It is about a mile west on Rt 520 off of Exit 109 of the GSP. Went last night and was pleasantly surprised! Great springrolls. A spicy and sour prawn soup with sprouts, onion, tamarind, tomato and other exotic veggies. Finished up with an entree of hot & spicy beef with onions and curry. Looks to be a nice addition to the local ethnic scene. Could have been another Italian or Chinese place...

I'm surprised the Topic Police have not chimed in about this thread having very definately gone "off."

I used to eat at Pad Thai, and it was one of the only places that would serve food hot enough for my tastes from the start. Middle aged asian waitress would brusquley ask several times "You sure you want medium!? Medium very-very hot!" Unfortunately in recent years quality seems to have become erratic, and since discovering Mie Thai it is simply easier for me to jump on the train to Woodbridge and avoid the rush hour traffic. They did need to be trained to get it hot enough though. Their Larb now blows me away... Bolero Cafe in Highlands does great Cuban but that's kind of out of your way...

Bolero Cafe - Highlands (Cuban) Mazi - Bradley Beach (Mediterranean) Bella Luna - Belmar Navesink Fishery - Atlantic Highlands Have not been to Nicholas yet...

For those in the NYC area who missed it (like me, watched a tape of The Shield from the night before), WNET is rerunning it on Sunday the 12th at 2:30pm.