scott123

Thanks, those are some great leads. Han Ah Rhuem? I'm not familiar with that. Is that the name of a store? Korean grocers tend to have Thai ingredients (like fresh galangal) that my local Chinese grocers do not. Would you, by chance, happen to know if there are any good Korean grocers west of Little Ferry? The farther I can get away from the congestion of the GWB, the better. Also, could you recommend a good Middle Eastern grocer in Patterson? Glenn, if memory serves me correctly, Jersey City/Newark can be pretty tricky parking wise. That being said, the possibility of finding a good Moroccan or Afghani grocer west of the Hudson are probably pretty slim. Any specific places that you like?

As my interest in preparing a variety of ethnic cuisines increases, so does my need to find ethnic grocers of specific nationalities. Although we live in a melting pot and all of our communities are extremely diverse, some are slightly less diverse than others. And that, imo, makes for some great food. Experience has shown me that if I'm looking for, say, a good Mexican grocer, finding a community with a substantial Mexican population is a good place to look. Although I have lived in New Jersey for most of my life, my knowledge of areas beyond 20 miles from my home is fairly minimal. As I'm aware of ethnic enclaves in my own area, I'm hoping that someone from another area can enlighten me to enclaves in their vicinity. If there are specific ethnic grocers that you love, please share them, although at the moment I'm primarily interested in learning about communities and/or subcommunities. From my travels within the state, these towns appear to have substantial populations of a specific nationality of people: Dover - Mexican Parsipany - Chinese and Indian North Bergen - Cuban Fort Lee - Korean Anything you can add to this list would be greatly appreciated. I have no doubt that whatever nationalities/areas you bring to my attention, they will become my eventual destination. At the moment, I'm on a huge Thai/Middle Eastern kick. Does Northern New Jersey have any predominantly Thai communities? Middle Eastern (Egyptian)?

Cool! :) I did a global search with the word "smoking" and got 2500 hits. Is there any chance you can direct me to the thread of which you speak? Speaking of cheffing... isn't there a salve you can get for that? ;)

Boaziko, thank you for the recipe. I'm curious about the length of time you marinate the meat. Your directions say to let the meat rest for at least 2 hours in the fridge. Is there a maximum time you would leave it in the fridge for?

My favorite Egyptian restaurant when I was living in NYC had four great items, tahini dressing, hummous, babaganoush and chicken kebabs. Over the years I've managed to successfully replicate everything but the kebabs. I'm just about do a web search looking for recipes, but before I do, I was wondering if anyone had a really good authentic chicken kebab recipe of their own that they'd be willing to share. If my taste bud memory serves me correctly, there was definitely lemon juice in the marinade and possibly some oregano.

I highly recommend Penzeys and not just for arrowroot.

Since this is my first post, I might as well jump in feet first with what may not be a popular reply. A chain smoking chef is about as competent as a blind airline pilot.