scott123

Two things... 1. In the world of hazelnut/chocolate combinations (belgian sea shells, bacci, ferrerro rocher, godiva open oyster) nutella is indeed wonderful but no where near the quality of flavor of Callebaut Gianduja (halzenut milk chocolate). 2. Theres a low carb version if nutella called twist (made with maltitol instead of sugar) that's okay but nowhere near as good. For some reason they add soy flour to it, which, although barely detectable, diminishes the experience.

This item is on the low carb menu page to accompany all of their entrees at Houlihan's .. new item .. actually, not too bad ... Its an oldie but goodie in the low-carb community. A couple of the chains that feature low-carb menus even have it on them... It's call fauxtatoes. The only ingredient you're missing is cream cheese. Without the cream cheese, you've got pureed cauliflower. With it, you got the closest thing to mashed potatoes imaginable. Low carb recipe guru Dana Carpender has a phenomenal recipe: http://atkinsbythebook.com/cgi-bin/cookboo...ategory=Veggies

Wegmans' is as shrewd and savvy as Starbucks or any other major rapidly expanding player. They do really serious demographic studies and they know how far people will drive for a good store. Talk to people whove tried to get their product positioned to eb sold by Wegman's stores and you'll find that they don't get sold a bill of goods on anything. Alright, as I was typing that notion, a small part of me was saying "Scott, you're talking out of your ass." It's official. I was.

It's true, Morristown doesn't have the space for something like a Wegmans, but neighboring town Harding Township does. With the exception of Kings, there wouldn't be a supermarket for miles.

Yes, it is different. West Windsor is a bordering town to Princeton. East Hanover is 4 towns over from Morristown. If a business in a bordering town wants to play the fuzzy border game, that's one thing, but 4 towns and 6 miles away. Nope. A spade is a spade. You know what I think? I think some bigwig at Wegmans has been lusting after a prestigious, well situated "Morristown" store and they're being sold this bill of goods as "close enough." It's a shame because Morristown would be a huge opportunity for Wegmans. Right now the two supermarkets we have are abysmal, one being heinously overpriced (Kings) and the other, filthy (A&P).

I'm not sure this will prove to be that profitable for Wegmans. That location is practically next door to Costco and only a few blocks from Pathmark, Stop & Shop, Shop Rite, Kings in Florham Park and Trader Joes. Regardless of the wealth in Morris County, the upscale supermarkets just aren't doing the kind of business that the bargain places are. The bottom line is that for the most part, Shop Rite and Costco have just about everything you can get in Kings/Stop&Shop and Pathmark for considerably less money. The only exception to this Trader Joes. Trader Joes not only has different products but the products they do sell that are the same are cheaper than shoprite. This is why they're making money hand over fist. And calling it the "Morristown" Wegmans, is ridiculous. Someone needs to acquire some map reading skills.

That is a fascinating workaround Episure, thank you for sharing it.

Mongo, are you saying that, unlike naan, which can run the gamut of quality, butter chicken is usually either great or crappy and seldom in between? I'm curious, do you make butter chicken at home?

Richie111, in the murky world of butter chicken I don't think there is a "wrong" or "right" in this regard. I wouldn't be too quick to cross almond paste off the list. Your favorite butter chicken might very well contain it. As I said earlier, there are many paths to butter chicken bliss. I'm definitely adding it to my list of things to experiment with. I had a top notch butter chicken at Saffron in East Hanover the other day. I also had scorched saag at the same time, so my feelings on the restaurant continue to be mixed. Begum Palace in Madison does an excellent butter chicken, although they serve it rarely. It has been a while since I've been there, but Neelam in Berkley Heights has a butter chicken on par with Jyoti. Overall I found Neelam and Jyoti to be very similar in food and decor. I wouldn't be surprised if they had the same owner. Of all the places I've mentioned, Jyoti is the only place where butter chicken is guaranteed to be on the buffet. With the other places, the likelihood is fairly slim, especially at Begum where I've only seen it a couple of times in more than 20 visits. I should also probably tell you that my tastes are fairly common when compared to the more etherial palates of many in this forum. Words like heavy, smothered, rich and excessive are all music to my ears. No fresh tomatoes or creamless gravies for this peasant :) Just to give you a little better picture of where I stand, I can eat 20 white castles in one sitting and my penchant for ring dings is reknown.

Are the non salad items in the buffet component worthy of attention?

Richie111, although I have made strides in paying attention to factors such as the quality of my chicken, the marinade and the cooking time/doneness, I have a long way to go to recreate the "superb" chicken I've had in restaurants. I do think a lump charcoal grill might make a decent tandoori chicken, though. That is the next step in my experimentation Jaggery is an excellent idea. I will definitely have to give that a shot, thanks. Are you sure you've seen references to almonds/almond paste in butter chicken descriptions on menus? I have seen many a korma garnished with almonds but the butter chickens I've seen tend to be spared the almond garnish, instead usually receiving a light sprinkling of chopped cilantro. And from a recipe perspective, cashew paste is an ingredient about 30% of the time and almond paste has never been mentioned. Anything is possible, though. Maybe your favorite restaurant does it differently or I might be missing something. I have had some pretty amazing butter chickens since I wrote that review, so I'd have to place Jyoti as one of my favorites, rather than THE favorite. It is superb, though. And, if it's not part of the lunch buffet, you might want to get an order of gulab jamon for dessert. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks, that's a very informative link. Something mentioned in one of the articles caught my eye:

I'm looking for cookbooks containing Punjabi recipes, by Punjabi authors, preferably good ones :)

It's certainly one of the best bitters this side of the Atlantic, but for those that dream of the real thing, it pales in comparison.

Paan is a stimulant, correct? Does anyone know how it stacks up against caffeine?

Searing does not aid in the retention of meat juices. Although there are still some TV chefs that perpetuate this myth, the notion has been thoroughly disproved a long time a go. Searing provides color and flavor (maillard reaction) only. Depending on how the paneer is made, most versions will crumble unless fried first. For the majority of paneer dishes, I prefer paneer fried.

A while back Bhelpuri posted this link to a fascinating article on the dangers of tikka food coloring in the UK.

I see too many similarities between quantum physics and religion. The time of my life when I was the most fascinated by Schrodingers Cat and quantum physics happened to coincide with a lot of psychedelic drug use. Now that I'm firmly footed on the ground, the philosophical/metaphysical aspects no longer float my boat. Sure, if you go very small, things start getting uncertain. But I'm sure that eventually physicists will go even smaller and things will go back to being just as certain as they were pre-particle. If you get hit by a mac truck, it doesn't really matter what's occuring on a quantum scale. You'll be dead, that's for certain. Unless of course, quantum physics could be used to invent something really cool like time travel or teleportation. Then I'd start whistling a different tune. Until then, truck=dead and no rent=eviction. For the time being, I dwell in the absolute.

My local Indian grocer sells spicy peanuts that when fresh are good. Since they are rarely fresh, I've decided to come up with my own recipe. Roast cumin, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and, of course, a little msg. I also use peanut butter, almond butter and cashew butter to thicken flourless gravies. The most pleasure I receive, though, is eating them plain, by the handful and peanut butter, by the spoonful. Yum!

I've been reading/analyzing every butter chicken recipe I can get my hands on (hundreds) and have spent the last 10 years trying to replicate the flavor from my favorite restaurant. I'm close to my goal. As butter chicken recipes can vary greatly from restaurant to restaurant, the path to my butter chicken bliss is definitely a different route than yours. That being said, I have learned a few things in my quest that might help you. As Episure stated, Tandoori chicken is essential. I'd even go a step further to say that superb Tandoori chicken is essential. Butter chicken may have grown out of a way of rewarming/adding moisture to dry leftover chicken, but nowadays, the chicken plays a far greater role. For quite some time I was under the misconception that a good gravy will cure any ill caused by mediocre mistreated chicken. I suffered from gravy on the brain syndrome - chicken was just an afterthought. I now give equal and careful attention to both the gravy and the chicken and am richly rewarded for doing so. It wasn't until I stopped eating sweets for a while that I was able to detect the honey in my favorite restaurant's butter chicken. Did you see any pieces of onion in Bukhara's sauce? If there wasn't, it's possible they pureed it, but I'd put my money on honey. The acidity of the tomato needs some kind of sweetness to balance it. Some restaurants use sugar but my tastebuds are telling me that the majority use honey. Cream has a tendency, when used in excess, to mask flavors. At least that's what I've noticed when adding it to this dish. Since the restaurant butter chicken I love is flavorful and creamy, I'm guessing that all or part of the creaminess comes from cashew paste. I have yet to experiment with cashew paste but I'm expecting it to be the last piece of the restaurant quality butter chicken puzzle. I hope you are planning more trips back to India in the future. Replicating a dish from the memory of one meal can be very difficult. I try to eat my favorite restaurant's butter chicken at least once a week to keep the image of the dish fresh in my mind.

I have read every book you've written, along with those by Harold Mcgee, Shirley Corriher and Robert L. Wolke. I'm at a point now where I find myself hungering to further my education in the area of food science and not knowing where to turn. Trips to the library have revealed a handful of old dusty books from the Eisenhower era, back when tobacco was still considered healthy and "DDT is good for me". Are there any more current authors/books in this field that you would recommend? I don't mind complicated diagrams, formulas and heavy number crunching, but I would like to know that what I'm learning includes the most up to date information.

Well, I made ketchup once again today. I have to admit that I wasn't that adventurous in regards to any new spice experiment. While making the ketchup I found myself pondering the effect of my three spices (allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg) and it triggered a memory of this post from Evilhomer. This is SO true! The tiniest amount of these three spices takes a somewhat scattered tomato flavor and focuses it into a laserlike tomatoeyness. It really is uncanny. How can something like allspice make ketchup more tomatoey? *shrugging shoulders* Beats me, but it definitely does.

I highly recommend soaking a stamen of saffron in a tiny bit of hot water and then tasting it, by itself. Once you have the flavor in your head, it will be much easier to recognize in complex dishes. Since the color it lent dishes was so beautiful, I began my relationship with saffron by adding it in copious amounts to many dishes. Once I learned to recognize the note it was providing, I started using much less of it and got better results. Maybe I'm not that big of fan of saffron, but I find the number of dishes it complements to be fairly small. Even in a complementary setting, if used in excess, it can be unappealing as well.

I began this quest for decent homemade ketchup because I couldn't find an edible low carb ketchup and at that point, Heinz didn't have a low carb version. Now that I can get Heinz 1 carb ketchup, my reasons for making ketchup of my own are economic. Compared to what I pay for the Heinz 1 carb, my ketchup is pennies.

Breaking the Worcesteshire code, huh? I don't use a great deal of Worcesteshire but would definitely like to have a good recipe. Care to share it?