hitmanoo

Heading out to Cali at the end of the month. My wife and I will spend a few days in San Francisco then take the drive down the coast to LA. I'm wondering if there are any delicious local spots in Chinatown that we should check out for lunch or dinner. Of course other restaurant suggestions are also appreciated.

If a restaurant offered real maple syrup for an additional price, it would be wrong to sneak your own syrup inside. This would be like sneaking your own wine into a restaurant to avoid paying for it. Since a corkage fee for syrup would be impractical, you'd probably be justified in purchasing the house brand at least for a taste, and then deciding if it's an accpetable syrup. Of course, if you flat out don't like the house maple you'd be left with little recourse other than to smuggle your own inside. I suppose it depends upon how hardcore you are about your choice of syrup with your breakfast.

I'm a big fan of a green bean casserole. French fried onions, mushroom soup, etc. I made one with mixed hot and sweet sausage that wad delicious!

Philip Rentzis (young kid of about 28-30) is the GM of the Fort Lee branch, BTW. ← No, it wasn't Philip. It was Leo. I did see his sister working at the West Caldwell location.

I always felt it was an interesting move for the Rentzis family to start over with a breakfast business. Back in the day, the Original Pancake House in the West Caldwell location was a seafood restaurant called Pier 74. In fact, it was so long ago that I'm not 100% sure of the Pier # I've eaten at the W. Caldwell location several times, and they do an excellent job with breakfast. On the weekend the wait can be close to an hour. I'm happy to know that the family is doing even better than I'd heard with the restaurant. I went to high school with one of the Rentzis kids, and he always told me that he had absolutely no interest in the restaurant business. Perhaps he should rethink that.

Would anyone care to share a recipe or two with a novice cook such as myself? Or perhaps a link to a recipe or two. I searched high and wide on the internet and came up with such a dizzying array of paella recipes that my head began to spin.

Not necessary. Now we know where we'll be getting some dinner with some friends on Wednesday!

Schmooty and I attempted to have lunch today at the Mana at around 1:15, and we couldn't even get in the door. The crowd was unbelievable. Is it usually this crowded for a Friday lunch or lunch in general?

I'm so sorry to read this. I had such a fantastic experience at the Beach House, as they excelled in both food and service. There were no people congregating by the windows either. I've heard from a two other couples that their experience at this restaurant wasn't exceptional, however, none of them are big seafood fans, so I'm not 100% sure of what to make of their reviews. Amazing how my wife and I had such a top notch experience there, yet others have been disappointed. Perhaps we got lucky.

I saw him munching on some ribs. I really wanted to say hello, and tell him how much I enjoy his writing. However, I didn't want to be that guy to tear a man away from a mouthful of delicious BBQ, so I just let him be. Such a great author!

Went to Raymond's today in Montclair on Church St. Sat outside at a sidewalk table, it was about 12:30. Food was decent enough. I had pancakes with the accompanied fruit salad and an OJ. My wife had an eggwhite spinich omlette, and claimed that it was pretty good. Didn't really try anything out of the ordinary, but the service was attentive, and the food hit the spot. My only complaint was the disorganization of the hostesses. They weren't too organized with the small number of people waiting for tables. They had trouble keeping track of who arrived in what order, and who wanted to sit outside vs inside. Other than that, I was pleased. Another gorgeous day!

Yes, they had boiled crawfish available by the plateful.

The crawfish etouffee was a definite highlight for me. It was the first thing I tried, and it was the item I enjoyed the most. It was all down hill after that, with the exception of the pecan pie. I'm not a pie fan, but I thought the pecan pie was outstanding! I didn't get to try the shrimp creole, as the ran out of it early. $25 is not at all unreasonable for a full day of music with 2 stages. The coupons are also a good idea. It eliminates the need for cash transactions at all of the different food stations allowing the lines to have better flow. You wouldn't believe how much more time it takes at each station if they have to deal with cash all day. The most I had to wait in any line was 10 minutes tops.

I saw Shanghai Jazz this afternoon. Is it just me or when you're thinking of Shanghai, you're not thinking of jazz, and vice versa... I'll be sure to check this place out in more detail next time. I wasn't sure what to make of it, so I kind of missed my chance today. What kind of food do they serve? Neither Shanghai Jazz nor Soho 33 had any outdoor seating. We wondered about Madison for awhile before my wife decided that she wanted to head over to Summit. We ate at the Broadway Cafe. Standard food, but we'd gotten a little hungry, and to be honest we didn't see many appealing outdoor options. The priority of today was to be outside, as opposed to finding great food. To be honest, I'm still full from the Crawfish Festival yesterday.

I just thought I'd float this thread back up towards the top now that the weather is finally taking a turn for the better. SUMMER IS UPON US!!! I was thinking of taking a trek either to Summit or Madison for today to take advantate of this nice weather. I know that both towns have some outdoor dining options as well as a "town center" area where sunday strollers can walk about in the fine weather, check out some local shops, and get some eats. Anybody have some fresh ideas for this summer?

Returned to Sesame last night for the first time since my first time. The meal as a whole was pretty good, with one dish particularly tasty. I had a poached duck breast with 5 spices. When I ordered it, the owner was a bit wary. At first we were going to order a Peking Duck, but decided it would be too much food. The owner warned me that the poached duck would not have the same crispy skin as the Peking Duck--something I already knew. I mean, how could you get a crispy skin by poaching and not frying the duck? I digress The duck--on the specials menu--was exceptional, served with a delicate soy based sauce. If you like that kind of dish, give it a shot! As a side note, the owner was explaining to me that this particular duck dish was something that the staff would eat for lunch and/or dinner back in the kitchen. They didn't have it on their menu, b/c they felt it would not find an audience with the American clientelle. He said it was "authentic Chinese," and he was worried that nobody would order it. However, they ate it in the kitchen so often, and they enjoyed it so much that he figured he'd give it a shot and put it on the menu. I loved it! My wife, not so much... It reminded me of a similar dish I'd had at Hunan Cottage.

Actually, if you know where to look, you can get Pilsner Urquell draft at the Fairgrounds. ← Well, where should I look?

This should be a fun event. Hope the weather holds up tomorrow!

I'm pretty sure that Apple Gate Farms has a selection of both fat free and sugar free items to go with their wide selection of regular ice cream products.

If you want to try a sub shop, the Whitehouse is one of the best in the country! If you haven't been, it's not to be missed. 2301 Arctic Avenue Atlantic City 08401 609-345-8599

Decided to give Trattoria Fresco another shot tonight. I never seem to have any luck. The food was great, the service unacceptable. We arrived at 7:30 and there were a few people waiting. The host asked a few of us how many were in our parties, then said it didn't matter because there was plenty of seating for everyone. He did not ask who arrived in what order. He took the party closest the podium, and said he'd be right back to seat the rest of us. Nearly 5 minutes later, he had not returned. A young lady came and sat us at a table with menus. We waited about 20 minutes to order--as a matter of fact, we waited so long to order that one of our party actually called another restaurant to see if they were still serving dinner.! Then we had to plead with the young lady who sat us to take our order. It turned out she had to become a waitress due to the seemingly unexpected crowd. About 5 minutes after that they brought us some bread. We had to snag some olive oil from another table, ours was empty, and I really wanted to munch on some bread. The rest of the meal went slowly but smoothly. We got out of the restaurant at about 9:45. As I said, the food was delicious. The price fix at $24 was a steal. I had the calamari ap, with a tasty basil sauce, and a skirt steak, cooked to a delicious medium rare. Even the gelato was tasty. If the service at this place could only catch up with the food...

I'm taking a trip out to San Fran and the Cali coast in July. I'd love to know some good sushi places. Are reservations a must?

My wife just told me that MSU has cancelled the post-ceremony reception! This news is disconcerting. Apparently, students complained that they'd rather spend time afterwards with their families. In my opinion, this is just a cheep cop-out by MSU. Wouldn't it be fair to surmise that students would not complain about such a reception, but rather they'd just skip it if they chose to make other plans? Anyway, I'll still try to say hello after the reception.

Where is the Daily Soup in Montclair? I'm not a huge fan of Panara, and I'd love to check out a new soup place.

What I had heard was that the Pathmark was going to become a Sears superstore, and that the Sears Hardware store at the Essex Green Mall was going to close. The Whole Foods was going to be in the same location as the Pathmark, only they were going to build a new structure somewhere near the bank--closer to Prospect Ave. The parking lot in this area is absolutely huge. If they were to build the Whole Foods away from the existing mall, and if they were to utilize some more of that area closer to the road for parking, this could work out well. Oh, and Curlz, I completely disagree with you on the Millburn location. Where I live, the Montclair location and the Millburn location are equadistant. Putting the W.O location in the center would definitely put a draw on both the Montclair and Millburn stores. While we'll all agree that Whole Foods is a great supermarket, I wouldn't want to see it go the route of the Home Depot in that there are so many of them. At some point they start to compete against themselves.