jhlurie

The "fruit flavored" sodas of the world are all better than the U.S. versions. Face it... Sunkist and "Slice" just suck: Pelligrino's La Rossa Fentimans--all flavors--although they are ridiculously expensive in the U.S. Best of all is the Seville Orange flavor. Sumol. Gee these have all been mentioned.

The occasional bit of grass. And yes I mean the "lawn" kind.

I heard they fired Emily after Rocco got locked out. Rocco got locked out? Is he still locked out? Ah... we risk ruining the suspense of the show with "Reality". (coughing in hand: "lawsuit" cough cough "lawsuit") Frankly, I doubt Uzay would be this forthcoming about Emily if she were still there. By the way I LOVE the banner shown in the photo on this page: "The Cameras Have Left The Building". Think of the subtext. Heck, it's practically text.

Bourdain has such interesting friends... More be coming. This has been designed to torture you with anticipation.

As has been long discussed, requested, etc... this topic has been relocated to a less... regionally defined location. You can A-Go-Go to your Costco wherever it is located! "Adventures" seemed like the right call instead of "General", since this definitely falls under the "Grand Experiment" provision.

Most of the BBQ in Jersey is a hybrid of Texas-style and Kansas City, I think. Actually, to be more accurate, "BBQ" here more often than not means "it has BBQ sauce on it" (with BBQ sauce being that red glop, but otherwise the meat is just grilled or something). Fink CAN make a mustard sauce (I've had it from him... on Pulled Pork), but I'm not sure if it's part of his normal menu, or just by request. The last time I had it was at last year's eGullet NJ Pig-BBQ & Potluck--a repeat of which is happening this year.

I'm not going to write a dozen different explanations for a dozen different deletions. The reasons for them are not necessarily identical. Sometimes a post is deleted because it refers to an earlier deleted post. Is that an ideal circumstance? No. Is it necessary? Yes. If there had been less to delete, then the notifications and explanations would have been handled individually by PM. As for locking the topic? I'm tempted to do so and let it be on your head for not reading the eGullet User Agreement about how and where to debate administrative decisions, and anyone enjoying other aspects of the topic could look to you for an explanation of why this discussion has been ended. I'm only posting THIS publically, because this situation has gone too far for me not to. I don't particularly care about my time being wasted debating this, but we are also wasting the time of hundreds of other readers. Consider this the last warning. There have been far too many already.

It seems to me that at least in the public gestalt that exists about Pirates there are two main sub-cultures: 1.) Barbary Coast Pirates 2.) Caribbean Pirates So depending on WHICH sub-culture you are talking about, the food will differ. One's Mediterranean food and one's "Island" food.

It could be argued that babies and 7 year old children are not the same thing, so I've changed the name of the existing topic to reflect both. But since the course of these discussions--including the somewhat ridiculous sniping at each other--has been very parallel they deserve to be considered to be considered together. Here are some basic guidelines: 1.) If you are bored by this particular discussion go read/post-in another topic 2.) If your children behave, don't generalize and assume all children behave. Likewise, if you've sat next to children who didn't behave, don't generalize that all children don't. 3.) Conduct your personal debates. apologies, etc. by PM. We will all thank you for that. 4.) If you have reasonable cause to suspect any other user is "a troll", the best way to deal with that it to report it to eGullet management and ignore him or her in public venues. Rule #1 for trolls is that they exist to bait you. Assuming a user is a troll (and I'm NOT assuming that simply because someone here says it), they get their "kick" from your response. If you don't give it to them... they hate that. The next step is locking this topic. We won't take that step if people here resume discussing the actual issue, but we will if you can't all check the venom at the door. EDIT - And before any of you ask let me state... YES, some of your posts have been deleted. If you were debating some of the points made in this topic, they probably weren't, but if it was simply a statement of how bored or disgusted you are, then they were. You can take issue with what the original poster said (I've got two nieces who are in the age range described... so I do), but that has to take a more substantial form than simply saying "go fuck yourself" or "I'm bored".

It seems to me that the manipulative editing went both ways last night. On one hand, Rocco and his CIA adventures were made to seem like he was skipping out on the meeting with Jeffrey, and while it's clear Rocco didn't show I'm sure the actual progression of events was a bit more complicated. On the other hand, I found the sequence at Union Pacific (is this the first time we've been inside the kitchen of U.P. on this series?) to be somewhat disingenuous (or at least "practiced") too. If Rocco had really been spending all of his time at U.P. instead of on book tours, wouldn't the show have spent at least a moment or two on that during the many previous "Where's Rocco?" sequences? And of course there was the implication that U.P. runs well purely because of Rocco--because he set up this master plan of how it would operate, and it chugs along fine because he planned things so well. And I'm not quite so sure that his partners in U.P. would agree with any statement which set Rocco up as the only reason for Union Pacific's success (remember, we aren't just talking about the quality of the food here--which Rocco probably CAN take credit for).

If the chronology was true, Rocco agreed to be there. At the very least he could have mentioned the conflict. If the chronology was false, that's a lot worse than a mere editing implication. But didn't Mama seem to be in two places at one time? I could have sworn she was around the restaurant at some point when the day when Rocco was "supposed to be there" started, but was at the graduation at some later point. Someone needs to put the Tivo in reverse and write this all down.

What did we learn tonight? That Rocco is so sad when he sees Mama in the window. Other than that? Not much.

Well, for non-HFCS soda, there's also the lovely Foxon Park, who also ship nationwide, as well as Dublin Dr. Pepper.

My college roomate's mother was a gourmet cook of some ability, and one of her specialties was salads. If she put down a Waldorf salad in front of me I knew it was a unified dish, and it was done as it should be. As it was meant to be. If I walk into some little bistro somewhere, where I don't know them and they certainly don't know me, and I'm sent a house salad--where I'm actually ASKED the question "what kind of dressing do you want on it", then I can't really see how it's ignorance to think there's a chance that the dressing is not some essential component best handled by the chef. As a matter of course I usually DON'T ask for dressing on the side--unless I've been to the place before and know there is a problem--but even if I did I certainly can't envision it as out of line. I'm not likely to have the option of that Waldorf salad in most mid-level restaurants, but usually there's a shot at a Caesar salad. And I certainly could agree that asking for dressing "on the side" for a Caesar would indeed go beyond mere irritation to the level of ignorance. But for a simple bunch of mixed greens where the variety of dressing isn't even an essential component? Nope. It's going to be a tough sell to convince most people that "the chef's intentions" matter with that.

I'm thinking it's a combination of blood, water and marinade (if used) and we just call them "juices" to make our essentially carnivorous nature seem a bit more civilized.

For me it depends on my relationship with that restaurant and the overall rep. of the place. I might go in trusting them, but if I've been there and there is a history of over-dressing, isn't it better for the place that I simply ask for it on the side rather than adandon the restaurant completely based on this one annoyance?

One thing I notice Jason and I both forgot to post about was the rather simple yet interesting dessert we had at Dragonel--a smooth creamy vanilla ice cream, with a very interesting addition. You know those fried noodles that Chinese restaurants give you to add to soup? Okay, now imagine them coated with honey and slightly refried. Now garnish ice cream with them. Simple, yet effective.

Perhaps Saigon Republic has been better rated than Republic and they resent that?

That's a good point. Sogginess. That happens for two reasons: a.) the dressing, even if properly distributed, is "on" for too long b.) usually it pools in the bottom and anything sitting in that gets progressively soggier even faster. And yeah... if its a decent oil-based dressing it's definitely going to separate too. I. Hate. That.

Basically, to me, it seems like the classic "nuisance suit", where the big fish is hoping to intimidate the little fish into surrender. Steven says above that he found 603 registered marks with "Republic", but I'm willing to bet that the actual number of active businesses with the word "Republic" in them is MUCH higher. It takes a combination of terms like "Saigon" and "Republic" together to make something unique, not the use of a single highly generic word. "Republic" is like the word "King" or "Star"--both which are used in thousands of restaurants. Or an even better comparison would be "Empire"--which is probably used in TENS of thousands of restaurants.

The problem with Wegmans, from snausages2000's persepctive is that it's FAR more than 30 minutes from Manhattan, unless you go on like... a Sunday morning with zero traffic. There's both a fairly modern Pathmark and a Whole Foods in Edgewater (next town south from Fort Lee), but both will probably give you a corporate run-around. There's yet ANOTHER Pathmark off Rte 46.--right within the first mile or so off the George Washington Bridge. International Food Mart in Paramus is an interesting idea, the only problem being that it doesn't really LOOK like most supermarkets. It looks more like a warehouse. The previously mentioned ShopRite on Rte 4 Eastbound in Paramus is great with ceilings, and has SOME wide aisles, but also has narrow ones in other parts of the store. It's very oddly laid out. Rachel is right about the Food Emporium near the GWB. It's got huge aisles and impressive ceilings.

For me it's not so much that too much dressing is used, as much as it is that the dressing is rarely, if ever, properly distributed. It's all on the top, or the bottom. Obviously if I'm at a place I know and trust, I wouldn't ask for anything on the side. Much as I hate to admit it... probably the best "distributed" dressing I've ever gotten was from that now discontinued product from McDonalds where you closed the salad up in a cup and shook the hell out of it. Sure, the REST of the salad sucked, but the distribution of the dressing was "right".

This topic is being moved from "Adventures in Eating" to the General Europe board--where there is a considerable amount of existing discussion on Germany. The question about vinyard tours might also be applicable in our Wine forum, and I suggest a seperate inquiry there on that specific subject.

Why not? I think it's entirely possible to respect someone's accomplishments or work ethic and still think they are an ass.

The visit on the 4th was actually my first visit to Dragonel. Frankly, I might go even a step further than Jason and suggest that this restaurant potentially could be one of the hottest restaurants in the area, not just one of the hottest asian restaurants. Frankly, being there for lunch, I say this in ignorance of the actual dinner crowd, so maybe the word "best" should replace "hottest". Personally I didn't find it overwhelmingly spicy. What I did think was that it was litterally exploding with some fairly unique flavors and textures. The "Crispy Chili Potatoes" was actually more like "Crispy Tamarind Potatoes", but that's not a bad thing. The "Corn Pepper Salt" was just remarkable. They way they were deep fried you'd expect them to have popped, but instead they sort of become crispy on the outside and soft in the middle--a presentation of corn I've never seen anything even remotely like anywhere else. The "Kongee Crispy Lamb" is really really cool, with a texture that's very unique for such a "meaty" dish, and a balance of sweet and spicy that's different than both "normal" Chinese food and most Indian-food variants which make their way to this area. Like the places discussed by BrianYarvin, Dragonel also has a very upscale Manhattan feel to it, and the actual food matches that "feel".