jhlurie

As am I. We shall have to enter it into our great eGullet database of topics which mysteriously seem to set people off. The interesting thing about the author's choices, to me, is that they aren't very common items nationwide. The majority of them are southern U.S. specialties. There could have just as easily been references to Drake's Cakes or Clam Chowder or Chock Full O' Nuts or Bear Claws.

i have to disagree. i've eaten very good burgers and i think the whopper is a pretty good burger, or at least used to be. Gotta' go along with Mixmaster Tony B. here. BK may be marginally better than Le Clown Burger. And in the 1970's it may have been a tiny bit better yet. And Wendy's may be even a tiny bit better yet. But I can go to an assortment of neighborhood bars and get something twenty times better in maybe only twice the time. Still, I agree that a dedicated chain like In & Out stands the best chance of getting close. No distractions with Chicken fingers, Taco salads, cheese sticks, etc. etc. etc.

Well... Homer does mention "D'oh" all of the time. Maybe that's a subtle food reference too! As for Duff Beer... it's got to be in like... 3/4 of the episodes!

Nah. I think they're just bored.

I just have to reiterate how much Schielke, and his incredible capacity to find the weirdest food related stuff on the net, rules.

Horsey sauce rules, dude. And this is from someone who normally hates mayo-based sauces.

I dare you to come up with a cloning of the White Castle way now that you've done the White Manna way. Just to see if it's possible. Actually, technically the Manna way is to make 'em into little meatballs and smush them into onions when you grill them (EDIT - duh, you mentioned that yourself later). Your system seems like some weird hybrid of the Manna and Castle systems. But the Castle bugers always have that "steamed" aspect to them.

Clothier and/or lleechef, you are welcome to start a "Dairy Queen" topic if you want. Back on soups. The over salted thing is big for me. But the texture is what really gets me. Vegetables aren't supposed to have that texture. That's why I can at least comprehend liking the condensed soups, but I'm wary of anything with "chunks".

Can't agree much on this one. When I was a kid, like the commerical says, I really appreciated many of those condensed soups. But the rest of the commercial, where the adults are supposed to latch onto and "like" the canned chunky garbage... no. I can make some few specific exceptions--mostly in my memory--for individual types like the soup with the little sirloin burger things in it, but for the most part all that canned soups make me do is shudder. This, as some of you might recall, was one of my "I will never" declarations. Even with some lingering memories of Sirloin Burger soups and some of those condensed ones... in my closet the soups are there for an extreme fallback after being trapped by a blizzard for a week.

Like Jason I've often seen both cilantro and basil, and I've often seen only basil (although sometimes you get multiple varieties), but I've NEVER seen only cilantro. Mmm, Pho.

That location was kind of cursed. My Dad lived in Paramus for many years, and I recall always joking with him about what the place would be called next time I drove by it. Hmm. Seems to me I know a few locations like that. In Fort Lee there's that spot in a strip mall next to a 7-11 which I recall going through about 10 different hands in about the same number of years. Maybe there's a thread in this. "What are the most cursed restaurant locations in New Jersey?"

Okay, here's a theoretical. If Hamantshen got in a battle with Mandel Bread, who would kick who's ass?

eGullet should be getting commissions from Target due to this thread. Still... my Chefmate copper-bottom pan is my most useful one next to my old reliable cast iron.

Believe it or not ANOTHER Soup/Noodle shop is opening in that spot. They just put the sign up Saturday, although it's not open yet. It's a Chinese noodle and soup shop, not Vietnamese, but still... the coincidence is eerie.

Heh, Soba. Someone is getting the right idea but missing the right FORMAT. I will never look at Peter Jackson's beard while trying to eat. Ewww. As it was on T.V. a bit too often tonight, I shouldn't have been eating near the T.V. I will never fight over the last Summer Roll with Jason Perlow. He gets pissy in that circumstance and has been known to scratch. I will never willingly pay more for a gallon of water than for a gallon of gas. Of course, if I buy it by the pint I doubt I'll have a choice.

Some beliefs are both simple and strong. Fairly subjective and yet absolute. Some food related things you will never do. Some things you will never eat, buy, prepare, etc. Some lines you will never (or never again) cross. Here are some of mine... I will never heat a frozen pizza in a microwave. Fifteen stupid extra minutes of my life to use a real oven and a pizza stone are a small enough price to pay. I will never ever eat at Taco Bell again. I love my stomach lining too much. I will never willingly eat soup from a can. I don't care whose picture is on it. There'd better be a blizzard.

Just to interject some on-topic hate... I HATE Apricot Hamentashen. I'm a Berry man myself. Okay, hate is a strong word. Actually Prune is the only variety I outright hate.

It's kind of a useless debate, but most of the stuff we've found indicate that NEITHER of them is the original. Neither the original "ever" (that one was at the World's Fair in 1939), nor probably in New Jersey (the one on Tonnelle Ave. opened in 1946, the Hacksack one a few years earlier--but the language describing all of this is vague and suggests that there were other locations even before that). I don't think EITHER location is owned by the family of the original owners any more--the Tonnelle Ave. location has passed through at least two other owners for sure. On the other hand, the Hackensack location was apparently torn down and rebuilt pretty much from scratch in the 1970s, so you could argue a loss of continuity based on that. Neither. That's my conclusion based on all of the evidence and I'm stickin' to it!

Heh. You don't know us very well then! Obviously the key to having a successful burger biz in NJ is using the word "White" in the name.

Has anyone suggested... Good Pho You? EDIT - actually foodie52 did. Never mind. Actually she can reuse a lot of these horrible puns on the menu or hanging on the walls as slogans or something. It will be Pho Art, as someone said. Or not.

Yahoo Yellow pages says... 154 Woodbridge Ave, Highland Park, NJ. A Map.

Personally I like the "Pho-Q" suggestion. She can always claim one of her partners has a name that starts with "Q". How about a subtle, non-copyrighted variation on the famous Soup Nazi "No Soup For You" line - "Soup Pho You" (without the "No", since she WANTS to give people soup). Possible variant: "Soup Pho U"

Pho Nominal.

I know we site officials aren't supposed to waste bandwidth on Q&A threads gushing about our content but... ...gush. Totally gush. I hadn't seen this one pre-posting and it just rules. I love how the best of our eGCI courses embrace history and general culture as much as cooking (although they certainly don't skimp on the cooking). Thank you Monica. Thank you Andy. Thank you Chef Sudhir.

Brooks, I fully expect a follow-up to all of this on St. Patrick's Day, since I know that's a big party day too!