jhlurie

I'm pretty sure that the facts behind question #3 eliminate the possibility of a real answer to questions #1 and #2. "Chinese food" is far from a single cuisine, and at least to me the logical conclusion to be drawn from that would be that its going to be pretty hard to decide who a "typical" chinese person is, muchless what they eat. I mean compare the question to "what does a typical American eat". The U.S is a much smaller country than China and an answer would still be close to impossible. While its true that China is a lot more culturally cohesive than the U.S. in general, one area that this apparently is NOT true with is food.

I think we've well and frequently acknowledged the fact here that "American Chinese food" is mostly Cantonese (and inferior Cantonese as well), that we are largely tired of it, that occasionally we get a real find of a restaurant which serves food from another region, and that even then the actual food served in that region frequently uses different ingredients and different preparations from something with the same name here. Also, we know that many of our "Chinese" dishes are completely Western in origin--created by Chinese immigrants to the west. Read a little closer, or at least maybe a little further back in the posting history here, and you'll find all of this. Plus we've got plenty of Canadians posting here. They aren't talking about American Chinese food. Nor the Brits, the Aussies, the Japanese, the Indian or the French posters, to name a few. This isn't to say that there aren't lots of things about actual Chinese cooking which we know we aren't completely in the dark about. For example, you mention knowing classically trained chinese chefs. One of the bigger areas of ignorance here is about how non-Western chef systems work. Also, we probably know a lot less about what people cook in their actual homes, since that's the food knowledge which travels least.

Isn't Beef Negimaki usually referred to as "Beef Roll" in Japan? Shabu Shabu wirth Pork sounds good. I'm thinking about it right now. A lot. Would it have another name? I mean like the way that "kani-shabu" is Crab. (swishy crab? crab swish? Which way is it?)

Pizza with corn... uh... yuck. On the other hand those hot dogs baked into buns with ketchup are pretty cool. As are cookie dough buns and custard buns (which have a very Western-style custard--although less sweet--baked inside) Are they Korean or Japanese? Frankly I always used to think they were Korean, but I'm at least somewhat convinced that I might have only thought that because all of the Korean bakeries around here (northern New Jersey, USA--an area which is heavily Korean AND Japanese) seem to be serving a lot of Japanese customers, including Tourists.

Pennsylvania... home of "the brave", if not "the free".

uh, duh. applesauce? jeesh. The best applesauce to have with Salt and Pepper Pan-Fried Pork Chops is unsweetened. So its not that sweet, especially if you use tart apples. Plus, I wouldn't eat Pork and Apples in the same bite--maybe in successive bites but not the same one. (Jinmyo is shuddering at the thought of Apples and Pork on the same plate, muchless in the same bite... so I'd better stop)

Well if Wondees and Fink's are in the equation, its not all bad, tommy. And I'll be perfectly honest and admit that I've never been willing to wait an hour or two for a table at California Pizza Kitchen, so I can't with any honesty criticize the choice.

Bingo. Thai food, Vietnamese food and even some decent Chinese food all combine tastes, including BOTH savory and sweet. I don't want to piss off my old friend Jinny , but sometimes meat needs something done to it, or even better... something to contrast with it. Not all of the time (for example, my favorite preparation for Pork Chops is simply Salt and Pepper), but sometimes. I'm not all about the Prunes and the Apricot glazes though. But something sweet in the same bite--something that's not invasively slathered all over the meat, but which can be taken on the same fork... that can sometimes work.

toddevan is a bit vague, but there have been hints from he/she/it/them that Hackensack Thai food is in the equation, so it seems that ethnic food may in part be the answer. And Pizza.

Okay, so I got the sarcasm and yet thought there was a legitimate point buried under it. Which clearly there wasn't. Maybe if I'd typed it in all CAPS it would have restored some humor.

If the state stores are a replacement for private enterprise, then not selling a full selection of products is dead wrong. If they were in competition with private enterprise than it would be more complex. It could be argued that if alternatives exist than the proposed ban means nothing--you can go across the street. Then the "wrongness" would center around how public money was used to support these stores and whether or not they had a responsibility to show a profit and be competitive so as to not waste public funds. EDIT - and hollywood, in addition to your point about the limits of American ignorance, as I noted before... why are we trying to punish the people in France who were closest to our position? 100% of the country was NOT united against our policies, and the conservative elements (and nobody is more conservative than the winemakers from what I've always heard) were the "opposition"--at a very minimum the "enemy of our enemy", if not friends, if you want to put it in those terms.

Well, to be fair, if you take out the very debatable part about California Pizza Kitchen, that describes some of the better ethnic restaurants we frequent around here...

Yes, yet another discussion about how much the French piss us off and what someone intends to "do" about it. Things like tariffs can be legitimate protest actions at a national level (although such actions would be very misguided as a protest against France, since the winemakers are the people in that country who are most conservative, and thus were most likely in support of US action in the Iraq War). When you start to get into areas like the one discussed in this article though, things get kind of gray. Outright bans are so silly that they would certainly get laughed off the floor of any Legislature, but this didn't seem like an outright ban either. One thing I do understand (maybe not always agree with though...) are various government institutions who have switched over to purchasing American wines instead of French for functions where public funds are used. In that case, I can sort of see it as an action to use public funds only to support American businesses, and any tag added about it being a protest against the French could just be ugly window dressing But that's clearly not what's going on with these state stores. I'd have to know more about the "state stores" in Pennsylvania before I comment more--who they sell to, whether or not they operate in an environment where they are expected to compete with private enterprise, how public monies are used or not used to run them, whether or not they are expected to make a profit, etc. . . Are they expected to operate just like non-state run stores? Mind you, I'm STILL going to think something like this is both ignorant and aimed at the wrong target (as well as unbecomingly vengeful) no matter what the answers are.

I actually have to agree that the town of Paramus itself is fairly dreadful for food. But tommy is very right as well. You don't have to drive very far outside of Paramus to find some pretty good food. Oddly enough, with all of those malls, Paramus is still one of the er... "town-iest" towns I've ever seen (and I don't really mean that as a compliment--the locals are very insular, and many tend to live and die there, if you know what I mean). But does this manifest itself in good local eating? I've never really been able to tell. The Forum Diner on Rte. 4 isn't bad though, and I've been told that the Suburban Diner on Rte. 17 is okay as well. The Mongolian food restaurant (it looks like a chinese "kitchen" from the outside) inside the Bergen Mall used to be good, but I haven't been there in years so I can't tell you if they've held up (really, with "Mongolian" the freshness and quality of the ingredients is about all that can make or break it). Now these low-end places don't really help if you are looking for an upper-end eating experience... but at least its something. But dude... what's with the all-caps post names? I don't want to be Mr. Internet Policeman, but most netiquette books say that's considered pretty rude--the internet equivalent of shouting in a public place.

I'm in the middle. I think sweet and meat CAN work. Just that it rarely DOES work. I've talked about it elsewhere but one of the few combos like this that I predictably like is Bacon and Pineapple.

New one... GINGER flavored Altoids (Click here for photo) Amazingly good. In fact I was shocked how good it was. My record with Altoids (in the order they came out in the U.S.): Original: A big fan, although in time I grew somewhat tired of them. Cinnamon: At the time it came out I thought it was an amazingly effective product extension... and I still do. Wintergreen: Didn't catch my fancy, although they're not horrible. Spearmint: I thought they were very convincingly "spearmint", but also that they didn't work at all as a breath mint. The taste was just TOO overwhelming. Really, this Ginger flavor is the first time in this progression that I think that a new flavor is better than the one before it. One thing... I really like Ginger. And this REALLY tastes like Ginger. So I'm guessing only people who like Ginger will love it.

Chinese is such a rich cuisine for soups, I've always thought its a shame that all we usually "get" in the west is Wonton, Hot & Sour and Egg Drop. Of the three, Hot & Sour can be either the best or the worst, depending on the place you go obviously, but there are so many more interesting soups than ANY of these.

Saigon Republic in Englewood also, although I hear that tommy is scared to go in there.

The part of the Little Ferry store which seems "nicer" than before is the produce section, but yes... the Ridgefield store is still bigger, and parts of THAT store were being renovated the last time I was in there. Little Ferry's Rice Cake machine was hidden along the same stretch where the kimchee prepation area is. I was a bit confused though, because it didn't seem to have that big safety barrier that the one in Ridgefield has. In fact, it wasn't apparent to me whether or not it was ever actually used.

(feigning shock) You mean the labels are in ENGLISH?

Apparently there's one in Fairfax, VA too.

Actually Ellen there IS a rice cake machine at the Little Ferry one now, although I've never seen it running (unlike the Ridgefield store, where it frequently is). Another entertaining spectacle surrounds the kimchee ladies, who set-up three to a table and publically play around in a huge vat of the stuff. EDIT - but as I see, Ellen got stuck with two boring guys instead of the three ladies who I frequently see do it. BTW: give the size of the ones we've seen in NNJ, I'm wondering what the "Super H-Marts" referred to on the website look like. Are they simply more westernized, or are they actually larger?

I was hit on the head as a small child by a shopping cart filled with mushrooms and anchovies. (in recent years I've actually learned to appreciate truffles though, so I guess I'm cheating a bit on the shrooms)

My brother, who is a huge fan of that far-north Jersey place (obviously this has got to be Kinchley's, in Ramsey--which is significant enough that people SHOULD actually travel for it) told me tonight that the killer magic combo there is fra diavolo and MEATBALLS, which I would not have thought of. Personally, the one "topping" I refuse to have most pizza without is fresh garlic. In terms of favorite flavor combos--ingredients I love paired--I'd say "bacon and pineapple" and "sausage and onions". I've never found a proper "pairing" for pepperoni though. It's got to balance the meat/vege savory/sweet equation like the other combos. I'm anti-mushroom and anti-anchovy though, so I'm missing a couple of possibilities. Proscuitto is definitely a topping I wish more places had. I'm very conflicted on the fresh mozarella issue. Some of the best pizza I've ever had used fresh. But also, some of the best I've had HASN'T.

Steven, next time you are in Paramus, NJ go visit a place called "The Container Store". I kid you not--this is a SuperStore for... containers. I went in there for the first time today, and I've got to tell you... its somewhat awe-inspiring in a creepy kind of way. Take 1 part Bed Bath and Beyond, 1 part Staples, 1 part Chef Central and 1 part Sharper Image. Now toss out everything that isn't a jar, box, box of jars, wrapper, box of wrappers, carton, shelf, rack, pot, holder or vessel for something else. Aparently they are big in Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, San Francisco, Washington DC and a handful of other places. 'Round here all they've got is Paramus and White Plains, NY. Their website, which doesn't seem to do the weird-ass hybrid nature of the store justice.