jhlurie

Tinga Taqueria may deserve its own thread maybe. I've only been once, and unfortunately had the same thing as the person I went with, so I didn't feel ready to talk about it in greater detail yet. It's about 1/2 a mile from my sister's place though, so I know I'll be back at some point. They were even out of take-out menus when I went.

I wouldn't go out of my way, but there is a decent little mexican joint in Montclair. Tinga Taqueria, I think its called. NJ Monthly Online says the address is 215 Bellevue Ave, Upper Montclair (973-509-8226), which matches with my memory. Supposely the place was opened by a trio of friends with no restaurant experience who thought it would be "fun" or something like that... But the food is good, even though its served semi-cafeteria style (you order at a counter, and they bring it to you).

I was only ever at one affair at Leonard's, but I still have nightmares. Those testimonials (on the website) are obviously from people who were heavily medicated. Some real gems on that flash intro: It's like a cliché circus!

If you go back, try a greater variety of dumplings. As I recall, the steamed were the least effective. Fried, Stir Fried and inside of soup were all better preparations.

Personally, I don't think we should be so angry at Emeril being successful. We should instead be angry that he hasn't done more with that success. So he had to pull schtick like "BAM" to get to the top. Fine. The question is, once you ARE at the top what do you do with it? Besides a shitty sitcom, I mean.

Cough.

Excuse my ignorance, but how could you make a dry spice rub for something without dry spices? BBQ would never be the same again...

BAM! You are now sentenced to five more years...

(See above) That's mainly my understanding too. The color of the flour is irrelevent, certainly. But the other thing is the sugar content. And chili as well as greens. I mean how the heck can ANYONE eat chili with "chewy" cornbread is beyond me. I do think we are using the word "cakey" differently though. To me the opposition is between crumbly and chewy, but the crumbly is more "cakey" than the chewy kind while its intact.

Indeed. Some journalists would have tossed off that quote with much more vague attribution.

But beignets ARE just fried dough with powdered sugar. Then again, so are zeppoles. And funnel cake. It's like anything else with simple ingredients, it can can taste great under the right circumstances and lousy under others. Is there something inherently wrong with that?

Okay, almost 63% eat bread, but only 20% have Jam? Were these mutually exclusive choices on the survey? I mean that implies that the other 43% used butter or margarine... but the fact that jam appears as its own survey choice and they don't really confuses the issue.

Hee. It just occurred to me that a few readers might not get the "JJ Hunsecker" reference, who although fictional was NOT a nice man. I think Mr. Bourdain gets some extra points for using this persona for his diatribe. I mean if you have to be pissed off, you certainly should be man enough to not excuse yourself from the rant.

And folks, when tommy actually strings together 3 entire paragraphs, we should listen.

Of course, as we all know, "upscale Chinese" can very easily mean "overpriced, westernized slop on fancy plates".

Or you could just use the tabasco and pepper and skip the ketchup.

Something that might help, would be if the local papers (NJ section of the Times, Bergen Record, Star Ledger) actually wrote news stories about this, and went and talked to Cecil and other local Chinese restaurant owners.

I was always scared to go in the old incarnation...

I know we are in danger of topic drift, but assuming that's the one in Ridgefield Park, that was converted out of circle-dom about six months ago. Odd, there are no good diners on Route 1/9. You'd figure that with all of that commercial traffic there'd be something. Forum Diner in Paramus, NJ. Have we talked about that one? It lacks any and all traces of chrome, but other than that its a classic. Oh... this is interesting for you Northern New Jersey diner fans. A list of NNJ diners, maintained by the Bergen County Mall.

That would be my answer too. First of all, its got to be fresh ground. It it isn't you really ARE putting nothing but black specks into your food. Personally, I think that granulated pepper should be banned from restaurant tables world wide. There should be a law requiring whole peppercorns and table-side grinders. And I use Green and White pepper as often as Black. Should pepper be in everything? Of course not. But often, mixed with ONLY salt, it can be a nice treatment for meat.

Actually, Washington DC is the American king of traffic circles. New Jersey has plenty of boni-fide circles, but many of them ARE more like jughandles to make turns as opposed to true traffic circles, where you can get stuck going 'round and 'round for hours if you aren't careful (think of that scene in London in "European Vacation").

Very enjoyable insights, as usual. By the way, did anyone stay up late last night to see Hunter S. Thompson on Conan O'Brian's show last night? Really I hope people stop accusing Tony of ripping him off, 'cause I'd hate to think he'd be like that in another 30 years.

Ha, one could ask the same about the Internet Journalism award.

To be specific, the crumbly, cakey, usually (but not always white) non-sweetened cornbread is "Mississippi Cornbread", and as that name suggests I'm pretty sure that its not indiginous to the entire South. The opposite end of the spectrum--the sweet and chewy "Yankee Cornbread" is apparently also derisively referred to as "Johnny Cake", even though that term has also been borrowed for other things. We took some kind of poll on this at some point though, and people actually voted for the Johnny Cake version, like... 10 to 1 in favor. I was totally disgusted. As for the bacon thing... I think the main requirement is just for some kind of fat. Bacon is as good as anything, so why not use it? The important part is the fat though--the grease--and not the meat. The important thing that I remember about the Mississippi version that I'VE had (although my main exposure to it was in Virginia, of all places, so of course it could be wrong) was that it crumbled up into food, if desired, or absorbed stuff off your plate. So that also makes me not so sure about the cheese. (although just to contradict myself, here's a link that suggests otherwise...) Here's a link to one that seems especially "traditional", (in his description at least) although someone else is going to have to comment on how "traditional" Aunt Jemimah Corn Meal Mix is.

This is SO not an Oreo.