jhlurie

Okay, now "pounded and served piccata style" is the one that simultaneously puzzles, distresses and intrigues me.

Jin, I was eating while reading this... shame on you!

A collary of this whole discussion would have to be how to deal with hotel smoke alarms. I've also been wondering about the efficiency of visiting nearby convenience stores and picking up containers of sterno (I woudn't dare advise taking it on an airplane these days...) Actually, if we truly are dealing with convention visits instead of mere business trips, there are always the heating properties of projectors to deal with. Those suckers get pretty hot, and all you would have to do is sneak it back to the hotel room before/after the show.

As long as those lettuce cups don't approach sandwich bread, maggiethecat and g.johnson might eat it!

Okay, I don't have a bottle in front of me, but I certainly don't recall seeing a mere six ingredients! Maybe Irene meant "should be made". In a way that list of ingredients doesn't fully explain the taste though, since the flour seems to be the only item that isn't in virtually every other soy-based sauce.

The taste of sweet fermented soy? Yes, we are going to have to do better than that I think. I'm not even going NEAR the "darling" comment. Except to say that I'm thinking mrs. tommy must be on another business trip and you've been hitting the wine bottle tonight!

You know, the lad may have a good question here. I've never really thought much about it, but what IS the taste of Hoisin? I couldn't describe it if asked.

Okay, while this isn't strictly on topic, its close. Many years back, I went to college in dorm rooms that weren't much better than concrete holding cells. Occasionally I catch a movie or TV show showing people in college, where they've got these big comfortable rooms, made of materials considerably less fire-safe than concrete, with dedicated bathrooms, kitchens and room for each person to actually walk between their bed and their door, running water, cooking equipment, etc. Aside from a natural curiousity about where (and when in time) these miraculous schools might actually be located, it also makes me think nostalgically about our considerable efforts during my time in school to break the rules and actually have a way to prepare food in our rooms. The best solution, as I recall, was what we referred to as "The Quickie Pie Maker". I can't remember exactly why we called it this, but I think it had something to do with a period when my little brother visited me in school (he's 9 years younger--so I was 18 and he was 9) and started calling it that. Pretty soon everyone in the place was using the phrase, despite how little sense it made. I'm thinking it must have been because while grilling the sandwiches, this little baby also seals the edges up and makes it into a little hand-held "pies". Well, that explanation sounds as good as any, and it came out of someone who at time was a cute little kid... so I'm sticking to it. The SM-4 "Sandwich Maker" by Salton It wasn't actually even in my room, but owned by someone down the hall. He used to buy enough ingredients to fill his little mini-fridge (the one appliance we were actually ALLOWED to have in the rooms). We swore to a code of silence (he could have been thrown out of the dorm or expelled for having something which applied more heat than a hair-dryer in his room), but eventually he started to catch on to the profit potential and started charging a dollar a sandwich. I've always wondered if the "Quickie Pie" maker would travel well in a suitcase. I've never had to do business travel for longer than three or four days in a month though, so I've never had the chance to find out.

More proof of why "Adventures in Eating" is my favorite eGullet forum. Where else could you get information this unusual AND useful in the same place? And Jinmyo... its quite easy to kill with a paper-clip. I first thought about this when I was interviewed years ago by a fellow who asked me about 10 things I could think of doing with a paper-clip besides holding paper together. Homicide was way back around #6 for me, but I've thought about it a lot since then when particularly pissed at someone in an office situation.

The commercial is only so-so, but I spotted another "As Seen On TV" device which actually seems kind of clever: Pasta Pro: Boil, drain, sauce, toss and serve in the same piece of cookware. Plotnicki will hate it!

Does anyone know what happened with this venture?

It's 14.5 months later, and I'm still curious about eGullet user's experiences with gator. So I'm bumping this. Bump. Maybe I got lucky in that--unlike Paul--the gator I've had wasn't that "tough". Does gator get better when tenderized?

I was in Edgewater and went to John's Shanghai. The soup dumplings were extremely good, the moo shu pork was ordinary, and the menu intriguing. I'm interested in returning. Is there Joe's Shanghai here as well? Or did you mean John's? China 46 and Hunan Cottage both trump John's Shanghai. If you want Korean in a slightly more sophisticated atmoshphere than the "shopping center" feel of the Ridgefield "Dumpling House" Jason mentioned, there is also "Koreana", in Fort Lee. But as is frequently the case with Korean food, the dumpy little shopping center place is the better of the two. If you are brave, one way to totally immerse yourself in Korean would probably be to drive up and down Bergen Blvd., through the town of Palisades Park. There's a stretch--about nine or ten blocks long--which is pretty much 100% Korean, and there are probably a hundred restaurants in that stretch. Also, scattered throughout Fort Lee, Palisades Park, and Ridgefield are many Korean bakeries, if that's an area you want to explore. Sunmerry, in the Fort Lee bridge plaza, is an easy one to access. There are also two bakeries in the same plaza as the Hanh Ah Reum supermarket (and the Dumpling Restaurant) in Ridgefield. Vietnamese and Thai have been adaqueately covered, I think. For something completely unsubtle, there's also Khan's Mongolian--in Blauvelt, NY--right over the state line. Walk up to a bar of fresh ingredients, slosh on your own distribution of saucing ingredients and have it heated over a simulation of a barbarian's shield over a campfire. The big selling point of Khan's for me is that they actually have fresh sesame buns to stuff the food inside of--something I haven't seen for years. But like the Korean dumpling restaurant, this isn't a place to go to try and impress anyone.

I hate you Paul. I was going to post the same reaction yesterday but had to run out.

Greetings Ondine, Don't worry, we get 26-year old impoverished Aussies all of the time here. With that quantity of food, I suppose the only reason for desert would be to cool people down. If you go for it, maybe something as simple as some market-fresh fruit might do the trick. By the way, you might want to lobby for a title change to your thread (send a PM to one of the moderators). "Hello everybody!" is likely to get confused with the greetings people usually deposit in the "Member Bios" area, and you might miss out on some useful responses to your question. Good luck!

I'm down with the Graeter's. Good, good stuff. And this company is SO reponsive that when my sister sent me an order year before last (6 pint assortment) and it had melted before I got to it, they sent ANOTHER six pints at no charge without even asking a question. It was COMPLETELY our fault (she had been trying to surprise me, but hadn't known that I wasn't going home that night), but Graeter's didn't care. It was just good business to ask no questions and send it all again.

Lighthouse is only tenatively off my list. The dumplings were prime and the meat dishes looked and smelled great--although I haven't had it yet. If the meat dishes equal or exceed Lighthouse than Lighthouse is off the list. If they don't, then I split my business. So, yeah... to be honest that evaluation may have been a bit premature. As for the bathroom issue... I'm in a weird place with that. I've got a very strong bladder and rarely use a restaurant bathroom. But I can see your point quite well. re: Dan Pablo. Yes, I've eaten there. It wasn't bad, but it didn't impress me much either.

I like the on my list / off my list format, Please note that this is not even an attempt to catalogue the BEST, as much as my "Favorites". To me a "favorite" is a place that you return to as often as possible (or plan to return to), whereas a "best" list can include places which may not be as geographically or financially convenient for you. on / off on - Tapas De Espana / off - La Posada (closed), Casa Vasca (too crowded), Seabra's Mediteranean Manor (only worth it for the Rodizio) on - Wondees / off - (although it hasn't been "on" since 2000) Bangkok Garden on - Saigon Republic / off - Saigon Gourmet (previously owned by the same people but now run by a cousin) on - The Dumpling Restaurant next to Han Ah Reum in Ridgefield / off - Light House, also in Ridgefield, NJ BBQ (closed) on - El Gran Mexicano / off - virtually every other Mexican place in the area except MAYBE El Bandido in Spring Valley, NY The Cliffside Park branch of "It's Greek To Me" has ALWAYS done it for me. And the little Equadoran place three doors down (El Idolo) isn't bad. Rebecca's in Edgewater and Blue Sky are both great experiences, but one is a bit too formal for frequent eating and the other a bit too far from me. River Palm Steakhouse is pretty good, but I'd sooner head into the city for steak if I'm reaching for that niche. I like the Sagebrush Steak Cantina (when my friends the Perlows lived near it I inevitably bugged them to go there all of the time whenever I came down) but have little reason to visit that area since they moved. I have a big weakness for the silly conveyor-belt atmosphere of East, in Teaneck, but the quality is too spotty for even a "favorite" list as oppossed to a best list. But its so fun. I've had much better sushi, of course, but that's not the point here. China 46 is always "on", but I don't really have an "off" because I don't consume much other Chinese food (with the big exception of the midtown, West-side, Grand Sichuan in NY) and the occasional foray to Khan's Mongolian in Blauvelt, NY. Ditto for Indian food and Kinara, in Edgewater. I don't eat Indian as much as I used to, and when I do its usually Kinara. So no "off", and even Kinara isn't frequented enough to really be on a "favorites" list. With Italian food I still spread myself around quite a bit, so no clear "favorite". Napa Valley Grille is one of those places I keep meaning to try and never actually get to. I like the Legal Seafood in the Palisades Mall quite a bit, but haven't made it to the one in Paramus yet. Speaking of the Palisades Mall, to be completely honest the place I eat most at there is the Johnny Rockets'. I have a weakness, although it can never fully replace White Manna in Hackensack. I get the same thing every time--the #12 burger with a Coke mixed with either chocolate or vanilla syrup, or more rarely an Orange soda with vanilla or cherry syrup. Fink is in the mix as well, but he's actually pretty far from me (I have to go through both nasty Fort Lee AND Paramus/Hackensack traffic to get to him). By the way Fink, I'm not trying to compare you to Johnny Rocket's (my liking for them is just a quirk--I realize they aren't really that great), but if you ever get a soda fountain please also think about the idea of adding supplemental syrups to your fountain sodas. Its cheap, easy to do, and kind of neat.

Regardless, I for one am not going to waste any sympathy on them. I mean if its perfectly legit for someone to have a 400% markup, its equally legit for someone else to call them on it. That said, I'm sure they sell plenty of great tasting products. That's not being challenged, I think.

Perlow, you dirty skinking rat. I suggested the Mississippi Cornbread approach and you didn't even tell me how it worked out! Pig fat and crumbly rule. Sugar and spongy suck (okay, it doesn't suck, but its not nearly as good). Unfortunately when we had a poll on this, people disagreed with me. Stupid people! Rachel, was the sugar really necessary? Okay, I guess a little was okay. And Wilfrid, I am shocked and dismayed that of all people YOU would not try using Pig fat.

By who? Baby Ruth? Har. Har. Need... another... drink. I like being snowed in.

Yeah, I've had the Wonka bar. I kept looking for my golden ticket, but alas... none was found. It was good though. A pleasant surprise. The graham cracker idea works great.

Is that deer going to wind up in some future sausage?

That one sounds like Fiddle Faddle, I mean except for the fact that you haven't mentioned nuts. Has anyone mentioned Fiddle Faddle? I just like the way it sounds: Fidddddddle Faddddddle. Excuse me while I have another drink and watch the snow fall. Wait... my google search actually found a homemade fiddle faddle recipe. Actually it doesn't sound that different from what Jaymes posted. Maybe there are only so many variations on sugar, butter and popcorn.

I was back there last Wednesday myself. Learned that the white sangria is easily as good as the red.