jhlurie

Wow. I haven't thought about those Charles Chips tins in twenty years. I'm assuming that Charles only comes in BAGS now?

I can almost understand this dislike. I don't like the texture of the pulpy part of Tomatoes, which effectively means that I don't eat them raw. But I'll eat them in almost anything, especially salsa or a brushetta, because that pulpy goop is usually not there or somewhat absorbed. What about tomato pie?

Hey, gatorade is great if you are REALLY REALLY thirsty and forget that water is also thirst quenching! This is a hard topic. The things that many people think are best (like Mushrooms) I don't think are best, so how can I answer that? Seriously... I'd have to say Lobster. I know why its supposed to be good, but its just a big insect. (okay, please don't waste your time with all of the "you don't know what you are missing posts--I've heard it)

Whew. Now we're REALLY gonna get it. Floor plans, glossy photos of deluxe ranges, the REAL reason why the fridge and the oven are being switched, etc.!

I've been converted to the legion of Calvados fans. I now prefer it to either Cognac OR Armagnac.

I'd say Biryaanis and Samosas are the best break-in points. Along with lots of different breads.

I've been to Kaname recently. It's as good as ever, although since I only eat three or four types of sushi I was mostly relying on the person I was eating with to fill out my observations. Also, Kaname has superb cooked dishes.

Pocky. My new "deep dark secret food".

Armand's used to rule when I first moved to D.C. (1986), but by the time I left (1990) it had gone totally downhill. Maggie's seemed to improve in that same time, and I found myself favoring it. Of course, twelve years is an eon in the food business. But these places were my first exposure to deep dish pizza (Pizzaria Uno was around then, I guess... but I'm not sure I'd tried it), and at least for that they retain a place in my memory. Has the Coal oven craze which has taken over NY pizza invaded D.C. yet?

Bux... if you still believe this 9 months after posting it... can you explain this rationale behind this belief a bit?

Back at the VERY beginning (the non-public beta period) a few dozen of us were all Xtra-ordinary and Xtra-privledged. We had to wear Dashikis and those funny brimless hats and were all known by "X" labels. Not.

Somewhere there's a book in this. The lengths to which these companies will go to extend their product lines... to stretch out that brand name just a tiny bit more. Another recent example: apparently there are now Rits Bitz (which themselves were an extension of the Ritz brand) made with Graham cracker cookies, with s'mores ingredients between the crackers. Now the thing that makes a Ritz a Ritz is the cracker... go and change the cracker...

Dunno. Does it say something about Japanese cultural values we should know? Google is amazing. Looking for an answer to why Pocky for Men exists it found a women's jewelry site. The whole page is interesting reading (click here to go there), but I like her quote on Men's Pocky, reproduced here because it's short and to the point:

We've hashed around Mexican food--at least in Northern NJ--in this forum before... if you look deep enough into the past. Unfortunately the search engine breaks down if you are searching for stuff more than a few weeks old, it seems -- Wait a second here it is (click here, for some older discussion on this...topic was called "Non - Fast Mexican"). The conclusion was that it's a pretty sad scene. A few of us have been looking desperately, and we've been pretty consistently dissapointed. A few minor bright spots (like La Posada in Teaneck) are mentioned... but its still a pretty sad group of candidates. I had this REALLY rubbed in my face when I visited a relative in Kansas City last year. K.C. is not exactly what you'd consider a prime culinary town, and it wouldn't normally come to mind quickly when you thought "Mexican"... but the Mex food in the dingiest little strip mall joint I had there blew away the best I've had here by a very large amount. I guessed it helped that A LOT OF MEXICANS LIVE THERE (mostly because there is a big migrant worked population which came in for the Beef industry and the local farming).

Perhaps an assignment. Everyone should try to head to a Korean or Japanese run store (the two best sources of Pocky in the U.S., at least) and pick up the most bizarre form of Pocky they can find. In Northern NJ I know a very good source of Pocky is Han Ah Reum Korean supermarkets. In NY... I don't know... I haven't tried Pocky shopping there.

Well Pocky peripherally has something to do with Nazis, because it was developed by the Japanese, who were once allies of the Nazis--thus its inclusion in that thread. (okay, in cases someone reads this without reading the other thread [and please don't... its an embarassment, that thread], this is not intended as an anti-japanese statement) But in fact, its a cookie in the form of a stick, with the top half of the stick covered in something yummy. Pocky vending machines and Pocky flavors are all worth discussing, and perhaps if we have someone on the board of Japanese ancestry they might have consumed more Pocky than us.

of interest... http://www.lee-county.com/healthdept/data3...Irradiation.htm http://www.emagazine.com/july-august_2000/0700gl_health.html http://www.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/news/02/22/meat.irradiation/ an anti-irraditation viewpoint... http://www.purefood.org/irrad/irradfact.cfm Overall... memorize this symbol... . Apparently all irradiated packaged food has to contain it...

I love Jason's shadow in that dog picture! It's almost like a Hitchcock thing.

I don't think this is a discussion intending to equate junk food to quality, Jaymes. I think that we are just trying to get around the inadaquacies of the English language. Simple was being used in place of the word "natural"... no on second thought it was being used in place of the word "healthy"... and it just made sense to make sure that we were all talking about the same thing. In my mind... BASIC = single ingredient NATURAL = a lack of man-made ingredients HEALTHY = not proven to cause cancer (mostly kidding here) but "simple" is really vague...

I just saw this... I kind of enjoyed it in a "watching a car accident at the side of the road" way. It's fairly obvious why they did it this way. The original Japanese style is impossible to duplicate, so they've tried to more directly emulate a sports show, in the same way that some of the (ehem) battling robot shows have. Or American Gladiators. Or the Glutton Bowl that was on FOX, in fact. Or the WWF. The absolute worst was the "casting" of the judges. I'd sooner expect George Plimpton than Bruce Villanch. And while we know they need a model or an actress of some type, there must be SOMEONE out there who is more likely to know about fine food than a Playboy playmate.

McDonald’s introduced Chicken McNuggets in 1982. Other places may have had them even earlier. other chicken nugget news of interest: from"News of the Weird". It's small enough to quote here: "In January, after the California restaurant chain Carl's Jr. began televising a commercial chiding competitors' chicken-nugget meals (the ad: executives examining a chicken in a futile attempt to find a body part called the "nugget"), the animal rights group United Poultry Concerns objected, not just because the chicken was mishandled but because the examination hurt the chicken's feelings (treated the chicken "derisively," United's chief Karen Davis told the Los Angeles Times). (A few days later, seemingly in support of Davis, Australian neuroscientists Charles Watson and George Paxinos announced the startup of their project to compile a comprehensive atlas of a bird's "sophisticated and complex" brain, emphasizing features in common with humans' brains.)"

Okay... in defense of stefanyb, maybe she doesn't go look at the PacNorthWest boards! Allright, mamster, I'm sure in this one specific case there wouldn't be a huge objection to you using your moderator super powers to alter the title to "First Ever NY eGullet Pot Luck" or something along those lines... That way, the historical records will be correct when someone goes back and writes "Egullet: A History"!!!

Ah yes. The "simple food" topic... a perpetual eGullet favorite. As Jinymo says... I like Pie. Actually, this discussion has evolved in a slightly different direction than previous efforts. "Simple" is a tough word to use with food. Is cheese "simple"? It's got plenty of ingredients, and the process to make it is quite complex. Is Jello simple? Pastuerized Milk? Pie? Tomato sauce? Pasta? What about a salad? Yes, it is simple in the sense that the ingredients are closest to their original form--the least transformed by chemicals or packaging. But in terms of preparation a truly excellent salad is hardly "simple". If we use that scale to measure, than the flash frozen microwave pizza is far "simpler"--at least in execution. I've sworn to myself, and to anyone who'd listen, that as I make my way up in the world that I wouldn't lose touch with the "simple", uneducated rube that I started out as. This includes my palate. But the simple rube ate more packaged and processed food, and the older version has gone on (not back) to what Hopleaf is defining as "simple food"--things someone grew in the dirt (or in the hydroponics tray) that I've paid them to give to me when they get big enough. Or better yet, to PREPARE for me, since the exchange of some of my money in trade for some of their time helps that part along nicely. Eating "naturally" costs either money, time, or both. One of the consequences of getting older in the modern world is that you are able to be either richer, or perhaps merely create more time, and increase your access to natural foods. This concept would have been ludicrous to our ancestors... but it's certainly true now.

ngatti, I wouldn't put too much stock if someone gave you an authenticity argument for BG--even if they were Thai. Thai food is apparently quite diverse--there are at least four or five major branches of it. Your friend may have simply felt it was closer to the food she grew up with. Besides, I'm not sure authenticity would matter in an ultimate quality rating anyway. Ambience certainly would--and BG wins for that. It's a nice restaurant, that's held up for a LOT of years.

Okay... not to exclude those of you who live in the rest of NJ, but you can start another thread on this topic if you'd like for other areas. I've been thinking about what TYPES of restaurants I REALLY wish my area had an excellent specimen of--what we completely lack. I'm going to start by listing mine... but I also think that other folks should add theirs as well, because maybe we can help each other if there is some little jewel tucked away somewhere that Zagat's (hereafter known as the big Z or the big Zero) and the other guides have missed or under-rated. 1.) Cajun. Not creole, but cajun. I'm sure it could never measure up to even a mediocre restaurant in New Orleans, but I'd like to see something. The Priory in Newark and Oddfellows in Hoboken seem to be the only two, and if the big Z isn't even more misleading than usual, they suck. 2.) Ethiopian. NY city has a few, but does New Jersey? Zagats says "New Brunswick" (a place called Makeda), that's all I see. 3.) German. The big Zero says that Montclair and Hoboken have mediocre efforts. It's either that or Black Forest Inn in Stanhope--which isn't any further than Morristown, I guess.