Jason Perlow

The Montclair whole foods is definitely one of the more smaller locations I have seen, and they seem not to be as well stocked or carry as large a variety of things as some of the others do as well -- so moving to a bigger location will be a welcome change. And I agree about the tight parking situation -- my 18 and a 1/2 foot Cadillac will surely thank them for it.

In addition to Vietnamese and Thai iced coffees, I like the Malaysian style iced tea as well. Similar to the Thai variety, but it has more of a tannic taste to it.

Larry at Stickey's told me about this over the weekend and I was delighted to hear about it -- but I didn't want to spill the beans until it was a done deal. Great to hear you're back in the saddle again Dave!

Drug addicts aside, the egg sandwich is by far my preferred breakfast when I am doing the corporate grind. Its portable and easy to eat, although I tend to prefer it on a toasted bagel instead of the ubiquitous Kaiser roll, and I tell them to hold the ketchup, because it will end up on my shirt otherwise. In addition to the egg sandwich, I would also add that the various steel coffee/danish pushcarts with the glass windows that you see on every corner near major office buildings is probably just as popular a breakfast choice in the City -- here you can get any number of freshly baked sweet rolls, plus bagels and rolls with either butter or cream cheese, and coffee (of nebulous quality and freshness but usually sufficiently strong) or tea in paper cups depicting various types of Greek-inspired artwork (click).

I'm not sure how this applies mark, but I think some of this can be attributed to what some people in my family used to refer to my grandparents on my father's side as having a "depression-era" mentality. Its sort of a weird scrimp-and-saving thing that goes on, even if the person is particularly well off. They used to do this weird sort of portioning and under-ordering thing with take-out and sit down Chinese food (and they didn't call it "chinese food", they called it something else, using a phrase that horrifies me to this day) very similar as to how you describe. I think it can be applied to the way they behaved with all food, but since Chinese food is 'family style' in its approach and is meant to be divvied up and shared, the behavior is more readily apparent. Which seems to me why my parents over ordered Chinese food as a means of compensation, and it's carried over to newer generations.

Yes, the weird dude was having dinner with us. I couldn't figure out how he ended up at our table and why he said I needed a make-over and could put me on TV. Seriously though, this is yet another indication that Frank Bruni is single handedly destroying the legacy and reputation of the New York Times as a respected source of restaurant reviews and food information. And as far as I am concerned the Bar Room is a 3 star restaurant, let alone the main dining room, which is what the review should have focused on entirely.

I'm guessing that the introduction of the microwave co-incided with the mass consumption of marijuana as well.

My guess is that the invention and mass marketing of the microwave oven changed all this.

Frankly it amazes me they haven't taken corrective action after Corcoran's review.

How many of you will admit to looking at the groceries of other people in the checkout line? Or worse, playing what I like to call the "what are they making for dinner tonight?" guessing game? Example: Feta cheese, tomatoes, onions, tomatoes, skinless and boneless chicken breasts Greek Salad with grilled chicken! Today the lady in front of me had rice, plantains, cut up chicken peices, and the dead giveaway, a Goya "Sazon" spice packet. I asked her, "Arroz con Pollo?" she replied quizzically, "Uh, Si!" Do you ever come up with new ideas by looking at someone else's basket? Or try new products you haven't before? 'Fess up!

Right. So he should fire his FOH people, not Delouvrier. But given today's Delouvrier smacking by Ducasse in the paper, its patently obvious that Ducasse and Delouvrier have personal issues, so the Bruni excuse just doesn't fit. It doesn't make any sense.

Winners announced: http://www.jamesbeard.org/about/press/pr/J...4a478dcbcf5f5ed Congrats to Michael!

Harold's, however, is a bit insane. Your photo of course is of ONE sandwich split in half -- which in reality is enough to feed four people. TWO of those for two people? Good lord. I haven't been there in a while. Everything is of brobdingdangian proprtions -- 2lb knishes, Matzoh balls the size of softballs... sandwiches over a foot tall... Nearly 10 years ago Rachel and I had our rehearsal dinner at Harolds in Parsippany, knowing full well what was in store. Many of the people who went with us had never been there before, not knowing what the "deal" was with the place -- so each person ordered their own soup and sandwich... it was pretty scary. You should have seen the look on Ilene, the diminuitive 90lb bridesmaid, when her pastrami sandwich arrived.

Appetizers are a serious problem, especially with Asian cuisine. You're never precisely sure just how many of them you need, because there is huge variance in how much food exactly is in a single appetizer serving. So you usually end up ordering too many of them, under the guise of Asian food not being particularly filling anyway. This can also be referred to the "uch, we got too much sushi" phenomenon, because sushi is ALL appetizers.

I frequently used that excuse as well, even -before- I could legitimately say I was a food writer or even forming eGullet for that matter. Rachel can attest that the phrase "C'mon! Its research!" coming out of my lips on more than a number of occasions.

I'm not sure why this happens, but we have the same issues when ordering Chinese food for dinner as well. I think it has something to do with needing or wanting the entire American-style Chinese Food experience (translate as Jew Grazing) every time you eat Chinese Food. If you have two people, then ordering two dishes is never enough, because you -need- the soup, eggrolls, and the "extra" dishes, like fried rice and noodles that go ALONG with your basic Kung Pao or Beef and Broccoli, to have that protein/vegetable/starch balance plus the liquid and the fried. And then of course its hard to resist ordering one dish representing each major American Chinese food group -- One chicken, one beef, one pork, and one shrimp. And to further complicate this, most of your competive Chinese take-out places offer you that 10 percent discount if you order over 40 bucks worth of stuff or throw in the extra eggrolls and soup, so you are COMPELLED to order more, because god forbid you give up that discount or extra food. So in reality while you are only ordering for two people, you always end up with food for six. Which is always justified under the auspices of having enough for leftovers, because you can't order Chinese food with the premise of ordering just enough for that meal and eating everything and finishing it in one sitting. That would just be wrong.

I noticed it under construction, and it seems they are putting a considerable amount of work into the place. Haven't seen a menu yet, though.

-Never- happens when the Perlows and friends go out to dinner. -Never!- Did I say it never happens? Right.

What, no bisected shot?

If it's a result of the less than stellar Bruni review that left ADNY missing its fourth star, its unfair to pin that on Delouvrier because virtually all of Bruni's negative comments (which are either fairly or unfairly deserved) in that review were as a result of FOH issues, not in the kitchen or the quality or execution of the dishes themselves. Delouvrier tends to land on his feet, so like with the fall of Lespinasse I'm curious about where he will end up next --- perhaps somewhere that he can really have full control.

What are the proportions? 50/50?

So Sam, did you use AP or bread flour, or did you use imported 00 Pizza flour like Alberto did?

I've never had Trinidadian rum, so I'll be sure to look for it.

Fantastic, Alberto. It puts our American-style pizzas to shame.

Tsingtao was originally a Beck's factory, as part of the short-lived German colonialization of China, from 1897-1914. Beck's opened the first brewery there in 1903 and some of the original vats that are in use still say "Beck's" on them. The beer is still brewed pretty much to the same specs as the original Beck's. http://www.dhm.de/ausstellungen/tsingtau/tsingtau_e.html