Jason Perlow

One of the things I was not aware of until recently was that the observance of the Seder during Passover did not occur until AFTER the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD by the Romans. Jesus died in 33AD. Prior to 70AD the Passover rites and sacrifices occured in the Great Temple in Jerusalem -- it was the ONLY place Jews could worship their God. The introduction of modern Judaism and its holidays and practices -- which included Synagogues (which were replacements for the Great Temple after many Jews left Jerusalem) and Rabbis -- layman teachers that were not of the Priestly order (Cohain) -- did not really come into being until quite a bit later, such as after the first and second century AD. If this stuff is interesting to you, I suggest you try to watch the "Kingdom of David" miniseries on PBS when it comes on next. http://www.pbs.org/previews/Kingdon_David/ You can also get it on DVD: http://teacher.shop.pbs.org/product/index....oductId=1406675

The film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is coming out in a week or so, to theatres in the US and the UK. For those of you not familiar with the Douglas Adams book, Below is a brief excerpt from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy which describes the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster: I think that with the rather talented ameteur and professional mixologists on the site, we can come up with some pretty good approximations. The Wikipedia entry on the drink lists some possible Earth-bound formulations, but I think we can do better. Any takers?

We have a thread on it here as well, I took some photos a while back: Louis Lunch -- A Tasty Oddity (with pictures)

Last night at a local Taste of the Nation event I spoke with one of the owners of a local Kashmiri restaurant -- Kashmir is one of the territories that is in dispute between India and Pakistan (although recently there has been a lot of coverage of their peace process). One of the things he told me that Kashmiri food is unique of all the Indian provinces because it doesn't use cream or curry in any of their cooking. I wonder if that is the same with some of the bordering Pakistani provinces.

As I understand virtually all Kosher Coke is made in the NY metro area by smaller bottlers who ARE equipped to handle it. Some is also made in the Chicago area.

Its still there.

Whew. I opened up the bottle, and tasted some. The Real Thing.

It appears that under certain "Circumstances" Corn Syrup is OK to use as a sweetner in Kosher for Passover Products: http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabb...chcornsyrup.htm I certainly hope this is not the case with Kosher Coke. I'll have to open one up and try some.

Today I spotted Kosher for Passover Coke in 2-Liter bottles at the local supermarket here in NJ, and bought a few of them. Their only distinctive mark is that they have yellow caps instead of the regular white or red caps, and they have the OU-P symbol on the top. Otherwise, you can't tell the difference in packaging, even the labelling is the same, with the same ingredients list including corn syrup (even though we know this stuff is all sugar) and the bottles were mixed in with the regular ones. Exhibit A Exhibit B Note that in other metro areas besides NY/NJ/CT, the yellow caps might have actual Hebrew writing on them to distinguish. A thread on BevNET has some other photos (click) BTW, I would also like to remind our Pesadich Pop seekers that KFP U-bet, the ultimate chocolate syrup in the world, ideal for Chocolate Cokes and making egg creams, is also abundant at this time of year, and it's the only time I buy it because the corn syrup version is inferior.

So, no Foie Gras then?

Your Sriracha May Be Counterfeit

Oh gosh, did we forget Tony? Tony's book is an absolute must-buy, if you're looking to reproduce battle-hardened French Bistro food at home.

Yes, and while it wasnt a very photogenic dish -- it was all white, so I didnt bother to shoot it, it was one of the best dishes of the evening. Elbow macaroni in a Gruyere cheese sauce with black truffle butter. It was simple, but really, really good.

I apologize for the quality of several of the pictures -- I had to photo enhance them because the ones I took in the main ballroom (there were 3 rooms, the best light was in the Conservatory) had very muted light and they were using heat lamps at some of the stations, which cast an orange glow on things.

Virtually all of the Greek restaurants and Greek diners in the NY Tri-state area serve it with potatoes in it. It might be a New York thing, but its definitely authentic to several parts of Greece including Macedonia.

Rachel and I attended the Share our Strength Taste of the Nation event at the Madison Hotel this evening. Here's some highlights of the night: The Conservatory at the Madison Hotel Executive Chef of the Garlic Rose flaming up some Steak Au Poivre St. James Gate Steak with Wild Mushrooms, one of the best dishes at the event Rod's Steakhouse Seared Diver Scallops with Prosciutto, another winner dish, Rachel and I had several servings of this one! Restaurant Serenade, Grilled Shrimps with a Potato Salad Seafood Salad from Adagio Taverna Crab Cake from Marcello's at the Ho Ho Kus Inn BBQ Shrimp and Buttermilk Cornbread from Heart and Soul Cold Pea Soup with Lobster from The Palace at Somerset Park Shrimp with Orange Gelee from The Palace at Somerset Park Jambalaya from Tim Schaeffer's Cuisine Scallop and Tuna Seviche from The Park Steakhouse Pazzo Pazzo Meatball with Pignoli Nuts Tiramisu Pastry from Basilico Mini Lemon Meringue with Chocolate Brownie Cake from Sweet Sisters Mixed Berry Sorbet and Lemon Pound Cake from The Stage House

Yup. And our own Monica Bhide, who has written several good Indian cookbooks as well.

I think Balthazar has excellent breads, with tremendous variety, and certainly they make amazing croissant (although I find them a tad bit greasy). However I would not characterize them as an exceptional pastry maker. Balthazar is a huge factory production and Andre is a small, one man shop. You can't even compare the two. To say that Andre is anything but at the absolute pinnacle of his craft is really quite erroneous. And while his wares are not cheap, they definitely are not out of the ballpark for what he does.

I've merged this with an older thread on Food Network chefs. And here are all our Food Network threads (click)

Here's a peice of Moussaka after cooling and plating, ready to be reheated:

TVP = Textured Vegatable Protein. Often used as faux meat in vegetarian cooking, especially in asian dishes.

papoutsakia, aka baked stuffed eggplants/aubergines with meat sauce and bechemel, from the Moussaka Cook-Off

I'm thinking you could chop up TVP, cook it in the tomato sauce/onion mix, and season it with the same spices, and make the Moussaka as normal. Also on top of the baked eggplants, you could do the turkish-style eggplant salad, seasoned with the seven spice, instead of a faux-meat layer. Or perhaps zucchini/squash/onion with tomato.

Kris, tonight we used a very sharp grated hard sheeps milk cheese, which I think offsets the richness of the bechamel nicely. You could use Parmigiano Reggiano or a Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano or any hard sharp grating cheese. A sharp feta would probably be good too.

First wave of Mousakka photos: Baked Eggplant Cutlets, ready for layering (click for RecipeGullet recipe) Meat Sauce -- 2 parts browned Ground lamb, 1 part ground Beef, 1 part ground Pork, drained of excess grease, cooked with sauteed finely chopped onions, in tomato puree and crushed tomatoes, seasoned with oregano, salt, and middle-eastern 7-spice mix (Sabah Baharat). Simmered for about 45 minutes. Layering a casserole pan, with cooked sliced potatoes at the bottom, then a layer of sauce, then the baked eggplant rounds on top. Then another layer of sauce and eggplant is added, over which the bechamel is poured. A small moussaka, ready for baking. Finished moussaka In addition to the large black (male) eggplants, we bought some smaller Sicilian Rosa Bianca and Dominican eggplants for stuffing with the meat mixture and bechemel, which we had for dinner tonight. The moussakas will be refrigerated, to allow them to set up and develop flavors for a day or two before eating. Several of them will be frozen for later eating.