Jason Perlow

Varadero is an okay rum. The best Cuban rum ever produced was Matusalem Anejo Superior, and its no longer made anymore. I have a few bottles of it left that I am drinking very sparingly. Apparently the distillery was shut down for renovations in November of 2000, and they moved operations to another distillery and renamed the rum Santiago de Cuba, but from what I have heard elsewhere and from people who have been to Cuba recently and have sampled some, it does not taste the same at all. For the most part, most Cuban rums are a pale shadow of what they were 5 or 10 years ago. Havana Club Anejo Reserva is my current favorite. The 7 is a bit too harsh for my taste.

It would be an utter disaster, Michael. It would be all over the place. You need firm potatoes to make a good one. ← I just bought Claudia Roden's book Tamarind & Saffron and she gives a recipe for a Tunesian mashed potato omelet: Mash from 500 grams potatoes, 1 onion minced and fried, 3 eggs, a whole bunch of parsley, salt and pepper all mixed together and fried in oil. It's called maacouda. ← Interesting. Wouldnt be the same thing as a Tortilla de Patatas though.

It would be an utter disaster, Michael. It would be all over the place. You need firm potatoes to make a good one.

Oh yeah. Stuffed with seasoned ground meat, or ham and cheese. Or shrimp and black eyed peas. Or chicken curry. The Brazilian/Japanese style ones that use panko bread crumbs as the coating are fantastic.

Not sacrelige, but basically pointless, because the dish is totally out of balance without them. so you don't think that you could sub-in say almonds for a similar effect? Or perhaps a blend of almonds & cashews? No it's not going to be exactly the same, but could it be a plausible flavor approximation once it was cooked in? ← Possibly cashews or macadamia nuts, or a combination of the two. Not almonds.

Not sacrelige, but basically pointless, because the dish is totally out of balance without them. You'd be better off making Pad Siew, Lard Na, or Pad Kee Maow, three other Thai noodle dishes that are as equally as good, which have no peanuts. Here's a Kee Maow Noodles I made a while back: The predominant flavor profile in this dish is chili and basil -- "Kee Maow" means "drunken" because it is typically served as a hangover remedy. Here's a Kee Maow recipe that looks pretty hardcore: Kee Maow recipe at Bella Online (click) And here's a good one for Pad Siew, which is made with Dark Soy. Pad Siew Recipe at Importfood.com (click)

Nope, we haven't frozen any yet. They don't last very long.

Is Saemjang (fermented bean paste) ever used in Bibimbap? Or is that strictly used as a condiment for dishes like BBQ Bulgogi and Kalbi? I really like Saemjang, although I think its an acquired taste. If we don't have it when we make Korean BBQ at home, I feel like there is something missing. I always request it at the table when we go out for Korean, I usually get surprised looks from the servers.

A crispy Pita with Falafel is alwasy dissapointing to me as well. These sound very good, what exactly goes into Israeli salad? Rachel- I love the Falafel bar idea (I chose to ignore the crispy Pita for now ). I wonder how come we do not have them here in Houston? Maybe I should open one up. I am a little confused about not being able to eat it neatly though? Even the largest Falafel sandwiches I've had were not harder to eat than a regular burger. Is the falafel not wrapped properly maybe? Elie ← Elie, since we started using your fantastic Pita bread recipe (and we've tweaked it a bit more with the inclusion of some whole wheat flour, for texture) we haven't had a problem with Felafel sandwiches falling apart -- its those mass produced supermarket pitas that we seem to have this problem with.

persillade... Yup, Persillade, thats right. When you add Lemon Zest it becomes Gremolata. I think Pepin adds something else though, although I might be mistaken.

that's very similar (if not identical) to gremolata, which I make when I make ossobuco. ← I think he may add herbs de provence to it, though. Yeah, I was thinking of the Osso Bucco stuff that is served with the risotto milanese (saffron risotto).

Food From the Arab World (click) I was doing some Google searches today and came up with this really cool website. Lots of stuff in here I've never eaten or heard of. It's a book that was published in Lebanon in 1959.

Tabbouleh (Mint and Parsley with Burghul Salad)

If you chop up parsley with Garlic and lemon zest, and serve it over seafood, it's a particularly French thing that Jacques Pepin does a lot on his shows which I forgot the name of. One of my favorite dishes is just plain sauteed shrimp or scallops (pan seared) with butter, olive oil and garlic, and lots of chopped parsley and lemon zest over fresh pasta. You can't beat it. I also remember this one Alton Brown recipe for Parsley Salad that sounded particularly good.

Depending on my mood, there are only 2 dining destinations in Brooklyn that I -MIGHT- be willing to go over that many bridges for and neither of them are Chinese restaurants, unfortunately! ← This may come as a surprise to you, but Brooklyn is found on the same island as Flushing. ← Yeah, but what's left of my family in this area now lives in Queens and Nassau, not Brooklyn... so I typically end up in Queens for dinner or lunch when visiting family. I really have no compelling reason to go to Brooklyn except on the rare occassion we visit Rachel's relatives that live there, in which case we end up at Difara's or Peter Luger. No slight to Brooklyn, it's where we all came from, originally. My grandmother was a Miss Brooklyn finalist in the 1930's.

Depending on my mood, there are only 2 dining destinations in Brooklyn that I -MIGHT- be willing to go over that many bridges for and neither of them are Chinese restaurants, unfortunately!

If we're talking Dim Sum, I like Silver Pond -- which is related to the Silver Pond in Fort Lee, NJ. There's a few other major Dim Sum houses on Main which I've eaten at and had dumplings that I completely forgot the names of, unfortunately. There used to be a superlative dumpling place, called "Dumpling House" on College Pt. Boulevard, but I think they have closed down. I've heard good things about the dumplings at People's People restaurant on Prince Street, although I have never been.

More specifically, its roast pork, but yeah -- although its not really barbecue because its not wood smoked, they typically roast them in specialized electric contraptions or Peking Duck ovens. The roast meat stores carry other stuff as well, such as Peking Ducks and chickens and stuff.

Oh yeah. When we were kids, there were very few decent KFP products. There was basically Manischewitz (click) products, and well... Horowitz Margareten, Goodman's and Season (which are also now owned by the big M) When I was 12, when I was enrolled in Hebrew school and preparing for my Bar Mitzvah, I went to a YMHA (Jewish version of the YMCA) "Passover Camp" up in the mountains, we were lucky to have Matzah and cold cuts. And tinned macaroons -- which I hate, no matter how many "new" flavors of them they come out with. I think when I got home the first thing I did was make a huge PBJ sandwich on Wonder! Nowadays, its a totally different ballgame. I was utterly blown away today with the selection of stuff in the Passover section of the Englewood NJ Shop Rite -- granted, its one of the best stocked Kosher supermarkets in the entire country, but still, the variety of stuff out there -- and that includes all kinds of junk food, snacks, baking goods, etc, is quite impressive compared to what it used to be. I bought all kinds of KFP junk food today, just for the sake of trying them. Even the big M has lots of new products as well. If I had to be observant to the letter for a week, I could totally get by these days without losing my mind. Maybe. Oh, and BTW Bloviatrix, I spoke to the kosher section manager today at Shop Rite -- he's got a -huge- shipment of KFP Coca Cola, Pepsi and other sodas coming in next week. I had a heck of a time trying to find some last year, but apparently he got the lions share of it this time.

For those of you in Queens, there's excellent char siu at the roast meats takeout store at the floor level of the East Buffet building on Flushing Main Street. I always buy some on the way out when we go to East.

Yeah, I think it requires getting into some physically uncomfortable position to do or something, or its in an awkward spot.

Er, get thee to Flushing then?

Tell that to all the six year olds I see there -- I think on Saturday we saw at least half a dozen of them. Mind you a few of them were screaming at the top of their lungs, but they WERE eating all kinds of stuff. In fact, I'm pretty sure they all shut up as soon as they got their food. On the other hand, send all the screaming six year olds to Lou Reda. He loves them.

I will second the suggestion for Penang -- the place is very loud, and very frequently has a lot of families bringing kids. Food is great if you like Southeast Asian type of food.

Don't they notice? Do they never use ice? I find it funny that they're fine with onion tasting ice. ← Oh they notice. In fact, a whole "situation" gets created, when we go out and buy ice, because there's some passive/aggressive thing going on between my father-in-law and mother-in-law with the whole not-changing-the-filter thing. Its a very "Everybody Loves Raymond" type of situation.