Jason Perlow

Soybeans aren't kosher pareve? Is there -any- non dairy creamer that is kosher pareve? EDIT: Rich's, yeah, you can try that. Coconut milk? I dunno... As I said earlier, you dont -HAVE- to use any kind of creamer, its fine as a sorbet/ice.

So assuming most of us are having meat meals on Passover, and some of us are choosing to be observant to the letter -- but want to prepare a nice dessert. I'm guessing that some of you have already come up with some good ideas for dairy-free, chometz-free creations. No? Yeah, I had a hard time coming up with some as well. But I had a stroke of genius. Well, not exactly genius, since I ripped the idea off from Uncle Louie G's Italian Ices -- a New York metro-area Italian Ice chain that has Kosher supervision. They have a particular flavor of Italian Ice that can be best described as a synthesis of Fudgesicle and Joyva Jelly Ring. Really, I assure you its much better than it sounds. And its a pretty easy dessert to make -- You Need: Fox's U-Bet, Kosher For Passover Edition, or other KFP chocolate syrup Raspberry or Orange Flavored Kosher for Passover Joyva chocolate-coated Jelly Rings or Jelly Bars (yes, like the ones Bubbe used to have) Cold Water, preferably purified Optional: Non-dairy pareve creamer, such as a soymilk (optional -- note that Coffee Mate and some other products are technically OU-D, not pareve so if you want to be actually kosher you can't use them) Okay, here goes. First, you want to make a very strong "chocolate water" of the U-bet, and dissolve it pretty good in the water, and mix it up good. Add in some of the non-dairy creamer or soymilk, if you want to give it more of a creamier consistency -- otherwise this will be more like a granita as opposed to a cream ice. Chop up the Joyva Chocolate Jelly Rings, then throw the whole shebang into your ice cream maker or gelato machine. When it starts to stiffen up, remove it from the ice cream maker and put it into a container to put into the freezer to serve later, or let it go a little bit longer and serve it immediately. This is great to eat by itself, or alongside some matzoh-meal cake thing. Note from Rachel: Add some unsweetened cocoa powder to the chocolate water, if you use all U-Bet, it'll be too sweet.

Kris, how does NY Brownie flavor compare to Pocky G?

Nope. Not Ed. "Will" from "Alias" http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/...%7c1%7c,00.html I like the actor, but he's not hard core enough to play a believable Bourdain. http://www.bradley-cooper.com/

Fried Chicken tonight: 24 hour Buttermilk bath, seasoned with Crystal Hot Sauce Dusted with seasoning blend Fryin' up Cooling on the rack Plated with cornbread, German potato salad, collards, carrot and red cabbage slaw. Gratuitous closeup

This is a huge shame, but its to be expected. I like Sara Moulton a lot. She's an incredibly nice person, and is one of the most knowledgeable chefs on television today. Her show is one of the few on FoodTV that actually seeks to teach cooking from the basic techniques level, and is a hard core cooking show, and not strictly "food entertainment". With Sara gone, only Alton Brown will have the only truly educational cooking show on the Food Network. I'm sure that before long, Alton will have to look for greener pastures as well.

Just got this goofy email by the guys at Blair's (Extremefood.com) I mean, nobody in their right mind would want to use pure refined capsaicin (16 Million scoville units!) on food... I'm not sure I totally understand the concept of "collector" hot sauces that nobody wants to eat?

I'm actually okay with the flagel, because it makes a good medium for panini-like sandwiches. But its a different animal entirely, and I treat it somewhat like I do a bialy.

You can probably slow roast it if you wrapped the sucker with caul fat or a ton of bacon. However, my favorite way to eat these are simply slicing them into filets, and pounding them down like you would a chicken breast and using them like you would chicken -- marsala wine sauce, cutlets, you name it. You can also find yourself some bitter orange (mojo) marinade, thow it on the grill, and then slice it up and put on buttered garlic bread with some melted mozzarella cheese, or make Cubanos. Brooks has a good alternative idea with the asian marinade as well.

I second the rec on Commander's Palace. It is a lovely tram ride out to the Garden District which will be beautiful right now. One of my nicest restaurant experiences was lounging in the patio area sipping a Mint Julep... This would be great for brunch (weekends) or lunch. A great New Orleans cocktail experience is to go the Sazerac Hotel and order up an eponymous drink there. ← I'll third the recs on Commander's Palace (click for photos) for lunch, and second on Jacques-Imos (click for photos) (although Austin Leslie, fried chicken kung-fu master is no longer there). For brunch, go to Elizabeth's (click) I know you were asking for lunch recs, but definitely do not leave the city without eating dinner at Upperline (click for photos).

Nope, not you Stan. But you do have a tendency to vanish in thin air for events you say you are going to!

Oh man, I wish I had a solution for this one. Rachel and I are very close friends with a couple that we've known for almost 10 years -- these people are consistently unconscionably late or don't even show up when they say they are going to show up. They have no sense of time or punctuality whatsoever. We love them to death, but its infuriating as hell. About two weeks ago we made a lunch appointment for Dim Sum on Sunday -- we confirmed that morning with them for 12:45. "Oh yes, see you at "12:45!". So we waited and waited. 1:45 comes and goes. We ate our food, the staff is cracking jokes about them perhaps mistaking the time. Then 2:15. Nobody shows up. We pay the check, We leave. Later we find out that they showed up right after we left. Ugh. Their excuse? "Oh we were in the middle of hanging some curtains and just lost track of the time." I thought by giving them a nice desk clock as a engagement present when they got married about five years ago was a good message to send, but I guess it hasn't helped.

Various dishes prepared tonight that are inspired from Elie Nassar's Introduction to Lebanese Cuisine Course at eGCI: The basic garlic sauce listed in this course, plus a "doctored" version mixed with zaatar and fresh oregano (which was also used as a marinade along with more lemon juice for the chicken) and the ubiquitous hummus dip. Fresh pita bread baking in the oven, on ceramic tiles. A "Shepherd's Salad" made with tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, parsley, with a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and shredded Goat Feta. Eggplant Salad (Salafat el Rahab). Technically this one came from a Turkish recipe (I used the one here), but a version of the same dish exists in Lebanese cuisine. Pita Bread, Garlic/Zaatar/Oregano/lemon marinated Chicken kebab with Lebanese Garlic Sauce (restaurant style, "doctored"), Eggplant Salad, Shepherd's Salad, Hummus

Various dishes prepared tonight that are inspired from this course: The basic garlic sauce listed in this course, plus a "doctored" version mixed with zaatar and fresh oregano, and the ubiquitous hummus dip. Fresh pita bread baking in the oven, on ceramic tiles. A "Shepherd's Salad" made with tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, parsley, with a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and shredded Goat Feta. Eggplant Salad. Pita Bread, Garlic marinated Chicken with Lebanese Garlic Sauce (restaurant style, "doctored"), Eggplant Salad, Shepherd's Salad, Hummus

Right, those are bagel half rescuers, the unsung heroes of the breakfast table. I have rescued many a half from potentially going stale -- especially the less desireable varieties, including raisin and whole wheat or that strange experimental flavor of the week, like blueberry or jalapeno cheese or mixed herb with sundried tomato, where clearly someone tried it and didnt like it enough to commit to the entire bagel. However people POSING as bagel-half rescuers who are in fact, bagel halvers, are really sick people -- they cut bagels in half thinking they are commiting some selfless act leaving the top part for someone else to eat. This is Bagel Halving-By Proxy Syndrome, and it requires expert clinical knowledge to treat.

Only in morally inferior countries like the UK, Jack.

Its somewhat okay to be a bagel and a halfer IF you can find a willing partner to take the other half of the second bagel or announcing that you are going to cut one in half, so that everyone can be alerted to the gravity of the situation and somebody can step in and rescue the half. But halving one, just on the assumption that someone else MIGHT take the second half is a no no.

The bagel QUARTERERS are absolutely the worst form of this criminal, because its relatively easy to convince someone else to take a half a bagel immediately after its been cut. But when you quarter a bagel, you totally destroy most of its bagel-like qualities and most people would never bother to pick up a bagel quarter, because it would be assumed to be already stale. Its dastardly, and I think there should be a UN resolution against it, and the perpetrators of these crimes should be institutionalized because there is a very real possibility they are mentally ill and are closet serial killers. Because anyone that can willfully mutilate a bagel has suppressed violent tendancies and is probably doing other evil and sociopathic things.

I don't see the half sandwich thing as a problem, because fundamentally, you are only using one slice of bread and then cutting it in half to make the "half sandwich". The loaf of bread has already been partitioned into slices, and if has not been pre sliced, it is totally scalable to slice off a single peice of bread from an unsliced loaf. Whereas, to have a half bagel, you actually have to leave a piece off, leaving the other half to an uncertain fate. There is potential waste involved. And a bagel is not symmetric, there's a top and a bottom, with two slightly different textures and asymmetric distribution of bagel toppings, unless you slice it down the center like King Solomon into two half moons, instead of two round halves, but the bagel will go stale just the same. No, death is too good for these people. Make them eat gluten-free low carb Atkins prison loaf with tofu cheese.

I submit that those of you who are inclined to commit bagelcide and cannot finish a whole bagel, that you pursue other forms of bread discs such as the bialy or the onion board which can easily be eaten by the most diminutive of Jew or Gentile. Thank you.

You are hereby sentenced to eating freezer burned bagged supermarket raisin bagels from here to eternity, without possibility of parole. Away with you!

It seems like they have a pretty active presence in Italy to me: http://it.primopiatto.barilla.com/home/htm/home.htm

Is it just me, or does everyone else despise these people who have no respect for the laws of bagel eating? You know who and what I'm talking about. You go out and buy a bag of a dozen fresh bagels, you bring them home or to work. You pick out a bagel, you slice it and half, put the slices on your plate, adorn them with cream cheese, lox, tomatoes and onions, perhaps butter. But most importantly, you respect the law that has been handed down for generations, that if you take a bagel, you FINISH THE BAGEL! But then there are these lawless individuals who will slice bagels in half, leaving the other half in the bag to go stale, thus becoming un-eatable by the rest of the people in the household or the office. And on top of this, there's a second class of individual who will slice multple bagels in half, so they can get one half of one flavor and one half of another -- destroying two or more perfectly good bagels in the process. Its inconsiderate, and its evil. These are the same people who are "Muffin Toppers" that decapitate perfectly good muffins. They should all be put to death.

That would be incorrect.

Yep, but apparently some of the shapes sold in the US are different from Italy.