Jason Perlow

Fist Full O' Franks

Well, Englewood may be a hot restaurant town, but a lot of restaurants go out of business there as well. You just don't happen to hear about all of those on eGullet, because most of them aren't distinctive in any way. Englewood is also a tough town on locations, parking is extremely scarce and positioning yourself on just the right block or corner is key. However my two favorite restaurants in Englewood -- Saigon R and Bennies are both quite healthy. So I'm not sure the supernova theory holds water :) I'm not sure why we haven't been back to Kratiem since our last post about it. I think that while I thought a lot of their dishes were good, it really doesn't best a hardcore Thai restaurant like Wondee's. But that's just MY personal preferences when it comes to Thai food. The food at Kratiem was quite good when we went there, but I have no idea how they have been maintaining their quality. If its still good, I probably should go back.

Both Kratiem and Thai Chef are having difficulty attracting customers in Englewood. Your guess is as good as mine as to why neither are achieving their potential. Personally, I don't think Thai Chef should have opened two Thai restaurants in Englewood at the same time, and I think the Thai Chef location by the Shop Rite is a particularly bad one.

Its used more frequently in Shanghainese and Sichuan cooking. As Ben says, its primarily a garnish in Cantonese. I particularly like it used in Fried Rice and sauteed noodles. I've seen cold Sichuan appetizers with hot chili oil frequently paired with fresh cilantro tossed up in it, and I have seen it used as part of dumpling filling in Shanghainese cuisine and in shrimp paste used for Dim Sum and shrimp toast. Here are a number of photos from a Shanghai/Sichuanese restaurant in New Jersey, China 46, that feature cilantro: Lobster Shanghai Style Spicy Capsicum Cellophane Noodles with Shrimp Crispy Flounder wrapped in Tofu Skin Fish Head Soup

As a homage to the Rocky Horror Picture Show -- Frank-N-Furter You could have the waitstaff dress up like Columbia / Magenta and the floor show crew, and decorate the restaurant with Rocky Horror memorabilia. Or if you want to avoid getting sued just decorate the place with old monster movie posters and make the FOH wear monster themed T-shirts.

Note, chapeaulong's album is posted here: Staging at El Bulli 2004

Yep, I was just gonna say, BBQ Shrimp a la Mayhaw (or a la Pascal's Manale or Mr. B's, depending on who you think makes the best in N.O.) I don't really think there is a much better dish you can actually -make- with lots of shrimp than BBQ shrimp.

HotDogPalooza

The only remarkable thing I have found about pizza in that neighborhood is the size of the pies (20"?). I will have to try Full Moon again, but when I was there 2 years ago it was no better than Ivana's. ← We had an Ivana's slice and a Full Moon slice a week ago, the Full Moon slice had a much better crust, it was thinner, and a more acidic sauce than the Ivanas slice. Overall it was a much better pizza.

Yeah, I thought it was a bit strange as well. Arturos is a very under rated pizzeria. its clam pie alone makes it a destination pizzeria, if not for the fact its an anthracite coal joint. I also think that its a bit odd that no Bronx pizzerias are mentioned either. Considering what an enclave of Italian-American activity Belmont/Arthur Avenue is, and the general quality of foodstuffs and ingredients in that neighborhood, there has to be a few pizzerias there that are worth eating at. Especially Full Moon on 187th and Arthur, which I thought was excellent, even if it is a steel deck gas-fired pizza. I'm also not convinced Staten Island has no decent pies either.

Egg Creams!

Buy some carbonated water/seltzer/club soda and mix it up with a shot of it, and you got watermelon soda!

I haven't tried his quiche yet but I am aching to do so.

By the way, Andre and Anne will be making special flourless desserts for Passover -- they are in very high demand, so make sure you place your order with them early.

March 17th is coming up and I am sure some of us (not me) are Irish, and will be preparing food to celebrate the wearing of the green. Besides the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage, Dublin Coddle, Soda bread, and Colcannon/Champ, what other dishes are really Irish? Is there a modern Irish cuisine? Isn't there more to Irish food than a lot of potato jokes? Ireland is supposed to have some of the best fishing and seafood in all of Europe, isn't it?

I would agree about Fifth Floor, but the one time I had a meal there, which was about 3 years ago, and it was one of the most memorable I have had in my life, Laurent Gras was still chef there. I've heard the new young chef Melissa Perello is extremely talented though. http://www.fifthfloor.citysearch.com/ If you're a wine freak, the list at this restaurant is utterly mind blowing -- they've got over 1400 selections on the list, including bottles going back to the 1930s and older. Heck, they have Pre-WWII Rieslings from Germany, which is no mean feat.

If you want some pretty good Thai food, check out King of Thai Noodle House -- its dirt cheap too. They make a really mean Pad Kaprow over rice, authentically with a fried egg on top! They've got several locations in San Fran as well, although the main one on Clement is supposed to be the best one. It became a favorite of mine during LinuxWorld. I've also in the past stated that I am a huge fan of Brandy Ho's Hunan Food (near the Transamerica Pyramid, 217 Columbus), if you want to try some authentic Hunan-Style cuisine. Really spicy stuff. Open kitchen, lots of cacaphony and shouting Chinese chefs, a fun place to go: http://www.brandyhoshunan.com/

The slices af Full Moon when we ate there were definitely not "crunchy". They're either making their pizza different now or you must have just had bad luck.

A nice but short peice in the Village Voice about Arthur Avenue: You Like Fresh Clams? A Market Tour of the Other Little Italy

I tried my first Coke wit Lime today at work, the sandwich shop/cafeteria had some recently delivered in the 20oz plastic bottles. I have to side with Fred -- the lime taste is barely noticeable, it is extremely subtle and you really have to concentrate to notice it. In this case I have to say that the diet product, at least in execution, is a better product if you are looking for that lime/cola taste. This is not to say I won't purchase the product again, but its barely distinguishable from regular Coke Classic.

I can definitely say the crusts on the slices we had were not burnt. We also had the slices up the block at Ivana Pizzeria, and they couldn't compare. They were doughier, crust not as cooked and the sauce was considerably sweeter. Not BAD pizza if you compare it to 90 percent of the stuff out there, but nowhere as good as Full Moon. I'd totally kill to have a pizza place as good as Full Moon in my neighborhood.

I may have been just ravenously hungry, but Rachel and I had some particularly good plain slices on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx at Full Moon Pizza this last weekend. Nice, big classic style NY slices, nice acidity and tangyness to the sauce, good quality low moisture cheese. Crust was about as good as you could get from a gas oven, was nice and thin and pliability was excellent. If you are shopping on Arthur Avenue and want a nice, quick lunch, I totally reccomend their plain slices. Note that I havent tried their toppings, I can only speak from the quality of the plain slices, but the toppings looked good. I also saw their Sicilian pies which also looked good, but we didn't try them. Full Moon 602 E. 187th Street (corner of 187 and Arthur Avenue)

Its used pretty universally in marinades for meats and stir fries (brown sauces usually).

What's on top of those burger buns? Did you emboss those or print them out with a printer or something?

In terms of Pinot Noir, I would suggest some of the Willemete Valley wines in addition to the Burgundian and Californian ones, such as Argyle, simply because of their good value. In addition to the Hugel/Trimbach stuff from Alsace, and the fine suggestion of Bonny Doon by Katie, in terms of Riesling I would go with Dr. Loosen from Germany (ah yes, I see Mr. Bonne is in agreement), which is also a good value and also avaliable. At the higher end you could also look at Prum but its hard finding one for less than $25 these days. Leonard Kreusch also has some decent Reisling at the < $15 level, some less than $10. Selbach Oster also has some nice Kabinett and Spatslesen < $15 but I think they are predominantly sold on the East Coast because it is a Terry Theise import. Most of or all the ones listed above are Mosel/Saar/Ruwer, but If you want a Rheingau one you're gonna pay a bit more to get the unique chalky terroir of that region, and real Riesling freaks are Rheingau drinkers when given the opportunity. Actually, most of the country's best Germanic imports are Terry Theise and are sold on the East Coast, but I think we all knew that.