Jason Perlow

In case you missed it last time: We Don't Need No Stinking Taco Bell (click)

I made gumbo z'herbes once and I probably won't try again. Unlike other gumbos, which improve overnight, my gumbo z'herbes turned into a big ole pot o' greens. NTTTAWT, but that's not what I was after. ← The kind that uses a dark roux is not just a big ole pot o' greens, though.

An update on Devi - Devi's Executive Pastry Chef, James DiStefano, is no longer at Devi. He has moved on to "356" restaurant in Brooklyn and is also consulting at Ginger and Spice restaurant in Ramsey, NJ, where he joins his longtime friend and David Burke alumnus Doron Wong.

Dare we bring up Gumbo Z'herbes / Gumbo Zab / Gumbo Zap ? I've seen ones that use a roux, and I have seen ones that don't. This one uses roux, for example: http://www.gumbopages.com/food/soups/gumboz.html whereas the Emeril one does not: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_18701,00.html

Just to second, once again, that bit of advice. The stuff ain't just as hot as frying oil can get; it also bonds to whatever it hits, especially skin. It's bad news. I was once stirring a roux with a wooden spoon that got jammed somehow and sent a lil clot onto my knuckle. In the three seconds it took to get to the sink, every bit of my skin had been burned, and it washed off in the stream of water, revealing the bone. While I'm all for trying it yourself, you certainly don't want to try it unless you can devote your full attentions for a full half-hour-plus to the roux. This isn't about scorching the risotto, friends. ← Yeah, its a total commitment on time and concentration. There is no "walking away for a few minutes" with a gumbo roux. If you need to take bathroom breaks, its probably better to have another competent adult person onhand for stirring duty to alternate with who understands the severe ramifications of letting Cajun Napalm burn or getting onto human flesh.

So did we do good then? Did we honor the gumbo properly? Or will I need to repent my sins now? :)

The core of every wing sauce is melted butter mixed with Tabasco or some other kind of hot sauce. After that, everything else is pretty much optional.

Chinese and Malaysian dishes using sauteed mango or pineapple with chicken or seafood and some type of spicy sauce. Works great.

First wave: Stadium-Style Nachos with Home-Made Monterrey Jack/Cheddar Cheese Sauce with Green Chiles and Salsa

For independent benchmark reference, this is what a "pro" gumbo from dark roux looks like: The two to the left are duck gumbo and "turtle soup" from Upperline in New Orleans. The light colored soup is their Oyster Soup, which is also really awesome. and the Gumbo Du Jour at Commander's Palace

Yep, that's about the color we stopped at.

That's nice and dark, Patti. I wish we had the stones to bring the roux to that level.

BTW we used Corn Oil to cook the roux, we didn't have peanut or canola avaliable. I doubt it made a huge difference, though. The main difference is I think Corn has a higher smoke point than canola.

I just finished a cup of that gumbo. Oh man. Is good, I garontee.

BTW, with the real Louisiana sausage in it, the only spices we added to it was the little bit of salt and cayenne we added to the Trinity, plus a shot of CAJUN POWER garlic hot sauce. The sausage imparted a lot of spicyness to the gumbo without any added Cajun seasoning.

Yeah, we chickened out. Rachel was like "It's starting to smell burnt!!!" and I said "No, it isn't, it can take another minute or two" and she just dumped the Trinity in and that was the end of it.

We put the rice in there -- which is leftover cooked rice from yesterday's chinese delivery -- because we are portioning it for my lunch(es) for the next few weeks into pint-size microwavable plastic deli containers that are going into the freezer. We also made another soup today, an escarole and bean with pasta.

Tonight we made a Gumbo with Chicken and Sausage (Alligator/Pork Sausage, Andouille and Smoked Chaurice, all from Poche's in Louisiana) based on Fifi's recipe. We used a red bell pepper instead of a green one, but its pretty traditional nonetheless. I think we might have been able to go a tad darker with the roux, but it was starting to get dangerous. We brought it to the reddish tinge level of chocolatelyness, however. One of these days we might attempt to make one as dark as Upperline's or Commander's.

Interesting Wikiverse peice on Saimin: http://saimin.wikiverse.org/

Recently while watching a new History Channel documentary on Pearl Harbor, I saw some photos of various circa-1940's restaurants advertising "Saimin Noodles". I looked up Saimin, and the pictures look like traditional Ramen or Chinese noodle soups in a thin broth with various toppings. How is Saimin different from those? Is it the way the noodles are made? Also while Googling on Saimin, I found an interesting article on "Dry Mein" which appears to be indigenous to Maui: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/specials...alia032101.html

Hard to figure, it has good parking, nice visibility from the outside to attract drivers-by, thousands of ShopRite customers passing by, who knows why the place never seems busy. Maybe they need to promote themselves more... ← A very good source has just told me that the location was recently put on the market, in the NY Times classified section.

Alll the Koreans I know, including my husband and in-laws, do indeed use chopsticks to eat rice from a bowl (yes, on the table, not in the hand). The only time chopsticks are not used with rice is when spooning a bit of rice, carrying the spoon over to the soup, dipping the bowl of the spoon horizontally into the soup to mix the soup and rice, and eating the mixture from the spoon. (This maneuver is something I had never encountered in my Chinese-American upbringing and that I have had to get used to seeing and doing.) Jason, I'm curious to know the source of what you call the Korean "no chopsticks in the rice" rule. I've never heard of this. ← At home this rule may very well be suspended, particularly among Korean Americans. Our best friends are a mixed Korean and Chinese family (our goddaughter is their child) and we have seen them frequently eat rice in the conventional Asian manner, with a rice bowl and chopsticks. However, at Korean restaurants, its considered to be improper dining etiquette to eat rice with chopsticks and to hold the rice bowl in your hand. That's why they give you that long spoon. In addition, all prepared "bap" dishes are meant to be eaten with that spoon. For further elaboration: http://www.lifeinkorea.com/Food/f-manners.cfm and this: http://www.asiafood.org/koreafood.cfm

Haha! I was right. No way in hell a place like that could survive without constant cash injection.

More of a vinagrette. The gruyere flavor was very pronounced, it added a nice salty/savory component to the dish, went well with the grilled shrimp.

My Comments: For starters, the bread -- which comes in a cute litle basket. These are mini-me sized tiny baguettes, with a really serious crust and a chew to them -- really gives your jaw some serious exercise, but they went well with dishes such as the foie gras and the steak tartare. from page One: Our Own Liverwurst with mustard and lingonberry - Very strong flavors, mustard being the predominant one mixing with the organ meats. I like it a lot, although I would not necessarily order it at the same time as the Steak Tartare because the flavor profiles are very similar. Foie Gras Torchon with muscat gelee & toasted country bread Foie fans should really like this one. I'm not a foie person, but I liked this dish a lot, my first reaction to it was that it was more buttery than foie-like, or rather the liver taste was far less pronounced than other foie I had sampled before. Peekytoe Crab Salad with marinated endive and chive oil - I liked this one a lot, but I can see why Rachel might not have liked it. If you are into strong crab flavors this is a good dish. Tuna Carpaccio with curly cress and citrus-ginger vinaigrette This was outstanding, with very thin slices of sashimi-grade raw Tuna with an Asian-style vinagrette, which contrasted nicely with the fattiness of the fish. Steak Tartare with quail egg - I'd compare it favorably to the Steak Tartare at Le Halles, which is one of the best I have ever had. Strong mustard flavor, excellent quality raw beef. from page Two: Tarte Flambee - Very much like a super thin crust pizza, the combination of the ham, onions and cheese/cream, while simple, is elegant and very tasty. Crust on this is absolutely perfect. Poached Egg with serrano, cockles, garlic-almond sauce Lots of serrano ham, with a poached egg and small clams. I really didnt get much out of the sauce because the ham pretty much overpowered the dish as it got cooked and saltier as it dried out. It was also awkward to eat, with the serrano being difficult to pull apart. I think that if the cured ham was chopped up and applied to the cockles individually as a garnish and not cooked, it might have worked a bit better. Wild Mushroom Soup with toasted chorizo ravioli - Very intensely flavored mushroom soup. Nice contrast with the crispy fried ravioli/wonton like dumplings. Shroom fans will rejoice. Grilled Shrimp with a green cabbage and gruyere salad - The shrimps themseles were excellent specimens but the cabbage/gruyere salad was the real star of this dish. I highly recommend this one. Tagliatelle with chanterelles and black truffles - Very rich, super intensely creamy pasta dish. Its a small portion but I couldnt even think of finish the whole thing, a few bites were enough. Potato and Marrow Cassolette with smoked beef tongue - Phenomenal. Enough butter to kill a horse, though. from page Three: Braised Pork Cheeks with sauerkraut and ginger jus - Nice traditional Alsatian dish, but it was very simple and plain compared to the other dishes on the menu. It might be a good foil to an otherwise very rich meal. Lamb loin with root vegetables, fennil confit, pear coulis - Excellent quality lamb but I really would have preferred that it was cooked rarer. Fennel and root vegetables was a nice accompaniment, the fennel taste gets more pronounced in cooked form and it has a nice soft and soothing texture, almost creamy.