Jason Perlow

I think Argyle changed its mix. The 1996 and the 1997 were heavier on Pinot Noir, it was 25 percent Pinot and 75 percent Chard. I have some of that at home, along wih the Extended Tirage 1991. http://www.argylewinery.com/cgi-local/Soft...997_BRUT15.html The -Extended Tirage- is 40 percent Pinot Noir, thats probably why I thought it was Pinot Heavy.

Aren't the Gruet Brut and the regular Gruet NV both Blanc de Noirs? The Argyle is Pinot Noir heavy, but its a chard/pinot mix, right?

Abigail Doyle, GM of Dinosaur Barbecue in NYC asked me to pass on these words:

Little Saigon is definitely more upscale than Binh Duong is currently. Binh Duong is a very casual restaurant, like Little Saigon used to be at its former location. I would imagine that the service issues would be transparent if you were ordering take-out.

A bunch of us went to Little Saigon for an impropmptu dinner last night -- Rosie + Lowell + Brother + Sister in Law, Mark + Rich, Rachel and Myself. The restaurant is about five times the size of the original in a much nicer space, however it is not located on the main restaurant drag of Montclair, so getting the news out that they are open again will be key. Both Rachel and I felt that the food was good as it ever was in the former location, but everyone at the table and the other patrons I spoke to noticed the considerable service issues the restaurant is experiencing right now -- they are not equipped to handle a space of that size, especially when it starts filling up at night, even more so on a weekend evening. We had to get up out of our seats to flag waiters down several times during the meal to try to order stuff and to check the progress of our orders, and one or two of them turned out not to be very familiar with the menu. We actually had a dish mis-delivered to our table that was destined for another one (seafood over pan fried noodles, which looked really good, and we were about 5 seconds from digging into it before it was snatched from the table by the waiter. We ended up ordering a similar dish with soft egg noodles, pictured below) It happened that the Manager/Owner of Binh Duong in nearby Bloomfield, was over there that night visiting his family, sampling their food and helping out -- the restaurants are related, I think the owners are first cousins. In our opinion Binh Duong's food is just as good as Little Saigon's and its a much smaller restaurant (its about the size that Little Saigon used to be) with very attentive staff -- some people would say that the restaurant is too attentive, because everything you order comes out real fast and you can end up with a lot of plates on your table in no time there. He plans to renovate Binh Duong shortly and expand the menu, I'm actually looking forward to that. But if you have a hankering for Vietnamese, right now Binh Duong is the better choice, they have their act together. Unless the prospect of really bad service doesn't deter you, I would stay clear of Little Saigon for at least a month or two while they get their service issues ironed out, as much as that pains me to say. Here are some pics from that evening, taken by Lowell Saferstein: A portioned out mini-bowl of Hu Tieu noodle soup, with chinese style roast pork and shrimp. A bowl of Crab Soup, ordered by Mark Stevens A portion of Vietnamese Crepe (which had mungbeans, shrimp, pork, and other veggies in it) with a peice of Shrimp/Pork Summer Roll. Sauteed Mixed Seafood over Soft Egg Noodle French-style Flan egg custard Vietnamese Iced Coffee Lowell Saferstein holding his nose while chugging some Durian Shake.

So if it used to be like 40 percent Petite Sirah back in the day, what the hell is it made of now?

For cooking purposes its probably fine. Does Gallo actually make it in Burgundy? Would be pretty ballsy of them to call it a Burgundy if it's from California. I assume it actually has Pinot Noir in it. If not... Although its a bit strange to refer to anything Pinot Noir as "Hearty", its one of the lightest red varietals there is. Its one of the few reds you can drink easily with fish.

Fat Guy and I had some Gruet NV Blanc De Noirs with some Thai food last week, we thought it was a really nice wine, perhaps slightly sweet, which went really good with the spicy food. At $13.99 here at my local wine store, its a good buy. On jbonne's recommendation I most definitely want to try their Brut as well, which goes for about the same price. Their Blanc de Blancs goes for about $22-25 and their Rose is $30 from their web site (and they only made 280 cases???) which I haven't tried either. Anyone? http://www.gruetwinery.com/wines.htm

Knives are pretty personal things, they really need to be bought and tested out at the store by the person using them. No likey, put it up on eBay. Or bring it back if you got the receipt.

It'll probably come out fine, Pam. I don't think Randall Graham at Bonny Doon is much of an oak freak. Tannins can be compensated for by adding more water or stock, but oak...

Actually Pam, we used a Bonny Doon Ca' Del Solo Big House Red for that recipe, and it worked great. A blended red varietal like that wine or an inexpensive Burgundy is fine. The primary red varietal used in the Burgundy region is Pinot Noir with Gamay and a few other minor grapes mixed in, so any Pinot Noir, even a domestic one like a Argyle from the Willemete Valley in Oregon (Most Oregon Pinot Noir are under $15) should be fine for that dish. You don't want anything with a lot of tannins or a lot of oak like a California Cabernet Sauvignon or a Merlot, Pinot Noir is not particularly tannin heavy and Oregons are not particuarly oaky. Syrah/Shiraz is also tannic so I wouldn't use that wine you have either.

Salt Bagels with cream cheese, tomato, and raw red onion. A glass of tomato juice and then some good French pressed black coffee. Eaten in blissful silence.

Nope. They just happened to have rather large lobsters that day at Shop Rite. Twice a year they have a big lobster sale, these were $5.99 a pound.

Ouefs en Cocotte avec Lardons e Bagel au Beurre.

Marcella Hazan is wrong. A fresh pasta maker specializing in cut to order egg noodles who's been doing it over 100 years -- Borgatti's in the Bronx -- Has told me that fresh pasta can be frozen for several months before it declines in quality. Thats why I buy several pounds of it at a time whenever I go there.

My guess is you should use a food drier, but I gotta say, if you are going to bother to make fresh pasta, then just put it in freezer bags and keep it around for when you want fresh pasta. Fresh pasta will store in the freezer for a long time.

Tonight, we are cooking lobster. We bought a 6.5 and 5.2. Behold, the 6.5 Pounder: That's a half-sheet pan he's filling up Always look your dinner in the eye Rachel's plate: meat from 1/2 the 6.5 lb lobster, boiled potatoes seasoned with Zatar, butter/lemon sauce, creamed spinach

Behold, the 6.5 Pounder: That's a half-sheet pan he's filling up Always look your dinner in the eye Rachel's plate: meat from 1/2 the 6.5 lb lobster, boiled potatoes seasoned with Zatar, butter/lemon sauce, creamed spinach

3 Oyler Units, totalling 2400 pounds of smoking capacity.

This is how it is served at Mike's Deli in the Bronx:

Goes particularly well with Coke.

Great news, Jonathan. Montclair is a great restaurant town. I guess they felt with Binh Duong opening pretty close to their original restaurant, there was no need to re-open a new place in that area. My only concern is that in Montclair there are so many good restaurants to choose from (including Thai Chef, which arguably has not been able to steal business away from Saigon R. in Englewood with its other location), and it might not be able to drum up the hardcore business it did in Nutley because its original base of customers might not care to drive that far. But I am sure it will get a lot of new people.

Thanks woodburner, that was very informative. The J&R site, with everything you wanted to know about the Oyler pit is here: http://www.jrmanufacturing.com/oyler2b.html

For the most part expiration dates on heat pasteurized Orange Juice is a bunch of baloney. I've opened cartons of premium OJ that were two weeks expired from sitting in my fridge and they were perfectly fine. Once you open it is one thing, but I think you could go a month past that expiration date and still be fine.

Tropicana was purchased by Pepsico in 1998 from Seagrams. Ocean Spray actually started a lawsuit over it in an attempt to block the sale, but failed and ended up dropping it. In 2003 Pepsico moved its Dole and Tropicana juice operations to Chicago as part of a restructuring/consolidation effort in order to cut costs.