Jason Perlow

There are several schools of thought on the leftover rice vs fresh or recent rice issue. Basically, if you want to reproduce the texture of "NY Chinese Takeout Place" fried rice you use day old or older rice. I know other asian cultures such as Japanese and certainly authentic chinese places will use fresh or semi fresh rice when cooking fried rice at home, but the texture will be different. It has to do with the gluten, and yeah I think it interacts with the oil differently.

Transparent, it sounds like you're Asian. Unless you're Jewish, I don't think you'll understand where we're coming from. Sorry.

Fried rice with a hit of sriracha chili sauce and basil, and perhaps a little pineapple along with the regular stuff is good, but yeah, its definitely vietnamese. I wouldnt use the dark soy with that though, I would use a decent Japanese mardaizu instead and with a light touch.

Definitely a dark soy, the thick and syrupy kind, combined with cubed Chinese roast pork (char siu). Use a decent amount of scallions, bean sprout and chopped up omelet. Other meats such as shrimp or beef or chicken is optional, but the Char Siu is key. No pork fat, no flavor. You can also use Lap Cheung chinese sausage instead of the char siu, and its really good that way, but it will be a different flavor. However, you will not be able to produce identical results for the stated reason by your restaurant friend -- even with a "pro" style home burner at around 15,000BTU its no match for a restaurant wok burrner that hits around 100K BTU . However, it will be very good for home made fried rice, we probably make this at least once a month at my house. You need to cook each component in small amounts and in stages, though. You will need to chan up the roast pork or sausage to release the pork fat, along with the whites of the scallions and the beansprout and hit it with a small amount of the dark soy. Remove it from the wok, then make the omelet and remove. Then put in more oil and chan up the rice (DAY OLD! DON'T USE fresh rice!) with more of the dark soy, and then when that is all done, re-incorporate the veggies/egg and pork and chuck in the green part of the scallions. You might want to throw in a handful of peas. The results will yeild something that looks like the picture of fried rice upthread. Fried rice, as well as chow mein egg noodles, is really an excellent way of getting rid of the leftover veggies you have sitting around the house. I always buy scallions, beansprouts, etc and hit the chinese grocery every iother month for the char siu, I buy it in larger amounts and freeze it in vacuum seal bags. We always have the leftover rice sitting around from whenever we order chinese food, which happens a few times a month.

I love chocolate covered pretzels, and if offered chocolate covered potato chips, I would probably eat the entire bag. I saw the post about the Chocolate covered pork fat -- and while that does sound disgusting, the possibility of chocolate covered crispy BACON sounds extremely seductive.

Actually the Empire latkes arent bad at all, we used to make them en masse at Hebrew school for Chanukah parties. No replacement for home made latkes though.

How about felafel sandwiches, but with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce stuffed into a pita instead of the traditional israeli condiments? Although there is the problem of the gravy and the stuffing. Maybe a mushroom gravy or stuffing made with a vegetable stock instead of poultry stock? I'm drawing a blank here. Hey, what about a fresh pasta or risotto made with Pumpkin or Squash? Like a Squash/Pumpkin Gnocchi with parmesan/butter?

The problem is that everyone in my family and in Rachel's family, and pretty much all New York Metro Jews have only one thing in mind when they think "Stuffing" to accompany a turkey or chicken on a major holiday (which includes Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Erev Yom Kippur and Thanksgiving) and that is Stove Top, or alternatively Pepperidge Farm which has been "doctored" with lots of good stock and mushrooms, onions, celery and garlic. While I think a home made stuffing would be nice for a change, it just doesnt taste right or have the correct consistency. Cornbread stuffing is interesting, and I enjoy it when it is served to me, but its not what we had when we grew up. Generaly speaking I think Stove Top and Pepperidge Farm are good commercial products, and produce good results especially after being "doctored".

I used to like Progresso Chickarina soup until it became way too salty. They also used to make a solid minestrone.

Add a couple of squares of bittersweet chocolate. Throw in some a can of chipotle chiles with adobo.

I concur with the Campbells soups, especially the alphabet soup, but I never liked any of the Chef Boyardee products. As i understand, the original Boiardi (he changed his name so that it would be pronounced properly) products were quite good, he was the first to can pasta sauces and sell them in combination with sphagetti. Most people probably don't realize Hector Boiardi was a real person and not a fictional character created for the product brand. http://www.snopes.com/business/names/boyardee.asp http://www.clevescene.com/issues/1999-09-2...lendar/nd2.html

I'm going to try to duplicate some of that experience the next time I make hot dogs.

There's a kosher deli up the road? Which shopping center is Foster Village, the one on the intersection of New Bridge Road with the Radio Shack and the new Wallgreens across the street? Thats a bit more than just up the road, thats way up Washington Ave heading toward Teaneck. I've been to the kosher deli in that shopping plaza, its OK. I prefer to stop at the Caribbean joint that makes jamaican patties next door.

I've never had one, but they sound insanely good.

That bugs in the soup thing has to be a total aberration, Snausages. I've never seen anything like that happen at the restaurant before.

Are these similar to Arby's Potato Cakes? Along with the Jamocha Shake, these are pretty much the only things left worth getting there. ← Yes, they are very similar.

Yes, the frozen, pre-made latkes (are we talking about the triangular shaped ones?) are the Tater Tot's Jewish cousin.

Tater Tots are celebrating their golden anniversary this year. Here's Ore-ida's Tater Tot site: http://www.oreida.com/tot_spot/ They've apprently rolled out a new "Extra Crispy" variant which now I really want to try, even if I have to pay a premium for it instead of the $1.60 per huge bag of supermarket brand ones. Whoa. I didnt realize Heinz owns Ore-ida. Maybe I need to reconsider that thought. At least for another two days.

The Ranch 1 fries are excellent, but my two current favorites have to be the Chick Fil A waffle cut fries and Nathan's Famous crinkle cut fries.

Well, what you're talking about is more of a croquette (or as the Japanese call "Corokke" ). The interior texture of a Tater Tot is not like a croquette, which is smooth and creamy, its more like Latke. And yes, despite the name, they are good. One of the best frozen potato products you can probably buy, actually.

Frozen, but not really french fries. They are made of shredded potatoes and formed into thumb-sized barrels. A second variant is made with the addition of grated onion, which makes it more like a latke. You mean to tell me you don't have them in Canada?

New menu item: The "Crazy Mo' Pho" This is a king-sized bowl of Pho with 5 toppings. This one has rare beef, chicken, shrimp, beef balls, and ribs.

Boeuf Bourguignon from the Les Halles Cookbook, served with Zucchini Saute, Parsley Mashed Potatoes and some Tator Tots (for contrasting crunchiness)

Packing material, when the foam peanuts run out? ← You're on Atkins. Go away!

I love Tater Tots. I love them because they are crunchy on the outside, yet coarse and potatoey on the inside. They are neither croquette nor french fry. They just are. Tonight, we professed our love to Tater Tots by combining them with Boeuf Bourginon, a classic French Bistro dish. They were a very effective conveyance for the deep, rich beef gravy. There's another Tater Tot dish I've always wanted to try, if only for its grotesqueness -- The Ms. Lucy Zaunbrecher Tator Tot Casserole. What is this thing? Its sauteed trinity (Celery, Bell Pepper, Onion), condensed cream of mushroom soup, condensed cream of chicken soup, grated cheese and sliced smoked sausage, all cooked up into an amorphous glop in a saute pan, baked into a casserole over layers of Tater Tots. The Tator Tot Casserole is obviously a very popular dish, as it has at least 160 different variations: http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,tato...sserole,FF.html Anyone else have any favorite Tater Tot uses?