Jason Perlow

I recently met with Ed Hamilton in NYC to discuss his spirits portfolio: OTB Podcast #28: Ed Hamilton, Minister of Rum It's not every day that you see something legitimately new and exciting happen in the spirits industy -- Rhum Agricole is truly one of those things. While Rhum Agricole isn't "new" -- these rums have been distilled for well over 100 years in the French islands -- its only because of Ed Hamilton's doggedness and persistence and commitment to get these into the United States that we're able to enjoy them at all. I really hope that Rhum Agricole and the 'Ti Punch starts to take off, they are wonderful spirits and a wonderful drink.

There's a brand new Peruvian place opening in Leonia in a few weeks. Looks nice from what I can see.

Not to hijack this thread, but I was eating sushi at dedicated sushi bars in NYC a couple of years before my first trip to Japan, which was in 1973, so they had to date back till at least 1971. Kuruma Zushi was one of the sushi bars I frequented, but it was not the only one. ← Suzy do you know the names of any of these? I can't find any documentation on the web regarding what might have been the "first" sushi place in NYC. The Kuruma Zushi reference I think I recall Steingarten might have written or said in an interview but I can't find anything about it. Can anyone confirm that Kuruma Zushi opened in 1977? Or was it earlier? I got my reference from Savory New York. If Kuruma opened in 1971 or 1972 then it makes perfect sense that they were the first. Note: Savory lists Hatsuhana as being opened in 1976, one year earlier than Kuruma Zushi. I'm not sure that's accurate either.

Beef/Tofu Chowder Pan Fried Pork Dumplings Seafood Dumplings, which I agree with Rachel would have been better if we ordered them pan fried instead of boiled. Tofu Skin Wrapped Vegetables Appetizer Tofu Skin Wrapped Vegetables, opened Lotus Delight Lotus Delight, portion with pancake Happy Monks Feast 3 Cup Chicken Main Dining Room

I've got a hard time beleiving that sushi has been served in NYC as early as the 1890's, but that would certainly be an intriguing find. As far as dedicated sushi restaurants go however, I'm pretty sure that the earliest of them opened in 1977 or so. I think that restaurant might even have been Kuruma Zushi but I am not 100 percent positive.

Come on! You don't even eat meat or poultry! That's coming from a very biased perspective. Half the items on the menu would be lost on you. Some of the best items they had were ones that had pork in it.

Given that Shake Shack has been in operation for two years now, I'm having difficulty understanding why all of this should be heaped on the establishment at once. Quite a few of the violations listed apparently have been in existence since the place opened. You'd think NY Dept of Health would have asked to had these fixed a long time ago if they were serious enough infractions.

Hey, call me a fan. I don't think I'm going to be able to eat Chicken Chow Mein at another restaurant ever again.

Another dish that Lotus Cafe does exceptionally well is the 3 Cup Chicken, which I think is mentioned in that Bergen Record review linked above. Its cooked in a clay pot, and has a lot of basil and ginger in it. Its a typical Taiwanese dish and is named that way because its prepared (in larger amounts) with 1 cup of Soy Sauce, 1 Cup of Rice Wine and 1 Cup of Sesame Oil. http://www.recipezaar.com/83475 The Ta Loo Mein noodle soup is also exceptional.

Welcome to the site, eyedoc!

I don't think the main menu is bad at all. I certainly liked the three mains we had the first visit when we had dinner (especially the Chicken Chow Mein) and the pasta dish we ordered on Sunday was very good indeed. However, the allure to the place, for me personally is the Dim Sum. If I'm going to drag myself over the GW bridge to eat Chinese food when I have excellent options here in Jersey it has to be for something that's unique and I can't get locally. We've got great Dim Sum places here but CB is doing some very unique stuff with their dim sum and produces items I can't otherwise get at another Dim Sum venue. I'm certainly not going to make it my usual Dim Sum joint when I have restaurants like China 46, Dim Sum Dynasty and Silver Pond here in Bergen County, but I could see eating at Chinatown Brasserie a few times a year.

I wouldn't say Ed and I are close friends, we're friendly although I would love to spend more time with the guy. Certainly someone who I respect a lot. We know each other thru the industry and mutual friends, primarily. There are others who could pipe up here who went with us on that occassion, but nothing was comped, if that's what you're asking -- we paid full price for the meal. Ed made the reservation for us on my request.

There was a Sweet and Tart Cafe and also a regular Sweet and Tart, I think.

1 Cup of salt to 1 Gallon of water, 1/2 a cup of Pickling Spice, and as much garlic as you want. It works. We did it all last summer, we got about 2 gallons of them going right now.

We ordered the String Beans and the Lasagnette Pasta dish off the main menu.

Let me be another voice of dissent. I have to say that Chinatown Brasserie is producing some of the most exceptional and high-quality dim sum items in the city, albeit at prices that are considerably above the norm (about 3 times more than your average Dim Sum restaurant in Chinatown, such as Ping’s, or Dim Sum Go Go). However, Chinatown Brasserie isn’t competing with these places. All of the restaurant’s dishes are cooked fresh to order (no steam carts) and are ordered a la carte, and the ambiance of the restaurant rivals something more like a Chinese Balthazaar than a 22 Mott Street. I think its a wonderful place to have a very classy Dim Sum lunch, with some nice cocktails, in a very cool atmosphere. However, If you’re looking for Chinese restaurant bargains it’s not the place for you. While some of the people I brought took exception to the cost of the items and the portioning, everyone said the quality and flavor of the dishes were exceptional. There wasn’t a single dish we didn’t like. Dry Sauteed String Beans with Pork Fish Skin Dumplings Pan Fried Turnip Cake Seafood Dumplings Chicken/Garlic Rolls Soup Dumplings Pan Fried Pork Dumplings Fried Oysters with Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce Pea Shoot Dumplings with Shrimp Mushroom Dumplings Malaysian Stuffed Eggplant with Shrimp Vegetable Dumplings with Peanuts “Lasagnette” with Pork and Chile Sauce, a fusion dish that we thought worked really well. Egg Rolls Sticky Rice Balls with Black Sesame Paste Filling Egg Custard Tarts Warm Sponge Cake

There are certainly many dishes in the Korean repertoire which are not spicy or fermented or extremely garlicky. Just like there are plenty of Thai dishes that don't use coconut milk or bird chiles or lemongrass or galangal or are curry based. Or Vietnamese dishes that don't use mint or coriander or nuoc mam. The thing is, Americans only understand what is represented in the "zeitgeist" or most general profile of a cuisine, that which is displayed in their best known dishes and which are the main items on restaurant menus. So things like Kimchi, Galbi and Bulgogi is what resonates. While NYC has any number of really good Korean restaurants, Korean is also a cuisine that I think is also best represented in the homes of Koreans. Its a similar problem that some other ethnic cuisines have, such as Filipino which has some of the same in your face flavor characteristics that tend to turn Westernized people off. Indian is also a cuisine that I think will have difficulty being adopted in the mainstream for the same reason. Yeah, there's a decent amount Indian restaurants, but Indian food requires a great deal of preparation and many kinds of exotic ingredients, and it could be said its also the spiciest cuisine in the world. So you're not likely to see Vindaloo or Saag or Goat Curry or Bhaigan Bharta end up at the Cheesecake Factory in Sheboygan. Only in metropolitan areas with significant Indian populations that can support Indian restaurants. Its also another cuisine that like Korean, tends to become compartamentalized into ethnocentric neighborhoods, like Curry Hill in NYC or Oak Tree Road in Iselin/Edison, NJ, where entire Indian communities have sprung up, also a case of insularism. It's rare that you see a major restauranteur like Danny Meyer take a risk on something like Tabla in NYC and go for cross cultural appeal. Most Indian restaurants in the US for the most part serve Indians as their primary clientele. The only reason why Indian food is so pervasive in the United Kingdom is that it was a British colony. Still, if you look at what dishes are popular in England, its stuff like kebabs and Chicken Tikka Masala, which are nowhere near as complex as stuff that would be prepared at a meal in your typical Indian home. But as I said earlier, assimilation of cuisine also takes time to enter the collective conciousness. The Chinese came to America starting in 1851 and it took a good 70 years or so until we started seeing the kinds of Chinese restaurants we recognize today. Even before we started seeing Chinese restaurants, the Chinese also have had a head start of becoming part of the collective American food conciousness by feeding the poor railway workers and setting up dive restaurants and food stalls during times like the Gold Rush -- which is why everyone now knows what Chop Suey is. By comparison, Koreans didnt really start coming to the US en masse until the 1960s and 1970's. Maybe by 2030 or so instead of your average Middle American ordering Beef and Broccoli, Egg Roll, Wonton Soup and Pork Lo Mein from their local delivery or takeout, they'll be ordering Bulgogi, Pajun, Kimchi Jigae and Jap Chae instead. But then again, look at sushi. The first sushi restaurant didn't even open until the early 1970's in NYC. But it took a health craze and two decades before it even started to catch on big time. So maybe 2020 for your Kimchi Jigae delivery joint. If they can prove Kimchi stops cancer or cures AIDS maybe everyone will start eating the stuff.

Flank Steak is one of my favorite cuts of meat, because it’s not very expensive and its incredibly beefy tasting. Its also a cut you can marinate the living hell out of, with phenomenal results. I took a nice big flank steak I bought from Kocher’s Meats (I went back there on Saturday) and liberally dosed both sides with Goya Adobo with Cumin, and then marinated it in a combination of lime juice, recaito, finely chopped shallots (didn’t have any garlic but it ended up working really nice), chopped hot bird chile peppers, freshly cracked black pepper and some olive oil for 24 hours. Yes, I know that sounds like an awful lot of time for a marinade, but boy, let me tell you, did it pay off — the meat was infused with the most incredible latino flavor, and came off nice and tender after cooking to medium-rare on the Weber. Rachel, inspired by the recent eGullet Society Heartland Gathering, made Zucchini Roulades, but instead of using Sundried Tomato in the goat cheese stuffing, she used sofrito, which immediately gave this side dish some serious Latino street creds. So I guess its actually Zucchini Relleno a la Raquel. The finished dish. “Bistec Boriqua” plated with grilled mushroom caps that I basted with the leftover steak marinade, tomato and onion salad, Zucchini Rellenos, and Daisy Martinez’s yellow rice.

Today I had my first hostile experience at the 125th street Fairway. I'm not sure if it will stop me from ever going there anymore, but it definitely sent the the place a couple notches down on my "recommend" list. I believe Steven or somebody else might have mentioned it in the past, but I completely forgot that Fairway prohibits photography within the store. So of course, like a dumbass, I was snapping away like a Japanese tourist on speed today, getting photos for eG and Off The Broiler. I had gotten to about my 20th picture when I hit the bread/cheese area where they have the olive oil tastings set up, when a short man, that was conversing with the kosher supervising rabbi that was there, who proclaimed to be the General Manager, got up right in my face and said "Put that goddamn camera away now!" I said "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize" and shoved it in my pocket. I profusely apologized further and explained to him that I wanted to take pictures for OTB and eGullet, and he said "I don't give a damn who you are or what web site you have. Unless you want to get me excited, and you don't want to do that, you'll stop doing what you're doing right now." I walked away about 20 feet and went into the meat room for a few minutes to escape the guy, where Rachel was looking at the oysters. After explaining to Rachel what had just happened I then headed over to try some olive oil at the tasting area (incidentally, the extra virgin kalamata oil is really nice and I bought a bottle). A few other customers were there looking at the olive oil, where there's a sign that says "no double dipping". Before any of the customers could put a piece of bread in the oil, he starts yelling at the top of his lungs at them. "NO DOUBLE DIPPING! THATS GODDAMN DISGUSTING!" The guy turned bright red and then yanked a few of the plastic containers away, I guess to refill them with uncontaminated oil. If this was the guy's normal state, I don't want to see him when he gets excited.

Not to bring up any politics here, but I remember that during the first Persian Gulf war, when a couple of scuds hit the outskirts of Ramat Gan (from where the Sabich originates in Israel and where many Iraqi Jews live) there was a joke that went around in Israel that Saddam was aiming for the pickle smell.

Are you saying the Amba itself is sweet or the guy selling it is really nice? I had my first taste of Amba and my first Sabich this week. I certainly would not call the Amba I tried "sweet". Actually I was expecting it to be a little sweet because its made of mangoes... but nope! It's got to be the strongest tasting pickle I have ever seen.

How about Christies in Lynn, MA, just north of Boston? Christie's (eG Forums thread)

Well doc, if you're gonna throw the B&G one around, let me raise you one Neptune Oyster bar: Thats from our Boston's North End thread. And yes, those are correctly made frites, twice fried.

I'm thinking there's a business to be made from dealing with all the Canadian Geese here in Jersey.

They make shwarma from Geese? Wild geese?