Jason Perlow

I'd like to see some photos of the shouk in Tel Aviv this week if possible. No pressure! And some swanky outdoor restaurants on Dizengoff Street. Seriously, no pressure.

Cobbler, using this really easy recipe from Paula Deen.

Not every dish in every restaurant is going to be a winner. That happens even with NYT 4 star restaurants.

I recommend and photograph what I like, jwjojo. Chicken with Mushrooms is not one of their feature dishes, as far as I understand. The Taiwanese stuff is what the place specializes in, particularly the noodles.

Its the intensity of how much Koreans use those things, Larry. Vietnam and Thailand certainly have fish sauce in their cuisine, but its primarily an accent flavor, at least as how its used in the cuisine that is represented in the US. Too much fish sauce in a recipe is considered to be bad form in Thai and Vietnamese cooking. Fermented stuff is also used as a condiment, not as a prime ingredient or food source. Vietnamese is on the cusp of becoming about as popular as Thai food, at least in the metropolitan cities. I think the heavy use of fresh ingredients and salady-type main dishes have a lot of appeal with the health food and raw foodist crowd. Vietnamese food, while it uses chile peppers, uses them also in a far more tempered way than Thai does (except for the rare exception like Bun Bo Hue) and Thais, while they use a lot of fresh chile peppers as ingredients in soup and in curries, don't heavily rely on huge amounts of dry chile paste and red chile powder in the cuisine. Its part of the curry paste recipes, but its not the dominant flavor. Fresh chiles taste different. Koreans use fresh chiles too, but they eat them raw, and in larger quantities. You also don't see Thais or Vietnamese buying half gallon plastic jars of pre-peeled garlic to use in their homes on a weekly basis either. Sure they use garlic, but nowhere near as much as Koreans use. There's a certain in your face, brutal intensity to Korean food that I guess for some reason Americans just don't like that those other cuisines don't come across as, for some of the reasons above.

Here's another informative way to make a sandwich: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WszsSEGrB6s I've seen this like 10 times now and busts my gut every time. Something about the Britney Spears soundtrack just does it for me.

Tonight, we made a giant BLT sandwich and split it before going out to a comedy club: Although the Brandywine tomato we used was somewhat underripe, it still was very, very good. And yes, thats a Jewish Challah we desecrated with bacon.

Obviously it isn't -just- the garlic. Chinese cuisine and Italian cuisine (and Italian-American) certainly has a lot of garlic. So does Greek. I think its the combination of the Garlic, Red Chili Paste, and all the fermented and fishy components that make up the flavor profile which most Americans "no like".

Another fine lunch today at Bailey's: BBQ Pulled Pork Nachos. Excellent, but very filling. Babyback Ribs with Fries and Corn on the Cob. Excellent, corn was really good too. BBQ Chicken

Could you please elaborate on this statement? I always thought that Teaneck had the best selection of this type of cuisine... ← Teaneck certainly has a lot of Kosher restaurants. However, most of them wouldn't pass muster here on eG, from a foodie perspective. Tenafly (and Englewood) is home to a lot of Israelis, as several of the local shops now carry a great deal of Israeli goods (both Tenafly Gourmet Farm and the newstand on Railroad Ave are heavily stocked with Israeli foodstuffs). I think that Israelis (as opposed to just regular Orthodox Jews) tend to be a bit more selective where they eat, because they are looking for more authentic middle eastern than just "Kosher". This combined with the income level of most residents of the town and the higher rents leads to a higher expected level of food quality.

Regular nights they close at 10PM, though. And they are open Sundays I beleive.

Yes, she wants to do a fish place and also pre-prepared takeout foods. I hope Tenafly gives her the permits too.

I was recently made aware of a new Kosher restaurant in Tenafly, which opened about three months ago on Jay Street, in the short alley across from the Honda dealership on County Road. Walla! Differs from most Kosher places in the area in that A) It's in Tenafly and thus the standards are a bit higher and B) The food is actually quite good. In fact, I would say that their Middle Eastern offerings rival Bennie's in Englewood in terms of quality, which is saying a great deal. The restaurant is owned by a young Israeli couple and features Kosher Meat items. The restaurant is certified by the RCBC and there is a kosher supervisor there during all business hours (although he basically just sits there and reads the newspaper, apparently.) In any case, the quality of the meat here is excellent and they know how to cook it properly. They have some unusual items here that you wouldn't expect to find in a regular Falafel/Shwarma place, and everything here has a Yemenite spin on it, because one of the owners, Rosie, is a Yemeni Jew. She is incredibly passionate about food and is very much quality oriented. Plus, she's extremely cute. Walla Storefront on Jay Street in Tenafly Interior decorations Lunch Menu The Mise-En-Place area for the Sandwiches Sandwich bar, close up A creamy Israeli-style Babaghanoush. Zhoug, a spicy dip/condiment. Carrot Salad and roasted Pepper salad. Roasted Cauliflower Salad This is Malawach, a type of Yemenite griddle bread with scrambled eggs and tomato. Amazing, Rachel was talking about this for days. Falafel Sandwich Condiments -- Pickles for the Falafel, Tahina, and Amba, a very strongly flavored mango pickle paste, which originates from Iraq. The "Sabich" (Sah-Bikh) sandwich, which is a favorite of Iraqi Jews. It is composed of hummus, tahina, tomato cucumber salad, hardboiled eggs, onions and eggplant salad. Its meant to be eaten with the Amba pickle pictured above. Shwarma, served on Yemeni Laffa Bread. Laffa is similar to Pita, but flatter and more wrap-like. Shwarma, opened up. The sandwich is utterly huge and could feed two people if you ordered appetizers. Its made from turkey meat that has been heavily seasoned with Sabah Baharat, a middle eastern spice blend that includes cinnamon. Shwarma closeup. Baby Chicken with Couscous plate. Toasted Laffa Bread with Herbs and Olive Oil. Really good. French Fries, made of fresh cut potatoes Turkish Coffee

By the way, Amazon has the camera for $219 with free shipping in case you aren't a COSTCO member. Actually I think Amazon may be cheaper because COSTCO charges tax. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AYJDD...6653547?ie=UTF8

I think your Thai and Indian examples are good ones, but the problem is that both of these cuisines are -relatively- new to the American landscape. The Chinese have been in America for well over a hundred years (150?) and Americans have been exposed to Chinese food for at least 70 or 80 years if not longer. Thus Thai and Indian don't have that stigma of being inexpensive, they are still considered to be "exotic" by many. Particularly in New York, Chinese food has always been considered a working class ethnic cuisine.

The A620 is incredibly fast. Turn on to picture is 1 second, and time between photos is basically instantaneous.

I mean, literally, each bowl of soup is cooked to order. They may very well have the clam stock and par cooked potatoes in the mise, but its all put together (clams, potatoes, cream, stock, herbs, etc) for service and cooked in a saucepan. No big pots of chowder in there. The kitchen is mega tiny.

Yeah, you can get the rechargeable NiMH AA's for it, but I just buy big packs of the AAs at Costco. I find that if you don't use the flash, the batteries last about 4x as long. If you're travelling, the battery charger is one extra thing you have to bring with you (when you already got the cell charger, the bluetooth charger, the laptop charger... etc) Its convenient I think that you can get AAs everywhere.

For budding digital photographers: I was perusing the COSTCO web site today and noticed that they have the Canon A620 on sale: http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?...topnav=&browse= $214 is an absolute insane bargain for this camera. I paid $400 for it a year ago. Its 7.1 megapixels and has the current generation Digic II Chip and an excellent zoom lens. The model is a year old (Its the same camera I use for all my closeup photos on eG and Off The Broiler) and is -slightly- larger than some of the other Canon models that use Digic II processor, such as the SD700 and S-80 (we're talking maybe an ounce or two difference, it still fits in your palm or in a small pocketbook). Only drawback of this camera versus other Canon models of the same capability is that it uses AA batteries, not Lithium-Ion recharageables. But at $214 versus the $400 or $500 the newer ones cost, I think its a no brainer. Besides, you can get AAs readily (especially cheap in bulk at Costco) and you dont have to worry about the charge running out and having to recharge the batteries -- just keep a fresh pack of AAs with you. As I said the closeups this thing does are incredible (1cm focal length), it does very well in restaurant lighting and it also takes 30 frame per second videos, which I've been making a lot of use out of for my blog. Here's an in-depth review of the camera in case anyone is interested. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona620/

Great article and photos, Kathleen!

I don't think that's accurate. I'm sure we're going to order our share of Dim Sum this weekend but there are a number of other dishes on the menu I've been meaning to try, such as the saffron noodles. And I'm sure Rachel will want us to order the Chicken Chow Mein again. I have to agree with her that its the best version I've ever had.

This a problem endemic or systemic to the New York City restaurant industry rather than a problem with Chinatown Brasserie. Many of the fine restaurants we debate on eG have similar problems with the real estate/rents encroaching on the bottom line... Del Posto, etc. Another problem with this whole "value" angle is that Chinese food in general is perceived as a cheap cuisine relative to French and Italian or Japanese. The fact that Chinatown Brasserie chose American Chinese as its thematic jumping-off point even further re-inforces this perception and works against them, but I salute them for having the balls to try it in the first place.

Actually, the only two dishes we tried that Ed mentioned was the Beef and Broocoli and the Pan Fried Noodles. Everything else we ordered off the menu. There were a few others that he emphasized that we didn't try. We also went on opening night and they knew we were there, so I will concede they probably were trying extra hard to make sure everything came out perfect. As to the price/value issue I can't equate with what Chinatown Brasserie does with your typical C-Town cantonese resturant. Its a very expensive space and they need to recoup their costs somehow, and they are also using ingredients that are better qualitatively than what -most- Chinese restaurants in the city use. I'm going there again this weekend with some people that haven't tried it yet, I'll let you know what they think -- they've certainly had enough 2 star, 3 star and 4 star meals to know what merits it and what doesn't.

Yeah, Schaller & Weber is another store I really want to get to sometime -- they're the ones that really have the reputation for German-style meat goods in the area.

I don't think their regular menu items are a drag. I thought the mains we tried were excellent examples for the genre.