Jason Perlow

The Pan Fried buns at China 46 are primarily pan fried on the bottom, they have a serious browning there. These things come out of the kitchen EXTREMELY hot, you have to wait a few minutes for them to cool down.

A few Shanghainese restaurants in San Francisco have them. One place in (Shanghai Dumpling Shop, which also has good xiaolong bao) does them very well, though they aren't as deliciously fatty as the ones on the streets of Shanghai. Are you referring to these? These are "Pan Fried Shanghai Buns" from China 46 Restaurant in Ridgefield, New Jersey. their Xiao Long Bao is excellent as well (sorry for the blurry picture). These have a very thin skin which is easily ruptured, you have to sort of flop them onto a Chinese soup spoon. They are gushing with juice. Everyone who we have brought to this restaurant loves them. Me eating one:

Menton, I was unaware of this restaurant, and certainly I take Corcoran's reviews very seriously. However after looking at the menu, it doesn't look particularly ambitious or exciting, it seems to be focusing on roasted and grilled meats and fish. That being said, if its done well, its probably worth visiting sometime. I certainly appreciate that kind of food as much as anyone else does if its done right and the quality of ingredients is good.

With the closing of Finks' restaurant operations imminent, we went to Stickey's for dinner with our in-laws last week, in order to see if they had ironed out their service and food quality consistency issues. We hadn't been there in about 3 months. Thankfully, it appears that things have normalized and the quality is now back up to spec. Between the 4 of us, we ordered a rack of ribs, a rack of beef ribs, a half an order of "brisket" (which is actually roast beef thats been smoked, it isn't plate brisket) and a half an order of pulled chicken along with 4 sides. Total Damage, $40. and it was a LOT of food. By far this is the best deal in the place. Service issues are no longer a consideration -- the place is now doing 'Normal' weekday and weekend business and they appear to have the takeout situation under control. No long waits for food. Larry has stabilized his supplier issues and is now getting in the really good meaty ribs that he likes, and he's doing a really good job of cooking them. These have just the right degree of chewyness but are also easy to eat right of the bone. He also now has the big beef ribs in -- I like these, and they are very beefy tasting, but I wouldnt eat a whole order of them myself because they are very fatty compared to the pork ones, so you might want to share a small order with someone if you want to try them. Pulled chicken is very good, as is his "Brisket". However, I think we should abandon all notions of calling this brisket and calling it what it really is, which is BBQ Roast Beef. Now that I've actually had real Texas and Kansas City brisket and I know exactly what cut of meat it comes from now, I feel like an ass for even calling this stuff brisket previously. HOWEVER, As BBQ roast beef goes, its very good, and if you put a couple of slices on the supplied white bread it makes a very good sandwich.

As of July 3, a minimum catering order for Finks is 3 racks of ribs or 4 chickens -- and pulled items and sides are by the quart. Quite reasonable, but you need to call Tuesday for weekend pickup: http://www.finksfunky.net/pre-order.htm

Fink's restaurant operations is closing after tomorrow and shifting to a catering-only business. If you haven't been there yet to sample his stuff, now would be a good time. Tonight we ate and had our "Condemmned Man" dinner - as always, everything was fantastic. Fink prepared us what I call a "Barbecue Bomb" -- a deep-fried stuffed tortilla wrap with pulled pork, french fried potatoes, and cheddar cheese. It was amazing. As of July 3, a minimum catering order for Finks is 3 racks of ribs or 4 chickens -- and pulled items and sides are by the quart. Quite reasonable, but you need to call Tuesday for weekend pickup: http://www.finksfunky.net/pre-order.htm eG thread on Fink's catering: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=45129&hl=

Other than the fact that they gave Nathans really good ratings (which it rightfully deserves, its a benchmark hot dog) I would have like to have seen an evaluation of some of the other smaller brands, such as Sabrett, Usinger, Bests, and perhaps some of the weirder ones like Zweigles. I would have liked to have seen some information as to what the dog per weight count was, as well as if they were natural casing or not, such as in the case of the Nathans which makes a huge difference in my opinion. Some of the other obscure Kosher dogs that you can buy in the NYC area would have also have been interesting.

Not being a huge fan of white rums made from molasses, I can tell you that there is very little variety in flavor profile between them -- so if you are going to use white rum for a drink, you might as well be using Bacardi. Flor de Cana is a really good rum but I have never tried their white. Their 7-year-old is by far their best product. The 12 year old Centenario is also very good, but the 21 is supposedly over aged. Ron Matusalem IS supposed to be a Cuban-style rum, as that is where it originated from. For a while it was produced in Florida, now it is produced in Central America, I beleive Costa Rica or the Dominican Republic. The Anejo Reserva is an excellent product. However I don't think it tastes much like actual Cuban Matusalem, which is no longer made and can only be found in really good liquor stores in the Caribbean, like at the Old Liquor Store in Saint Maarten in Philipsburg. The White Matusalem is OK, but as I said, you might as well be using Bacardi or Captain Morgan.

I think it might be cool to take Apicius to the local supermarket, and have him cook for the evening. I bet barbecue sauce beats Garum any day of the week, as far as he is concerned. It would be cool if they did a remake of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure -- except have all the historical figures be culinary ones, and instead of being students at San Dimas High School, they are CIA program students. And they could cast Bourdain in George Carlin's role as Rufus. Ted: "Wow man, this Homard en Sauce Remoulade tastes EXCELLENT!" Bill: "Totally RIGHTEOUS, Antonin Carême!" Antonin Carême: "Eh, what eez zees Sous Vide and French Laundry you speak of? But zees Food Processor... le Robot Coupe... che magnifique!" Bourdain (takes drag on cigarette, then takes a swig from his bottle of Jack Daniels, and has a taste of Antonin's preparations): "Wow, this is some fucking great stuff. I've never seen such perfectly executed mother sauces, its like you fucking invented them or something. Hey, man, you wanna have a joint with me and Ruhlman, we'll go pick up Auguste Escoffier and Brillat-Savarin in the Time Machine and then we can go shave Ripert's head?" Antonin Carême: Eh, whatever you say Monsieur Bourdain, but whatever we do, leave ze crazy Adria guy out of it, ok? That man is an imbecile! Crazy Spanish dogs!"

'Ti Punch for me tonight. Thats a squeeze of lime, a bit of Sirop de Canne Antillais, and a shot or so of white Rhum Agricole from Martinique, with some crushed ice on top.

I'll second on the Poche's andouille and other meat products. They're great.

Does this mean every where or in Greece or in the USA? Melbourne has a very large Greek population (second largest after Athens I think) so Souvlaki is common, but I have never seen pork, only lamb or chicken. In Greece.

I'm not following you...

I don't think that Cathy was into food that much. On the otherhand she would be great for a masterclass in sexual debautchery. Yeah, she did fool around a lot, did she.

Escoffier and Brillat-Savarin would definitely be good choices, but while we are on the imperial chefs thing -- how about the head chef at Versailles during Louis XIV? Or the head chef of Peter the Great or Tsar Nicholas? Or Catherine?

Pan Fry/Grill in hot cast iron pan. Grill some up on your Weber as well, over charcoal if possible. Definitely not boil.

Oh the Ottoman stuff, definitely. The Holy Roman Empire must have had some amazing food.

Asian chefs which are probably nameless in the annals of history -- I'd love to learn about the cooking of royal banquet dishes from the court chefs of the Chinese and Japanese emperors and the King of Siam.

Yeah, I noticed that myself. I prefer a bit more icyness to an Italian Ice. What I really like are the Marino's ices, but I can't seem to find any around here. http://www.marinositalianices.com/

You can definitely make a Mojito with Gold or Dark Rum. For best results the Pina Colada MUST be made with dark rum, as does the Dark and Stormy and any number of other drinks. Rum and Coke is best made with dark rum as well.

What don't you like about it? It seems like a fairly clean design. I actually have enjoyed the articles quite a bit, especially the New York food critics report card article in the current issue. I met with the publisher and managers of the magazine for lunch this week -- they've patterned the publication after "Wired", in terms of the editorial approach and style.

If I see this topic again or hear any more bitching about how all the Bergen County Italian restaurants are glorified red-sauce pizza places one more time, I'm going to brutally assault someone and I refuse to be held responsible or personally accountable for anyone's hospitalization.

Okay... I got it... KASHA VARNISHKES! You could call it "The Colonel's Famous Buckwheat and Bowtie Pasta" Or potato kugel...

Babylon 5, the Science Fiction TV show that was produced by J. Michael Straczynski, has TONS of food scenes. Its clear to me after watching all the episodes of the show that JMS is a hardcore foodie. One of my favorite episodes is A Distant Star where the security chief character, Mr. Garibaldi, has been advised by the station's doctor (as well as all the major officers have) to alter his diet. But his birthday is coming up and he wants to make Bagna Cauda. Lots of food envy scenes among the crew as well as the final revelation of the Bagna Cauda ensues. Garibaldi cooks a lot on the show, and goes thru great lengths to get his food supplies, including trying to get various Italian salumi and other gourmet foodstuffs thru a blockade by the evil Earth forces. Another really funny episode is where the station commander has to attend a private dinner at the Minbari ambassador's apartment and has to deal with all kinds of weird kaiseki-like rules. After the dinner, he attempts to prepare a Minbari dish for the ambassador in return (as she is his love interest) and fails miserably. There's also another cool scene where the main female protagonist, a Russian Jew, has dinner with her Rabbi on the station (he's arrived so that they can sit Shiva for her father who died on Earth) and they have to figure out whether various alien foodstuffs are kosher.

In New York or New Jersey, If you have a fire and the insurance company discovers you had pro restaurant equipment in your house and it wasn't up to code, they'll cancel your insurance. You can forget any kind of settlement on a claim.