Jason Perlow

SHRIMP TOAST!

First of all, no self respecting gelateria in Italy would EVER serve gelato that came out of a factory. All the top ones produce their gelato onsite, and if its good gelato, it doesnt stay good very long and certainly doesnt hold up well to transportation. Gelato has to go straight from the machine and into the tubs where it is held somewhat above freezing temperatures -- if it freezes, its ruined. And the best stuff doesnt have many stabilizers in it at all so that it keeps like Ciao Bella does. Its produced, put in the bins, and then sold and eaten, in fairly quick order. So while I agree Ciao Bella produces a good commercial ice cream product when compared to some of the other crap that is out there, artisinal gelato it 'aint. No Italian would ever agree with your statement. I dont want to start a fight with you Jason, but Pan simply said that " it was the best gelato that he had in NY" he never said the best gelato ever, or that it was better than any gelato in Italy,,,,,,,, Most people know its a chain, and while i m not for chains, i dont think your tone which sounds abit arrogant to me, is necesssary. You just suddenly realized I'm arrogant? The issue I had with Pan's statement was that it was "superior quality even in Italy". It would NEVER pass for "superior quality" In Italy. Its good commercial quality ice cream. Period.

http://www.rumshop.net/newsletters/may2004.pdf (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) The May issue of GOT RUM? Magazine put out by Luis Ayala has a lot of cool information and recipes for mexican rum drinks, food and drink recipes with Piloncillo (a type of unrefined brick sugar that is common in Mexico), as well as some interesting history of the spirit in that country.

I've never been to any of them.

I'd just use the hearts.

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not in india, they don't. we call it "bean-curd" and it has been around for quite some time. That's interesting, because I've had a dish called "Szechuan Paneer" at a local Indo-Chinese place in NJ. I wonder if the restaurant came up with the dish itself.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/05/dining/05DCXN.html Much Appreciated.

Jon Lurie and I had another great lunch at Dragonel today. Highly recommended is the Tom Yam Soup, which is actually considerably spicier than the Thai version. We also had the Corn with salt and pepper appetizer, which was just essentially fresh corn kernels with scallions that has been deep fried and salt and pepper added -- a really remarkably good, albeit simple dish. In addition to the Kongee Lamb and the Crispy Chili Potatoes dish which we had again on this visit, we had the Szechuan Chicken, which had a good amount of sichuan pepper flavor as well as a lot of different Indian spices in it. I find Indo Chinese food to be sweeter, tangier and spicier than most chinese regional cusines -- some people might get put off by this but I find it to be an interesting and refreshing change of pace.

Doesn't Indo-Chinese food substitute Paneer for Tofu, the other way around?

Markk: I wouldn't hike to Flushing for Shanghainese food. The best Shanghainese restaurant in the entire Tri-State area, China 46, is in Ridgefield. We've had several threads on the place, you should definitely give it a try.

There's a particularly good Chinese dish that involves wrapping Yuba skin around peices of flounder filet, and then deep frying them: Although I suppose you could also do this with a shrimp paste made with ground up shrimp and some type of neutral white fleshed fish like pollack. Also, try wrapping some around a mix of sauteed mushrooms with soy/garlic/scallion/chive and then pan frying them, and drizzle some Worcestershire sauce on top.

Oh my God. Right before the FEMA dude (who apparently as part of his on the job training also knows how to arm nuclear weapons) went down into the hole, I told Rachel "Not only is he going to sacrifice his life, but he's gonna get caught underneath the bomb and set it off at the very last second" Rachel: "No, it can't be that stupid and cliche'" Me: "Oh, yes, yes it will be!"

Lady T is correct. NBC is showing (the 2nd?) part of 10.5 tonight in Rocco's slot...and no, that isn't the total number of hours he's actually spent in the kitchen at Rocco's 22 =R= FWIW, even though 10.5 is an unbeleivably stupid miniseries, I generally find it to be an entertaining distraction, and am looking forward to when they set the nuclear bombs off. If they could somehow get Rocco and Jeffrey into the action, it might have been the Biggest Television Event of all time. Here's my pitch -- instead of the characters played by Luke Duke and that cute little blonde, we replace Rocco (as the cute blonde) and Jeffrey (as the dad) and send them on a road trip. I think the sinking into the sandy abyss scene would have been especially touching. Or, we replace the female seismologist character with Rocco, who is constantly whining that nobody accepts his theories about the superfaultline, and Jeffrey is that Remo Williams dude reporting to the President.

I have bottle of unaged Grappa at home, and that stuff is like rocket fuel -- I vastly prefer the aged stuff, particularly the considerably older stuff. I also have a Barbaresco/Nebbiolo grappa from Bocchino that's really nice -- although I have been told by a few Italians that a "Bocchino" is slang for a particular kind of sex act in certain provinces.

Well, I'm sure Joe will be needed for the launch of Mo'pho Noodles, but he does a lot of managerial stuff at the restaurant, so I think he's going to be pretty busy irregardless.

Well, I did an onsite inspection of the place today -- since KT was nice enough to call me over and ask that I take some of the produce and meat and food that was going to immediately go bad. I now have like 16 quarts of just-made Pho broth that is reducing on my stove. It would have been used for tonight's service. The kitchen is a complete mess, and the power is out, so its hard to say how much damage was done -- hopefully, there isn't much damage behind the walls and just the appliances need to be replaced -- the insurance inspectors still need to go in there and see what's what. The walk in freezer area off the kitchen seems to be fine, and the dining room and prep/storage area in back seems to be ok as well. It looks like it wil take them about a month, maybe a week or two more to get the place back in order worst case. In the meantime, work on Mo'Pho Noodle Company on Main Street in Fort Lee is proceeding nicely -- they've already started moving supplies and stuff over from Saigon Republic -- and the place will likely open by the end of the month. At least there will be a place for everyone to get their Pho fix while Saigon's kitchen is being redone -- and I am sure the place will be taking up a lot of the slack and have no lack of customers in its opening weeks.

Wait, is his store really called the Coffee Nazi or is that what people call him, like we call the Soup Nazi (who became famous because of the bit about him in the Seinfeld TV show) in NYC? That sounds like a horrible name to call someone, especially in Israel!

Some of my best memories were of playing Shesh Besh and drinking turkish coffee during the mornings at a little place in the Shuk in Tel Aviv. In my opinion drinking Turkish/Arabic coffee IS drinking "real coffee".

death can also be extremely painful and involve involuntary voiding of the bowels and bladder. So can a night after eating a particularly powerful Vindaloo.

Wait, Daniel Rogov has an answer on the web for that too. Damn you Rogov! God Bless McDonald's Still, when in Israel, I felt the need to try the Israeli chains even though Wendy's and other American franchise restaurants were starting up. As an American secular Jew touring the country, I was very interested in the Israeli take on fast food and how it was adapted for a largely Kosher audience.

What ever happened to MacDavid's? Or Burger Ranch? Actually, in 1990, Wendy's was all the rage in Tel Aviv. I remember the Dinzengoff location fondly.

Never mind, it looks like you just closed them all: Delek calls it a day for Starbucks Israel You won't be missing much, I can assure you!

Has the Starbucks craze hit Israel yet? Or does Israel have its own Starbucks equivalent?

Thanks for joining up with us, Daniel -- and feel free to contribute wherever it interests you! I just want to say for the record -- My "bogus" comment was purely academic, and not out of disrespect -- I greatly admire and enjoy your work.