Jason Perlow

Crazy Mo'Pho. Even better!

Pho' Max

Pho Pas?

The other outstanding appetizer we had was the Tuna Tartare with avocado salad -- this was done with a ring mold with the chopped raw tuna (I believe sashimi grade) on top, with the avocado in the middle and a light horseradish/mayonnaisy like sauce with onions on the bottom with I think alfafa (or maybe they were horseradish) sprouts. BTW I liked that Lobster Shepherds pie a lot, despite the over abundance of mashed potato (which, as mashed potatoes go, are pretty damn good). I think if it had half the potato the dish would have been perfect, but the excess is easily removed because its a layered dish -- the middle contains a mix of root vegetables, mushrooms, greens, chopped up lobster meat, binded together with a small amount of cream -- and in hindsight I'm pretty sure that flavor is Nutmeg, which added a really nice touch to the dish. USC is not a "foodies" restaurant like Gramercy Tavern is but you can see the Danny Meyer signature in the place, and the food (and service) is really good. We had wines matched with every course and our server did a really nice job pairing them.

On the same page of that article there is a bit about Jacques-imos, the brand new NYC branch of Jack Leonardi's famous eatery in New Orleans.

Yep, its quite ketchupy. In fact, we made Tonkatsu sauce with ketchup as the base recently. Lea and Perrins steak sauce is quite close to Tonkatsu sauce, actually. Here is the recipe for Tonkatsu sauce that we used recently: 1 Cup of Ketchup 2 Tablespoons Mirin 1 large garlic clove, minced 1/4 cup soy sauce 1tbsp Worcestershire Sauce 2tbsp sugar 1 teaspoon minced gingerroot Combine all in a small bowl, let stand for 30 minutes for flavors to mix.

By the same token, Japanese noodle places will put tempura IN the soup. Yeah, like in Tempura Udon or Nabeyaki Udon. I totally don't get those dishes at all. Not that I don't like Japanese noodle soups but I think that putting a nice crispy fried shrimp in a bowl of soup to get soggy just seems like a criminal offense to me.

The pies look and sound very similar to Brooklyn's Pizza in NJ, which market themselves as Grimalidis heritage pies. And yes, I prefer a sauce with zing.

I love Tonkatsu. But I like Kushiage even more. BTW, what's the Japanese take on "The Last Samurai" ?

Meat and potatoes tonight. Sliced London Broil with Haricot Verts, Skillet Cheesy Potatoes (from a packet, what the hell) and Creamed Spinach over Baked Potato.

Really? I don't even consider Brooklyn's to be that good either. The sauce tastes like nothing and entire pizza is pretty much underseasoned.

In my opinion General Tso and other heavily sauced batter fried dishes are best eaten at the restaurant, not as takeout. They tend to steam up on the way to your house in those little containers and the fried coating gets soggy. You want it to be as crispy as possible. Theres a very short window of time in those containers when General Tso can be really good, and then becomes soggy mushy.

According to SOH, the rum is currently avaliable in NY, CT, MA, RI, Chicago, Atlanta, Texas, Missouri and a few other states.

Cajeta is awesome stuff. Interesting Trivia Tidbit: Celaya, Guanajuato, is the largest Cajeta producing city in Mexico. In fact I am pretty sure the stuff originates from there. I only know this because I lived in Celaya for an entire summer, and toured (and worked in) some of the cajeta factories.

Wait I forgot Iron Irish Granmother, lord of the potatoes.

Maybe so, but I guarantee you, it would be more entertaining than the crap FN is going to come up with instead!

Personally, I think they should do Iron Grandmother. Every week somebody's grandnmother comes to do battle with the most skilled domestic goddesses of all time. You have Iron Jewish Grandmother, specializing in Ashkenaze Jewish fare like briskets and matzo ball soup. She has the unbeleivable skill of being able to do anything with nothing. Schmaltz is her secret weapon. You have Iron Italian Grandmother, specializing in fresh manicotti and bracciole. And her ricotta pie recipe is killer. Piss her off and she'll whip that shoe at you upside your head like an aborigine hunter flinging a boomerang. You have Iron Chinese Grandmother, who knows all kinds of herbalist stuff and can make the ultimate stir fry. Her dumplings will satisfy even the heartiest appetite. And then you can have the fourth position in rotation occupied by Iron Greek Grandmother, Iron Southern Grandmother, Iron Cajun Grandmother, Iron Korean Grandmother, Iron Caribbean Grandmother, etc.

Hunan Cottage is an extremely serious Taiwanese/Shanghainese place. I'd put it on about the same level of China 46. We just simply don't end up there as often because we live in Bergen County.

I recently received a sample bottle of Inner Circle Red, a newly imported rum from Australia by Spirit of Hartford, the folks that brought us Velvet Falernum, Doorly's and Foursquare Spiced. http://www.innercirclerumusa.com/ This is an amazingly smooth rum (80 proof, also comes in 114 proof and 151) which uses the traditional and more labor intensive pot still method. Its made entirely from Fijian and Australian sugar cane. Very buttery/butterscotch in terms of flavor profile, long and satisfying finish. Excellent neat or mixed. In Australia it even comes pre-mixed in cans of cola. The Inner Circle brand is one which apparently dates its heritage back to the late 19th century with the Colonial Sugar Refinery's original distilleries in Australia and Fiji, but the company stopped producing rum in 1986. The brand was revived in 2000 by a well-known olympic yachtsman, Stuart Gilbert, and one of the remaining master rum blenders from its previous bottling, and some of the original "seed" yeast. The rum has already garnered its share of prestigious awards, and I can certainly understand why. Distributor Information: The Spirit Of Hartford LLC PO Box 260730 Hartford,CT, 06126 Phone: 1-860-404-1776 Web: http://www.spiritofhartford.com

According to KT at Saigon Republic, They already opened a Thai place in Riverside Square but I am not sure if the owners called it Thai Chef or not.

I don't know how well substantiated this rumor is, but supposedly G&T will be replaced by a TGIFridays. No worries...Whatever we lose in gas lamps and borough history will surely be off-set by gains in Jack Daniels Chicken Finger Appe-Teaserz™. I think I'm going to cry. They're going to go from classic 19th century gaslight steakhouse ambiance to faux shit on the walls kitsch? I think this calls for a petition, folks.

I mentioned this as well on the Rye thread but there are several Canadian whiskeys which will give single malt and premium blended Scotch and small batch bourbons a run for their money. http://www.lewbryson.com/tribcand.htm I have the Wiser's Very Old (18 year) as well as "Century 21", a 21 year old whiskey, which I purchased on a trip to Ottawa in 2002.

I was wondering if you could talk a little about what its like going from a gigantic kitchen at Craft (with the lovely Diva de Provence ranges -- which I understand Tom has yanked in favor of more commercial-type equipment) to the tightly enclosed space that is your kitchen now. Also, what sort of appliance/equipment choices and sacrifices did you have to make with your new setup at Hearth given the space you have to work with?

Marco: One of the things that always amazed me about Craft (and similarily with Hearth as well) is how you were able to source such amazing produce for use in your dishes. Even for a high end restaurant, finding top quality mushrooms (oh, the mushrooms!) and other vegetables can be a huge challenge. How do you guys do it?

Brilliant. How did you integrate Shirley Temples into their understanding of Egyptian food? did you just say that the coloring was made from Pomegranates?