Jason Perlow

I actually LIKE that.

Okay, here's one to balance out all the goyishe stuff: CHANUKAH GELT. I mean, why eat shitty chocolate that is a major pain in the ass to eat? Its enclosed in these rediculous foil wrappers that you need to have dragon nails to open. And by the time you get it open its all melty from you handling it, or the stuff is so old that its totally bloomed out. Is there GOOD chanukah gelt out there? I doubt it. EDIT: Okay maybe these are decent: http://www.lakechamplainchocolates.com/php...W=hanukkah_gelt

I'm totally with you on this. Chestnuts are for squirrels and chipmunks, not for human consumption.

We are delighted to have award-winning food journalist and author Jeffrey Steingarten join us for an eGullet Q&A, December 15-19. *** Jeffrey Steingarten is kind of a smart guy. As a student in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took classes at both MIT and Harvard and served as an editor of the Harvard Lampoon. He went on to The Harvard Law School, where he learned to cook by watching Julia Child on TV in black and white. He came dangerously close to wasting his talent as a lawyer, practicing for some time as a legal consultant in Manhattan. In 1988, Vogue Magazine's editor, Anna Wintour, asked her friend Jeffrey to write several hundred words about microwaving fish; months later, with the gluttony for detail that has come to characterize his approach to food writing, Jeffrey sent her a 4000-word treatise. His knack for disabusing readers of their food phobias has taught us all what to say to that uncle who avoids a beautiful hunk of aged cheddar because he is lactose intolerant, to that aunt who would rather lose a limb than risk sucking down one raw oyster. Jeffrey has taken on wedding cakes and weight loss, ketchup and kaiseki, the biology of ripe fruit and the visceral satisfaction of raw tuna belly. For our benefit, he has subjected himself to the vegetarian cooking of Alain Passard, made over 600 potato gratins, and painstakingly translated complicated recipes to the language and capabilities of the home cook. He has let electrical needles pierce his scalp to find out whether his obsession with good food was luck or lesion. During his years as Vogue's food critic, he set out to systematically rid himself of all food biases, teaching himself to love lard, Greek food, ant eggs, and ultimately Indian desserts. Yet he occasionally lets his motives guide his investigation -- proving that salad is indeed a silent killer was surely a gift to himself. His two books, both collections of his Vogue essays, are educational, endlessly enjoyable, and essential for anyone with an interest in food. His first, The Man Who Ate Everything (Knopf, 1997), was a New York Times best-seller and the winner of the Julia Child Cookbook Award and the Guild of British Food Writers Prize for the year's best book about food. His second book, It Must've Been Something I Ate (Knopf, 2002), was recently published in paperback (Vintage), and granted "New and Noteworthy" status by the New York Times Book Review. On Bastille Day, 1994, the French Republic made Jeffrey a Chevalier in the Order of Merit for his writings on French gastronomy. He is a brilliant interviewee, with a history of ignoring all questions not related to food. I guess that's why he's here. Biography by Steingarten Q&A moderator, JJ Goode

Yeah, I like either variation of sauteed Marsala dishes.

Right, even for cooking, I'd like to know what a GOOD Marsala is. I happen to really like Chicken Marsala, actually.

http://wine.about.com/library/types/bl_marsala.htm I got to thinking about Chicken Marsala and I noticed that many of the recipes called for "Marsala Wine" Other than for use in Chicken Marsala and other dishes, who drinks this stuff and when do you drink it? Who are the best producers? EDIT: I notice that Pellegrino is one of the bigger producers of the stuff. This is what my local megastore carries: http://www.wineaccess.com/store/totalwine-...ne_name=marsala

It means that it is bottled at the alcohol stength level that comes out of the cask. Its not diluted in any way to adjust the proof level. What comes out of the cask is what is bottled.

Elyse, we can bail you of some of those cookies!

I am actually of the opinion that Jambalaya should not be eaten on the day you make it. Its much better tasting on the second day, when the rice has had a chance to absorb a lot of the flavors in the liquid.

I plan to spend more time over there to try more of the pizzas and to talk to John about what improvements they need. He can easily make it a top notch pizza place that we will all be proud to call our own, just with some tweaks. To me its not as much the construction of the pizza that needs tweaking but the ingredient arrangement and perhaps the proportions of them in some of the selections. Also he should have more simpler ones on the menu then most of the dozen or so he came up with.

Rachel, we CAN'T have an outing at C46 without either the crunchy puffies or the soup dumplings as well. I also would avoid the weirder cold appetizers. They were not popular last year, I'd rather have more dumplings. There arent enough main dishes. We need at least 3 or 4 more. This is chinese new year, not rosh hashana.

But we're not talking about supermarket produce, people. We're talking about the kind of produce restaurants in any part of the country can get if they so want to.

John's maybe, but not Brooklyn's. I hate that place. The pizza sauce is utterly unseasoned and tasteless, and combined with the unsalted mozzarella they use its one of the blandest pies I've ever eaten. You literally need two or three salty meat toppings on one of those to compensate for it. At least Felice's sauce has some character and he's using a combination of low moisture mozzarella and fresh. The place is two weeks old. Lets give him some time to tweak it. Its got a lot of promise.

The bottom line is not ingredients. Hell even in middle and rural America some of the best produce and meat can be found. The problem with Italian food in the US is that people are accustomed to eating lowbrow stuff at Italian restaurants. Italian food has become commoditized with Italian American cuisine. With the exception of the big cities like New York, LA or Chicago, you're not going to find stellar examples of authentic, regional Italian food. But I suspect this is changing, with guys like Mario Batali entering the cummulative mindset from his romps on the Food Network. To some extent even Rocco Dispirto (shudder). In 10 years it will be a different story. Even middlebrow Italian-American restaurants in suburbia nowadays are striving for more authentic fare. For example a new local pizza and pasta place in Oradell NJ, (which is hardly the bastion of diner sophistication) which I went to this week, Felice is probably one of the best attempts at a suburban trattoria I have seen yet. This "New Italian American" cuisine, which is inspired by the more authentic stuff but focuses on american ingredients and tries to be more accessible to middle class people is something we are going to see a lot more of in the future. Blue collar trattorias. Eschewing eggplant parmigiana for Melanzanie Florentina is fine with me. Just make sure I can get my Chicken Parm on a Hero when I want it.

You almost can't call that wine a "wine" though. Its like pancake syrup. I love it, though.

Poche's Tasso is the real deal: http://www.pochesmarket.com/poche_prod/tasso.htm We bought a good quantity of this when we visited the store a few weeks ago.

This was the one dish in Louisiana I could not get enough of. I had em at Pascal's Manale, Mr. B's and Uglesich's. And Deanies. My favorite of all was Mr. B's. with Pascal's in a close second. What is the proper technique for preparing this dish? Is there black magic involved? Lots of butter and lots of pepper, right?

Somehow I had a big disconnect this last time in New Orleans with Jambalaya. I had it at Tujagues for lunch and it was pretty mediocre -- I didnt have it any other time that week. On my previous visits to the city I've had great Jambalaya at Mother's, but I've heard the place has gone downhill in the last 5 years. I definitely think tomato is essential.

Otto gets the distinction of "Best Casual Restaurant" in William Grimes' year-end NY restaurant writeup in Bon Appetit. Comments?

Steven, apparently you have been exonerated on Mix, because even though human beings should never be allowed to have too much fun, Grimes declares Mix "Best Value" of all New York restaurants in his year-end Bon Appetit write up. Oh and best casual? Otto. One thing you can say about Grimes is that he may be a miserable SOB who's time may have come, but he isn't dumb.

Yeah, but its a much bigger place, so you don't notice it as much. You're just hypersensitive to it.

I totally forgot about Hiura. I went there once with Rachel, it literally is a hole in the wall. The sushi was good, but I felt very uncomfortable in there as it seemed like the Japanese in that establishment tend to shun Americans -- and it takes a LOT of that kind of feeling to keep someone like me away, who has spent part of their professional life among Japanese. Also way too much cigarette smoke.

contact warner@toastnserve.com

El Paso on Palisade Ave in Englewood, NJ. About 40 minutes tops from your location. Its across the street from McDonalds and on the same block as Saigon Republic. He makes them in several flavors but you'd better make sure you get there by early afternoon at latest because they sell fast.