Jason Perlow

I brought a Heinrich Weissburgunder 1997 (austria) and a Edna Valley Pinot Noir 1998 (forgot which producer). The in-laws provided Kendall Jackson Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Needless to say, they liked my stuff better. Ugh.

Yeah, I did this with the hot one the first time I ever tried a Blenheim. It was the most intense sneeze I've ever had. I thought my brains shot out of my nose.

If those are reasonable prices, then I'd have to say the prices from MrCoffeebean.com that I posted are really good, then. Most of those are $3.50 a pound.

Yeah, I've had that one. I prefer the not-so-hot one. I don't think soft drinks should ever make you feel hotter, it should cool you down. Especially if you are having it with spicy food.

So you got a whole case delivered for $1 a bottle with shipping? Thru Blenheim directly?

Another really good ginger ale is Vernor's: http://www.beveragesdirect.com/browse/detail/product-463.asp

I've had some before, its pretty awesome stuff. You can also get it from Beveragesdirect.com (24 bottles with shipping cost) for $36. http://www.beveragesdirect.com/browse/detail/product-46.asp

Diet Cheerwine is pretty good stuff too.

Yes. They're wasting a whole bunch of beans to saturate the water with the coffee essence so that when they put the next batch in, those beans have the caffeine drawn out thru reverse osmosis, but the flavor in those beans stay in. Thats why decaf coffee is so expensive using this process because they have to waste whole batches of beans to make the flavor saturated water for the caffeine to seep into. http://www.swisswater.com/general.asp?ac=&id=90&pg=141

http://www.swisswater.com/sources/swmovie/swmovie.html Click on the link to view the flash movie EDIT: Yeah, ok Sam, I get it.

My understanding is there are different decaffination processes. The "Swiss Process" is not supposed to do this. http://www.swisswater.com/direct.htm

I've had some swiss process decaf 100 percent Kona by Bay View Farms in Hawaii. Its expensive shit. But quite good. $25 a pound. http://nisbet.net/mivastore/merchant.mv?Sc...duct_Code=Decaf

http://www.awa.dk/whisky/geordick/ Apparently Dickel is one of only 2 whiskies (Jack Daniels being the other) that are officially recognized as Tennessee Whisky.

I don't know if it qualifies as "bourbon" but in New Orleans I bought a bottle of George Dickel #12. I really liked it. http://www.dickel.com/home.html

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=3548&st=0 THE thread on Chefs Knives.

He's like a thin Al Roker -- except even more annoying.

There is no better dessert than a perfectly executed creme brulee, that's why.

Here's a quick index of the places we visited in alphabetical order for quick reference: Cafe Du Monde The definitive New Orleans coffee and beignets stand Camile's Cajun Cafe the real deal if you want Cajun food Celebration Distillation Manufacturer of New Orleans Rum and Cane Rum Central Grocery The originator of the muffaletta Commander's Palace The restaurant that started the New Orleans restaurant revolution, built an empire and produced Emeril Lagasse Dunbar's Soul food at it's finest and damnned good fried chicken and pinto beans Elizabeth's The best brunch food you will ever eat Frady's A Bywater po-boy stand straight out of cajun country French Quarter Farmer's Market Its gone touristy, but worth a look. Jacques-imo's Jacque Leonardi's eclecticly decorated restaurant defies description but is clearly one of the best New-Orleans style restaurants in town and has some of the best fried chicken anywhere. Lagniappe Too A family owned restaurant in Cajun country with incredible traditions and incredible food Lemon Grass Vietnamese Fusion in the business district Liborio New Orleans' premiere Cuban restaurant since 1968 Mosca's An "Italian" restaurant Louisiana style with a menu that has never changed Mr. B's Bistro (web link, we were discouraged to take photos) Amazing barbecue shrimp, if nothing else Palace Cafe Dickie Brennan's flagship restaurant Pascal's Manale They invented Barbecue Shrimp, circa 1903 Poche's Market (no photos taken) Great boudin, andouille and other cured louisiana meats Tabasco Hot stuff on Avery Island Tujague's One of the oldest restaurants in New Orleans with a bar mirror that is older than the US Uglesich's The po boy stand that became something much more Upperline Joanne Clevenger's art gallery that happens to be one of New Orleans' finest restaurants

This was one of our favorite places during the entire trip. If you somehow get sick of eating Creole food and you're looking for a nice change, this is a great place to go. They make a great mojito, their soup is excellent and their empanadas are AMAZING. You could easily make a meal of a few empanadas and a soup here. This is an authentic cuban restaurant that would be comfortable in Miami or in NYC.

I'm not how you woul'd describe Mosca's. It's not really an Italian restaurant, although it bills itself as such. The very limited menu that hasn't changed in a zillion years makes it more like Peter Luger's than any other place I've visited. The Italian Crab Salad, while not particulary impressive looking, is deceptively tasty. I could have eaten a whole bowl of this stuff -- its just regular chopped lettuce with a few other marinated veggies (cauliflower and red pepper I think) tossed with a LOT of lump crabmeat in a lot of vinegar and oil dressing. This was a great start to the meal. The filet mignon was HUGE. Had to be at least 12 ounces or so, it looked like an entire chateaubriand. As you can see from the pictures it was cooked perfectly and the accompanying potatoes, which appear to be cooked in pan juices, were very very good. It was a really good quality chateaubriand as well. The Italian Oysters were similar to some of the other oyster stuffing dishes we had that week at Uglesich's and a few other places. Very good, but very typical new orleans fare. The Italian Shrimp I could have eaten several plates of. This is basically an italian-seasoned take on Louisiana BBQ Shrimp like they serve at Pascal's Manale except that they are not swimming in butter -- the emphasis is on the herb seasoning and I think these are broild a bit more and don't even require peeling -- the shell gets really crisped up and you can essentially eat these whole, they don't have the heads on. Chicken a la Grande is a authentic italian roasted chicken dish, with lots of herbs on it (the primary ones being oregano and rosemary I think). This is lots of peices of cut up chicken put under the broiler until the skin gets really crispy. Moscas somehow manages to do this without the meat getting dried out too much. Very tasty and one of the best chicken dishes I've had in New Orleans.

I LOVE the dark roux gumbo. But its also possible for the blonder light roux gumbos to taste really good too. We had one at Lagniappe Too in New Iberia that was really, really good. Medium Dark Roux Gumbo at Commander's Palace Blonde Gumbo at Lagniappe Too DARK roux gumbo at Upperline

I don't have much to add to this other than I REALLY liked the blonde gumbo at Laganiappe. This is surprising because I am really a dark roux gumbo man (my favorite during the whole trip was actually Upperline's, but this blonde gumbo was a close second).

One of the things I asked Mark Stewart was if it was possible for Celebration to produce a true Rhum Agricole. He said that they had researched it and determined that if you do not have the distillery right by the cane fields, it is essentially impossible because the cut cane degrades VERY quickly and needs to be processed IMMEDIATELY into cane juice and into rum. The cut cane stalks are apparently very sensitive to being moved around. Even with the Louisiana cane fields less than 2 hours outside New Orleans, the distance is too far. Celebration is working on a Cane 7 year old right now, it should be avalaible in the next year or two.

Youre thinking of something else...

Look, the only alternative was Olive Oil. I had some Almond Oil but used it up a few days ago. I wouldn't normally use Canola as a topping, but it seemed like I'd hardly taste something that neutral over the Peanut Butter (and I didn't... it cooks off pretty completely in these bags) Actually a lot of high school cafeterias use canola oil when making grilled cheese.