Jason Perlow

Apples and Brie might be cool.

Ultra dark roux? Yes please!

You really gotta lubricate them. Butter or olive oil works good. Never tried it with canola oil. I would try toasting twice on the medium to low setting first before attempting the dark setting. Peanut Butter works really well with Banana. Also chop up a hershey bar and stud it into the PB.

The Cho Cho looks like its a variant on Zucchini Bread. I bet you could take a regular zucchini bread recipe and substitute mirliton. Better yet, grate up a ton of them and make mirliton fritters.

We have several, we should be OK.

http://www.antillesresto.com/recettes/legumes/legumes001.asp Gratin De Cristophines (in french) http://starchefs.com/NVanAken/html/recipe_01.shtml Chilled Grilled Christophine Soup http://recipeview.com/Clprime/Clprime41.htm Christophine Vinagrette http://www.lifeclinic.com/whatsnew/cookboo...p?MessageID=849 Meatball Soup with Christophines http://www.foodtv.com/food/recipes/recipe/...6_12337,00.html Chayote Salad http://www.nestle.com/html/cooking/recipe3_chocho.asp Cho Cho Easter Bun

I would treat stuffing these things like you would an eggplant or a pepper. Sausage, ground beef, seafood, etc.

Impressive. Now all you need is the toaster bags.

In the Caribbean, Mirletons are called "Christophines". Stuffed christophine with conch is a typical way to consume it. So if you can get some nice big clams and chop them up with some breadcrumb stuffing that would sort of approximate the dish. Oyster stuffing is another way to go. I think Rachel had something along those lines at Jacquesimos last week.

So when's the next one?

We had been briefed on Commander's Palace before our trip and got a lot of opinions about the food from a lot of people. Some say it's the best restaurant in New Orleans, with legendary food and service, others say the restaurant can be wildly inconsistent and it can be a crap shoot of whether you have a good experience or not. Fortunately for us, it was more like the former. From what I experienced, there are only good things to say about Commander's. The staff is extremely, and I mean extremely attentive. I'd also have to say that for a high end restaurant, it serves one of the most value priced lunches I've had anywhere in this country. I started out with the legendary Bloody Bull cocktail -- this one actually I think was a little better than the one at Palace Cafe in that it was rimmed with seasonings on the glass and I think it may have had a little more beef boullion in it. Rachel started with a Mango Iced Tea, which has a peice of candied mango in it and is accompanied by a sugarcane swizzle stick. It was good as iced teas go, but didn't really taste like mango so I'm not sure its worth the extra money as opposed to just having a regular iced tea from this place. For appetizers Rachel had the gumbo, which was very tasty although not the best specimen we had in New Orleans that week -- that honor has to go to Upperline, Joanne Clevenger's restaurant only about a dozen blocks away, which excells in that the roux in it manages to be very dark and savory without being burnt, a huge accomplishment because its very hard to bring your roux to the brink of burning and stopping at the right time. Nevertheless, Commander's was a very good gumbo and I highly reccomend ordering it if you are there. I had the Vegas Salad, which was served on baby spinach greens with crumbled blue cheese and sliced pecans in a light balsamic vinagrette -- this is perhaps the best salad I had the entire week. So many New Orleans restaurants serve crappy salads because for the most part they don't have access to the type of high end produce cities like New York, LA and San Francisco get. No microgreens in this town. Still, it was refreshing and the baby spinach was fresh as can be and matched really well with the blue cheese crumbles and the baby sliced pecans. The accompaniment to our appetizers was perhaps the best garlic cheese toast we have ever had -- slices of cut french bread toasted with parmesan cheese and olive oil, rubbed with garlic and herbs. The garlic taste was there without being overpowering, and we liked these so much we asked for a second order. I didn't try Rachel's spanish mackerel but I was told it was very good. My dish was a panzanella salad (yeah, I had salad for two courses, but I was feeling very roughage deprived this week) with sliced prime steak. The steak was extremely tender, very well seasoned, and accompanied by fresh mesclun salad greens, tomatoes, onions in a light vinagrette. It was excellent and really satisfied my beef craving for the week after eating all that seafood. We finished off with the signature dessert, the bread pudding souffle (which you have to order with your meal at the start because it takes a while to make). All I can say is WOW. The whiskey creme anglaise is amazing, you can almost drink it like egg nog. The souffle itself is fluffy and cinamonny and really is an amazing finish to a great meal. Highly recommended. We finished off with one of the 25 cent Commanders Palace Martinis -- this is simply vodka with some blue curaco. Each of us had a swig and made a face -- I dont think they use particularly good vodka for these things. But it is a cool looking drink, nevertheless. There are a number of 25 cent cocktails on the menu, including a bright emerald green one that has a name which escapes me. Verdict: Commanders is the New Orleans restaurant that started the restaurant revolution in the South and continues to be one of the best restaurants in the city. Definitely consider doing lunch there.

The 15 year old single barrel is very good. Its one of the few scotches I reach for time and time again.

Central Grocery is an institution in New Orleans. Their claim to fame is the muffaletta sandwich, which is a unique combination of a special muffaletta bread loaf specifically designed for the sandwich, choice Italian cold cuts, cheese, and a marinated olive/vegatable salad with a top secret recipe which nobody in town seems to be able to completely duplicate. The place is pretty much always busy, so Central Grocery always has a huge-stack of pre-wrapped muffalettas ready. The sandwiches actually taste better after its an hour or two old as the olive salad has time to mingle with the meat and penetrate the olive oil into the bread. In fact, its still just as good a day later. We brought two of them on the plane and ate them for lunch the next day. Although the muffaletta comprises most of Central Grocery's business, they also have a large selection of gourmet canned and jarred items as well as spice mixes as well as a lot of hot sauces to choose from. Their prices are also pretty good, at least when compared with the Farmers Market across the street and other tourist traps in the quarter.

What does one say about Jacques-imos. The place is overwhelming to all of the senses -- its loud, noisy, and a cacaphony of color, its packed with people, its hot as hell in there, and the food is awesome. Jack Leonardi is not afraid of going over the top. I mean, this is a guy who took a roast beef po-boy sandwich and thought that it could be improved by DEEP FRYING it. Sure, it was good, and it was decadent and evil, but shouldn't that be illegal? As you can see from the pictures, the food at this place is rich. VERY rich. Over the top rich. So check your diet plans at the door and have the Imodium ready. And yes, Jacques-imos has the best fried chicken in new orleans. Its also the most expensive fried chicken in new orleans, at $14 a plate, which is a tad ridiculous. This of course did not stop us from ordering it and singing its praises the next day. Everything we ate was fantastic and over the top. There's not much else I can say.

The only thing I can say about the Farmers Market is if you are already on that part of Decatur street, maybe hanging out at Cafe Du Monde, you can waste a half hour checking this place out. Otherwise its a complete tourist trap -- its all these stands selling overpriced hot sauces (although the selection is very good) and spices that you can buy cheaper at Central Grocery across the street. This is not to say its a complete waste of time -- you can buy a bag of 10 satsuma oranges for 2 bucks. The few actual fruit vendors they have are worth looking at and buying stuff from.

Lemon Grass is a really attractive restaurant and was a nice change from all the Creole and Cajun food we ate that week. By the end of the week I was dying for something Asian. Vietnamese fusion sounded really good to me. For the most part though, Lemon Grass isn't really Vietnamese, although the head chef is from Vietnam. Its an amalgamation of different Southeast Asian cuisines, including some hints of Japanese. We ordered 3 different appetizers -- Spring Rolls, Summer Rolls, and Shrimp Beggars Purse Dumplings. All were very good and respectful renditions of the classics. The Shrimp Dumplings were especially good as they were very dense and stuffed to the brim with tasty shrimp meat. I also liked the creative riff of using avocado in the Summer Rolls, along with thick slices of roasted pork loin and sliced shrimp -- it was sort of a California version of the original and added a nice texture and flavor to the dish. Rachel's udon noodle soup was a disappointment. We were expecting sort of a creative interpretation of pho but using thicker noodles, instead we got sliced rare beef floating in a soy-based broth with udon noodles. It wasn't bad, just not what we wanted. My grilled scallops over salad could have been really good as the greens were fresh and the black sesame salad dressing was very flavorful -- except that the scallops were completely overcooked and tasted metallic. Instead I had them prepare me one of their signature dishes, Red Curry Shirmp over Linguine with Basil. This dish was very good, and I ate it with gusto, getting red curry splatters all over my shirt. But man it was good, and I highly recommend this dish. It reminded me of a really good italian seafood pasta dish, even with the red curry sauce. The lemon grass parfait dessert came out frozen solid -- its an attractive looking dessert but I can't say for sure if it was successful, it was too difficult to eat. It reminded me of a mango-flavored indian kulfi that needed some time to thaw out. I really enjoyed this place, even though two of the dishes turned out to be disappointing and one had to be replaced. The service was very good and friendly, and if you stick to what they call the signature dishes of the place, you'll have a very good time. The dinner menu looked a bit more exciting than the lunch menu we had, so I suggest you try the place for dinner if you go.

Turkey with bacon Oh it is so fine, my love Pass the Tagamet.

Juicy meat drippings Mixed with flour and butter Pour it down my throat.

My Mother In Law Overcooks Asparagus. Will she ever learn?

Rye bread with white meat I'm keeping my leftovers My turkey sandwich!

Pepperidge Farm rules God I love this stuff, more more! Screw Doctor Atkins.

Pumpkins are orange Filled with beta carotene Pass the potatoes.

Santakuro!

OK, I guess Japan has a Christmas tradition: http://srd.yahoo.com/S=95814096:D1/CS=9581...apan/jxmas.html (Christmas in Japan) http://srd.yahoo.com/S=95814096:D1/CS=9581...com/wjapan.html (Old Japanese Christmas and Samurai Santa)

I don't understand this. Japanese celebrate christmas? According to the CIA world fact book, breakdown of religions is japan is Shinto and Buddhist 84%, other 16% (including Christian 0.7%) With christian only being 0.7 percent, I can't imagine KFC or anyone else would dedicate the resources to doing christmas stuff in Japan!