Jason Perlow

With all due respect....is it possible that for someone named "Fat Guy" the imposition of a couple of blocks might not if anything be a benefit?!?!? ← He's already physically exhausted. He has an infant and a 70lb bulldog.

Definitely Roux-y.

I actually liked the Fried Rice and the Egg Foo Young. The Sweet and Sour pork I enjoyed as well, but it was VERY sweet, although accurately and correctly prepared. The Pu-Pu Platter was fun, but I agree, a gut bomber. I particularly liked the Hawaiian Beef part. If you can order that separate I probably will the next time around.

NY Retro Style Fried Rice Porn for visual reference: House Special Fried Rice from King Yum in Fresh Meadows, Queens (NY). This is the Fried Rice that set the benchmark for me, growing up. Egg Foo Young and Roast Pork Fried Rice from Chan's Dragon Inn, Ridgefield NJ. I like this one a lot, but the roast pork flavor isnt as intense as the one from King Yum. Young Chow Fried Rice from Lee's Hawaiian Islander, Lyndhust NJ. Rachel thought it was too salty but I thought the flavor was good. It wasnt as dark as I like and I'm unsure about how I feel in regards to lettuce being a fried rice ingredient. Points scored for having actual lobster in it.

That guy also says "And no vinegar of any kind goes on Insalata Caprese!". I'm not sure I agree with that. Sure, you can enjoy it without, but sometimes the tomatoes need an extra acidic boost.

Here's what we did with some Jersey tomatoes I bought recently: Basil was picked from our garden.

Sweet tea is evil. I like sweetening my own tea to taste. Some people have some pretty obscene notions of just how sweet iced tea should be.

Not all NJ wines are bad. Alba Vineyards has some nice stuff, I think their Reisling and their dessert wines are nice. http://www.albavineyards.com/award.html LI has a wine and vinoculture industry going back 25 years. Still, they have only gotten real critical acclaim in the last 5 years or so. In another 20 years we might be able to say the same of NJ.

As far as I know LI doesn't have much of a produce industry, at least when compared to NJ and other parts of NY State in terms of volume of exports. The tomatoes (and corn, and everything else) they grow are pretty much all eaten there and in other parts of NY and NYC. They do have a farm bureau that promotes produce grown in the area: http://www.lifb.com/ They also have a Farm Stand directory where you can buy produce from the source: http://www.lifb.com/stands_alpha0.0.html Here is a list of what is grown and sold from LI: http://www.lifb.com/li_popular_crops.0.html

For the most part we've given up on trying to grow any kind of Heirloom tomato outside. You really need a year-long tomato growing season like in the South to be able to grow them effectively, or you need a greenhouse, where pretty much all of the heirlooms you buy in the Farmers Markets in NJ come from. I think we have two heirloom varietals growing, the Brandywine and one other, but I'm not keeping my hopes up for them in terms of yeild. The various Burpee hybrid types really do tend to do the best in our climate. ← I bought 6 different heirloom seedling varieties from Catalpa Ridge Farm and they're all doing quite well. They're in the ground, not in pots, though. Just sayin'.... ← You're lucky. I'm not sure what it is with the either the soil composition here in Tenafly or what I'm doing wrong, but I can never get the heirlooms to do particularly well, at least in the five years we've been living here and doing a vegetable garden during the summer. The other kinds, however, do gangbusters yeilds. We've got black plastic down and we're growing them in the ground... So far, all the plants including the two heirlooms look healthy. I'm not keeping my hopes up in terms of successful yeilds on those varieties, though.

Peel Shrimp. Wrap with Bacon. Stick on skewers with fresh pineapple. Brush with BBQ sauce or teriyaki glaze. Grill on BBQ or toaster oven.

More mature industry, I guess.

Are these from Israel? I'll have to look for them in the Israeli grocery stroes around here. What are they called?

Long Island's climate is very similar to Jersey's and thus yeilds similar results during the summer. Being a Great Neck boy myself, I used to remember going out to the North Shore with my parents and getting LI Tomatoes and Corn at the various farm stands on the old post road going out towards Greenport. They were very good.

You could also go for the American-Made, SON OF HIBACHI! http://www.sonofhibachi.com/index2.html I've actually heard a lot of good things about this product from a friend who owns one and I'm thinking of getting one myself.

Caviar and Champagne is gonna blow the budget, unless, you don't particularly care about that -- and you'll need a reputable supplier for Russian Ossetra or decent domestic stuff from the Pacific Northwest. I know it probably isn't what you had in mind, but you can't beat Italian for a real home cooked meal. Just for the simplicity of preparation, I'd go with a couple of tried and true Ital-Am casserole dishes, like perhaps Eggplant Parmigiano/Rollatine or Stuffed Manicotti or a Lasagne (you could do a summer vegetable, tomato-less lasagne as an alternative to one of the other dishes that has tomatoes in it). Filet Mignon would be nice, and you can get good deals on entire cryovac'ed primals from COSTCO or other good supermarket but you want stuff they can easily eat with just a fork especially if you are all sitting down in the living room and watching TV -- so maybe some nice meatballs too. If you want to go upscale I'd do shrimp, scallops, some other kind of seafood appetizer/antipasto unless you got freaky friends who won't eat that stuff. It's the right weather for Ceviche now -- a shrimp, scallop, mussel, calamari ceviche appetizer would be great, along with some kind of bruschetta. Make a nice big salad with nice vegetables from a farm stand or a reputable supermarket with good produce, it's summertime. Finish off with a dessert that has some nice fresh fruit on top, like a simple pound cake with fresh macerated strawberries and whipped cream. And a nice red wine to go with it.

For the most part we've given up on trying to grow any kind of Heirloom tomato outside. You really need a year-long tomato growing season like in the South to be able to grow them effectively, or you need a greenhouse, where pretty much all of the heirlooms you buy in the Farmers Markets in NJ come from. I think we have two heirloom varietals growing, the Brandywine and one other, but I'm not keeping my hopes up for them in terms of yeild. The various Burpee hybrid types really do tend to do the best in our climate.

No, no seeds. Never tried to do that before. We get seedlings which are usually just a few weeks old. The mesclun lettuce mix we grew from seeds this year but it was a goof. They grew, though.

i never ate tomatoes for real until the past year or 2 (and certainly never grew them). when i say "grape" i might very well mean "cherry". not sure which is which. but regardless, the small guys are bearing fruit. yeah, i think they're categorized as "cherry" in fact. Stop and Shop in ridgewood has "ugly" heirlooms. haven't tried them yet. i hope people aren't afraid of them and buy them so they'll carry more. the names of heirlooms almost rival the taste. ← I think all small tomatoes are technically "Cherry" tomatoes as they are officially categorized. Within that you have varietal differences. The round globular ones are the ones typically sold as "Cherry" tomatoes in the supermarket, and the ovular ones are called "Grape".

my little heirloom grape tomatoes have been bearing some fruit. just had some tonight. wonderful wonderful wonderful. and since they're grown in jersey, they're "jersey tomoatoes" to me! little pic here. little basil, little chive, splash of vinegar, drizzle of EVOO, pinch or 3 of salt, twist or 2 of pepper, you get the idea. but yeah, a bit of kosher or sea salt and you're good to go. ← Nice. We didn't grow any grape tomato varieties this year. We went with Cherry, Early Girls, Big Boys, Celebrity Hybrid and two others I forgot the name of, I think one of them might be a Brandywine. We bought all the seedlings for the tomatoes from Home Depot which uses all Burpee Tomato Varietals. I'm leaving the Beefsteak varietals to the professionals, they are too hard to grow -- they get either engorged with water and explode or they rot too quickly. We can -buy- those.

Yep, Jersey corn is just starting to make its appearance as well. At this point the husks are small, but it's very sweet, especially the white varieties.

True, but how about a Rutgers Beefsteak? Can't think of a more Jersey tomato than that! ← You read my mind.. ← The Rutgers is one of those, but I think its cultivated in other states besides Jersey. The Jersey fresh signs were out in force last friday at the Englewood Farmers Market. Most of the ones they had out were greenhouse tomatoes grown locally. The real "Jersey" tomatoes don't appear for several weeks yet and the best ones don't come out until August. Sometimes you see things like Early Girls and some of the smaller varieties come out earlier. The big beefy ones take a long time to mature.

Sure. But there's no such thing as a "Jersey" varietal for the most part. There are varietals that have been come to be known as ones that are cultivated in NJ but there is no such tomato as a "Jersey".

Thanks, I've fixed it. Beleive me it was a REALLY strong drink. If I had finished it I wouldn't have been able to drive us home.

My choice would have to be Noodle Chu in Parsippany for its Dim Sum.