Jason Perlow

Wow, check out this cake this person made: http://www.elegantcheesecakes.com/custom-c...its_it_img.html

Apparently, this place makes ITS-ITS fresh: Joe's Ice Cream 5351 Geary Blvd. at 18th Avenue (415) 751-1950 its an old-style ice cream parlor and soda shop.

Here's some more facts about IT'S-IT Cappuchino? Cool. I gotta try that next time.

I was introduced to this evil ice cream novelty by my Bay Area friends Daiv and Fredlet Golden. Fredlet is the designer of the eGullet logo. You can't get these on the East Coast, they appear to be avaliable only in the Bay Area. Every time I go to SF, I have at least 2 or 3 of these. Who else has this problem? For those of you who don't know what an IT'S-IT is, its vanilla (or mint) ice cream sandwiched between two really good oatmeal cookies and the whole thing is dipped in chocolate. You can get them at local convenience stores in San Francisco. Messy as hell to eat, but oh so good. I've driven by the factory, I don't think they use modern production methods at all and it remains a family-owned busines.

Moderator Note: This storefront changed owners in August 2006, but it hasn't changed too much, so I just changed the name of the thread rather than close it. Rachel Jhlurie and I went into the Mi Pueblo grocery on 71 Washington Ave in Bergenfield today. This small Mexican grocery is stocked with all kinds of provisions - including good Chorizo and store-made carne enchilada and cecina (aged beef). A nice surprise is if you walk to the back of the store, there is a small counter where a friendly grill guy, Domingo, who speaks little to no english, will make you a dozen or so varieties of some of the best tacos mexicanos you will ever eat. They cost 4 for 5 bucks, and while not huge in size, are quite filling. They also have Tortas on the menu but we didnt have a chance to try those. We had the Carne (pork), Carne Enchilada (spicy pork), Pollo (chicken), Chorizo (spicy sausage) and Cecina (aged beef). We didnt have the chance to try the Bisteck (steak) because he was out. We were there at around 3:30 in the afternoon, which seems to be a good time to go to avoid the lunch crowds. By far, we feel these are probably the best tacos in the entire area that we have yet had, including those at either El Gran Mexicano in Bogota or Cinco de Mayo in Bergenfield, although those places are still quite good for other items. The tacos at those other places are also worth having, especially if you are going out to dinner, as Mi Pueblo closes down its grill at 4PM, but for a lunching experience or afternoon snack Mi Pueblo is perfect. A wide selection of Mexican sodas was also avaliable.

Its basically the Larb Ball recipe but made with 2lbs of ground pork, minus the chicken/turkey, egg, noodles, and with some soy sauce added. We didn't have any fresh thai basil or scallions or fresh cilantro so I didn't use any of that, but it was good without it, I think it would have made it too herby. I used the galangal powder and lemon grass powder for meat seasoning instead of the fresh herbs. I think for 2lbs of ground pork I used like 8 finely chopped thai bird chilies, red and green. Pre-prepared satay sauce can be found pretty much at any asian grocery. The coriander chutney we bought from an Indian grocery in a jar.

The Diet Vanilla Pepsi in my opinion is really quite an impressive product. It manages to retain the same exact vanilla cola flavor even with the artificial sweetners without being cloying.

If you missed the Dinner thread last night, here are some unconventional burgers I made last night when JHlurie was over: Beef bacon cheeseburger, with Bobolink Dairy Cheddar Spicy Thai Pork Burger #1, with Bumbu Satay (Peanut) Sauce Spicy Thai Pork Burger #2, with Coriander Chutney I'm guessing these are probably Mamster's speed.

Jhlurie was over, so we had burger night. Beef bacon cheeseburger, with Bobolink Dairy Cheddar Spicy Thai Pork Burger #1, with Bumbu Satay (Peanut) Sauce Spicy Thai Pork Burger #2, with Coriander Chutney

German Prime Minister has Italian Nazi Wine in Sights BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government has asked Italy to investigate whether an Italian wine with labels depicting Nazis Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler violates European Union (news - web sites) anti-racism rules.

Well, there are balsamics out there are are from the same Modena producers that are in the Consorzio for Balsamico Tradzionale, but decided for whatever reason not to submit the samples of it to the Consorzio for full certification -- they are still expensive, like 25-30 bucks a bottle or so, but are way better than the industrial crap. I have some of the "Blue Line" 3 year old from Toschi that I got from a gourmet deli. Its two steps down from their Tradizionale, theres another "gold" one that is right before it, but in my opinion if you are gonna get that, you might as well go stright for the 12 year old Tradizionale at 50 bucks or so a bottle. Toschi also has a 25 year old Tradizionale but its really pricey.

Chubby Hubby is also a damn good flavor, if not the one that takes the cake for the most calories.

I like dark chocolate but I can't handle it in large amounts. I prefer milk chocolate for desserts, and dark chocolate for candy.

My favorite was Wavy Gravy, which to my knowledge, is no longer made. Cherry Garcia, however, doesnt suck too bad.

Joyce, thanks so much for joining us this week! My question for you is thus -- what makes Soul Food what it is? How does it differ from "Southern" or "Creole" or even Caribbean island cuisine, such as Jamaican food which share many of the associated flavors and ingredients? Is it a subset or confluence of those food genres? Or is it simply the combined comfort food and traditions of people of African descent regardless of where they live? Or is it specifically the food of the African-American diaspora?

eGullet Q&A with Joyce White, September 8-12 ~ A Special Feature with Soul ~ Biography Joyce White has a long and distinguished food and journalism career. She is a former associate food editor of Ladies' Home Journal magazine and has studied cooking at the Cordon Bleu in Paris. She is a founding member of the Wine Press, a recognized expert on wines, and a member of the Wine Media Guild, both professional organizations located in New York City. She appears regular on radio and television, including the Food Network. She has traveled widely, is proficient in French, and has a basic knowledge of Spanish. Joyce also is a former award-winning reporter and editor of the New York Daily News and has written for many other publications, including Essence, The New York Times, Newsday, the Chicago Tribune, and The Boston Globe. In addition to her successful journalism career, Joyce has a column, "Soul in the Kitchen," which appears in African-American newspapers across country. It pops with food profiles, recipes, entertaining tips, our culinary history. Captured in the weekly column are many of the recipes and memories of her childhood in the South, featuring dishes served at family reunions, church revivals, pastor anniversaries, homecomings, fish fries, picnics and backyard barbecues. The springboard for her newspaper column was Joyce's first cookbook: Soul Food: Recipes and Reflections from African-American Churches (HarperCollins, February 1998). It is a collection of 150 recipes contributed by church members and families across the country, plus many profiles and stories. It celebrates two most important legacies: the Black church and African-American cuisine. Joyce's latest cookbook, Brown Sugar: Soul Food Desserts from Family and Friends (HarperCollins, January 2003), was released to rave reviews. The book is a collection of 120 delectable recipes, both simple and sophisticated, collected from family and friends far and near. Joyce White is a graduate of Tuskegee Institute, Columbia University's Teachers College, and in 1980 was awarded a Knight-Ridder journalism fellowship at Stanford University, one of 10 working journalists from a field of 112 applicants. She has studied French extensively here in New York City at the Alliance Francaise, and in Paris. A native of Alabama, she lives today in New York City. In addition, eGullet would like to thank Joyce for contributing three recipes to RecipeGullet: Hot Corn Fritters, Lemon Coriander Tea Cakes, and Spicy Grilled Corn. Besides her books, more of her recipes are available on her website, Soul in the Kitchen. We would also like to thank her publisher, Harper Collins, for donating 5 books as prizes for the best questions. The winners will receive their choice of Ms. White's books: Soul Food or Brown Sugar. This Q&A moderated by Rachel Perlow.

Sliced Steak, marinated in Goya bitter orange, in a pan-juice sauce with caramelized onions, butter, salt and pepper. Saffron rice pilaf, micro-peas and mixed grape tomato salad.

Hey Bigbear. Where ya been?

Turkey/Pork Larb Burgers, with a wasabi/shoyu/mustard mayonnaise and a vegetable medley of mottled Yellow/Green summer squash, corn, onion and chopped fresh tomato. With baked potato on the side.

Yes, they still make those. Love 'em.

Newman-O's suck. I don't give a shit about how many cacao-growing cooperatives in Bolivia which don't use child labor they are supporting or that they don't use artificial ingredients, they don't taste like Oreos at all. The cookie part lacks the burned chocolate taste and the filling is completely out of whack. The Whole Foods Oreos clones suck too.

If it's good, I wouldn't blow it up with Tommy's firecrackers. Rachel, I can do the kids games. We run different really fun games at the school that I instruct at and I may be able to bring some stuff. You could teach them basic Kung Fu, for lack of anything else.

the perimeter lights are very useful, yes. They aren't directionally positioned though, they just point stright down and illuminate a general area.

Yup, thats what you're seeing. Lights also directly above the countertops underneath the cabinets as well. They are regular recessed can lights, nothing special. Over the peninsula, we have a very bright flying-saucer shaped halogen light on the ceiling which provides additional illumination.

Yeah, you went with smaller size appliances than we did. Your kitchen is the same size as ours, but we went with a 36 inch range and a 33 inch refrigerator, so that took up a lot of space. The main part of our kitchen is configured in an L-shape and on the opposite side we have that peninsula sticking out with a table-top style microwave and the bookshelves/desk hutch in it. Rachel didn't want to replace her microwave so we didn't go with a built in. It was a stupid decision because the microwave ended up dropping dead only a few months after the kitchen was finished and we had to buy a new one. We probably could have squeezed a little bit more room out of those cabinets if we had gone with a microwave with a built-in that matched the other appliances. That and we used a non-kitchen cabinet for that desk-hutch thing, which was a royal pain in the ass because it didn't line up like the other kitchen cabinets did and we had to put on a custom moulding to fill a 1" gap above where the countertop is. Not to mention custom soffets for the ceiling there. Can't tell, can ya?