Jason Perlow

Totally with you on this. Chewy over crispy, any day.

Welcome to eGullet, Shamrock!

I definitely think Saigon Republic's pho is better in the sense it has a deeper flavor. However, in no way does this place serve "bad" pho. In regards to the quantity of rare beef in it, it's only friggin $4.95. Its definitely better than the place in Ridgewood. We'll definitely go back to this place when we are visiting our friends who live in Nutley.

It was good, it passed the test.

Yes, thats only the "special vietnamese menu" which is not normally translated.

Saigon Republic uses "Rooster" or Huy Fong brand Sriracha. You can tell the difference because it has a picture of a rooster in front. There is also a "Flying Gull" brand. All of them look nearly identical. Huy Fong is manufactured in California, the stuff at this restaurant comes from China. This place is TOTALLY different from Saigon Republic. Its a traditional pho-house type place like that you would find in Vietnam or in California. Despite Saigon Republic's name, K.T. makes Southeast Asian fusion cuisine, not traditional Vietnamese food. K.T's menu is also only about 1/6th the size of this place too, the dishes she makes are very specialized. The only things that are traditional on K.T's menus are the Phos and 2 of the appetizers, everything else are dishes she invented. The food at this place is good, and its cheap. Most dishes arent more than $6.95. Don't expect any kind of atmosphere, its only slightly better than a chinese takeout place in that regard.

Pho Van Tuan Traditional Vietnamese Restaurant 61 1/2 Belleville Avenue Bloomfield, NJ 07003 Local Delivery: 973-680-8440 A couple things I want to add about this place -- the owner, Tony, explained to me that although they are from Vietnam, they are ethnically Han Chinese, which is why the regular menu has "Chinese" food items on it such as Chow Fun and Chow Mein (the soft stir fried noodle kind, not what we east-coasters know as Chow Mein) and Egg Foo Young. However, according to Tony all the "Chinese" items on the menu exhibit Vietnamese flavors, such as their "Young Chow" fried rice and other stir-fried dishes like Beef and Broccoli and Chicken with Cashew nuts, so do not dismiss them offhand. They have a "regular" Vietnamese menu that has about 120 items on it (which includes "Chinese" stuff interspersed with the Vietnamese dishes), plus a "special" Vietnamese menu with about 72 items on it which includes weird Bourdainy-offaly stuff on it (stuff like deep-fried pigs intestine). I was able to take a high-resolution photo of one copy of the menu (click, large photo, 800K) which one of the owners had transcribed english translations on it -- all of the others are strictly in Vietnamese. Diced beef cooked with "special sauce" appetizer Beef Scallion Rolls with Banh noodle Chicken Lemongrass over rice Chicken Fried Rice (from another customer's table) Pork fried rice, with LOTS of black pepper in it. Pho Tai BBQ Pork Roll We think this might be the grilled shrimp paste rolls with sugar cane stick, we had some language barrier problems with the server. But it was tasty! Roast Quail Appetizer Unknown brand of Sriracha sauce from China. Seems to be a copy of the Huy Fong "rooster sauce". Hatuey Beer bought from liquor store next door. Went great with the food. A small shrine in front of our table where we watched 3 visiting Buddhist monks light candles and incense. They also blessed us a few times as well.

Welcome to eGullet, Sebastian. I hope you'll find us to be an indispensable asset when researching for your new products.

Kabinett reisling would be good but my first choice would probably be Gewurtztraminer.

Go to America in Tenafly for drinks. They have an amazing bar there and they have entertainment on weekends. America is a great place for dinner as well.

Saigon Republic is a good bet, as is Bennies and Wild Ginger. For Saigon make sure you call that afternoon around 4PM and make a reservation, tell Joe Jason Perlow sent you.

They can remove it, but they can't change it. I think John (the owner) is going to be putting up a wood sign with lamp illumination soon. I beleive also some nice awnings as well, he mentioned this to me recently.

BTW, the restaurant in the same building that he is constructing on the other side is coming along nicely and should be ready by the end of September. I am not sure if anyone is aware, but he is going to be baking pizza in there with a WOOD FIRED brick oven, not a gas fired one. I cannot stress how important this is in making good artisinal pizza. EDIT: Dec 10 2003: The restaurant has opened and Oradell didn't let him put in a wood fired brick oven, just a gas fired one. Nevertheless, the pizza is still very good.

As Rachel and I were saying last night, there's something very wrong when you know the best part of the show is the theme song. Without Tony's and Eric's appearance on the show yesterday I think I would have felt I wasted yet another hour of my life.

Rachel and I were driving down Belleville Ave and saw the above referenced Vietnamese restaurant. It is called Pho Van Tuan. Address is 61 1/2 Belleville Ave, Bloomfield NJ 07003. Phone 973-680-8440/8441. They offer delivery to a 5 mile radius. Everything on the take out menu is priced between $3.25 and $6.95 and is mostly Vietnamese traditional stuff with some common Chinese dishes thrown in. There is a page on the in-house menu that is entirely Vietnamese (no translations) with some more expensive dishes. The waitress (part of the owning family?) said that she's translated that page but they didn't have any printouts available. We had already had lunch, but we swung back to pick up the takeout menu and ordered some Goi Cuon (Spring Rolls, not the fried kind) just to try. Here they are: [image place marker] To be continued, we are now going to try the summer rolls.

Pepsi is definitely doing all the right things with their new product releases. Pepsi Twist and Diet Pepsi Twist was a real home run, and Pepsi Blue, although weird, doesn't taste bad.

I hate to say this, but White Castle is always my late night spot of choice.

Some prior milkshake discussion here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=19005 http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=4&t=18894 And, Welcome to eGullet!

We've acknowledged Chowhound for its contributions in the past, but in all seriousness, they haven't had a discussion involving these types of issues, at least as it pertains to Batali's restaurants, as we have.

Saute chinese style in stir fry oil with a ton of sliced garlic

Apparently it didn't affect it by much, but she had to cook by candlelight. Guess she has a gas stove.

Yuck.

Wanted to mention that ecookbooks.com, our new ecommerce partner, has green coffee beans for home roasting: Brazil Vargem Grande Sumatra Mandheling "PWN" Decaf Columbia French Roast Decaf Sumatra Ethiopian Yrgacheffe Papa New Guinea AA

Fiamma was profiled recently on a Zagat-themed TV special called "America Eats, The New York Edition". Despite the little Zagat-isms introduced between segments ripped straight from the guides Fiamma actually looked really good.

Mario Batali did a wine book? surely youre not referring to David Lynch's book with Joe B., right? Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy This book is the bible on Italian wine, in my opinion...