Jason Perlow

Rachel made these very nice banana pancakes for me about a week ago:

Oh good lord. Barking Crab? You could have gone right across the street to Daily Catch and had much better food in a far less touristy atmosphere. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=89209

There's this new technology called a greenhouse that allows you to grow tomatoes year-round. It's quite fascinating really, but I'm such a Luddite that the whole idea scares the bejeezus out of me.

Click here for video highlights (Off The Broiler) Right now I just have the raw photos, I'll post them here with captions and proper sequential order later. Jason and Ronnie's Chicago Pizza-Dog Outing (ImageGullet)

Don Alfonso’s Restaurant 402 State St, Hackensack, NJ (201) 342-0005 Rachel and I came upon this Peruvian restaurant in Hackensack, and walked in thinking it was Italian because of the name. The menu looked good so we stayed anyway -- I'm glad we did. Staff is very friendly and helpful and the food is excellent. The purple drink is called Chicha Morada, its very sweet and made with blue corn and flavored with pineapple, grape and apple juice. The yellow one to the left is Inca Kola which tastes like a champagne cola and bubble gum. These are mussels prepared as a ceviche. The nutty things are toasted corn kernels. I strongly reccomend ordering this dish. Mixed Seafood Ceviche. Also excellent. Peruvian-style garlic shrimp, in a buttery sauce that goes great with the rice to sop up with. This is a Chaufa, a Peruvian-Chinese fried rice with pulled roasted chicken. Excellent. Peruvian Seafood Bouillabase, similar to a Cioppino.

Here's a short video to watch before I get the podcast ready: Alinea Tour Video (Off The Broiler)

Here are the larger ImageGullet photos, finally. I just woke up about an hour ago after a very, very long trip home due to plane delays and long holding patterns and inclement weather. Ugh. Ronnie and Jason Go To Alinea (ImageGullet) Start on Page 7 and work your way back to 1 for the actual meal and wine progression. It's going to take me a while to get that podcast ready, since its in like 30 different parts, so be patient.

I think it would beneficial for both the readership and the staff of Alinea to hear Jason articulate exactly what his preconceived notions where, and why they existed. What media outlets contributed to them? ← Grant, I think primarily it was the fact that I felt that there was a level of weirdness about the special serving peices which I could not fathom being an important element of the dishes, and that if you just look at pictures of the food without actually eating them, it all just looks like strangely presented stuff rather than "food". Mind you I also had the same thoughts about Ferran Adria's cuisine, but after having your tasting, I may very well be able to accept it and even want to go dine there now -- although your cuisine is even more perciveably food-like than his. I think you said the most extreme dish you made was the "virtual" shrimp cocktail served in an atomizer, which is the sort of thing (in level of weirdness) he does all the time. I think what is important to understand (and as I said to you afterwards) is that if you just took your food and put them on regular round plates like many fine dining establishments do, you would loose the "interactive" element of the cuisine. For example, the langoustine tempura dish needs that upright wire spider in order for the vanilla bean it's stuck on to be grabbed by the diner (so he can drop it, "V" lizard-man like, like a live mouse into his mouth) and it really shows off the dish. Another example would be the one suspended on a long wire where you have to bend over and grab the morsel in your mouth -- if you had to use a fork that dish certainly wouldn't be as fun. So many of your dishes are "interactive" in nature -- you just sort of have to throw out all your pre-conceived baggage about what constitutes the dining experience and embrace the fun and the flavors themselves, none of which are "weird". They're pure and evoke basic food and flavor memories. I still feel the plating presentations themselves are very unorthodox, but it makes you appreciate the dishes more.

I'm in the process of uploading the larger images to ImageGullet, but in the meantime, you can check out this slide show on Flickr: Jason and Ronnie go to Alinea

Doc, Ronnie and I recorded a podcast commenting on every single dish we ate and what our reactions to them were, followed by a wrap up with ChefG. Its going to take me a while to put together because its going to be a serious editing job, but the results should be well worth it.

For folks too eager to wait, I've temporarily put up the PDF version of the menu on a remote download site: Download Ronnie & Jason's Alinea Tour PDF EDIT: Here's a screen grab, if your eyes are sharp enough:

Flying? We started at 7:45 and didn't get out of there until 1:30AM. We were the last people left!

I'll post all the photos and the menu shortly. Right now the Oompa Loompas are calling me.

I will -never- again joke about being concerned about going hungry afterwards before actually dining at Alinea. Chef Achatz made me his bitch last night -- Ronnie and I were punished for my insolence and could barely walk out of the restaurant last night after five hours of nonstop eating and drinking and get this -- 31 courses. The longest tasting menu ever served at the restaurant. They could barely fit to print it on a 8.5" x 11" page. Details to follow. When I recover in the next few weeks. What a mind blowing meal.

Yes. Although Ed Mitchell's hogs were brought in by himself.

When we lived in East Hanover five years ago it was inconvenient to get to even then. But I will admit they do a very good job with their dinner items, if you are lucky enough to get a seat.

Just call up Jacob's Andouille in La Place or call Poche's in Breaux Bridge. They ship.

I'm not schlepping to Denville from Tenafly to do fish shopping!

Yeah, but you can get a pizza with Halal gyro meat on it. That has to count for something.

Actually "Perlow" and "Perloo" is a Southern rice dish similar to Jambalaya which is derived from Paella, which in turn via Moorish influence is derived from Pilaf aka Palow aka Pilaz, etc.

Yes, its excellent in pasta dishes with cheese sauces.

Basil is used heavily in Taiwanese cuisine. The popular "3 Cup Chicken" is a prime example of this. Taiwanese shares some heritage with Shanghainese due to the expats who left the country during the revolution -- Xiao Long Bao is very popular there, for example. Also Taiwan has a special kind of hand cut noodles that's very popular. Taiwanese food is also spicier than Shanghainese. Taiwan is also known for its very high quality (and very expensive) varieties of Chinese tea that's grown there.

My list isn't a lot different than Steven's, and being a Jersey resident I don't eat at my favorites (Modern, Union Square Cafe, Shake Shack, Craft, Gramercy Tavern, Yasuda, Katz) often enough to qualify under Steven's 5 visits per year conditions. But if I was a Manhattan resident, I'd be eating at these places all the time, so I'll add a few: - Grand Sichuan International Midtown. Freshly Killed Kung Pao Chicken. 'Nuff said. - Becco. because their pasta deal is the best bargain in the city and it always makes people happy when I bring them there - Toqueville. George Mendez is unbelievably talented and the restaurant is sorely underrated. - Hearth. Not only is Marco Canora an incredibly nice guy but he does wonders with fish and his Gnocchi should be classified as weapon of mass destruction, its so buttery and cheesy and good. - Babbo. Because Mario Batali is a genius and the hardest working man in the restaurant business. This is the flagship and the restaurant that made him what he is today. - DiFara Pizza. Props to Patsy's for the best anthracite coal oven pie, but after Dom is gone, he's going to go down in history as the Masamune of modern pizza making. - Chinatown Brasserie. Its a new restaurant, so nobody could possibly have had a lot of experience dining there yet, but without question they are serving the best Dim Sum in the city right now. If I was living in Manhattan I would have eaten there five times already just so I could sample the entire Dim Sum menu. - Dinosaur Barbecue. John Stage is a Kung Fu master of pulled pork and I just love the badass atmosphere of the place. - Blue Hill Stone Barns. Arguably, its easy for me to get there because its only about an hour drive from where we live, but it seems like a schlep. But if I still lived in the Tarrytown area like I did 10 years ago, I'd probably eat here once a month. What they are doing with sustainable agriculture is utterly mind blowing and you can't beat that Berkshire pig. The Manhattan location's food is just as nice but the atmosphere of the Westchester one is just unbeatable. - Roberto's in the Bronx. I probably actually do eat at this place 3 or 4 times a year, and its because that besides Babbo, I think they are doing some of the best Italian food you're going to find in the city. I don't care what the hell anyone else says. - Mike's Deli. Because the Yankee Stadium IS the best sandwich in the city next to the Katz Pastrami. -- Peter Luger. It's a major inconvenience for us to get there because we live in Jersey, but if I was a Manhattan resident I would be taking the subway there all the time -- its the best steak in the entire city. Back when I lived on Long Island I would at at the Great Neck location 4x a year. -- Difara Pizza. Props to Patsy's for the best anthracite coal oven pie, but after Dom is gone, he's going to go down in the annals of history as the Masamune of modern pizza making.

Yeah, next time you go, get the older lady's attention and let her know about it. She's very attentive.

No, it was totally open to the public.