Jason Perlow

Armondos? The one on Main Street? Hasnt it been closed for several years and replaced with a Korean restaurant? Pizza King is a Pizza restaurant, it wasnt even on my list of stuff to consider -- but yeah, they do decent red sauce stuff and their pies are okay. I used to live literally a block away. You might as well put Big Red Tomato on that list then. For Pizza though, I vastly prefer Fort Lee Pizza on Lemoine. There's another place, Francos, off 46 in that shopping center right off Fort Lee Road that is good for low-end stuff as well.

Recieved this email from one of our users who wishes to be nameless for the time being. I'm posting this because I think every opinion needs to be heard, and lest anyone think the founder of this site shouldn't be open to criticism: I'll just say that all of my reccomendations are Italian-American restaurants, IN THE FORT LEE AREA, all of which I feel are good, but if you are looking for traditional and super-authentic Italian cuisine, a fine dining experience (emphasis on fine here) and anything other than an honest good, satisfying Italian-American meal, then get the hell out of Jersey and head towards the Bronx for Roberto's in Belmont near the Arthur Avenue area which is known for its fresh pasta dishes, or to any number of very good places in NYC -- Babbo, Lupa, Esca, Felidia, Il Mulino, Becco, etc. Otherwise, short of coming up with better recommendations than these (and I think you'd be hard pressed to, because of the utter lack of notable Italian places in the area), I think the ones I recommended are fine.

I thought Budvar WAS the original Bud... its marketed as Czechvar here in the US. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=32&t=3060

Plotnicki, you've just expounded so much ignorance in a single post that you could park six aircraft carriers on it. I'm impressed.

Amalfi, in Cliffside Park, but its very pricey. If youre willing to drive 15 minutes, Jerry's Osteria in Tenafly. Best Italian in the entire area, without question. Cafe Italiano in Englewood Cliffs, the official meeting place of the NJ Sopranos fan club -- in the former summer home of 1920's-30's era NYC mayor Jimmy Walker. Cheesy name, very mobster type of place, but great food. Patsy's Restaurant in Fairview for archetypical italian-american stuff in a smoky bar type atmosphere. Doesn't fit your no-smokey requirement but I like their food.

Not just any music. The scourge of the earth. MARIACHIS

I've never really had a bacon wrapped filet dish where the point of the bacon was to get crispy -- it was always added fat and flavoring for the filet. In most cases, the bacon only serves as a garnish and is discarded. So I would make a separate order of bacon if you were intent on eating it.

The koreans have a type of banchan where they take very firm slices of tofu, pan fry them, and then put them in the same spicy pickling sauce they use for kimchi and let them marinate. I find this dish highly addictive. Another favorite dish of mine is the Tofu Nyonya they serve at the Penang chain of malaysian restaurants in the NY/NJ area -- this is cubes of firm tofu that are fried and then stir fried with lots of fresh basil, ground pork, hot chiles and some kind of spicy condiment. I think they also use those really small shrimp too.

He said englewood... which is the original I actually think the food is better than Its Greek To Me in englewood, but I havent tried their Gyros or Souvlaki yet. But from what I saw at other tables, it looks pretty damn good. Portions are MASSIVE though, which goes for pretty much everything you order. He also makes one hell of a good Greek (Turkish) Coffee.

I definitely prefer the extra firm kind, pressed further, and stir fried with beef or chicken or pork and some kind of spicy sauce.

Fly Klink out there.

Well by its emphasis that only those cuisines are the "good" Italian regions, its given Campagnian/Napolitano or Roman cuisine a really bad rap, for starters. If anyone has read Arthur Schwartz's really great Naples At Table, it would be self evident that "Northern Italian" aint necessarily where its all at.

I'm not sure if Italian-American cuisine as found in most Italian restaurants qualifies as true Italian-American cuisine. Certainly in the New York and New Jersey area, Italian-American food constitutes pasta dishes with a lot of red sauce, and protein dishes with a lot of red sauce. For variation, sometimes sauteed dishes with lots of garlic, butter, and a shot of red wine for good measure. Most Italian-American restaurants are just glorified local pizza shops. Not that I don't enjoy this sort of thing, but I think to find TRUE Italian-American cuisine, one must eat in the homes of real Italian-Americans.

1996 R&V Dauvissat, Le Forets Chablis: lemon oil, white fruit, steel, rain water and a touch of earth on the nose/ what the heck is a white fruit?

Here is a recipe for Popi Sid's Tuna Salad.

St John is the first stopping off point for many of the worlds greatest chefs when they visit the capital, whilst Anthony Bourdain devoted most of the "Fire Over England" chapter in his book "A Cooks Tour" to singing Henderson's praises. Fergus is world renowned for his "Nose To Tail" approach to food which sees such unusual delights as chitterlings, chicken necks and squirrel make regular and welcome appearances on his award winning menus. You may begin posting your questions at any time but please note that, for this session, they will be previewed. There will therefore be a lag between the time you submit a question and its appearance on the boards. Fergus will try to answer all questions but may need to limit himself if the number of submissions gets too high. Fergus has been kind enough to provide half a dozen T shirts to be given away to lucky participants of the Q&A. Winners will be drawn from a hat. Bio St. John opened in late 1994. Chef Fergus Henderson and Jon Spiteri, the team responsible for The French House Dining Room in Soho, teamed up with Trevor Gulliver and found the then derelict building and saw the potential of such a unique space. The premises, situated around the corner from Smithfield Market in Clerkenwell, are comprised of a late Georgian townhouse which at some point in it's history had a smokehouse built over it's original rear garden. The building remains pretty much as it was: the smoking chimeys - five in all - now house the bar, bakery and various stores. The seating area was an open courtyard, now covered by our skylight and what is now the dining room were preperation areas with our open kitchen towards the rear. When Fergus, Jon and Trevor found the space it had been used for various pursuits since smoking stopped in 1967 - bean shoots had been grown in the basement, a chinese restaurant based nearby had stored imported beer in it, the upper floors had been occupied as offices, in the 1960's housing the HQ of Marxism Today, and the bar and dining area for raves. With Fergus at the helm in the kitchen and Jon leading front of house the French House was left in the hands of Margot Henderson and Melanie Arnold - Fergus and Jon's respective partners in life, sadly the French House Dining Room is no longer but Margot and Melanie continue with their outside catering pursuits. The personnel at St. John have changed since the doors opened nearly eight years ago - Fergus and Trevor still remain but Jon has since moved on to pursue other ventures including a successful clothing company. Front of house duties are now looked after by Thomas Blythe, and Fergus has a fine right hand man in his Head Chef, Ed Lewis. Fergus Henderson has now joined the ranks of "published chefs", with his book Nose to Tail Eating (winner of the 2000 Andre Simon Award). St. John remains true to the ideals it opened with and Fergus' mantra of "nose to tail eating" continues to sum up the way in which we think food should be prepared and enjoyed.

I dunno, i thought the desserts were pretty awesome, and I had ALL of them.

Many people will say I am crazy, but I actually think Ronzoni is pretty decent. We keep Barilla and a few others in house -- mainly for shape variety. De Cecco is also pretty good. At a certain price level, most dried pastas are pretty much equally good.

Bearnaise is great suff, but there is nothing wrong with steak sauce or hot sauce either in my opinion. I'm especially fond of Pick a Peppa sauce, as well as Tabasco's newest offering, their Chipotle sauce which so far, can only be ordered on the internet and in other test markets. Both of which are borderline steak sauces. Peter Luger's commercial sauce is OK but I find it a bit too sweet. And for what its worth, A1 and A1 Bold are pretty damn good commercial products.

Definitely. But do shitakkes count? The chinese use them a lot, even though they are of japanese origin.

Eggplant in black bean sauce, or in garlic sauce with shrimp or ground pork. Heaven.

I like all kinds of bean sprouts -- mungbeans, soy, etc. I cant imagine a fried rice or noodle dish without them. Where would egg foo young be? The humble bean sprout rules.

Yes, especially the fresh ones.

Kervan, in Cliffside Park, is a good turkish restaurant but the last few times we've gone there I've had a sense that the food there was going downhill. The one time I went to Topkapi Palace, also in Cliffside, I liked it. Sapphire in Tenafly is a great place but definitely more upscale. Samdan in Cresskill and Babylon in Paramus (in the Huffman Koos shopping complex off of RT 4 on Kinderkamack Rd.) are also both very solid Turkish places -- Babylon has the advantage of being the cheapest of all of them. My favorite middle eastern in the entire area is still Bennies, in Englewood. Its not really fair to compare it to the others, since its Lebanese, but their salads/mezze are unmatched in the area, as is their kofta kebab, shwarma and felafel. Bennies also makes all its desserts/baklava inhouse, and does a full blown Turkish/Arabic coffee service with the little coffee pots and everything, which to me is a big deal.

Not quite a St. Patties day dinner: Bean Thread Noodle Pad Thai with Shrimp, Chicken and Firm Tofu