Jason Perlow

Penn & Teller's new TV show on Showtime, BULLSHIT! just had an episode devoted to this topic: http://sho.com/ptbs/topics.cfm?topic=shs Its showing again tomorrow night, the 27th at 10pm. Its also being aired on the 6th at 10:30. Its a pretty funny show from the episodes I have seen so far, but Penn Jillete can be sometimes be really abrasive and holier than thou.

There are definitely legitimate ones without fennel. In the Bronx, at the Arthur Avenue Retail Market, you can usually find: 1) Sweet : The fennel kind. 2) Parmesan and Parsley: usually rolled up into tight coils, these are thinner in diameter than the sweet. Taste kinda like breakfast sausage, its salty. 3) Hot: with pepperoncini and chili flakes in it 4) broccoli rabe: usually a chicken or a pork ground meat with broccoli rabe there are several other variations as well, but the fennel definitely isnt the only legit one.

So you agree with this, then? "The crust, which was chewy bordering on tough in the early days..." Chewy yes, but not unpleasantly so. I thought the review was very representative of the restaurant and his general assessment of the pizza was pretty accurate. Really, I think microscopic analysis of a reviewer's tastes is rather fruitless when you are dealing with restaurant reviews.

I've heard by many that these fries are the bomb: Boardwalk Fries 6725 Black Horse Pike Egg Harbor TWP, NJ 08234-3904 Phone: (609) 484-9770

I have a few different thoughts on this. First of all, a restaurant or a bar is either smoke-free, or it permits smoking. In my mind, there's no half and half, or a "smoking section". Without a really sophisticated way to segregate the airflow of dining rooms, you cannot guarantee that any diner is going to have a smoke-free experience. So I think restaurants should post right on their front door, that they are either smoke-free, or that it permits smoking, so that there is no confusion. A diner should not expect a smoke-free experience if smoking is allowed. I beleive that because restaurants are not public places, there should not be laws enforcing whether or not people can smoke -- it has to be at the restaurant's choosing. Restaurants are places where people CHOOSE VOLUNTARILY to go, rather places that they must go or may need to go, like an airport, a bus stop, or a street corner, or a government or municipal building. Those places should be smoke-free. Personally, I think smoking is a nasty and disgusting habit. I find it to be a big turnoff when I am eating.

awbrig, I have a bottle of 12 year old tradizionale at home and I think I paid just over $50 for mine, in the Bronx.

Here's the piece on this by Fat Guy (reprinted here with his permission):

awbrig there is a MASSIVE difference in aged balsamicos once you get to the 12 year old level in Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena, which is the real deal, as opposed to the industrial made stuff. All Tradizionale comes in a special bottle designed for the Consorzio, the group that represents the producers that can call their vinegar Tradizionale. You never want to use Tradizionale for cooking though, you want to use just a drop of it to add as a condiment for cheeses or ice cream or sliced fruit, like strawberries. A bottle of 12 year old Tradizionale should cost you like $60. 20, 50, 100 year stuff increases in price exponentially and is even more and more intense in flavor. There is also a level below Tradizionale grade, which is made with the same process, but for whatever reason, the Consorzio decided not to call it Tradizionale for whatever batch it was. These can be really good bargains if you can find them. I beleive a tradizionale has to be declared like they declare wine vintages, so not all batches make the cut. Fat Guy wrote a good article about balsamico, but he's in the middle of re-doing his web site and you cant access it now, so perhaps he will post it for you here.

Yes, Poulet de. Orleans in the Quartier de Orleans. Right past a dangerously wicked curve in which you gotta accelerate uphill or your car stalls. Great restaurant, we went there twice when we took our vacation there last year. We ended up doing the kids Spanish and Geography homework while we ate! Jason, did you have that stuffed conch dish? Very appealing. Yes, we had the conch sausage, the "lambi". Very good. So were the stuffed crab backs. We had a really good sampling of the seafood and the chicken on the menu, really good place.

What was the movie he was parodying in the opening shots of the St. Martin one where's he's baking on his sun chair? I think JHlurie knows. It was Sexy Beast. Someone else had to jar my memory, I'd forgotten it. Oh yeah, a british gangster flick, of course. He loves those.

Yes, Poulet de. Orleans in the Quartier de Orleans. Right past a dangerously wicked curve in which you gotta accelerate uphill or your car stalls. Great restaurant, we went there twice when we took our vacation there last year. We ended up doing the kids Spanish and Geography homework while we ate!

What was the movie he was parodying in the opening shots of the St. Martin one where's he's baking on his sun chair? I think JHlurie knows.

Kickass, I'm really looking forward to all the new shows. I thought the St. Martin one was fantastic.

I wouldnt say its fishy. Kind of like a tough pork. Alligator is particularly good in spicy sausage when used in a gumbo. I've also had fried alligator nuggets, but they were a bit tough. The fibers in the meat need to be broken down. Frank's Smokehouse Alligator Sausage

Dude, I am Cassein and Lactose intolerant and I would rather kill myself before eating fake cheese. I'd rather eat the real stuff and suffer (as I sometimes do).

No different then Indian food, in fact there is more choice. Wow you just love simplifications to end a good argument, dont you? Indian and Thai are some of the most complicated cuisines on the planet. But just because you don't get many the representative dishes in American restaurants does not necessarily make one cuisine less complicated or diverse dish-wise -- or similar to each other. Personally, I see very little in common between Indian and Thai other than the fact they both eat rice and use chiles.

Its Scottish, actually. Originated in fish and chip shops in Aberdeen.

Oh hell. you guys LIKED Orbitz? That stuff is nasty.

I don't know about in PA, but in Jersey, definitely there should be AT LEAST 3 kinds of salumi, and 1 type of cheese, usually and preferably Provolone. The usual combo being deli ham, genoa salami, capricola and provolone. My preferred combo is genoa salami or sorpesatta (or hell, alpino salumeo if they got it), capricola (thats Gobbagool for you Sopranos fans), mortadella, prosciutto and provolone, with raw onions, lettuce, tomato, salt and pepper, hot peppers and vinagrette. I wouldnt object to peperoni being on a sub, if it was antipasto quality pepperoni, which does exist.

we spent $450 dollars Jesus Christ.

One of my most favorite dishes in all of Spanish cuisine is the humble Tortilla de Patatas. While we've had some valiant attempts at making authentic ones at home, I fail to be able to reproduce the kind of results we get at our favorite Spanish restaurants in the US and that I've had abroad. Sure, its a simple dish, but its not just the sum of its parts. Whenever we try it the eggs get overcooked, we seem to use too much olive oil, or the potatoes have the wrong texture. Or it tastes fine but the whole damn thing falls apart. Theres a good (and really funny) multimedia web site called Mundo Tortilla which I discovered a few years back (and posted originally about on CH) thats dedicated to the humble dish, but it falls short on tips and techniques for the perfect tortiila. Anybody?

I haven't tried them yet, but every time I see them at Whole Foods I utterly WINCE when I see their price tag. In the Root Beer department, Saranac and Virgils are also in this pricey-microbrew category. While I like them a lot, I rarely buy 'em though. While I wouldn't call them "microbrew" because as we know the parent company is huge, I really like the 1.5 liter bottles of San Pellegrino Limonata soda. It has a lot of Italian lemon juice in it, giving it a real tangy and fresh taste.

Sandra, can you elaborate on this? Perhaps in Site Talk?

Actually more like 3,000+! I have 122 to add to the pile. About half pastry and dessert books. Yeah, that was a VERY low estimate. I'm pretty sure she has more than anyone on this site.

The Star Trek Cookbook I bought this one a few years ago, and yeah, it was my first cookbook that I bought. Yeah. I'm a dweeb.