Jason Perlow

Well, actually, the fish store at the Ridgefield Han Ah Reum has a very good fish selection, but obviously, you can't eat there. Not the same kinds of fish you would get at a place like Seafood Gourmet, since it is meant for Asian preparations, but good stuff usually.

I'm guessing Whole Foods would not approve of the meal I had last night.

The South Korea episode was excellent and truly made me want to visit. On a related note -- I came across this photographic essay and rare look at North Korea on a military photography discussion forum. Really frightening stuff, it really needs to be seen. Make sure you look at page 2 of the forums there as well, there are more pictures.

Thats an excellent reccomendation.

He does not have a huge selection, but what he does have is very fresh. That's the only consideration for me.

No, that's his downstairs pantry area. I don't think that stuff is normally for sale but I am sure you could ask.

The storefont on Mass. Ave in Cambridge. This particular location has been around for about 15 years now, but Mary Chung's has been serving Sichuan cuisine to hungry MIT students and faculty for about 25 years. Deceptively straightworward dining area conceals the hardcore Chinese served here. Suan La Chow Show — one of the signature dishes of the restaurant. These are meaty wonton skin dumplings served atop a bed of fresh bean sprouts, with a spicy and vinegary soy ginger sauce. Truly outstanding, its a must order if you go. Fried Tofu with Dun Dun Sauce. This is an alternative to Dun Dun noodles, which has the same tangy, spicy sauce with pork meat. The skin of the tofu is nice and crispy, with a custardy smooth tofu inside. I highly reccomend it. Kung Po Chi Ding — Kung Pao Chicken. White and Dark meat chicken, sauteed with sichuan peppercorn, hot chili peppers and peanuts in a brown sauce. One of the best renditions I have ever had. Not shown which I took home was shrimp fried rice (the nice brown colored kind, with lots of peices of egg omelette in it, very good) and a very good scallion pancake (scallion pie). This is a restaurant I will be sure to come back to in a couple of weeks.

Excellent reccomendation:

The North End of Boston is the oldest neighborhood in the city. Much like the Belmont section of the Bronx (Arthur Avenue), it is home to a vibrant Italian-American community, although it centers more on restaurants than on shops and markets. Nevertheless, its an excellent part of town for going out to eat and walking off the calories afterwards. The view down Cross Street, intersecting Salem and Hanover Street A peek inside Neptune Oyster Bar on Salem Street A selection of pristine oysters. Neptune's excellent New England Clam chowder. This version, with plenty of clam content, has some nice chopped parsley and herbs in it and plenty of black pepper. No hot sauce needed. Neptune's lobster roll, made from the meat of two chick lobsters, served on brioche with melted butter and Belgian-style twice fried pomme frites. Not traditional but still phenomenal nevertheless. Modern Pastry Shop, established 1931. A view down the main drag of Hanover Street. Gelateria, open two months, is a hardcore Italian gelato place that makes 50 flavors of gelato and sorbetto every day. Gelateria's $30,000 Italian-made gelato machine.

Daily Catch 2 Northern Ave, Boston, MA (617) 772-4400 I'm up in Boston this week doing some consulting and I was able to meet up with some computer journalist friends attending Microsoft's TechEd conference that's been going on. Upon the reccomendation of our dinner's organizer, a local, we headed over to The Daily Catch, an Italian seafood restaurant located in the large Courthouse building right on the Harborwalk, across the street from The Barking Crab, a more well-known touristy kind of place. The Daily Catch's Harborwalk location has been around since 1985, and it prides itself on being a squid specialist, having a number of dishes on its menu that feature the tentacled creatures. They claim to have popularized fried calamari into the United States, as well as fresh squid ink pasta since the early 1970's, at their original North End location. Fried Calamari, made with fresh squid. It's probably one of the best ones I've ever tasted in any restaurant. Fresh Squid Ink Pasta, appetizer portion, with ground Squid Meat in a Garlic Aoli. Excellent, but it makes you, ah, shall we say, release black waste matter for several days after eating. My dining companions noted that the dish resembled the Klingon dish gagh. Having not dined a la klingonoise (we don't have good Klingonese in Jersey or in Manhattan yet) I'll take their word for it. Fresh Dry Scallops with Spinach Pasta in a Cream Sauce. It was deemed excellent by one of my foodie friends who ordered it. This was a Tuna Viniagrette special. Monkfish Marsala Cold seafood appetizer platter The squid combination platter, featuring fried calamari, stuffed calamari, scallops, calamari meatballs, and fried fish. Carrot Cake Home made cannolis, with a creamy marscapone and ricotta filling with just the hint of orange peel in it. If they were served in NYC, they would be a serious rival to my favorite, Madonia's in the Bronx on Arthur Avenue.

Ideally, a creme brulee ice cream should be custardy, have a strong vanilla flavor, and have peices of burnt sugar in it. If thats not what the H-D flavor tastes like then they failed at it.

Agreed. Pure genius to do a flavor that tastes like a super-intense version of Ibarra. The cinammon with the fudge is brilliant. What flavor can we expect next? Brazo Gitano cake? Flan/Creme Brulee?

For those of you that missed the event, in addition to the Pre-Game Show (click) I've also added a Day 1 and 2 pitmaster roundup podcast that some of you might find interesting. (click) We discuss the various barbecue styles, methods of preparation, and I also mis-pronounce "Elgin' in front of Bryan Brycewell several times in a row.

Yabbies. Although you probably won't be able to get any. http://www.nativefish.asn.au/yabby.html You -could- mail order some Crawfish from Louisiana and pretend they are yabbies and prepare them the same way, though. A book by Australian chef Peter Howard has a lot of Australian barbie recipes: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9123800/ http://www.ecookbooks.com/products.html?re...ic=simplesearch

Highlights from Day 2: New York's Bravest New York's Finest Dinosaur BBQ Pitmaster John Stage Dinosaur BBQ Pork Sandwich with BBQ Beans This man clearly loves his job Big Bob Gibson Pitmaster Chris Lilly Big Bob Gibson Pulled Pork Sandwich Memphis Championship Barbecue Pitmaster Mike Mills Writer / eG Society member David Leite Whole hog barbecue artisan Ricky Parker (Lexington, KY) Filmmaker Joe York John T. Edge, Exec Dir., Southern Foodways Alliance

It was the only coleslaw at the event that was spicy, yep. Was not expecting the heat, it was a nice surprise.

I think it would be really cool if we could get a quality Kosher foods purveyor in the NY area like Abeles and Heymann to partner with South Side and make those things here.

Wasn't that awesome? I had one for breakfast!

I actually enjoyed the squirty Elgin sausages yesterday. And I'm secure enough in my machoness to admit it.

If anyone is interested, I've uploaded some highlights of Day 1 to Google Video (click) (Edit: This video should be working now. You might have to reload the page several times.)

Here we go. Elgin Sausage and Brisket Mike Mills / 17th Street / Memphis Championship Babyback Ribs and BBQ Beans Amy Mills Tunnicliffe Blue Smoke Pitmaster Kenny Callaghan Pile 'o Blue Smoke St. Louis Cut (Kansas City style) ribs Blue Smoke's grill is white hot Blue Smoke Ribs Salt Lick Sausage Salt Lick Brisket Uncut Brisket Salt Lick Sausage Salt Lick slicing up brisket Salt Lick Pitmaster Micheal Rodriguez making the slaw Plate 'o slaw. Salt Lick Brisket and Sausage Salt Lick's J&R smoking pit Deep in the Heart of Texas. Salt Lick even brought its own wood fence and tumbleweeds. Danny Meyer and Kids Ubon's Pulled Pork Danny teaching his children how to eat BBQ Ubon's BBQ Pork Sandwich Blue Smoke Blueberry Pie Blue Smoke Key Lime Pie Smoki O's Rib Tips Otis Walker, presiding over the rib tips Urban Picnic Paul Kirk's "Bubba Stik" Paul Kirk Slicing RUB Brisket Paul Kirk RUB Brisket RUB Burnt Ends Closeup RUB Brisket Big Bob Gibson Pulled Pork Ed Mitchell's Whole Hog (Organic, no Antibiotics) Ed Mitchell's Whole Hog Sandwich

In case anyone is interested, I've put together a rough "Pre-Game Show" podcast (click) featuring Ed Mitchell, Kenny Callaghan, Gary Roark and Otis Walker from my Friday night pitmaster inspection. There's a ton of background noise because we're right on the street and a lot of stuff is going on but I think you'll like it. Otis Walker, Smoki O's. Rib Tips prep at Smoki O's. Cleaned and prepped rib tips, ready for smoking. Ed Mitchell's whole hog smoking rigs. Gary and Mrs. Roark, Ubon's BBQ.

11am is probably good.

Why would you want to assess a plum?

So it would be like a Plumaroon.