Jason Perlow

At Babbo in NYC it is served chopped up, sauteed with mushrooms and peas and served over fresh pasta.

I tried it straight on the rocks last night -- very smooth, the flavor was brought out nicely by the dissolving ice. I agree this would mix pretty nice with ginger ale.

Throughout the remainder of the Q and A, each of you are free to ask as many questions of Alexandra as you please (within reason) Vegetarian cooking is a fascinating subject, surely you guys are interested in this stuff! Jason

I just wanted to point this out again. Anyone know why? Anyone care? Yes eddie, please enlighten us tourists...

Well hand me a hawaiian shirt, a oversized camera bag, a pair of cheap goggle sunglasses, and the Fodors Guide to Chinese Food cause I'm @#$%& proud to be one.

I also have RL Seale's Foursquare spiced rum, I'm going to open that one up and try it tonight. Any recommendations for use?

I really hope at least 1 or 2 brands of white rum agricole will be made avalaible. I only brought back 1 bottle of white Niesson on my last caribbean trip, I did this at the expense of bringing back more aged stuff. I actually left a 80 percent full bottle of La Mauny white in our timeshare for the housekeeping staff to take because we had no room left in the cardboard liquor boxes and my carry ons were also stuffed to the brim with bottles. Oh well, at least it was cheap on St. Maarten.

Yes, I drink Zinfandel, the coca cola of wine. Zinfandel doesnt deserve that moniker, its a serious varietal. WHITE Zinfandel however, like the kind Beringer makes, definitely deserves that title.

You inevitably have to eat it without the pancakes because there are never enough pancakes to go around. So I end up eating some the next day over rice.

The best kind of pancakes for moo shu are the nearly translucent kind, which you have to be careful not to overstuff.

right. Moo Shu Pancakes are for tourists.

Welcome to eGullet! What are you favorite rums?

Alexandra: Since I hit 30 my stomach has become increasingly intolerant to eating dairy products. While some affect me more than others (cows-milk based cheeses, cream sauces, ice cream) and though I do occassionally indulge in a scoop of ice cream or frozen yogurt or a slice of pizza, I'm starting to feel a bit deprived. Since Vegetarian Times also covers Vegan interests, and thus some of your readers do not eat dairy at all, even though I do eat meat it sounds like I have a lot in common with these people. Can you tell me about: 1) Premium non-dairy frozen desserts that are out on the market today? 2) Soymilk products that actually taste GOOD (coffee creamers, soy and tofu cheeses) 3) Mail order sources and catalogs for these things?

Moo Shu is one of my favorite dishes. First of all I expect to see good quality shredded pork, and an abundance of black fungus. I also expect the shredded napa cabbage to be lightly stir fried and that it should be as dry as possible, not watery. There should be a nice pungent flavor to the background hoisin-based sauce and not overly sweet. Should be just enough eggs, not too much. Pancakes should not be too thick and not to floury.

But the pizza from Napoli is the ur-pizza, the prototype, right?

I wasnt aware Sardegna had pizza traditions of its own... I thought Pizza was a strictly a creation from Napoli.

About Alexandra Greeley Currently the food editor of Vegetarian Times magazine, Alexandra Greeley is a well-known food journalist and restaurant critic in the Washington, DC area. Her work has been published in Gastronomica, Fine Cooking Chili Pepper, AOL's DigitalCity Washington, The Washington Post, Washingtonian magazine, The Journal, Newsday and The InTowner. Her cookbook credits include ASIAN SOUPS, STEWS & CURRIES for Macmillan and ASIAN GRILLS for Doubleday. She has written several mini Asian cookbooks for Periplus publishers in Singapore. She also wrote the text and edited the recipes for a book/CD package for Macmillan entitled MEXICO!; wrote GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT for Simon & Schuster; and was the staff writer for Time-Life's cookbook series, "Great Meals in Minutes." In addition, she served as food editor/writer for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Greeley is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the culinary group, Les Dames d¹Escoffier, and is the Washington, DC coleader of SlowFood USA. About the Q&A The Q&A will be moderated (MQ) . Alexandra and Vegetarian Times has requested that no questions be asked regarding the preparation and use of dishes which use meat and animal proteins, although discussion of utilization of meat substitutes and dairy/eggs will be permitted.

Doorly's XO, imported by Spirit of Hartford, is a great rum from Barbados. Just tasted it, its a blend of 6-12 year old rums, aged in sherry casks. The highly-seasoned Oloroso sherry barrels impart a nice sweetness to the rum and almost gives it a Brandy de Jerez-like character. hitimewine.com has this one for $25.99. A great buy I think.

well as to authenticity... wasn't the dish itself CREATED for Scottish footballers?

The sugar cane syrup is only half the battle with 'Ti punch (you can actually use raw turbinado sugar like Sugar in the Raw instead, on St. Martin I saw them make it this way). Getting a Rhum Agricole in the US is a MAJOR pain in the ass. The only one that is easily accessible is Rhum Saint James but usually its the Hors de Age, which is their aged one, and you want to drink that one neat. You want the white one. You CANNOT use regular white rum, it will not taste right. Brands to look for when you are on vacation in the Caribbean: La Mauny, Niesson, Trois Rivieres, Clement, St. James, Dusquene, Dillon

I'm not just looking for good schwerma, I'm looking for Zankou's take on it. Is there anything similar to be found in New York? Well, if you are willing to come to Englewood NJ, right over the GW bridge, I suggest you try Bennies. They always serve chicken shwarma and it is EXACTLY as you describe. We've talked about Bennies before on the site: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=5&t=4487 They have a comprehensive mezze menu (more than 2 dozen items. all are good) and the best kofta kebab sandwich and the smokiest baba ghanouj I have ever had.

Don't eat the sushi bar sushi rolls a la carte. While its good it is not what the place is known for, go for their signature dishes like "new style sushi" and the miso cod.

Escolar SOUNDS dangerous just by the name. It sounds like a druglord fish.

They have a backlog of the first several years of Iron Chef before Morimoto replaced Michiba as Iron Chef Japanese. The current season on I beleive is the 1st or 2nd season. So there will be new ones but they will be OLD new ones, newly translated into English. They did do 1 or 2 specials with the original Iron Chefs specificially for Food TV but I don't know if any more are planned.

1-'ACT' is the best show on the network. Wish they would put it out on DVD. I think they could sell it bigtime,with deleted scenes,etc. According to Tony there isnt much deleted content that would be worth it. 2-'Sweet Dreams' is pretty cool. Gale Gand has the chops and is cute to boot. She is so sickly sweet most normal people want to kill her. 3-Mario is bugging me. Take more medication. :) 4-Rachel is easy on the eyes and I like her cooking show better then the travel show. No comment. 5-Iron Chef rules but I wish they could get some new episodes. The production company hasnt made any new ones in years. Its out of favor in Japan, they'd have to produce them IN the US. Without it being dubbed over and such it wouldn't be the same. I hate the William Shatner one, its horrid. 6- Dig Jacques Torres for his knowledge and attitude. Jaques is tres cool, yes. 7-Nigella is fun(but isn't she on StyleTV?) Sokay, you still want to rip her clothes off. 8-I think the Naked Chef has an interesting homo-erotic undertone to it, not that there is anything wrong w/ that. Just never have known a bunch of british guys who would want to get all cooked up in the kitchen w/ a dude. Uh, okay. 9-Is 'East meets West' still taping? Does it matter? 10-It would be cool to have' Chef de Jour' again just to see some new talent. That's how Ming and so many others got their shows anyway. BTW, Sara M's 'Cooking Live' was a really cool show because of all the people she pulled on the show. Yes.