Jason Perlow

I'm in. Suvir I would definitely try to make the meal very veggie-heavy. I have no problem with eating primarily vegetarian dishes and only having a few GOOD meat ones. Theres so much variety with vegetable dishes in indian food that I dont think people would miss the meat. I think, for many, the main concern is probably the spice level. I personally would like some really spicy ones but most people probably can't handle the heavy duty ones.

Seriously, if it wasn't for Casa Vasca and Seabra's Mediterranean Manor I probably would consider not going to Newark anymore, the place is THAT good. I feel really bad that La Posada closed down, but I think we found our preferred North Jersey iberian.

Jason, How many times have yoiu been to Di Fara's? What did you try? Which places do you feel are better, and why? I haven't been to DiFara's in the last 2 years because of my recent lactose intolerancy and diary allergy problem. So I can't comment about its quality now. However, I was there quite a bit when I was a kid when I used to visit relatives and friends who lived in Brooklyn. I always felt the pies were too greasy. With pizza I am pretty much a purist. Plain pie with 1 or 2 toppings max, usually mushrooms or sausage. And no fresh mozzarella -- its not right for american style pizza. I went there a few times in 1996 when I was working on a assignment in brooklyn -- in my opinion Totonno's was better at the time, I cant talk about how good or bad Totonnos is now cause I havent been. On the rare occassion I eat pizza now I reserve it for places like the original Patsy's in Harlem and Kinchley's pizza in NJ. I've yet to try New Haven style. What I really want is a place that can make a good goat cheese pizza, since goats milk doesnt contain any of the stuff that bothers me.

Zactly. Klink knows smoke.

Its always been expensive. I think for like 8-10 bucks depending on the soup you get a Pint size soup container, a peice of bread and a fruit.

It is over rated, and over discussed. There are tons of other metro area pizzerias that deserve attention. Its a decent pizza parlor, which would have been characterized as basically an ordinary neighborhood pizza 20 years ago.

Yes. Its overrated.

Ugh. Difraras. Every time someone mentions that place I want to beat someone's head in. Maybe I should go into therapy.

$63 for that 2.5 ounce machine doesnt sound so bad when you consider how fresh that coffee is going to taste after you roast it and consume it shortly thereafter. Do you gain anything by keeping green coffee beans around? Do they stay fresh longer than ones that are roasted? I would imagine you can keep them around for a long time, right? How well can you fine tune the 63 dollar one? It seems that they are out of the intermediate models, although it looks like they have a sturdier built 275-dollar one (as well as the 3000 dollar one). Is there any benefit to getting a more expensive one?

Its gotta be a screw up. They are usually very responsive to things like this.

yeah you have to explicitly check Super Saver shipping. Thats a 5-8 day delivery time as opposed to 3-5 day delivery.

I like Joyva's chocolate covered Halvah, which I am eating right now. Incidentally, Joyva Halvah has new packaging, obviously meant to de-emphasize its middle eastern heritage, although the Brooklyn, NY based company is owned by Russian Jews and is a kosher product. The mustached genie wearing the turban which was always a major element of the packaging has now been relegated to a tiny graphic the width of a pencil eraser. Joyva - company history (click)

Sorry about that. I added it to the brown and blue skins.

By the way, if anyone wants to buy these, we'd appreciate it if you do it though this link (click on the glass to buy): Also, note we have put a general Amazon link at the bottom of every page, so when you go to Amazon thru this link and make purchases, it supports eGullet.com. It doesnt cost any more to buy the item through this link than it does to go to Amazon.com normally, we just get a commission on a certain percentage of sales of items sold thru our site.

I use a very high resolution digital camera, the Nikon 5700. Actually these pics are shot in low resolution but the CCD is very sensitive.

Here's a culinary tour of St. Maarten: Pictures, page 1 and page 2 Caribbean Felafel Shack this is one of the first things we noticed on the way leaving the airport -- we were really hungry, and low and behold we found the star of David, hoping for some good Israeli chow. But it was not to be. There was, in fact, no felafel to be found. Only a bunch of rastafarian guys selling drinks. The view outside our timeshare was breathtaking. This is Dawn Beach, on the east side of the island. Literally a 1 minute walk to the surf. Farm animals on the road are a common sight. You'll find goats, chickens, donkeys, and all kinds of stuff out and about, but be careful not to hit them with your car. This is a picture of one of the rum ladies selling Ma Doo Dou and various other libations at the stand near the scenic overlook tourist area. Boulangeries with french pastries and french-style coffee can be found quite easily on the French side of the island. These are from the patissierie across the street from the Church on Rue de La Justice in Marigot. At Poulet de Orleans in the Quartier de Orleans, two teenage boys serve freshly killed chicken and island specialties prepared by their dad. This is Malachai (age 16) and Christian (age 13) who will provide homestyle table service and will also happily engage in converstations centering around fast sports cars, and also will provide entertainment in the form of you doing their geography and math homework if you look too bored. Behold rachel's steak dish and my freshly killed chicken as well as thier seafood platter. . Make sure you order their local specialty, stuffed christophine. When the weather is nice the views are nothing short of spectacular. Be sure to get a four wheel drive car because the hills can be pretty scary, especially in the rain. Of course, when the rain clears up you should head to the beach and kick back with a few beers. After some R and R, we strongly suggest heading into Grand Case and chowing down on some island barbeque at one of the lolo's. Not only is the food great but the view overlooking the beach is fantastic too. For a truly amazing dining experience you want to check out Retaurant Citrus in Cupacoy. Here is a Salmon amuse bouche with citrus vinagrette, bay scallops with wild mushrooms and a balsamic reduction and an utterly perfect venison tenderloin over mixed grains and cramelized kohlrabi. I was told that the duck was pretty damned good too. After such a rich meal we decided to get down to earth, so we seeked out the infamous Ras Bushaman, the Itel Freedom Fighter. The Bushaman's wife prepares Rastafarian vegetarian cuisine out of his humble abode and he farms his own vegetables. Don't miss the tamarind juice and the "Herb" tea. After a couple of glasses of Herb Tea we were feeling pretty Irae.

I couldnt resist, I ordered a set of the bourdeaux and burgundy for the 60 bucks. What a deal!

Marijuana. Better yet, some nice blond lebanese hashish.

Quite obviously, she has some issues with communication. Any food journalist worth their salt will tell you this is a load of hogwash.

Its great stuff. I have a bottle here and I've put an awfully large dent in it over a 2 month period. Why they want people to use it as a mixer though, is beyond my comprehension.

The mango Cruzan, which hasnt hit the states yet, is quite nice.

I liked the Brinley as well, but as you say, their Vanilla is better than the coconut. As far as white coconut rums go I am partial to the Cruzan.

I feel bad for Luis Ayala, who had to cancel his trip last minute because his wife got sick... I really wanted to go to his seminar and meet him in person. Maybe he can send me the material he was going to use and I can post it here?

St. Maarten was a lot of fun. Check out my Saint Marten Thread on this board (click) for a pictorial of the rums I did find, and the Saint Maarten thread on the Caribbean board (click) for the other stuff. I didn't make it to Anguilla to try the Cask 23, but ironically I did have it on monday at the Penthouse Rum Festival in NYC. Its good rum but not worth nearly 300 bucks a bottle. I was more impressed with the British Royal Navy Imperial Rum, which if you're gonna go crazy as far as money is concerned, is more of a rum to buy. We didn't make it to the Ma Dou Dou factory. I did try their Guavaberry, Bananna and Vanilla flavored rums, I bought a whole bottle of the vanilla. Its good stuff.

Oh its the cuban one all right. Anejo Superior, in the tall bottle with the white plastic cap.