Jason Perlow

Yep, Carlo Russo's.

Neither have we... there are too many serious chinese and other asian restaurants in the area. I'm not really keen on American style chinese food but I suppose when Rachel is craving the ice cream and chinese food combination we'll go.

http://njsun.com/wine.htm This has a list of wineries and links to their homepages. BTW the Alba wines, although not easily findable in NJ, can be ordered directly from them but they only ship in NJ. Their 1999 Reisling is exceptional enough that I would order a case. Wine and Spirit World in Fort Lee carries Alba if you want to make the trip up to Bergen County and pick up a few bottles out of curiosity. Alba has also won awards for its red raspberry dessert wine, but I find it personally to be more of a novelty than a serious wine. Their moscato and port are better I think.

Went to Peking Duck House on Piermont Road in Closter yesterday for dinner -- excellent, excellent chinese food. Not only does the place have the full three-course Peking duck service but it also has some very authentic Sichuan food as well (in addition to really good renditions of American-chinese favorites), the closest analogue being Grand Sichuan International in NYC. We had a hot and spicy shredded pickled pork with dried bean curd that was just divine, and their presentation of Chicken Soong in lettuce leaves was about the most elegant I have seen in NJ, only to be matched by Mr. Chu on RT 10 in East Hanover, i think. Peking Duck House also has a mongolian grill plus a pretty extensive wine list, which has stuff thats really well matched to the cuisine too (you can get Gewurtztraminer by the glass!!!!). They also had a few featured american style desserts there that looked really nice (a dark chocolate cake they had sitting in a display case looked particularly inviting) Definitely recommended if you are in the area and are looking for something different. They have a brunch on sunday which they bill as a dim sum brunch, and I suppose its pretty good, but from what I understand the actual "dim sum" variety may not be that impressive. I bet the chinese chafing dishes are awesome though.

Kelly are you in Rachel's pod?

Rodriguez is cuban though, isn't he? And wasnt his restaurant Yuca in Miami? He's at Patria now in NYC...

I dont recall that one. I do however remember this amazing, very pricey place called Marisol in Old San Juan, which had a female chef and served incredible food. I think she was an award winning CIA graduate. Heavy focus on seafood and imported ingredients. Chef Marisol Cuisine 302 Cristo 725-7454 Having trouble finding a review or website for it though.

Magners is good -- theres another one I am drinking called "K cider" that comes in small bottles that is very good and I've also been drinking some of the Woodchuck as well.

Holly: Theres a burger joint in Meridien, Connecticut that I want to try that was mentioned on the Stern's Road Food site. The cooking technique sounds really interesting. http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews....&Type=1 Also Louis Lunch sounds interesting in a more paleontological way than Manna -- supposedly the hamburger was invented here. http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews....&Type=1

Yeah, but it shares a lot of dishes with Cantonese food (aka their really amazing Chow Fun at Penang) and other regions of china. Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), along with Malay is one of the two official languages of that country. The owners of Penang are Chinese expats several generations removed I beleive. Here is a good web site I have found with lots of great malaysian recipies: http://www.sintercom.org/makan/recipe01.htm

I think I've mentioned them before but.. 1) Silver Pond in Fort Lee 2) Taiwan Noodle House on RT 46 in Parsippany (also a branch in Teaneck) 3) Noodle Chu on RT 46 in Parsippany 4) Hunan Cottage on Rt 46 in Fairfield 5) Mr. Chu on RT 10 in East Hanover 6) Penang on RT 10 in East Hanover

White Manna is truly a Ur-Burger experience. It is the primordial essence of American fast food. For a completely different burger experience in Bergen County, I wholeheartedly reccommend the Jackson Hole Diner in Englewood on Grand Ave, right off the Grand Ave exit on RT 4. Rachel and I went there for the first time this evening, and it was truly a Burger to be Respected and Awed. Its sort of like the Fleetwood Cadillac of the burger world -- large, imposing, and with plenty of bells and whistles. Jackson Hole has branches in NYC, but I am convinced this is probably the best location out of all of them -- the place is set in a true diner setting, and has a full service menu incuding big grilled chicken sandwiches, salads and a full-blown breakfast treatment. The place prides itself on what it calls "The 7 ounce burger" but in reality this burger is a #### of a lot larger than 7 ounces. Maybe more like 10. The huge loaves of ground meat are cooked steam-grill style under these metal domes, so that all the moisure is kept in during the cooking process -- resulting in a very juicy and almost fluffy kind of a burger, more like a meatloaf on a bun. About 20 variations of this burger can be ordered -- I had the "East Sider" which was the burger with fried onions, ham, bacon, mushrooms and cheddar cheese, which came deluxe with lettuce, tomato and thick cut french fries. Fries were crispy and not greasy -- and were great, but the real piece de resistance of sides was the onion rings, which actually made a CRUNCH sound when you bit into them. They are actually on the borderline of overcooked, but they were not burnt -- sort of hovering on the border of burned -- the fry chef is a timing genius. Jackson Hole also has their own line of root beer, which is served in an ice cold frosty mug. Sweet but not overpoweringly so, but somewhat less carbonated than most root beers. Definitely a must to go with the burgers.