Jason Perlow

I think it was Kuru, not Creutzfeldt-Jacobs. However like C-J it is also a Prion-based disease. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/kuru/kuru.htm http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant570/Pap...ath/McGrath.htm

We'll revisit this in September, and I'll let you know what I think of fresh San Marzanos cooked into marinara, versus canned SMs. Doing a comparison like that will be tough duty, but hey --anything for eGullet! The two plants producing San Marzanos will be kept company by 12 other plants, so it's not like I'll be missing out on any BLTs or caprese salad, or just plain slabs-of-tomato-on-a-plate pigouts. ← Obviously, if you are cooking San Marzano tomato varietals in the United States, you aren't going to have the same soil conditions as you would in the volcanic soil of San Marzano.

Of course... Havana Club is unobtanium in the United States, unless you go across the border to Canada and smuggle some back.

The more I drink it, the more I love Dr Pepper Berries and Cream. I think its one of the best mass-marketed brand-enhancer soft drink products to have been released probably in the last ten years.

I dunno, I buy Tsingtao in Jersey. And any number of other simple beers, from the Caribbean and Latin America. Why not an American product from Texas?

I think thats a general practice but not an exact guideline. There are certain rules they have to follow if they want to use the moniker "VS", "VSOP" and "XO" or "Napoleon". It's actually not permitted by French law to actually state the age of the Cognacs in a blend, but at bare minimum you can call a Cognac an XO even if the youngest brandy in the blend only 5 years old, though in reality no producer actually does this. Certain companies like Hine don't use those naming conventions. There are no real standards on blending (in other words, how many Cognacs you put into a blend) or whether or not if you can call a brandy a specific type if its completely single barrel and statically aged. In fact some of them are starting to use the fractional Solera system as well. http://www.american.edu/TED/cognac.htm

Despite our shared distaste for Paris and her annyoing Chihuahua, Tony, the Hilton Caribe claim is verifyable and they are known for how good their coladas are. It's too bad you didn't go there, its a gorgeous hotel bar, the resort also recently underwent like a $20M renovation. Another nice thing about the Caribe, which should appeal to paranoid freaks like Tony, is that it has the distinction of being the only hotel resort which has a private beach in San Juan. That means no beach bums panhandling you, excellent security (something you really want to be sure of in San Juan) and no surprises like hypodermics, broken glass and used prophylactics to walk over in the sand. The beach there is maintained very well. I think that's the effect of the Whiskey Dick from the full two shots of Bacardi Anejo they use at the Caribe, Tony, not the umbrella. Excellent.

Yup, you heard that right. Cognac for women. I had a chance to try this last night, its very smooth, marketed as a VSOP, although the average age of the blended cognacs in it is 18 years old. Its supposed to retail for $75. I think this is a bit high considering its a blended Cognac, and its being billed as a VSOP, going against Remy Martin VSOP, Martell VSOP, Courvosier VSOP, and Ferrand Ambre all at about $40 and Hine Rare on the high end of VSOP-grade cognacs at about $60. Pour Moi's XO offering will be coming later this year. JTE Spirits is the importer.

I seriously want some of that Mofungo. The Pina Colada, by the way, was NOT invented at the Barrachina. It was invented at the bar at the Caribe Hilton (in the 50's, not 1963 -- I believe in 1954) where if Tony had chosen that outlet instead, would have gotten a nice freshly made one. I've had the Caribe Hilton's Pina Coladas and they are fantastic. Whoever told him Barrachina was probably playing with his head. The Caribe Hilton story is very well documented, just Google "Caribe Hilton" and "Colada" and you'll get lots of accounts. http://slammedmagazine.com/inthisissue/05m...inacoladas.html http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/humop/pinacoloda.cfm

Shiner Bock is awesome. I had my first one in Austin only a few weeks ago. I can't wait until I can find a good source of it locally here in North Jersey.

I use a Weber Genesis Silver-C, a gas one. I've had it for five years and am extremely happy with it. It's built like a tank and is essentially maintenance free. http://www.weber.com/bbq/pub/grill/2005/gas/gg_gen_sc.aspx

I got no problems with tomatoes. Chop them up and toss them with some fresh garlic , some basil and some olive oil for a few minutes, you got a great fresh sauce. But it's not going to produce a restaurant marinara sauce, no way. As Jay Francis says, different animal. You can't make a restaurant pasta sauce without either canned tomatoes or making the equivalent of canned tomatoes yourself without a -lot- of cooking down, and its a freaking waste of fresh, nice ripe tomatoes, really. And unless you have a restaurant kitchen you can't really duplicate the industrial canning process anyway. With nice fresh tomatoes, why the hell would you want to cook them all down into marinara?

Well, I realize this is frequently my answer to everything but I am going to say a Kabinett-level dry Riesling. Reason being that Sausage and Ribs, while Texan, are pork-based and most closely resemble German food. For the brisket, I'm gonna go with a Pinot Noir.

This is spooky but I could swear we did this before. I'll tell you where I have DEFINITELY seen large amounts of sugar cane. Not in Jersey, but not far away either, in the Bronx. There's these two Dominican brothers that park their white van alongside Webster Avenue, not too far from the highway, that set up a stand with fresh mangos, pineapples, papayas, coconuts, melons, oranges, etc, and make fruit salad, juices and fruit shakes (excellent, by the way) and sell Cane Juice as well. They've got stalks of sugarcane piled up there under their tent they have set up. I was there on Monday, so I know they have been doing it at least recently. They are there on nice (read, not rainy) days during the week and on weekends. If you are going to do some shopping on Arthur Avenue, head back to the Cross Bronx via Webster and you will see them on the way back. I think they are there until about 7PM.

Thats a table he set up right by the back door.

Damn dude, ain't that how John Belushi snuffed it? ← If he did it with Garlic he might be alive today.

I think Fresser is dating the wrong food.

Yet again, I bought another $2.50 canteloupe at the supermarket. I squeezed it, I sniffed it, detecting the correct muskiness. Brought it home, sliced it open, only to find out that the flesh was hard as a cucumber and tasted about about the same. The in-sink garbage disposal had a good meal tonight. Is it current conventional thought that you should NEVER eat a melon, with the possible exception of a watermelon, on the day you buy it from a supermarket? Are there any really reliable telltale signs for knowing whether the melon is really ready for consumption? Is it simply just a matter of waiting two or three days? Are melons EVER ready to eat from the supermarket? Be it as it may, my $4 honeydew is going to wait a few days before I crack his head open.

One may be coconut water, the other might be coco milk.

Yes. There's no such thing as too much garlic in a marinara sauce. Besides the many documented health benefits, chewing on raw garlic is also good for keeping an amorous spouse away from you. Unless he/she is Korean in which case it might have an adverse effect.

Don't cook for a few days. First night, Chinese Food. Then Pizza. Then KFC. Then the local barbecue/rib joint. AFter a week of exhausting your local take-out and delivery options you'll want to cook again. Works for me every time. Another thing you might want to do is fire up your Weber and grill stuff for several nights straight. Its very relaxing, and doesn't require nearly as much attention and prep slaving over the stove does. That's what I've been doing for the last few days, anyway. See: We Don't Need no Stinking Bottled Teriyaki Sauce Roundeye Korean Barbecue Nice Weather = WEBER

I get extremely animated, demand to see the owner and threaten bodily harm.

I wasn't aware there was another reason to go to Mahwah for pizza other than for Kinchley's.

Freebase.

Eat them. Whole.